Reverse Psychology Backfire
A character tries Reverse Psychology on another. Unfortunately, there was never a need for it in the first place, and so the person does just what they didn't want them to to - and on their own request too.
(Please do not use this for examples where Reverse Psychology only simply does not work. Or rather, do use it for them. Or... Oh, forget it.)
Examples of Reverse Psychology Backfire include:
Literature
- In Discworld's Men at Arms, Vetinari tries to use reverse psychology to get Vimes to work on a politically sensitive case; he does this by absolutely forbidding Vimes from working on it. This almost completely backfires, with Vimes going through a Heroic BSOD and drinking himself to near-death. He would have worked on the case tirelessly without Vetinari's interference, giving Vetinari a shockingly out-of-character Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
- To Vetinari's credit, he almost immediately realizes he pushed Vimes too far when Vimes fails to punch the wall on his way out of the office.
Newspaper Comics
- Jon once tries to keep Garfield away from the curtains by asking him to sharpen his claws on it. It does not work.
- In a Calvin and Hobbes strip, Calvin writes to Santa Claus that he really doesn't want any gifts this Christmas, just love and peace among people. Hobbes's opinion of this reverse psychology gambit: "Kind of risky, don't you think?" Calvin throws the letter away.
- In FoxTrot, Andy Fox tries to get Roger to get back to work after he quit his job because Jason busted his chin by acting as though she supports his decision. Unfortunately for her, Roger seemed to think her support was genuine.
Video Games
- GLaDOS from Portal tries this a lot. Unfortunately she doesn't know much about the human psyche, and her intentions are very, very transparent.
Web Original
- In the Strong Bad Email "stupid stuff", Strong Bad tried to get Homestar to say something intelligent so he could get some grumblecakes from his weekly e-mail sender. After putting him in a lab coat and pursuing him further has failed so far, Strong Bad attempts to ask Homestar a question so stupid, he would respond intelligently. This, however, lead to Homestar getting the grumblecakes instead, when it's revealed that Homestar wanted to get Strong Bad to say something stupid all along.
Western Animation
- Batman: The Brave And The Bold, "Sidekicks Assemble" takes this to I Know You Know I Know levels. There's two islands that need to be searched for Ra's al Ghul's base; when Batman states that one is a more likely location and the other is probably a decoy, Robin assumes that Batman's using reverse psychology and decides to check the "decoy" island. After Robin leaves, Batman says that he knew Robin would expect reverse psychology, so he was completely honest about the two islands. Only when they reach the islands Batman finds that his island was the decoy, and Robin ends up finding Ra's' base.
- Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy did a whole episode about this. The Eds try to hit on the Kanker sisters in an effort to keep them at bay. The Kankers counter with "reverse reverse psychology".
- This is a special case because the reverse psychology was working perfectly, up until the point where the Kankers noticed how nervous Eddy was and catch on to the trick.
- In one episode of The Simpsons Homer tries using reverse psychology on the toucan that's stolen his map. It doesn't work, and the toucan flies away. "D'oh!"
- In the Goofy short "Fathers are People", Goof is trying to get his son to pick up his toys, and the narrator suggests reverse psychology.
 |
Goofy: Now, Junior, don't you pick up a single, solitary one of those toys. |
 |