Index Failure

Tropes:

• Acquired Error at the Printer: You fail to print something properly.
• Aesop Amnesia: You fail to remember the moral you learned last episode.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: You fail to make your sentient computer behave.
• The Alleged Car: Your car is prone to failure.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: Exaggerated Trope of the above.
• The Alleged Computer: Your computer is prone to failure.
• The Alleged Expert: You fail to do what you were supposedly trained to do.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Your work fails to gain a large foreign audience.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Your final opponent fails to put up much of a fight.
• Anvilicious: You fail to send messages subtly.
• Assassin Outclassin': You fail at assassination.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: You fail to concentrate.
• Atrocious Alias: You fail to give yourself a good code name.
• Audience Participation Failure: You fail to get audience backup in your show or song.
• Author Existence Failure: You fail to finish your series before you die.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Your technique or equipment seems amazing, but using it is a bad idea.
• Bad "Bad Acting": You fail to give even a remotely good performance.
• Bad Liar: You fail to tell a lie convincingly.
• Blatant Lies: You fail to tell that somebody else is lying.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: You fail to translate something.
  • Translation Train Wreck: You fail monumentally to translate something.
• Bonus Feature Failure: You fail to provide good bonus content.
• Box Office Bomb: Your movie fails to make enough money.
• Broken Aesop: You fail to convey your message because your characters don't obey it. Bonus points if it was meant to be Anvilicious.
• Buffy Speak : You fail to articulate a sentence.
• Bungled Suicide: You fail to commit suicide.
  • Happily Failed Suicide: You failed to commit suicide, and that's a good thing.
• Butt-Dialing Mordor: You fail to avoid detection by making unintentional contact with the enemy.
• Caffeine Failure: You fail to stay awake.
• Calling Me a Logarithm: You fail to realize that you weren't just slurred.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: You fail to protect a secret.
• Cannot Spit It Out: You fail to say something succinctly.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: You fail to tell a joke.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': You fail to stay out of trouble.
  • Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin': You fail to get into trouble.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Your self-control fails when you imbibe alcohol.
• Can't Use Stairs: Your locomotion fails to let you use stairs.
• Captain Obvious Aesop: You fail to teach a lesson people don't already know.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: You fail to make your big revelation a surprise.
• Cardboard Prison: Your prison fails to contain its prisoners.
• Cassandra Truth: You tell the facts, but your recipients fail to accept them.
• Character Derailment: You fail to keep characters consistent.
• Color Failure: You fail to keep your color when you lose your cool.
• Comically Missing the Point
• Conflict Ball: You fail to set up character conflicts properly.
• Correction Bait: You fail not to correct the mistake you've found.
• Crapola Tech: Technology that fails to even be a good prototype.
• Creator's Pet: You fail to notice the audience's hatred for a character, continuing to endorse her/him.
• Critical Existence Failure: You fail to stay alive, even though you were fine one hit point ago.
• Critical Failure: You fail to roll a two or higher, thus leading to more failure.
• Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: You fail to psychoanalyze someone.
• Critical Research Failure: You fail to learn anything about a topic.
  • Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: You mess up information that was obvious to anyone who paid attention.
• Cryonics Failure: Your freezing system fails, usually with fatal consequences.
• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: You fail to give your audience anything to like about your work's setting.
• Deaf Composer: You can't enjoy something you made because your ability to experience the necessary sense(s) has failed.
• Defensive Failure: You fail to remember the weapon in your hand.
• Designated Hero: You fail to create a good character.
• Designated Villain: You fail to create an evil character.
• Despair Event Horizon: Your hope has failed and is beyond hope of restoration past this point.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: You fail monumentally to fix a faux pas.
• Disastrous Demonstration: Demonstration of a product or concept goes so horribly wrong that, whether it deserves to be or not, it's discredited.
• Distracted by the Sexy: You fail to concentrate in the presence of Fanservice.
  • Not Distracted by the Sexy: Inverted Trope: The Fanservice fails to throw you off your track.
• D.I.Y. Disaster: You fail at renovating your house.
• Don't Shoot the Message: Not only do you fail at enlightening others because your delivery was fallacious and/or vicious, but for like reason(s) you fail at appealing to those on your side.
• Dramatically Missing the Point
• Dreadful Musician: You fail to make music.
