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{{trope}}
[[File:homer-cereal-epic-fail 3125.jpg|link=The Simpsons (animation)|frame|For some things, there's just no excuse.]]
{{quote|''"There's a difference between a failure and a fiasco. A failure is simply the non-presence of success. Any fool can accomplish failure. But a ''fiasco'', a fiasco is a disaster of mythic proportions. A fiasco is a folk tale told to others that makes other people feel more alive because ''it didn't happen to them''."''|Opening narration of ''[[Elizabethtown]]''}}
This is about something that should be fairly straightforward and typical for a character but then [[Gone Horribly Wrong|goes horribly, HORRIBLY wrong]] in a manner probably thought impossible. It's when a character seems to be facing a pass or fail situation, a do or die type of test and then fate hands them a third option, fail in a manner so bizarre it's impressive. We're not talking, "[[Bad Boss|Supervillain decides to shoot a random minion]] but misses." We're talking, "Supervillain decides to shoot a random minion, but misses -- and the bullet ricochets off two walls, smashes the instrument panel on his Doomsday Machine and ends up inches from the minion's head, [[Disaster Dominoes|weakening a structural support]] and causing the base to come crashing down. And [[Irony|the minion is the only survivor]]." A failure so ludicrously, unexpectedly awesome that, despite its status as a failure, it manages also to be admirable for its uniqueness and irreproducibility.
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Not to be confused with [[Epic Flail]], [[What the Fu Are You Doing?|though you can certainly commit Epic Fail with an Epic Flail if you're not careful.]]
If you're looking for the trope that [[
{{examples}}
== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Nichijou]]'': [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbDfRzS1I04 Jumping Rope].
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*** It becomes a lot worse once you remember that Spidey has [[Super Strength]] and should logically be capable of pushing off the man with ease—hell, he's seen at one point ''throwing'' a car at somebody.
* Charlie Brown of ''[[Peanuts]]'' is well known for failing in ways that are utterly impossible through no readily apparent fault of his own. Blockhead.
{{quote|'''Linus''': That's the first time I've ever seen a kite explode.
** Also [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in [[The Movie]] ''A Boy Named Charlie Brown'', when the girls mock Charlie by singing the song "Failure Face." They quip that, if trying to fail were like running a race, Charlie Brown [[Logic Bomb|would actually]] ''[[Logic Bomb|win]]''.
** There is a line of Epic Fail t-shirts displaying his greatest failure moments.
* Italian comic ''[[Sturmtruppen]]''. A firing squad tries to execute a prisoner. Repeatedly. They even managed to miss him and hit the wall behind him while he was [[Beyond the Impossible|holding their rifles pressed directly against his]] '''[[Beyond the Impossible|chest.]]'''
* ''[[W.I.T.C.H.
== Film ==
* ''[[The Host (2006 film)
* [[The Other Guys]] with the "[http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=4YqoI84-9vA Aim For The Bushes]" scene.
* ''[[Back to The Future]]'' series:
** ''Back To The Future'' has Marty McFly embark on a simple quest: Go back in time, turn around, come right back. What happens is: Go back in time, get stuck there, meet your Mom and have her fall in creepy Oedipal love with you, jeopardize the time-space continuum by creating a temporal-paradox, and figure it all out before the end of the movie.
** In the sequel, Marty is about to escape with the Grey's Sports Almanac, when he encounters young Biff, itching for a fight. As soon as he gets called out on being a "chicken", and is about to fight Biff, his past self hits him with the door on the way out. Really, any time Marty falls for being called "chicken", expect him to fail. Hard.
::In other words, he got beat by himself in a situation where he really should have been able to predict what he was going to do. Or at least get into trouble that he could've easily avoided if he kept on walking. There's also the number of times a Tannen ends up face first in a pile of manure after an already humiliating defeat.▼
* ''[[Batman Returns]]'': The Penguin is confronting Batman outside the "Arctic World" zoo exhibit where he and his gang have been holed up. Penguin gloats that he has in his flipper a sword-umbrella, while Batman is unarmed except for some worthless-looking handheld console with a red button on it. As Penguin is waiting for Batman to make his move, he suddenly realizes that the "useless" console is blinking
▲In other words, he got beat by himself in a situation where he really should have been able to predict what he was going to do. Or at least get into trouble that he could've easily avoided if he kept on walking. There's also the number of times a Tannen ends up face first in a pile of manure after an already humiliating defeat.
