Walking Techbane: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
▲[[File:PATechbane2_7802.jpg|link=Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|right]]
{{quote|''"I hate computers! Why do they always blow up when I use them?"''|''[[
[[Mr. Fixit|Some people]] are just naturally good with technology, while others [[Hopeless
For added irony, sometimes the Walking Techbane ''wants'' to be good with technology, but is prevented from doing so by the apparent plague of gremlins that follows them whenever they try to work anything with moving parts. In this case, they may overlap with [[Bungling Inventor]].
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* Shin Seijuro from ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' has a tendency to break any piece of technology handed to him within a minute, at the most. It started with him breaking a video camera by accident, which was followed up by him trying to open a GPS like a normal map. He apparently breaks the ticket machine every time he takes the train to school, and he can't even buy a can of soft drink from a vending machine without disabling it. Considering the guy is able to perform vertical push-ups ''on his index fingers'', one can make a [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|plausible guess]] about the reason. The most technologically advanced piece of equipment he is shown using in the series is a stopwatch.
** In the supplemental material within the manga, there is a girl who look like him and has a crush on him, that in order to be as much like him as possible, she breaks three computers a month on purpose.
* Mr. Yashiro (Ren's manager) from ''[[Skip Beat
* Nina Mercury from ''[[Lost Universe]]'' is ''infamous'' for breaking or ruining ''anything'' electronic she touches.
* Mihoko from ''[[Saki (
* Rin Tohsaka from ''[[Fate/stay
* For [[Code E|Chinami Ebihara]], involuntarly frying electronics [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|twenty minutes in future]] must really suck.
== Comic Book ==
* [[Hellboy (
* Black Canary despises computers, and the feeling is mutual. In the first issue splash panel of ''[[Birds of Prey]]'' she is seen looking terrified and screaming "No! NO! Take it away! It's too horrible". Turn the page to learn that Oracle has just bought her a computer.
* Kitty Pryde of the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] has this as a side effect of her intangibility powers: Phasing through any sort of electronic device will cause it to instantly short circuit. (Unusually for this trope, she is a skilled programmer as long as she stays tangible.)
* [[Superman|Clark Kent]] has to write his news articles on a typewriter because his powers sometimes cause computers to malfunction.
== Film ==
* In the ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' film, characters joke that paleontologist Alan Grant is a
* ''[[The Philadelphia Experiment]]'' has this occur to a character as a result of getting shocked by a high power generator involved in a [[Time Travel]] accident. As he walks around, he shorts out nearby electronics and attracts thunderstorms to himself.
== Literature ==
* Newton Pulsifer from ''[[
{{quote|
* Harry Dresden of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' shorts out any advanced technology (almost anything past the '50s) because he's a wizard. (Magic makes microscopic improbabilities more probable - and electronics are particularly vulnerable to small current surges.) This occurs to all wizards, but he interacts with [[Muggles]] more often. This forces him to drive an old-school VW Bug and use an old-style stove and icebox in his home.
** It also proves problematic in his more mundane [[Private Detective]] activities because he has to be extremely careful around anything completely modern, like a computer or USB hard-drive, since all information stored therein is often completely wiped. His friends won't let him with 20 feet of a computer (for good reason!).
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* And the same thing applies to Laura Anne Gilman's ''The Retrievers'' series, though for a different reason. {{spoiler|Magic ''is'' electricity. A wizard can recharge simply by tapping the nearest power source -- usually shorting it the hell out. All wizards are VERY careful when recharging, not to mention when using anything electrically powered.}} This occurs to all wizards in varying degrees.
* Likewise in Nick Pollotta's novels based in the Bureau 13 universe; wizards tend to cause nearby technology to fail in mysterious to spectacular ways. This is actually used as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when the team is attacked by a vampire high school football team equipped with lasers. (it's that sort of book...) When one of the wizards is confronted with a laser point-blank in her face, ''she grabs the barrel'', preventing it from working and giving her teammates time to stake its surprised holder.
