Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,510
edits
Jackass Genie: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
|||
| (16 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:JackassGenie 1591.jpg|link=The Princess Planet|
{{quote|'''Brian''': These starlets have got to stop making deals with magical creatures because it always gets them in trouble!
'''Angelique''': I know absolutely, I mean we all saw when that genie granted [[Jennifer Aniston]] eternal youth, but then we saw that eternal youth would mean never growing up by having a lasting relationship or children.
'''Brian''': Also, we saw when [[Christina Ricci]] asked a wizard to make her skinny, but the catch was that he could make her head as big as he wanted...
|'''[[The Onion]]''', "[http://www.theonion.com/video/witch-who-granted-beyonce-beauty-and-fame-takes-si,27002/ Witch Who Granted Beyonce's Beauty And Fame Takes Firstborn]"}}
Generally speaking, a [[Literal Genie]] will make logical, if basic interpretations of a wish. Nothing more and nothing less than what [[Make a Wish|the wish]] ''explicitly'' states. This is so that when a wish backfires, we can laugh at the foolishness of whoever made the wish, as opposed to the genie, who's [[Punch Clock Villain|just doing their job]].
Line 28:
{{examples}}
▲== Anime/Manga ==
* Subverted in ''[[Tenshi na Konamaiki]]''. Megumi wishes for manliness, so the genie, just to be an asshole, turns him into a girl. The subversion? {{spoiler|That's a false memory, planted by the spirit itself when it granted '''her''' wish to the best of its limited ability.}}
* In ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' demons are like this in contrast of [[Benevolent Genie]]s of Heaven.
Line 38 ⟶ 37:
* Romeo from ''Make 5 Wishes''. To make it even worse, the first, small wish that Hanna asks for, for her crush to finally notice her, is granted without any ill effects at all, leading to her becoming more bold and making bigger wishes that backfire on her horribly. For the fifth and final wish, {{spoiler|she thinks he's screwed her over again, but he hasn't. She just doesn't ''realize'' that the fifth wish was granted exactly as she wanted.}}
* The wish-granting devil in ''[[Dorohedoro]]'' prefers to grant wishes that are stupid or selfish. The main characters figure this out, and realize that he can be manipulated into granting selfless wishes if they're phrased in such a way as to sound selfish.
== Comic Books ==
Line 54 ⟶ 52:
* One ''[[The Simpsons (Comic Book)|Simpsons Comic]]'' story, "Ala-diddly-addin and His Magic Lamp", features Ned Flanders as Aladdin and Homer as a Jackass Genie. When Aladdin wishes for his dead wife to be alive again, the genie pulls the classic trick and brings her back as a living skeleton. He also interprets statements that are clearly not wishes as wishes.
* During the the Inferno [[Crisis Crossover]] in Marvel Comics, the current Hobgoblin followed a group of demons to their lair, where he met their boss and offered up his soul in exchange for power. After he finishes laughing, the demon tells the Hobgoblin that his corrupt soul is worth nothing, but since he got a laugh out of this, decides to indulge his request for power... by fusing Hobby with a crazy [[Knight Templar]] demon outcast.
* In the first ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'' storyline, the team took on a band of alien mercenaries called Technet. One member of Technet, Joyboy, had the power to telepathically discern his victim's fondest wish and grant it in as unpleasant a way as possible. He was able to take out [[Intangible Man|Kitty Pryde]](who at this time had to concentrate to stay solid) by granting her wish for a solid body. A [[Fat Girl|five-hundred pound solid body]]. [[No Ontological Inertia|She reverted to normal once Joyboy was knocked
* In [[Archie Comics]] there is an old man - Wally the Wizard, he calls himself - that fits this: he had with wish-granting powers, and Archie receives wishes that turn out to amuse
** The moment of evil goes like this: "Are you kidding? I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy!" (Archie's eyes glow with skulls for pupils and hellfire for irises as he gets an evil grin) "Or maybe...I would!" Which
* [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Mephisto]], closest thing to [[Satan]] in [[Marvel Universe]], may sometimes dwell into this. Recently he decided to play along popular [[Urban Legend]] that sometimes devil may visit a bar and, if bartender will provide him with a good service, he will grant him a wish. When bartender asked for immortality, Mephisto dragged him to Hell, extracted all his blood when grinding him like a fresh meat and used it as an ink to write letters. Words are immortal.
