Murphy's Law of Bolt-Loosening

"You can heave and strain on da wrench till Doomsday and never get a stubborn bolt loosened, but then just as soon as you ask a stronger --- and probably very busy himself --- person to come and help, DAT'S when da blasted bolt actually WILL yield, either when you give a final demonstrative yank on da wrench to show da second person how supposedly stuck da bolt is, or when he himself hauls back on da wrench and said previously-cranky bolt unscrews with little effort on his part, indicating dat your OWN last tug actually HAD cracked it free after all, and so if you had 'just given it one more go' yourself, you actually COULD have gotten da bolt out on your own, without having to interrupt your now-ears-smokingly-annoyed-at-being-needlessly-called-away colleague in da first place."

I wonder if da inventor of da impact wrench had originally felt prompted to do so due to his having frequently encountered Murphy's Law of Bolt-Loosening???

by QuacksO February 13, 2023

Murphy's second law

Anyone that can exist does exist, and they're probably on Twitter.

"What on earth do you mean they're calling themselves 'Sigma Males'?"

"Murphy's second law. They exist."

by waddlemarco June 30, 2021

Murphy's Law Of Wind-Direction

"No matter where you stand, da breeze will invariably blow either towards you or in your face, causing you great difficulty in proceeding ahead and/or "cleanly"/effectively performing tasks dat involve/include vapors/particulates/liquids." (Think, Murphy's Law of Cigarette Smoke, or trying to bicycle someplace on a blustery day and da stiff wind keeps switching around so dat it's always hinderingly in your face --- never helpfully at your back --- both on your way to your destination AND on your way back home again!)
P.S. Oh yeah --- and don't even **consider** simply postponing outdoor activities till a "still spell" --- DAT will only mean multitudes of mosquitoes and black flies to torment you and make you WISH for a breeze!

Two classic examples of da infuriating effects of Murphy's Law Of Wind-Direction would be (1) trying to water your hanging-basket plants on da front porch, but da watering-can's sprinkled droplets keep blowing backwards so dat da water both largely misses your plants and gets you soaking-wet, and (2) trying to employ toss-across collecting when gathering returnables along da highway, but having many of da thrown containers just blow right back onto your side of da road.

by QuacksO August 12, 2019

Milo Murphy's Law

Final Destination for kids

milo murphy's law sucks bruh

by Geometry dashing June 29, 2025

Murphy's Law of Exceptions

"You can follow an 'unpopular' method or procedure 'till da cows come home' and nothing unusual will ever happen to 'justify' or 'vindicate' your unorthodox actions (and you'll likely get continually criticized by others for your chosen behavior), but then the ONE TIME when you eventually 'cave' and actually DO happen to follow the 'standard' or 'acceptable' protocol, THAT'S the solitary 'rogue occasion' when disaster will happen to strike --- something really bad will happen that would not have occurred if you had simply continued to follow your own 'pet' procedure that had seemed better/safer to begin with!"

My "super-long-term-driving-experienced" aunt had gotten fed up with my "back-seat driver" attempts to be helpful by telling her about vehicles that I'd see moving around fairly near our position when we'd be travelling someplace in her car, and so she had eventually asked me to just keep quiet and let here handle the driving herself. Well, of course, within a day or two, Murphy's Law of Exceptions decided to turn and bite me in da butt --- due to a view-obstructing sidewalk-mounted ad-sign, my aunt didn't notice an approaching car, but I did... naturally, that was the ONE TIME that I **didn't** tell her about it because she'd specifically asked me to keep my trap shut on instances like that, and so I'd ASSUMED (there's that word again!) that she'd observed the vehicle bearing down on the intersection. Well, as you might expect, we crashed, and there were multiple injuries in the other car! Can't win...!

by QuacksO March 9, 2019

Murphy's Law of Customer-Assistance

"You can stroll a store's aisles till Doomsday and never spot da item you want, but then, just as soon as you interrupt a staffperson to ask for help in locating said desirable, THAT'S when you will notice your sought-after item right off!"

While stocking up on food at a Super Walmart, I was looking for larger packages of Armour Vienna sausage so that I could save a few cents per can, but although I had thoroughly searched the surrounding areas on the shelves, I still hadn't found anything bigger than the small six-packs, so I finally asked a nearby employee if there were any of the larger packages in stock, possibly in the back room. Well, just as we were both walking back to the area of the aisle where I'd been looking, THAT'S when I finally spied the 12-packs that were sitting on the very top shelf! Guess that was a classic case of Murphy's Law of Customer-Assistance... ah, well, again, the 12-packs were indeed sitting very high up, so at least that was a plausible excuse for my not having seen them before, especially since the store usually doesn't even expect its customers to notice stuff that's placed 'way up there, anyway; that "lofty" location is merely where they store extra merchandise for replenishing the lower-down shelves when the stock there starts to run low.

by QuacksO May 14, 2019

Murphy's Law of Accessibility

Refers to the infuriating situation of something you need's usually being at the bottom of a pile, at the back of a drawer/shelf, etc.

I have a 2--vertical-layers-deep stack of plastic totes for storing my DVD-collection, arranged in alphabetical order. It's often the case that the disc I want to watch has a title that is near the end of the alphabet, though, and so I hafta laboriously remove all da rest of da crates to access the very back/bottom box... yep, a classic case of Murphy's Law of Accessibility!

by QuacksO October 13, 2018