History Main / DisastrousDemonstration

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has Doctor Nick showing off his new product, the Juice-Loosener, on Troy [=McClure=]'s show. He shoves about a dozen oranges in the thing and turns it on, it makes a sound like a set of forks in a garbage disposal, and then a drop of orange juice oozes from the nozzle. Troy, inveterate shill that he is, still lauds the thing for being whisper-quiet.

A subtrope of GoneHorriblyWrong. Compare SabotageToDiscredit, where this is deliberately arranged to insure that the product is rejected, ConfidenceSabotage, where this is deliberately arranged as a psychological attack on the designer, and FlawedPrototype, where the product simply doesn't work as planned. If a competitor flagrantly stages one of these with an otherwise-safe product to make their own gadget look better in contrast, see TooIncompetentToOperateABlanket. See also TestingRangeMishap and EducationThroughPyrotechnics.

* In the episode "Critters" of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' (Well, technically ''The New Batman Adventures''), Farmer Brown's demonstration of giant farm animals goes awry when the giant sheep he's presenting breaks out of its cage. The idea behind the giant animals was to create a means to end world hunger, but because of the incident Farmer Brown was ordered to stop his work. Which of course led to him becoming the villain of the episode.

** An even better example occurs in the "4th Season" special. Moss has developed his own personal Pepper Spray, and the IT Team decide to market it as a Pepper Spray for women. [[spoiler: Que bad packaging/marketing causing it to be mistaken for perfume at their product unveiling.]]

* An electrical engineer attempted to popularize the concept of remote-controlled driverless cars in 1925, by having a modified Chandler sedan drive down Broadway in a New York press event. The radio-directed armature he'd installed to manipulate its steering wheel came loose halfway through the demonstration, and the "American Wonder" drove itself straight into one of the press vehicles.

* When Airbus, trying to compete with the Boeing 737-dominated market of medium-range narrowbody jet airliners, got its A320 model complete, the company decided on a spectacular demonstration during an airshow, where one of the top Air France pilots would demonstrate a stunning if dangerous maneuver to show the plane's capability. A combination of rushed preparation and overconfidence [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_296 ended in the plane crashing into a forest and killing 3 of 136 onboard in plain view of hundreds of spectators and dozens of TV cameras.]] Almost miraculously, the A320 survived the debacle and made it to be one of the most successful airliners in history.

** In a later episode this is played somewhat more straight, with an anti-missile weapon called the Sky Sentry failing to activate during its unveiling. After Lex had ordered [[WhatAnIdiot two actual missiles]] fired at the building it was unveiled at. Ultimately it's revealed that Brainiac had sabotaged the machine to lure Lex to him.

* ''Those Fantastic Flying Fools'' (aka ''Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon''). [[MadScientist Professor Von Bulow]]'s wacky inventions include a Prussian Helmet Cannon that nearly kills the Kaiser, and a bridge that collapses during the RibbonCuttingCeremony.

A subtrope of GoneHorriblyWrong. Compare SabotageToDiscredit and FlawedPrototype. If a competitor flagrantly stages one of these with an otherwise-safe product to make their own gadget look better in contrast, see TooIncompetentToOperateABlanket. See also TestingRangeMishap and EducationThroughPyrotechnics.

* Invoked in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' with the Jet Alone demonstration. Gendo is worried the competing mecha will be a problem for NERV so he has Ritsuko sabotage the demonstration. Having a combat vehicle go out of control and nearly suffer a nuclear meltdown in a populated city was enough to get it scrapped.

In RealLife, a product's design may be rejected because it's not cost-effective to make, because it infringes on someone else's patents, because the expected market for it has diminished, or many other dull-but-practical reasons. In fiction, that's not good enough: for a product to be abandoned, something must go disastrously wrong at a meeting of investors or shareholders, or even at a press conference announcing the product's debut. This ''always'' results in the product being cancelled, even if the catastrophe has nothing to do with its quality or lack thereof.

* Many of Flint's demonstrated inventions in ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', even the main plot is a case of one GoneHorriblyRight.
* Happens in the backstory of ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' - [[spoiler: the BigBad's daughter]] was lost during a demonstration of a prototype PortalNetwork.

* Invoked in ''Series/{{Dracula}}'' when Dracula's large-scale public demonstration of his wireless electricity device causes a deadly explosion, due to being sabotaged by [[spoiler:[[FaceHeelTurn Jonathan Harker]]]] on the AncientConspiracy's orders. It's intended to destroy Dracula's public persona and power base as a wealthy, visionary industrialist, but the series was CutShort at that episode.

* Played with in the ''ComicBook/MegaMan'' comic. Blues' power failure during the test fight convinces the military to simply scale back the nature of the combat robots they want to order from Dr. Light instead of cancelling it outright.

* Hal's defeat of the drone planes in ''Film/GreenLantern'' came close to this, but Carol's fast-talking subverted her company's loss of its contract.

* In ''Film/{{Splice}}'', the transgenic organisms Fred and Ginger tear each other apart during a live TV promotion for their creators' gene-splicing technology. The program that created them is cancelled because of the debacle.

* In ''Film/SpiderMan2'', Harry Osborne brings in Doctor Otto Octavius and gives him a budget of $50 million to fund his fusion reactor experiment, in the hopes that this will lead to [[MegaCorp OsCorp.]] to be a leader in the production of energy, as well as net a profit of several billion dollars later on. During the reactor's trial run, the energy output proves to be greater than what Octavius calculated and the research lab is destroyed. The main reason things don't get any worse because Spider-Man shows up and severs the cables that were powering the reactor. In the end, several of the attendees are injured by the mishap, including Octavius's wife who was fatally wounded, [=OsCorp=] has to deal with the fact that they just lost a 50 million dollar investment, and Octavius, after his powered tentacle arms fused to his spine, becomes Doctor Octopus.

* In ''Film/{{Joy}}'', the man hired to demonstrate the mop Joy invented live on a shopping channel obviously didn't bother to touch the thing before stepping in front of the cameras and trying to sell it. Needless to say, the demonstration went poorly.

* The ''Vasa'', a huge warship built at great expense at the orders of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. When tested during construction it turned out to be too top-heavy and unstable, but the king was impatient for the ship to be launched and no one had the courage to tell him it was too dangerous. On 10 August 1628 the ship embarked on its maiden voyage from Stockholm in full view of hundreds--if not thousands--of local residents as well as several foreign ambassadors. A few minutes after encountering a slight wind it heeled so far to the side that water got in through the lower gun ports, ruining its ability to right itself and quickly causing the ship to sink. The King was furious and there was a huge BlameGame during the inquest into the cause of the sinking, but ultimately no one was punished for the fiasco.

* [[http://www.couriermail.com.au/archive/news/horvaths-hydrogen-fairlane/story-e6freoro-1111119160884 Australian politician Joh Bjelke-Petersen's farce with the so-called hydrogen car]].

* VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture begins with Layton and Luke witnessing a public demonstration of a time machine. It explodes, with the prime minster as the test subject in it. [[spoiler:All according to plan, it was staged to capture him.]] It is later revealed that this isn't the first time a time machine has exploded.

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