Slightly above "liquefy" but below "well done".
"How do I set my laser printer to stun?"
— Common office joke
Devices, appliances, and gadgets have become commonplace and everyday in our world. In fiction, someone may reach for a device they've never used before. Not certain how to use the device, they turn to ask for assistance and are advised to put the device on a setting that utterly defies belief.
This is always played for comedy, and usually takes one of three ways.
In the first form, closely related to When All You Have Is a Hammer…, the device in question wasn't theoretically built for the task at hand. And yet, somehow, it has a setting that is absolutely perfect for the situation.
In the second version, the device was built for the task at hand, but is being used in such an extreme way as to be impossible.
Finally, a character might be reading a list of settings and discover some bizarre settings of no use to the situation, such as a vehicle having settings more appropriate to a blender, e.g. puree, whip, or frappe.
In the age of smartphones, this might be accompanied by someone saying, "I've got an app for that."
May overlap with Shout-Out. Compare and contrast Mundane Utility and Plot-Sensitive Button. Closely related is Inventional Wisdom, where someone might ask, "Why do we even have that button/switch/setting/lever?" Also compare Caps Lock, Num Lock, Missiles Lock, where certain controls may be problematically placed.
Has nothing to do with Set Swords to "Stun", although a sword with a "stun" setting would be an example of this trope.
One of the most commonly referenced sources is Star Trek: The Original Series, whose phaser weapon was one of the first to have a non-lethal "stun" setting, which became a staple of parodies and Shout Outs.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Comic Books
- Transmetropolitan: The settings of the bowel disruptor gun start out as mostly reasonable in context, such as "loose", "watery", or "prolapse", but as the story goes on and stakes get higher, its primary user Spider Jerusalem reveals it can do far worse: "Intestinal Maelstrom", "Unspeakable Gut Horror", "Rectal Volcano", and "Shat into Unconsciousness".
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: A common gag with the Spaceman Spiff comics is Calvin/Spiff setting his blaster to various comedic 'settings,' such as "deep fat fry,"
"shake and bake," or "liquefy."
Film — Animation
- Bee Movie: During the fight scene in the bathroom, the showerhead Ken uses to attack Barry has three settings: Spray, Turbo, and Lethal.
- The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a Wallace & Gromit cartoon about Genius Ditz inventor Wallace and his mute but Hypercompetent Sidekick Gromit working as garden pest controllers in a British neighborhood where gardening is almost a religion. While pursuing the Were-Rabbit, Gromit is driving the business vehicle, which is being pulled by a tow cable that has snared the rabbit. As the rabbit tries to escape through its tunnels, Gromit finds his windshield accumulating much loose earth. He engages the wipers, which have four settings: Rain, Snow, Loam, Heavy Loam. Perhaps this is not the first time this vehicle has had to travel underground.
- The Simpsons Movie: The Itchy and Scratchy cartoon at the beginning of the movie involves the duo going to the moon, only for Itchy to leave Scratchy for dead and returns to Earth and becomes president. When it's revealed that Scratchy is still alive and threatens to expose the truth, Itchy's solution is to fire dozens of nuclear missiles at him. The modes for launching said missiles include "First Strike", "Retaliation", and "Accidental Launch", with Itchy choosing the third one.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: After being tricked by Plankton into believing that Mr. Krabs stole his crown and sold it to a guy named "Clay" (who then sold it to some guy in Shell City), King Neptune uses his trident to freeze Mr. Krabs in ice. Once his crown is returned and Plankton is defeated, Neptune attempts to unfreeze Mr. Krabs, but accidentally turns him into a human instead. Neptune notes that he must've had his trident set to "'real boy' ending", and quickly changes Mr. Krabs back to normal.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit begins with Roger appearing in the Maroon Cartoon "Somethin's Cookin'". Baby Herman escapes his playpen and manages to crawl along the kitchen countertops. During his crawl across a stovetop, Baby Herman's foot turns on the gas burners and rolls the oven knob through "Low, Medium, High, Volcano." So, hot enough to melt rock. Of course, the oven brand is Hotternell.
Film — Live-Action
- L.A. Story: Harris Telemacher's shower, in addition to Hot and Cold, also possesses a Slo-Mo setting, which does indeed cause the action to go into slow motion.
- In Snakes on a Plane, one of the snakes is killed by being microwaved. Freeze-Frame Bonus reveals that its would-be victim hits the microwave's "snake" button.
- Spaceballs: Lone Star has just put his Space Winnebago into "hyperactive" in a bid to escape the eponymous Spaceballs. Dark Helmet orders pursuit. Col. Sanders tells them to prepare for light speed. Helmet says that light speed is too slow, and they're going to have to take the ship to Ludicrous Speed. The ship passes Lone Star and keeps going.
Lone Star: They must've overshot us by a week-and-a-half!
