Jackass Genie: Difference between revisions

** 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.

** 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 "game of jynn", where they match wits with the human that freed them. So presenting the client human with three wishes, and placing some kind of sadistic twist to the request is their only motivation to grant wishes in the first place. Granted, the only persons that can gain possession of a genie are some very old and canny sorcerers, who believe they can outwit the genie. So at least there is sport in this contest.

* 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.}}

** 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.

== [[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'."

{{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?"

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]

[[Category:The Jerk Index]]