History Main / InventionalWisdom

* PlayedForLaughs at the end of the video for Music/{{Genesis}}' "Land of Confusion", featuring puppets by the crew of ''Series/SpittingImage''. After a bad dream and in need of water, the puppet UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan tries to call for a nurse from his bed, and reaches for two buttons right next to each other labeled "Nurse" and "Nuke". Guess which one he presses instead.

* The trope image comes from ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' episode "[[Recap/TransformersG1BOT B.O.T.]]", which is about the Decepticons trying to rebuild Bruticus because he is supposedly the only one big enough to use their gigantic superweapon (even though they still have both Devastator and Menasor). Despite the Decepticons' success, the Autobots manage to foil their plans and destroy it. How do they do this? The B.O.T. presses a button on a ''human-level'' control panel clearly marked "Over Load" [''sic'']. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin True to its label]], [[SelfDestructButton it overloads the superweapon and makes it explode]]. This and numerous other nonsense moments in the story contribute to its reputation as the worst episode in the franchise's history.

* In ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'', it's revealed that several of Dr. Light's robots have Good/Evil switches for no obvious reason. Bass, not having been created by Dr. Light, nevertheless has an Evil/Stupid switch (which is [[TheDitz firmly in the "Stupid" position almost all the time]].)

* In ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'', the Rangers are desperate to disengage the Ninja Megazord from Ivan Ooze, so one Ranger hits the big button behind emergency glass. It [[spoiler:delivers a GroinAttack.]]

Compare with CowTools, where nothing about the machine makes sense. Contrast with MundaneUtility, where simply being what it is lets the device do something useful -- cooking popcorn with your DeathRay, for instance. Frequently overlaps with SelfDestructMechanism. See also CapsLockNumLockMissilesLock.

* The Chompers in mid-passageway in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', Gwen lampshades how ridiculous it is that there is a DeathCourse in the middle of the ship.

** He also designed a nice, upper-class neighbourhood that just happened to break the laws of space and time. You can just throw the trash out of the window into the yard, since it's probably not your yard, anyway. Front doors of one residence have a habit of opening into the bedrooms of another. It also has a very low crime rate, as thieves generally prefer to break into one house at a time.

The name, for the record, is a play off of Conventional Wisdom, in reference to the fact that an inventor holding the SanityBall would never install such things to begin with.

* The Chompers in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', Gwen lampshades how ridiculous it is that there is a DeathCourse in the middle of the ship.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has BunglingInventor "Bloody Stupid" Johnson, who has added quite a number of useless and dangerous things to his inventions.

** He also designed a nice, upper-class neighbourhood that just happened to break the laws of space and time. You can just throw the trash out of the window into the yard, since it's probably not your yard, anyway. It's also has a very low crime rate, as thieves generally prefer to break into one house at a time.

** And his pipe organs usually include special sound effects such as thunder or animal noises, with at least one example also being connected to the building's plumbing system. The UU organ, located in the middle of a city with a million inhabitants, also includes a pipe that plays the BrownNote so loud that it causes earthquakes.
* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' features the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, a company built entirely around this concept. In the words of the Guide itself, their corporate strategy is based on building devices whose "superficial design flaws completely mask their fundamental design flaws." In other words, you get so involved in getting the thing to work at all that you completely fail to realize that it's incapable of doing what it was made to do in the first place. From the first book alone, examples include a superintelligent robot with a suicidally depressed personality and an intelligent drink dispenser that, no matter what you ask for, always gives you exactly the same horrid concoction that is "perfectly tailored to your individual tastes."

* The [[http://www.stupidhackathon.com/ Stupid Shit No One Needs & Terrible Ideas Hackathon]] is, as the name might imply, all about producing this kind of thing. Participants have produced such gems as "[=NonAd=] Block" (blocks all content except ads) and "Outcognito Mode" (publicly tweets everything you do).

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', Stu builds a doll-making machine, only for the dolls it makes to turn out wrong (i.e body upside down, legs attached to head, arms at wrong end). It's later revealed during Tommy and Chuckie's adventure in the basement that the reason for this was because [[HadTheSillyThingInReverse it was set in reverse]], which Tommy inadvertently fixed when he held the lever for ballast to grab Chuckie and ended up setting it into 'Forward'. Still, one has to wonder why Stu never noticed that error, let alone put a forward/reverse lever on the machine in the first place.

* In the episode of ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' where the three-headed son of the chicken from outer space appears to take revenge on Courage, one of the attempts was a complex {{Rube Goldberg|Device}} [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts booby trap]] that lead to Courage being ChainedToARailway while the three-headed son came at him on a train. Courage managed to save himself by throwing a track switch, after which the three heads looked over the plans and wondered why in the world that was included in the trap.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Home}}'', Oh complains about the wisdom of an e-mail system in which "send" and "send all" are two giant buttons on the same screen. One also wonders why a personal communication device has the means to transmit a galaxy-wide message.

* ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'': The submarine has an easily-accessed ejector-seat button. Captain Fred even ''points it out'' to Ringo, who [[WhatAnIdiot then presses it]] and finds himself discharged into the Sea of Monsters.