- Stay Tuned: Roy Knable finds himself bouncing between channels trying to rescue his wife and escape Spike all at once. He finds himself on a ship that is an obvious parody of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Spike orders the crew to "set phasers to 'Torture'."
Roy: [closing his eyes and pressing buttons] Holy Shatner!
- In Vacation (the 2015 sequel to National Lampoon's Vacation), the Tartan Prancer minivan has a whole slew of useless features that the Griswolds have to figure out by trial and error, including a button that turns the driver's seat around, a button that shatters all the windows, and a Self-Destruct Mechanism that forces them to switch to their grandpa Clark's old Family Truckster.
Literature
- Tatu and Patu: In "Tatu and Patu's Weird Sleep Book", Tatu and Patu recall some weird dreams they've had, and in Tatu's dream, he accidentally shrinks his head by setting his washing machine to "skull shrink".
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who:
- The Doctor's sonic screwdriver started out in "Fury from the Deep" as essentially just a screwdriver that didn't need to actually physically contact the screws, and by "The Dominators", two stories later, it had picked up a "burn holes through concrete" setting. Other writers would throw in more functions until by the revival series it verges on a technological Magic Wand (with various Doctors even brandishing it like one). At one point the Master used a laser version that included a Devolution Device function.
- Peter Capaldi's Doctor trades out the sonic screwdriver for sonic sunglasses, which do everything the screwdriver does, as well as browsing the internet (with Twelve routinely warning people off his browser history).
- In the The Doctor Dances, Jack Harkness shows off how his sonic blaster, which functions as a Disintegrator Ray, also possesses a "digital rewind" setting that enables it to put back things that it has disintegrated, in this case a section of a wall.
- The Sonic Screwdriver is also an inversion: despite being called a "screwdriver", many a Companion is shocked and/or annoyed to discover that it does not work on wood.
- In "The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe", the Doctor modifies a house. The taps now have "Hot", "Cold", and "Lemonade".
- Home Improvement:
- When Tim shows off the Binford "Macrowave" in the Man's Kitchen, it only has three settings: high, REALLY high, and "split your own atoms," marked with a radiation symbol. He demonstrates the microwave by baking two potatoes, which takes about three seconds.
Tim Taylor: Once they stop glowing, they're probably ready to eat.- In another episode, Tim apologizes to Jill by purchasing a recliner chair with built-in massage functions, and jokes that it works at three speeds: Low, Medium and "Who Needs A Man?"
Music
- In the music video for Michael Jackson's "Black or White", a father angrily tells his son to turn off his music, resulting in said son setting up an oversized guitar amp with three settings: "Loud", "Louder", and "Are You Nuts!?!". He turns it to the last one, and blasts his father all the way to Africa.
Video Games
- In Dawn of War II: Retribution, following an Eldar ambush, Kaptin Bluddflagg's first mate Mister Nailbrain announces he set his gitfinda to "panzee" (Eldar) to find and engage them.
- In Space Quest V: The Next Mutation, the spaceship you're captaining is equipped with a "cryo-chef", which is used to freeze or cook food. If you take a look at the machine, you'll find a list with instructions on how to freeze, defrost or cook various kinds of food... and how to freeze or defrost an ambassador, which you'll end up using to save the life of ambassador Beatrice Wankmeister after she becomes infected with Pukoid sludge.
Web Animation
- 50 Ways to Die in Minecraft: In the Halloween special, Captain Kirk appears to shoot Michael Myers with his phaser for illegally using his image, setting it to "SUE" and causing Michael to drop a bunch of cash when shot dead.
Web Original
- Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk supplemental material mentions a wizard owning a "staff of barbecue", which can be set to "medium-rare", "well done" and "fireball in your face".
- What If? features the "Hair Dryer" thought experiment. An ordinary 1875-watt hair dryer is sealed inside an indestructible metal box and turned on. Every paragraph, a new power setting is taped onto the dial, increasing the power by an order of magnitude. At its second-highest setting of 187 terawattsnote , the hair dryer is putting out energy comparable to three nuclear explosions every second. After turning the dryer down to 0 and dumping it into a lake to cool it down, the 187-terawatt setting is taped over with 11 petawattsnote . This boils the entire lake into plasma and launches the box and hairdryer into space.
At 187 megawatts: Just one more, then we'll stop.
One paragraph later: 1.875 gigwatts (I lied about stopping).
Western Animation
- Arthur: In "D.W.'s Imaginary Friend", the amusement park ride "Hurl-a-Whirl" has its settings labeled after food blender speeds. Naturally Arthur and Buster set their car to the highest setting: "liquefy".
- Codename: Kids Next Door: In "Operation I.-S.C.R.E.A.M.", when Sector V is breaking into the Tasty Taste Ice Cream Factory, Numbuh Three melts the ice cream monster eating her teammates by turning the factory's heater to "Like, Eleventy Billion Degrees".
