History Main / LiteralGenie

* The Christmas programme ''Series/BernardAndTheGenie'' starring Creator/AlanCumming, Creator/LennyHenry, and Creator/RowanAtkinson.

** Marisbury Animusphere wished to be rich and respected by his peers. He got... truckloads of money and the respect of his peers. This is notably the ''only'' wish we see that didn't backfire in some fashion, because it was so simple and straightforward that he could easily visualize what he wanted and the Grail could give it to him with no trouble.

Not to be confused with ExactWords. A more mundane version is LiteralMinded. A highly specific, villainous version is UnhandThemVillain. Compare ZerothLawRebellion and BluntMetaphorsTrauma. SuperTrope to TheGenieInTheMachine and GoneHorriblyRight. If a genie goes out of their way to fulfill the spirit and intention of a person's wishes without any careful wording required, they're a BenevolentGenie. On the opposite end, if they always make a terrible interpretation of your wish, no matter how absurd that interpretation or how well the wish was worded, they're a JackassGenie. See also RealityWarpingIsNotAToy. Generally involves some form of DoubleMeaning. If the wisher decides not to play the game, and wishes for no wishes (or some other paradox), it's {{Wishplosion}}.

* The Papyrus of Binding in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'''s episode "[[Recap/DuckTales2017S3E16TheFirstAdventure The First Adventure]]". When it is found, the previous owner, notorious pirate Yellow Beak, has written a will declaring the various misfortunes the Papyrus had brought upon him and his crew[[note]]asking for escape from his pursuers stranded him on the top of a mountain on a deserted island and asking for water drowned his crew[[/note]] and he used the powers of the Papyrus to MercyKill him. The Papyrus also takes the users own definitions into account as when [[TheDragon Black Heron]] tries to use it to kill off young [[WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck Donald]] and Della, it doesn't work because she wrote "sidekicks," but Scrooge considers them family, and it's not a "mission," but an adventure. [[spoiler:It all comes to a head in the GrandFinale "[[Recap/DuckTales2017S3E22TheLastAdventure The Last Adventure]]" when [[BigBad Bradford]] spent 30 years trying to RulesLawyer a MagicallyBindingContract using the Papyrus in order to stamp out any LoopholeAbuse in order to prevent Scrooge from adventuring for the safety of his family. He succeeds, but Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby realize there is one loophole Bradford never considered: "[[ArcWords Family is the greatest adventure of all!]]" Upon this revelation, the contract breaks and the Papyrus disintegrates.]]

** [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-07-08 2014-07-08]]: "I wish my parents were still alive." ''Who'' comes back to life after this surprises him rather nastily.
** [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-09-20 2012-09-20]] has a man (implied to be a lawyer) [[WishingForMoreWishes wish for unlimited wishes]] by forcing a genie to abide by this trope.

* ''Manhwa/IWish'' has K start off as this when he first became a wish-fulfilling magician. A man wishes to never have to see idiots again? K makes him blind. A fat woman wishes to be as thin as a bone? K turns her into a bone. He got better as he continued his work.

* A man gets one wish from a genie and says "Well, genie, I wish I could be you!" The genie snaps his fingers, and nothing happens. He then replies "That was a crappy wush, don't you thunk?"

* The humor/adventure fantasy novel ''Literature/CaptainsOutrageous'' uses this in the last paragraph of the book. Sorcerer Bosamp has been manipulated into trying to destroy the world by a dragon (divine beings in this setting) with the promise of a beautiful world of his own to rule. Bosamp is defeated and imprisoned, and the dragon is punished by her superiors. As the dragons' punishment begins, he superior grudgingly admires her cleverness in manipulating Bosamp, since she actually would have granted him his own beautiful world... with poisonous air and crushing gravity.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': The Holy Grail [[spoiler:when it's working properly]] is one of these. It's capable of granting any wish, but the person making the wish has to have in mind some way of making it come true. In the ''Literature/FateApocrypha'' spin-off, one character brings up the example of a mage who wishes to be the most powerful mage in the world, but in his mind his idea is that everyone better than him should be dead, thus resulting in the Grail killing everyone better than the mage in order to grant that wish. And in the original work, [[spoiler:the Einzberns tried to summon Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrian GodOfEvil, as the Servant Avenger, hoping to get an invincible demon, but instead got a weak human who was [[TheScapegoat ritually sacrificed]] thus becoming the source of the legend. However, because he represented a wish for an embodiment of "All the World's Evil" that everyone could blame for their suffering, when he entered the Grail, the Grail tried to grant that wish and would have summoned such a being if someone tried to make a wish on the Grail]].

