Be Careful What You Wish For: Difference between revisions

* In [[Hans Christian Andersen]]'s ''The Galoshes of Fortune'', the titular shoes grant the wishes of whoever is wearing them. This usually ends badly, as the characters are unaware of their power. For example, the Councilor of Justice held the view that in the time of King Hans, around 1500, everything was better; when the galoshes transport him to that age, he finds out that it was actually much worse.

* The [[Edgar Allan Poe]] story ''Never Bet the Devil Your Head'' is an odd case of this. A man tells a story of a friend who says he'd "bet the devil his head" that he could perform a particular trick; out of nowhere, [[Louis Cypher|a mystery man]] shows up eager to take him up on his bet, and sure enough, he manages to decapitate himself and the man runs off with his prize.

* Both subverted and not in the short story [http://books.google.com/books?id=H7BNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA938 "The Wish Ring"]. A farmer is kind to an old woman, and gets a wish ring in return. He shows it to a jeweler to see how much it's worth, and the jeweler steals it from him and replaces it with an identical copy. The jeweler then wishes for a million gold pieces, which promptly begin raining from the sky and crush him to death. In the meantime, the farmer goes home still thinking he has the real ring. Every time his wife suggests something they could wish for, he says no, they can work for that and earn it instead. Eventually they become happy and rich because of their hard work, and die with the wish still unasked.

* In ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', the titular character makes a [[Deal with the Devil]] to stay young and good looking forever; instead, a life sized portrait of him will age in his place. While he enjoys his life of consequence-free debauchery at first, eventually the picture begins to serve as his conscience, reminding him of things to prefer to forget. Comes complete with a heavy dose of symbolism, as after he commits murder blood appears on his portrait's hands. Eventually, trying to eliminate the portrait and the evidence of his sins causes his own death.

{{quote|'''Roadkill:''' Wish ''One'': I want all my wishes loopholed out of any negative or ironic consequences. Wish ''Two'': Apply wish number one to itself ex post facto. Wish ''Three'': Make me the effin' master of the Universe '''NOW'''.}}

* Pretty much any plot in ''[[The Wotch]]'' involving Djinn will feature at least one of these types of wishes. It is explained that some Djinn do it out of spite for the human race, others do it because they've been summoned through a curse bottle that ''mandates'' their wishes backfire.

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20080430095721/http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2140 Slick tells God that the world is boring.]

* ''[[Spiderwebs]]'' is a rare webcomic built around "Be careful what you wish for" that doesn't involve a [[Literal Genie]]: Selena was perfectly willing to explain [[Gender Bender|the consequences of Luke's wish]] to him but Luke was too impatient to listen.

 

== Real Life ==

* In a rough flowchart of the endings for ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', [[BioWare]] writer supposedly noted that he wanted the endings to cause [[Memetic Mutation|LOTS OF SPECULATION FROM EVERYONE]]. He/They got his/their wish; ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'s'' ending is quickly becoming as infamous for being infuriatingly confusing and nonsensical as that of ''[[Lost]]'' and that of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', the [[Trope Codifier]] for [[Gainax Ending]]s.

* In 2001, the city of Buffalo, NY had no snow in November and most of December, and it was possible that the city would have no snow on Christmas. So on Christmas Eve, everyone in Buffalo wished for a white Christmas. The next day, they awoke to the beginning of a 5-day blizzard that killed 4 people and dropped ''seven feet of snow'' onto the city. Whoops.