| 1 | %% Image moved to this page per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1625499868003617900 |
| 2 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | [[quoteright:300:[[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CalvinHobbes_bats_report_2371.jpg]]]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:300:Even (most) ''first'' graders know this one.]] |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | ->'''Henry:''' You're safe. Bears can't climb trees.\ |
| 8 | '''Peter:''' Of ''course'' they can!\ |
| 9 | '''Henry:''' Oh. Then why are you up here? |
| 10 | -->-- ''Film/CocaineBear'' |
| 11 | |
| 12 | An instance where a character, usually but not always someone who is BookDumb if not TheDitz, proclaims an incorrect bit of information they learned from a highly questionable source if they researched it at all in the first place. Often, someone else will try to correct them. Almost always this is PlayedForLaughs. Often overlaps with EpicFail. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | See also DidntThinkThisThrough, when a plan goes awry from lack of planning. Expect a {{cloudcuckoolander}} or a KnowNothingKnowItAll to do this often. FutureImperfect is a specific version of this in which people misrepresent past cultures. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Compare LittleKnownFacts, HistoricalCharacterConfusion, GlobalIgnorance, EskimosArentReal, GretzkyHasTheBall, DontBeRidiculous (when attempted ''correction'' is more absurd than the original explanation), and TheBlindLeadingTheBlind. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ---- |
| 19 | !!Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly: |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 22 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 23 | * The famous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBfi8OEz0rA 'House Hippo']] [[PublicServiceAnnouncement PSA]] invokes this trope for the sake of AnAesop; by 'educating' the viewer about the titular fake animal in question before it admits that it's not actually real, and you should ask questions about what you see on television. |
| 24 | [[/folder]] |
| 25 | |
| 26 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 27 | * Chapter 140 of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' revealed that Fujiwara was under the impression that ''Anime/PrettyCure'' is a video game franchise. It also doubles as an ActorAllusion, as she shares [[Creator/KonomiKohara a voice actress]] with [[Anime/StarTwinklePrettyCure Cure Milky]] (whose season had just premiered a few weeks before the chapter was released). |
| 28 | -->'''Ishigami:''' Your knowledge of otaku culture is astoundingly shallow. |
| 29 | * ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' |
| 30 | ** ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire'': |
| 31 | *** When Ash first sees the Hoenn starters he assumes '''Treeko''' is the Water-Type, in spite of its name and color. |
| 32 | *** Jessie's first contest has Jessie command Seviper to use several moves it's incapable of learning, such as Sacred Fire, which can only be learned by [[OlympusMons Entei and Ho-Oh]]. This combined with Seviper accidentally launching Jessie out of the arena results in them getting [[EpicFail 0/30 points.]] |
| 33 | *** In one episode Jessie calls Team Rocket's latest Pokémon stealing contraption "the greatest invention since UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein invented the lightbulb". [[KidHasAPoint Max points out]] that it was UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison who invented the lightbulb. |
| 34 | ** ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl'': |
| 35 | *** One late Sinnoh episode has Team Rocket scheme to steal Kenny's Floatzel, believing Floatzel's inflation sac would make a good pillow for their boss. James is the only one of the trio to even note the (correct) possibility that Floatzel's inflation sac isn't removable from its body. |
| 36 | ** ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite'': |
| 37 | *** During Ash's battle against Elesa, he attempts to use Snivy's Attract to immobilize Elesa's Emolga, after Elesa used that strategy to beat his Palpitoad. However, Ash forgets that his Snivy and Elesa's Emolga are both girls, and Attract only works if the opposing Pokémon is the opposite gender of the user. Ash also forgets that Snivy's resistance to Electric-type attacks doesn't matter much when Emolga is part Flying-type, a type that Snivy is weak to. |
| 38 | *** Ash and his friends meet Cameron, a Unova League hopeful who says that he has all ''seven'' badges he needs to compete--except, as our heroes point out, he needs ''eight'' badges. He also believes that the Unova League tournament will be held in Ecruteak City -- which is in the ''Johto'' region. Oh, and when he finally gets to face Ash in a full battle in said tournament, he believes that "full battle" means "5-vs-5". It's actually 6-vs-6, meaning that he inadvertently handicaps himself. Amazingly, despite being a complete moron, he still manages to eliminate Ash due to sheer dumb luck. |
| 39 | *** Iris gets the opportunity to battle Ash's Charizard and is subsequently confused about why her Dragonite's Dragon Rush attack didn't do more damage to it, saying Charizard is part Dragon-type and should have taken super-effective damage. Everyone present is baffled by her claim before Ash pulls out his Pokedex to confirm to her that Charizard is actually a Fire/Flying type. Iris is left disappointed because she specializes in Dragon-types and really wanted to train a Charizard. |
| 40 | ** ''Anime/PokemonHorizonsTheSeries'': |
| 41 | *** The first time Roy fights Brassius' Sudowoodo, he incorrectly assumes it's a Grass-type Pokémon and has Fuecoco use Ember against it. Only after it shrugs off the Ember does Nemona point out it's actually a ''Rock''-type. Ironically, it has the ability to Terastallize into a Grass-type anyways. |
| 42 | * In ''Anime/MyHeroAcademiaWorldHeroesMission'', several characters claim the villain's 'Quirk Doomsday Theory' is unsubstantiated/mythical... including Katsuki Bakugo and Shouto Todoroki, who both dealt with children who had incredibly strong Quirks during the 'Remedial Licensing Exam' arc. The episode(s) in question address the 'Quirk Singularity', which is practically ''word for word'' the same as Quirk Doomsday, only scientific instead of religious. Other characters might be forgiven for making this mistake assuming they just didn't have exposure to this, but considering Shouto is literally used as a pillar of the theory, and both himself and Bakugo had exposure to this ideal makes their ignorance in parroting the disbelief baffling. |
| 43 | [[/folder]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 46 | * ComicBook/AmbushBug once made a huge error on seeing a young blonde woman in a familiar costume flying. Ambush Bug immediately realized that some malevolent magic or Red Kryptonite [[GenderBender had turned his "pal" Superman into a girl]], and that Superman desperately needed the Bug's help. Somehow, Ambush Bug was completely ignorant of the existence of ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, who was naturally mystified by the encounter. (Supergirl, InUniverse, was publicly known and quite famous in her own right at the time.)[[note]]Supergirl #16 (1984)[[/note]] |
| 47 | * ''ComicBook/AstroCity:'' A one-shot villain calling himself Majordomo does a lot of this. After he's defeated by the very people he'd been trying to turn into brainwashed minions, he's told that a majordomo is a ''servant'', not an evil overlord. |
| 48 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In the multi-part story ''ComicBook/WhereWereYouOnTheNightBatmanWasKilled'', Batman is missing, presumed dead, with the villains setting up a "trial" to figure out who did the deed. Two-Face, acting as the Grand Inquisitor, manages to pick apart Catwoman and Riddler's claims by pointing out their mistaken knowledge: |
| 49 | ** In Catwoman's testimony, she claims that she, her pet jaguar and her spoils were adrift in a river atop the jaguar's Brazilian peppertree wood cage, with Catwoman being forced to push Batman (who was hanging onto the side) into the river rather than let him weigh them down. Two-Face has the cage brought in, along with a tank of water. He reveals that the wood the cage is made of has a density one-and-a-half times that of water, meaning that the cage couldn't have even stayed afloat by itself, let alone supported anyone; a fact which is proven when he drops the cage in the tank and it sinks immediately. |
| 50 | ** Riddler's testimony claims that he set up a box of dynamite near a trapped Batman, with a lantern placed underneath with its top removed, leading to Batman being blown up moments later when the dynamite ignited. Two-Face disproves this by arranging a "demonstration" where Riddler is tied to a platform with many boxes of the same brand of dynamite set alight below. When no explosion happens, Two-Face reveals that fire does ''not'' ignite dynamite. Detonation requires an electrical spark (via lighting the fuse) or percussion (achieved by throwing it) thereby proving Riddler couldn't have killed Batman the way he described. |
| 51 | * ''ComicBook/JackOfFables'' often notes the hero's lack of understanding of history or science. He boasts of himself before a battle like Napoleon at Waterloo or the defenders of the Alamo "and like them, I will be victorious." |
| 52 | * ''SupplementalMaterial/TeamFortress2'' comics: |
| 53 | ** In ''Ring of Fired #1'', when the Demoman and his sentient sword the Eyelander are watching the show ''Ghost D.A.'', the title ghost character disappears with a "doodily-doodily-doot" noise. The Eyelander, which is possessed by a ghost, points out that ''it'' never does that and questions whether the writers are actually ghosts. It has more to complain about when the TV ghost puns "the defense rests... in peace." |
| 54 | --->'''Eyelander''': Ugh. "The defense rests"? He's the @$%ing prosecution! Ghost D.A.! "District Attorney!" It's in the title of the @$%ing show! |
| 55 | ** Turns out the entire town of Teufort suffers from a major case of this in ''Unhappy Returns''. The Mayor is apparently completely oblivious to what he can and can't do in his position, apparently thinking he's allowed to force someone to become a fake Italian and hang people without a trial. No one else in the town finds a problem with this. [[spoiler:This is due to them having drunk lead-contaminated water for over a generation.]] |
| 56 | [[/folder]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 59 | * ComicStrip/{{Calvin|And Hobbes}} tends to do this a lot for his assignments from school--he hates school and usually doesn't bother putting much effort and research into his assignments and also tends to put off doing his assignments until the last possible minute. In fact, Calvin once completely forgot about a project until the day it was due despite having at least a month to work on it. To name a few specific examples: |
| 60 | ** In a story arc from January 25th to February 4th of 1988, Calvin and his rival, Susie Derkins, are assigned to do a report together on the planet Mercury. While Susie takes the project seriously (possibly ''too'' seriously) and puts actual effort and research into it, Calvin spends pretty much the entire time goofing off--in fact, the quote below is Calvin's only contribution to the project, which he did the morning of the day the report was due, despite having a week to work on it. |
| 61 | --->'''Calvin''': The planet Mercury was named after a Roman god with winged feet. Mercury was the god of flowers and bouquets, which is why today he is a registered trademark of FTD florists. Why they named a planet after this guy, I can't imagine. (''[[OhCrap Turns to see Susie moving to punch him out]]'') ...Um, back to you, Susie. |
| 62 | ** In a story arc from October 27th to November 4th of 1989, Calvin and his classmates were assigned to do a report (complete with a scientific illustration) on a specific animal, with Calvin being assigned to do his on bats. Being the lazy six-year-old that he is, he does absolutely no research for his report, and the only "fact" he can think of is that bats are bugs, [[InsaneTrollLogic because]] "they fly, right? They're ugly and hairy, right?" Despite literally everyone who hears this telling Calvin that '''bats aren't bugs''', he refuses to listen ("Look, who's giving the report, you chowderheads, or me?"). Not helping matters is the fact that his "scientific illustration" amounted to tracing the ComicBook/{{Batman}} logo and giving it fangs. Predictably, he fails the assignment. Bill Watterson said in a commentary that one of the nice things about writing this strip is that he didn't need to know more than a lazy six-year-old, and that after writing the story he got sent more information on bats than he ever wanted to know. |
