History Main / HadTheSillyThingInReverse

* ''Film/IndependenceDay'': Creator/WillSmith's character at first, accidentally, when piloting the captured UFO. He then turns the control instructions upside down and retapes them to the dashboard.

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* ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'': one of Yukari's trips starts out with the car [[DrivesLikeCrazy careening all over the yard before returning to its initial position]], at which point she notices she was in reverse. Poor Kaorin suffers a complete ColorFailure upon this revelation.
* ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'': In the penultimate scene of the climactic battle in episode 13, [[spoiler:Panty and Stocking fire their Heaven-Ordered {{BFG}} from heaven THE WRONG WAY ROUND INTO HEAVEN. Corset can't believe how stupid they are... until a second later when it turns out that the ''right'' way because the thing [[GiantFootOfStomping summons a giant foot to stomp him to death]].]]
* ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'': Happens once in a {{Filler}} episode when Akane attempts to drive a go-kart. In the English script, likely as a ShoutOut to the TropeNamer, Akane even says this nearly word-for-word.

** "If you've ever broken a speed limit in reverse… you might be a redneck."
* The page quote is from one of Creator/GeorgeCarlin's skits where he talks about poor drivers.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'': "N for neutral, R for reverse... and D for disaster."
* One episode of the "Mayhem Garage" strip in ''Practical Classics'' magazine showed a customer collecting his car after repair and driving off enthusiastically... straight backwards into a wall. One of the mechanics then comments "I had a feeling that crown wheel and pinion were the wrong way up." [[note]]For those less familiar with car mechanics than the readership of ''Practical Classics'': this refers to a mistake in reassembling the differential which is possible to make on many rear-wheel-drive cars, which has the effect of converting ''all'' the forward gears into reverse gears.[[/note]]
* In one story from Wally Wood's ''[[ComicStrip/SallyForthWood Sally Forth]],'' a new robot is being tested by having a bazooka fired at it. Unfortunately, the scientist firing the bazooka had it pointed backwards, blasting the President behind him instead.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/Home2015'', when Oh repairs Tip's car, he accidentally wires the brakes and gas backwards.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* A very non-humorous version is part of the backstory of ''Literature/ThePinballs''; one of the protagonists, Harvey, was removed from his father's custody because his father [[DrunkDriver had been drinking]] and put the car in drive instead of reverse while Harvey was walking in front of it, running over Harvey and breaking both his legs.

* ''Series/TopGear'' did this in a season 15 episode with on of their Cheap Car segments. James May buys a Mercedes-Benz [=190E=] Cosworth which has a dog-leg gearbox, meaning "left and forward" puts it into reverse while "left and ''back''" is first gear. Once James actually starts driving it [[DamnYouMuscleMemory muscle memory]] means he keeps doing "left and forward" and going into reverse. This earns him the ire of Jeremy and Richard who are usually parked behind him when it happens.

* ''Series/MythBusters'': Inverted and thankfully averted, as Jamie reminds Adam that since his excavator is facing backwards on the dump truck, he doesn't have to set it to reverse.
* ''Series/LastOfTheSummerWine'': When Edie is learning to drive, she engages reverse instead of first and nearly backs into the protagonists. Her husband Wesley, who's used to her driving, merely comments "Sometimes she does that."
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]", a [[ItMakesSenseInContext wooden Cyberman]] threatens the Doctor with an arm-mounted flamethrower. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver on the Cyberman to no apparent effect, then explains that his device was set to make the Cyberman's own weapon fire backwards. The Cyberman promptly flips its weapon around to point in the opposite direction, only to incinerate ''itself'' instead of the Doctor when it tries to kill him. The Doctor then admits to the burning wreckage that his screwdriver doesn't affect wood.
* ''Series/SilverSpoons'':
** Inverted: Grandpa tries to teach Ricky to drive, and his attempt to reverse to car moves it forward, crashing it through a wall, leading to this gag:
--->'''Ricky:''' I thought I was in reverse!\\
'''Grandpa:''' Well let me put it this way. You ''weren't''.
** And [[BrickJoke the same joke]] is used in TheStinger when ''Grandpa'' tries to drive.
** And to top it all off, a clip of TheStinger is played in reverse -- with the damage being undone -- during the closing credits! This time, the car really ''was'' in reverse.
* In the TV movie version of ''How to Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days'', Milo, the main character who is too young to drive, tries to back his brother's car out of the garage to clean it. He puts the car in gear, looks carefully over his shoulder, hits the gas, and drives forward all the way through the garage wall.
* ''Series/OddSquad'': In "Flawed Squad", Shapeshifter grabs Father Time's staff and attempts to use it to freeze Odd Squad. Father Time points out that she is holding it the wrong way round just before she activates it and freezes all of the villains.
* ''Series/TheBennyHillShow''. A spoof of ''Series/TheATeam'' had Mr. T firing a LAWS rocket the wrong way round, and blowing up a public lavatory another member of the Team was using.
* In an episode of ''Series/ScrapheapChallenge'' where the challenge was a drag race, one team had no option ''but'' to turn their car 180 degrees and put the silly thing in reverse because that was the only gear that worked.
* ''Series/MsMarvel2022'' has Kamala Khan start and end her driving exam by accelerating full-speed in reverse into another car. [[EpicFail The driving examiner's car, to be specific.]]

