History Main / OxymoronicBeing

-->-- ''[[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red]]''[[note]]Youmu is a "half-ghost"[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'':

* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' usually follows DevilButNoGod, but somehow one devil embodies the rather [[AbsurdPhobia bizarre fear]] of ''angels''. The resulting "devil angel" [[DivinelyAppearingDemons looks like a stereotypical (humanoid) angel]], [[NonMaliciousMonster holds no ill will to humans]], but doesn't really care about them either, and is a WalkingWasteland who would kill them on contact.
** Justified, as people being terrified of angels in Literature/TheBible gave birth to the angel's introduction phrase: "Be Not Afraid", which has reached [[AngelicAbomination memetic status]] nowadays.

* ''Literature/{{Confessions}}'': To demonstrate that YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm, the opening juxtaposes the necessary characteristics of {{God}} that seem impossible to maintain together, like His extreme activity and extreme restfulness or His ability to cause change and His immutability.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' has enormous hamsters living between the worlds, appropriately known as giant space hamsters. There's also a lesser-known tiny variety, the miniature giant space hamster, which for most intents and purposes is merely a hamster. They're best known for appearing in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', in which Minsc has one as a pet. (For a long time, this was in the category of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, but ''VideoGame/BaldursGate3'' makes it explicitly on the "magic" end.)

** ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' has enormous hamsters living between the worlds, appropriately known as giant space hamsters. There's also a lesser-known tiny variety, the miniature giant space hamster, which for most intents and purposes is merely a hamster. They're best known for appearing in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', in which Minsc has one as a pet. (Well, maybe. He's not exactly sane enough to be a reliable source on that.)

** Paradox Pokemon Sandy Shocks is a prehistoric version of Magneton, itself a MechanicalLifeform. It's also Ground/Electric, the same type combination that qualifies regular Stunfisk for this trope ([[UniquenessDecay and the introduction of Sandy Shocks makes regular Stunfisk no longer the only Ground/Electric Pokemon in existence]]).
** Of particular note is Walking Wake, a past Paradox Pokémon, meaning its Protosynthesis ability increases its best stat in sunlight. But it’s a Water type, and Water moves are normally weakened by this weather condition. But Walking Wake has a move, Hydro Steam, that is itself oxymoronic; a Water move that gets a power-up in Sun.

* White dwarf stars, the corpses of low and medium-mass stars, despite such name are not always white. Young ones appear blue due to their high surface temperatures (up to more than 100,000° C), and the oldest ones shine yellow, orange, and even red after billions of years cooling down.

* Himself from ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons''. According to the internal logic of the universe, [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Devils]] exist in one of two forms. In their primal form, devils are unnamed, unbound and unmasked; mindless {{Eldritch Abomination}}s devoid of anything but the pure need to feed. By being summoned and bound by others, they are named, bound and masked, at which point they take on a form, gain sentience and the ability to form memories. Bound Devils live to collect names (through [[DealWithTheDevil Deals With Humans]]), with a FantasticCasteSystem where a Devil's power and mask colour is tied to how many names they have collected and shed from themselves; the most powerful Bound Devils have only a few, high-tier names for themselves while lower-caste ones have a large collection they haven't been able to sieve through for the really good ones yet; the most powerful ones have only one name, [[IKnowYourTrueName which is their own]]. Then there's Himself. His name is, well, [[ShapedLikeItself "Myself"]]. In other words, he appears to be a Devil who has named and bound ''himself'', an oxymoron since Devils inherently lack the sentience to do that.

** Both the Incarnation and Trinity, mentioned earlier, have been argued as being contradictions, thus logically impossible. Other attributes of God have also been argued to be incompatible, such as being perfect vs. a creator (a perfect being has no reason to create things), changeless vs. omniscient (a changeless being cannot know things different times, but it's required for omniscience) and transcendent vs. omnipresent (a transcendent being must be outside space-time, but an omnipresent being must be everywhere), to name a few of them. Responses have been made of course, and new arguments after that, so the debate continues.

Compare and contrast the ParadoxPerson, whose existence actually defies the natural order. See also HybridOverkillAvoidance, which aims to stop this, as well as HybridsAreACrapshoot, where Hybrid Overkill Avoidance is averted but not quite to this extreme.

* [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'':

* [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Brain Guy/Observer]] from the later seasons of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' is this. He claims to be an evolved being (specifically, a brain in a pan carried around by a "host body"), but in practice, his "powers" [[NotSoOmnipotentAfterAll barely do anything]]. At one point, he even goes "I'm not ''that'' omnipotent, Pearl."

* [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Brain Guy/Observer]] from the later seasons of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' is this. He claims to be an evolved being (specifically, a brain in a pan carried around by a "host body"), but in practice, his "powers" barely do anything. At one point, he even goes "I'm not ''that'' omnipotent, Pearl."

** Octarine, the colour of magic that only magic users can see, is described as a sort of greenish-purple.

* A recurring note in ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'' is the title of the world's tallest hobbit--hobbits being the shortest beings in Middle-Earth. Bandobras Took held the record for a while at four foot five, which Merry and Pippin surpass after drinking ent-draught.

* Literature/ThursdayNext's daughter's boyfriend is, like her, a mathemetical genius who discovered a three-digit prime number which is even. That is, a number where the only divisors are itself and 1, but which can also be divided by 2. Since Thursday's entire world [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum Runs on Nonsensoleum]], this is pretty typical.

** The Book of Job makes mention of the Myrmecoleon, a half ant half lion creature. The ant part can only consume grain and the lion part can only eat meat, thus the Myrmecoleon is doomed to starve to death. The monster is supposed to be product of a mistranslation found in the Septuagint (First Greek translation) of the Old Testament, from the Book of Job.

