History ComicallyMissingThePoint / Literature

*** Gammie buys some Franchise/LEGO bricks so the boys have something to do when she comes over. Then, to keep them from getting scattered, she glues them all together into one giant block.

* ''Literature/HowTo'' by Creator/RandallMonroe, being "absurd scientific advice for common real world problems", uses this a lot. For example, in the chapter about how to move house, he first establishes that pushing a huge pile of boxes all the way to your new house is impossible due to friction, then says you could apply greater force by pushing them with a pick-up truck, but friction will still be a problem. The next section is a series of methods for reducing the drag of your boxes that amount to ''literally reinventing the wheel'', while in a pick-up truck.

* ''Literature/KnowingMeKnowingYou'': Channy has been kidnapped by a stranger who wants her to be his daughter. He lists many reasons why her family is supposedly evil, including [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain her aunt being married to another woman]]; saying that it would be wrong for [[Franchise/SylvanianFamilies Theodora Dappledawn]] (a rabbit)to run off with Eleanor Bramble (a hedgehog.) Rather than being concerned that he's been stalking her and her family, Channy thinks he's being ridiculous since a hedgehog wouldn't want to marry a rabbit anyway.

* ''Literature/KnowingMeKnowingYou'': Channy has been kidnapped by a man who wants her to be his daughter. He lists many reasons why her family is supposedly evil, including [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain her aunt being married to another woman]]; saying that [[Franchise/SylvanianFamilies Theodora Dappledawn wouldn't marry Eleanor Bramble]]. Rather than being concerned that he's been stalking her and her family, Channy thinks he's being ridiculous since a hedgehog wouldn't marry a rabbit.

* ''Literature/KnowingMeKnowingYou'': Channy has been kidnapped by a man who wants her to be his daughter. He lists many reasons why her family is supposedly evil, including[[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain her aunt being married to another woman]]; saying that [[Franchise/SylvanianFamilies Theodora Dappledawn wouldn't marry Eleanor Bramble]]. Rather than being concerned that he's been stalking her and her family, Channy thinks he's being ridiculous since a hedgehog wouldn't marry a rabbit.

* When Shamisen the calico cat suddenly speaks (with with the voice of an old philosopher) in ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', Itsuki is first surprised that it's a male calico. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Kyon.

* ''Creator/DaveBarry in Cyberspace'' presents a computer-generated form letter in which the City of Milwaukee warns Jeffrey Dahmer that killing and eating people in his apartment may be in violation of the city's zoning code.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'':

** Some time after the protagonist's status becomes high enough for her to qualify for eventually attending the setting's WizardingSchool, she finds out she may not be able take the degree that will allow her to become a librarian because [[spoiler:she was adopted by the duchy's leading family and has to take the degree that is tailor-made for potential future duchy leaders]]. Ferdinand then reveals that he is, himself, the holder of a triple degree, so nothing is keeping the protagonist from taking a double one. However, the protagonist considers that Ferdinand was only able to do the triple degree because he's TheAce and she considers herself much closer to average. When Ferdinand tries to motivate her by pointing out that if she's that ordinary, her dream job may be out of reach anyway, the protagonist decides that in that case, she'll become the strangest person around. Since the protagonist is a ReincarnateInAnotherWorld who has ''also'' absorbed the values of several social calsses in her new world, she's ''already'' one of the strangest people around. Ferdinand is quick to point it out.

* ''Creator/EvelynWaugh'' in ''Literature/DeclineAndFall'' has a prison sequence where the Warden, convinced a prisoner's attraction to tools shows an interest in carpentry, decides to rehabilitate him by supplying him with hammers and saws, in spite of the fact that he is in prison for dismembering several people by such means. It doesn't end well.
* ''Divine Diva'' by Daniel Gagnon. The famous singer Iolanda is dying; the President, corrupt head of a corrupt and crumbling government, repeatedly calls her, pleading with her to return to the stage and revive both of their glory days, and making a thousand excuses as to why the political situation isn’t his fault. Iolanda tells him she’s rejected her earlier life of hedonism and extravagance and at last found love, in the person of Francesca, the humble young woman who cares for her. Francesca bluntly tells the President his faults. The President, denied Iolanda by death, tries to instead win over Francesca, but without ever admitting wrongdoing: having completely missed the point of what Iolanda values in her, he tells her that he’ll gladly listen to her talk of corruption and starvation if she’ll only have dinner with him at a fancy restaurant. He gets the only possible response when Francesca hangs up on him.

* Subverted by the antique-shop owner in the ''Literature/{{Maggody}}'' mystery novels, whose sign ("Antiques: New and Used") ''seems'' like this trope, but is actually ObfuscatingStupidity employed to lure in gullible tourists.

* In ''It All Started With Columbus'', UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, after reading ''Literature/TheJungle'', grew indignant about the terrible way in which cattle were being treated, but, mistakenly assuming from the book's title that it had to do with DarkestAfrica, "introduced a law providing that they should be killed only by sportsmen wearing pith helmets".
** Meanwhile, in RealLife, the author was disappointed in the general reaction to the book. He had hoped his readers would be upset about how the meat industry treated its employees, and do something about that, but instead they were horrified that there was a high chance that [[ImAHumanitarian human meat was part of their sausages and other foodstuffs.]]
--> '''Upton Sinclair:''' "I aimed for America's heart, and hit its stomach."