| 63 | ** In one history test, Calvin wrote down that the first president of the United States was Chef Boyardee, among other answers that his teacher considered "an absolute disgrace". |
| 64 | ** Calvin is also absurdly bad at basic addition and subtraction [[EverybodyHatesMathematics math problems]], such as believing that three plus four is a billion, eight plus four equals seven (how can an ''addition problem'' end with less than you started with? Because "it's a free country"!), seven plus six is [[EleventyZillion three-hundred billion gazillion]], that nine plus four requires the use of imaginary numbers and calculus, or that a math problem can be answered with "Eli Whitney and the cotton gin". |
| 65 | ** Hobbes is, if anything, even worse at math than Calvin. For example, he once said a basic addition problem couldn't be solved without the use of imaginary numbers... and then gave an incorrect definition of what imaginary numbers are- instead of being the square root of -1, they're numbers like [[EleventyZillion "eleventeen" and "thirty-twelve"]]. He also once claimed that the term "{{paper tiger}}" referred to a tiger with a newspaper route. |
| 66 | ** Calvin's dad isn't much better, telling him things like how the whole world was black and white until 1930 or that the sun sets near Flagstaff, Arizona. Of course, in his case, we can usually be sure that [[LiesToChildren he's just trolling his son]]. |
| 67 | * ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'': In a "[=SpaceHack=]" game, [[GameMaster B.A.]] warns the players that they're running out of fuel. After confirming that their ship has "a standard hydrogen drive", Brian comes up with the solution of skimming a nearby planet's ocean and extracting hydrogen from the water. B.A. insists that hydrogen is a rare element (in fact, it's the most common element in the universe) and doesn't believe that it can be extracted from water ('''H'''2O), continuing to argue the point for half an hour. |
| 68 | -->'''Sara:''' B.A., they're right. Let's move on. |
| 69 | * ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': |
| 70 | ** Sally is very prone to this. For example, in a book report on ''Literature/LittleWomen'', she claimed that Louisa May Alcott was just a PenName used by [[Literature/BenHur Judah Ben-Hur]]. |
| 71 | ** Peppermint Patty's D-minus grade average is at least partly due to this trope. In a report on Washington, D.C., she claimed the D.C. meant "doctor", going on to say that "Doctor Washington" was an ophthalmologist who treated his friend Bunker Hill's eye whites on the battlefield and was given a coaching position as a reward. |
| 72 | ** One arc involved Charlie and Sally helping younger children in Sunday School. Sally was continuously frustrated by a young boy who inexplicably believed [[Literature/TheGreatGatsby Jay Gatsby]] was in Literature/TheBible. Ironically, the boy was revealed to be [[TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes the son of a church minister]]. |
| 73 | * ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'': Members of the Zeeba Zeeba Eeeta fraternity often incorporate fake appearances by famous people into their plans... while being unaware of very well-known details about said famous people. One instance was them trying to trap Zebra with a fake Music/JimiHendrix concert, not knowing that Hendrix had been dead for decades. Another had one of the crocodiles disguise himself as Music/StevieWonder, but he didn't know Wonder was [[BlindMusician blind]] until Zebra told him. |
| 74 | [[/folder]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 77 | * ''Fanfic/AllAssortedAnimorphsAUs'': In "What if they were in a haunted house?", Jake tries to explain Christianity to Ax, but being Jewish, he gets some of the details wrong. For example, he says that Jesus was born under a pine tree instead of in a manger. |
| 78 | * The fictional authors' works in ''Fanfic/BleachFanWorks'' have several of varying severity. For example, Christina doesn't realize who Oshima (an extremely minor character who tries to threaten Ichigo, only to get taken down by Chad), while Jolene Myer has Ichigo's father called "Barnubus" rather than Isshin, and claims that Masaki divorced him when the twins were born (instead of getting killed by Grand Fisher [[spoiler:and Yhwach, although they most likely couldn't have known that when this installment was uploaded]]). |
| 79 | * ''Fanfic/ABriefHistoryOfEquestria'': Apparently it's common -- due to their rivalry prior to and during the [[MeleeATrois Lake Trot Crisis]] -- to portray Viscount Arsenic as Lady Cripps' father, who abandoned her mother after a brief affair. This despite the fact that at the time of said affair, Arsenic was ''two years old''. |
| 80 | * In an in-universe example, the LemonyNarrator of ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed'' seems to fulfill this trope in spades. What makes this worse is that she does do research, but she blatantly ignores what is stated in favor of her own opinions, going as far as to cross out sections of quotes that don't agree with her view. |
| 81 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMissingLink'': A book in the Monktown Valley library claims that bombchus are created by [[PoweredByAForsakenChild binding the souls of mice to bombs]], though both the bombchu shop owner and WordOfGod confirm that it's a complete lie. |
| 82 | * ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus'': Augustine discusses to Gloria and Goh of learning about Alex Shepherd from Paul London and thinks he's a nice guy who will protect the Windchasers when they set foot in the Fog Car. Parker (who is age 5) is quick to point out that this might not be such a good idea, but gets shot down by Gloria and Goh who immediately tell the Professor to fully trust Alex no matter what. The two quickly learn the very hard way that they should've researched ''Silent Hill'' ''before'' they cast judgment -- the only game they knew as reference at the time was ''Silent Hill 2'' so they are aware of Pyramid Head...they just didn't know Pyramid Head appears ''multiple times'' throughout the franchise and plays a key role in the game starring Alex Shepherd...or how Alex can potentially turn into a Pyramid Head in one ending. Or the fact that, as many stories in the ''Blossomverse'' reveals, Alex Shepherd ''can shapeshift into Pyramid Head''. The two quickly realized how they fucked up on giving Augustine false hope and putting Parker down even though they promised that they would listen to whatever he had to say from now on. |
| 83 | * It's common in ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fics for [[ConsummateLiar Lila]] to make this mistake. Often it's because of these blunders that her victims start SpottingTheThread (with some going as far as to PullTheThread): |
| 84 | ** ''Fanfic/{{Couturiere}}'': Lila tells Alya she was just talking with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcelle_Auclair Marcelle Auclair]] - which would have been impressive if '''she hadn't died in 1983'''. |
| 85 | ** ''Fanfic/CrumblingDown'': |
| 86 | *** Lila claims to be in contact with the lead actress from the film ''Solitude''. Nino and Marinette both know that Lila can't possibly have spoken to her recently because the lead actress is Emilie Graham de Vanily, now known as Emilie ''Agreste'' - Adrien's mother, who the entire class knows [[MissingMom disappeared long before Lila even arrived in Paris]]. Upon hearing about this, both Adrien and his father [[RelativeButton are absolutely enraged]]. |
| 87 | *** She also tells Nathaniel that she can put him in contact with Creator/StanLee, who at the time of the fic's writing and setting had been dead for more than a year, something that [[LampshadeHanging Nathaniel points out]]. |
| 88 | ** ''Fanfic/MarinetteDupainChengsSpitePlaylist'': |
| 89 | --->'''Lila:''' You don't want to be friends with a loser like her. I'm the great-granddaughter of world-famous piano player Victor Laurent.\ |
| 90 | '''Martin:''' Victor Laurent didn't have any children. He died alone at the age of 72 from pneumonia... |
| 91 | ** In ''Fanfic/RaiseYourVoiceAgainstLiars'', Lila twice attempts to wow the Japanese students in Hawaii with her lies and falls victim to this. The first time, she tries to tell Yusuke that she's a former pupil of a famous Japanese artist and ends up choosing [[AbusiveParents Ichiryuusai Madarame]] (he ends up sarcastically apologizing to her for all the shit she supposedly went through under him); the second time, she claims she's in a relationship with the son of Kunikazu Okumura while his sole child and ''daughter'' Haru is in earshot. |
| 92 | ** In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/22277602/chapters/53992366 You Know About Them?]]'', Lila claims to know the lead singer of Kitty Section, having met him when he let her backstage at a concert in Italy. Unfortunately for her, this causes the others to confirm Lila's a liar...because Kitty Section is formed by her classmates (and the brother of one of them), and ''Rose'' is the lead singer. Some of them just barely manage to crack up laughing. |
| 93 | * Occurs in ''Fanfic/QueenOfAllOni'' with Lung. Not only did his EvilPlan revolve around the stubborn as a mule Jade submitting to his will, he clearly has no idea about the curse that only allows her to summon her CoDragons. |
| 94 | * ''FanFic/SupperSmashBrosMishonhFromGod'' shows various examples in relation to the games that Smash Bros are based upon. The most egregious examples are in 'The REEL Sekwel', where she believes VideoGame/{{Pacman}} is a Franchise/{{Pokemon}} and [[VideoGame/FZero Captain Falcon]] is a villain in ''VideoGame/FireEmblem''. |
| 95 | * ''WebAnimation/TurnaboutStorm'': |
| 96 | ** [[Franchise/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]] makes a loud objection during the trial when it's revealed that the decisive evidence against the defendant is a storm cloud, mocking the prosecution for suggesting that his client could move that cloud around and make it shoot lightning at will. Too bad he happens to be in [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Equestria]], a world where [[PaintingTheFrostOnWindows controlling the weather]] is a common sense fact. |
| 97 | --->'''Phoenix''': Oh... Hehe... Sorry! My mistake...\ |
| 98 | '''Twilight''': Maybe you should have... Oh, I don't know, ''studied''!?\ |
| 99 | '''Phoenix''': I said I was sorry! |
| 100 | ** Shortly after he makes another mistake in trying to contradict a statement, pointing out that the thunder is heard after the lightning strike, not at the same time. Not in Equestria, though. |
| 101 | * Used intentionally and PlayedForLaughs in the ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5549437/5/Third-Wheel Third Wheel]]''. (The narrator is something of a ditz.) |
| 102 | -->''[Discussing Bella Swan's family]'' So the acorn didn't fall too far from the pine tree. |
| 103 | * ''FanFic/WithThisRing'': Senator Knight's proposal to ban magic after the ''''deaths of thousands of children'''' in ''Displaced''. Senator Knight didn't know that literally anyone can learn magic and he could have found this out by asking Zatara, a Justice League member with a public address who is a magic specialist. His name became synonymous with obliviousness and ignorance when Orange Lantern calls him out on it in a live interview. |
| 104 | [[/folder]] |
| 105 | |
| 106 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 107 | * In ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'', the Centipede, bragging about his (fake) experience in world travel, mentions the "five seas" and the "icy shores of Tripoli". The Grasshopper calls him out, pointing out that there are ''seven'' seas and Tripoli is in the sub-tropics. |
| 108 | * ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheMonsterOfMexico '': [[spoiler:Mr. Smiley]] leaves a clue in the form of a grammatical error when writing a threat on the Mystery Machine. Fred points out that the word “mañana” was written without the tilde, making it come out as “manana” instead of “mañana”. |
| 109 | [[/folder]] |
| 110 | |
| 111 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 112 | * The title character in ''Film/TheFortyYearOldVirgin'' displays his complete lack of sexual experience when he mentions that breasts feel like "bags of sand". |
| 113 | * ''[[Film/TheAddamsFamily Addams Family Values]]'': The counselors of Camp Chippewa end the summer by making the kids perform in their god-awful Thanksgiving play, which is riddled with historical and cultural inaccuracies. Wednesday Addams' character, Pocahontas, was a Powhatan and therefore was not present at the first Thanksgiving. Also, the Chippewa are native to the Midwest and therefore were not present either. The Native Americans who ''were'' present were the Wampanoag. Also, the real Pocahontas had been dead for three years before the Plymouth Colony was founded, and even if she had lived that long, she wouldn't have been anywhere nearby, because she was married to Englishman John Rolfe and living in England at the time. |
