The law states that if you wait in line, usually an hour or more, for a roller coaster, that coaster will break down just before you get on it. The breakdown in this case forces you to miss the ride.
After waiting for 2 hours to ride Kingda Ka, it just HAD to break down on me! Murphy's roller coaster law at work!
by Always Obsessing July 10, 2023

"If you leave your vehicle's engine running during a delay in proceeding (traffic-jam, road construction, accident-resolution, "stuck" red signal-light, etc.), you will be sitting there for many minutes, just wasting gas. The instant you turn the key off and climb out of your seat to stretch, however, THAT'S when the line of traffic will begin moving again, and thus you will have shut off your engine "for nothing", AND you will now be holding up everyone behind you while you hastily hop back into the driver's seat and re-start the engine so that you can move forward again."
I finally took da plunge and bought a second-hand Toyota Prius because I'd eventually had one too many cases of Murphy's Law of Engine-Idling Duration... the Prius automatically shuts down its power during stand-stills, and then uses its electric motor to provide instant mobility as soon as you're ready to go again.
by QuacksO October 20, 2018

"If you have to request assistance/advice from a store/office-employee, you will be obliged to wander all over da place and "search till Doomsday" to find someone who is not presently too occupied to listen to you. Yet once you finally receive your answer, THEN there will be ABSOLUTE MULTITUDES OF PERSONNEL just lounging around and making themselves available, and so you will feel like a total JACKA** for not having simply waited a few more minutes to ask your question, rather than wearing out your feet and legs from running all over da shop to find someone to ask!"
I spent over five minutes scampering up and down the aisles at Wally-World trying to find a "free" employee to ask about the availability of a certain product, but then afterwards, there were several non-busy staffpeople whom I met en-route back to my shopping-cart whom I could have asked just as easily at that point --- talk about a classic case of Murphy's Law of Staff-Availability! :P :P
by QuacksO August 26, 2019

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

"You can hold onto something for decades, and neither you nor anyone else will ever have a use for it, but then just as soon as you throw it out, either you will suddenly need it for something, or --- even more 'painful' --- **someone else** will come to you and humbly ask, 'Do you happen to have an extra ___?'" Rrrrrggggghhhhh----!!!
I'd had a couple of old 55-gallon oil-drums stashed in da garage for da past thirty years --- my grampa had given 'em to me when he and Gram were downsizing to move into an assisted-living apartment --- and they'd just sat there and gathered dust in da corner all that time. But then just two days --- TWO STINKIN' DAYS!! --- after I'd sent 'em to da crusher for recycling, a low-income neighbor dropped by and asked me if he could have them to use as burn-barrels --- guess dat was a classic case of Murphy's Law of "Junk" at work!!
by QuacksO July 24, 2018

"You can leave a pitted/abraded/scratched/bubbled/discolored windshield in your car till 0%!$@&# Doomsday and it will never get hit, but then just as soon as you actually REPLACE said "ancient" glass wif a brand new one, THAT'S when you'll get a bleepin' BIG OL' PEBBLE tossed up by a passing vehicle, and star-crack your nice shiny-fresh windshield all to Hell!"
After several years I eventually got sick and tired of all da misty triplex-haze on my car's original-from-the-factory windshield, and so I finally replaced it --- wouldn't you know that the VERY NEXT DAY it got a huge crack in it after a rock got thrown up by the wheel of a passing dump-truck! Ahhhhrrrggggghhhhh... classic case of Murphy's Law Of Windshield-Damage, I guess!!
by QuacksO July 31, 2018

Da "hanged if you do and hanged if you don't" fact-of-life irony regarding how a sizeable sector of da female populous treats any dude who shows interest in them romantically --- i.e., if a guy gets da idea from a gal's attitude/behavior towards him dat he should just mind his own business and not court her, she'll bawl and blubber dat he is making her feel ignored and unvalued. Yet if he then hastily begins persuing her in da naive belief dat this is what she wants, she'll go "bawlin' and blubberin" to da COPS and tearfully accuse him of harassing her! Can't win... :P
I always tread super-carefully when approaching a new lady for companionship or intimacy --- seems like Murphy's Law of Attentiveness is often lurking just around da corner to pounce on me and give me undeserved grief!
by QuacksO March 22, 2023
