Read the Freaking Manual: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|"I think I know from where your problems stem.

 

Simply, it's a "Tale From Customer Service": When assisting people with technological items, only about 1 out of 5 read the instructions for the item they've purchased. Fewer still read more than a page or two. Note that the trope title is a [[Bowdlerise|more polite]] version of the [[Precision F-Strike|real phrase]]. Other versions are "Read the Friendly Manual," and "Read the Foul Manual."

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Die Another Day]]''. When Q gives [[James Bond]] the [[Doorstopper]] manual for his latest [[Cool Car|gadget car]], Bond tosses it in front of the vehicle's automatic shotguns which promptly blast the manual to shreds. This doesn't affect Bond's ability to use the car later on (though given his photographic memory he probably read the manual while the car was being developed).

{{quote|'''Q:''' "Here's the manual, should be able to shoot through that in a couple of hours."

* ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' features a scene with a bunch of [[Exclusively Evil]] mooks "trading" for a crate of super smart guns with dozens of different modes. They don't think to ask what all the modes in question are, and decide to find out by just randomly pressing buttons. If they'd RTFM they'd have discovered that one of the little red buttons was in fact the self-destruct...

** This is [[Lampshaded]] later on in the movie. When the good guys are trying to figure out how to get the weapon against the Ultimate Evil to work, Korben says "Every weapon comes with a manual. This one must, too." The "manual", in this case, turns out to be somewhat unhelpful hints from Leeloo.

 

* In the ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' novel ''The Green Saliva Blues'', "Jay" refuses to RTFM. ''Any'' FM, whether it be on the customs and etiquette of the species they plan to contact or a weapons manual. "Elle", who ''has'' read the freaking manual, shows him how to use the [[Law of Inverse Recoil|Noisy]] [[Hand Cannon|Cricket]] without the recoil. A probable parody, as it is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] that she ''only'' knew this information from the manual, the manual was [[Lost in Translation|written in an alien language]], and [[Idiot Ball|it would have shattered her wrist and probably shoulder]] had she been at all wrong.

** Of course there is a ''reason'' Jay hasn't read the manual. He gave up after reading the manual on alien mating habits.

{{quote|{{spoiler|He held up the manual, laughing, and cried out the famous quote:}}

{{spoiler|[[Patton|"Rommel, you magnificent bastard, ''I read your book!''"]]}} }}

 

* In ''[[The Amazing Race]]'', many teams have been eliminated because they misread a clue, or didn't notice that all they needed to know was right there.

* In ''[[Married... with Children]],'' Al has been trying to make a carpentry workbench throughout the whole episode, but is ridculously inept at it, mostly because his manual following skills are beyond pathetic. In a [[Throw the Dog a Bone]] moment, his daughter Kelly (the resident [[Too Dumb to Live]] [[Flanderization]]) not only fixes the bench and makes it look exactly like it should, she does so in seconds (Al had been taking the whole day).

* Pretty much the [[Catch Phrase]] of ''[[Canada's Worst Handyman]]''.

 

* In a ''[[Dilbert]]'' strip, Dogbert is working tech support and receives a call from a guy asking how to make a pie chart. Dogbert orders the guy to hack the computer into tiny pieces, mix them with flour and water and bake the mix in the oven. Dogbert then suggested that while the caller waited, he could read "the novel included with [his] software. It is the story of a Spaniard named 'Manual'." The caller then remarks how the book "[[Lost in Translation|lost a lot in the translation]]."

** In another strip, he tells a caller, "Take all the parts and arrange them in neat piles. Now stand on your chair so you can see above your cubicle wall... Now shout, 'Does anybody know how to read a manual?'" That was popular with tech support workers.

** From another perspective, someone talks about the manual and says that "You must ''really'' hate your customers", describing how poorly-written the manual was.

* In ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'', there's a strip where the two try to put together a model airplane. They (or, at least Calvin) ignore the instructions completely, and end up with the newspaper glued to the floor, and a wrecked airplane.

** In a Sunday strip, said airplane was "hit by anti-aircraft guns", to which Hobbes replies "Your planes seem to encounter a lot of those."

** However, there is another strip where Hobbes is surprised because the instructions apparently start in English, but then go into Spanish and French.

 

 

* Subverted regularly in ''[[Paranoia]]''. In a typical example, Friend Computer assigns you a highly-advanced multi-ton killbot to use to complete your latest Troubleshooter mission. Assuming that it is even available, and not completely blacked out by censors, the information contained in the 'bot's manual will be above your security clearance, and even asking for information above your clearance is treason. Which is, of course, punished by summary execution.

** Subverted in a meta sense as well - the players are expressly forbidden from reading the actual ''rules'' section of the rulebook. (Of course, the parts they're ''allowed'' to read admit that it's entirely in the spirit of the game to read the rules, and then lie like a Persian rug if anyone tries to call them on it...)

 

* In ''[[Hotel Mario]]'', [[Off-Model|Fat Mario]] and [[Mondegreen|Gay Luigi]] specifically tell you to "check out the enclosed instruction book" if you need any help. You probably do, because the CD-I is [[Some Dexterity Required|mind-numbingly hard to control.]]

* The [[Irate Gamer]] refuses to read the ''[[Contra]]'' instruction manual for the story during his review of the game in question, so he believes the game takes place in a straight modern war setting in the likes of ''[[Rambo]]''. He is then caught by surprise once the aliens start showing up later in the game.

* [[James Rolfe]], [[The Angry Video Game Nerd]], declared the uselessness the speed and altitude readings in his review of ''[[Top Gun]]'' for the NES. Naturally, he couldn't figure out how to land later on, even though the game '''lists the desired speed and altitude for landing RIGHT THERE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN.''' Rather, he tried to land purely based on prompts like "Speed up!!" "Speed down!!" and "left left!!"

