History Main / InventionalWisdom

-->'''Yzma:''' ''[shaking off a crocodile]'' [[LampshadeHanging Why do we even]] ''[[LampshadeHanging have]]'' [[LampshadeHanging that lever]]?

* In the ''DoctorWho'' episode ''Blink'', the Doctor [[spoiler:has been sent back to 1969 by one of the Weeping Angels]] constructs a device from various unrelated objects, including a casette and a flashlight to detect other "travellers".

[[AC: Videogames]]
* ''DwarfFortress'' has a fondness for these, players often ending up with levers that serve no purpose but to flood parts of their own fortress with lava. This is particularly pronounced in games when players swap out between years so that no one knows what the lever actually ''does'' and building around it.
** [[LetsPlay Boatmurdered]] had a lever that, when pulled, flooded a siege workshop. It turned out it had originally been put in [[spoiler:to irrigate the farms]] and became hilariously useless later [[spoiler:when someone built a siege workshop on them]].
* In ''AdvanceWars'' Black Hole Rising [[MadScientist Lash]] proposes to the more practical [[MagnificentBastard Hawke]] that an airport she just finished for him be equipped with add-ons like a self destruct sequence.

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]
* In ''ParallelTroubleAdventureDual'', Mr. Sanada frequently designs machines with large buttons that you think would activate them, he even coaxes the person to press the button/presses the button himself, before revealing that it doesn't actually do anything. 'It's actually' *Mitsuki sits down on a lever* 'that lever..'
** You would think Mitsuki would learn not to sit anywhere near her father's inventions the number of times this happens in the show.

[[AC:{{TabletopGames}}]]
* <Insert Dragonlance Gnomes descriptions here>
* Really, dungeons in general in DungeonsAndDragons. They often [[TempleOfDoom have way more traps in them than any reasonable person would be willing to live with]]. It would be the one day you're preoccupied by an argument with your Beholder and you forget to hit the hidden switch that disables the disintegration trap on your bedroom door.
** I'm intrigued: So why are you taking your beholder to your bedroom?
*** Their body's not much to write home about, but... those eyes...
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<<|AbsurdityAscendant|>>
<<|AppliedPhlebotinum|>>
<<|JustForPun|>>

** Speaking of which, look at the volume on your TV screen when you adjust the volume. It can be set high enough to blow your fucking eardrums out! Seriously, only deaf people would need anything that loud in order to enjoy anything.

* In ''BOT,'' the ''TransformersGeneration1'' episode considered the most SoBadItsHorrible[=/=]SoBadItsGood in the TF franchise's 25-ish year history, one of the many, many, ''many'' WallBanger moments was the solution to the Decepticons' superweapon: a human-level button (on a machine that supposedly had to be controlled by Bruticus, who towers above your average TF, which is why ''the entire episode was about finding all of Bruticus' scattered parts'') clearly marked "Over Load." Yes, two words. You push it, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the thing overloads]] and explodes. (Oh, making a device so big you supposedly can't use it yourself? Not much better. Like we said... it was bad.)

[[caption-width:241:No way that button could ever come back to bite them.]]

*** It seemed to work okay for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hyatt John Wesley Hyatt]] on Roundworld.

-->'''Yzma:''' ''[shaking off a crocodile]'' Why do we even ''have'' that lever?

*** Well... glow in the dark material is technically very, very minorly radioactive, so... ...no, I don't know how that fits in either...

* The trapdoor in ''RedSonja''. Lampshaded by TheNostalgiaCritic:
-->Oh Hey! Someone slid down the trapdoor leading from the outside to the dining room!... Why did we have that installed again?

* He-Man and She-Ra's [[ChristmasEpisode Christmas Special]] shows Orko lauching a rocket thats manipulated by one easily breakable lever. Lampshaded by TheNostalgiaCritic.

** [[{{Maniette}} I]] believe it says in ''The Last Hero'' that he made a bomb out of ''common sand and water''.

* The ''DoctorWho'' episode ''Blink'' features the Doctor [[spoiler:has been sent back to 1969 by one of the Weeping Angels]] constructs a device from various unrelated objects, including a casette and a flashlight to detect other "travellers".

** In one episode, Doofenshmirtz spends an entire episode looking for an on-off switch so he can activate his latest -inator. It turns out that all the -inator does is open the cage that he had trapped Perry in.

* Hilariously parodied by CartoonNetwork with a ''{{Birdman}}'' short (link [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPKymEC_Hss here]]). Falcon 7 asks why Birdman allows [[LoyalAnimalCompanion Avenger]] on his console, while Birdman insists he's "fully-trained" and demonstrates by ordering Avenger to press the Coffee button...which is right next to the Doomsday button. [[spoiler:He gets the coffee, but accidentaly hit the Doomsday button too.]]

* Really, dungeons in general in DungeonsAndDragons. They often have way more traps in them than any reasonable person would be willing to live with. It would be the one day you're preoccupied by an argument with your Beholder and you forget to hit the hidden switch that disables the disintegration trap on your bedroom door.

*** And the hoho, which is like a haha but deeper[[hottip:*:a ha-ha is a special kind of fence designed to be invisible from one side, as it is recessed into the ground. In real life, they vary from two to nine feet deep. The hoho was over fifty feet deep]]. It has already claim the lives of several palace gardeners.

** A similar DeathCourse with chutes and flames appears in ''RaceToWitchMountain''.

** Later episodes would show pretty much ''every door regardless of place'' [[BackgroundGag with the same two buttons]].

* In ''BOT,'' the ''TransformersGeneration1'' episode considered the most SoBadItsHorrible/SoBadItsGood in the TF franchise's 25-ish year history, one of the many, many, ''many'' WallBanger moments was the solution to the Decepticons' superweapon: a human-level button (on a machine that supposedly had to be controlled by Bruticus, who towers above your average TF, which is why ''the entire episode was about finding all of Bruticus' scattered parts'') clearly marked "Over Load." Yes, two words. You push it, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the thing overloads]] and explodes. (Oh, making a device so big you supposedly can't use it yourself? Not much better. Like we said... it was bad.)

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BOT-Overload_6711.jpg

* ''TheEmperorsNewGroove'': As indicated by the page quote, the entrance to Yzma's secret lab has a lever that opens a TrapDoor to a [[{{SharkPool}} Croc Pool]].

---> ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove''