Last-Minute Project

Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

When a school project or other work that requires research is so bad, it's plainly seen that the character didn't even try to study, or in some cases didn't get a chance to study. Usually they either make up some random and awfully incorrect nonsense or plagiarize from the internet within 24 hours of the project being due.

Related to Book Dumb, Did Not Do the Research, Critical Research Failure, Ridiculous Procrastinator, and They Just Didn't Care.

"Bart: Hey, I didn't know this park was here.
 * Pretty much any report Bart has done on The Simpsons.

Lisa: You wrote a report on it last week.

Bart: The internet wrote it. I just handed it in.

The Simpsons, "Dial 'N' for Nerder""

"Bart: From 'A' apple to 'Z' zebra, Baby's First Popup Book is 26 pages of alphabetical adventure!
 * Another time on The Simpsons in "Lisa the Simpson" Lisa forgot about a school agriculture project, so she makes a pig by sticking some pushpins into an eraser.
 * Which was done earlier in Simpsons Comics. Ralph Wiggum entered the same thing in a school art show. He didn't place.
 * From a Halloween episode:

Ms. Krabappel: Bart, you mean to tell me you read a book intended for preschoolers?

Bart: Well, most of it."


 * Holden from The Catcher in The Rye, wrote a hilarious and definitely unresearched exam essay on the Egyptians.
 * Sam on iCarly once turned in an orange for a project about environmental efficiency. She got an A. Inverted in the same episode when Freddie and Carly each do elaborate projects (Carly created an electric scooter, Freddie a large composter) and they both fail, having to go on a root and berry trip with their teacher.
 * Happens in the Even Stevens episode Influenza. To her horror Ren realizes that she isn't prepared to give her project on the US moon landing and only knows what year it occurred. She tries to save face... in song: "We went to the moon in 1969/Not 1968 but the year after..." and proceeds to sing about what celestial bodies NASA didn't visit that year. She failed the project.
 * Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin writes a report about bats in which he calls them bugs, uses a lot of vampire myths, and includes an "illustration" consisting of the Batman logo with fangs added. He thinks that having a professional binder will cover up for his lack of research, but it backfires when everyone in the class calls him out for saying bats are bugs.
 * And once he was remembered by Susie that on this day, their project about bugs was due (they had one month to do this). Calvin frantically tries to put something together.
 * Brian Regan has a famous bit in his stand-up about his "Cup of Dirt" in the science fair.
 * Arthur: Arthur, Buster, and Binky are teamed up for a report on an exhibit at the art museum. Binky is convinced that one of the abstract art pieces was hung sideways and wants to do the report on that. Arthur and Buster think that will make them look like a bunch of idiots. They finally agree to let Binky work on his project while Arthur and Buster do a different exhibit. Only they waste so much time worrying about Binky's project that they forget to write the report and copy it from the museum's brochure. The other kids in the class literally follow along as they read it. They are only saved when Binky's half turns out to involve masses of research, a letter to the artist, and a video of the museum re-hanging the painting in response to his project.
 * Dave Barry wrote a column about these, including his own example of one on the Monroe Doctrine.
 * Dave Barry has a few columns about this. In one, he describes one of his projects as being entitled "The Phases of the Moon", consisting of a styrofoam ball, half of it scribbled black with a pen, on a string. He goes on to say that his fellow students found it amusing to use the ball in their own projects, so he ended up with a big Official Science Fair Project Cardboard and nothing else. His wife's project (Movement of the Waves) was described as a pan of water in which a pen was swished around, causing waves.
 * One of the more famous Strong Bad e-mails on Homestar Runner involved Strong Bad writing one of these for a student. Naturally, he hung a lampshade by including a sentence about sitting and playing video games for several hours.
 * There was also his diorama, "The whimsical world of school supplies."
 * The Lord of the Rings webpage "Your Homework Done For Free" is an intentional trap for people who try to rip their book report off the Internet. It comprises a completely inaccurate summary of the novels, and a list of suggested report topics that focuses on the bits they've made up. Amusingly, the Sunday Times fell for it.
 * A Robot Chicken skit begins with an elaborate battle between costumed heroes and villains, one of whom is called Mockingbird. The skit then cuts to a classroom, revealing the whole thing was a kid's attempt at a book report on "To Kill a Mockingbird". The teacher sighs, "Couldn't even spring for the Cliff's Notes, huh?"
 * A young Shawn from Psych did a book report on Charlotte's Web without reading to the end. Failure ensued.
 * Web Original: The infamous and awesome How to Kill a Mockingbird in its entirety.
 * There's a Saved by the Bell episode in which Zack needs to do a family heritage project. All he knows is that he is part Native American, so he just uses a whole bunch of stereotypes (and Screech) to present his project. You bet your life he's forced to redo his project.
 * How can we forget almost EVERY report in Diary of a Wimpy Kid?
 * Played with and subverted in The Troop: Jake forgot to do his potato clock for school, but Felix didn't. It would obviously be identified as a Felix project if it was perfect, so he "Jaked it up" a little to get Jake a passing grade but not an A.
 * Peter has a habit of doing this in FoxTrot, including writing an essay on Moby Dick in two and a half hours.
 * On an early Boy Meets World episode, Feeny assigns the class a project on what their future might be like. Cory just shows up in a baseball uniform and claims he'll be a pro ballplayer. Feeny's line of questioning shows that Cory hasn't put much thought into it, and he is given a chance to try again.