Axiom Antics
Axiom Antics is a travelling mathematical carnival.
Pi disaster
In an infamous case of failure (nonfiction), Axiom Antics put an audience of several hundred thousand people into a hypnotic trance, converting them to human logic gates (nonfiction).
Axiom Antics then programmed the gates to calculate pi (nonfiction).
Subsequent investigation using forensic iterology revealed a cascading series of failures.
First, Axiom Antics applied an unprecedentedly high level of hypnotic trance, as the number of gates far exceeded anything previously attempted.
Second, the hypnotic trance affected Axiom Antics itself. Prosecutors later charged that Axiom Antics drank cheaply-programmed Toffoli Rad before programming the gates, but this has yet to be proven.
Third -- and fatally -- Axiom Antics introduced a Software defect (nonfiction) into the gates. The resulting infinite loop caused the gates to divert all of their biological energy to calculating the digits of pi.