"You can't do this to me! This job is my life, it means everything to me! You don't know what I've done to get here! The lies I've told, THE LIVES I'VE RUINED!... This isn't helping me."
— Phineas T. Ratchet (trying not to get fired), Robots
A character is trying to make a point, but instead of making an argument that supports it, it either lends no support at all or may completely undercut it. The character may realize this even as they are attempting to make it or may have others point out the flaw in their logic. Quite often, this will be followed up by the one trying to make the point muttering "Bad example." or saying That Came Out Wrong. Other times, they may wind up talking themselves into agreeing with the point they were arguing against to begin with.
This is usually a comedy trope, as the lack of self-awareness until the realization seems to be too silly for drama, but it's not unheard of.
This can overlap with Digging Yourself Deeper if characters try to deny something and then realize they are just proving it instead. It can also overlap with Immediate Self-Contradiction.
Compare Analogy Backfire, Double Take, Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap! (when the argument realization leads to something dire), Not Helping Your Case, Strawman Has a Point, I Resemble That Remark!, Blatantly Self-Defeating, Distinction Without a Difference, Hypocritical Humor, Rhetorical Question Blunder.
See also Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Batman: In issue #392, Harvey Bullock is in Comissioner Gordon's office railing against the very idea of giving Catwoman the same leeway as Batman, even if she has reformed, and there are extenuating circumstances regarding her previous career, and she did already prove herself by helping stop Night-Slayer. At the end of the story, Catwoman and Batman present Gordon with a string of captured criminals as a prelude to asking him to consider her an official vigilante, and he tells them that Bullock already convinced him to do so.
Film — Animation
- My Little Pony: The Movie (2017): When Rarity apologizes to Applejack for a "raised in a barn" comment, Applejack replies that no apology is needed because she wasn't:
AJ: My family just happens to have a barn. Where I was born. And... spent most of my formative years...
Rainbow Dash: [zooming past] Rrrrraisedinabarn! - Robots: When Bigweld comes to fire Ratchet, Ratchet tries to play to his sympathy, saying how much his job means to him and what he's had to do to get it, "The lies I've told, the lives I've ruined!… This isn't helping me."
Film — Live-Action
- 12 Angry Men: As the debate becomes more heated, Juror #3 leans heavily on the testimony of the old man downstairs in order to confirm that the defendant is guilty; however, Juror #8 argues that the old man might not have actually seen the defendant running downstairs after the murder, since he might not have been fast enough to make it to the door in the time between murder and escape. Juror #9 points out that the old man was very positive when he said that this time was fifteen seconds, and in a rage, Juror #3 shouts, "Half the time he was confused! How can he be positive about anything?" In the moment of silence that follows, #3 winces and closes his eyes in frustration, realizing he's just scuppered his own argument.
- Kill Bill: Budd is chewed out by his boss for being late, and Budd says that it doesn't matter because there are no customers. The boss questions this line of defense – "What are you trying to convince me of, exactly? That you're as useless as an asshole right here [pointing at his elbow]?" – and suspends him.
- Liar Liar: Parodied when Fletcher objects to Dana's recording on the ground that it’s devastating to his case and the judge unsurprisingly overrules him.
Fletcher: Good call!
- Simply Irresistible: While Amanda is getting ready to go to the Henri Bendel department store to meet with Tom, she asks Nolan what guys think about most often, and he tells her men think about sex on average 238 times a day. Later she asks Tom about it, and he dismisses it as nonsense. He then begins doing the math, how many hours awake, convert to minutes then divide by 238, which would mean men think about sex on average around every four minutes... which sounds about right.
Amanda: We've been together for twenty minutes.
Live-Action TV
- Friends: Phoebe talks to Monica about the great sex she and her boyfriend are having. Monica's comical competitiveness kicks in and she tells Chandler to take her home so they can top that amount of sex. Chandler talks about how stupid it is that she always has to top people, and then realizes how stupid it is to complain about his girl offering lots of wild sex.