== Fan Works ==
* Japan in ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' [[Deconstruction]] fic ''Mistakes'' managed to Jackass Genie ''himself.'' He'd found out that his humans were [[World War Two|doing unspeakable things to his brothers]] and confronted his Prime Minister. Nation-tans have to obey orders from their human leaders. Under normal circumstances, "forget about them, we have bigger problems" would have been dismissed as a colloquialism, but Japan really, really wanted to forget that he'd played a part in getting his own brother raped. [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|So he did.]] China was not pleased.
* The ''[[DeviantART]]'' piece [https://www.deviantart.com/uberis/art/Aladdin-971888291 shown here] (warning, very NSFW) downplays it slightly, as when the recipient wishes to be immortal, the genie asks if she is ''certain'' that's what she wants, warning her that such a wish is one of the easiest to exploit. Unfortunately the recipient feels that even if it goes wrong she'd "have an eternity to sort things out" so the genie simply shrugs and says "your funeral" before granting the wish by converting her lamp into a magical coffin and sealing the recipient inside. An extra-clever movie on the genie's part, as she has more-or-less escaped because the recipient cannot state her other two wishes.
== Films -- Animated ==
Line 72 ⟶ 69:
* Dr. Facilier in ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]''. When reading Prince Naveen's fortune, he "predicts" that Naveen wishes for "the green" and to be able to "hop from place to place." Naveen never actually says anything like this, nor does he even acknowledge this as an accurate "prediction," yet Facilier transforms him into a frog anyways.
** Naveen agreed to Facilier's deal when he shook his hand, tacitly giving him permission to make the wishes described come true. This was of course very stupid, as it meant giving to the "genie" in this scenario both the phrasing ''and'' the execution of the wish, which is just asking to get screwed over.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
Line 84 ⟶ 80:
* Near the end of ''[[Leprechaun (film)|Leprechaun]] 2'' the Leprechaun is trapped in a wrought iron safe by Morty, who forces the Leprechaun into granting him three wishes. The Leprechaun grants Morty's wish for his gold by materializing it into his stomach. After the Leprechaun makes Morty waste his second wish by wishing him free of the safe, the Leprechaun grants the third wish (getting the gold out) by ripping Morty open, killing him.
* The titular pencil from the short film ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MjTb5A68VA Pencil Face]''. The girl asked for a lollipop. The pencil materialised a {{spoiler|black hole which sucked her in}}
== Literature ==
* In ''[[The Monkey's
** Just to show how old this trope is, the characters in this story were aware of it and more worried one of them was going to be killed by the money falling from the sky in change and beaning them on the head.
** [[It Got Worse|It gets worse.]] The mother of their son is so distraught she forces her husband to wish the son alive again - but she didn't specify what shape she wanted him back in. It turns out he'd died in an accident that had horribly mutilated him, and they hear a knock on the door. We never do find out just what shape the son is in, because when the mother goes to answer the door, he rushes back in order to make his final wish, which is presumably to wish the son dead and back in his grave, because when the mother opens the door, no one is there.
* In ''[[Harry Potter
** Also, Death, in the tale of the Three Brothers in ''[[The Tales of Beedle the Bard]]'', pretends to congratulate the titular brothers for cheating death, and rewards them, with full intention of being this. Only the [[Youngest Child Wins|youngest brother]] sees through the ruse and has his reward tailored specifically to prevent Death doing this to him. The other brothers are [[Karmic Death|not so lucky]].
* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[The Magic Goes Away (novel)|The Magic Goes Away]]'' universe, it is established that literal genies in a bottle do exist. They can only be coaxed out of the bottle with the promise to play the
* In ''[[Castle in the Air]]'', the sequel to ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'', Abdullah has the company of one of these {{spoiler|who turns out to be Howl transformed by a Djinn}}. At one point he manages to actually outwit the Genie who claims he will grant every wish in the worst possible way by wishing for a friend who is running to go to the nearest castle that isn't in his home country. {{spoiler|And even that is kind of twisted.}}
* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[
** For instance, the eponymous Eric wishes to live forever. He is promptly transported to the beginning of the universe, since that's when forever ''starts''. Enjoy the next couple billion years
** He also wishes for the most beautiful woman and to rule the world. He gets a case of [[Values Dissonance]] and a country where people kill their rulers.