| 114 | * ''Film/AgentCodyBanks'': Cody tries to impress poetry buff Natalie by claiming to be a fan of Creator/TSEliot. He blows it by referring to Eliot with female pronouns, not aware that Eliot was a man. |
| 115 | * ''Film/AlienCovenant'': During one of his usual self-righteous monologues about how superior to humanity he is, [[AIIsACrapshoot David]] quotes ''Ozymandias'', falsely attributing it to Creator/LordByron. Walter casually responds that the poem was actually written by Creator/PercyByssheShelley; [[ShutUpHannibal how is David superior to humans when he can't even get a simple poetry quotation right]]? |
| 116 | * From ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'': |
| 117 | -->'''Ron:''' Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale’s vagina.\ |
| 118 | '''Veronica:''' No, there’s no way that’s correct.\ |
| 119 | '''Ron:''' I’m sorry, I was trying to impress you. I don’t know what it means. I’ll be honest, I don’t think anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago.\ |
| 120 | '''Veronica:''' Doesn’t it mean Saint Diego? |
| 121 | * Bluto's speech in ''Film/AnimalHouse'' gives us this gem: |
| 122 | -->'''Bluto:''' Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!\ |
| 123 | '''Otter:''' ''[to Boon]'' "Germans?"\ |
| 124 | '''Boon:''' Forget it, he's rollin'. |
| 125 | * ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': When listing movies that use time travel, Scott Lang names ''Film/DieHard'', a movie with no time travel whatsoever. He may have been thinking of ''{{Film/Looper}}'' or ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'', since those films also star Creator/BruceWillis. Fortunately, Scott catches his mistake! |
| 126 | * ''Film/CamelSpiders'': When the main group are hiding in the rich guys' facility, they decide to start wondering how to kill the camel spiders after them. One person decides he kill their queen, and is called out for his ignorance. |
| 127 | * S.H.I.E.L.D. of all people have this at the end of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. After Steve Rogers is [[HumanPopsicle unfrozen]] after crashing the HYDRA Valkyrie in 1945, they try to ease him into the present day by building a fake 1940s hospital room, complete with a 1940s baseball game broadcast "live" on the radio and a woman in period-appropriate attire entering to greet him. However, Steve immediately notices something is wrong --[[SpottingTheThread the "live" baseball game is actually from 1941]], and he knows ''because he was there''. Cue him breaking out and experiencing massive culture shock at 21st-century Times Square. [[SarcasmMode Nice going, S.H.I.E.L.D.]] Sharp-eyed fans have noted that's not the only thing wrong with the scene -- the woman's hair is wrong, her attire isn't quite period-appropriate, and so on...and so they've theorized the many minor mistakes are because Nick Fury wanted to know how much sharpness Captain America lost during his long sleep. |
| 128 | * ''Film/CocaineBear'': A boy who climbed up a tree to avoid the cocaine bear asserts that bears can't climb trees. A naturalist counters, "Of ''course'' they can!" |
| 129 | * ''Film/DieHard'': |
| 130 | ** In the news station, an interviewee claims that the hostages in the building will by now be suffering from Helsinki Syndrome.[[note]]Meaning UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome, having mixed up two Nordic cities.[[/note]] The interviewer turns to the camera and smugly says "As in Helsinki, UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}}."[[note]]Helsinki is in UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}.[[/note]] The film then cuts to the cameraman {{facepalm}}ing at the incompetence on display. |
| 131 | ** Hans references ''Film/HighNoon'' but mistakes one of the lead actors. |
| 132 | --->'''Hans''': This time Creator/JohnWayne does not walk off into the sunset with Creator/GraceKelly.\ |
| 133 | '''John''': That was ''Creator/GaryCooper'', asshole.\ |
| 134 | '''Hans''': ''Enough jokes.'' |
| 135 | * In ''Film/DrStrangelove'', the Russian ambassador explains that the Soviets built their world-ending machine because they feared a "Doomsday-gap" when they "discovered" that the Americans were building one. When the US President truthfully rebukes that as a ludicrous fantasy, the ambassador replies: "Our source was ''The New York Times''." |
| 136 | * ''Film/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas'': Raoul Duke goes to a police lecture about drug culture, and even gives the camera an AsideGlance while listening to the government expert's comically off mark lecture. |
| 137 | * In ''Film/AFishCalledWanda'', this is a defining trait of the WickedPretentious thug Otto, as Wanda drives home when she punctures [[KnowNothingKnowItAll his facade of intellectualism]]: |
| 138 | -->'''Wanda:''' Now let me correct you on a couple things, okay? Aristotle was not Belgian! The central message of Buddhism is not "Every man for himself!" And the London Underground is not a political movement! Those are all mistakes, Otto, I looked 'em up. |
| 139 | * In ''Film/{{Hitman}}'', 47 meets with an arms dealer under a false identity. When his cover is secretly blown, the dealer attempts to intimidate 47 by showing off some of his weapons and even threatening to kill one of his prostitutes with a pistol. In so doing he misidentifies aspects of every gun he picks up (such as calling an [=M4A1=] rifle with an M203 underbarrel grenade launcher an "M203 with under-barrel grenade launcher"). 47, not the slightest bit intimidated, points it out to him. |
| 140 | * Actually serves as a plot point in ''Film/IStillKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer''. The characters win a vacation on a radio contest by answering the question "What is the capital of Brazil?" with "Rio de Janeiro", while the actual capital is Brasília. It is however revealed later that the trip was a setup, so they would have won regardless of what answer they gave. |
| 141 | * ''Film/JungleCruise'': Part of Frank's kitschy tour at the beginning is having fake hippos menace tourists a bit. One little girl tries to point out that [[MisplacedWildlife hippos don't live in South America]], but Frank shushes her. |
| 142 | * ''Film/KickAss2'': Chris D'Amico/The Motherfucker orders several bags of manure, saying he heard fertilizer can be turned into bombs. He gets embarrassed when he is informed ''chemical'' fertilizer is what is turned into bombs. |
| 143 | * ''Film/KnivesOut'': |
| 144 | ** Different members of the Thrombey family continuously say that Marta is from different Latin American countries that are unrelated to one another. The film itself never clarifies which country she's from, so at the very least almost all of them must be wrong. |
| 145 | ** Various Thrombeys sneer at Meg's education because she's in humanities, but in ways that make it clear they don't actually have any knowledge ''of'' humanities and are just spouting buzzwords they've heard are "liberal", like "Marxist deconstructionist". This is kind of like saying someone's degree in economics is "some kind of laissez-faire anarchist state socialism" or in science as "neo-chemical quantum biology". |
| 146 | ** ''Film/GlassOnion'': Aside from being a chronic {{Malaproper}}, Miles Bron is also a KnowNothingKnowItAll. |
| 147 | * ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'': Shaun and Ed recall a past argument about whether dogs can look up, apparently getting dogs mixed up with a similar, and more accurate, urban legend about pigs. |
| 148 | * In ''Film/TheSiegeOfJadotville'', while the Irish troops are digging trenches, a snake slithers into one, causing everyone to clear out of the trench thinking it was poisonous. Commandant Quinlain calmly walks over, picks up the snake, and tosses it away, pointing out it was non-venomous, and asks if anyone bothered to read the pamphlets they were issued on the local flora and fauna. |
| 149 | * ''Film/{{Snatch}}'': Tommy says to Turkish that he shouldn't drink milk because it's not in sync with evolution and that human digestion hasn't gotten used to drinking dairy products yet. Not only is this complete nonsense on every level (human infants nearly all drink milk, and lactose persistence is one of the best-known examples of divergent evolution between human populations after our exodus from Africa) but Turkish seems aware of it as well. |
| 150 | -->'''Turkish:''' Well fuck me. What ''have'' you been reading? |
| 151 | * ''Film/TradingPlaces'' has this example from the heroes' [[TheCon scam]]: |
| 152 | -->'''Coleman''': Let me see, you would be from Austria. Am I right?\ |
| 153 | '''Ophelia''': No, I am Inga from Sweden.\ |
| 154 | '''Coleman''': Sweden? ...But you're wearing ...Lederhosen.\ |
| 155 | '''Ophelia''': Ja, from Sweden. |
| 156 | * ''Film/Transformers2007'': |
| 157 | -->'''Simmons''': Nokias are real nasty! You've gotta give respect to the Japanese - they know the way of the samurai!\ |
| 158 | '''Maggie''': ''(a brief moment of confusion)'' Nokia's from Finland.\ |
| 159 | '''Keller''': Yes, but he's, you know, a little strange. He's a little strange. |
| 160 | * In ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', at one point Wonka opens the way forward on the tour by playing a brief sequence of music on a little piano. Mrs. Teavee glances at one of her fellow tourists and confidently identifies the composer as [[Music/SergeiRachmaninoff Rachmaninoff]]. It's actually the opening notes of the Overture from [[Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart Mozart]]'s ''The Marriage of Figaro''. |
| 161 | * ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': After the Scarecrow gets a diploma, he suddenly states that "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side", showing off how intelligent he is. Shame that only applies to a ''right'' triangle. Possibly justified, since the whole point of him getting a diploma instead of a brain is that you don't have to actually be smart as long as you can make people believe you are. Besides, intelligence and knowledge are two different things. |
| 162 | [[/folder]] |
| 163 | |
| 164 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 165 | * A recurring bit of ''Literature/AdrianMole'' is that Adrian (a classic case of SmallNameBigEgo) never bothers researching his writings and thus can't grasp why his "genius" work is dismissed by others. |
| 166 | ** He had a character do a "day trip" from England to China that was just walking on the Great Wall as that's the extent of Adrian's knowledge of the country. |
| 167 | ** He thinks the Art/SistineChapel was painted by Creator/{{Rembrandt|VanRijn}} in UsefulNotes/{{Venice}}. In truth, the Sistine Chapel is in Rome and its ceilings and sculptures were painted by various artists, such as Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti and Creator/SandroBotticelli. |
| 168 | ** He complains that Creator/JaneAusten is "too old-fashioned and should write something more modern." |
| 169 | ** He thinks Creator/EvelynWaugh was a woman, doesn't grasp why Pandora has a nickname of "the box" and is constantly mixing up various artistic names and their achievements. |
| 170 | ** There's also how Adrian prides himself on being a master chef but it's clear he has little to no idea how to make some rather obvious dishes. |
| 171 | ** One segment has Rosie becoming a {{Goth}}, which is made out to be a cult, complete with not washing and worshipping a "Goth god." However, it's indicated that instead of the author, it's Rosie herself who has no idea what a Goth really is. |
| 172 | ** The Evelyn Waugh bit gets a CallBack in the first of the "Pirate Radio 4" monologues when he explains that he now knows Evelyn Waugh is a man. And probably dead proud of his daughter Auberon. |
| 173 | * ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'': As much as [[VillainProtagonist Patrick Bateman]] tries to present himself as [[PopCulturedBadass possessing immense knowledge and informed opinions in appreciation of pop culture, music, movies, TV, and other trivia]], he does often get things wrong, although this isn't always made glaringly obvious: |
| 174 | ** There's a scene where Bateman references a quote that he attributes to infamous murderer Ed Gein. In actuality, [[GeniusBonus the quote in question was said by another notorious serial killer, Edmund Kemper]]. |
| 175 | ** Patrick frequently refers to the depiction of "Eponine's" face on posters for the Broadway musical ''Theatre/LesMiserables''. The actual character appearing in [[http://www.paminasopera.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/les-miserables-musical-poster-01.jpg the promotional posters]] is Cosette. |