▲* ''[[Batman Returns]]'': The Penguin is confronting Batman outside the "Arctic World" zoo exhibit where he and his gang have been holed up. Penguin gloats that he has in his flipper a sword-umbrella, while Batman is unarmed except for some worthless-looking handheld console with a red button on it. As Penguin is waiting for Batman to make his move, he suddenly realizes that the "useless" console is blinking in and out and beeping. He then sees Batman's eyes shift off to the middle distance, prompting him to turn around - and sees his entire army of rocket-launching pet penguins that he had earlier sent out to blow up Gotham Plaza, now returned to the zoo and standing by, as the electronic signals being programmed into their headsets have been jammed. Penguin, knowing that his birds must be in terrible pain as their brains are bombarded by all the static, has a particularly undignified [[Villainous Breakdown]] and attacks Batman in a rage, causing our hero to drop the console. Penguin breaks off the attack and gleefully scoops up the console, then points it at Batman and hits the button, thinking he must be holding a weapon of some kind...only the device isn't a weapon, but a transmitter sending an electronic cue to the penguins to stop keeping their missiles on standby. Just like that, what have to be at least 100 penguins ''fire the rockets at Arctic World simultaneously'', reducing the entire ancient exhibit to smoking rubble, killing any criminals who happen to still be in the area {{spoiler|(including Penguin himself)}}, shorting out Penguin's climate-control system, and blowing out a fuse box and exposing its wires, thus {{spoiler|providing Catwoman with a means of both electrocuting Max Shreck and causing a massive power failure that temporarily plunges all of Gotham City into complete darkness}}.
* And in ''[[Batman Forever]]'', the sequel to the above film, Two-Face tries to shoot Batman but succeeds only in killing one of his own henchman - ''[[Stealth Pun|twice]]''.
* ''[[The Gods Must Be Crazy]]'' is pretty much a collection of epic fails every ten minutes of the movie. Ay ay ay ay ay.
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* ''[[Mulholland Drive]]'' has a scene where a hired killer kills his victim and then tries to fake suicide by putting his gun into the victim's hand. While trying to do so, he accidentally pulls the trigger and the bullet goes through the (fairly thin) wall into the neigbouring flat, hitting a fat, ugly woman. He then goes into said flat and attacks the woman, which turns out to be stronger than he expected. He eventually overpowers her and tries to drag her into the flat where he killed the first guy in order to fake a suicide-with-murder scenario. While passing the floor, he is observed by a detergence who apparently doesn't speak English, but slowly follows him into the flat. Back there, the killer first kills the woman, then the detergence enters the room with his vacuum cleaner. He also shoots the detergence, but by accident, the vacuum cleaner is turned back on again. He then pulls the detergence into the room. Finally, he tries to turn off the vacuum cleaner...by shooting at it. The vacuum cleaner catches fire, which sets off the fire alarm.
* In ''[[Snatch]]''... pretty much ''anything'' [[Stupid Crooks|Sol and Vinnie]] put their minds to. In their defining moment, they were hired to take a briefcase from a man who had been sent to place a bet at a bookies. They get the cash from the bookies, their employer gets the case. Unfortunately, their escape driver [[Drives Like Crazy]] and backed into the van their victim had used to get to the scene, knocking him out and trapping him inside it. Later that night they see someone carrying a case go inside, and without attempting to verify the target, they enter the bookies, only to find that it's (obviously) the wrong person, and furthermore that the bookies has no cash because all bets are off. Then the cashier lady turns out to be a [[Badass Bystander]] who deftly disarms Sol of his shotgun and trips the alarm. Then they attempt (and fail) to open the front door. Reasoning that it's a security door that locked when the alarm was pushed, they try to [[Shoot Out the Lock]]. The door turns out to be bulletproof, and Vince gets his leg grazed by the ricochet. They fall down in exhaustion and take off their ski masks, at which point they notice the security camera that's just caught them both unmasked. And ''then'', to top it off, the getaway driver shows up to get them... it turns out the reason they couldn't open the front door is because [[Door Dumb|they tried to push the 'pull' side of the door]]. The pincher is that the pair are completely unknown in that part of the underworld, and the camera fails to be of any use because the owner doesn't recognize them... but the getaway driver is recognized. Epic Fail indeed.
* One of the last two survivors of the Norwegian base in ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'' ends up killing the other one and destroying their helicopter by accidentally tossing an incendiary grenade ''backward''
* Pretty much every single plan Jason conceives in ''[[Mystery Team]]''. Most notable is when a speech on how a certain character won't {{spoiler|shoot them}} gets him {{spoiler|shot}}
* In the
** Made slightly more epic by the fact that the grappling hook launcher was part of a Swiss Army Knife. You know, the thing ''with a blade on it! For cutting!''
== Literature ==▼
* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[The Caves of Steel]]'', Elijah Baley is investigating a murder and has a robot partner that appears physically identical to the murder victim. He goes to the people who reported the murder, announces his theory that the robot is, in fact, the murder victim, and gives an extended justification. The entire "murder" was a scheme, it was the ''robot'' that had been destroyed to produce the "body," and here are the point-by-point reasons why all the supposedly "robotic" actions of his partner actually match perfectly with a human impersonating a robot. All the while, his boss is watching via a teleconference. After the completion of the detailed and rational accusation, said alleged non-robot opens up his sleeve and then calmly ''opens his arm as well.'' Elijah faints.▼
** Although at the end, Elijah hints that this is [[Obfuscating Stupidity]].▼
* There is an article on ''[[Cracked]]'' that lists sex self-help books...one of them being what to do if stuff goes wrong. Included? What to do if there are burns, the house is on fire, the authorities are knocking on your door...▼
* The book ''F in Exams: The Funniest Test Paper Blunders'' showcases hilarious examples of exam answer fails. [http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/11/19/failed-exam-answers/ Take a look at an excerpt.] (Site [[NSFW]] due to an odd amount of [[Hentai]] galleries which are completely unrelated. )▼
** Likewise, [http://www.amazon.com/Non-Campus-Mentis-Anders-Henriksson/dp/0761129790/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276389006&sr=8-1 Non Campus Mentis], a collection of horrible errors taken from college exams and papers.▼
* There is a cookery book (called, logically, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=4YZiAAAACAAJ The Something Went Wrong What Do I Do Now Cookery Book]'') dedicated to correcting various kitchen emergencies. Naturally, it includes a chapter called "Total Failure". One piece of advice therein—if you've tried everything else, if you haven't got enough ingredients for an emergency meal and you have no other recourse, at least make it a ''memorable'' failure, one that will be recounted with awe through the generations.▼
** "If you've burned the house down, Mission Accomplished."▼
* In [[David Eddings]]' ''[[The Belgariad]]'' the character Lelldorin manages to extend an epic fail over the course of several weeks. When he announces that he's going to get back to the main group, his beloved refuses to stay behind. During the departure and trip he manages to break her father's leg, run his cousin through the leg "just a little bit", punch out all of a priest's teeth, and cause enough assorted mayhem to get a bounty put on his head by the crown. And all of this was ''without trying''. This is also an example of [[Disaster Dominoes]].▼
** He did successfully marry the girl in the process, though! (Only because traveling alone with her would cause more trouble.)▼
** In ''[[The Belgariad|The Mallorean]]'', Garion [[Got Volunteered|has to]] stop a [[Chivalric Romance|war]] threatening to [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|engulf]] the entire kingdom of Arendia. He magically summons a [[Dramatic Thunder|storm]] that helps him [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|single-handedly]] stop two charging armies in their tracks, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|force]] an [[Knight in Shining Armour|old friend]] to [[Arranged Marriage|marry]] the [[Courtly Love|love]] [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|of his life]] and resolve the dispute. He’s very [[Tempting Fate|pleased]] with his hard day’s work. A few chapters later he [[Gone Horribly Right|finds out]] that he sparked off blizzards, hurricanes, droughts and tornados right around the world, and even triggered a new ice age. It took the combined efforts of the Gods themselves and two of the most powerful sorcerers alive over six months to fix it. Needless to say, Garion is [[You Are Not Ready|banned]] from touching the weather again for two thousand years.▼
* [[David Weber]]'s ''[[Safehold]]'' series features a triumphant example of this. The first book, ''Off Armageddon Reef,'' featured the [[Corrupt Church|Church of God Awaiting]] attacking the protagonist kingdom of Charis by creating an alliance of every single other naval power in the world. Unfortunately for them, thanks to Charis' own strong naval tradition coupled with Merlin Athrawes [[Giving Radio to the Romans|giving the galleon (among other things) to the Charisians]], what actually happens is [[Curb Stomp Battle|Fail so Epic]] it takes the Church two and a half books (a good two or three years in-story) to finally recover enough to make ''any'' kind of counterattack. {{spoiler|''That'' fails hard, too. Though not without a more sizeable cost from Charis' forces.}}▼