• Drives Like Crazy: You fail to drive safely.
• Dude, Not Funny!: You fail to keep your comedy in good taste.
• Dull Surprise: You fail to emote when, logically, you should be.
• E = MC Hammer: You fail to write convincing-looking mathematics.
• Eight Deadly Words: You fail to get people to be invested in your story.
• Entendre Failure: You fail to make a double entendre.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Sound though your reasoning is, it nonetheless fails to lead you to an accurate conclusion.
• Epic Fail: You fail spectacularly.
• Escaped Animal Rampage: When people failed to keep animals locked in their cages.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Villains fail due to their inability to see how virtue motivates their adversaries.
  • Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: See above, but swap "heroes" for "villains" and "vice" for "virtue."
• Evil Will Fail: You can pursue a life of evil if you wish, but there'll be severe consequences.
• Exact Time to Failure: Initiating failure in three … two … one …
• F--: You fail spectacularly at schoolwork.
• Facial Composite Failure: You fail to draw an accurate Wanted poster.
• Failed a Spot Check: You fail to spot something two inches from your face.
• Failed Audition Plot: You fail an audition for your dream career, but find a reason to keep trying.
• Failed Future Forecast: You fail to predict the future.
• Failing a Taxi: You fail to hail a taxi.
• Failsafe Failure: You fail to make a failsafe.
• Failure Gambit: You fail intentionally as part of a grander scheme.
  • Springtime for Hitler: Your Failure Gambit itself fails.
• Failure Hero: You fail to save the day.
• Failure Is the Only Option: You have no choice but to fail because success would end the story.
  • Morton's Fork: The direct prelude: You fail regardless of the choice you make.
• Failure Knight: Your backstory revolves around some failure.
• Failure Montage: You are shown failing in various ways.
• Failures on Ice: You fail to skate, especially on ice.
• Fake Balance: You fail to balance your video game characters.
• Femininity Failure: You fail to be ladylike.
• Fetish Retardant: You fail at Fanservice.
• Fight Scene Failure: You fail to direct an awesome fight scene.
• Floorboard Failure: The floorboards have failed to support your weight.
• Forgot About His Powers: You fail to remember that you have a power that can save you.
• Freudian Slippery Slope: You fail to prevent further Freudian Slips.
• Gave Up Too Soon: You failed because you gave up at the last second when you were about to succeed.
• General Failure: Your plans fail to prove you earned your rank as General.
• Glamour Failure: You fail to hide who you really are.
• A Glitch in the Matrix: Your otherwise convincing illusion momentarily malfunctions.
• Gone Horribly Right: Your plan worked, but you fail to consider its consequences.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Not only does your plan not work, it fails to work in disastrous ways.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The guards fail to do their jobs.
• Hand Wave: You fail to explain complicated plot points in great detail.
• Harmless Villain: You fail to be a credible villain.
• Hero-Tracking Failure: You fail to shoot a moving target with Plot Armor.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Your entire army fails to shoot a moving target with Plot Armor.
• Hero with an F in Good: You fail to be heroic.
  • Minion with an F in Evil: You fail to be villainous.
• Heroic B.S.O.D.: Your brain fails at a crucial juncture as you are committing your good deeds.
  • Villainous Breakdown: See above, except you're committing evil deeds.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: You bring your own failure directly upon yourself.
• Holodeck Malfunction: Holograms glitch and become deadly.
• Horsing Around: You fail at getting the steed to do what you want it to.
• Hypocrite: You fail to practice what you preach.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: You fail because you demonstrated knowledge you shouldn't have had.
  • I Never Told You My Name
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: You failed, so your pal's got pain coming.
• Idiot Ball: Your brain temporarily fails to work properly.
  • Didn't Think This Through: You failed because your plan was poorly made.
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: You fail to realize your own ineptitude.
  • I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Inverted Trope of the above: You fail to realize everyone else's ineptitude compared to you.
• Imposter Forgot One Detail: You fail to convince others you are someone else.
• Incompetence, Inc.: Your business fails at everything.
  • Pointy-Haired Boss: You fail personally as a business leader.
• Inept Mage: You fail at magic.
  • Magic Misfire: You fail to cast your spell on your intended target.
• Informed Attribute: You fail to demonstrate that a character is what you say s/he is like.
