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{{spoiler|Incidentally, the wards he had prepared to keep any demon from harming him worked this way as well, allowing the demon''ess'' who gave him the nickel to... come to an agreement about freeing him.}}
** Also in the short "Wish Fulfillment", a rare positive example of this trope. The protagonist has used her three wishes, is usurped by [[Evil Chancellor|the general of her forces]] and becomes the general's slave. The general declares that "henceforward you shall be my captive flower", and the genie chooses to see that as a legal name change, giving the protagonist [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|access to three new wishes]]. This does [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|not turn out well]] for the general. After that... [[Hilarity Ensues|sex happens]].
:Ironically, she asks about [[Freeing the Genie]], but due to restrictions, it's not that easy... the only way to free this particular genie is to make a wish that he '''truly''' wants to fulfill, but cannot. She asks if "Making a rock so big you can't lift it" would work, and he says, "I have no wish to give myself a hernia." She solves this by {{spoiler|having wild sex with him until he's exhausted and then wishing for him to do it all again, IMMEDIATELY. He'd like to, but can't due to exhaustion; [[Wishplosion|thus, she's set him free]]. "Can you wait five minutes?"}}
* The Staff of One from ''[[Runaways]]'' functions like this [[Depending on the Writer]]. Sometimes it does exactly what the wielder wants, as a freeze spell did not turn the victims into ice, but other times, it seems to gleefully misinterpret the user. Upon being faced with a horde of zombies, she tries to undo the magic by saying "Zombie Not!" The result? The zombies formed together into a massive beast -- a zombie knot.
* An issue of ''[[Marvel Adventures]]'' has [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Tigra]] find a genie and hesitate to use her wishes because she's [[Genre Savvy|very well aware]] of the possibility of the genie behaving in this way. Until the end of the issue, where she wishes for a new lamp to hold him and is very specific about it to avoid him finding any [[Loophole Abuse|loopholes]].
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== Films -- Animation ==
* ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'': Doctor Facilier actually has some things in common with a Literal Genie, although verging on [[Jackass Genie]]. For example, he got Prince Naveen to agree to the deal by saying things like "You want to be free, ''hop'' from place to place." and "When I look into your future it's ''green'' that I've seen." Naveen, naturally, agrees to this, and... [[Baleful Polymorph|becomes a frog]]. Literally speaking, Facilier didn't lie to him...
:It doesn't really matter if he did or didn't, as Facilier was actively trying to screw Naveen over. Facilier is only bound by one rule in the film: {{spoiler|He had better hold up his end of the deal to his "Friends".}} He really doesn't care if he lies, cheats, or steals to get what he wants.
* In ''[[Despicable Me]]'', despite Agnes managing to hit the near impossible target to win the unicorn stuffed animal, the carnival barker said that she had to knock it over to win the prize, not just hit it.
** [[BFG|The barker soon regretted utilizing that loophole...]]
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* In ''Tithe'' by Holly Black, [[The Fair Folk|Faeries]] can be commanded by the power of their true name... but this can end up being interpreted in a very Literal Genie way, as the protagonist discovers after discovering the true name of one Rath Roiben Rye and addressing him by it while telling him to "Kiss my ass." Later, and more deliberately, the big bad gets Rath Roiben Rye's true name and orders him to grab the escaping heroine. Roiben promptly grabs her arm... and then lets her go again.
* The humor/adventure fantasy novel ''Captains Outrageous'' uses this in the last paragraph of the book. Sorcerer Bosamp has been manipulated into trying to destroy the world by a dragon (divine beings in this setting) with the promise of a beautiful world of his own to rule. Bosamp is defeated and imprisoned, and the dragon is punished by her superiors. As the dragons' punishment begins, he superior grudgingly admires her cleverness in manipulating Bosamp, since she actually would have granted him his own beautiful world... with poisonous air and crushing gravity.
