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Tempting Fate/Western Animation: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'':
** While the Gaang's ship is under attack, Sokka says, [[Rock Bottom|"Things couldn't get much worse!"]], then a giant sea serpent pops out of the water.
{{quote|Sokka: The universe just loves proving me wrong!
Toph: That's 'cause you make it too easy!" }}
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* ''[[Clone High]]''
** Abe is running for student body president and getting his butt kicked. Gandhi says "At least things can't get any worse." and Abe berates him because of this trope. As if on cue, Cleo dumps him. Gandhi then says, "Wait... at least things can't get any ''better''." Abe says it doesn't work that way. After Abe leaves the scene, as if on cue, a butterfly flies over and gives him a dollar.
** Parodied wonderfully in the episode where Ponce, a character who had never been seen before and was very obviously introduced just so he could be gratuitously killed off, spends the first half of the episode making blatant fate-tempting statements, such as constantly telling his friends he loves them just in case he never sees them again. Sure enough, he is randomly killed by a flying plastic bag.
* ''[[Code Lyoko]]'':
** Any time Jérémie makes an assessment of the situation on Lyoko, something immediately happens to make it the opposite. Thus, optimism leads to nothing but trouble, but saying "It's all over!" appears to summon a [[Deus Ex Machina]].
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{{quote|'''Sissi:''' Or else what, a monster's going to squirt goopy goo all over my face, huh, Ulrich?
''([[Drool Hello|guess what happens next]])'' }}
* The ''Titanic'' reference happened in an episode of ''[[Futurama]]'' and ''[[Totally Spies!]]''. Needless to say, neither vacation turned out very well, although to be fair, the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode didn't have the [[Mind Screw]] that the ''[[Totally Spies!]]'' episode did.
* In the ''[[U.S. Acres]]'' shorts on ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'', Booker often hunts worms, an activity which Sheldon declines to participate in, but which he's usually nearby to witness. Consider this exchange:
{{quote|'''Booker:''' You won't get away from me!
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'''Sheldon:''' He got away from you! }}
* In an episode of ''[[The Garfield Show]]'', Odie manages to win the first round of the pet pageant he's in with Garfield's "help". Garfield comments confidently that "we can't lose", only for the announcer to state that the second round would be the talent competition, causing Garfield, who realizes he spoke too soon, to remark: "Boy, can we lose."
* Lampshaded in the ''[[Jimmy Neutron|Jimmy]]/[[The Fairly
* ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'':
** In "Grudge Match", [[Huntress]] and [[Black Canary]] face off and against brainwashed superheroines in a [[Cat Fight|Glamour Slam]]. After breaking Hawkgirl and [[Vixen (comics)|Vixen]] out of their brainwashing, Huntress is feeling lucky and shouts "Is that all you've got?" to villainess Roulette -- who promptly sends (also brainwashed) ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' onto the stage. Cue the heroines' ''[[Oh Crap]]'' expressions.
** "Divided We Fall"'s ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53OyPYa7SEI "Are you going to'' fight me'', boy?"]'' ([[Justice League (
* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Mission Hill]]'' when Andy French makes a deliberate comment about how ''he'' pays the electric bill. The lights flicker off soon as the words are out of his mouth... then flicker right back on, Andy smugly repeating that he did, indeed, pay the electric bill.
* [[Playing with a Trope|Played with]] in ''The Mummy'' animated series, where the family is pursued on waters by the Scarab King:
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''AT-AT walkers appear in the distance.''<br />
'''Rebel 1''': Uh, Jim? Robot camels... }}
** In "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" Stewie changes the failing Cabana Club into the sucessful pLace. When Brian notes that nothing can stop them now, Andy Dick shows up.
** In "Stewie Goes for a Drive", there's a [[Call Back]] to "Brian Writes a Bestseller": when Stewie is running away from home:
{{quote|'''Stewie:''' Well, it could be worse. At least I'm not getting stabbed by some random guy on the street. ''(starts raining)'' See, it's the exact opposite! ''(gets stabbed)''}}
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''
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* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': Beast Boy, normally the [[Genre Savvy]] one, has been prone to these.
* On ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'', {{spoiler|Henchman #24 used to be a perfect example of a [[Mauve Shirt]], but once he and #21 started commenting on how they never die, he was finally killed off.}}
* ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'': In the episode "Cruise Control", the X-Men are taking a vacation on a cruise ship. When Boom-Boom is going to breakfast, [[Storm]] says to her, "Remember, low profile." Boom-Boom says, "It's just breakfast. What could happen?" Cue the breakfast scene, in which the X-Men accidentally reveal their powers to the passengers and cause a huge mess. Also it's ''Boom-Boom'' who starts the whole mess by throwing one of her bombs, although it's Jean using her powers to put out the fire caused by Boom-Boom's bomb that tips off the passengers. Later in the episode, when they're on an island Boom-Boom says the ''same line'' ("What could happen?"), right before the volcano acts up.
* In the [[X-Men (animation)|90's X-Men animated series]], the X-Men break into a government compound to destroy many of the files of [[Super Registration Act|several mutants]] before attempting to escape the compound. Morph says the line, "Didn't I tell you? Clear sailing all~ the way!" Cue the [[Killer Robot|Sentinels]] marching through the trees. Quoth the Beast: "[[Sacrificial Lamb|Oh dear]]". {{spoiler|Beast is captured, Morph dies}}.