• Insecurity Camera: A security camera fails to be useful, which is good news for you, the intruder.
• Insult Misfire: You fail to offend your intended target.
• It's a Wonderful Failure: You see the repercussions of your failure before you see Game Over.
• Jerk Sue: You fail to create a Jerkass Woobie.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Your memory fails you whenever it's convenient for somebody else.
• Lethal Chef: You fail at cooking.
• Literal-Minded: You fail to understand metaphors.
• Logic Bomb: Your statement fails to maintain consistency with reality and possibility.
• Lost Aesop: You fail to remember the message you were originally trying to send.
• Made Out to Be a Jerkass: You lose face when you stand up for yourself.
• Major Injury Underreaction: You fail to react to a serious injury.
• Mayor Pain: You fail as a city leader.
• Meaningless Meaningful Words: Your phrase with a "unique" meaning is anything but.
  • Concepts Are Cheap: You fail to offer intellectual depth for your idealistic rhetoric.
• Memetic Loser: You are famous for your many failures.
• Mind Your Step: A staircase's structural integrity fails.
• Miss Conception: You fail to realize that you need to have sex to get pregnant.
• Misspelling Out Loud: You fail to spell a word out loud.
• Mook Depletion: You let yourself run out of Evil Minions.
• Moral Event Horizon: You cross the line into villainy for good.
• The Mountains of Illinois: You fail to provide proper geography when filming your show or movie.
• Muggle Born of Mages: Special talent skips a generation.
• My Greatest Failure: You have never failed harder than this.
• My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: You fail to speak a foreign language.
• Narm: You fail to make a scene serious.
• Necessary Fail: You failed, but the fallout of your hypothetical success would have been worse.
• Network Death: Your TV network fails to stay on the air.
• Never My Fault: You fail to realize the responsibilities of your own actions.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Hero fails by trying to solve the problem.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Rivals!: You and your enemy both fail because neither of you could bear the thought of the other winning.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Villain fails by trying to cause a problem.
• No Dead Body Poops: You fail to brown your pants when you die.
• No OSHA Compliance: You fail to provide a safe workplace.
• No-Sell: Your ploy that usually succeeds...fails on this person.
• No Social Skills: You fail to carry on in a social setting.
• Not Quite Saved Enough: You fail to keep yourself or someone you rescued safe from harm just as the dust clears.
• Oblivious to Hints: You fail to take a hint.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: You fail to realize that someone is talking about you.
• Oblivious to Love: You fail to realize that someone has romantic feelings for you.
• Obliviously Evil: You fail to realize that you're a villain.
• Obvious Beta: You fail to program a game.
• Obvious Stunt Double: The stunt double fails to pass as the actor.
• Obviously Evil: Villains fail at subtlety.
• Of Course I Smoke: You fail to pretend to be a smoker.
• Open Secret: You tell that it is a secret, and then everyone goes to it and finds out.
• Out-Gambitted: Your plan fails when pitted against someone else's.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: You fail to make your work remembered for its merits, and instead remembered for an uproar.
• Pass Fail: You fail to be recognized as white, even if you're not.
• The Password is Always "Swordfish": You fail to create a good password.
• Plot Hole: You fail to maintain your story's internal logic while writing it.
  • Voodoo Shark: You fail to cover your plot holes.
• Poke the Poodle: Your attempt at an evil act fails to be evil.
• The Poorly Chosen One: The Chosen One fails his job.
• Popcultural Osmosis Failure: You fail to recognize another demographic's pop-culture references.
• Potty Failure: You fail to keep your pants clean.
• Power Incontinence: You fail to keep your power under control.
• The Presents Were Never from Santa: You fail to recognize the true source of all those useful things you got.
• Recognition Failure: You fail to recognize someone.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Exaggerated Trope of the above: You fail to recognize someone who is barely concealing his/her identity.
  • Your Costume Needs Work: Inverted Trope of the above: You, the genuine article, fail to be recognizable when compared to imitations.
• Redemption Failure: You fail to remain on the side of good.
• Reckless Gun Usage: You fail to properly handle a gun...
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: ...and someone got shot by your negligence. What did you expect would happen?
• Reliably Unreliable Guns: Your gun is poorly made, so it fails to shoot when it's supposed to and/or shoots when it's not supposed to.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Yew fell two use wards car wrecked lee (You fail to use words correctly).