** compounding their failure was the fact that most of the people planning the attack were accustomed to land battles and didn't take into account the realities of the weather, the limitations of the vessels they were using, etc.▼
* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' books, anything created by "Bloody Stupid" Johnson is likely to fall into this [[Giftedly Bad|to such a degree]] it crosses over into [[Achievements in Ignorance]]. Anyone can create a garden fountain that doesn't work. It took Johnson to create one that creaked for half an hour then shot a stone cherub a hundred feet into the air. Or crazy paving that committed suicide. A badly designed apartment block is easy. But only Johnson could draw plans so bad the resulting building warps space-time.▼
** In all fairness, his inventions usually work quite well, just at something entirely unrelated. Such as mechanical nail clippers which make a very handy automatic potato peeler.▼
* The short story ''Wolfie'' by Theodore Cogswell is supernatural thriller meets caper gone wrong. A man in New York City goes to a sorcerer for help in murdering his rich cousin. His idea is to take the form of a wolf and rip his cousin's throat out. {{spoiler|There is a slip-up at the veterinary hospital he has tricked a wolf blood sample out of; they give him a sample from an old, toothless, mangy poodle named Wolfie by mistake. To make failure even more certain, as a precaution to protect the witch doctor from [[You Have Failed Me...]] at the hands of his familiar should our [[Villain Protagonist]] get cold feet or a [[Heel Realization]], he [the would-be murderer] cannot change back until he has tasted his cousin's arterial blood. In the end, he is put down by the Animal Rescue League.}}▼
== Live Action TV ==
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* ''[[Married... with Children|Married With Children]]'': This trope, in two words, more or less sums up most of the life of [[Jaded Washout|Al Bundy]].
** Particularly glorious examples of Epic Failures are chronicled in the episodes ''976-SHOE'' and ''God's Shoes''.
** In one episode, jealous Kelly plans to get rid of a French exchange student by letting her cheat off her. The poor girl fails every single subject, ''including French''.
** Then there was the episode in which a buff fitness guru tries to get the slovenly Bundys to lead healthful lives. Not only do the Bundys remain lazy, but they turn the instructor ''himself'' into a fat couch potato!
** Terry Rakolta led a boycott against the show. Some sponsors did cancel their commercials, but the fuss she raised also raised the show's ratings.
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{{quote|'''Jamie:''' Well, let's reset.
'''Adam:''' I think someone owes me 10,000 bucks. }}
** The crew had their own epic fail when they tried to shoot some barrels of water with a cannon in an incident from 2011. They did this at a bomb range, so it's hard to believe they'd mess up too badly, but, well...not only did they completely miss the barrels, the cannonball bounced all the way out of the bomb range and into a residential area, where it smashed its way through a house, damaged the roof of a different house, and ended its rampage by smashing into a minivan. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/06/BA1D1M99V5.DTL Seriously.] They're just lucky the rogue ball was content with property damage, and didn't try for bodily damage.
* In-universe example, but just fortuitous in [[Real Life]]: Michael Richards was once reminiscing about how, on the set of ''[[Seinfeld]]'', he performed an impromptu pratfall while walking through Jerry's door as part of his "Kramer" character. As Richards's feet flew out from under him, one of them went completely over his head, curled around the doorknob, and ''closed the door all by itself''. Richards regretted that he would never be able to do ''that'' again.
* The second season of ''[[Wipeout 2008|Wipeout]]'' had a contestant declare her love for one of the hosts, then run the qualifier. She slipped on the first corner, fell, and yelled "I'm done!"