| 176 | ** In the first chapter, Patrick refers to "The Crystals still blaring on the radio" while Timothy Price is trying to enjoy the 60's pop song "Be My Baby" being played at maximum volume in the middle of a cab ride, but the song is actually performed by The Ronettes. |
| 177 | ** He identifies the saddest song he knows as "'You Can't Always Get What You Want' by Music/TheBeatles". It's actually by Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}. It also humorously demonstrates complete ignorance of the uplifting, reassuring quality of the song's pop hook that explains, "You get what you need." |
| 178 | ** Conversely, Patrick names the happiest song he knows as Music/BruceSpringsteen's "Brilliant Disguise", whose lyrics actually paint a troubling image of a narrator expressing confusion, doubt, and anxiety over whether his lover holds any true feelings for him [[BeneathTheMask beneath her mask]]. |
| 179 | ** At a Music/{{U2}} concert, Patrick and his friends aren't sure which one is "The Ledge". |
| 180 | ** He attempts to compliment Creator/TomCruise while sharing an elevator by telling him how much he liked the actor in the movie "''Bartender''". Tom Cruise corrects Patrick on the film's actual title--''Film/{{Cocktail}}''. |
| 181 | ** Patrick kills a street performer with a .357 Magnum revolver, somehow managing to attach a suppressor to it, but the suppressor doesn't do anything [[spoiler: and a police car passing by immediately responds to the loud gunshot]]. Unless specifically designed for them, revolvers can't be suppressed. |
| 182 | ** Timothy Price/Bryce makes the claim when trying to sound world conscious that "Sikhs are killing ''tons'' of Israelis" in UsefulNotes/SriLanka. Israelis certainly do not have a large presence in Sri Lanka in either a military or civilian capacity, and Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist. |
| 183 | ** Some of Bateman's coworkers mistakenly believe the killer in ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'' is named "Featherhead". His actual name is, of course, Leatherface. |
| 184 | ** Craig [=McDermott=] snidely refers to a Jewish co-worker of his "spinning a menorah". Even Bateman recognizes that this is wrong, and correctly points out that one spins a ''dreidel''. |
| 185 | * At the end of the ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'', top spymaster Narses is sent to China as an ambassador. He asks which kingdom he should be heading for, as there are sixteen kingdoms making up China at the time. Only one problem: the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteen_Kingdoms Sixteen Kingdoms]] period had ended a century earlier, and never had more than ten kingdoms present at any one time. The person he's asking says it doesn't matter (the important thing is that he [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder not be present in India anymore]]), but that he'll find there are [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_and_Northern_Dynasties rather fewer kingdoms to choose from]]. |
| 186 | * ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'': |
| 187 | ** Holden Caulfield writes a paper about ancient Egypt, which reads thus: "The Egyptians were an ancient race of Caucasians residing in one of the northern sections of Africa. The latter as we all know is the largest continent in the Eastern Hemisphere. The Egyptians are extremely interesting to us today for various reasons. Modern science would still like to know what the secret ingredients were that the Egyptians used when they wrapped up dead people so that their faces would not rot for innumerable centuries. This interesting riddle is still quite a challenge to modern science in the twentieth century." That is the paper, in its entirety. |
| 188 | ** The title of the book comes from Holden mistaking a line from the song "Comin' Through the Rye". He thinks it's "If a body catch a body comin' through the rye", but it's really "If a body '''meet''' a body comin' through the rye." |
| 189 | * Creator/GKChesterton loved to have characters impersonate members of the clergy and then give themselves away by getting basic details of their supposed faith completely wrong. |
| 190 | ** In the first ''Literature/FatherBrown'' story "The Blue Cross", Flambeau tries to convince Father Brown that he is a fellow Catholic priest, but then in conversation tries to argue for moral relativism. Other Father Brown stories have him catching impersonators out by ignorance of Anglican High Church/Low Church distinctions, or attacking reason as a supposed fellow Catholic priest. |
| 191 | ** ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'' has an anarchist disguised as a bishop give himself away by attacking reason, along with another impersonating a colonel acting in the manner of a comically stereotyped BloodKnight. |
| 192 | * ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': |
| 193 | ** Greg's idea of a "report" typically involves substituting half-remembered details and wild guesses for actual research. For example, in a biology report on moose, he claimed that moose and humans have a common ancestor -- birds. |
| 194 | ** His older brother Rodrick is no better. Typically, he'll hand-write his reports and then have his dad type them up for him. More often than not, his dad feels the need to correct him on mistakes he made, pointing out errors like the fact that UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln didn't write Literature/ToKillAMockingbird. As Greg learns the hard way when he buys Rodrick's assessment, his dad didn't even do that for him until high school, resulting in the [[StylisticSuck terribly written and clearly unresearched poem]] he ends up buying from him, 'A Hundred Years Ago', which says that the planet was ruled by {{giant spider}}s back then. |
| 195 | * ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': ''Literature/DeadBeat'' has a plot point about a book titled ''Die Lied der Erlking'' which contains information on how to summon the titular Erlking. The title is intended to be written in German but is grammatically nonsensical and uses the English name for the Erlking (the correct title would be ''Das Lied des Erlkönigs''). This was an admitted mistake by the author, but became canon in ''Literature/TurnCoat'', when Dresden meets the in-universe author of the translation and [[SelfDeprecation mocks him for making such a humiliating mistake]]. |
| 196 | * The original Creator/JackHiggins novel of ''Film/TheEagleHasLanded'' has the framing device of a writer discovering the attempt by the Germans in 1943 to kidnap UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. In the epilogue, the writer meets a local priest to talk of how he's ready to publish this as historical fact with the evidence he's gathered. With a sad smile, the priest tells the man he's missed the one key bit of research that guarantees his book will always be dismissed as fiction: on that particular weekend, [[spoiler: Churchill was halfway across the Atlantic on a trip to Tehran and the "Churchill" the Germans were after was a BodyDouble]]. |
| 197 | * ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'': |
| 198 | ** Every book has a chapter where Wilford Wiggins tries to scam a crowd with some sort of big project or such. Every time, Encyclopedia is there to point out the huge error that makes the whole thing useless (such as trying to sell a dinosaur dig with a drawing of a dinosaur attacking a caveman). Justified in that [[BookDumb Wilford]] is a high school dropout. |
| 199 | ** Bugs Meany falls into this with a few of his scams. He once tried to sell an "authentic" Confederate Civil War sword, proudly showing the engraving of it being presented after "The First Battle of Bull Run." Encyclopedia points out two mistakes: one, that it'd be a bit odd for the inscription to name the 'First' battle when they didn't know there'd be a second (a bit of a [[ConvictionByCounterfactualClue counterfactual clue]]; ceremonial swords took a long time to make and the second battle might well have happened after the sword was commissioned but before it was finished) and second, 'Bull Run' was the ''Union'' name for the battle (named after a nearby creek), while the Confederacy called it the Battle of Manassas (after a nearby town). The Northern name for the battle stuck in history [[WrittenByTheWinners because they won]], but contemporary Southern troops wouldn't have used it. |
| 200 | * ''Literature/EndersShadow'': Bean's nemesis Achilles thinks that UsefulNotes/JosefStalin was promoted by UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin but then imprisoned and killed him when in reality Lenin died of a stroke while urging his followers to not put Stalin in charge. His mistaken belief may be due to his own lack of schooling coupled with his desire to become a dictator twisting his memory of history. |
| 201 | * ''Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas'': When the police drug "expert" tries to explain why a marijuana cigarette is colloquially referred to as a "roach". |
| 202 | -->"What the fuck are these people talking about?" my attorney whispered. "You'd have to be crazy on acid to think a joint looked like a goddamn cockroach!" |
| 203 | * From Creator/GordonKorman's ''Son of the Mob 2'': Vince is heading off to film school in California with his girlfriend and best friend and decides to chronicle their road trip in script form. His girlfriend immediately points out one minor problem: he has them driving ''west'' into the ''rising'' sun. |
| 204 | * ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'' mentions a {{kappa}}, and states it's Japanese. One of Harry's notes next to it says "Snape hasn't read this book either", since Snape incorrectly identifies the Kappa as Mongolian in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. |
| 205 | * ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': |
| 206 | ** Ford Prefect chooses his name -- the name of a rather mediocre British car -- apparently on the assumption that [[MistookTheDominantLifeForm cars were the dominant species on the planet]]. The movie adaptation extrapolates from this the scene of Ford and Arthur's first meeting, Arthur saving Ford from attempting to shake hands with a car.[[note]]A Ford Prefect in the movie, naturally.[[/note]] |
| 207 | ** The CutawayGag sequence about the Vl'Hurg-G'Gugvuntt fleet that attempted to invade the Earth, only to be accidentally swallowed by a small dog in its entirety "due to a terrible miscalculation of scale". |
| 208 | * ''How to Bicycle to the Moon to Plant Sunflowers: A Simple but Brilliant Plan in 24 Easy Steps'' is a picture book about a boy's plan to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin go to the moon by bicycling and planting sunflowers there]]. Obviously, the plan would be impossible to complete. For example, it would take a long time to reach the moon on a bicycle, there's nothing on the moon to support life, and the bicycle would burn up in the atmosphere. This is somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as the boy is a child. |
| 209 | * ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Delivered by none other than Effie Trinket: "Well, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls." That should be diamonds. And as Katniss notes internally, even then it's not accurate; it's graphite that turns to crystallized carbon under pressure, but that doesn't sound as punchy. |
| 210 | * ''[[Literature/JohnPutnamThatcher Pick Up Sticks]]'': This trope is the murder motive. It seems the killer didn't realize [[spoiler:the land he'd bought for a new vacation resort was part of the Appalachian Trail]]. Thatcher points out at the end of the novel that if the killer had done any local research, he would have learned that. [[note]]At the time the novel was written, the path of the Trail was still being laid out, so searching title deeds at the state capitol wouldn't, and didn't, turn up the public byway across those farms.[[/note]] |
| 211 | * In the Creator/HarryHarrison novel ''Literature/RebelInTime'', a racist U.S. colonel goes back in time to help the South win the Civil War. His plan is to instigate a rebellion armed with submachine guns and seize key Union command towns to help achieve an early victory. A black soldier follows him and in their final confrontation, asks why Wesley would do this when John Brown tried it and failed spectacularly. Wesley's dying words: "Who's John Brown?". And when going over Wesley's possessions, the soldier discovers, in a ShoutOut to "Ordeal by Fire", by Fletcher Prattt, that Wesley, who barely passed his history classes in school, just happened to be going off the ''one'' book on the Civil War that ''doesn't'' mention John Brown or his raid on Harper's Ferry. |
