History Main / OutlandishDeviceSetting

** [[BrickJoke Later in the episode]], a shrunken Mermaid Man asks, "[[StrangeMindsThinkAlike Did you set it to wumbo?]]"

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': In the [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1985/12/08 8 December 1985 Sunday strip]], Spaceman Spiff sets his RayGun to "deep fat fry".

* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'': Lone Star has just put his Space Winnebago into "hyperactive" in a bid to escape the eponymous Spaceballs. Dark Helmet orders pursuit. Col. Sanders tells them to prepare for light speed. Helmet says that light speed is too slow, and they're going to have to take the ship to '''''Ludicrous Speed'''''. The ship passes Lone Star and keeps going.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': In "[[Recap/ArthurS1E4DWsImaginaryFriendArthursLostLibraryBook D.W.'s Imaginary Friend]]", the amusement park
ride "Hurl-a-Whirl" has its settings labeled after food blender speeds. Naturally Arthur and Buster set their car to the highest setting: "liquefy".

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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': In "[[Recap/ArthurS1E4DWsImaginaryFriendArthursLostLibraryBook D.W.'s Imaginary Friend]]", the amusement part ride "Hurl-a-Whirl" has its settings labeled after food blender speeds. Naturally Arthur and Buster set their car to the highest setting: "liquefy".

Devices, appliances, and gadgets have become commonplace and everyday in our world. In fiction, someone may reach for a device they've never used before. Not certain how to use the device, they turn to ask for assistance, and are advised to put the device on a setting that utterly defies belief.

This is always played for comedy, and usually takes one of three way.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeeMovie'': During the fight scene in the bathroom, the showerhead Ken uses to attack Barry has three settings: Spray, Turbo and Lethal.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' begins with Roger appearing in the Maroon Cartoon "Somethin's Cookin'". Baby Herman escapes his playpen and manages to crawl along the kitchen countertops. During his crawl across a stovetop, Baby Herman's foot turns on the gas burners, and rolls the oven knob through "Low, Medium, High, Volcano." So, hot enough to melt rock. Of course, the oven brand is [[PunnyName Hotternell.]]

* ''Literature/TatuAndPatu'': In one book, Tatu and Patu recall some weird dreams they've had, and in Tatu's dream, he accidentally shrinks his head by setting his washing mashine to "skull shrink".

--> '''Tim Taylor:''' Once they stop glowing, they're probably ready to eat.

** The episode "Johnny Bench" has Johnny being assigned by Mr. Teacherman to build a bench in woodshop, only for Johnny to refuse to make it himself because of his dislike of Teacherman and being told what to do. Instead, he gets Susan and Mary's construction drones to build a hi-tech bench that by his own words will "make Teacherman freak out and give him an A". However, the drones [[LiteralMinded take this description too literally]] and include a setting called "Freak Out Teacher Mode" ("F.O.T." for short, the drones tried to mention it and all the bench's other features to Johnny, but he was too eager to hand it in to listen), which turns the bench into a killer robot that Johnny and Dukey have to stop from hunting down and killing Teacherman.

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* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' gives us this exchange when [=SpongeBob=] has just hit Squidward with the ShrinkRay on Mermaid Man's UtilityBelt ([[BroughtToYouByTheLetterS whose buckle is shaped like an M]]) and is trying to undo the damage:

'''Patrick:''' Oh come on SpongeBob! You know, I wumbo, you wumbo, he she me wumbo, wumbo, wumboing, we'll have the wumbo, wumborama, wumbology the study of wumbo? It's first grade, [=SpongeBob=]!

* ''Series/DoctorWho:'' In the ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances The Doctor Dances,]]'' Jack Harkness shows off how his sonic blaster, which functions as a DisintegratorRay, also possesses a "digital rewind" setting that enables it to put back things that it has disintegrated, in this case a section of a wall.

* ''ComicBook:{{Transmetropolitan}}'': The settings of the [[BrownNote bowel disruptor gun]] start out as ''mostly'' reasonable in context, such as "loose", "watery", or "prolapse", but as the story goes on and stakes get higher, its primary user Spider Jerusalem reveals it can do far worse: "Intestinal Maelstrom", "Unspeakable Gut Horror", "Rectal Volcano", and "Shat into Unconsciousness".

* ''WesternAnimation/ScaredySquirrel'': The episode "Aisle of the Dead" has the majority of Balsa City's citizens becoming zombies after drinking slushies from the Stash N' Hoard's new slushie machine. When Scaredy believes that everyone is just hot from the ongoing heat wave, he attempts to fix things by hosing all the victims in more of the beverage, only for it to inexplicably fail. It turns out the machine actually and literally has a "zombie" setting that it had accidentally been set to, making Scaredy and Sally the only two unzombified people left in the city and running for their lives from the oncoming hoard ([[SnapBack although everything is back to normal by the next episode]]).

* WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'': Played with. In one episode, Freddy, being InnocentlyInsensitive, tells Velma to "set your milky whiteness to stun."

-> ''How do I set my laser printer to stun?''

!!Examples

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' is a WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit cartoon about GeniusDitz inventor Wallace and his mute but HypercompetentSidekick Gromit working as garden pest controllers in a British neighborhood where gardening is almost a religion. While pursuing a giant rabbit, Gromit is driving the business vehicle, which is being pulled by a tow cable that has snared the rabbit. As the rabbit tries to escape through its tunnels, Gromit finds his windshield accumulating much loose earth. He engages the wipers, which have four settings: Rain, Snow, Loam, Heavy Loam. Perhaps this is not the first time this vehicle has had to travel underground.

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'': Lone Star has just put his Space Winnebago into "hyperactive" in a bid to escape the eponymous Space Balls. Dark Helmet orders pursuit. Col. Sanders tells them to prepare for light speed. Helmet says that light speed is too slow, and they're going to have to take the ship to '''''Ludicrous Speed'''''. The ship passes Lone Star and keeps going.
--> '''Lone Star:''' They must've overshot us by a week-and-a-half!

--> '''Roy:''' (closing his eyes and pressing buttons) Holy [[Creator/WilliamShatner Shatner!]]
* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' begins with Roger appearing in the Maroon Cartoon "Somethin's Cookin'." Baby Herman escapes his playpen and manages to crawl along the kitchen countertops. During his crawl across a stovetop, Baby Herman's foot turns on the gas burners, and rolls the oven knob through "Low, Medium, High, Volcano." So, hot enough to melt rock. Of course, the oven brand is [[PunnyName Hotternell.]]

-->''At 187 megawatts'': Just one more, then we'll stop.
-->''One paragraph later'': 1.875 gigwatts ([[ILied I lied about stopping]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': In "Operation I.-S.C.R.E.A.M.", when Sector V is breaking into the Tasty Taste Ice Cream Factory, Numbuh 3 melts the ice cream monster eating her teammates by turning the factory's heater to "Like, Eleventy Billion Degrees".

** The stereo system goes up to [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap eleven]]...[[NoKillLikeOverkill MILLION]]. Naturally, Coop weaponizes it.

* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'': Trying to impress a Hollywood director, Hamton and Plucky get jobs at a Hollywood restaurant, where one set of guests turn out to be [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Kirk, Spock, and [=McCoy=]]]. Upon being served, the cloche over the tray is lifted, revealing a live chicken.
--> '''Kirk:''' Bones, analysis?
--> '''Bones:''' It's raw, Jim.
--> '''Kirk:''' Set phasers...for...shake and bake. (Phasers are drawn and we cut away as the cast zaps the bird)
* The Creator/WarnerSevenArts cartoon "Solid Tin Coyote" has the coyote construct a huge robot coyote out of junkpile scrap. At one point, this giant robot actually captures the road runner. The coyote dials in the command "Eat, stupid" into his remote control. The robot proceeds to masticate and digest the coyote. FridgeLogic wonders why the coyote would want his robot to do the eating, rather than himself.

** Candace is trying to make lamb cobbler for Jeremy. Setting aside the outlandish ingredients she uses due to garbled transmissions with Ferb on the moon, she is told that it must bake at 350F for an hour. Pressed for time, Candace reasons that it will take three minutes at 9000F, and promptly sets her oven that high. Given that it's Phineas and Ferb, and other modifications the audience has seen them make around the house, no one even questions how a conventional oven can get that hot.

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[quoteright:288:[[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c&h_mertilizer_deep_fat_fry.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:288:Slightly above "liquefy" but below "well done".]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'': After being tricked by Plankton into believing that Mr. Krabs stole his crown and sold it to some guy in Shell City, King Neptune uses his trident to freeze Mr. Krabs in ice. Once his crown is returned and Plankton is defeated, Neptune attempts to unfreeze Mr. Krabs, but accidentally turns him into a human instead. Neptune notes that he must've had his trident set to "'real boy' ending", and quickly changes Mr. Krabs back to normal.

Finally, a character might be reading a list of settings and discover some bizarre settings of no use to the situation, such as a vehicle having settings more appropriate to a blender, e.g. puree, whi, or frappe.