* In ''Shadowbridge'' by Gregory Frost, a tablet that grants any wish written on it mostly acts as a [[Benevolent Genie]]. The wish "Make them worship me like a god" seems to leave it fed up, though—the wisher [[Taken for Granite|turns to stone]], and those nearby start to worship the statue.
Line 113 ⟶ 108:
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has Mirri Maz Duur. Daenerys asks her to save his husband, Drogo's life, who has an infected wound. She can do it, right? She warns her that saving a life would cost another one. Dany cleverly asks if the price would be her life, for which the answer is no. [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?]] {{spoiler|Dany's yet unborn son is killed, and while Drogo lives, he became a [[Soulless Shell]].}}
* ''[[The Book of Lost Things]]'': A greedy and gluttonous man requests that the Crooked Man pay him in gold the weight of everything that he has eaten at a buffet. The Golden Man complies...by pouring molten gold down his throat.
== Live Action TV ==
Line 131 ⟶ 125:
* ''[[You Can't do that on Television]]'' has the Genie doing hit-and-run wishes, leaving the other person in a mess. "My work here is done."
* In the ''[[Round the Twist]]'' episode "Santa Claws", when each member of the family gets two wishes. Bronson wishes to be bigger than his brother Pete. Instead of making him a few inches taller, Claws makes him about as tall as the lighthouse (how he does this ''inside'' the lighthouse without killing him goes unexplained). Bronson is forced to wish himself back to normal.
* In ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Je Souhaite", the genie is a [[Literal Genie]], but the genie who turned
{{quote|'''Mulder:''' You know, I think I'm beginning to see the problem here. You say that most people make the wrong wishes, right?
'''Jenn:''' Without fail. It's like giving a chimpanzee a revolver. }}
** It's clear that she is in fact a Jackass Genie (or a bitch, as Mulder puts it more bluntly after she makes everyone on Earth vanish after he wishes for
* Most of the [[Monster of the Week|Imagin]] in ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]'' fall into Jackass territory. A particular example is the Jellyfish Imagin; its contractor wanted to find the time capsule he and his deceased fiancée buried a year before, but the Imagin simply finds some random time capsule and tries to claim it's good enough. When the man refuses, the Imagin starts physically attacking him and yelling at him to open the damn box.
** In this case, it springs from the Imagins' agenda: when they successfully complete a contract, they can then open a portal to the past using their contractor's strongest memory (in this case, the day the man and his fiancée buried the capsule), at which point they go on a rampage and try to alter history.
* Most genies in ''[[Charmed]]'' are of the [[Jerkass]] type. They're tricksters by heart and will twist wishes in order to gain their freedom.
* ''[[Special Unit 2]]'' has a unique case. The genie in question doesn't actually have magic powers, other than being able to turn into dust and hide in small objects. Thus, when people make outrageous wishes, she has to fulfill them personally. For example, when a guy asked for a million dollars, she walked off, robbed a bank, then left him with the evidence and the cops on his ass while she disappeared. She still interprets such wishes negatively, though, because she wants to get through them as fast as possible. Once she reaches her quota, she'll have free will.
== Music ==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn4bmm0_2ps "As You Wish"] by Persuader.
== Religion and Mythology ==
* Iblis is a well known example he refuse to bow down to humans and saw humans as weak which is the reason Iblis is sent to Hell.
* Nanabozho, the trickster spirit of Ojibwa mythology, was once visited by a group of humans. One wished for eternal life, and was turned into a stone. Another wished to be lucky at hunting, and was turned into a fox. The rest, seeing where it was going, asked to enchant their talismans with healing power. This time, Nanabozho granted the wish because they didn't ask for too much. Later, caught in an Orpheus plot, they ended up losing it anyway.
* Most wish-granting genies in the Arabian tales are [[Benevolent Genie]]s, but then, they didn't have to grant wishes, either. Some non-wish-granting genies would instead offer such options as "You may choose how you would like to die," or "Should I [[Baleful Polymorph|change you into an dog, an ass, or an ape]]?" Thus taking Jackass Genie to a whole new (old?) level.
