History Main / BungledHypnotism

* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's short story ''The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar'' is about the {{narrator}}, who's interested in mesmerism (a pseudoscience that later will be evolved into hypnotism), and his friend Ernest valdemar, a phthisis (tuberculosis) terminal patient that accepted to be part in an experiment of being mesmerized the night of his death. The experiment actually worked, being Valdemar in a hynotic state with thin pulse, pale skin and mildly awake for seven months. In between trance and wakefulness, Valdemar begs the narrator to quickly put him back to sleep or to wake him. As Valdemar shouts "Dead! Dead!" repeatedly, the narrator starts to bring him out of his trance, only for his entire body to immediately decay into a "[[{{Gorn}} nearly liquid mass of loathsome-detestable putrescence.]]"

* ''Series/InLivingColor'': In one sketch, a stage hypnotist hypnotizes an audience member (played by Creator/JimCarrey) to act like a chicken and has a fatal heart attack immediately afterwards. The audience member is doomed to spend the rest of his life acting like a chicketn

* The plot of ''Film/OfficeSpace'' is kicked off by the main character visiting a hypnotherapist in an attempt to remove some of the stress his job is causing him, only for the hypnotist to suffer a heart attack halfway through, leaving him in a lazy, carefree trance that no longer takes his job or life seriously.

!Examples:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In one episode of ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'', Shampoo tries to hypnotize Ranma into focusing only on her as a fiancee by sneaking some mind-control herbs into his food, but Akane interferes in the part of the procedure that would have brainwashed Ranma so not only Ranma doesn't becomes infatuated with Shampoo but he instead gets the order to [[TheGlomp glomp any woman that sneezes]], even if he really doesn't wants to (he does it out of reflex while screaming that it's NotWhatItLooksLike for the rest of the episode). And to make things worse, [[{{Tsundere}} Akane]] happens to have a cold at the time.

* ''ComicStrip/USAcres'': [[http://garfield.com/usacres/1986/10/19 In several early strips]], Orson uses hypnotism on Wade in order to make him not fear anything. It works, and Wade goes from being a LovableCoward to shortly being a fearless and ''reckless'' JerkAss who fears absolutely [[TooDumbToLive nothing]].

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

** First, he glamours a theater usher into calling Dr. Seward to the lobby so he can "coincidentally" meet him, but after telling the usher what he wants her to do, he adds, "You will forget everything I told you." Needless to say, she approaches the group and completely forgets what she was supposed to say.
** Later, he tries to get to Mina in her bedroom but has to also "steer" her maid, and - thanks to AmbiguousSyntax - the two women end up running right into each other, leading to a hilarious {{facepalm}} from Dracula.

* Joseph Payne Brennan's short story ''Levitation'': A carnival hypnotist puts a man under his spell and commands him to "Rise!" The man does so, levitating off the ground. Unfortunately, the hypnotist suffers a sudden fatal heart attack, and thus cannot order the man to ''stop'' rising. The man continues up into the sky until he's out of sight.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', Nick is convinced Sam has stolen Loretta away from him, so he tries to steal Diane away from him. He tries to hypnotize her saying "You'll follow me to the ends of the Earth...oh yeah, and bring a six-pack." He fails to do anything with her, but while Diane is mocking his attempt, Woody walks by with a vacant look in his eyes and a six-pack.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** In the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E17HomerAtTheBat Homer at the Bat]]," Mr. Burns has his plant baseball team players, which include a bunch of {{Super Ringer}}s, hypnotized in order to improve their game play. This somehow goes wrong and causes Roger Clemens to believe he's a chicken.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic:''

[[/folder]]

* WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes and WesternAnimation/MerryMelodies: [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner Wile E. Coyote]] tries at least twice to use hypnosis to get his prey, the Road Runner:

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': A Downplayed example occurs in an episode where Señor Senior Senior and Señor Senior Junior. Junior is supposed to be the one in charge, stealing things for a mysterious project. What's the project? A nightclub that will [[PokeThePoodle charge extra for soft drinks]]. Senior, frustrated by his son's lack of vision, goes behind his back to make a [[HypnoTrinket disco ball that hypnotizes people]]. Senior uses the disco ball to incapacitate Kim, Ron, and the various [=VIPs=] that come to the club, holding the latter hostage. Junior, angry that his father is micromanaging his project, angrily declares that everyone in his club must dance. No points for guessing what the hypnotized captives do. This is really only a minor annoyance, but it serves to highlight Senior's controlling nature, as he becomes frustrated at how his hostages are dancing.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooLegendOfThePhantosaur'' has Mr. Hubley, whose hypnotism equipment works so well he ends up hypnotizing ''himself'', causing him to forget the key phrase that causes to switch between his normal personality and his new fearless personality. [[spoiler:When he tries to undo the hypnotism at the end, he ends up accidentally hypnotizing everyone in the gang into thinking they are ''Shaggy''.]]