* A short story turned the [[Literal Genie]] clause back on the Devil. The Devil offers a single wish to anyone in exchange for their soul, with the limitation that if the wish is supremely selfless, the Devil has to spare the person and cease tormenting humanity forever. A man accomplishes this by wishing, ''without any change in himself'', to be the most sickly, miserable, lonely, needy, cruel, corrupt, wasteful, etc., etc., person in the world
:Note that the Devil can't even twist that one by removing all the other people, à la ''[[The X-Files]]'' genie episode: the supremely selfless nature of the wish bars him from tormenting humans any longer, and knowing he'd inadvertently caused humanity to vanish would torment the wish-maker, who can't be removed under the terms stated.
* ''[[The Monkey's Paw|The Monkeys Paw]]'' is a prime example of this. The plot of the short story is simple. A family comes across a magical preserved monkey hand with three fingers extended, representing the three wishes. Their first wish is for money, as soon as they wish it a member of their son's labor union knocks on the door to inform them that he was killed at the factory and to deliver condolence money. The mother decides to use the second wish to bring him back from the dead, which leads to a SECOND knock at the door. Before the mother can get to the door, the narrator senses that something horrible must be about to happen, and uses the third wish presumably to undo the second, though we never actually hear what the third wish was or see if it had any of its own negative side effects.
* Magic in ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' requires very careful use of language, Eragon once accidentally cursed a girl because he used the word "shield" as a noun rather than a verb, dooming her to soak up misery and pain from everyone around her.
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* [[H. G. Wells]] wrote a short story entitled "The Man Who Could Work Miracles". The title character is a working-class nebbish who can make anything happen by saying it should -- but, true to this trope, the power pays no attention to metaphors. His control is improving by the end of the story, but he stumbles over the laws of physics -- a preacher suggests he "stop the sun and moon" like Joshua at Jericho, and reminds him that their apparent motion comes from the earth rotating. He orders the Earth to stop, and momentum flings everything into space.
* In [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]'s ''The Lathe of Heaven'', George Orr has the uncontrolled ability to alter reality (often retroactively) through his dreams. His psychiatrist attempts, through hypnosis, to use this ability to "improve" the world. But Orr's subconscious frequently operates on the Literal Genie principle and subverts these attempts. For example, in response to the request for "peace on Earth," Orr dreams up a space war with alien invaders; when asked to end racial violence, Orr dreams up a world in which all human beings are gray.
* In an [[Expanded Universe]] novel of the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' franchise, ''The Stone Rose'', the culprit behind all unusual events was a genetically-engineered lizard/platypus hybrid with the ability to grant any wish spoken aloud starting with "I wish...". The ability of the GENIE is limited by the laws of physics. He can [[Time Travel]], [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleport]], and transmute matter, but it required enormous amounts of energy, which it took from any available source, including [[Nightmare Fuel|people]]. Transporting a person from the 24th century to Ancient Rome is easy, since the GENIE is able to use the 24th century power grid for this purpose. Going back, however, is a different matter
:It should be noted that any wish that was impossible to fulfill would be interpreted in its own way by the GENIE. For example, wishing for something "never to have happened" would be impossible to fulfill, as the GENIE is unable to alter the past. Instead, he might create an illusion for the person as if the wish was actually fulfilled.
* An example from the ''[[Belisarius Series]]'': After the titular general escaped the Malwa capital by bluffing his way through a gate guarded by low-ranking conscripts while disguised [[Dressing as the Enemy|as an officer who could kill them with impunity]], Lord [[Complete Monster|Venandakatra]] threw a tantrum and demanded the Rajput general [[Worthy Opponent|Rana Sanga]] have the gate guards flogged before setting out after Belisarius. Rana Sanga, bound by oaths of obedience, personally took his own horsewhip to each of them. Twice (the plural "lashes" were specified). With enough force to ''possibly'' kill a particularly frail fly.
* The enslaved gods in N.K. Jemison's ''[[Inheritance Trilogy|The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms]]'' are required to obey any imperative statement made by the noble Arameri while in their presence. One of the first things the protagonist learns is that one must be ''extremely'' careful not only when giving a command but saying something that could be interpreted as giving a direct command.
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* Any number of plots on ''[[The Twilight Zone]]''. "But you only said you wanted to ''look'' younger, not actually ''be'' younger"; "You said you wanted to live forever, not that you wanted to stop aging"; etc.