Line 154 ⟶ 146:
**** {{spoiler|"Peacefully in my bed after a very long and nice life."}}
* [[Greek Mythology|Aphrodite]] in the Trojan War. She promises Paris that the most beautiful woman in the world will fall in love with him and keeps her word but neglects to mention that the most beautiful woman in the world is already married - to a powerful king who won't be too happy.
== Newspaper Comics ==
Line 181 ⟶ 172:
*** However, on that note, if you try to stretch these powers to far, it simply flat-out fails, and just wasted a bunch of psychic power and time to no effect.
*** On a related note, the Clerical version, "Miracle" is adjudicated by the caster's god- if they ask for too much, or something not following the god's philosophy, god says "no", and you waste time and a spell. and in the later case, the GM could reasonably have the god punishing the cleric for their temerity.
** Of course, as [
*** A wish that involves getting a massive pile of money, but not specifically wishing that this money did not cause him harm or attract unwanted attention, is not exactly airtight.
**** To be fair, however, if the dragon already had their eye on the person, then the money itself didn't bring harm or attract unwanted attention...
Line 230 ⟶ 221:
** In this game, "being careful" means ensuring that your caster has a high enough Wisdom score to word the wishes properly, or by using "bad" effects to your advantage. Having the genie "summon an army" nets you 50 rabbits. Needless to say, a bunch of harmless, completely ordinary bunnies won't do any damage by themselves, but they make for a very nice distraction: enemies tend to attack the closest target, so if the rabbits are between you and the enemies, the enemies will waste turns attacking the rabbits while you pepper them with arrows and blast them with magic.
* Witsarnemitea of [[Utawarerumono]] has a little habit of granting some really jerkassy wishes, though it's mostly limited to his 'destructive' side. Want immortality? [[And I Must Scream|Have fun being an unkillable red blob for all eternity]]. Want to know more about me? [[Grand Theft Me|Have fun being my host while I possess you and destroy your id]]. Plus you have to [[Deal with the Devil|promise your soul into servitude]] to get ''anything.''
* TATARI, AKA 'Night of Wallachia' from ''[[Melty Blood]]'' does this. He manifests the rumors and desires of where he forms, but twists them all into his [[Omnicidal Maniac]] persona. A village hoped for good crops? He used their bodies as fertilizer. Two feuding villages desired peace? He killed them all, ending the conflict by proxy.
* Comes back to bite the wish giver's ass in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]: Mask of The Betrayer''. A quest involves helping a wizard get his soul back from a Devil. The solution? Learn that an infernal contract is null if the Devil forces the signer to fulfill its conditions. One of the conditions is that the signer kill someone. The wizard got a wish as part of a previous part of the deal and accidentally wishes that his mentor was "gone," because the devil knew "gone" didn't mean "kill" but killed the master anyways, he is counted as having forced the Wizard to fulfill the contract, rendering it null.
* Doesn't really have anything to do with ''wishes'', but the genie King Graham finds in ''[[King's Quest V]]'' [[Have a Nice Death|locks whoever released him in the bottle.]] If you gave the bottle to the greedy witch, great. [[Fate Worse Than Death|If not...]]
* Arguably happens with the magic box in ''[[Fable II]]''. While not a "genie" as such, it grants your wish, but only after {{spoiler|Your sister, family, and pet are all dead (possibly) and you've had to buy the place anyway for a million. Not to mention all the other horrible things that happen to your character on the way."}} Not a nice box, really.
** However, since the exact wording of the wish was never given, you could see it as having been fulfilled when the two of them go to the castle, {{spoiler|unless it included the word "live".}}
* In ''[[Persian Wars]]'' your character will encounter a genie, and if he asks to never be thirsty, he will be turned into a fish. Later, on the same campaign, after a drought, you can ask a demon to make rain... resulting in him flooding the world.