| 212 | * ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': The villains of ''The Slippery Slope'' proudly boast about how they control "two of the greatest mammals: the lions and the eagles!" Klaus calls them out on their error, but they don't care. Earlier, Esme defines "individual practitioner" as "a life of crime". Even baby Sunny knows that she's completely off the mark (and, funnily enough, provides the correct definition). |
| 213 | * ''Literature/SpacedOut2016'': While playing a Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet VR game, Rodrigo "Roddy" Marquez tells [[TheProtagonist Dash]] that Creator/WilliamShakespeare was a game designer, believing that even after Dash corrects him that Shakespeare was actually a playwright. VideoGames Roddy believes Shakespeare made include "Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'s Battle For Scotland", "Revenge Of Theatre/{{Hamlet}}", and "[[Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew Shrew-Tamer]]". |
| 214 | * In Creator/StephenKing's novella ''The Body'', the 12-year-old protagonist wrote a bunch of stories about Americans trying to take a French town from the Nazis...in 1942. Only two years later did he find out that the Allies didn't land in France until 1944. |
| 215 | * In ''Literature/TheresABoyInTheGirlsBathroom'' the titular boy gets in an altercation with a few other boys. Afterwards, he claims he gave one of them three black eyes. |
| 216 | * In ''Literature/TheseWordsAreTrueAndFaithful'', a local newspaper quotes "[[WeaselWords certain observers]]" as giving a hilariously wrong etymology for the gay slang "[[TheBear bear]]": "According to certain observers, the term 'bear' refers to gay men from rural environments, who, of course, are more likely to see actual bears than people living in urban or suburban areas." |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 220 | * Most episodes of ''Series/AmazingAnimals'' have a segment where the unseen narrator has Henry give a report on something related to the subject of the episode. The reports are always full of ridiculously incorrect claims about animals, such as claiming basking sharks eat entire islands, passenger pigeons disappeared because they went to outer space, and animals go on strike when the rainforest floods. The narrator then corrects Henry and explains the truth. |
| 221 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Whenever Andrew flexes his storyteller muscles, he'll usually include events of which he has no first-hand knowledge (i.e. previous seasons) in his spiel and is thus occasionally widely off the mark. For example, when he talks to the Potential Slayers about Faith he claims that she killed a [[Franchise/StarTrek Vulcan]], "the most pacifist and logical of races". Flashback to Faith locked in deadly hand-to-hand combat with a Vulcan. In reality, she killed a volcanologist. When one of the Potentials tries to correct him, he says "Why would she kill someone who studies Vulcans?" |
| 222 | * ''Series/{{Cheers}}:'' So many of Cliff's LittleKnownFacts fall here, like claiming the Aztecs invented parquet floors. On the occasion Cliff is actually ''right'' about something, he and the barflies are surprised. |
| 223 | * An episode of ''Series/{{Class|2016}}'' has Matteusz draw a comparison between the characters' situation (fighting amongst themselves after they're forced to tell the truth to each other) and Susan Pevensie from ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', citing the scene in which she magically overhears a friend gossiping about her (which ruins their friendship). Except this didn't happen to Susan, it happened to Lucy in ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader''. |
| 224 | * Creator/StephenColbert of ''Series/TheColbertReport'' uses this intentionally and mixes it with InsaneTrollLogic for laughs. This is really the entire premise of the show. |
| 225 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned "Voyage of the Damned"]], Mr. Copper, the ship's historian, describes Earth before escorting a group of passengers down for a visit. |
| 226 | -->'''Mr. Copper:''' To repeat, I am Mr. Copper, the ship's historian, and I shall be taking you to old London town in the country of U.K., ruled over by Good King Wenceslas. Now, human beings worship the great god Santa, a creature with fearsome claws, and his wife Mary. And every Christmas Eve, the people of U.K. go to war with the country of Turkey. They then eat the Turkey people for Christmas dinner... like ''savages!''\ |
| 227 | '''The Doctor:''' ''[[[FascinatingEyebrow eyebrow raised]], raises hand]'' 'Scuse me? Sorry, sorry, but, um... where did you get all this from?\ |
| 228 | '''Mr. Copper:''' [[BlatantLies Well, I have a first-class degree in Earthonomics.]] |
| 229 | * ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': Cora (mother of three girls) grumbles about having daughters: "you think it's going to be like ''Literature/LittleWomen'' but instead they're at each other's throats." It must have been a while since she read the book since at least two of the little women (Jo and Amy) were ''constantly'' at each other's throats. |
| 230 | * In the ''Series/FamilyTies'' episode "The Homecoming," Alex lectures Jennifer about how in all species, the most important trait of any female is the ability to attract males. He compares female humans who labor over their appearances to female blue jays with decorative plumage. Jennifer says, "Alex, it is the male blue jay who has the pretty feathers!" Alex admits, "Occasionally you'll find a deviant jay or two." |
| 231 | * One scene from ''Music/FlightOfTheConchords'''s HBO series has a racist fruit vendor mistake Australian stereotypes for New Zealander ones. |
| 232 | -->'''Jermaine:''' I'm a person. Bret's a person. You're a person. That person over there's a person. And each person deserves to be treated like a person.\ |
| 233 | '''Vendor:''' That's a great speech. Too bad New Zealanders are a bunch of cocky a-holes descended from criminals and retarded monkeys.\ |
| 234 | '''Jermaine:''' Hey, you're thinking of Australians.\ |
| 235 | '''Vendor:''' No-no-no, New Zealanders, "throw another shrimp on the barbie", ride around on your kangaroos all day.\ |
| 236 | '''Jermaine:''' No-no-no, that's Australians. You're thinking of Australians; that's not us.\ |
| 237 | '''Vendor:''' I've totally confused you with Australians, I feel terrible. It's just your accents are just kinda similar.\ |
| 238 | '''Jermaine:''' Our accents are completely different. They're like: "Where's the ''cahh''?" and we're like "where's the cahh?". |
| 239 | * ''Series/{{Friends}}'': In "The One with Chandler and Monica's Wedding", Joey is making a WWI movie and proclaims he's off to fight the Nazis. Rachel corrects him that America fought the Nazis in ''WWII''. When asked who was the enemy in WWI, she suggests Mexico, to which Phoebe acquiesces. |
| 240 | * The opening of the ''Series/TheGoesWrongShow'' "The Pilot (Not the Pilot)" has the explanation the play being presented isn't usually performed "due to what critics called 'offensive historical inaccuracies' caused by the author's [[AirQuotes lazy research]]." It's a World War II drama...set in 1961 where Britain and Germany are in war in ''Vietnam'', Henry VIII is King, and culminates in Adolf Hitler shot down while in a fighter plane. |
| 241 | * ''Series/{{Hawkeye|2021}}'': When watching the musical ''Rogers'', Clint points out that it incorrectly shows Ant-Man participating in the Battle of New York. |
| 242 | * ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': In Season 1, Rhaenys belittles Rhaenyra for being the king's supposed heir while also serving as a cupbearer in small council meetings. Except serving as cupbearer to a lord -- let alone the king -- is not a diminutive position. It's a respectable role commonly given to young noble children, including heirs. Rhaenyra is only unusual in that it's her own father she's serving as opposed to some other House's lord. Much like Stewards of the Night's Watch as shown in Season 1 of ''Series/GameOfThrones''[[note]]Of course, Jon Snow was initially offended at supposedly being treated like a servant when he was assigned as Lord Commander Mormont's steward rather than a ranger like he wanted. His friend Samwell Tarly had to set him straight by explaining to him the significance of the job[[/note]], serving in close proximity to the highest authority is an indicator that the cupbearer/steward is explicitly being groomed for command. A cupbearer is supposed to be present when politicking is happening, watching, learning—but not speaking. That will come when they're older. For a headstrong teenager like Rhaenyra—who has opinions and wants to voice them now, whose unsolicited opinion was just earlier dismissed—even that one caveat chafes. |
| 243 | * ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Barney's "Platinum Rule" was based on his belief that the Golden Rule was "Love your neighbor." The other characters were quick to point out that it's actually "Treat others as you yourself would want to be treated." |
| 244 | * ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': |
| 245 | ** Crow doing this trope is a RunningGag. Crow makes a documentary about UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. Titled ''[[InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt Crow T. Robot's Bram Stoker's The Civil War]]'', it opens with this line... which is actually pretty much the film's ''high'' point when it comes to historical accuracy: |
| 246 | --->'''Crow:''' The Civil War was a war that took place during a certain period in our nation's history. When, exactly? No one can say. |
| 247 | ** He's also done reports about Rutherford B. Hayes ("Serving heroically in the Civil War, Hayes later admitted that it was in the army he first tasted human flesh.") and a [=PSA=] about how to treat women that mostly asserts that women are a cryptozoological phenomenon, like Bigfoot, except for the very, ''very'' end: |
| 248 | --->'''Crow:''' Ah... Oh, um, yes. So anyway Mike, in conclusion, in the off-chance that you do run into a woman, uh, you know, treat her with respect and stuff.\ |
| 249 | '''Mike:''' You know, Crow, you do know women. Now what about Pearl?\ |
| 250 | '''Crow:''' ...OK, so ''one'' woman exists. That means ''all'' women exist? |
| 251 | ** Servo is also guilty, in [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S06E09TheSkydivers the episode]] ''Film/TheSkydivers''. During the prologue he puts on a planetarium show, giving us such gems as referring to the speed of light as "well over 500 miles an hour" (which is true, but in the same way it's true to say the Pacific Ocean is more than 500 gallons of water: the speed of light is well over 600 ''million'' miles per hour) and calling Mars "the brightest star in our galaxy." |
| 252 | * In ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Joy tries to disprove the theory of evolution by putting what she thinks are minnows in a tank with some food on a pile of sand. The "minnows" grow legs and walk out, blowing her mind. Darnell explains to her those were tadpoles, which grow into frogs, not fish. |
| 253 | * ''Series/NewsRadio'': Bill, while trying to stage an office rebellion, shouts, "Do you think the Pilgrims really cared about all the tea they dumped into Baltimore Harbor?" It may well be a shout-out to Bluto's speech in ''Film/AnimalHouse''. |
| 254 | * When ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm''[='=]s Rangers first enter the fray, the usually smart Lothor protests that nobody told him there were Power Rangers on Earth (he's referring to ''active'' Rangers, as his initial plan was based on attacking the Ninja Academies specifically to prevent the activation of any Power Ranger team he knew of, but still...). |
| 255 | * On ''Series/{{Scream Queens|2015}}'', Chad gives a speech against cancelling Halloween because of a {{serial killer}}, referring to UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He somehow knows Kennedy wrote a book called ''Profiles in Courage''[[note]]and even then, there's been controversy as to whether or not Kennedy had a {{ghostwriter}}[[/note]], but everything else... |
| 256 | -->'''Chad:''' As our great 60th president John Kennedy, Jr. said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."\ |
| 257 | '''Munsch:''' ''[after he's done]'' I have no idea how you got into this college. |
| 258 | * One episode of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' has George try to join his girlfriend's book club who are reading ''Literature/BreakfastAtTiffanys'' at that time. He claims he's read it when he hasn't and tries to bone up on the story by watching the movie. At the book club, he makes some comments about a character's romantic relationship with a female character only to be informed that in the book, [[AdaptationalSexuality the character in question is gay]]. |