- Good News Week: During the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute
, there were calls for the government to send in the army to deal with a dispute, prompting the following from host Paul McDermott:
"No, no, no. You send the navy to deal with a dock strike, you send the army in to a coal miners' strike, and you send the air force to deal with a pilots' strike. Otherwise, the navy, army and air force get into a big demarcation dispute and go out on strike, and the government has to send in the wharfies to defend us against invasion! Which isn't a bad idea. When those wharfies cover the coastline, nothing gets ashore!" - Happy Days: In one episode, Richie suggests escaping from a predicament by disguising themselves in women's clothes to slip away. Fonzie balks, arguing that Davy Crockett could have done that to escape from the Alamo but didn't. He concedes the point when Richie points out that Davy Crockett died at the Alamo.
- Stargate SG-1: In "Window of Opportunity", this becomes a bit of a Running Gag in the second "Groundhog Day" Loop:
- First when trying to convince everyone that events are repeating:
O'Neill: We've done all this already. "No, we haven't." That's what you were going to say.
Daniel: Of course that's what I was going to say!
O'Neill: OK, bad example. - Second, trying to convince Hammond to let them go back to P4X-639:
O'Neill: Look, if it was just me, that'd be one thing, but what about Teal'c? C'mon, is this the face of a crazy man?
[close up of Teal'c, with the gold medallion on his forehead, shaved scalp, eyeshadow and yellow strip goatee]
O'Neill: Bad example. - Finally, when they confront Malakai, the archaeologist who started the loop, who is trying to play innocent:
O'Neill: [searching Malakai's bag and finding some kind of gun] What kind of archaeologist carries a weapon?
Daniel: [raises his hand] Uh, I do.
O'Neill: Bad example.
- First when trying to convince everyone that events are repeating:
Video Games
- Borderlands 2: In the "Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt" DLC, Professor Nakayama attempts to convince the Vault Hunters to side with him by listing off all the benefits cloning Handsome Jack will bring them... And coming up with nothing.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: When the Dragonborn attempts to return the talking dog Barbas to his master, Clavicus Vile, they're initially met with a flat refusal. Clavicus insists that he's better off without Barbas, even if banishing him means that Clavicus is severely weakened because Barbas is actually part of himself. So weakened, in fact, that he can only interact with the mortal world through a single shrine, tucked away in a dark frozen cave in the middle of nowhere. As he explains this, Clavicus trails off as he realizes he just made a very good argument for why he should want Barbas and his missing power back.
Web Videos
- The Mark Remark: This is becoming a Running Gag, in which Martin denies a simile by using points that actually prove it, and then that occurs to him as he's talking.
- The Nostalgia Critic: When The Critic reviewed Captain N: The Game Master, he mentioned how the show seemed to make Simon Belmont of Castlevania seem gay, and when trying to deny it, Critic realized the traits he was listing did make Simon in the games seem gay.
- Kid Radd: Radd is shocked that Sheena can join the moderators. He's the hero of his video game, so why would she be chosen to enter other video games? She doesn't even have a Life Meter... and then Radd realizes that makes her part of the Invulnerable Civilians.
Webcomics
- Cinema Snob Reviews Frozen: The eponymous Snob realizes someone is trying to trick him into reviewing Frozen (2013). When he complains about how the film is past his review cutoff date, he then realizes he's complaining about watching a good movie, which is a rare thing for him to review in the first place, so he agrees to do it.
- The Order of the Stick:
- Early on, Redcloak tries to talk Xykon out of recruiting hobgoblins, who have a long history of bullying goblins like Redcloak with their greater strength, efficiency, and discipline. He then realises he's just convinced Xykon to recruit the hobgoblins.
- When Durkon is turned into a vampire, Belkar tries to argue in favor of him not being allowed to rejoin the team — only to realise that, since he's been the team's Token Evil Teammate up to this point, the argument he's making would also apply to him.