** He later did a follow-up video explaining his mistake. To be fair, a lot of other gamers had the same problem, as the "left left!!" commands really grab your attention.

* Related to the above lists on [[GameFAQs]], if you had gone to the boards before the questions section was put up, chances are you've seen threads asking stuff about the games, only for the FAQ writers and other members to say read the bloody FAQ. This even happened if the FAQ wasn't a very good one (Like say, it was based off of a Prima or Bradygames strategy guide that's half-completed or omits details) or lists information that is incorrect in the games. Especially if there was a difference between regions, or, in the case of some PC games, was not updated for a patch.

** Justified in that, most of the time, the answer ''is'' on a FAQ, so the advice is sound and correct. The site is called Game'''FAQ'''s for a reason.

* On a similar note, the most commonly asked questions about ''[[City of Heroes]]'' Valentine's Day missions is "How do I destroy the Cauldron/Girdle?", despite the fact that the contact specifically tells you that you must [[Enemy Mine|get someone from the opposite side]] to do it for you.

* Also the endless questions in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' about how to do a quest when the quest description clearly states exactly what they need to do. Incredibly common in the Death Knight starting quests.

* In ''[[Mass Effect]],'' either Ashley or Kaidan can drop the line "Always a good idea to RTFM, sir/ma'am," in a moment of snark during the Noveria mission.

{{quote|'''Step 0: Promise to read Step 2 before telling us the game will not start.'''

Thank you. }}

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' has a fan site called UESP, and they tell you that if you have the manual for ''Daggerfall'', to flat out ignore it because it was based off of an alpha version and incorrectly describes the game.

 

* In ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', Elf initially appears to be a savant at the fabber, but it turns out that, while still incredibly advanced and far beyond the level one would expect from a grunt who hadn't completed high school... she'd been using the fabber's manual and assist options, which Kevyn calls cheating.

* As shown above, ''[[Xkcd]]'' has covered this topic.

* ''Truck Bearing Kibble'' strip "[https://web.archive.org/web/20120915034540/http://truckbearingkibble.com/comic/2007/11/30/flame-retarded/ Flame Retarded]" points out certain problems of this sort inevitable in ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'' 'verse.

{{quote|[[Flight|In defiance of gravity?]] That's nothing. Susan is planning to act in defiance of everything we understand about human nature and actually read the instructions in her spellbook!}}

 

* Excessively snarky news aggregator [[Fark|fark.com]] frequently features comments that are derived from the famous RTFM acronym: posters will advertise when posting that they DNRTFA ("Did Not Read The Farking Article") they are commenting on, or be told to RTFA ("Read The..." [[Figure It Out Yourself|Eh, you can guess the rest.]]) when making a comment that is obviously addressed by the article in question.

* A common saying on sites like [[YouTube]] is "Read the freaking [video] description!" yet no one seems to bother anyways. Some users don't write a description at all for this reason.

* ''[[Gaia Online]]'' has a whole forum dedicated to being able to ask questions about the site and get answers from other users. That forum would be utterly dead if people would just read stickied threads or the information in the Help Center.

** Also afflicted is their MMORPG, ''zOMG!'' The forum for said MMO is filled with threads by users asking how to sell their rings... even though the ''item description'' for said rings ends with a note that "all rings are soulbound and cannot be traded or sold, with certain grandfathered exceptions<ref>rings acquired before the binding mechanic was implemented</ref>". Those who did read the freaking manual then [[Too Dumb to Live|spam the forum asking how to grandfather their rings so they can sell them]].

* Used in [[Joueur Du Grenier]]'s ''[[Airwolf]]'' review, at the end of his "guide on how to get angry at your computer" skit:

{{quote|"But if you want to avoid all that, just read the [[Precision F-Strike|fucking]] manual !"}}

* The ''[[Jargon File]]'' has a surprisingly detailed [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/R/RTFM.html entry] for the acronym, although it is by no means the origination of the term.

 

* One episode of ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'' had the use of the computer delayed by over 150 years because no one would read the manual (or anything else). Timmy hid the deed to a town in the old computer manual, where it remained undiscovered until he came to pick it up.

{{quote|'''Doug Dimmadome''': It was in an old computer manual? Dag nabbit, [[Running Gag|no one ever reads the manual!]] }}

* In the [[The Movie|TV movie]] ''[[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension]]'', after [[The Reveal|Perry's cover is blown]] and the boys find out their pet platypus is actually a secret agent, he gives them a pamphlet which an upset Phineas immediately throws away. Had he read it, he would have found out that Perry kept his identity a secret because he would have to leave them otherwise. {{spoiler|It says a lot that Phineas and Ferb forgave and fought alongside Perry even without knowing}}.

 

* Computer hardware manufacturer MSI announced the addition of an RTFM-chip to their products designed to analyze what the user did after a problem, then send the information back to MSI, with the intention of reducing the number of tech support queries and RMA's over problems detailed in the manual.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131103023647/http://www.brainbashers.com/follow.asp A common example] used in school. A worksheet will read "Read all instructions before completing," and start off with relatively benign instructions. Later on, instructions start becoming bizarre with commands like "Cluck like a chicken," or whatever. If you read to the bottom, the last instruction will tell you to disregard all the other instructions, revealing to the rest of the class who actually read the entire sheet before completing it.

* Ask anyone in the tech field - especially tech support or customer service. A lot of people are guilty of this. Not only do the customers not read the manual, but oftentimes, ''the staff doesn't either''. Many people assume that because they already know how to use it that they don't need to read the manual.

* There are apparently [https://www.flickr.com/photos/arenamontanus/6126809588/ warning signs on some heavy machinery] for this.