- Johnny Test:
- The episode "Johnny Bench" has Johnny being assigned by Mr. Teacherman to build a bench in woodshop, only for Johnny to refuse to make it himself because of his dislike of Teacherman and being told what to do. Instead, he gets Susan and Mary's construction drones to build a hi-tech bench that, in his own words, will "make Teacherman freak out and give him an A". However, the drones take this description too literally and include a setting called "Freak Out Teacher Mode" ("F.O.T." for short, the drones tried to mention it and all the bench's other features to Johnny, but he was too eager to hand it in to listen), which turns the bench into a killer robot that Johnny and Dukey have to stop from hunting down and killing Teacherman.
- The episode "Johnnysicle" has Brain Freezer's freeze ray, whose settings range from -20 degrees, to -40 degrees, to "Nor-Easter".
- Legends of Chamberlain Heights: The episode "Chocolate Milk" has Milk utilizing a local salon's special tanning bed to make his complexion darker, with the settings for said bed being labelled from lightest to darkest as "Steph Curry", "David Beckham", "Pharrell", "Chris Brown", "Kid Cudi", "Django", "Michael Jordan", "Wesley Snipes", and "Akon". The "Chris Brown" setting is stated to be the salon's bestseller while "Akon" requires signed paperwork and approval from the manager.
- Looney Tunes: The Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon "The Solid Tin Coyote" has the Coyote construct a huge robot coyote out of junkpile scrap. At one point, this giant robot actually captures the road runner. The Coyote dials in the command "Eat, stupid" into his remote control. The robot proceeds to masticate and digest the Coyote. Fridge Logic wonders why the Coyote would want his robot to do the eating, rather than himself.
- Megas XLR: Any switch or button that isn't a Plot-Sensitive Button tends to have an Outlandish Device Setting:
- Phineas and Ferb:
- Candace is trying to make lamb cobbler for Jeremy. Setting aside the outlandish ingredients she uses due to garbled transmissions with Ferb on the moon, she is told that it must bake at 350F for an hour. Pressed for time, Candace reasons that it will take three minutes at 9000F, and promptly sets her oven that high. Given that it's Phineas and Ferb, and other modifications the audience has seen them make around the house, no one even questions how a conventional oven can get that hot.
- The episode "Attack of the 50 Foot Sister" has the Smellinator, designed by Doofenshmirtz to spray concentrated dirty diaper smell at an ongoing festival to ruin it. Among the settings for the range is "universe", which is somehow able to make the machine spray the entire universe in Phineas and Ferb's growth serum and cause everything to grow to a size proportionate to Candace's newfound giant size, making everything look normal again without anyone realizing the changes.
- In "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein", Jekyll created a machine that could turn someone into either a fairy princess or a monster. When the angry Mob showed up at his house for their appointment, he drank the concoction the machine produced to show off the invention. However, the dial was turned to fairy princess, thus ruining his chance to be a real evil genius.
- Scaredy Squirrel: The episode "Aisle of the Dead" has the majority of Balsa City's citizens becoming zombies after drinking slushies from the Stash N' Hoard's new slushie machine. When Scaredy believes that everyone is just hot from the ongoing heat wave, he attempts to fix things by hosing all the victims in more of the beverage, only for it to inexplicably fail. It turns out the machine actually and literally has a "zombie" setting that it had accidentally been set to, making Scaredy and Sally the only two unzombified people left in the city and running for their lives from the oncoming horde (although everything is back to normal by the next episode).
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Played with. In one episode, Freddy, being Innocently Insensitive, tells Velma to "set your milky whiteness to stun."
- SpongeBob SquarePants gives us this exchange when SpongeBob has just hit Squidward with the Shrink Ray on Mermaid Man's Utility Belt (whose buckle is shaped like an M) and is trying to undo the damage:
Patrick: You got it set to M for mini when it should be set to W for wumbo.
SpongeBob: Patrick, I don't think "wumbo" is a real word.
Patrick: Oh come on SpongeBob! You know, I wumbo, you wumbo, he she me wumbo, wumbo, wumboing, we'll have the wumbo, wumborama, wumbology the study of wumbo? It's first grade, SpongeBob!
- Later in the episode, a shrunken Mermaid Man asks, "Did you set it to wumbo?"
- Tiny Toon Adventures: Trying to impress a Hollywood director, Hamton and Plucky get jobs at a Hollywood restaurant, where one set of guests turn out to be Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Upon being served, the cloche over the tray is lifted, revealing a live chicken.
Kirk: Bones, analysis?
Bones: It's raw, Jim.
Kirk: Set phasers... for... shake and bake. [phasers are drawn and we cut away as the cast zaps the bird]
"Troper, set the page for 'stun'."