• Rummage Fail: You fail to find something in a bag of random items.
• Running into the Window: You fail to prevent your collision with a window.
• Sarcasm Failure: You fail at sarcasm.
• Scrappy Mechanic: You fail at making a game mechanic fun.
• The Scrappy: Your character unintentionally fails to garner a Fandom, instead garnering a Hatedom.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Your Heroic Sacrifice accomplishes nothing.
• The Show Must Go Wrong: You fail to keep disaster from happening during your performance.
• Skepticism Failure: You fail to disprove the existence of the supernatural.
• Skewed Priorities: You fail to notice what is more important.
• So Much for Stealth: You managed to sneak this far, but now you've failed to maintain your stealth.
• Special Effect Failure: You failed to fund the SFX department properly.
• Staircase Tumble: You fail to keep your balance on a staircase, either because of a faulty staircase or your own body.
• Status Quo Game Show: You failed to win a game show because Status Quo Is God.
• Stock Footage Failure: You fail to realize that was a bad time to use Stock Footage.
• Straw Character: You fail to present your opponents' actual arguments.
  • Strawman Has a Point: You fail to make your opponents look irrational.
• Sturgeon's Law: You'll fail nine times out of ten.
• Sucks At Dancing: You fail at dancing.
• Sucky School: Your educational institution fails to function.
• Surveillance Station Slacker: Whoever watches the security cameras fails to do their job.
• Suspect Existence Failure: The suspects for a crime you're investigating fail to stay alive. This hints that you've probably failed to put the perpetrator on your suspect list.
• Swiss Cheese Security: Your security fails to keep people out.
• Symbology Research Failure: You fail to remember that cool logo you saw the other day and put into your work actually has religious meanings.
• Teleporter Accident: You fail at teleportation.
• Testing Range Mishap: You fail at the testing range and possibly beyond it.
• Thought Aversion Failure: You fail not to think about something when ordered not to.
• Time for Plan B: Your first plan failed; on to the backup.
• Torture Is Ineffective: You fail to torture information out of a prisoner.
• Totally Radical: You fail at youth culture forever.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: You failed because you just couldn't wait.
• Translation by Volume: You fail to communicate with foreigners.
• Trap-Door Fail: You fail to drop someone down through a trap door.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: You fail to make the characters' stories relevant to the greater plotline.
• Tutorial Failure: You fail to teach someone how to play a game properly.
• Unfortunate Implications: You fail to notice an accidental stereotype, Family-Unfriendly Aesop, or other offensive aspect in your work before making it public.
• Unfortunate Item Swap: You fail to tell those two important objects apart.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: You fail to create a proper Hate Sink.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: You fail to create a likeable character.
• Unintentional Period Piece: You fail to make a timeless work.
• Unwinnable: The game can only end in failure, no matter how much you win.
  • Unwinnable by Design: The programmer does this on purpose.
  • Unwinnable by Insanity: The player does this by trying too hard.
  • Unwinnable by Mistake: The programmer fails.
• Useless Security Camera: A security camera fails to be useful, which is bad news for you, the police.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Your clothes fail to cover you.
• Watch Out for That Tree!: You fail to prevent your collision with a tree.
• Watch Where You're Going!: You fail to prevent your collision with someone else.
• We ARE Struggling Together: You fail to cooperate with someone who shares your objectives.
• What the Fu Are You Doing?: You fail at martial arts.
• Where's the Kaboom?: You fail to explode stuff.
• Wimp Fight: You and your opponent fail at fighting.
• With Catlike Tread: Your attempt at stealth has the complete opposite effect.
• World Limited to the Plot: You fail to build context for your story.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Your attempts to Screw Destiny will fail every time.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: You failed to Screw Destiny because you made it happen yourself.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: You fail to stop a villain's plan even when you should have succeeded.
• You Have Failed Me: You fail to please your superior.
• You Just Ruined the Shot: You interrupted the actors because you failed to distinguish acting from reality.
• You Just Told Me: You fail to recognize that someone is tricking you into revealing the secret.
• You Keep Using That Word: You fail to understand the actual definition of a word you use.
• You Were Trying Too Hard: You failed because you had to do the job calmly.