** In "[[Recap/AngelS05E05LifeOfTheParty Life of the Party]]", Lorne finds himself writing, rather than reading, people's destinies after having his sleep removed. Spike becomes upbeat, Fred and Wesley become drunk, Gunn begins to mark his territory (by peeing on things), and Angel and Eve find themselves [[CoitusUninterruptus uncontrollably]] [[CursedWithAwesome having sex.]]

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' has two different genie episodes. In the first, the genie is explicitly shown as being sent to screw with the witches, so their wishes going wrong is justified. In the second, a secondary character happens to have a book of perfectly phrased wishes to say to genies so as not to mess things up. That same episode shows that genies actually have control over how they grant the wish, such as when [[spoiler:Phoebe makes Piper and Leo literally sleep together when Chris wishes it]].

** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E9SomethingBlue Something Blue]]", Willow foolishly casts a "My will be done" spell on herself, then accidentally strikes Giles blind, turns Xander into a demon-magnet, and gets Buffy and Spike engaged through her foolish use of figurative language.

** A specific example: in the episode "The Man in the Bottle", an old couple uncork a genie who can grants wishes, but warns of the price to them. When the couple figures out to carefully word their wishes, the husband wishes to be a leader for life in a modern European nation, but he still messes up when the genie gleefully turns him into UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler at the fall of Berlin. Understandably, he quickly uses the last wish to turn himself back to normal. The episode ends on a bittersweet note, with the husband telling his wife that all things considered the lives they have now isn't ''that'' bad (the episode opened with them facing bankruptcy), and that as long as they have each other they can try to overcome their problems themselves without relying on magic.

* In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02TheBeginning'', [[spoiler:Ukkomon is one, making any wish of Lui come true. However, he does so without regard to the free will of others, which eventually led to a breakdown on Lui's part when he believes that his wish for friends led to the creation of an entire race of subservient, freedomless sentient beings]].

* The Papyrus of Binding in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'''s episode "[[Recap/DuckTales2017S3E16TheFirstAdventure The First Adventure]]". When it is found, the previous owner, notorious pirate Yellow Beak, has written a will declaring the various misfortunes the Papyrus had brought upon him and his crew[[note]]asking for escape from his pursuers stranded him on the top of a mountain on a deserted island and asking for water drowned his crew[[/note]] and he used the powers of the Papyrus to MercyKill him. The Papyrus also takes the users own definitions into account as when [[TheDragon Black Heron]] tries to use it to kill off young [[WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck Donald]] and Della, it doesn't work because she wrote "sidekicks," but Scrooge considers them family, and it's not a "mission," but an adventure. [[spoiler:It all comes to a head in the GrandFinale "[[Recap/DuckTales2017S3E22TheLastAdventure The Last Adventure]]" when [[BigBad Bradford]] spent 30 years trying to RulesLawyer a MagicallyBindingContract using the Papyrus in order to stamp out any LoopholeAbuse in order to prevent Scrooge from adventuring for the safety of his family. He succeeds, but Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby realize there is one loophole Bradford didn't realize, that Scrooge considers "[[ArcWords family the greatest adventure of all!]]" and the contract breaks.]]

* In ''Literature/BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor'' ([[Series/{{Goosebumps}} which has also been adapted for TV]]), Samantha Bird is an especially {{Genre Blind|ness}} victim of a wish-granting witch, never realizing that her words are being taken literally. Her wish to be the most talented basketball player on her team (she's a big klutz) causes everyone else to be weaker, her wish for the AlphaBitch to become her friend turns said girl into an insane stalker, then she wishes for the AlphaBitch to have found the wish-granting crone instead. She ends up as a bird thanks to the other girl's wish.

** In the episode "Finn the Human/Jake the Dog", the RealityWarper Prismo is like this. [[spoiler:When Finn wishes that [[TheDreaded The Lich]] never existed, he is transported to a post-apocalyptic AlternateUniverse where the Lich never existed, but in that alternate universe, Finn becomes the Ice King instead of Simon Petrikov. Prismo tells Jake that he also has one wish, and Jake says he wants a [[MundaneWish sandwich]]. Prismo tells him that since wishes are literal, he should probably wish for something like saving Finn, and be very specific about it. He even describes it as a "[[Literature/TheMonkeysPaw Monkey's Paw]] kind of thing". When Jake still doesn't get it, Prismo ends up spelling out the wish Jake should make.]]

** A ''very'' common "scam" is to sell tickets offering prizes worth an amount like $2000 and with high odds of winning. The winner receives a coupon book, and the total savings by purchasing every single discounted product will add up to $2000.

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': This is discussed in the "Heart of the Monster" arc when Hulk and his team encounter a Wishing Well.

->'''[[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules Amadeus Cho]]:''' Okay, then. Wishes 101. Whatever you ask for comes back to you in the most jacked up way imaginable. [[Literature/TheMonkeysPaw You ask for your dead son back? He shows up as a walking corpse.]]\\