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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' Take Washu, add Mihoshi, cue [[Big No]]
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* Similarly, in ''[[Wonder Boys]]'', Michael Douglas' character feels pretty good about losing the [[Doorstopper|several thousand pages]] of his second novel, probably to indicate that it [[Sophomore Slump|didn't measure up]] to his brilliant first one.
* In the first ''[[Dennis the Menace]]'' movie, Mr. Wilson spent forty years growing a plant that only flowers once for a few seconds. So he invites the neighborhood to the flowering, but Dennis causes a distraction at the crucial instant.
* In ''[[Twice Upon a Time (1983 film)|Twice Upon a Time]]'', Synonamess Botch drives his head nightmare writer Scuzzbopper to [[Driven to Suicide|attempted suicide]] (and a [[Heel Face Turn]]) by dismissively throwing his manuscript for a "Great A-Murkian Novel" out a window.
* King Triton actually destroys Ariel's collection of salvaged treasure in Disney's ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' after finding out that she was secretly in love with a human prince.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* An episode of ''[[Blackadder]] the Third'' centers on Baldrick's unwittingly destroying Dr. [[Samuel Johnson]]'s life's work, the very first English dictionary. Johnson is, of course, enraged...until it turns out the manuscript that Baldrick burned was ''Blackadder's'' life's work, a novel that he'd spent over seven years writing. {{spoiler|And then at the end of the episode, Baldrick really ''does'' toss the dictionary into the fire.}}
* [[Playing with a Trope|Played with]] in an episode of ''[[Reno 911!]]'' where an author's novel manuscript is trapped in a burning building. He pleads with the cops to go in and save it, but they want to know if it's any good first. He describes it, but it turns out it's a derivative knockoff, and they let it burn.
* Played for laughs in a British sketch show starring ex-[[The Goon Show|Goon]] Michael Bentine. A guest on an interview show has spent ten years building a magnificent model of St. Paul's Cathedral out of matchsticks. Unfortunately the heat of the studio lights cause it to catch fire. The interviewer mutters, "Well, I expect we'll be seeing you again in ten years. Only this time I'd suggest taking the match heads off first."
* In the ''[[Midsomer Murders]]'' episode "Orchis Fatalis", someone takes revenge on an orchid collector by pouring weedkiller over his priceless orchid collection. This being Midsomer, things soon escalate to murder.
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== [[Myth and Legend]] ==
* There's a legend about Saint Albertus Magnus who supposedly had built a working android, which could walk, would do household chores, and according to some could even speak. Albertus' greatest student Thomas Aquinas destroyed it (thinking it was the result of demonic possession), after which Albertus was said to have spoken: "The work of fifteen/twenty/thirty years is ruined." In Latin, of course.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* Subverted in [[Real Life]] with Sir Isaac Newton. In his early career he was not very good at getting himself published, he tended to just let the finished work pile up on his desk. One day his dog knocked over a candle and much of his life's work up to that point went up in flames. So he sat down and wrote it all out again. "Diamond! Thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done!".▼
* [[wikipedia:Alfred Russell Wallace|Alfred Russell Wallace]] was a Victorian naturalist whose work parallelled Darwin's. In 1848 he began a 4-year expedition to the Amazon collecting plant and animal specimens. In 1852 he took ship back to England with his collection. Four weeks later the ship caught fire. The crew abandoned ship but most of Wallace's collection was destroyed. At least it was insured.▼
* [http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/DeathOnAStick DeathOnAStick], who spent a year and a half on a single game of ''[[Nethack]]'', spending most of that time collecting rocks, transforming them into gems, putting them into [[Bag of Holding|bags]], and creating [[Monster Allies|pet giants]] to hold the bags full of gems. Then he accidentally drank a cursed potion of gain level, which moves you up a ''[[Stealth Pun|dungeon]]'' level, which put him past a [[Point of No Return]]. Without his gems.▼
== [[Theater]] ==
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* Sarda of ''[[8-Bit Theater|8-bit Theater]]'' has a habit of doing this to people, when he does [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/12/30/episode-496-a-wizard-did-itto-himself/ it to himself].
* Helen and Micah first met in ''[[Mac Hall]]'' when he accidentally jumped off a balcony and just barely missed landing on her semester project.
* Gavin's Project Orwell software in ''[[Kate Modern]]''. When it gets stolen, he becomes bitter and delusional.▼
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In a episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Bart ended up destroying George Bush Sr.'s memoirs.
* All of those times an [[Ancient Egypt
* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', in an episode where Mr Freeze vents his frustration by destroying peoples' life's work.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': "MY CABBAGES!!!"
* [[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'s crashing into a truck loaded with beetroot or something similar ruins a old guys memoirs which were written with red ink.
== [[
▲* Subverted in [[Real Life]] with Sir Isaac Newton. In his early career he was not very good at getting himself published, he tended to just let the finished work pile up on his desk. One day his dog knocked over a candle and much of his life's work up to that point went up in flames. So he sat down and wrote it all out again. "Diamond! Thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done!".
▲* Gavin's Project Orwell software in ''[[Kate Modern]]''. When it gets stolen, he becomes bitter and delusional.
▲* [[wikipedia:Alfred Russell Wallace|Alfred Russell Wallace]] was a Victorian naturalist whose work parallelled Darwin's. In 1848 he began a 4-year expedition to the Amazon collecting plant and animal specimens. In 1852 he took ship back to England with his collection. Four weeks later the ship caught fire. The crew abandoned ship but most of Wallace's collection was destroyed. At least it was insured.
▲* [http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/DeathOnAStick DeathOnAStick], who spent a year and a half on a single game of ''[[Nethack]]'', spending most of that time collecting rocks, transforming them into gems, putting them into [[Bag of Holding|bags]], and creating [[Monster Allies|pet giants]] to hold the bags full of gems. Then he accidentally drank a cursed potion of gain level, which moves you up a ''[[Stealth Pun|dungeon]]'' level, which put him past a [[Point of No Return]]. Without his gems.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
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