* The [[Isaac Asimov]] story ''Saving Humanity'' eventually featured such a person, though he was initially just a natural jinx (called a ''teleklutz'') before he was reformatted into an anti-computer weapon to prevent [[
* Wobbler in Terry Pratchett's ''[[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy]]''... sometimes. In the first book he's a fairly skilled [[Playful Hacker]], but by the second he can't turn his computer on without it smelling of burning plastic.
* This overlaps with [[Science vs. Magic]], but a ghost character in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''SERRATED Edge'' series was told to stay away from Tannim's tapes because [[Our Ghosts Are Different|ghosts in that 'verse has a devastating effect on electromagnetic items]]. He eventually prevented a [[Big Bad]]'s getaway by walking through a plane's navigation board, rendering it completely useless.
* Charles de Lint's Newford series has Sophie, whose faerie blood makes her a
* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', single wizards can't cause this, but an entire school of them can.
** It's never explicitly stated whether the tech-messing is done by the mere presence of so many mages or one of the many anti-Muggle charms on the school grounds.
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* In [[Roger Zelazny]]'s ''Changeling'', the main character was [[Switched At Birth]], and was originally from a magical world. Naturally, he short-circuits any technology he's around, leading his adoptive father, a scientist and inventor, to joke he has a "poltergeist".
* Magic and technology simply don't mix, as mentioned several times in Sergey Lukyanenko's ''[[Night Watch]]'' novels. Anton, the protagonist of most of the novels, constantly has to replace mini-disc players due to them frying every time he casts a moderately-powerful spell. Other than that, he is pretty good with computers, his former position being an IT tech support guy.
* In ''[[Troy Rising
* In the ''[[
== Live Action TV ==
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** Also his namesake, Hillaire Belloc's Lord Finchley, who "tried to mend/the electric light himself," with fatal results.
* Neil from ''[[The Young Ones]]''. He even laments that technology is rebelling against him.
* Captain Kirk was never this in ''[[Star Trek]]'', but he is often [[Flanderized]] into it in humor based on the series, due to the fact that he destroyed several [[
* Spencer from ''[[
== Newspaper Comics ==
* Roger from ''[[FoxTrot]]'' has blown up his wife and younger son's computers at least five times. He also seems to have the "talent" of accidentally deleting the files of the computer ''with one click''. He needs an entire manual to find the ON button, and once even mistook the computer simply being turned off as being frozen! He once bought the Windows version of a program even though their PC was a Mac (he thought "windows" meant the one on the wall of the house) and when it said, "You've Got Mail!" he went outside to check their mailbox, and then came back and called it a liar.
** It's not just the computer that he has wrecked. He also wrecked several other electrical appliances, and in one arc, he also ended up flooding the house just by attempting to use the dishwasher.
** Other than Roger, there's also an implied instance of this trope in this comic:
{{quote|
''(Cut to the Pavilionplex, where an IBM tower computer is currently inside of a running sink full of soapy water, and a very irate manager)''
'''Manager:''' Johnson, I said to wash out the '''''butter''''' server!
'''Johnson:''' ''(offscreen)'' Oops. }}
* In ''[[Dilbert]]'' the titular character has this happen to him when he loses "The Knack" (for engineering) in the animated series.
** This trope also pays a visit to Dilbert starting [http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2000-02-21/ here] when he's assigned a new lab partner named [[Meaningful Name|Paul Tergeist]].
** Wally is [http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-08-31 a danger to robots].
* While not a computer, Jon's father from the ''[[Garfield]]'' comics has never seen a faucet head before in his life, having used pumps. As a result, he's assured he can figure out how to work it, but rips off the faucet by mistake, although he chalks it up to the faucet being faulty and poor.
