History Main / UnexpectedlyRealMagic

* A short story called ''The Gazing Ball'' has a very benign example--a little girl's father buys a new home with a garden--within this garden is a faerie garden for her, complete with gazing ball. When she looks in the ball, she expects to see herself--but sees a fox-like creature, who likewise didn't expect to see a human girl in ''his'' gazing ball. The two begin a VERY long-distance friendship that takes an unexpected turn when their respective worlds make contact. Alas, by the time it's possible for their people to easily travel from one planet to another, a century has passed since the two first made contact, [[DreamCrushingHandicap which means they are far too old to make the trip]], and never see each other face-to-face.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/calvin_snowman.png]]]]

* ''Series/NightGallery'': In the episode "Professor Peabody's Last Lecture", a skeptical professor reads aloud from [[TomeOfEldrichLore The Necronomicon]] in order to demonstrate that there is nothing supernatural about it. Needless to say, this does not end well for him.

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/CaptainUnderpantsTheFirstEpicMovie Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie]]'', to avoid being punished by Principal Krupp, George and Harold wave a toy ring around claiming that's it's a mind control ring in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to intimidate Krupp. What they don't know is that the "toy" is not a toy at all, but an actual mind control ring, and they actually succeed at controlling Krupp's mind, creating [[JekyllandHyde the Captain Underpants persona]] and thus setting the plot of the movie in motion.

** In ''Expiration Date'', a psychiatrist named Angelica Elizalde started using occult symbols and rituals in her treatments, thinking of them as just useful metaphors. Then a seance turned into the real thing, ending up with a dead patient and her career in ruins.

* In a NoodleIncident from ''Literature/TheAnubisGates'', a group of dabbling amateur spiritualists were holding a SpookySeance near one of the time gateways when it opened up. Proximity to such open gateways causes magic, most of which has [[TheMagicGoesAway long since faded from the world]], to become locally functional again. This is implied to be why the seance's participants - none of whom were prepared for a ''successful'' outcome - were all found dead the next morning, with looks of shock and horror about ''what'' they had summoned on their faces.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. A symbol from a theology textbook used in a prank, and accidentally activated turning the prank ghost real.

* In a NoodleIncident from ''Literature/TheAnubisGates'', a group of spiritualists were holding a SpookySeance near one of the time gateways when it opened up. Proximity to such open gateways causes magic, most of which has [[TheMagicGoesAway long since faded away]], to become locally functional again. This is implied to be why the seance's participants were all found dead the next morning, with looks of shock and horror about ''that'' they had summoned on their faces.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' had three lonely depressed college girls attempting to perform a spell on 3 animals that turns them into attractive men. To their surprise, the spell works.

* {{Webcomic/Spinnerette}}: In the settings lore, the ''[[{{TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons}} D&D rulebook]]'' had actual magic spells in it. A villain uses it to become a [[SpiderPeople drider]].

* Literature/{{Unsong}}: [[https://unsongbook.com/chapter-8-laughing-to-scorn-thy-laws-and-terrors/ Chapter 8]]:

* In the WesternAnimation/SouthPark episode "Hell on Earth 2006", a running joke throughout the episode is various characters being dared into summoning [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Biggie Smalls]] in a Bloody Mary-type ritual. Most end up chickening out and defending their actions by saying it's not real, only to try later when they're alone and succeed in summoning Biggie.

* ''Theatre/DoctorFaustus'' Subverted - The inverse of this happens when John Faustus recites a conjuring spell he is given and when the messenger to the Devil appears he thinks that it has somehow works. The demon tells him that it didn't work, but he was listening anyway and decided to find out what Faustus was doing, especially because Faustus was blaspheming and the demon really likes that.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' did this at least once, with somebody drawing a magic circle "out of a book" and somebody else ''just happening'' to bleed on it (what are the odds?).

** In ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'', the hitherto incompetent wizard Rincewind, pursued by a mob intent on wreaking revenge on all things wizardly, throws his usual desperate bluff to gain time. Rincewind's tactic in a fight is to strike the pose of a wizard about to cast a lethal spell, knowing GenreSavvy pursuers will realise ''exactly'' what it means when a Wizard strikes a pose with arms extended and fingers poised to deliver death. It usually buys Rincewind enough time to run and get away, or else to do the unexpected and deliver a more mundane punch or kick. But to his surprise, for the very first time the magic ignites, his fingers crackle with octarine fire, and people get killed. He just wasn't expecting this.

* In one ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' episode, Shaggy and Scooby find a spell book and read a couple of spells from it, finding them ridiculous. What they don't know is that the spells have turned them into monsters and then back to normal without them ever realizing it.

* The premise of ''Film/{{Ouija}}'' is that a bunch of kids play a OuijiaBoard as a joke, only for it to turn out to really summon spirits, causing all types of wacky hijinks.
* The Disney movie ''Disney/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'' has a reversed example. Miss Price is a spinster who enrolled for mail-order witchcraft lessons so she can use the mailed spells to aid Britain's war efforts during WWII. However she receives a letter informing her that the remaining classes were canceled, just before she gets the one spell she really needs. She (along with some children assigned to her care) travel to London via a enchanted teleporting bed to confront Mr.Brown, the administrator of the classes, so she can get that spell. However it turns out that Mr.Brown is a fraud, who doesn't think magic actually exists and was just selling transcripts of the spells he found in an incomplete 'spellbook', hoping that gullible individuals will pay for 'fake' magic spells from a faraway 'headmaster' they've never met. The idea that the spells would actually work for anyone, such as Miss Price, never occurred to him to be an actual possibility. After being convinced of the existence of magic by a temporary bout of BalefulPolymorph, much of the plot afterwards is for the group to search for the other half of Brown's spellbook for clues for the one spell Miss Price seeks.

* In one ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' episode, Shaggy and Scooby find a spell book and read a couple of spells from it, finding them ridiculous. What they don't know is that the spells have turn them into monsters and then back to normal without them ever realizing it.

Contrast SorcerersApprenticePlot when the character knows something really is magical but doesn't realize the potential danger (and then gets scolded by their mentor). Contrast MagicMisfire, where the caster is serious about trying to cast magic, but messes it up. Compare and contrast RealAfterAll, which is when the "real thing" only shows up at the end when everyone thought the thing in question was a fake. See also IdiotBall and SchmuckBait. Can overlap with EvilIsNotAToy and GenreBlind.

* ''VideoGame/LegendaryTheBox'' opens with thief Charles Decker opening the item he was hired to steal, Pandora's Box, unaware of its true nature. This unleashes all manner of mythological beasts and grants him the magical power of the Signet.

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Index brainstorming:
* StupidityTropes
* IndexFailure (You fail to realize what you're doing is magic until it's too late)

Adopted by Miss Desperado, [[Administrivia/JustLaunchItAlready prepping for launch]].
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