Basic Trope: A character is given the opportunity to wish for anything, and wastes it on something frivolous.
- Straight: Al Ladding is given Three Wishes by a Genie in a Bottle. The Literal Genie horribly mangles his first two wishes, and he has to use the third to press the Reset Button.
- Exaggerated: Al goes through a spectacular rise and fall, and ends up with less than he started.
- Downplayed: Al ends up slightly better off, and wiser, but regrets that he wasted such an impossible opportunity.
- Justified: Al's flawed wishes represent his own flaws — Greed, perhaps, or shallowness. His final wish represents Character Development, Laser-Guided Karma and/or learning An Aesop.
- Inverted: Al makes two fantastic wishes: perfect health until he dies peacefully in his sleep at the age of 101, and to be able to spend that time with his One True Love. He plans to use the third for Freeing the Genie, but unfortunately words it "I wish you had never been imprisoned in that lamp"...
- Subverted: Al realises what a mess he's made of his life, but nonetheless decides to Turn the Other Cheek and use his last wish to free the genie. The genie is immensely grateful, and promises him a great reward...
- Al seemingly wastes a wish, but he was only Obfuscating Stupidity. His real wish was actually a Spanner in the Works for the villain.
- Al used the wishes to do trivial things but that is because he knew that there would be a cost to pay for them in proportion to the utility. Trivial things would have only minor side effects.
- Double Subverted: ...but discovers he's lost his powers. Instead, Al has become a genie himself, as the lamp demands Equivalent Exchange. The moral is: never try to help anyone or you'll get screwed over.
- Parodied: Al wastes his first two wishes, and makes his last one "I wish I'd never rubbed this stupid lamp!" He's sent back in time to just before he found it. Then he spots it lying there, says "Ooh, a magic lamp!" and gets stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop.
- Zig Zagged: Al reaches his third wish and realizes he's wasted his first two and will have to use the third to make things right. He bewails his stupidity at length, before the Genie politely interrupts to say he gets seven wishes, not three. Al, delighted, goes on to waste the next three wishes, and finds himself in the same position yet again. After kicking himself, he gets a bright idea — to wish for seven more wishes! Not only does the genie refuse, but he counts it as a spent wish anyway, leaving Al with all the problems he created and no wishes to fix them.
- Averted:
- The wishes aren't the focus of the plot or a parable about greed, they're just a form of Supernatural Aid, and Al uses his allotted wishes to more or less useful effect throughout the story.
- There are infinite or no wishes.
- The results aren't wasteful.
- Enforced:
- They're going for An Aesop to Be Careful What You Wish For.
- Sure, Al could dramatically and permanently improve his life, but Status Quo Is God.
- Lampshaded: "Ever wonder why we give people Three Wishes? It always takes them the first two to figure out what they really want."
- Invoked: Al is really Genre Savvy, and makes a mundane first wish specifically to gauge the genie's reaction to it, and thus find out who he's dealing with — if he gets a perfectly prepared turkey sandwich, he'll know he has a Benevolent Genie and can think big; if he gets the sandwich exactly as described, but without the mayonnaise he forgot to stipulate, he'll know he has a Literal Genie and will have to watch what he says. If he gets a live turkey between two slices of bread, he's going to drop the lamp and walk away from the Jackass Genie as fast as he can.
- Exploited: Al finds a genie in a bottle... and his first instinct is to give it to the villain. He knows just how impulsive and overambitious the guy is, and counts on him ruining himself by wishing for the wrong things.
- Defied: "That's a dumb wish and I won't have anything to do with it. Think again, bozo."
- Discussed: "I'm a phenomenally powerful being and I value my time. How about we skip the stupid selfish wishes and give me something interesting to do, then?"
- Conversed: "I know I wouldn't wish for that. I'd use my wishes to do truly good deeds."
- Implied: Al is a supporting character and does all his wishing out of protagonist Bob's sight. He comes back looking deeply disappointed.
- Deconstructed: Al's misuse of his wishes causes him to lose everything he had even before his experience with the lamp.
You wish to go to Wasteful Wishing? Seriously? You could just click that link, but OK...