* Used ''benevolently'' in the ending for ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak 3]]'': {{spoiler|After granting Daxter's wish for a comfortable pair of pants, Daxter's human girlfriend innocently states that she wished she had a pair of pants like that. The Precursors grant her wish... and also turn her into an Ottsel so she can fit into them.}} Anywhere else, this would be a perfect example of this trope {{spoiler|except in this case, the ''Precursors'' are Ottsels, too!}}
** Earlier in the game {{spoiler|the Precursors (while talking through their floating hologram thing) offer to turn Jak into a Precursor. However, Count Veger shows up with a gun and demands that he be turned into one instead. You can guess what happens. While this may be an example of [[Literal Genie]] at first glance, keep in mind that during this scene, NO ONE (not even the player) knew what the Precursors REALLY looked like...}}
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* In the backstory of ''[[Sacrifice]]'', protagonist Eldred summoned a powerful demon called Marduk and charged him to destroy the armies of his political rivals, who were rebelling against the empire he was stewarding. Marduk obliged by [[Omnicidal Maniac|destroying the entire world]], forcing Eldred to escape into another dimension.
* In the [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''[http://ifwiki.org/index.php/The_Djinni_Chronicles The Djinni Chronicles]'' you are a djinn who grants people's wishes. Apparently, due to the nature of the magic the djinn uses to grant the wishes, any wish-granting will inevitably carry something unpleasant with itself, no matter if the djinn wants it or not. The only exception are wishes free from 'San'--which apparently is best translated as 'selfishness'.
* ''[[Wizardry
* Erazor Djinn, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Sonic Storybook Series|Sonic and the Secret Rings]]''. Ironically enough, the one time he actually does fulfill a wish, he does them perfectly, and every wish is exactly how Sonic wants it.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' has this with Clavicus Vile. Want to cure your loved one of lycanthropy? He'll give you an axe. Want a cure to vampirism? He'll have someone kill you. Want to end the Civil War? He'll do nothing, letting the dragons run rampant until everyone on both sides are dead.
** It's implied that he's gotten worse since his appearance in ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Oblivion]]'', where the player gave him an artifact which he used to [[Literal Split Personality|split]] himself and his [[The Conscience|conscience]], Barbas the dog.
== Visual Novels ==
Line 251 ⟶ 241:
** ''[[Fate/hollow ataraxia]] subverts this, though. {{spoiler|Angra Manyu AKA the Holy Grail doesn't want to grant wishes like this. The only wish he personally granted was to save Bazett from dying.}}
*** It's... a bit more complicated than that. {{spoiler|The Grail wasn't originally one of these. The man who became Angra Mainyu was just some poor schmuck who got tortured to death by his village to serve as a scapegoat for all humanity's sins. This technically qualified him as a Heroic Spirit, and he was summoned in the Third Grail War. When he was killed, the Grail tried to grant the wish for an embodiment of all the evils of the world, which transformed the Grail into an incarnation of Angra Mainyu that was more of a mindless curse than an actual entity. The Cursed Grail and the Servant Avenger are distinct but connected existences, so while Avenger may not want to grant wishes in this manner, the Grail will fulfill its function regardless of what he desires if someone makes a wish on it.}}
* In ''[[Hatoful Boyfriend]]''{{'}}s Bad Boys Love route, it's revealed that {{spoiler|Doctor Shuu made a promise to Ryuuji Kawara that he would grant any wish his son Ryouta wanted. Ryouta's wish was for humans and birds to live in peace and Doctor Shuu, being [[Deadly Doctor|Doctor]] [[Ax Crazy|Shuu]], decided that the best way to grant this wish was to exterminate the entire human race because humans and birds can't keep on fighting if one side is dead, after all. Oh, and his methods to bring about said end of the human race involve deliberately weakening Ryouta's immune system so he can infect him with a virus that kills any humans who come too close to him and then letting his childhood friend/love interest Hiyoko get fatally close to him to test the virus, which leaves Ryouta traumatized for life when he finds out about this. But hey, it was all done to grant a wish Ryouta made when he was a fledgling and didn't know how warped his mysterious benefactor's psyche was at that time! Isn't that so nice of Doctor Shuu?}}
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' the Djinn of the Chamberpot interprets ''every single wish'' someone makes as asking to be turned into a chocolate statue. The first two times it happens it's more a case of being a [[Literal Genie]] ("Could you make me some chocolate?" and "Make me irresistible to women"), but the third time, no one even really makes a wish, they just shout "Oh good bloody hell!" The genie claims this is Viking for "Turn me into chocolate." When it's pointed out that the Vikings didn't ''have'' chocolate, he retorts, "But if they ''did'' they would have called it 'bloodyhell'."
