"So I scroll back to read what she read, and apparently, my stupid iPhone has this memory spell-check feature, and it didn't recognize the word 'Cinebar'. It flipped it and turned it into 'Cinnabon'. So apparently, at 10 o'clock at night, my girlfriend thought I was having cinnamon rolls with my friend Martin."
—Gabriel IglesiasContext
Deprive topping hare. Oh duck, not again...
Autocorrect and speech-to-text software are a great help to users of electronic devices, but they're not perfect. They often pick the wrong words, and sometimes the user fails to catch it before hitting "Send". The resulting mistakes can be anything from cringeworthy to hilarious.
Mostly hilarious. In fiction, this trope is almost always used for comedic purposes. Typically the error is caught quickly and the user sends an embarrassed correction, but sometimes it's funnier if they don't and the recipient takes it literally.
This is a very new trope, as this kind of autocorrect error really only became common in the popular consciousness with the post-2000 proliferation of touchscreen smartphones and tablets. It did exist on a smaller scale before that in word processor programs, though. In pre-smartphone times it was sometimes called the "Cupertino Effect" due to an oversight by Apple: their spellchecker was inexplicably missing the word "cooperation", but did have the town name "Cupertino"
because Apple is headquartered there, so the common typo "coopertino" got corrected to the name of the town.
Sister Trope of Acquired Error at the Printer, where a print shop makes a mistake after the original creator submits the work, and Virtual Assistant Blunder, where a voice recognition input device, e.g. Siri or Alexa, misunderstands a user command or misinterprets something as a command that wasn't, causing unintended operation. Can overlap with Rouge Angles of Satin if the mistake is spelled similarly to the intended word, as well as Gosh Dang It to Heck! due to many autocorrect programs not recognizing profanity as legitimate words. Compare Fun with Autocensors, Fun with Subtitles, and Video Call Fail. Can lead to Poor Communication Kills if Played for Drama.
In-Utero Examine Only! (Goddammit! That's In-Universe Examples Only!)
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Appetizing (GAH! I mean Advertising!)
- When promotion for Avengers: Infinity War told fans that #ThanosDemandsYourSilence, Ryan Reynolds riffed on it for Deadpool 2 with #WadeWilsonDemandsYourSisterSorryStupidAutoCorrectSilence.
- A radio ad for the Motel 6 chain features Tom Bodett using his smartphone to type up the ad. His phone's auto-correct feature takes things further by replacing correctly spelled words with other correctly spelled words that sound similar.
Bodett: ...Try to follow along as I say that, at Motel 6, you can get still get a clam, comforter roam for the loamiest rice of any national chin. Huh, that last port sounded a brittle bit foamy. Anyway, you can brook by carving 1-800-4-MOTEL-6, online, or with our new mobile applesauce on your smartphone or toilet. Yelp, after all these yarns, you can still get mortar for what you trowel for. Well, that made no sentence at all. Man, I hate this docking thong. I'm Tom Bordeaux for Motel 6, and we'll heave the bright on form you. Oy. Close enough.
Comic Stripe (STRIPS! Comic STRIPS!)
- In Frazz, Caulfield's 2015 literature-inspired Halloween costume was inspired by running "Jabberwocky" through autocorrect.
Two Brillos on his silly toes
did gyrate nimbly in the water
All mimes bourgeoisie
And Mom roots adorably - Madam & Eve: Done in this comic.◊
"Time for my gym and tongue it!"
- Phoebe and Her Unicorn: In this Sunday strip, Marigold transports Phoebe onto a mountain, claiming that Phoebe texted her to bring her mountains. Phoebe is confused, since she recalls asking Marigold to bring her mittens, so she checks her phone and realizes her phone autocorrected the word Mittens to Mountains.
- On the Fastrack has a character named autocorrect (she's an anthromorphic bee — a "spelling bee"), and is married to the Y2K bug.
Dan Works (I mean FAN Works!)
- Aenor-Llelo: One of the incorrect Mystery Skulls Animated quotes features Arthur comforting Lewis over text, only for his autocorrect to misspell "make" as "bake". He then attempts to backpedal, but Lewis has already gone to work trying to cook his problems away.