| 259 | * Baroski correcting the Series/SonsOfAnarchy on the use of the term "Persian" is both intentional and unintentional. The country has officially been called Iran by the West since 1935 and by the East long before that. However, some of its people culturally self-identify as Persian. It would be acceptable to call the pornographers Persian if they identify as such, but it's never made clear if this is the case. If the Sons are also unaware, it would be better to refer to them as Iranian (while most Iranians ''are'' ethnically Persian, minorities of Arabs, Azeris, and Kurds also exist). Baroski's claim that "Persia hasn't been a country since 637 AD" is incorrect; the Persian Empire fell that year, but that doesn't mean it ceased to exist as a country. |
| 260 | * ''Series/{{Star Trek|TheOriginalSeries}}'': PlayedForLaughs with Chekov, who sometimes gets his Russian history wrong, claiming just about ''everything'' to be a Russian invention. That was probably what he was taught, as, in the 1960s, the USSR really did have this attitude in its education. According to Creator/DianeDuane's novels, he's joking, as when he claims that the rollercoaster is a Russian invention and is not believed he protests that this time it's true.[[note]]It really is. The generic name was originally "Russian ice mountain" before successive trade names caused them to become "scenic railway" (1890s), then "big dipper" (1920s), and finally "roller coaster" (1930s).[[/note]] |
| 261 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Dean loves cowboys (perhaps a bit too much), but he has no idea how they dressed. |
| 262 | -->'''Castiel:''' Is it customary to wear a blanket?\ |
| 263 | '''Dean:''' It's a serape. And yes. |
| 264 | ** He refers to a poncho as a "serape" (they're similar, sort of, but they're constructed differently, worn differently, and were invented by two different cultures), treats it as street clothes (it was cold-weather gear), and wears it in the Midwest (it was Southwestern). Naturally, when the brothers have to travel back in time to the days of the cowboy: |
| 265 | --->'''Cowboy:''' Nice blanket. |
| 266 | * ''Series/UltramanZ'': The Voice Dramas reveal that the titular Ultra once failed a test of the Land of Light as a result of this since he had to study the powers and abilities of monsters and requested help from his idol, Franchise/UltramanZero who failed to give him good advice due to skipping school and not learning basic topics and facts such as [[Series/{{Ultraman}} Neronga's]] invisibility. |
| 267 | * Characters on ''Series/TheWestWing'' are consistently getting called out for this; it's usually PlayedForLaughs. Perhaps the best example occurs in the pilot episode, where Sam Seaborn is asked to speak to Mallory's fourth-grade class about the history of the White House, on which subject he's clueless. Meeting them in the Roosevelt Room, he fakes it, saying the room is named after "our eighteenth president, [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]." After listening to Sam spew out factoids for a few moments, Mallory asks to speak to him outside the room: |
| 268 | -->'''Mallory:''' I'm sorry to be rude, but are you a moron?\ |
| 269 | '''Sam:''' In this particular area, yes.\ |
| 270 | '''Mallory:''' The eighteenth president was UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant and the Roosevelt Room was named for UsefulNotes/{{Theodore|Roosevelt}}.\ |
| 271 | '''Sam:''' Really?\ |
| 272 | '''Mallory:''' There's like a six-foot painting on the wall of Teddy Roosevelt.[[note]]When Sam says "our eighteenth president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt," the camera shows him standing ''right in front'' of that painting. In fairness to Sam, there's also a painting of FDR in the room, although traditionally only one of those paintings is hanging at a time, depending on the current president's affiliation. But that loops back around on itself: Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican, and the whole point of the show is that it's about a Democratic administration's travails.[[/note]]\ |
| 273 | '''Sam:''' I should have put two and two together.\ |
| 274 | '''Mallory:''' Yes.\ |
| 275 | '''Sam:''' The thing is, while there really are a great many things on which I can speak with authority, I'm not good at talking about the White House.\ |
| 276 | '''Mallory:''' You're the White House Deputy Communications Director and you're not good at talking about the White House?\ |
| 277 | '''Sam:''' Ironic, isn't it? |
| 278 | ** He has a point. He deals with political messaging. The person to ask for information about the White House as a building would be a tour guide, which means that whoever decided he needed to talk to the class about it had their own failure. |
| 279 | * ''Series/TheWire'': D'Angelo and Wallace have a disagreement about whether or not Alexander Hamilton was a president[[note]]he was Secretary of the Treasury[[/note]], with D'Angelo operating under the misconception that the only people who get put on money are presidents. |
| 280 | * ''Series/TheYoungOnes'': |
| 281 | ** When Rick is trying desperately to recall his history lessons, he finishes the statement "Crop rotation in the 14th century was considerably more widespread after..." with a year that isn't even ''in'' the 14th century, 1172. Though thanks to the qualifier of "after", he [[MathematiciansAnswer is not technically wrong]]. |
| 282 | ** Neil never sleeps because he thinks sleep causes cancer. |
| 283 | [[/folder]] |
| 284 | |
| 285 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 286 | * At the end of Music/{{Eminem}}'s [[Music/TheMarshallMathersLP "Stan"]], the title character rattles off the urban legend about Music/PhilCollins's [[Music/FaceValue "In the Air Tonight"]] being written about a man who didn't save another man from drowning, who later turned up at a concert. What's more, he misnames the song, calling it "In the Air of the Night", possibly having conflated it with the Music/RayCharles theme for ''Film/InTheHeatOfTheNight''. It's intended to show that Stan doesn't have a great ability to interpret art, hence his conviction that Eminem's Slim Shady character is [[ActorRoleConfusion a real person]]. |
| 287 | [[/folder]] |
| 288 | |
| 289 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 290 | * The ''Podcast/RedPandaAdventures'' episode "The World Next Door" uses this trope to lend credence to Baboon [=McSmoothie's=] claims that he's a time traveler from an AlternateTimeline's future. The Flying Squirrel notes that, when attempting to impersonate the Red Panda, he nailed the voice but got the costume wrong; yet between newspaper photos and the Red Panda's mysterious nature the opposite would have been more likely. He also expected the Flying Squirrel to be a teenage boy named Kent Baxter instead of an adult woman named Kit Baxter. Kit later reveals Kent would have been her name if she'd been a boy. The bizarre mix of possessing information he couldn't have known while getting the easy-to-learn details dead wrong convince the heroes [=McSmoothie=] is telling the truth. |
| 291 | * In ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' thirty-third episode, "Boatswain's Call", Carlita Sloane says she had trouble getting work in Brazil because her Spanish was poor. Apparently it was so bad she couldn't even tell when the people around her were speaking a different language entirely. While many Brazilians ''can'' speak Spanish, Brazil's primary tongue is Portuguese. |
| 292 | [[/folder]] |
| 293 | |
| 294 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 295 | * A Radio/BobAndRay sketch has Bob interviewing the author of a ''History of the United States''. It turns out that the 1,100-page tome contains numerous glaring errors, including UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln driving to his inauguration in an automobile, the Civil War breaking out in 1911, and the nation's original capital being located in Bailey's Mistake, Maine. The author readily admits it's "a shabby piece of work", but quickly adds that it's leather-bound. |
| 296 | * In the episode ''The Big Big Big Ben Bungle'' of the British political satire ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'' Mr. Lamb refers to the "Hunchback of [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Amsterdam]]". |
| 297 | [[/folder]] |
| 298 | |
| 299 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 300 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The ''Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer'' is hilariously filled with these, presenting the enemies of man as easy to defeat by the common soldiery. Features gems such as "Ork tusks can easily be pulled out of their jaws", "the Tau are evolved from cattle and will spook at loud noises", and a magnificent illustration of a Guardsman looking around a corner like a guy who showed up early for a ScoobyStack. Those are actually partially true, though. Orks have shark-like teeth that are constantly being shed and could conceivably be pulled out fairly easily while the Tau are descended from grazing ruminants and display many vestiges of that past (spooking at loud noises NOT being one of them). It also includes a few nods to the series' GameplayAndStorySegregation; for instance, the entry on Orks mentions that despite being musclebound and much bigger the typical Ork is inexplicably no stronger than a typical human (hilariously false in the fiction, completely true on the tabletop until 8th Edition). Indeed, a common theory is that the ''Primer'' is lying to you on purpose ("Genestealers are slow and sluggish") in order to raise morale. Any company worth even half its salt has a few units of veterans who know what fighting in a CosmicHorrorStory is ''really'' like. |
| 301 | * ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'': The second edition corebook introduces a cabal of radical feminists who want to replace the Naked Goddess with their own creation, the Womyn. Sadly for them, they know just enough about the Statosphere to be completely and utterly wrong. [[spoiler:First of all, in order to join the Invisible Clergy, you have to represent a concept the world recognizes as universal, like the Mother or the Hunter, and there aren't nearly enough radical feminists for the Womyn to qualify. Second, you can't replace a member of the Clergy. New aspects can ascend ''alongside'' and dominate the old ones (in the modern world "bounty Hunter" is the primary aspect of the Hunter, rather than the "survival Hunter"), but not replace them. If the Womyn ascended, she would do so alongside the Naked Goddess, not in place of her.]] |
| 302 | [[/folder]] |
| 303 | |
| 304 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 305 | * In ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'', when Marian confronts Harold Hill about his credentials, he offers the following cover story: "I'm a Conservatory man myself. Gary Indiana Gold Medal Class of '05." Being a librarian, Marian researches this claim and finds out that Gary wasn't even founded until 1906. However, since she's fallen in love with him, she decides not to go public with this. |
| 306 | [[/folder]] |
| 307 | |
| 308 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 309 | * In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', Booker and Elizabeth manage to complete their deal with the [[LaResistance Vox Populi]] to amass their arsenal for a full-scale slave revolt against the Founders of Columbia. Elizabeth -- [[WideEyedIdealist ever the optimist and romantic]] -- assures Booker that "There's going to be a revolution, just like in ''Literature/LesMiserables''! They can have better lives!" Booker doesn't speak up to correct her, but the implication that she hadn't actually finished the book (or at least got to [[DownerEnding how said revolution ended]]) is instead punctuated by [[InstantlyProvenWrong immediate sounds of horrible explosions outside the building]] as [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized the Vox plunge the city into chaos]]. |
| 310 | * ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'': Ringabel gives a lengthy analysis to Agnès and Edea about the various sheep races after encountering one. Then Tiz explains that the animal they were looking at wasn't a sheep, but a goat. |
| 311 | * Ricky, a minor character introduced in the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' add-on Honest Hearts is full of these. His BlatantLies include claiming he’s from Vault 22, which if the player has been there you can call him out by saying the Vault is long since abandoned and overrun with hostile plant life, and that he’s killed a "Steel Brotherhood" Paladin by shooting him through the visor with an 11mm SMG, which you can call him on either with the guns skill or power armor training perk by stating 11mm doesn’t exist and that power armor visors are bullet resistant, respectively. |
| 312 | * In ''VideoGame/Drakengard3'', Cent doesn't have any weird fetishes like the other Disciples, his gimmick instead is that he eagerly shares what he insists are LittleKnownFacts with the rest of the party. This is not appreciated. |