Belkar: I just don't trust the idea of using a horrible bloodthirsty savage to fulfill our goals while we... oh, I get it.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: When Anne tries to convince her parents to let her and the Plantars come to the market, her parents wonder if she can handle the responsibility of keeping the frogs out of trouble. Hop Pop starts to tell them that Anne has grown a lot since she first got to Amphibia. As he argues her case, he starts listing several of the times Anne screwed up in Amphibia... He ends up losing his train of thought and just listing her failures until he wonders what he was initially talking about.
- Ben 10: Omniverse: In "Universe vs. Tennyson", Ben is put on trial by the Celestialsapiens for having used Alien X to recreate the universe in an earlier episode after it was destroyed. Ben’s lawyer, Chadzmuth, argues that the Celestialsapiens shouldn’t punish Ben because they change reality all the time. However, Chadzmuth phrases it that they change reality as often as Ben changes his shirt (and teenage Ben wears the same t-shirt for the entire run of Omniverse). Chadzmuth then says "Okay, bad example." before rephrasing that.
- Daria: "Mart of Darkness" sees Jane and Daria going to a big box store to buy what Jane calls "art supplies" after an argument with her boyfriend, Tom. Jane picks up a big bag of gummy bears, explaining to Daria that when microwaved they make an interesting stained-glasslike mosaic pattern, which she was going to pour over a statue she'd crafted... until Tom ate her gummy bears! Realizing this was the source of Tom and Jane's argument, Daria asks a few questions:
Daria: Tom ate your Gummy Bears even though he knew you needed them for your statue? That was pretty inconsiderate.
Jane: Well, now that I think about it, I may not have actually told him they were for my statue, but he should have known!
Daria: Definitely. Especially since they were probably right there next to your paints. Unless he eats paint, too.
Jane: Um... the Gummy Bears were in a bowl on the kitchen counter. But they were in plain view of my statue! [Beat] I don't have a leg to stand on, do I?
Daria: I'd rather not answer that, stumpy. - The Fairly OddParents!: In "School's Out! The Musical", the Pixies try to persuade Flappy Bob into wishing for the world to be boring, since they can grant his wish. Trying to stop them, Timmy tells Bob he knows the Pixies are the ones who gave him all he ever wanted, and Timmy is the one who destroyed his lifelong dream, but Bob has to listen to him. Timmy then says "Boy, that came out wrong."
- Pinky and the Brain: When Brain's latest plan is to is to gain enough fame as a professional basketball player to gain world domination.
Pinky: Egad, Brain, brilliant! Oh wait, no, no... you've never played basketball in your life.
Brain: Pshaw, Pinky. Remember when they told Michael Jordan he couldn't play baseball?
Pinky: They were right, Brain.
Brain: ...Oh. - Rugrats: In "Stu Gets A Job", during an argument about his current project, a kind of automatic bubble blower, Didi asks when he's going to finish it. He fires back, "Did Mozart's wife keep asking when he was going to finish his requiem?" Didi points out that Mozart died without finishing his requiem. Stu sheepishly admits it's a bad example.
- The Simpsons: In the "Treehouse of Horror IV" segment "The Devil and Homer Simpson", Lionel Hutz's opening statement as he tries to break Homer's Deal with the Devil (he Sold His Soul for a Donut) leaves a lot to be desired:
[after the Devil's opening statement]
Lionel: That was a right pretty speech, sir. But I ask you, what is a contract? Webster's defines it as "an agreement under the law which is unbreakable". Which is unbreakable.
[beat]
Lionel: ...Excuse me, I must use the restroom. - South Park: In "The Hobbit", Kim Kardashian is accused of being a hobbit (who photoshops her pictures), and her husband Kanye West tries to prove to everyone that she isn't, but ends up realizing that she is.
Kanye: There have been malicious rumors, started at this elementary school, that my beautiful fiancée is a hobbit. That is not funny, and it is not true. Alright?! Yes, Kim is heavier than most of her pictures show her to be. Yes, she gets her hair lasered off her body. Yes, she has a friend named Gandalf who happens to be a wizard. [beat] I'm sorry, excuse me a minute. [calls Kim up and turns his back on the class...] Bitch, how are you not a hobbit again?