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has a scene with a Dwarf test driving a new tank a Gnome just built. Due to being built on the spot with random parts, the gearbox was in backwards, and the tank takes off in reverse.
* A variant in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'': [[spoiler:FakeUltimateHero turned BigBad Captain Qwark attempts to use Angela's Helix-o-Morph to neutralize the monstrous tendencies of the original [[KillerRabbit Protopet]] and take credit for saving the Bogon Galaxy from the disaster that he had orchestrated, but it instead mutates and grows giant, becoming the game's FinalBoss. After the Protopet is subdued, the reason why it transformed the way it did turns out to be that the Helix-o-Morph's batteries were simply in backwards.]]

* A random gag in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'' that sometimes happens when Roger Wilco starts up his hover skimmer on Kerona. He accidentally backs it into a wall, then drives out properly.
* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', Luigi ends up smashing one of his karts in a kart race thanks to doing this. This actually helps him win since everyone else followed his lead, and by the end his kart was the only one that worked enough to finish the race.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* A direct ShoutOut in [[http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0556.html this]] ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' panel, after Palpatine [[spoiler:forgets the Force Drain only works on angry targets]].

** In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Qv2or3kIuq0#t=363s Mad as a Mars Hare]]", Marvin accidentally set his space-time gun in reverse, resulting in Bugs becoming a neanderthal rabbit.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales|1987}}'' episode "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E45Superdoo Superdoo!]]", two inept alien criminals are scheming to recover their stolen power crystal. One of their plots involves destroying the summer camp with an alien bazooka; unfortunately, the one holding the bazooka is holding it backwards, and it ends up blasting the forest behind them instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathmatch'':
** The ''Men in Black'' gag is re-used in an episode where Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones compete as their MIB characters against the stars of ''Series/TheXFiles''
** In one episode where a HumongousMecha (piloted by the band 98 Degrees) goes out of control and starts wrecking the city, Wrestling/SteveAustin brings out an enlarging ray and tells Nick to use it on him so he can bring down the Mecha himself. Unfortunately, Nick points it backwards and hits Jessica Simpson instead. (Fortunately, she manages to do the job just as well.)
* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'': In "Yaarp", when Pleakly tried to capture Experiment 613 (Yaarp) with the vacuum attached container, instead of sucking in Yaarp, it blew him into a wall of the cave, causing Pleakly to say "Darn thing's still in reverse!"
* ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'': in the flashback episode, Ilana and Hobbes, her bodyguard, are able to tank-jack, but since the bodyguard was too wounded, Ilana had to drive the tank. The first thing she does at the controls is drive the tank in reverse.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheHairBearBunch'': Square Bear's [[ItMakesSenseInContext invisible motorcycle]] goes in reverse after he says "Geronimo!" backwards.
* In the fourth episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', Spike and Bumblebee have just finished spying on the Decepticons and learned their EvilPlan. Bumblebee transforms into car mode [[EpicFail and then drives himself backwards off the cliff onto the surprised Decepticons]]. Just how bad a driver are you when you forget that the car is in reverse when ''you're'' the car?
* The ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' episode "Oh, the Ewemanity" involved Sheep becoming gigantic after getting hit with a growth ray. General Specific at one point accidentally makes himself taller with the same growth ray due to thinking he can shrink Sheep to normal size by aiming the ray backwards.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsDroids'': In "Race to the Finish", Tig Fromm declares that our heroes won't get away, and that his own damaged hyperdrive is working just fine. As soon as he activates it, though, his shuttle jumps into hyperspace backwards.
* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand:'' The pilot movie has Zurg and his minions preparing to fire the Zurgatomic Ray, having just installed the Crystallic Fusion Cell (read: giant battery). It powers up... and nothing happens. Zurg asks the minions if they made sure the plus end went into the plus part, and the minus end to the minus part.
-->'''Grub:''' Oooohhh. That'd do it, huh?\\
'''Zurg:''' [[SurroundedByIdiots Urgh.]]