| 313 | -->'''Dito:''' Can I punch him? Like, in the face?\ |
| 314 | '''Cent:''' Oh, yes! Speaking of punching... it's trivia time! You've heard the expression "turn the other cheek," yes? Weeell, it's not just an expression! Ohoho my, no. It actually comes from an ancient medical text concerning how to adjust jawlines and bone structures!\ |
| 315 | '''Dito:''' Uh, really?\ |
| 316 | '''Zero:''' Of course not. He's full of shit.\ |
| 317 | '''Dito:''' Come on, just one punch! |
| 318 | * ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'': At one point, you can overhear Mankar Camoran giving a speech about the Daedra. Questionable lore interpretations (like Mundus being a plane of Oblivion and the Aedra stealing it from its true Daedric masters) aside, he mixes up multiple Daedric Princes and the realms they controlled; he says Meridia's plane is Coldharbor (She actually rules the Colored Rooms, and Coldharbor belongs to her enemy Molag Bal), Peryite's realm is Quagmire (that's Vaermina- Peryite's is The Pits), and that Mephala rules Moonshadow (Azura has Moonshadow, Mephala has the Spiral Skein). |
| 319 | * ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'': |
| 320 | ** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' has Playboy X, the leader of a drug crew [[KnowNothingKnowItAll who fancies himself an intellectual]]. Niko Bellic quickly realizes, however, that his professed knowledge is dubious at best. Some of his more egregious errors include thinking Dubai is in Africa and that UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} killed John the Baptist. |
| 321 | ** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' has one of Trevor's Strangers and Freaks, an immigrant from Russia named Josef, mistakenly use British and French patriotic phrases instead of American ones. |
| 322 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' series has Tycho, who often tries to mimic Durandal's penchant for quoting from classic literature in order to appear to be his intellectual equal, but frequently makes mistakes. One of these which Durandal takes great pleasure in pointing out is Tycho's claim that Roland in ''Literature/TheSongOfRoland'' was able to break the sword Durandal (after which the character Durandal is named). He couldn't. [[spoiler:''No one can.'']] |
| 323 | * In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', Snake has a three-way conversation with Naomi and Master Miller where the former talks about her father, claiming that he was an Asian-American FBI Agent who helped perform some sting operations to bring down the Mob in New York during the 1950s. At first Miller rolls with it, but later on he contacts Snake and points out that J. Edgar Hoover would have been way too racist to hire Asians for the FBI, that the first sting operations against the mob began in 1960 instead of TheFifties, and that they began in Chicago instead of New York. [[spoiler: He uses this to lead into some information he found that suggests "Naomi" is an imposter and TheMole.]] |
| 324 | * In ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'', one early game side quest requires you to capture a [[ComMon Wurmple]] and give it to Beauregard, where it promptly evolves into Cascoon. Unfortunately, he thinks it's evolved into Silcoon instead, resulting in Professor Laventon, and eventually both the player and his own Cascoon, pointing this error out to him by comparing it to an actual live Silcoon. Thankfully, Cascoon isn't really too upset by this mix-up once Beauregard finally realizes his mistake. |
| 325 | ** Another sidequest has someone suggesting to water a Sudowoodo, since it looks like a tree. By using Water Pulse on it. The player has the option to tell him that it's an awful idea to use a Water attack on a ''Rock'' type, but they're brushed off until after the mistake is made. |
| 326 | * ''VideoGame/Portal2'' has the Fact Sphere, a corrupted core created to distract [=GLaDOS=], and ultimately used [[spoiler:in the boss fight against Wheatley to corrupt him]]. It constantly spouts random facts, few of which are actually true. A whole list of all of them can be found [[http://theportalwiki.com/wiki/List_of_Fact_Sphere_facts here]] (Beware of endgame spoilers). |
| 327 | * ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'': The leader of the gang called the Brotherhood, Maero, has a chance to commit this if the storyline is done in a certain way, namely by doing the Brotherhood chapter after taking out the other two gangs already. When he meets the Boss and offers the Saints' leader a paltry 20-80 split in the Brotherhood's favor to work together, he does so by being incredibly condescending towards the Saints' prospects. Problem is, this would have been more accurate if the Boss was coming to him right after the prologue when they escaped from prison. In the above scenario, the Boss will have already taken out both the Sons of Samedi as well as the Ronin, gangs that were arguably more well-established, and with their loss, the Saints control a much greater amount of territory than the Brotherhood outright, major events that Maero '''''apparently''''' did not know about prior to their meeting. In the ensuing events after the Boss leaves, Maero [[spoiler:gets half his face scarred by tattoo ink tainted with radioactive waste, accidentally crushes his girlfriend locked in a car trunk, and finds out his guitarist best friend was crippled for life, followed later by having most of his gang wiped out by the Boss before being killed himself during a failed attempt to assassinate his rival]]. [[UnderestimatingBadassery He really should have watched more Channel 6 News]]. |
| 328 | * ''VideoGame/SamAndMax'': In the ''Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space'' episode "Moai Better Blues", Sam can ask the Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society for facts about Easter Island. |
| 329 | -->'''Curt:''' Accessing, [[ReadingTheStageDirectionsOutLoud ellipsis]], Easter Island was founded in 1914 by former members of the 80s progressive rock band Music/{{Asia}}.\ |
| 330 | '''Bob:''' Located off the southwest coast of YourMom, the island is considered by many to be the birthplace of television personality Ryan Seacrest, as well as American jazz music!\ |
| 331 | '''Sam:''' I see you guys are still doing all your research on the Internet.\ |
| 332 | '''Bluster Blaster:''' [[NoIndoorVoice INFORMATION WANTS TO BE WRONG!]] |
| 333 | * ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': |
| 334 | ** Played for laughs in ''Meet the Soldier''. The Soldier starts with a (correct) quote from Sun Tzu and ''Literature/TheArtOfWarSunTzu'', but then goes on to say that Sun Tzu ''invented'' fighting, perfected it, and used his fight money to herd two of every animal onto a boat and beat the crap out of them. |
| 335 | --->'''Soldier''': And from that day forward, anytime a bunch of animals are together in one place, it's called a '''TZU'''! ...Unless it's a farm! |
| 336 | ** In ''Meet the Director'', it's shown that the Soldier went on even more about Sun Tzu. The director had to point out that Sun Tzu never wrote books on how to punch out someone's ribcage. |
| 337 | * The various news bulletins in ''VideoGame/TomodachiLife''. For example, one claims that children attend kindergarten at age 0. |
| 338 | [[/folder]] |
| 339 | |
| 340 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 341 | * In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', many research failures were made by the mastermind in regards to [[spoiler:the [[FakeMemories fake memory]] of the cast being Hope's Peak Academy students, such as Junko Enoshima being the ''only'' thing to be referred to as the Ultimate Despair, Junko trapping them all of the Class 78 students inside Hope's Peak Academy for their killing game as opposed to Class 78 actually trapping themselves inside Hope's Peak Academy]], and Hope's Peak Academy actually accepting applications for the school (when in actuality, students could only get in by being scouted). These examples were part of the reason why the cast figures out [[spoiler:the flashback lights only gave fake memories]]. |
| 342 | * In ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', Henry gives the nickname “Cloud Liver” to ”cirrhosis of the liver,” coming from his misconception that his liver will turn into a cloud if he keeps drinking. |
| 343 | * ''VisualNovel/IdolHakkenden'': Kuwashi at one point uses the "Reagan-is-the-Fiftieth-U.S.-President-Punch", which Erika corrects that he's actually the FORTIETH since she's good at social studies. This destroys Kuwashi's pride as the most informed columnist. |
| 344 | * Possible with every question in the music quizzes that the protagonist gives the title character in ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}''. They are all multiple-choice, giving the player the ability for an incorrect guess every time. |
| 345 | * ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'': |
| 346 | ** In the first case of the first game, Larry Butz insists that he and [[GirlOfTheWeek his ex Cindy Stone]] were like [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Romeo and Juliet]] or [[UsefulNotes/MarkAntony Marc Anthony]] and [[UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII Cleopatra]]. Phoenix muses to himself [[AnalogyBackfire "Didn't they all die?"]]. It certainly doesn't help that Larry is the defendant in Cindy's ''murder trial''. |
| 347 | ** In ''Trials and Tribulations'', Maya claims that she likes chemistry and proceeds to claim that water is made of hydrogen and ''carbon'' instead of hydrogen and oxygen. When Phoenix corrects her she claims that [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} there are alternate theories]]. |
| 348 | [[/folder]] |
| 349 | |
| 350 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 351 | * [[http://www.closetgamers.com/comic.php?id=6 This episode]] of ''Webcomic/ClosetGamers'' contains a literal example, when a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' character informs the party that a "Purple Worm" is a tiny creature eaten by harmless, flightless birds, as opposed to the giant, nasty SandWorm monster it actually is. |
| 352 | * In ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' Red Mage is rife with this through the course of the comic. Black Mage or Thief usually call him on it. |
| 353 | * ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'': Rumisiel, a slacker angel, claims to be from Canada while on Earth. Normally it's not a big deal, but when he's ecstatic about seeing snow for the first time, Dr. Upton is understandably confused. |
| 354 | -->'''Dr. Upton:''' This is the first snow you've ever seen? [...] Aren't you from Canada?\ |
| 355 | '''Rumisiel:''' Yeah... but I'm from, like, the tropical part of Canada. The vast Canadian Empire ranges all far and wide, you know, eh?\ |
| 356 | '''Dr. Upton:''' ...there's something desperately wrong with that sentence, but I'm too tired to care. Remind me in the future never to talk to you until after I've had my coffee.\ |
| 357 | '''Rumisiel:''' The Emperor of Canada told me the same thing once. |
| 358 | * From ''[[http://lolilovesvenom.livejournal.com/ Loli Loves Venom #32]]'' -- why you should not ask ComicBook/{{Venom}} for homework help: |
| 359 | -->''"In nature, ComicBook/{{spider|man}}s have many natural enemies. There is one main predator they always have to watch out for. The mighty octopus. Their tentacles of sheer fury are fierce opponents. Only through agility, resolution, and quick banter can the amazing spider atone for the danger he faces."'' |
| 360 | * ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'': May attempts to create a special clique of spicy pigeons by feeding them nothing but habanero nachos, noting that one day they'll overrun the city and out-compete their normal cousins. She is later informed that, like all birds, pigeons cannot taste chili and her special pigeons are just regular pigeons. |
| 361 | [[/folder]] |
| 362 | |
| 363 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 364 | * In the ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' WebVideo/LeeroyJenkinsVideo, the team's "plan" for tackling the Upper Blackrock Spire involved shielding their mages with Divine Intervention while they cast crowd-clearing AOE spells on the Rookery's whelps, completely missing that 1.) Divine Intervention kills the paladin that casts it (removing a character who can tank and heal from the fight) and renders the one it's cast on unable to use any of their abilities or even move, and 2.) fear rotation on the warriors' part is ineffective in the Rookery due to the respawning eggs, only keeping the whelps off them for a few seconds before dumping even more of them onto the party. In addition, the whelps only spawn if you're stupid enough to actually step on the eggs. In other words, the team's plan was doomed to failure and disaster even before [[LeeroyJenkins Leeroy ran in]]. |