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** Such as week 10 in series 11, where both teams received zero orders for their 'healthy snacks'. This meant both team leaders had to bring one member of their team with them back into the boardroom.
** As well as week 2 in series 12, where both advertising campaigns were terrible and both teams were told they failed the task. Again, both team had to bring people into the boardroom, and the prize was cancelled.
▲== Literature ==
▲* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[The Caves of Steel]]'', Elijah Baley is investigating a murder and has a robot partner that appears physically identical to the murder victim. He goes to the people who reported the murder, announces his theory that the robot is, in fact, the murder victim, and gives an extended justification. The entire "murder" was a scheme, it was the ''robot'' that had been destroyed to produce the "body," and here are the point-by-point reasons why all the supposedly "robotic" actions of his partner actually match perfectly with a human impersonating a robot. All the while, his boss is watching via a teleconference. After the completion of the detailed and rational accusation, said alleged non-robot opens up his sleeve and then calmly ''opens his arm as well.'' Elijah faints.
▲** Although at the end, Elijah hints that this is [[Obfuscating Stupidity]].
▲* There is an article on ''[[Cracked]]'' that lists sex self-help books...one of them being what to do if stuff goes wrong. Included? What to do if there are burns, the house is on fire, the authorities are knocking on your door...
▲* The book ''F in Exams: The Funniest Test Paper Blunders'' showcases hilarious examples of exam answer fails. [http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/11/19/failed-exam-answers/ Take a look at an excerpt.] (Site [[NSFW]] due to an odd amount of [[Hentai]] galleries which are completely unrelated. )
▲** Likewise, [http://www.amazon.com/Non-Campus-Mentis-Anders-Henriksson/dp/0761129790/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276389006&sr=8-1 Non Campus Mentis], a collection of horrible errors taken from college exams and papers.
▲* There is a cookery book (called, logically, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=4YZiAAAACAAJ The Something Went Wrong What Do I Do Now Cookery Book]'') dedicated to correcting various kitchen emergencies. Naturally, it includes a chapter called "Total Failure". One piece of advice therein—if you've tried everything else, if you haven't got enough ingredients for an emergency meal and you have no other recourse, at least make it a ''memorable'' failure, one that will be recounted with awe through the generations.
▲** "If you've burned the house down, Mission Accomplished."
▲* In [[David Eddings]]' ''[[The Belgariad]]'' the character Lelldorin manages to extend an epic fail over the course of several weeks. When he announces that he's going to get back to the main group, his beloved refuses to stay behind. During the departure and trip he manages to break her father's leg, run his cousin through the leg "just a little bit", punch out all of a priest's teeth, and cause enough assorted mayhem to get a bounty put on his head by the crown. And all of this was ''without trying''. This is also an example of [[Disaster Dominoes]].
▲** He did successfully marry the girl in the process, though! (Only because traveling alone with her would cause more trouble.)
▲** In ''[[The Belgariad|The Mallorean]]'', Garion [[Got Volunteered|has to]] stop a [[Chivalric Romance|war]] threatening to [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|engulf]] the entire kingdom of Arendia. He magically summons a [[Dramatic Thunder|storm]] that helps him [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|single-handedly]] stop two charging armies in their tracks, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|force]] an [[Knight in Shining Armour|old friend]] to [[Arranged Marriage|marry]] the [[Courtly Love|love]] [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|of his life]] and resolve the dispute. He’s very [[Tempting Fate|pleased]] with his hard day’s work. A few chapters later he [[Gone Horribly Right|finds out]] that he sparked off blizzards, hurricanes, droughts and tornados right around the world, and even triggered a new ice age. It took the combined efforts of the Gods themselves and two of the most powerful sorcerers alive over six months to fix it. Needless to say, Garion is [[You Are Not Ready|banned]] from touching the weather again for two thousand years.