** Incidentally, the reason this all is in the story is to parody the implausibility of how, in [[Harry Potter and
{{quote|'''Torg''': "''Wait'' a minute. You're saying all three guys just happened to wish something that had the same random result?"
'''Genie''': "Yeah, pretty freaky, huh?"
'''Torg''': ''[[Lampshade Hanging|"That's freaking ridiculous!"]]'' }}
** And later, there are the demons Zefolas and Fezeel, who trick mortals to sell their souls for wishes. The first wish is always free, but the second will cost you... '''''YOUR SOUL'''''. You can imagine what the wishes they grant are like, especially the first wishes when they want you to make a second. They even like to grant wishes and make deals in their own realm, where they are almost omnipotent and can ignore any wish they like [[Wishplosion|that might harm them]], simply for sport. This allows them to take being Jackass Genies to the extreme, since they don't even have to limit themselves to twisting wishes asked for if it's not convenient. The only way to beat them turns out to be to ask for wishes that they don't realise can be used against them.
* Variant: [https://web.archive.org/web/20130413050044/http://www.qwantz.com/apologies/000090.html "No, nothing ironic. Just bad."]
* Interesting (and quite [[NSFW]]) variant in ''[[Oglaf]]''. The genie grants the wish all right - but if it's not a particular kind of a wish, in addition he does bad things to the wisher...
* Aside from a few exceptions, the Djinn in [[The Wotch]] are all jerkass genies. There's also a curse genie bottle that forces any djinn summoned through it to grant wishes as if they were a Jackass Genie, even it they don't want to.
Line 270 ⟶ 259:
"For future reference, you now have one kidney." }}
** The page title reads "They're all like that, actually."
* [
* [[The Book of Biff|Biff]] gets an odd mix of literal and jackass in [http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2010/02/11/958-rubbed/ his] [http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2012/04/23/1525-flutter/ genies.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100927170933/http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1809282 This] Loldwell strip on College Humor takes the cake for jackass genies. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110322162520/http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1814463 This] one has the same general idea, despite the wishgiver being a leprechaun.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140605222841/http://www.comicswithoutviolence.com/comics/20080412.gif This] Genie manages to be an incredible jackass before granting any wishes.
* A variant of this trope appears in a recent [[VG Cats]] strip, where Leo buys a magical wish-granting monkey's paw from a whimsical stranger. He first wishes for Duke Nukem Forever but finds that the nostalgia of his childhood has been tampered with in the form of modern game design. Accepting it anyway, he then wishes for a giant wiener and is granted a massive hot dog, complete with bun and ketchup. [[Kick Them While They Are Down|It also turns out the Duke Nukem Forever game case is empty.]]
* In ''[[The Princess Planet]]'', [http://www.theprincessplanet.com/?p=210 this genie] is definitely the jerkass type. Fortunately, Christi is very [[Genre Savvy]].
Line 280 ⟶ 269:
* [http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/08/this-comic-was-inspired-by-experience-i.html This] ''[[Hyperbole and a Half]]'' comic advises being specific when wishing, just in case the Wish Genie is a total dick.
* ''[[Nerf Now]]'' had [http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/520 Monkey's Paw].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130830103220/http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minusb60.html This] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130830102722/http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minusb61.html genie] from ''[[Minus]]'' He doesn't bother with irony, opting instead to clobber people for no reason. (One person wishes to fly and [[Fastball Special|gets flicked into the air,]] but that's probably a coincidence.) Double-subverted for [[Even Evil Has Standards|the last wisher.]]
* ''[[Devil Bear]]'' is always eager to [http://www.thedevilbear.com/b/comic/cheap-shots/ "help"].
== [[Web Original]] ==
* You'd be hard-pressed to find a forum without a thread making a game out of misinterpreting wishes.
** Taken [[Up to Eleven]] by [
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX1xdnHh-pI This fake ad] is for a law office that specializes in genie cases.
