Read the Freaking Manual: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:xkcd_293_-_RTFM_7270.png|link=Xkcd|right]]

Would you, could you, RTFM?"|''The Internet Oracle''}}

 

== Film ==

* ''[[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).

'''Bond:''' "[[Bond One-Liner|Just took a few seconds]], Q." }}

* In ''[[Commando (film)|Commando]]'', Cindy successfully uses a rocket launcher (to hit the wheel of a moving truck no less) despite having absolutely no military training. When Matrix asks how she did it she just says she read the instructions.

* ''[[The War Against the Chtorr]]''. The protagonist references this trope when teaching himself how to shoot a [[Laser Sight|laser-sighted]] [[Flechette Storm|flechette rifle]]. It's just as well he does too, as the people who issued him the rifle are [[Make It Look Like an Accident|setting him up to be killed]].

* A short story in the ''[[Bolo]]'' universe, "Operation Desert Fox" by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon, details the posting of a "Desert Fox" history buff assigned to crew a Bolo called Rommel, who is similarly obsessed. After going on drills and such in their sleepy backwater planet, it is attacked by squads of AI-controlled mecha which Rommel manages to take control of. One problem -- they can't control enough of the squads to win without sacrificing the tank's personality. The commander goes digging into the tank's manual, finding an untested "full backup" function. {{spoiler|After they win and the commander gives the "restore" command, he falls asleep from exhaustion. He is woken by the tank calling his attention to the jubilant villagers outside,then asking how he managed to save the tank:}}

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

* [[Isaac Asimov]] wrote a short story where two guys are testing a [[Deflector Shields]] equipped ship on a test flight which basically takes them through the Sun. The shields work so well they almost freeze to death. They come to their boss, intent on beating him up for sending them on that trip... only to be informed that the manuals (which they naturally threw away) contained instructions on adjusting the shield intensity.

* The SNES adaptation of ''[[Home Improvement]]'' provides perhaps the ultimate aversion possible: it doesn't come with a manual, instead coming with a slip of paper which states that "[[Catch Phrase|real men don't need manuals]]".

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|Yet another thing the]] ''[[Nethack]]'' [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|DevTeam thought of]]. From their Windows binary download page:

Thank you. }}

* [[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|"PLEASE LOOK UP THE MANUAL FOR DETAILS."]]

* [[SCP Foundation|Step-1- Read -all- the steps before continuing.]] [[What an Idiot!|Seriously.]]

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

 

 

* In one episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Homer attempts to build a barbecue grill, but he drops the English-language instructions into the pool of cement he had started, and is forced to follow the French instructions ("''Le grille?!'' WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!") After a few minutes of frustration, he gives up and tries to do it by himself, predictably leaving behind a jumbled mess.

* One episode of ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' 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.

* When [[Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!|Wubbzy]] gets a pet Fleegle, he throws away the manual because he thinks he won't need it. If he'd read the manual, he would have known that feeding a Fleegle candy causes it to [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|grow exponentially.]]

** Or that feeding it a sandwich causes it to multiply.