== Tabletop Games ==
* The [[Tabletop Games|tabletop game]] ''[[Deadlands]]'' includes this in the form of the Hindrance "All Thumbs". For added points, in the part of the book players aren't supposed to read, there's {{spoiler|the "Bollixed" status, which can be randomly generated as a drawback for a [[Player Character]] that wants to start as a [[Badass]]. Bollixed characters actually act as conduits for ''literal'' gremlins, which infest every mechanical device the character touches. And multiply. Exponentially.}} For maximum comedy? Even a [[Mad Scientist]] can be a
* In ''[[Shadowrun]]'' characters can pick up a flaw called "Gremlins" that does this. Of course they are getting extra build points so it might be an even trade depending on the character.
** The same name is used for the Physical Limitation that adds up to Techbane in [[Champions|''Urban Fantasy Hero''.]]
* ''[[
** As far as Wonders go [[Muggles|mere mortals]] are this as well, Clockstoppers have an array of special abilities aimed at destroying and/or disabling Wonders and can affect mundane items.
* ''[[GURPS]]: Thaumatology'' has a ritual called "Machines Hate You" that makes machines and computers mess up in way that will make the target's life miserable.
** ''GURPS Supers'' also has the Dampen power, which allows a character to turn this on and off at will... unless they have the [[Power Incontinence|Always On]] drawback to the power. One NPC created in the ''GURPS Mixed Doubles'' book has this unfortunate combo.
* In ''[[The Dresden Files (
== Video Games ==
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** Magic items in the hand of a technologist just lose their power, but technological items malfunctions in the hands of mages - their innate "magic affinity" play havoc on the exact scientific rules of nature, affecting the items that rely on those. There are three main ways this is depicted in the game: if you want to ride the railway, you have to answer several questions regarding your stance on magic (if you're of a magical race, if you're a particularly adept mage, if you know volatile spells or carry potent magic items, etc); failing to do so tend to result in spectacular train wrecks. Tech weapons, devices and drugs affect magical targets much less. And finally, equipping technological items on a mage increases their chance of critical failure, with a higher increase the higher their magical aptitude, and the complexity of the item. Equip princess Raven (an elven mage of quite some power) with a pyrotechnic bow and a range of tech gear, and she runs a very real risk of lopping her arm or head off. With a BOW.
* In ''[[Phantasy Star]] 2'', Josh Kain was a mechanic who found that everything he tried to repair would end up exploding spectacularly. He made the best of this and switched careers to hunting and smashing rogue robots.
* You can become your own
* Alicia, the title character of the game ''[[Bullet Witch]]'' seems to be one of these specifically for aircraft. Any time she's on an aircraft, ''something'' happens to cause it to
* Cole McGrath, the hero in ''[[
* Cyan/Cayenne from ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' is terrified of (though fascinated by) machinery, though the first time you meet him he jumps into a suit of Magitek armor and (eventually) pilots it without too much problem; at one point has a great deal of difficulty ''stepping on a simple pressure switch''.
* Major Zero in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' was heavily implied to be this. He usually needs to read Sigint's notes word for word when explaining what some of his technologies do, and Sigint also was about to tell a story about Major Zero and a Brand New Washing Machine before he was cut off, which resulted in a [[Noodle Incident]], although it could be assumed that the story was going to be about Zero unintentionally wrecking the washing machine somehow.
== Webcomics ==
* [[Ctrl
* In the webcomic ''[[UC]]'' Minor character Jess managed to delete the entire internet from her computer.
* Evidently, ''[http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/9/3/ Gabriel]'' is one of these. Illustrated [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/9/3/ here].
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* Brad, from ''[[The Class Menagerie]]'', is an EXTREME Techbane (and being a bit of a Luddite does not help matters), one crossover storyline ended up with him completely wiping out a company's network just by ''ending up in the server room''. In fact, the only machine he could handle without it breaking is a coffee-maker ([[Must Have Caffeine|which he can't live without anyway]]).
* ''[[PHD|Piled Higher & Deeper]]'' would like to talk about [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=821 your research adviser's negation field].