* [http://www.cracked.com/craptions/archive/april-2009/1188 This.]
** [http://www.cracked.com/photoshop_61_if-every-wish-backfired-horribly And, on the same site, this.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100219082718/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40087 This article] from [[The Onion]], in which Justice Scalia meets a genie who grants him a strict constructionist interpretation of his wish for "a hundred billion bucks."
* From ''[[Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do In An RPG]]'', [http://theglen.livejournal.com/89715.html #568]: "My first wish cannot be 'I wish you grant all my wishes to the spirit and letter of the wish.'"
* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
* [http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/08/this-comic-was-inspired-by-experience-i.html This ''Hyperbole and a Half'' post] is all about this trope.
* In the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' toon ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131111044844/http://www.homestarrunner.com/ween09.html Doomy Tales of the Macabre]'', Marzipan wishes on a crystal ball for a new boyfriend. Since Strong Sad is playing [[Killer Game Master]] with everyone's fates, she ends up with Coach Z.
{{quote|'''Coach Z:''' Hey there, my little [[Funetik Aksent|lovejorb!]] [[Gross Up Close-Up|These bunions, corns and calluses]] aren't gonna pumice themselves!}}
* Its a popular forum game to play "Wish Corrupter" the basic premise of the game is for Poster A to make a wish, Poster B grants it, but with either a literal or jackass twist. Poster B then wishes, Where Poster Q grants, and so on.
* In the ''Christmas Tree of Might'' special, ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]'' turned Shenron into one of these when Krillin wished for the best tree ever. Shenron was so flat-out pissed that he proceeded to summon space pirates to plant a Christmas tree (of Might!) that would consume all the joy in the world.
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Martin Mystery]]'', one of the few villains to make two non-consecutive appearances was one of these. Normally resembling a beautiful woman, the Djinn's true form was a demon and it rivaled the Djinn from ''Wishmaster'' in its ability to screw people over - for example, when the crook who accidentally released it wished to be "the worlds' most infamous thief" the Djinn turned him into a [[Half-Human Hybrid]], reasoning that no one could ''ever forget'' a burglar who looked like a rat monster.
* [[Rhymes on a Dime|The Wishing Skull]], from ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
** And as for everyone else... Skarr ended up suffocating in outer space, Billy's dad relived just how crappy his high school years were (although this is in no way the Skull's fault), and Irwin got beat up by Mandy (again, he brought it on himself). Nergal Junior got what was technically the least horrible fate; he simply wished to know what to wish for, but since the skull can only grant a single wish for every person, it poofs away, leaving him to lament that he wished he had it back.
*** And in the credits, we see what would have happened if Grim had used it to escape Billy and Mandy and free the skull itself. The skull turns himself into the Grim Reaper, and turns Grim into a wishing skull. ''Technically'', they're both free of their ''original'' curses.
Line 308 ⟶ 296:
* [[The Smurfs]] are plagued by a malicious Genie called Genie Meanie who makes the lives of the Smurfs miserable, and then dangerous when Gargamel takes control of him. Fortunately, Papa Smurf finds the special words to put him under his control, forces him to undo the harm he's done and finally orders him to stay in his container until he decides not to be mean anymore.
* There was a Fleischer cartoon where an old man catches a leprechaun and forces it to take him to its pot of gold, which it does. The gold is buried under a tree stump, so the man hangs his coat on the stump and instructs the leprechaun not to move the coat or alter the stump in any way while he gets a shovel. When he returns, the leprechaun has obeyed his orders, and the stump is undisturbed. However, the leprechaun has [[I Am Spartacus|added a few dozen identical stumps to the area]]. The old guy promptly dies of shock, probably to keep the writers from explaining [[Fridge Logic|why he couldn't just dig up]] ''[[Fridge Logic|all]]'' [[Fridge Logic|the stumps]].
** Something similar happens to Scrooge McDuck in ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'', but Scrooge is savvy enough to insist that the wish-granting leprechaun not touch his marker. Of course, the leprechaun simply has someone else duplicate his marker. A [[Subverted Trope|subversion]], however, in that the correct stump was booby-trapped.
