Murphy's Law

The first experiment already illustrates a truth of the theory, well confirmed by practice, what-ever can happen will happen if we make trials enough.

—Augustus de Morgan, 1866

Murphy's Law is the most commonly used term for the infamously pessimistic maxim, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.".^[1] However, on this wiki, it references quite a few things, so we've made this page to help people figure out which one they really want.

Tropes

Finagle's Law. the trope described above as applied to fiction
Murphy's Bed. a bed that traps people

Film

Murphy's Law (film), a 1986 action thriller featuring Charles Bronson
RoboCop, which has a lawman named Murphy

Literature

Murphy's Law (novel), a Colin Bateman novel based on the British TV series

Live-Action TV

Murphy's Law (American TV series), a 1988–1989 American television crime comedy-drama
Murphy's Law (British TV series), a 2001–2007 British television police drama
Milo Murphy's Law, a 2016 Disney XD series
Murphy's Law of Love, a 2015 Taiwanese romantic comedy television series
"Murphy's Law", an episode of The 100

Music

Murphy's Law (band), a hardcore punk band from New York City

Web Comics

Murphy's Law (webcomic).

The Other Wiki tells us that there is also Muphry's law: "If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written."

↑ The actual Murphy's Law is something different, although most people refer to it in this form, which is why we have Finagle's Law. The original Murphy's Law is more nearly "If parts can be assembled a right way and a wrong way, they will be assembled the wrong way." Study, for instance, the loss of several F-111 (TFX) aircraft during the Vietnam War due to the backwards insertion of a graphite pin in the rudder assembly.

[1] The actual Murphy's Law is something different, although most people refer to it in this form, which is why we have Finagle's Law. The original Murphy's Law is more nearly "If parts can be assembled a right way and a wrong way, they will be assembled the wrong way." Study, for instance, the loss of several F-111 (TFX) aircraft during the Vietnam War due to the backwards insertion of a graphite pin in the rudder assembly.

[1]