| 365 | * Website/YouTube channel ''[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpvtp7mH0Cdq8FQUxcjDq0Q My Life in Gaming]]'' occasionally invokes this in their {{Retraux}}-style "How to Beat" videos, such as by mispronouncing terms and by getting the backstory of ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' wrong, to mirror the errors that often occurred in the '80s-era "how to beat" VHS tapes that the series is imitating. |
| 366 | * The ''WebVideo/ThirdRateGamer'' gives us many examples, parodying ''WebVideo/TheIrateGamer'''s research failures, such as claiming that the ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'' film is the original and [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 the game]] is just a cheap licensed cash-in. This is lampshaded in the dual ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''/''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' review when the Third Rate Gamer gets a call from a viewer: |
| 367 | -->''"Why do you get so many things wrong in your reviews?"'' |
| 368 | * ''WebVideo/TruthpointDarkwebRising'': Blog/{{Dril}} thinks No Nut November, a month where you have to abstain from masturbating, refers to abstaining from eating semen instead. |
| 369 | [[/folder]] |
| 370 | |
| 371 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 372 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': In "The Archer Sanction", Archer, Lana, and Ray are sent by the CIA to kill a ProfessionalKiller thought to be hiding out in a Swiss ski lodge. The CIA provides them with a very detailed dossier on the target... which Archer simply "skimmed" and the only thing he remembered was the target was from a country that was an Axis power in World War II, and nothing more useful like a name or gender. Identifying the target is complicated because the other three members of their mountain climbing party are a German man, an Italian man, and a Japanese woman. [[spoiler:It turns out they're INTERPOL agents on a similar mission and the hitman is the climbing party leader, a '''Canadian''' of Scots-Irish descent. Archer confused Ireland--which was neutral in the war--with Romania. Somehow. He seemed to already know enough history about the latter to explain why he would think that as well.]] |
| 373 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': |
| 374 | ** In "Buster Makes the Grade", Buster is failing third grade, and if he doesn't get at least a B on the next test, he'll have to repeat the grade. Buster laments to his friends that he can't even name the thirty states of America, never mind getting a B on a test. Muffy has to remind Buster that there are ''fifty'' states. |
| 375 | ** "Prove It" is about D.W. holding her own "explain-a-rorium" in her backyard. She shares a bunch of false facts, such as that wind is made from trees blowing and that the "H" in "H20" stands for "hose", which is where the water comes from. Arthur gets tired of hearing these ridiculous claims and begs his dad to take her to a real science museum. At the museum, D.W. reveals that she didn't actually believe anything she said and that [[CorrectionBait she was just tricking Arthur so she could get to visit the museum]]. |
| 376 | ** One episode has Arthur, Francine, and Buster assigned a group project on AncientRome, which they decide to work on independently of each other. Francine decides to do her part on the Ancient Olympics... which as Brain points out, were held in ''Greece'', not Rome. |
| 377 | * ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Even accounting for the play's role as Fire Nation propaganda and the writers having no reasonable way of knowing certain things (such as the Blue Spirit's identity), the Ember Island Players production "The Boy in the Iceberg" gets ''a lot'' of facts wrong. For example, Zuko's scar is on his right eye when the real Zuko's scar is on his left, Momo is referred to as a "flying monkey-rabbit" when he's a flying lemur, and Toph is portrayed as a muscular grown man who "sees" by using screams to echolocate while the real Toph is a petite twelve-year-old girl who "sees" by sensing vibrations in the ground with her feet (not that Toph minds that inaccuracy). |
| 378 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': Plastic Man at one point claims to be as patriotic as Benedict Arnold... a man who infamously ''[[TheQuisling betrayed]]'' his country. Talk about an AnalogyBackfire. |
| 379 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', [[AnimalWrongsGroup Pax]] unleashes a tiny alien called the Screegit around Bellwood. The Screegit turns into a rampaging monster when exposed to nitrogen, but Pax thinks it'll be okay since humans breathe oxygen. Ben angrily points out that Earth's atmosphere has nitrogen in it as well.[[note]]In fact as shown by ''Literature/NoGameNoLife'', a pure oxygen atmosphere would be too dense and heavy for humans to properly breathe.[[/note]] |
| 380 | * ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Gene thinks ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' was written by Creator/SalmanRushdie. |
| 381 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'', Lazlo is trying to motivate the Bean Scouts to participate in a Pinecone-Sitting competition with the Squirrel Scouts over a mud puddle. He does this by asking if Napoleon gave up the moon to the Swiss. |
| 382 | * ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': Vortex says that asking him to stop a rainstorm he started is like asking Picasso to stop painting the Mona Lisa. Vlad points out that it was actually ''Da Vinci'' who painted the Mona Lisa. |
| 383 | * The "Find Out Why" short films from Disney's One Saturday Morning block had WesternAnimation/TimonAndPumbaa try to answer scientific questions. [[BookDumb Timon]] comes up with ludicrously inaccurate explanations (such as that lightning is caused by clouds taking pictures), forcing [[SmarterThanYouLook Pumbaa]] to correct him. |
| 384 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' references ''Film/TheMatrix'' having robots use humans as batteries, with Bender saying "Doesn't that violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics? Wouldn't just about anything make a better battery than a human? Like a potato? Or a ''battery''?" Leela explains that while everyone at the time it was made thought ''The Matrix'' was the worst movie ever because of this "mistake", [[WhatWeNowKnowToBeTrue it turns out the film actually got it right]]. Of course, this is a universe in which it's possible to travel between stars in hours or at most days because "scientists increased the speed of light in 2208", besides which, in the real world, the original movie is still roundly considered very good by most people who have seen it in spite of this scientific whopper caused by ExecutiveMeddling. |
| 385 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'' episode "History", Brendon makes a movie with George Washington, Annie Oakley, and Pablo Picasso as the primary villains, with very obvious inaccuracies for their backstories, such as Washington freeing the slaves, Picasso [[Creator/VincentVanGogh cutting off his ear]], and he confused Annie Oakley with ComicStrip/LittleOrphanAnnie (well, along with sharing the same name, they were both [[Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun the subject of]] [[Theatre/{{Annie}} Broadway musicals]]). It's later revealed that he's been receiving tutoring from Coach [=McGuirk=], and he's flunking history. |
| 386 | * ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': |
| 387 | ** In "Attack of the Killer Bebes", Dr. Drakken has no idea that his old college classmate is related to his current nemesis, and responds to Ron pointing this out by insisting that "Possible" is actually a common surname. He tries to prove it by checking a phone book only to find that there is indeed only one Possible family in Middleton. |
| 388 | ** In "Stop Team Go", Shego is [[MirrorMoralityMachine temporarily turned good]] and shows up to teach at Middleton High. Kim recognizes her immediately, but Ron simply accepts the name "Miss Go" she wrote on the blackboard. That isn't the only subject on which he's a bit credulous: |
| 389 | --->'''Ron:''' Nah, it's not Shego, it's Miss Go -- see, it says so on the board.\ |
| 390 | '''Kim:''' Putting something on the board doesn't make it true!\ |
| 391 | '''Ron:''' Oh, sure, y'know, when I said that in Twentieth Century History, I got sent to the office!\ |
| 392 | '''Kim:''' The moon landing wasn't [[MoonLandingHoax faked]] in the Arizona desert, Ron!\ |
| 393 | '''Ron:''' ''[[ComicallyMissingThePoint New Mexico]]'', Kim! |
| 394 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': In a likely nod to ''Film/AnimalHouse'', TJ once made a speech to convince Gretchen to not give up on the "space travel training" the gang was putting her through: |
| 395 | -->'''TJ''': Did ''Albert Edison'' give up when they stole his Theory of Regularity? Did ''Ben Franklin'' give up when the Germans shot down his kite? |
| 396 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 397 | ** One "educational film" features Troy [=McClure=] giving an oversimplification of what DNA is. When he's asked what DNA actually ''stands for'', he freezes up and the film abruptly ends. |
| 398 | *** The same film also mentions that DNA is the reason fat people have fat children. Weight is largely determined by environmental factors, not DNA. The video clip also shows a baby (presumably a newborn, given that the scene seems to take place in a hospital) eating a slice of pizza, which would be impossible for two reasons: 1. The baby wouldn't have any teeth with which to bite the pizza yet, and 2. Being a newborn, the baby's digestive system wouldn't be able to handle solid foods yet. |
| 399 | ** Homer finds a pair of glasses in a bathroom and, to prove his [[SmartPeopleWearGlasses newfound intelligence]], recites the Scarecrow's infamous isosceles triangle quote from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', only for a man in one of the stalls to correct him. |
| 400 | --->That's a '''right''' triangle, ya idiot! |
| 401 | * ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Cartman tries to make it look like the girls jumped him and drew a vagina on his face. However, he failed to realize that vaginas don't have testicles, something any girl would have known. Kyle quickly calls him out on it. |
| 402 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' |
| 403 | ** In the episode "Chille Tid", an exhausted Pearl states that it feels like they've been on their mission for "[[UnitConfusion light-years]]". An equally exhausted Amethyst attempts to be the smart one, but the best retort she can come up with is "Light-years measures light, not time". |
| 404 | ** In "Buddy's Book", when asked why she prefers using the library rather than the Internet when researching for school work, Connie said that the last time she trusted the Internet "I ended up writing an egregious essay that claimed that raccoons have [[EyeBeams Heat Vision]]." |
| 405 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode "Revolution," Beast Boy gets a ton of major details about the Revolutionary War wrong when trying to explain the 4th of July to Starfire, such as mixing up the year it started with the year of Columbus's first voyage and saying that the Boston Tea Party was a ''literal'' tea party. [[DeadpanSnarker Raven]] responds by asking if Beast Boy learned history from a cereal box. Later, after they've been repeatedly beaten by Mad Mod's robots, Beast Boy says "Now I know how George Washington felt when Napoleon beat him at Pearl Harbor." |
| 406 | * ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Total Drama World Tour]]'': |
| 407 | ** The intern responsible for doing the research comes up with [[AncientGrome Rome, rather than Greece]], as the birthplace of the Olympic Games. He is [[YouHaveFailedMe fired by Chris, the host of the show]], when the mistake is pointed out... by [[FelonyMisdemeanor being shoved out of the plane]]. |
| 408 | ** Courtney tried correcting Chris when the contestants were in China, and he told them the Great Wall was built eight million years ago. The kicker? Even though Courtney realized the Great Wall couldn't have been built until much more recently, she explained there were ''dinosaurs'' in 8,000,000 B.C. Maybe she was joking or exaggerating? |
| 409 | * ''WesternAnimation/UnderGrads'': When Mump tries to give a RousingSpeech to Gimpy about not giving up, using Franchise/StarWars references, he asks "Did [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack the Rebels abandon Hoth when the going got tough]]?" |
| 410 | -->'''Gimpy:''' The Rebels '''[[AnalogyBackfire did]]''' abandon Hoth when the going got tough. |
| 411 | [[/folder]] |
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