Literal Genie: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Schmuck:''' Oh, you're one of '''[[Jackass Genie|Those]]''' [[Jackass Genie|Genies]].

'''Genie:''' For future reference, you now have one kidney. }}

* ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'', in [http://yafgc.net/comic/0388-charlottes-hand/ this episode] and the following strips. Note that this particular genie isn't overly literal out of any malevolence, but because [[The Ditz|he's dumber than a doorpost]]. Case in point, though he offers three wishes, he just can't count, even up to three, and ends up basically giving unlimited wishes (as long as they are worded carefully).

* ''[[The Princess Planet]]'' in [http://www.theprincessplanet.com/2005/03/14/genie-1/ this] arc. In [http://www.theprincessplanet.com/2010/04/04/shadows-of-dooooom-part-5/ this strip] she leans more into [[Jackass Genie]] territory.

** In chapter 345 of the first year, one of Mack's professors gives the class a project that essentially amounts to wording a wish so that it can't be screwed with by a Literal Genie and then having them trade to twist the [[Exact Words]] of their victim.

* The short story [http://www.madore.org/~david/lit/god.html Garbage-Collecting the Metaverse] by David Madore has a god that interprets a wish a bit differently than intended.

* In the 2nd Edition of Advanced ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', casting a ''wish'' spell ages your character 5 years, and requires the caster to spend 2–8 days in bed recuperating. So, [http://www.rogermwilcox.com/ADnD/Munchkin.html this handy-dandy guide] to being a 2nd Edition ''AD&D'' Munchkin recommends you phrase your wish as: "I wish Asmodeus were dead and I got all the experience points from killing him and all his treasure, ''and'' that I were de-aged 5 years and didn't need 2d4 days of bed rest."

* The Word Worlds in ''[[Protectors of the Plot Continuum]]'' can be quite [[Literal-Minded]], especially when confronted with [[Rouge Angles of Satin|bad spelling]] or [[Purple Prose|overly-flowery descriptions]]. Consequently, any misspelling of a character's name creates a mini-monster to fill in their role in the sentence and [[Pronoun Trouble]] in especially bad slash fics can result in [[Squick|both parties doing every described action to each other simultaneously]]. And these are just the more prosaic typos; for example, one Sue managed to turn herself into a bottle of paint thinner, another created a Prefect Badger and a guy called "Ed of Dream Sequence," and a series of typos in "[[Twila the Girl Who Waz In Luv With A Vampyre]]" caused the appearance of a group of hip-hop dancers who then turned into copies of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

== Real Life ==

* Computer programmers or linguistic geeks with an especially dry sense of humor often respond very literally, although they know perfectly well what you mean. (Especially if the word "or" is involved: "Would you like coffee or tea?" "[[Mathematician's Answer|Yes]]."<ref>A savvier server would have used the exclusive or.</ref><ref>Although the answer could still have been "yes".</ref>)

* Software engineers will often play the part of a literal genie to their customers. Sometimes maliciously if they don't like them, but most of the time because no matter how stupid the requirement sounds it might just be what they really wanted after all and they ''did'' sign off on it.

** Requirements definition (a System Engineering task) is ten times worse. You ''really'' have to pick your words carefully, because one mistake can mean millions of dollars wasted in doing something the "wrong" way.

* [[John Kricfalusi]], creator of ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'', was asked by fans to make an episode of the then-newly launched series ''Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon'' full of nothing but gross-out jokes. It resulted in the episode "Onwards and Upwards"—however, many viewers considered it to have gone way overboard.

* [[Wikipedia|The Other Wiki]] defines this trope as [[wikipedia:Malicious compliance|malicious compliance]].

* After many demands (mostly by non-Georgians) that Georgia change their state flag to remove the "Confederate flag" (really the confederate battle flag) and an extremely ugly replacement forced on them, Georgia eventually dropped it... and changed to the ''actual'' Confederate flag with the Georgia seal added to it.