▲* [[David Weber]]'s ''[[Safehold]]'' series features a triumphant example of this. The first book, ''Off Armageddon Reef,'' featured the [[Corrupt Church|Church of God Awaiting]] attacking the protagonist kingdom of Charis by creating an alliance of every single other naval power in the world. Unfortunately for them, thanks to Charis' own strong naval tradition coupled with Merlin Athrawes [[Giving Radio to the Romans|giving the galleon (among other things) to the Charisians]], what actually happens is [[Curb Stomp Battle|Fail so Epic]] it takes the Church two and a half books (a good two or three years in-story) to finally recover enough to make ''any'' kind of counterattack. {{spoiler|''That'' fails hard, too. Though not without a more sizeable cost from Charis' forces.}}
▲** compounding their failure was the fact that most of the people planning the attack were accustomed to land battles and didn't take into account the realities of the weather, the limitations of the vessels they were using, etc.
▲* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' books, anything created by "Bloody Stupid" Johnson is likely to fall into this [[Giftedly Bad|to such a degree]] it crosses over into [[Achievements in Ignorance]]. Anyone can create a garden fountain that doesn't work. It took Johnson to create one that creaked for half an hour then shot a stone cherub a hundred feet into the air. Or crazy paving that committed suicide. A badly designed apartment block is easy. But only Johnson could draw plans so bad the resulting building warps space-time.
▲** In all fairness, his inventions usually work quite well, just at something entirely unrelated. Such as mechanical nail clippers which make a very handy automatic potato peeler.
▲* The short story ''Wolfie'' by Theodore Cogswell is supernatural thriller meets caper gone wrong. A man in New York City goes to a sorcerer for help in murdering his rich cousin. His idea is to take the form of a wolf and rip his cousin's throat out. {{spoiler|There is a slip-up at the veterinary hospital he has tricked a wolf blood sample out of; they give him a sample from an old, toothless, mangy poodle named Wolfie by mistake. To make failure even more certain, as a precaution to protect the witch doctor from [[You Have Failed Me...]] at the hands of his familiar should our [[Villain Protagonist]] get cold feet or a [[Heel Realization]], he [the would-be murderer] cannot change back until he has tasted his cousin's arterial blood. In the end, he is put down by the Animal Rescue League.}}
== Newspaper Comics ==
* ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'': Cookie manages to make soup that is too tough to cut with a knife... and steak that is too tough to cut with a machine gun and grenades. He also manages to fail to ''not'' [[Kitchen Sink Included|include the kitchen sink]]—in food. No wonder he [[Beyond the Impossible|graduated 50th out of a class of twenty-five]].
== Tabletop Games ==
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* ''[[RuneQuest]]'' has a melee fumbles table, apparently based on the experience of reenactment groups. A surprisingly high number of rookie combats end when one of the duelists chops their own head off.
* Most [[Chess]] players have been [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb-stomped]] at least once. Some have even lost [[wikipedia:Scholar's mate|in four moves]] at least once. It takes a major dose of the [[Idiot Ball]], however, to ''[[wikipedia:Fool's mate|lose in two]]''.
== Pro Wrestling ==
* Anytime a [[Heel]] character is trounced in a way that instantly enters the record books. One instance that was truly for the ages occurred at the 2009 Royal Rumble Match to Santino Marella. He entered the contest, climbed over the ropes - and was ''instantaneously'' knocked back over the ropes by [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]], resulting in the shortest ever Royal Rumble time of one measly second. Predictably, Marella suffered a [[Villainous Breakdown]] as a result and screamed "I WASN'T READY!"
== Video Games ==
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* In the ''[[Total War]]'' games, when an assassin, spy, gentleman, or ninja fails in a mission, the video of their attempt shows them attempting and then failing in some hilarious fashion. Sometimes its an amusing or unfortunate error, like stabbing the shadow of a kneeling samurai but just hitting his armor stand, or getting caught trying to set a house on fire. Other times, the failure will be something hilariously epic. For example, a ninja making a running leap at a target's back to kick him over a railing, only to miss and fall to his death. Or a gentleman engaging in a duel, but his weapon misfires, and while investigating the faulty pistol he ends up shooting himself in the face. Or an assassin waiting behind a door to stab a target, only to end up stabbing himself when the target slams the door into his face.
* In ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', the Joker is severely wounded from losing the boss fight of ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]''. So he and Harley Quinn escape custody to avoid a transfer to the new prison, but in the ensuing chase they wind up breaking '''in''' to Arkham City by accident.