* Happens a couple times in ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt''. First, he glamours a theater usher into calling Jonathan and Mina's father away to the lobby so that he can get to Mina, but after telling the usher what he wants her to do, he adds, "You will forget everything I told you." Needless to say, she approaches the group and completely forgets what she was supposed to say. Later, he tries to get to Mina in her bedroom but has to also "steer" her maid, and - thanks to AmbiguousSyntax - the two women end up running right into each other, leading to a hilarious {{facepalm}} from Dracula.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': A Downplayed example occurs in an episode where Senior Senior Senior and Senior Senior Junior. Junior is supposed to be the one in charge, stealing things for a mysterious project. What's the project? A nightclub that will [[PokeThePoodle charge extra for soft drinks]]. Senior, frustrated by his son's lack of vision, goes behind his back to make a [[HypnoTrinket disco ball that hypnotizes people]]. Senior uses the disco ball to incapacitate Kim, Ron, and the various [=VIPs=] that come to the club, holding the latter hostage. Junior, angry that his father is micromanaging his project, angrily declares that everyone in his club must dance. No points for guessing what the hypnotized captives do. This is really only a minor annoyance, but it serves to highlight Senior's controlling nature, as he becomes frustrated at how his hostages are dancing.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Comic Strips]]

[[folder: Film - Animated]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

[[folder: Tabletop Game]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* ''Series/InLivingColor'': In one sketch, a stage hypnotist hypnotizes an audience member (played by Creator/JimCarrey) to act like a chicken and has a fatal heart attack immediately afterwards. The audience member is doomed to spend the rest of his life acting like a chicketn

* On an episode of ''Series/NightCourt'', Bull is nervous about having to testify and is hypnotized with the intent of allowing him to relax. Unfortunately, Dan picks an inopportune moment to hit on Christine and Bull's trigger phrase for relaxing becomes "I want to be your love slave." Not only that, but it only works if Dan speaks it, and only in the same tone of voice he originally used. HilarityEnsues .

* On an episode of ''Series/NightCourt'', Bull is nervous about having to testify and is hypnotized with the intent of allowing him to relax. Unfortunately, Dan picks an inopportune moment to hit on Christine and Bull's trigger phrase for relaxing becomes "I want to be your love slave." Not only that, but it only works if Dan speaks it, and only in the same tone of voice he originally used. HillarityEnsues .

* On ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'', in "Zilly's a Dilly", Dick Dastardly forces Zilly to stay still so the hypnotist can revert Zilly to being a coward. Dastardly gets hypnotized, too, and at teh end of the episode, both have become cowards.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': A Downplayed example occurs in an episode where Senior Senior Senior and Senior Senior Junior. Junior is supposed to be the one in charge, stealing things for a mysterious project. What's the project? A nightclub that will [[PokeThePoodle charge extra for soft drinks]]. Senior, frustrated by his son's lack of vision, goes behind his back to make a [[HypnoTrinket disco ball that hypnotizes people]]. Senior uses the disco ball to incapacitate Kim, Ron, and the various VIPs that come to the club, holding the latter hostage. Junior, angry that his father is micromanaging his project, angrily declares that everyone in his club must dance. No points for guessing what the hypnotized captives do. This is really only a minor annoyance, but it serves to highlight Senior's controlling nature, as he becomes frustrated at how his hostages are dancing.

* Happens a couple times in ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt''. First, he glamours a theater usher into calling Jonathan and Mina's father away to the lobby so that he can get to Mina, but after telling the usher what he wants her to do, he adds, "You will forget everything I told you." Needless to say, she approaches the group and completely forgets what she was supposed to say. Later, he tries to get to Mina in her bedroom but has to also "steer" her maid, and the two women end up running right into each other, leading to a hilarious {{facepalm}} from Dracula.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/KissyFur'' had Gus attempt to lose weight via hypnosis, only to accidentally be hypnotized into believing that he's afraid of food. He spends the rest of the episode hallucinating that all food he sees is [[ItCameFromTheFrige horrifying monsters]], but once the hypnotism is reversed he finds that it did, in fact, cause him to lose weight.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheCrampTwins'' episode "Cricket Slayer", Lucien blames himself for the death of a rare species of cricket. After getting haunted by the cricket's ghost (actually Wayne in disguise), his friend Mari resorts to hypnosis, in order to make him forget about the guilt. The first time Mari makes Lucien act like a duck, and he starts ferling better after he figures out Wayne's disguise, however a nightmare convinces him that he's not fully healed, so he resorts to hypnosis once again. The second time, due to killing an insect while performing her hypnosis ritual, Mari accidentally hypnotizes Lucien into having a desire to crush everything. Thankfully, the effects wear off after Lucien hears the cricket's sound, discovering it was not dead after all.

Usually PlayedForLaughs. Often overlaps with NiceJobBreakingItHero. Is not to be confused with BungledSuicide. See also ImmuneToMindControl.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooLegendOfThePhantosaur'' has Mr. Hubley, whose hypnotism equipment works so well he ends up hypnotizing ''himself'', causing him to forget the key phrase that causes to switch between his normal personality and his new fearless personality. [[spoiler:When he tries to undo the hypnotism at the end, he ends up accidentally hypnotizing everyone in the gang into thinking their ''Shaggy''.]]