*** Another ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'' example would be the Djinni (no relation to the Genie from ''[[DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the
* This is how genies (or at least Norm) work in ''[[
** Norm looked really confused when he granted the lawyer wish, so it's likely that his confusion resulted in him not really thinking about the wish, thus causing him to summon a competent lawyer.
** When Crocker gets a hold of Norm, he wishes for a series of absurdly impractical deathtraps for Timmy, prompting Norm to ''act'' somewhat benevolent but only to suggest that Crocker is not evil ''enough'' and that "Mars is really nice this time of year." When Timmy defeats Crocker and asks Norm to send him to Mars, he's so delighted to have his suggestion taken that he provides Timmy with a spacesuit to enjoy seeing Crocker act out the ending of [[Total Recall]].
Line 316 ⟶ 304:
{{quote|'''Demona:''' If you can't get rid of ''all'' the humans, then at least rid me of that Human! ''Elisa Maza!''
'''Puck:''' Did you say "''that'' Human" or "that ''Human''"? Oh, never mind, I'll figure it out. This just might be fun, after all. }}
** Rather than destroy Elisa, Puck uses his powers to turn her into a gargoyle. Thus, as he puts it "The ''Human'' Elisa Maza is no more." Demona, still not getting the drift, then makes him do it to the entire population of Manhattan. Needless to say, [[Hilarity Ensues]]. In fact, it's hinted that Puck does this because he doesn't like folks like Demona who have [[No Sense of Humor]]
** Puck did say that the Mirror that was used to summon him wasn't Aladdin's lamp, implying even if he wasn't being a trickster, he couldn't kill all the humans like Demona wanted.
** And at the end of the episode, Demona wishes to be able to stay awake during the daylight hours ''and'' the night. {{spoiler|Puck makes it so that she turns into a human during the day.}} How she actually ''survives'' like this, rather than collapsing in exhaustion after a few days, is never mentioned; [[Fan Wank|she may catnap during the day]], or the process may act as a very speedy stone-sleep, giving her all the energy she needs to make it through the next twelve hours.
Line 322 ⟶ 310:
* Desiree from ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' herself is a case of [[Literal Genie]] as her wishes can be beneficial if used right, but most of her wishes ends up screwing over the wishers. It's intentional; it's part of her vindictive personality—since her happiest moment was shot down, she'll be damned if others' wishes come true!
* The Flying Dutchman from ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' gives the main characters three wishes to save themselves from being eaten by him. After accidentally wasting the first two wishes, Spongebob wishes for the Dutchman to become a vegetarian. It works, but instead of being sent home, the characters are transformed into fruit for a smoothie.
* ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'': In "Cinderella Cat", Garfield meets his Fairy [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Godfather]] a genie who looks like an anthropomorphic cat version of [[Marlon Brando]], who uses all of Garfield's wishes against him for his own amusement. For example, when he wished he had a million dollars, he gives him the money that belonged to a nearby bank, forcing him to run for his life from the authorities. Garfield gets even by using his third wish to cause the Godfather's wife to show up. [[Henpecked Husband| Boy is ''that'' lady a harpy.]]
* There aren't any Genies, good or bad in ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', but the page quote comes from "The Lake Nose Monster" when Doofenshmirtz, reeling from some hot wings he ate, lays back and [[Discussed Trope|discusses]] this trope to Perry.
* The witch from the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' episode "Cyborg the Barbarian" is an odd case. She screwed her master over at every turn, but she was perfectly straight with Cyborg, even offering to send him home when her master clearly intended to kill him. Of course, her master was a complete [[Jerkass]] and she was obviously twisting his wishes on purpose.
* On an episode of ''[[Superfriends]]'', Gleek unleashes a genie that a baddie has been seeking. The genie disregards his simian master, and instead calls the baddie who failed to obtain him master, obeying his evil wishes.
* A rare aversion in ''[[Timon and Pumbaa]]: The Series'', where the two cause trouble to themselves after each wished for a million wishes from a genie they found near the watering hole and ended up fighting for each of them. Doesn't prevent the genie from acting like a jerkass the whole time.
* Warren Plotnik from ''[[Cyberchase]]'' is
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Villains]]
▲[[Category:Jackass Genie]]
[[Category:The Jerk Index]]
| |||