* ''[[Brain Dead 13]]'' has this in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0LPEbjisWI&t=3m52s Vivi's Salon.] During the scene in which Fritz escapes from the spiked coffin, he puts on a spiked arm with a switch, but just as Fritz was charging at Lance, he '''trips over a skull.'''
* The Easy AI in ''[[Mario Party]] 2'' is so stupid that players can win by doing [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6PxRwgjzZw absolutely nothing].
* ''[[Star Wars]] Battlefront'': the game tracks Nemesis, for who killed you the most, and Bait, for who you killed the most. Also, there is no [[Friendly Fireproof]] here, meaning that you can occasionally kill yourself with a bad grenade toss. The awesome failure comes when a unit is listed as ''its own'' Nemesis ''and'' Bait. Meaning he committed grenade-related [[Artificial Stupidity|suicide]] more often than he killed ''anyone else''.
== Webcomics ==
* In ''[[8-
{{quote|'''Thief:''' Not that I'm complaining about it, but...''{{color|red| HOW DO YOU '''MISS''' A VOLCANO?!}}''}}
** Earlier, when they were captured, BM tried to kill his allies, it was in a small corridor, easy to hit, reflecting walls. What happens, he hit something, himself. It was the same attack as the volcano.
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** In one comic, Leo (Who is Altair from Assassin's Creed) tries to pick his nose, only to stab himself in the face with the hidden blade.
* Kharisma of ''[[Something*Positive]]'' tries to take a geek trivia test. Davan grades it: "Just so you know, [[The Last Unicorn]] was not, in fact, [[Star Wars|Luke's father]]."
== Web Original ==
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{{quote|Congratulations guys, your enemy AI is less effective than the [[Precision F-Strike|fucking]] UFO in ''[[Asteroids]]''.}}
** In [http://spoonyexperiment.com/2011/11/03/counter-monkey-botchamania/ this] video, Spoony describes a ''[[Spycraft]]'' game he ran where the players were trying to get onto a bullet train from a helicopter. By the end, one member of the team was dead and they utterly failed their mission because they kept rolling 1s, Spoony kept giving them the chance to recover, and they'd roll 1s for that too.
== Western Animation ==
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* When [[SpongeBob SquarePants]] has to temporarily give up his job as fry cook for reasons irrelevant, Squidward takes over temporarily, and epic fail ensues. The customers cry out "He burnt my krabby patty," "He burnt my fries!" and finally: "He burnt my shake!"
** In another instance he took over for Spongebob, it resulted in this exchange:
{{quote|
'''Customer 2:''' My sandwich ''is'' a fried boot! }}
** Spongebob taking his routine driving test... [[Failure Is the Only Option|you can see where we're going with this]].
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* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' has so many examples. Special mention has to go to Finn attempting to ask Princess Bubblegum out to movie night in "Go With Me."
** Lemongrab, as a person, is a failure of epic proportions. He is the result of a failed science experiment. Princess Bubblegum created him as the heir to the Candy Kingdom Throne. Well... he came out wrong; horribly wrong. Even the benevolent Princess Bubblegum, who is his mother and loves all of her subjects unconditionally, is blatantly ashamed of him. He rides to the Candy Kingdom, screams at everyone, and sends literally EVERYODY to the dungeon for one million years. And yet, Princess Bubblegum's lemony-fresh failure is well-loved by a considerable portion of the Adventure Time fanbase for his extreme powers in epic failing- which include failing at being alive, failing at socializing, failing at understanding the concept of humor, and failing, in an epically miserable fashion, the act of ruling a kingdom.
* ''[[My Little Pony:
** It only happens in her imagination, but in the episode "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E03 The Ticket Master|The Ticket Master]]", Pinkie Pie imagines playing "Pin the Tail on the Pony" at the Grand Galloping Gala, with the result that she somehow pins her own tail on the pony drawing and the paper tail in its place on herself.
** In "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E17 Stare Master|Stare Master]]", Sweetie Belle tries to help her sister Rarity by retrieving a single tiny spool of ribbon and [[Disaster Dominoes|subsequently trashes the entire fashion boutique]].
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* Devin Setoguchi [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM2EXx6Ntd0 trying to manage a score] to tie up the game.
* The LSU Tigers manage an undefeated season in 2011, ranked #1 going into the BCS Championship, and then get shut out, 21-0 by #2 Alabama.
