Ask a Stupid Question: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:snappyanswer 4136.png|link=Mad Magazine|
{{quote|''"I see this guy Marty tryin' to carry a big ol' sofa up the stairs all by himself. So I, I say to him, I say 'Hey, you want me to help you with that?' And Marty, he just [[Sarcasm Mode|rolls his eyes]] and goes '''Noooo''', [[Be Careful What You Wish For|I want you to cut off my arms and legs with a chainsaw!]]'
''[[Literal-Minded|So I did.]]"''|'''[["Weird Al" Yankovic]]''', ''Albuquerque''}}
Are you reading [[All The Tropes]]? Are you reading a Trope Page? Are you reading the intro to a Trope Page? Well, you must know about Stupid Questions then, cause we just asked three of the stupidest!
You know how obnoxious [[Captain Obvious]] can be. You just want to yell at them and say, "Any blind idiot can tell what's going on!" But then there are those [[Captain Obvious|Captains Obvious]] who can not only tell what is going on, but ask a stupid question ''just to verify.''
This is not only when that question is asked, but to the frustrated individual this is their chance to strike back with a non-sequitur, either in a [[Deadpan Snarker]] retort or full on [[Mind Screw]] confusion. In other words, ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. A specific variation of [[Sarcasm Mode]].
While examples on this page are of [[In-Universe]] instances of this type of exchange, this is certainly a staple of [[MSTing]] by pointing out where people are being oblivious to their dialogue (or [[Parrot Exposition|being repetitive in them]]). For example: [[The Mummy Trilogy|"This is a map to Hammunaptra."]] "''The'' Hammunaptra?" "No, the one in Jersey."
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{{examples}}
== Comic Books ==
* [[Peter David]] likes these. For example, this exchange from ''Madrox'', after Jamie was knocked unconscious and has now woken up, clearly in the same room with the same people:
{{quote|'''Jamie Madrox:''' How long was I out?
'''Guido Carousella:''' Seventeen years. The US was bought by the Swiss. The new national bird's the cuckoo, but the chocolate's better. }}
== Fan Works ==
* In ''[[Harry Potter and
** "Seriously, who reads this stuff?" "You."
** When told that [[Harry Potter and
** When {{spoiler|Bellatrix Black}} incredulously says "I'm... alive...?", Harry is tempted to say "no" just to see how she reacts.
* In ''[[Through a Looking Glass Darkly]]'', Jack provides some choice answers.
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'''Namekian:''' [[Too Dumb to Live|Our trees]]?
'''Freezza:''' ''([[Beat]])'' Zarbon, [kill] two or three more. }}
* ''[[Undocumented Features]]'': In [http://www.eyrie-productions.com/UF/FI/OOTR/TXT/12-federation/ch9.html chapter nine] of ''The Federation Lives Forever'', there is this exchange when [[K-On!|Yui Hirasawa and Azusa Nakano]] spot a [[Avatar: The Last Airbender|sky bison]] in the yard of the Hirasawa home:
{{quote|"... Senpai, why is there a sky bison in your yard?" asked Azusa, her voice flat.
"He's too big to go in the house, silly," Yui replied cheerfully.
"... Ask a stupid question," Azusa remarked, mostly to herself.}}
== Films -- Animation ==
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'''Mr. Tweedy:''' [[Sarcasm Blind|My favourite!]]
'''Mrs. Tweedy:''' ''Chicken'' pies, you great lummox! }}
== Films -- Live-Action ==
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{{quote|'''Peter:''' You know how jazz is all about improvising on a melody?
'''Lesley:''' No, I thought it was when you sang about cheese and tying up people's gaiters. }}
== Live-Action TV ==
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{{quote|'''Rimmer:''' Lister, is that a cigarette you're smoking?
'''Lister:''' No, it's a chicken. }}
== Music ==
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* Referenced (although not a true example of the trope) in [[Tom Lehrer]]'s "New Math" while explaining how to solve a math problem in Base Eight:
{{quote|''Now instead of four in the eights place
''You've got three, 'cause you added one,
''That is to say, eight, to the two,
''But you can't take seven from three,
''So you look at the sixty-fours.
''"Sixty-four? How did sixty-four get into it?" I hear you cry.
''Well, sixty-four is eight squared, don't you see?
''Well, you ask a silly question, and you get a silly answer.'' }}
== Newspaper Comics ==
* ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]''
** When Jon first meets Liz:
{{quote|'''Jon:''' By the way there, doc, what's your name?
'''Liz:''' Liz.
'''Jon:''' Gee, what a pretty name. Is that short for Elizabeth?