* The common ParodyReligion known as the "Invisible Pink Unicorn": If it's always invisible, what does it even mean it's pink? (It's a combination of reason and faith: we know that she is invisible because we can't see her, but we believe that she is pink.)
* Also the Invisible RedStringOfFate, which is one of the things the Invisible Pink Unicorn references.

%%* FourX: In various games, your form of government can be self-contradictory, depending on the policies chosen. For example, a [[MartialPacifist pacifistic]] [[ANaziByAnyOtherName fascist]], a PoliceState enforcing free speech... the list goes on.%%List actual works.

* In the second installment of the ''Videogame/{{Boktai}}'' series, Red Durathror is a Sol-aligned Immortal - in short, a vampire associated with the PowerOfTheSun. Ironically, this makes her weak to the Darkness element - and at the point in the game where she's faced, the protagonist has just been changed into a {{Dhampyr}} with Darkness-based abilities.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': One type of armor is [[http://fallout.gamepedia.com/NCR_salvaged_power_armor NCR salvaged power armor]]. The servo-motors that make it easier to move are gone, thus making it PoweredArmor that isn't powered by anything. Attacks that normally do extra damage to power armor don't do so against salvaged power armor and it doesn't require Power Armor Training to use, but it doesn't boost your strength either.

** In ''Videogame/Persona5'', Morgana swears that he's human and fights to "regain his human form" and his memories to go with it - but he keeps having dreams that imply that he's a shadow of some kind, similar to the above. In the end, it turns out that [[spoiler:he isn't a shadow, but he isn't human either - he is the embodiment of hope that was somehow given a human-like heart and has a nature that is similar to, but not the same as, a shadow.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'': The Inklings and Octolings are evolved sea creatures that dissolve in water, being living ink blots and all. For an extra layer of oxymoron, their cultures are so stylish and fashion forward that areas like lake/seaside buildings and clothes designed for swimming are completely normal for them.

* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja''

** The Radical Lands are so cool that the sun in their sky wears sunglasses.

* In ''WebComic/TowerOfGod'', "Chosen Regulars" are those who have been chosen to ascend the Tower, and "Unchosen Irregulars" are {{Paradox Person}}s who enter the Tower from the outside without being chosen. However, an Irregular could still climb the Tower in the status of a Regular, such as in the case of the protagonist Baam. That makes such a person both Regular and Irregular, Chosen and Unchosen, having both a status defined by the Tower's rules and another one defined by defying them.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' features a "dry swamp". Despite the name, it turns out to be simply a desert; to the frog inhabitants of the land, all wilderness is considered a form of swamp.

** When Sokka gives Toph a piece of the meteorite [[ThunderboltIron he used to make his sword]] he calls it "space earth", prompting Katara to question how there could be such a thing.

* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' had amongst Captain Hero's RoguesGallery The Gigantic Midget. He looked just like a normal guy wearing small clothes.
-->'''Gigantic Midget:''' You've never faced a midget as big as me!

** Leela mentions returning from a vacation at [[SpaceX Space Earth]] once.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' gives us the episode "Dark Heart", which features ComicBook/TheAtom versus a giant {{nanomachine|s}}.
-->'''Atom:''' He's bigger than my car now, Katie. Personally, I blame you.
** Another episode had Solomon Grundy come BackFromTheDead (long story), and when Green Lantern tells Vixen about it ("Funny thing is, he's supposed to be dead!"), she points out "Aren't all zombies, by definition, dead?" GL isn't quite sure how to respond to that.

* ''Franchise/LooneyTunes'': "The Hole Idea" has protagonist Calvin Q. Calculus [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome apparently]] figure out how to create a round square.
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' has Abrodolph Lincoler, a being Rick created by mixing the DNA of Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler. His idea was to create a morally neutral superleader. Instead, he created a being who is constantly feeling cognitively dissonant and morally confused about his very conflicting ideas (for example, believing in the emancipation of African-Americans, but also believing in eradicating inferior genes).

* In ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'', Ivan [[AManIsNotAVirgin has never actually had sex]], but has found himself involved in non-penetrative sex acts (blowjobs, massages, etc) with a great deal of regularity. For this reason, one group labels him a "virgin harlot."

** Paradox Pokemon Sandy Shocks is a prehistoric version of Magneton, itself a MechanicalLifeform. It's also Ground/Electric, the same type combination that qualifies regular Stunfisk above for this trope ([[UniquenessDecay and the introduction of Sandy Shocks makes regular Stunfisk no longer the only Ground/Electric Pokemon in existence]]).

** Paradox Pokemon Sandy Shocks is a prehistoric version of Magneton, itself a MechanicalLifeform.

For the record, no, "[[AcceptablePoliticalTargets honest politician]]" and "[[{{Pun}} military intelligence]]" don't count.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'': The Xeg-Yi is native to the Negative Energy Plane, which is a plane of, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin negative energy]], something associated with death. Most inhabitants of the plane are undead, but the Xeg-Yi is a living creature. A living creature that is composed of negative energy. Even one sourcebook where its official stats are detailed mentions how contradictory its existence sounds. (In fact, its counterpart, the Xag-Ya, which is native to the Positive Material Plane, doesn't make much sense either. A living being shouldn't be able to have much individuality in a place that is life incarnate.)
** From 3rd edition onward, "Giant" is a creature type, which is independent from size. Although most giants are at least of Large size, it is perfectly possible to have Medium-sized giants (notably, half-giants and forest trolls). Similarly, fire giants are described as looking like giant dwarves in terms of their body proportions.

* The Book of Job makes mention of the Myrmecoleon, a half ant half lion creature. The ant part can only consume grain and the lion part can only eat meat, thus the Myrmecoleon is doomed to starve to death. The monster is supposed to be product of a mistranslation found in the Septuagint (First Greek translation) of the Old Testament, from the Book of Job.