* Art from the webcomic ''[[Sequential Art (
** And it has returned yet again where {{spoiler|1=a group of Dalek [[Expies]] have deemed Art a threat, as they are [http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=711 "of technology."]}}
* Gabe of ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' is apparently one of these, if Tycho is to be believed.
* Erin from [https://web.archive.org/web/20130719023505/http://www.drunkduck.com/Dragon_City/ Dragon City] is terrible with computers since she's always causing them to crash and needs help from her family to do basically anything. This is a contrast to her family since her parents and brother are VERY computer savvy to the point her dad is a computer technician for a power plant and her mom used to be one.
== Web Original ==
* Glitch Girl of the ''[[Legion of Net
* Overload of the [[Whateley Universe]] is an Energizer with a powerful electromagnetic field. That he can't control. The special [[Super
* The said character of the [[Mastermind (
== Western Animation ==
* Jubilee from the '90s ''[[X-Men (
** It gets to the point where the owner of a local electronics shop knew immediately what Jean and Scott are in for, and jokes how she's good for business.
** In ''[[X
{{quote|
* Astoria, the titular character from the ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' episode "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide"; this turns out to be helpful when the Decepticons try to [[Mind Probe]] her and the probe promptly malfunctions.
** Though when the probe gave its result as being "subject's mind completely empty", it might have been [[The Ditz|on to something]].
* [[Catch Phrase|THIS is why]] Captain Fanzone from ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' [[Catch Phrase|HATES machines]]!
* This may be why [[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner
* Homer Simpson of ''[[The Simpsons (
** We're talking about the man who once managed to set ''[[Epic Fail|cereal and milk]]'' [[Incendiary Exponent|on fire]] while simply trying to mix them together in an ordinary cereal bowl. Causing a meltdown is a walk in the park compared to that.
== Real Life ==
* Physicist Wolfgang Pauli, one of the fathers of modern chemistry, frequently saw experiments explode or fail whenever he came near them. On one occasion, an experiment in a university failed, and the scientists figured it couldn't be Pauli, he was nowhere around, he was on his way to Zurich. Except, as it turned out, he ''was'' in town... waiting for a train connection. [[The Other Wiki]] [
** Actually, theoretical scientists in general can be classed as such.
* There's an elaborate mock-theory known as quantum bogodynamics which deals with the emission and absorption of bogons (the elementary particle of bogosity) and which is supposed to explain how some people can cause computers to spontaneously malfunction by mere
* There are people who have an unusually strong electro-magnetic field and end up destroying cellphones and other small electronics.
** A likely explanation for [http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/02/12-year-old-magneto-man-breaks-every-computer-he-touches/ this guy].
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* [[Eddie Izzard]] describes the results thus: "[[Failed a Spot Check|I've wiped the file?]] ...[[Up to Eleven|I've wiped all the files?]] ....[[Epic Fail|I've wiped the ''Internet''?]] Aww, no! [[Beyond the Impossible|I don't even have a modem!]]"
** "I don't have that ''[techno-fear]''. I have techno-''joy'': I love machines. ... And the first thing you do when you have techno-joy is you get the instructions and ''THROW them out the window!!''"
* Comes up fairly often on [[(The Customer is) Not Always Right]].
* The Usenet newsgroup alt.sysadmin.recovery had tales of [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sysadmin.recovery/browse_thread/thread/729e94c6bf3082d4/8e142051db9a011b?hl=en&q=telecom+destruction+bunny#8e142051db9a011b The Telecom Destruction Bunny].
{{quote|
* The [
* Unfortunately inverted by Janice Tunni. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/8520405/Meet-the-woman-allergic-to-electricity.html Due to her being electrosensitive, just being around electromagnetic fields causes her to have physical pain.]
* Channing Tatum, by all accounts. According to everybody around him, he has what they call "gremlins," and they claim that you can put a brand new iPod right in front of him, and it will be a brick within the hour.
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[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Walking Techbane]]
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