Reverse Psychology Ploy

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A standard sitcom plot, where one party (usually the parents) attempts to dissuade or encourage another party (usually the kids) by, naturally, encouraging or advocating doing the opposite. Often begins with one parent reading a child psychology book and going "Hmmm..."

Usually involves the second party figuring it out, and either doing exactly what they're told, or pretending to "fall" for it and being totally obnoxious in the other direction -- in other words, some flavor of Reverse Psychology Backfire. And sometimes the second party does exactly as expected... with totally unexpected consequences.

Contrast Briar Patching, which is the (usually) successful use of Reverse Psychology against an opponent or other unfriendly person, and Fence Painting, where one person convinces another to do a task he finds onerous by depicting it as more fun than humans should be allowed to have.

Examples of Reverse Psychology Ploy include:

Anime and Manga

• Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki begins this way. Tenchi has repeatedly been warned by his grandfather that he must never, ever, under any circumstances enter the cave behind their ancestral shrine where a demon was supposedly imprisoned centuries before. Go on, guess how the first episode played out... Of course, it's later revealed that this was a case of his grandfather being a Genre Savvy Trickster Mentor, since he knew full well what Tenchi would do and what the likely result would be.
  • He pretty openly goads Tenchi into opening the cave, as he tells him that he can have the key as soon as he's able to take it from him through combat or trickery, and eventually Tenchi succeeds.
• In an episode of Adventures of Mini-Goddess, Skuld has a Big Red Button with a "Do Not Touch" label. Urd and Gan-chan fight over it until she changes the sign to say "Please Touch", at which point they stop. And then Belldandy presses it herself.
• In an early episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, Astral tries to give Yuma advice to help him win a duel, but Yuma gets upset from Astral's nagging and decides to be Commander Contrarian and says that he'll do the opposite of what Astral tells him. This gives Astral the idea to get Yuma to make certain plays by telling him to not make them. Yuma doesn't catch on until near the end of the duel.

Comic Books

• In the Legion of Super-Heroes "Legends of the Dead Earth" annual, Wildfire is trying to recreate both the Legion and the UP spirit of inter-species cooperation. He doesn't expect his current group of trainees to do it, instead pinning his hopes on their descendants, who will be raised with Legion values. To ensure there are descendants, he tells them they're forbidden to "fraternise".

Film

• In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Count Dooku uses reverse psychology on the Jedi by telling them in a Sarcastic Confession exactly what's going on with the Sith conspiracy. It backfires: they take the wise course of action and decide not to flat out believe it, but keep their eyes peeled.

Literature

• Discworld:
  • Witches Abroad has Desiderata Hollow ensure Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax go on a quest with Magrat by adding "Tell those 2 Old Biddies to keep their noses out of this" to her will.
  • In Interesting Times, Rincewind makes use of his vast knowledge of cowardice by informing enemy soldiers that Cohen the Barbarian is not backed up by 2,300,009 invisible vampire ghosts.
• Frindle follows a group of children who coin the titular word as a synonym for "pen" and try to promote it despite general mocking. Towards the end, the teacher who banned the use of the word turned out to be using this to promote the word, out of sympathy for the youthful rebels.
• Played somewhat more seriously in Ender's Game. The bans on playing computer games for longer than a few hours are never enforced—they're just a way of making the games seem like Forbidden Fruit. Each game is actually used by the staff to evaluate the thought processes of its players.

