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I don't see any grammatical problems*, we have an adverb, badly, modifying an adjective, wrong, which is one of the jobs of an adverb. The meaning is clear enough and I agree with SilkMuse that there are degrees of wrongness. It's awkward is all.
*The purple idea waited seven times consecutively before the clock happened. Nothing grammatically wrong with this sentence; it just doesn't mean anything.
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The purple idea waited seven times consecutively before the clock happened. Nothing grammatically wrong with this sentence; it just doesn't mean anything.Makes perfect sense to Frank Zappa!  "Cruisin' to Montana on my dental floss..." The Only WO'N!
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as i read it, i thought-- Ah ha, another person who doesn't quite know how to use insert.. (a tech discussion we had here last month..)
so they orgingally had "badly wrong"
and editor read it, and said.. "Poor usage-- use "wrong turn" (or the opposite, they had wrong turn, and it was suggest "badly wrong" would be a better choice...)
the added one word, and forgot to delete the other, and ended up with a badly wrong turn.
and no one double checked the copy!
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Wrong is wrong, there's no comparative.If things can go badly wrong (and trust me, they can and do!), I see no logical or grammatical reason why they can't take a badly wrong turn. All the same, I didn't like the phrase when I first read it. Now I seem to have become inured to it and it is starting to sound perfectly normal. ..which probably only indicates that I am easily corruptible, which in turn may indicate why things seem to go badly wrong  ...
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it is starting to sound perfectly normalFrightening, isn't it? No question that some things are wronger than others. Very wrong, horribly wrong, terribly wrong - none of these sets my teeth on edge as does badly wrong. I agree that the original would have been less offensive without the noun "turn." Even then, I would never have thought of saying Things went badly wrong. So much for my thinking outside the box linguistically.
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Hi Helen,
another person who doesn't quite know how to use insert..
My thoughts followed a similar path. It could well be that the author originally put "..a horribly wrong turn", and the editor found this too strong - and amended it without considering the result in context. For me, "a badly wrong turn" sounds awkward because the word "badly" contributes nothing here. It is too weak to reinforce the message. It is akin to a pleonasm, if you come to think of it.
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But then autism research took a badly wrong turn. - TIME MAGAZINEI have just read this thread and I agree with everyone. Why then, Milum, one might rightfully ask, did you resurrect this sleeping thread when you have nothing new to say? Well, if you must ask, I want to say the same things that you all said but I want to say them in my way, and my way is in italics. Like the Italians always say - a thought in italics slips into the mind like rosa, rosa, Thunderbird wine.So here goes... The term "Badly wrong turn" is semantically displeasing because it disrupts the smooth transfer of information from writer to reader and causes people like nancyk and me to do a double take. An adverb modifying an adjective that qualifies a noun in sequential alignment is abnormal syntax when the adjective root of the adverb (in this case "bad") is widely used in an almost cliched conjunction with both the adjective and the noun, i.e. bad wrong and bad turn. So... the editor at Time who let this insignificant little phrase slip by was, for that moment, merely a poor practitioner of the ever-changing editorial arts. What?...So - I told you I didn't have anything new to say.
That does it! I'm outta here! I'm going back over to Wordplay and Fun where I'm better known and admired.
Geez! Please forgive me for breathing. Geez! - 
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In the book, Boners, there is this malaprop: "Momma spanked Johnny because he was wicked in the seat of his pants." That, at least, was from a school kid, not someone getting paid to wrong - er, write.
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