Basic Trope: A (supposedly) intelligent character denies that a certain event will occur but turns out to be wrong later.
- Straight: TV Genius Professor Smith dismisses fears that a cataclysmic event will befall humanity. Shortly afterwards, it does.
- Exaggerated: Absent-Minded Professor Smith says obviously false things so many times that you wonder why anyone takes him seriously in the first place.
- Downplayed: Conspiracy Theorist Professor Smith says that odds are one hundredth of a percent chance a flash flood. Technically true but this time the unlikely odds happened.
- Justified:
- Professor Smith is genuinely intelligent, respected, and usually right.
- There was literally no evidence indicating that the event was possible given the tools at the time.
- Professor Smith is a professor in an unrelated subject. He's just guessing like everyone else, and the people around him are assuming that he knows what he's talking about.
- Professor Smith was a professor in tectonics, but nowadays he's just a senile old fool coasting on his achievements from the 1990s
- Inverted: Professor Smith says that the horrific event will occur, and of course no one listens to him.
- Subverted:
- At first Professor Smith seems to be denying the apocalypse, but it turns out that he is being blackmailed into saying this and does not actually believe what he says.
- Professor Smith says a disaster is unlikely to be caused by a particular experiment. The disaster happens — due to sabotaged to cause it, and performing it properly is even necessary to get the information needed to undo the damage.
- Doubly Subverted:
- Professor Smith claims he was blackmailed after the fact. He's just covering himself to try and save his reputation.
- Professor Smith says a disaster is unlikely to be caused by a particular experiment. The disaster happens due to sabotage, but it eventually becomes clear that the sabotage just hastened the inevitable, and may have even prevented the worse results of a "success".
- Parodied: Professor Smith is an obvious idiot but everyone around him acts like everything he says is the truth.
- Zig Zagged: Professor Smith at first believes his own words, and then realizes the truth, trying to convince everyone that he was wrong. No one listens to him, of course.
- Averted: Professor Smith avoids commenting on the issue altogether.
- Enforced: The only reason Professor Smith is in the story is to prove him wrong and/or kill him.
- Lampshaded: "You explicitly said earlier that it wouldn't happen, Professor Smith. Nice way to doom humanity, sir."
- Invoked: "Don't listen to him, he's a professor. Those guys are always wrong when it comes to life-threatening situations."
- Exploited: The aliens only attack when Professor Smith persuades the population to let down their guard, accidentally opening the Earth to invasion.
- Defied: "Come on, Professor Smith, you know what they say. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."
- Discussed:Alice: Say, did you hear about the Alien Invasion?
Bob: Professor Smith thinks everything will be fine.
Alice: And you believe him? - Conversed: "Professor Smith seems to think that nothing will happen. Let's see how long he lasts."
- Implied: Professor Smith is excluded from consultation with The Leader as a result of the last comparable incident.
- Deconstructed: Everyone listens to Professor Smith, everything seems fine, flowers are growing, sunlight is pouring down, and then the meteor hits and everyone dies. Except for Professor Smith, who is now forced to live with the price of his mistake.
- Reconstructed: Professor Smith recants his previous position, and all is forgiven until he slips up again.
- Played for Laughs: Professor Smith is Entertainingly Wrong.
- Played for Drama: Because the heroes believe Professor Smith and think the danger is nonexistent, they are caught completely unprepared. They are left scrambling around trying to juggle fixing everything and saving lives. Time spent saving lives means stuff is breaking faster and killing people anyway. Time spent fixing stuff means people are bleeding out and dying neglected. The heroes bemoan that Damage Control wouldn't have been necessary and fewer people would be dying if they had only thought to prepare just in case.
- Played For Horror: Professor Smith's misinformation is directly responsible for thousands upon thousands of deaths, all of which the audience has seen in uncensored glory, as well as the rest of the cast having to walk around literally knee-deep in the dead afterwards.
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