'''Liz:''' No. It's short for lizard. }}
:* In another strip:
{{quote|'''Jon:''' Are you going to sleep all day, Garfield?
'''Garfield:''' Let me check my social calendar. Let's see... There's high tea with the Queen of England tomorrow, but nothing today. ''(falls asleep)''
'''Jon:''' Ask a stupid question... }}
* ''Don't Some People Ask the Biggest Fool Questions?'' uses this trope extensively. In one example, Gerald is building a dog house:
{{quote|'''Man walking by:''' Hello, Gerald, building a dog house?
'''Gerald:''' No, I'm up in a balloon milking a chicken. }}
* ''[[Peanuts]]'':
** In one strip, Charlie Brown is watching Snoopy (as "Joe Motocross") finish a race:
{{quote|'''Charlie Brown:''' What happened Joe? You were really smoking. Did you miss a turn?
''Cut to Snoopy, limping, dragging part of a fence on his leg.''
'''Snoopy:''' No, I always wear this snow fence around my leg!}}
:* In one old series of Sunday strips, some birds build a nest on Snoopy’s doghouse, requiring him to vacate and sleep on the mailbox until the baby birds hatch. In the second part, he goes to check on them, and is astounded to see they have, indeed, hatched.
{{quote|'''Snoopy:''' Fantastic! I wonder if they’re hungry?
''(Looks very close, and the baby birds both try to eat his nose.)''
'''Snoopy:''' I think they’re hungry!}}
:* In one strip, Linus is watching Charlie Brown fly a kite (which as fans of the strip know, he has ''never'' been able to successfully do):
{{quote|'''Linus:''' Charlie Brown, once you have a kite in the air, do you ever have a problem getting it down again?
''(Charlie Brown loses control of the kite and it crashes with the impact of a missile.)''
'''Charlie Brown:''' [[Sarcasm Mode|''That’s'' one problem I’ve never had to worry about]].}}
* [[Popeye]]'s ''very first spoken line'' from a 1929 ''[[Thimble Theater]]'' strip occurred in an arc where Castor Oyl (Olive's brother and the original protagonist) was looking for a crew for his ship (in case you don't know how Popeye tends to dress, by the way, it's doubtful he'd be mistaken for anything but a sailor):
{{quote|'''Castor Oyl:''' Hey, are you a sailor?
'''Popeye:''' Ja think I'm a cowboy?}}
== Puppet Shows ==
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'''Rizzo:''' No, it's Santa. I forgot my reindeer. }}
== Recorded and Stand Up Comedy ==
* While the overall premise of [[Bill Engvall]]'s recurring "Here's Your Sign" routine is that stupid people should wear signs advertising the fact, his experiences in encountering people who qualify often take this form.
== Tabletop Games ==
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'''Troubleshooter:''' The drug is in the water?
'''Drugged Citizen:''' Sklaxxl. No, the drug is on the inside of the cups! Of course it's in the water. Hrraww. }}
== Web Animation ==
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{{quote|'''Donut:''' What state were you named after?
'''Tex'''(after Texas): Nevada. }}
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Holiday Wars]]'', "Ask a Stupid Question" is personified as a character who only speaks with stupid questions. An example of this [http://www.holiday-wars.com/blog/2010/09/17/episode-64/ can be seen here.]{{Dead link}}
* ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]''
** [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/3/13/
** Also, ''[[The Time Machine]]'' — "[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/2/5/
* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'': Elan asks ''a lot'' of stupid questions to which Roy gives snarky answers.
* In an ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'' strip, Merlin responds to Lancelot's "Do you think this is wise?" with "Why, no. I woke up this morning and decided to do the least wise thing that occured to me."
* ''Triggerhappy'' from Kukuruyo answers "[https://www.kukuruyo.com/comic/where-are-her-organs-2/ Where are her organs?]".
* ''[[xkcd]]'', [https://xkcd.com/852/ "Local g"]: "Crap! How did the pole vaulters get up to our balcony?"
== Web Original ==
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{{quote|'''Me''': Hi, I wanted to ask about these wireless routers.
'''Employee''': *suddenly looking scared* …Yes? }}
* And in a similar vein, [http://community.livejournal.com/customers_suck/29221674.html this post] from the [[
== Western Animation ==
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'''Superman:''' [[Sarcasm Mode|Do I]] ''[[Sarcasm Mode|look]]'' [[Sarcasm Mode|okay?]] }}
::: Although in fairness to Green Lantern, [[Depending on the Writer|sometimes]] Superman will just shrug that off like it's nothing.
{{quote|'''Green Lantern:''' No-one can see the beginning of time! [[And That's Terrible|It's a universal law!]]