* ''[[The Economist]]''
* The 2011 Red Sox had a nine-game lead in the American League Wild Card entering September. [http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/09/29/red-sox-complete-historic-collapse-rays-win-al-wild-card/?src=fb This sums up that month, enjoy the Patriots.]
* [http://imgur.com/GN1C0 Robert Liston once performed a surgery with a mortality rate of 300%.]<ref>He cut off the leg of his patient in record time, but his final cut was so enthusiastic that it also sliced two fingers off his assistant's hand and cut through a spectator's coat, which was splattered with blood (not from the spectator's body). The patient died due to gangrene, his assistant died for the same reason, and the spectator was so terrified that the knife had cut into his vitals that he died from fright. Chapeau!</ref><ref>The reason he had to go quickly is because anesthesia did not exist at the time, so the patient was not only conscious, but could feel everything. The quicker the surgery, the better for the patient's survival.</ref>
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* [http://www.cracked.com/article_19637_the-5-craziest-war-stories-all-happened-same-ship.html The USS William D. Porter], a WWII destroyer, was apparently the center of a screwball comedy. Its failures include destroying a sister ship's deck while pulling out of port, blowing up a base commander's front yard, shooting up another sister ship in battle, nearly assassinating the president...by accident...''twice'', and was finally brought down by a kamikaze plane after it had already crashed into the ocean. Plus, it performed three of those feats ''in a single mission''. In fact, they were so incompetent that the Navy at first thought that the crew was part of an organized plot to assassinate the President and arrested the entire crew, a first in the entire history of the US Navy.
* Part of the reason for [[Cleveland Rocks|Cleveland]]'s reputation as a [[Place Worse Than Death]] is because, at one point, the water pollution was so terrible that the nearby Cuyahoga River caught on fire...''several'' times!
*
* The B-36 bomber had a pin that would prevent accidental release of the bombs, which would have to be released before takeoff and landing to allow an emergency cargo jettison. This pin was placed over the bombs, requiring one of the crewmen to awkwardly stretch over the warheads to release the pin. On May 22, 1957, while removing the pin during a landing approach at New Mexico's Kirtland Airforce Base, the navigator accidentally snagged the released cord, dropping a 10 megaton H-bomb straight through the bomb bay doors. The explosive charge surrounding the atomic payload exploded on impact, but fortunately it wasn't properly armed, preventing the warhead from going critical. Had it gone off, Albuquerque would have been wiped out due to poor design
* The 2003 Davis Cup. During the inagural ceremony the national anthems of the different teams are played. When it's the turn of Spain instead of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhyRmjDhOOY the current one], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yQemeBpzE this other] is played (if you're curious, the [[wikipedia:Himno de Riego|Himno de Riego]] was Spain's national anthem... seventy years before that event)
* In November 1970, an eight-ton sperm whale beached itself on a beach near Florence, Oregon. Authority over it fell to the Oregon Highway Division, and they were at a loss as to what to do with it. After a consultation with the U.S Navy, the OHD figured that burying it would be infeasable. So instead, they decided to [[Stuff Blowing Up|blow it up with dynamite]]. Specifically, a ''half-ton'' of dynamite. This was largely because nobody really knew how much would be needed, and figured that it would be enough to vaporize the corpse. To document the occasion, a news crew from Portland arrived with cameras and reporter in tow. What happened next was right out of a ''[[Tremors]]'' film. The whale exploded, but did not disintegrate as hoped. [[Ludicrous Gibs|Instead, it was blown into rotting chunks of blubber]]. The resulting rain of dead whale splattered an un-prepared audience and one rather sizable chunk flattened an Oldsmobile (ironically, owned by a veteran with explosives training, who just bought the car as a promotion to the event that flattened it). While it was intended to clean up the whale, the blast instead ''spread'' the whale around the beach, left a huge crater in said beach, attracted what seemed like every seagull in the Pacific Northwest and caused thousands of dollars in property damage. The [[wikipedia:Exploding whale|Exploding Whale]] almost faded into obscurity...until a newspaper article in 1990 re-discovered it. Now, it can be [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtVSzU20ZGk seen on YouTube] for all to laugh at.
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