- The Neon Genesis Evangelion fic Eva Menagerie's last published chapter begins with a memo from Gendo on various new measures for the pilots' safety and well-being. Auto-correct turns it into a memo requiring pilots and staff to engage in various obscene acts with each other. As Fuyutsuki guesses and Gendo confirms, he did it on purpose.
Yolks (JOKES!)
- A priest, a minister and a rabbit walk into a bar. The bartender says to the rabbit, "What'll you have?" The rabbit says, "I have no idea. I'm only in this joke because of auto-correct."Explanation
- The person who invented autocorrect should burn in he'll.
- The person who invented autocorrect has died. Restaurant in pieces.
- Autocorrect has become my worst enema.
Litter (It was supposed to be LITERATURE!)
- Alex Rider: Deliberately invoked by the Nebulous Evil Organisation Scorpia in Scorpia Rising, who plan to lead MI6 into a trap by sending Alex to investigate a college in Egypt. They arrange for a former member of the organisation's executive board to be found dead in London with various pieces of evidence linking him to the college; one of them is a phone with a text message referring to a vicar. MI6 eventually work out, in conjunction with several of the other clues left for them, that if you type the college's initials (CICAE, Cairo International College of Arts and Education) into an iPhone it autocorrects to "vicar", leading them to believe the college is the target without being aware they're being set up.
- In arc 37 of Heretical Edge, while Flick and company are attempting to rescue Avalon from Manakel, Koren interrogates a pixie who might have information about him, then sends Flick a text that ends with "Manakel's decorating". It turns out Koren had learned something significant about Manakel, but she'd made a typo in the message, her autocorrect had assumed she meant a different word than she did, and Manakel had captured her before she could resend the message she meant to send: "Manakel's security", as in "Manakel is possessing the head of security".
- In Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels, Jade tries to text her boyfriend Luke Martin that his adopted brother Trey could use some brotherly tips. Autocorrect turns it into "brotherly chips," "lobsterly tips," and "lobsterly lips" before Jade gives up.
- The Word Is Murder: Played for Drama and related to Not Quite the Right Thing. Diana sends her son Damian a final text that says "I have seen the boy who was lacerated and I'm afraid". When Horowitz and Hawthorne see the description that Diana ran down a boy and left him with severe brain lacerations, they assume she's referring to him. She isn't. She meant to type "the boy who was Laertes", which identified both the murder and his motive for murder. Her phone autocorrected it to "lacerated".
Lime-Acorn TP (Stupid phone! LIVE-ACTION TV!)
- Played for Drama in one episode of The Good Wife. Lockhart & Gardner defends a teen accused of starting the Silk Road black market sales site. Their client uses speech-to-text software because of a disability, and Kalinda realizes he's lying about his innocence when she finds a typo in an email from Silk Road's mystery founder that only makes sense coming from a mistake in speech recognition. The firm is forced to drop him as a client because they now know he perjured himself.
- Hollywood Game Night: Jane Lynch once returned from commercial with (paraphrased) "Welcome back to Hollywood Game Night; I'm June Launch. Damn you, autocorrect."
- The Muppets Mayhem: In the episode "Virtual Insanity", Dr Teeth's fondness for Perfectly Cromulent Words results in the Mayhem accidentally starting a feud with the whole of music when his tweet "To our fellow music makers. You're absotively tremendulous. You are all truly talenticious with stupenderous fans" gets sent as "To our fellow music makers. You're absolutely terrible. You are all truly talentless with stupid fans."
- The Order: The show uses Pop-Up Texting, since most of the characters are millennial college students. In one episode, main character Jack is having life-threatening complications, his Love Interest Alyssa is elsewhere trying to help, checks in via text (fellow werewolf Lilith answers Jack's phone).
Alyssa: Haven't heard from you in awhile. Everything alright?
"Jack": Everything's fixed.
"Jack": Everything's FUCKED!
"Jack": Fixing autocorrect. - A 2021 episode of Press Your Luck asked the contestants what feature would have failed them if they meant to text "You look so good" but instead texted "You look so food." The answer, of course, is autocorrect.
- Rizzoli & Isles: Angela sent Jane a message that said "Homie, I need a boner." She really meant "Honey, I need a loaner."