** A specific example: in ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' Classic episode "The Man in the Bottle", an old couple uncork a genie who can grants wishes, but warns of the price to them. When the couple figures out to carefully word their wishes, the husband wishes to be a leader for life in a modern European nation, but he still messes up when the genie gleefully turns him into [[Adolf Hitler]] at the fall of Berlin. Understandably, he quickly uses the last wish to turn himself back to normal.
* In ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Je Souhaite", Mulder has to deal with a genie who's forced to take the most literal interpretation of wishes, causing her much frustration at the stupidity of people who don't think their wishes through. At one point, she does try to convince one of the brothers to make a different wish than what he was going to wish for (that his dead brother could talk to him again), since the living brother was in a wheelchair. But the idiot thought she meant that he should wish for a golden wheelchair. Well... she ''tried.''
:This episode also partially subverts the trope, in that after Mulder realizes the genie is a Literal Genie, he became Genre Savvy and decides to plan his next wish very carefully and write it all out beforehand unambiguously. But then he changes his mind and doesn't make the wish at all. It's implied that the genie doesn't ''have'' to take the literal interpretation, but does so out of spite for all these selfish people with their stupid wishes. Realising this, Mulder does the only thing he can do {{spoiler|and wishes the genie is a normal person again}}. It's a heartwarming scene at the end. She tells Mulder exactly what her one wish would be, describing being human again, where she would be sitting and what she would be seeing. Mulder "wished" her exact soliloquy, verbatim.
* Subverted in a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch in which a fisherman catches a fish that grants wishes. Unsatisfied with the first several wishes that backfire, he hires a lawyer to make sure he gets exactly what he wants by drawing up a wish contract for the fish.
* Jenji in ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]]'' uses this tactic to get out of granting any wishes at all. When the villains has captured him, he escapes by tricking Leelee into releasing him but wasting her wish: she winds up saying "I wish I'd never started biting my nails," to which he gleefully responds "done!" Once he disappears, the girl then finds her fingernails to be long and blackened. Screamlarity Ensues.
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{{quote|'''Dende''': He is on Namek.
'''Gohan''': Wait, where is he?
'''Dende''': [[Exact Words|On Namek.]]
'''Piccolo''' (''[[Super Senses|from the other side of the planet]]''): ''You dumbass!''
'''Krillin''': Why didn't it bring him here?
'''Dende''': You must be specific.
'''Gohan''': Oh, so it's a sort of [[The Monkey's Paw|monkey's paw]]; you have to be careful what the hubris in your wish is.
'''Piccolo''' (still distant): '''''NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD!''''' }}
* [http://www.photoshoptroll.com/ Photoshop Troll] is this trope applied to requests for photo editing.
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* A butcher in a ''[[Felix the Cat]]'' animation wishes Felix's bumbling Guardian Angel to "make him the biggest, greasiest sausage ever made". No points for guessing what becomes of him.
* ''[[DuckTales]]''
** Although well-meaning, [[Bungling Inventor]] Gyro Gearloose has a habit of following instructions a little too close to the letter, then being honestly confused when someone complains about the results ("well, you asked for..."). When told to make a [[Sci Fi]] show set "as real as it could be", he constructed a fully functioning spacecraft. When told to build a guard robot that wouldn't let anyone near Scrooge's money bin, he failed to include the obvious exception of Scrooge himself
:And don't forget his orders to choose "Some kind of nonsense" as a password for the Gizmoduck armor, and to make sure it's a word nobody uses, which resulted in him looking it up in a thesaurus to find an obscure word for "nonsense". The word he ends up using, sure enough, is part of the [[Catch Phrase]] of Scrooge's new hire, Fenton Crackshell.
** There was also an episode of the TV show in which Scrooge McDuck tells Fenton to make his assets more liquid, which he goes by dumping the money in a lake.
* Another example occurs in ''[[DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp]]''. Here the good genie is forced to grant whatever wishes his owners give him, even if they are bad ideas. {{spoiler|Fortunately Scrooge is ''[[Genre Savvy]]'' enough to put everything right with two wishes at the end, saving one wish for freeing the genie.}}
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