Playing With / Epic Fail

1 Following

Basic Trope: A blunder that is so amazingly and mind-bogglingly bad that even if done intentionally, should've been impossible.

• Straight: Bob storms General Dusk's fortress with a group of soldiers. When given the opportunity, he tries to shoot a mook. When he shoots, he not only misses the mook, but the bullet ricochets off multiple walls, destroys the MacGuffin they planned to use to kill Dusk, and simultaneously kills several soldiers. He is commended on such a fail by the mook.
• Exaggerated:
  • As the mook speaks, though, the bullet continues to bounce around, weakening a structural support and sending the entire base crashing down, at the same time setting off bombs that destroy the entire city. And Dusk and the lone mook are the only survivors.
  • Everyone in the room tries to shoot the mook at once. They not only miss, but break several pillars, causing the ceiling to fall and crush them. All except for the lone mook, who is protected by a pillar they missed.
  • Bob wets his corn flakes with milk and they spontaneously catch fire, breaking a myriad of rules of thermodynamics and chemistry.
  • Bob manages to fail at failing, despite not even intending to fail in the first place, in a manner that completely defies causality, and breaks several laws of reality In-Universe. How he manages to pull it off is a mystery that has caused multiple researchers and historians to go completely AWOL just thinking about it.
• Downplayed:
  • While Bob does eventually kill the mook, it takes several shots, the missed bullets hindering the other soldiers.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome
• Justified:
  • Bob is really lousy at firing guns.
  • Bob is The Ditz (bordering with Too Dumb to Live with Lethally Stupid tendencies) who is Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket.
  • God is a Troll in this universe that particularly enjoys picking on Bob.
• Inverted: Flawless Victory
• Subverted:
  • Bob raises the gun. The nearby soldiers brace themselves for what's about to happen. But Bob actually hits the mook, and not even he knows how.
  • Bob's aim was actually straight but he fell victim to probability manipulation which meant no matter what he did the laws of physics would bend over backwards to make it a catastrophe.
• Double Subverted:
  • But the bullet pierces the mook, bounces off a wall, and kills everyone in the room anyway.
  • Bob is not usually capable of such mass destruction, but he is still the last person who should be carrying a weapon or be on the field.
• Parodied:
  • Bob manages to miss the mook's entire body while the gun is pressed against his head.
  • Bob steps on a LEGO brick. By doing so, he somehow sets off a chain reaction that destroys the entire omniverse. This includes the viewer's universe.
• Zig Zagged: In a continuation of the double subverted example, the bullet then bounces down a hallway and kills 20 different mooks. Everyone turns out to be Not Quite Dead as well... But then the bullet returns and kills everyone anyway.
• Averted: Bob kills the mook. End of story.
• Lampshaded: General Dusk walks into the room as the fail occurs and stands there with his mouth gaping for a few seconds.
  I- I just... How do you manage that?!
• Invoked: Bob is a well-known Lethal Klutz. He's kept around because, hopefully, he will bumble his way into killing Evulz... even if that means for the rest of the heroes that they must accept the possibility Bob will end up getting them killed, too.
• Defied: In an act of mercy, the mook steps in front of the soldiers and takes the bullet for them.
• Exploited: General Dusk sits back and lets Bob destroy the entire army for him. If your opponent is destroying himself, best to get clear of the blast radius and all that.
• Discussed: "I'd hide if I were you. Knowing Bob, he'd probably screw this up in an impossible fashion."
• Conversed: "Wow. I didn't think it was possible to fail so hard, but it looks like I was wrong. How are they gonna continue after that episode?"
• Implied: Bob storms the villain's lair. Afterward, he leaves, only to have it crumble behind him and him looking very sheepish.
• Deconstructed: Bob's tendency for absolute mindboggling failures means nobody will hire him because he's likely to screw it up so much that collateral damage is inevitable. Or worse, he'll end up indirectly helping the villain with his extreme failure. Either way, he's a Walking Disaster Area.
• Reconstructed: Bob decides to fly solo and weaponize his Epic Fail tendencies so as to achieve victory in the most confusing way possible. He ends up becoming legendary as the first hero to use his bad luck as a weapon.
• Plotted A Good Waste: Bob's epic failure is treated both in-universe and out as a Hope Spot, where he was this close to succeeding after being put through so many trials... and he ends up bungling it horrifically. Bob and the audience aren't sure whether to laugh or cry.
• Played For Laughs:
  • The various mooks bet on how badly the local Failure Hero Bob is going to screw things up this time. When he does screw up really badly, the one who predicted correctly gets a fat stack of cash from his complaining colleagues.
  • The Disaster Dominoes of Bob's epic failure are so spectacular that everybody else pauses what they are doing to behold the mayhem in befuddlement.
• Played For Drama:
  • Bob's epic failure is a sign that his skills have gotten worse over the years and he's past his prime.
  • The collateral damage of Bob's failure is beyond anybody's capacity to forgive, leading to Bob spending a very long time in the doghouse, and that is if the rest of the cast actually want to give him a chance to repent (or don't kill him).
• Played For Horror: "Alice and Bob Face Death", a Final Destination ripoff, begins, ends and for the most part runs on the mayhem caused by Bob's failures.