Mucus (Oh for the love... MUSIC!)
- The Gregory Brothers: The song "Penguin On Me (Autocorrect Love Song)" features two lovers attempting to communicate through text, but are thwarted by their phone's autocorrect feature, which changes all of their messages into random nonsense, none of which resembling anything similar to the original messages.
Patio (No! RADIO!)
- Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me:
- The correct answer for a "Bluff the Listener" quiz about prom trends involved the kids at a high school all wearing pastries instead of flowers as a joke after somebody's smartphone autocorrected a text about their date's corsage to "croissant".
- The 23 March 2024 episode had Steve Jobs's widow Laurene Powell Jobs, a noted philanthropist, as the "Not My Job" guest. Peter joked at the beginning of the episode that he was going to have to ad-lib the entire segment "because thanks to autocorrect, I was preparing all week to talk to the nation's most well-known philanderer."
- The correct answer for a "Bluff the Listener" quiz about prom trends involved the kids at a high school all wearing pastries instead of flowers as a joke
Standard Company (STAND-UP COMEDY!)
- Gabriel Iglesias once recounted a story where he and his girlfriend got iPhones and started texting each other, eventually leading to this trope when he got drunk. Knowing he's too drunk to keep a lie straight, he insists on telling the truth, and mentions the name of the locale, "Cinebar". Autocorrect didn't recognize it, and turned it into Cinnabon, a brand of cinnamon rolls.
Gabriel: Which normally, would sound like an ugly lie, but considering her boyfriend is known as the "fluffy guy" who loves "chocolate cake", it sounds real. I was like, "Oh, my god! Martin, check it out! My iPhone lied for me!"
- On one of his Australian tours, Ross Noble (who is a motorcycle fan) told a story about going to Philip Island to see the Superbike World Championship (often abbreviated to 'WSBK'). He texted his friend in the UK "Going to Philip Island for WSBK", only to get back a confusing message. When he reread his original text, he discovered that autocorrect had converted 'WSBK' to 'WANKS', presumably leading his friend to assume he has a bizarre sexual interest in penguins.
Ross: And to make it worse, it was plural!
Beater (Oh GOD, no! I meant Theatre!)
- Be More Chill: During "The Smartphone Hour," where all the students are texting each other about Rich setting Jake's house on fire, Brooke remarks that Rich is "flecked," before clarifying that she meant "fucked" and her autocorrect changed it. The ensemble then sings, "Always be aware of autocorrect!"
- Mean Girls: When Cady sends a text to Aaron about Regina cheating on him, the first half of the message is "regionals is chewing on you". The second half of the message involving a "lion costume" is thought to be this by Aaron, but was actually sent correctly.
Violin Gums (VIDEO GAMES! AAAAAAAAHHH!)
- In Ancient Domains of Mystery, there's some kind of an autocorrect for typing in wishes so that you don't miss a wish because of a misspelling. If you wish for "mindcraft" (a class ability only for Mindcrafters), you instead get Woodcraft (a skill that can be acquired by anyone).
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location: The elevator from the start of each night has a glitchy keypad that makes proper inputs impossible, so the system will try to auto-correct to what it thinks you meant to type. On the first night, it will auto-correct your name to "Eggs Benedict" regardless of what you try to enter, and the second night's request for you to hit a number (on a keypad with no numbers) to select a companion voice auto-corrects to "Angsty Teen" when that wasn't even one of the listed options. More amusingly, the keypad lacks the letter "B", but all of the auto-corrects except for the aforementioned Angsty Teen include a B.
- Happens in one of Cassie Cage's intros in Mortal Kombat 11.
Daddy (Johnny Cage): I did LAUNDRY, no Lauren! OMG!!
Cmdr Cage (Cassie Cage): Watch the autocorrect, Dad. ;D - Despite the fact that Nancy Drew: Ghost of Thornton Hall is a very dark game in general, the messages on Jessalyn's phone are really funny - mostly because Clara's autocorrect is acting up:
Clara: did y
Clara: ou get the INVERTEBRATESnote
Jessalyn: What?
Clara: INVERTEBRATES
Jessalyn: Mom... that does not clarify things.
Clara: INVERTEBRATES!!!!