* Parodied by Creator/CartoonNetwork with a ''WesternAnimation/{{Birdman}}'' short (link [[https://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 accidentally hit the Doomsday button too.]]

* Repeatedly {{Lampshaded}} in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'', where it is apparently a fundamental rule of [[TheSparkOfGenius Mad Science]] powers that anything they make will include a SelfDestructMechanism, whether or not there is any logical reason for one or the inventor intended to put one in.
** Also comes up in [[Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIHaveHenchmen the third book]], where Penny builds a machine that makes a horde of rampaging giant robots. She actually admits that she has no particular reason to ''want'' a horde of rampaging giant robots, but still leaves the machine intact. And sure enough, at the book's climax the machine is activated and we get a rampaging horde of giant robots.

** When the evil Leena is trapped in her own prototype, the De-pruner, her coworkers hit the "decapitate" button.

** Zigzagged with a voice-operated temperature changer Dilbert installed in his shower. While he calibrated it to respond only to his voice so that [[{{Jerkass}} Dogbert]] cannot mess with it while he's in there, it reacts to ''any'' number he says, regardless of context, which Dogbert takes advantage of by commenting that the device's voice sounds like "the computer from that stupid movie", and trying to remember it's name, tricking Dilbert into say "It was ''Film/TwoThousandAndOneASpaceOdyssey''", with expected results.

-->'''Dogbert:''' On the plus side, you look very clean.

** Zigzagged with a voice-operated temperature changer Dilbert installed in his shower. While he calibrated it to respond only to his voice so that [[{{Jerkass}} Dogbert]] cannot mess with it while he's in there, it reacts to ''any'' number he says, regardless of context, which Dogbert takes advantage of by commenting that the device's voice sounds like "the computer from that stupid movie", and trying to remember it's name, tricking Dilbert into say "It was ''Film/2001ASpaceOdyssey''", with expected results.
-->'''Dogbert:''' On the plus side, you look very clean.

** Zigzagged with a voice-operated temperature changer Dilbert installed in his shower. While he calibrated it to respond only to his voice so that [[{{Jerkass}} Dogbert]] cannot mess with it while he's in there, it reacts to ''any'' number he says, regardless of context, which Dogbert takes advantage of by commenting that the device's voice sounds like "the computer from that stupid movie", and trying to remember it's name, tricking Dilbert into say "It was ''Film/TwoThousandAndOneASpaceOdyssey''", with expected results.
-->'''Dogbert:''' On the plus side, you look very clean.

** Zigzagged with a voice-operated temperature changer Dilbert installed in his shower. While he calibrated it to respond only to his voice so that [[{{Jerkass}} Dogbert]] cannot mess with it while he's in there, it reacts to ''any'' number he says, regardless of context, which Dogbert takes advantage of by commenting that the device's voice sounds like "the computer from that stupid movie", and trying to remember it's name, tricking Dilbert into say "It was ''Film/2001ASpaceGalaxy''", with expected results.
-->'''Dogbert:''' On the plus side, you look very clean.

** Zigzagged with a voice-operated temperature changer Dilbert installed in his shower. While he calibrated it to respond only to his voice so that [[{{Jerkass}} Dogbert]] cannot mess with it while he's in there, it reacts to ''any'' number he says, regardless of context, which Dogbert takes advantage of by commenting that the device's voice sounds like "the computer from that stupid movie", and trying to remember it's name, tricking Dilbert into say "It was ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceGalaxy''", with expected results.
-->'''Dogbert:''' On the plus side, you look very clean.

** Dilbert also installed a voice-operated temperature changer in the shower. Which reacts to ''any'' number he says, regardless of context. [[{{Jerkass}} Dogbert]] is disappointed to find he himself cannot change the temperature when Dilbert is taking a shower, but he can ask about "That movie with the crazy computer..." "You mean '2001'?"

*** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that to make genuine ice cream, [[RealityIsUnrealistic you do in fact]] [[ViolationOfCommonSense have to cook it.]]

* In ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' the villain has a suit that he can use to shock people. For reasons that are not entirely clear, but possibly related to the guy who built it not entirely trusting his boss ([[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness with good reason]]), there's a button on the front that causes it to electrocute the guy wearing it.

-->-- '''Yzma''', ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove''

* In ''Film/RedPlanet'' the heroes bring a helper robot that was originally built by the military. It has a physical switch for whether or not to kill everyone. To their credit, they set it to "no" at the beginning of the movie, but perhaps they should have removed it? Or at least duct-taped it that way before the crash-landing?

* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool'' naturally has taken the infamous "wrong lever" from [[WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove the movie the show spun off from]] and turned it into a RunningGag, the results of which are [[DifferentInEveryEpisode different almost every time]], ranging from Yzma being crushed by falling objects, to pulling the school's fire alarm, to nothing, prompting Yzma and Kronk to take the stairs to the secret lab.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' Stan dies and goes to Heaven, and tries to use his gun to threaten people into sending him back to Earth. Everyone laughs at the idea that they could be harmed in Heaven, until Stan steals an Angel Gun which can kill anyone. As he runs out, one guy questions why they have those.