** In the short ''Lifted'', the alien novice who just failed his abduction test gets pity from his tester, who lets him fly the ship back. He crashes it downward first.

* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand:'' The pilot movie has Zurg and his minions preparing to fire the Zurgarrific Ray, having just installed the Crystallic Fusion Cell (read: giant battery). It powers up... and nothing happens. Zurg asks the minions if they made sure the plus end went into the plus part, and the minus end to the minus part.

--->'''Dodgers:''' Ooops! Heh... had the silly thing in reverse!

* ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett''. Boba has stolen several speeders and is instructing the Tusken tribe he's with in their use. He gives the Tuskens a lengthy explanation of how the controls work: moving the handlebars forward makes it go, pulling them back makes it stop. The language barrier and the Tuskens' masks makes it hard to know if they actually understand what he's telling them. He climbs off and asks who wants to try first. One Raider climbs aboard, starts the engine... and goes flying backwards.

* ''Series/MsMarvel2022'' had Kamala Khan's driving exam opening right away by running back full-speed on another car. And worst, it's the examiner's!

** One of Jason and Marcus' model rocket launches went wrong when the rocket started tunneling into the ground, prompting Jason to wonder if they put the engines in backwards, and Marcus if there wasn't a second stage. Cue death from ''below'' as rays of heat and flame erupt all over the yard.
** Another Foxtrot example is the page image for AchievementsInIgnorance.

* In ''Film/WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot'', among a snippet of news reports being done by Kim Baker is one about the first woman cab driver in Afghanistan, during which said driver goes in reverse and smashes into a stack of goods at a market. Baker deadpans that it's setback for women drivers.

-->-- Creator/GeorgeCarlin

A device or technique is used ... in reverse. Commonly, it is setting a car to reverse.

-->-- ''Creator/GeorgeCarlin''

* In ''Film/WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot'', among a snippet of news reports being done by Kim Baker is one about the first woman cab driver in Afghanistan, during which said driver goes in reverse and smashes into a stack of goods at a market. Baker deadpans that it's setback for women.

* In ''Film/WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot'', among a snippet of news reports being done by Kim Baker is one about the first woman cab driver in Afghanistan, during which said driver goes in reverse and snashes into a stack of goods at a market. Baker deadpans that it's setback for women.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Home}}'', when Oh repairs Tip's car, he accidentally wires the brakes and gas backwards.

* A variant in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'': [[spoiler:FakeUltimateHero turned BigBad Captain Qwark attempts to use Angela's Helix-o-Morph to neutralize the monstrous tendencies of the original [[KillerRabbit Protopet]], but it instead mutates and grows giant. After the Protopet is subdued, the reason why turns out to be that the batteries were simply in backwards.]]

* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'', [[spoiler:FakeUltimateHero turned BigBad Captain Qwark attempts to use Angela's Helix-o-Morph to neutralize the monstrous tendencies of the original [[KillerRabbit Protopet]], but it instead mutates and grows giant. The reason why is because the batteries were in backwards.]]

* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'', FakeUltimateHero turned BigBad Captain Qwark attempts to use Angela's Helix-o-Morph to neutralize the monstrous tendencies of the original [[KillerRabbit Protopet]], but it instead mutates and grows giant. The reason why is because the batteries were in backwards.

* ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathMatch'':