Live-Action TV

• Used several times in Frasier, most notably when Frasier persuades Niles to do his show by saying it requires skills Niles doesn't possess. Being a psychiatrist, Niles recognizes what Frasier's doing, but it works anyway.
• The Colbert Report: Stephen Colbert often did this in a tongue-and-cheek manner with suggestions, such as stating explicitly that he doesn't want his interviews remixed into Stupid Statement Dance Mixes, especially not with excerpts from the audiobook version of "I Am America (And So Can You!)" mixed in, and particularly not from Chapter 7.
  • "I am not telling you to paste this page [with the word 'Truthiness' included] into the dictionary at your local school and/or library. Are we clear on how I'm not telling you to do that?"
• Open All Hours: Arkwright's trying to shift some Jamaica ginger cake off his shop's shelves, so as soon as a customer comes through the door he immediately says "I'm sorry, but I can only let you have one!" before implying it's an aphrodisiac, in one of the most bizarre cases of Sex for Product ever.
• Babylon 5: "John, don't go to Za'ha'dum."
• Used skillfully in various episodes of Hustle. In one episode Stacy, who has got a job at the bank they're conning, is effortlessly able to manipulate her bosses simply by sounding a note of caution whenever she wants them to take a huge risk.
• When Top Gear found out that people in Amsterdam had been throwing small, light Smart Cars into rivers, Jeremy worried that people in England might think of doing the same thing to small, light G-Wizzes, and urged them not to... while making very intense eye contact with the camera and nodding a lot.
• Nick in My Family tries this to get some money for a drive-through Santa's Grotto.
• The Big Bang Theory - Sheldon's mother tricks Sheldon and Amy into getting back together by talking about how unsuitable for each other they are.

Leonard: I saw what you did there. Mrs. Cooper: He thinks he's such a smarty-pants. He's no different from any man - you tell 'em not to do something, that's all they wanna do. If I hadn't told my brother Stumpy not to clear out the wood-chipper by hand, we'd still be calling him Edward. Now don't you move, I'll bring over all the food. Leonard: No, no, no, I can do it. (gets up) Mrs. Cooper: Well, isn't that sweet.

• Played with in a Fresh Prince of Bel Air episode where Will's little cousin Nicky wants to run away from home, so Will sides with him, giving him all sorts of advice on how to survive in the streets. After this goes on for a while, Nicky announces he's not leaving anymore, "but not because of that reverse psychology stuff you were doing." "Oh? Why then?" "I'm five years old, you moron!"
• In The Neverending Story, shopkeeper Mr. Coreander asks Bastion some poignant questions about his love of books, then warns him that the one he's reading is "not for you", because it is unlike the "safe," normal books that Bastian is familiar with. Unlike in the original novel, this version of Coreander seems to have done this for the express purpose of getting Bastian interested enough in the book to steal it while Coreander's back is turned.

Newspaper Comics

• This has failed at least once on Garfield, and he does use the line about "reverse reverse psychology."
• In The Boondocks, after Riley is exposed as having framed Huey with his hairstyle (by doing a driveby shooting as well as apparently ordering a dirty magazine), he manages to trick his grandfather into getting him Cornrows as his punishment (earlier, his grandfather didn't want to get him cornrows). He also tries to do Reverse Psychology in regards to receiving a whuppin' (beating him with a belt), but he was stopped mid-sentence.

Theatre

• Basically the plot of The Fantasticks, where two fathers who live next to each other try to arrange for their son and daughter to fall in love by staging a feud and building a wall between their houses -- and forbidding them from even speaking to each other. The fathers even get a duet about how they're successfully manipulating their children:

Your daughter brings a young man in, Says "Do you like him, Paw?" Just say that he's a fool and then: You've got a son-in-law! You've got a son-in-law!

Web Comics

• Elf Only Inn in this strip.
• Happens twice in The Order of the Stick:
  • In this strip, Xykon uses this to make the good guys do what he wants.
  • Roy (possibly) does this to his dad, Eugene, in this strip. What's more, Eugene knew (or believed) that Roy was using reverse psychology, and fell for it anyway.
• Bob and George: Mega Man uses it -- sometimes it works better than others.
• Freefall has Sam relying on his principle "The next best thing to have after a reliable ally is a predictable enemy." Also he got some contracts this way.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal got a page where Joker uses this on Batman.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons poked fun at this kind of Reverse Psychology several times:
  • In "Saturdays of Thunder":

Homer (reading): Cosby's First Law of Inter-generational Perversity: No matter what you tell your child to do, he will always do the opposite. Huh? Homer's Brain: Don't you get it!? You gotta use reverse psychology! Homer: Well, that sounds too complicated. Homer's Brain: Okay, don't use reverse psychology. Homer (angry): All right, I will!