Jessalyn: Yes?
Clara: NO INVERTEBRATES!!!!
Jessalyn: I'll make a note of that. No invertebrates.
Clara: I am sending this PHOTOGRAPH BACKWARDS!@!!!
Jessalyn: Ok. I hope that works out for you.
Clara: I am typing slowly, and angrily.
Deb Collins (Oh for crying out! WEB COMICS!)
- Doc Rat has a zorilla show up at a vaccination clinic when he was expecting a gorilla instead thanks to this trope.
- One Sluggy Freelance strip has Zoe write a tweet advertising her radio station's show as superior to another. The autocorrect accidentally turns it into a racist rant because the (uncapitalized) last names of the hosts, Whelt and Balkmin, are changed to "whites" and "black men".
- Referenced in Twin Dragons, where Nate's plan to deal with Larissa involves texting some contacts; the panel where he types the message includes the term "autocorrupt". (Incidentally, Robin admitted that this is based on a conversation in the comments a couple pages prior regarding a real-life example.)
- Spoofed in this strip of The Unspeakable Vault (of Doom). Apparently, computer-generated pentacles aren't that great an idea.
Cthulhoo: For once, drawings are good, but using "Childhood" unstead [sic] of "Cthulhoo" and "Feting" for "Fhtagn" is more than a beginner's mistake.
Web Orientals! (Holy shit! No! Web ORIGINALS!)
- The Angry Video Game Nerd: In his review of My Horse Prince, the Nerd gets messages on his phone from The Damn Bunny, who is none other than Bugs Bunny. When the Nerd tries sending a message that says "Fuck you", his phone autocorrects it as "Duck you" twice. He then responds with "Fuck you, you ducking fuck".
- Autocorrect Fail is an entire website dedicated to collecting funny autocorrect errors. One safe-for-work example:
- Danny Gonzalez: In one video, Danny mocked a post that claimed mistakes made by politicians "become new laws" with a skit about a politician texting his wife about wanting to kiss her, only for it to auto-correct to kill. Thus, it became legally obligated for everyone to kill their wives.
- Smosh: The whole premise of "AUTOCORRECT FAIL" is Anthony trying to text Ian, only for autocorrect to mangle everything that he says into something inappropriate. This results in Ian mistakenly thinking Anthony is trying to hit on him.
- Something Awful: An amusing depiction of the Cupertino Effect, a character called "Jeff K!!!!" who attempts to spellcheck his aggressively incorrect English.
Wiskey Aluminum (WESTERN ANIMATION! Stop it!)
- The Amazing World of Gumball: The Running Gag in "The Bus" has Mr. Brown receive instructions from his phone, but they're auto corrected. When it turns out to be Rob, a.k.a. Dr. Wrecker, he complains how autocorrect never works.
- In the Donald Duck short, "Computer.don", Donald orders a modern computer with voice recognition software. When he says his name, the computer addresses him as "Dewald", due to Donald's status as The Unintelligible.
- Family Guy: In "Quagmire's Dad", Quagmire introduces Peter and Joe to his father. As he tells a story overflowing with homoeroticism, Joe texts Peter a message saying "How gay is he?", and Peter texts back "So ducking gay."
Peter: That's my auto spell correct. But yeah, he's super gay.
- Regular Show: In the episode "I Like You Hi", Mordecai is texting CJ that he likes Yuji, but the autocorrect causes the sent message to be "I like you hi". He tried to cancel the message since he wasn't ready to start a relationship with CJ due to still missing Margaret. Yuji himself complains that the autocorrect always changes his name to "You Hi".
- In The Simpsons episode "Lisa on Ice" when Martin Prince praises the school's new "Academic Alert" system, Kearney tells Dolph to take a memo on his Apple Newton (a device known for its autocorrect fails) "Beat up Martin" but it transcribes it into "Eat up Martha." Kearney then chucks the Newton into Martin. This scene was infamous with Apple employees during the development of the iPhone's keypad, with "Eat up Martha" being a nickname for screwing up inputs within the company.
- In "Moho House" when Moe texts Marge.
Can you come alone to Mono House?
I mean Mohair House
Milhouse
Stupid autocorrect
- In "Moho House" when Moe texts Marge.