'''Batman:''' [[Deadpan Snarker|Write him a ticket!]] }}
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'''Natasha:''' But why?
'''Boris:''' It keeps me off the streets, that's why! About six feet off. }}
* The animated [[Punky Brewster]] episode "Growing Pain" has Glomer growing in size due to an allergy to pepperoni pizza. He is taken to a gym where he attempts to use a weights machine but is catapulted back and wedged within the bars of the machine:
{{quote|'''Punky:''' Glomer, are you okay?
'''Glomer:''' (''not too pleased'') Am I looking okay?! }}
* From ''[[BoJack Horseman]]'':
{{quote|'''Todd:''' Are you drunk?
'''BoJack:'''Todd, I'm a [[Funny Animal| twelve-hundred pound horse!]] It takes a ''lot'' of beer to get someone like me drunk!
''(Zoom out, showing dozens of empty beer cans around them in the room.)''
'''BoJack:''' [[Flat Yes| Yes]].}}
* From the pilot episode of ''[[Amphibia (TV series)|Amphibia]]'', this is used as Sprig's [[Establishing Character Moment]]:
{{quote|'''Hop Pop:''' Polly's got more responsibility in her little flipper that ''you'' have in your entire body!
'''Sprig:''' Ridiculous, what makes you think I'm irresponsible?
'''Hop Pop:''' [[Sarcasm Mode| Oh gee, let me think...]]
''(Cut to [[Flashback]]s showing Sprig causing the contents of a cauldron to explode, crashing through the wall of Hop Pop's bedroom riding an angry [[Mix and Match Critter|snake-cow]], and leaving the lights on in their house, causing giant lightning bugs to attack it.)''
'''Sprig:''' Okay, [[Not Helping Your Case|so yesterday was a bad day...]]}}
* From ''[[The Critic]]'', Jay reviews a movie called ''The Nightmare Before Hanukkah''. The scene in question shows Jack Skellington visiting Hanukkah Town, with the name of the town clearly visible on the town gate, which has dreidels on the posts, the door itself made of marzipan.
{{quote|'''Jack:''' Excuse me, is this Hanukkah Town?
'''Sarcastic Jewish Guy:''' No, it's the Vatican and I'm Pope Shlomo. Oy!}}
* From ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' episode "Egon on the Rampage": A malfunction with Egon's dimensional portal device causes his soul to become trapped in a hellish dimension, while a demon possesses his body. Eventually, Venkman has to go into said hellish dimension and finds that Egon's soul has been [[Squashed Flat]] and another demon is using him like a trampoline. When Venkman finally manages to grab him and make a beeline back to the portal:
{{quote|'''Peter:''' You okay Egon?
'''Egon:''' Do I ''look'' okay??}}
* From ''[[DC Super Hero Girls]]''; in an episode where a brutal battle between Supergirl and Livewire is broadcast on the news and seems to result in Supergirl's death (she survived, but the public believes otherwise) Kara gets a text from [[Superman| her cousin]] asking if she is dead. She's not in the mood to give a snarky reply and simply replies "No".
* From an episode of ''[[The Life and Times of Juniper Lee]]'' episode "The Great Escape"; while infiltrating a zoo (where the animals are magical beings who have been subjected to [[Baleful Polymorph]]) June is confronted by a guy who she assumes is the zookeeper:
{{quote|'''June:''' Uh, are you the zookeeper?
'''Zookeeper:''' No, I'm a creepy old man who lives with animals and likes the smell of dung.
''(Blank stare from June.)''
'''Zookeeper:''' [[Captain Obvious|''YES'' I'm the zookeeper]]!}}
* In the ''[[Rick and Morty]]'' episode "Jurassic Rick", the super intelligent dinosaurs are holding a keynote address to deal with humans' problems with reduced accountability:
{{quote|'''Brontosaurus:''' I see someone is eager to speak.
'''Guy in audience:''' Uh hi, what do you do when you want to kill yourself?
'''Triceratops:''' You ''don't'' do that, thank you for asking, though, very important.}}
== Real Life ==
* Here is a fun excerpt from the book ''[[Disorder in the American Courts]]'' which goes over things actually said in court:
{{quote|'''Q:''' Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
'''A:''' No.
'''Q:''' Did you check for blood pressure?
'''A:''' No.
'''Q:''' Did you check for breathing?
'''A:''' No.
'''Q:''' So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
'''A:''' No.
'''Q:''' How can you be so sure, Doctor?
'''A:''' Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
'''Q:''' But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
'''A:''' Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive, practicing law somewhere.}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Dialogue]]
[[Category:Oh Great a Snark Index]]
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