* In a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnUvZP7-5LM clip] from the never-produced ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' animated series:
{{quote|'''Buffy:''' Willow, short of the apocalypse, nothing's gonna keep us from that party tonight.
'''Giles:''' Buffy, we're having an apocalypse. }}
* In ''[[The Fairly
{{quote|'''Timmy:''' The Darkness is never coming back!}}
** [[Catch Phrase|What else could go wrong?"]]
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* [[Pixar Shorts|"Your next stop is the hospital!"]] (Cue Doctor Feelbad being shot out of the arena by the Tormentor [[Cars|(Mater's]] monster truck wrestler alter-ego) and [[Destination Defenestration|into a hospital)]]
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]''
** In "A Hard Day's Knight", Candace agrees to dress up like a princess for their medieval fair. After a few moments she wonders "Wait a sec. Could this be one of those things that backfires horribly on me? Nah." Throughout the rest of the episode, she suffers indignity after indignity.
** In "Doof Side of the Moon", Candace teams up with Irving's brother Albert to bust Phineas and Ferb for their latest project, a skyscraper so gigantic that it reaches to the moon. Albert assures Candace that the tower is so huge, "no force on Earth" could get rid of it before her mom comes home. This is only [[Exact Words|technically true]], as Dr. Doofenshmirtz's Lunar Rotate-inator causes the moon to turn around, dragging the tower away in the process.
* Shows up a few times in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'':
** In the very first episode, Twilight Sparkle brushes off Princess Celestia's advice to make some friends, saying "The fate of all Equestria doesn't depend on me making friends". By the next episode, it's clear that actually, it does.
** In "Look Before You Sleep," Twilight ends up lecturing Applejack and Rarity after their bickering spoils Twilight's first slumber party, and ends her rant with "Is there anything else that could possibly go wrong?!" The thunderstorm outside swiftly worsens, and a lightning bolt strikes a nearby tree and threatens to send it crashing into Twilight's house.
** In "Owl's Well that Ends Well," Spike causes trouble because of his jealousy over Owlowiscious the owl, and ends up running away from home after getting a lecture from Twilight. As he trudges, alone and feeling unloved, through the Everfree Forest, he asks himself "Can it ''get'' any worse?" It almost immediately starts raining.
** "The Best Night Ever" pretty much ''starts'' with this, with the Mane Six indulging in a [[Crowd Song]] about how all their hopes and dreams for the Grand Galloping Gala are about to come true. Naturally, they don't. Then near the end of the episode, Celestia and Twilight Sparkle step into the main hall and find that the others have laid waste to the entire party. Thinking she's been utterly humiliated in front of her mentor, Twilight remarks "At least things can't get any worse..." A moment later, a horde of wild animals stampedes into the room with [[Beware the Nice Ones|an insanely frustrated Fluttershy]] on their heels.
* The original ''[[My Little Pony]]'' cartoon used this in the pilot episode's opening theme song. The lines "No sign of trouble in sight" and "May all your days be bright" prove to be tempting fate because soon after the ponies are attacked by the goons of a villain seeking to bring about [[The Night That Never Ends]].
* One ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' cartoon was about a white laboratory mouse that had consumed several volatile explosives, escaped, and is threatening to destroy everything in its path once it explodes. Tom, after hearing about the exploding white mouse on the radio, encouters said mouse, but it turns out to be his archnemesis Jerry, who disguised himself as the white mouse by covering himself with flour just to give Tom a scare. Shortly after Jerry's disguise is accidentally washed off, the ''real'' white mouse arrives, at which point Tom hears over the radio that the explosives inside the mouse have deteriorated and is no longer dangerous, "the white mouse will not explode." Tom decides to triumphantly drop-kick the white mouse out the front door, causing it to explode for real and level the neighborhood.
* ''[[Stunt Dawgs]]'': Every time Lucky makes a comment on how things could have become worse, they '''DO''' become worse just like he said they would. He also falls victim of the trope whenever it's commented on how nothing bad has happened to him lately. One would think that, after all the times he said things could have been worse without hinting on how and nothing making things worse, he'd learn to avoid the trope.
* ''[[South Park]]''
** In "Marjorine", Butters is forced by the other boys to [[Faking the Dead|fake his death]] as part of a plan to infiltrate the girls. His parents are grief-stricken, at which point a random old man suddenly shows up to try and convince Butters's Dad not to rebury him at an old Indian burial ground in a bid to [[Came Back Wrong|bring him back]]. Mr. Scotch wasn't even aware of the burial ground, so all the man did was give him the idea.
** In "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut" the doctor notes Mephesto should be fine as long as the power doesn't go out. When it immediately does, he adds "[[Lampshade Hanging|Who didn't see that coming a mile away, huh?]]"
* One episode of ''[[The Life and Times of Juniper Lee]]'' features Juniper tempting fate by commenting on how there hasn't been any magical emergencies lately despite the warnings from the more [[Genre Savvy]] Monroe.
* All the time on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', to the point where Jimmy's [[Catch Phrase]] is "Like that's even possible." It is.
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