• • Chief Wiggum tries his hand when trying to persuade Bart, Skinner and Krabbappel, who have barricaded themselves in the school, to surrender themselves ("Fine, stay in the school! We don't want you to come out!"). It doesn't work ("Okay!").
  • In "Lisa's First Word": After an unsuccessful attempt to physically pull toddler Bart away from his crib, Homer tries the psychological route ("Ok, Marge, let's leave the little baby with his crib."); moments later, when he and Marge have walked away and Bart hasn't budged, he tries to pull Bart away from the crib again.
  • When retired cowboy actor Buck McCoy, upon being wheedled to reprise his role, tells Bart and Lisa, "The last city-slickers to use reverse psychology on me are pushing up daisies!" ("They're dead?" "No, they just got really lousy jobs...")
  • Homer tried to use reverse psychology on a toucan. It didn't work, for precisely the same reasons that it wouldn't work on the toucans in the real world.
  • In Marge on the Lam:

Bart: You're absolutely right, Dad. We don't need a baby-sitter. Homer: Wait a minute (Takes out card reading: "Always do opposite of what Bart Says.") You kids do need a baby-sitter! Bart: (to himself) Blast that infernal card! (to Homer) Hey, Dad. Don't give me that card. Homer: Here ya go--(Pulls card away)--No!

• Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, "A Twist of Ed": Edd gets the idea to use Reverse Psychology to drive away the Kanker sisters by acting as stalker-ish towards the girls as they do towards the boys. It works wonders until the Kankers notice Eddy, who's too nervous to pull it off, and then pretend to run away in fear to draw them closer. "It's a Reverse Reverse Psychology!!"
  • In the same episode, Ed's reaction to reverse psychology is portrayed somewhat akin to a compulsion: to demonstrate, Edd tells him not to eat a pile of dirt. Ed sits there blank-faced for a few seconds, then nervously looks at the dirt before finally going over and eating it.
• King of the Hill:

Dale: Reverse Psychology. That'll never work. Hank: Yes it will. Dale: Gotcha

• Riley in The Boondocks tricks Granddad to allow him out of the house so he can visit Gangstalicious in the hospital:

Riley: See I was like all into Granddad's mental mind. It was like psychology. But in reverse.

• Shows up in The Fairly OddParents. It trumps youthful rebellion!
• In the South Park episode, "Butt Out", Cartman thinks Kyle is using reverse psychology to trick him into not appearing in an anti-smoking commercial, but Kyle really doesn't want to do it.

Cartman: Oh, I get it, Kyle. That's your Serbian Jew double bluff. Make me think you don't care about being in the commercial so that maybe I won't either. Ooops. didn't work, did it, Kyle? Kyle: No, we really want nothing more to do with these people. Cartman: Sure you don't, Kyle. Oh, and neither do I. Oh, I know what you're gonna say next. You're gonna say, "How about none of us show up tomorrow to do it?" And then I'm supposed to agree so that tomorrow you can waltz in all by yourself and do the commercial. That's Serbian Jew double bluff and it ain't gonna work on me ha ha ha.

• Johnny Bravo falls for this twice in an episode in which Suzie begs him to take her to the toy store. He catches on, saying that her Reverse Psychology will not work on him. She agrees, which angers Johnny so much that he forcibly takes her just to prove her wrong.

Real Life

• This bash quote.^[context?]
• One person pointed out how some widely hated stuff like Ctrl+Alt+Del, Twilight, Justin Bieber, and anything else popular became so popular despite such a huge Hatedom because it was unintentionally invoked by the Hatedom itself. The quote "The more you hate it, the stronger it gets" refers to this action in practice where someone hears about a work from the Hatedom or Hate Dumb, then decides to try it out, only to experience Critical Backlash or find it's just as bad as they say. The publisher still wins in the end because they either earned a new customer or still got someone to buy something when they didn't even fall into the target demographic.
• When the Hatedom is even louder than the fandom, it can actually be the cause of its popularity. For example, if it weren't for all the parodies mocking "Friday", no one would have ever heard of Rebecca Black.