Crazy Enough to Work: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|"''While most agree that the financial theory behind the scheme is "crazy," others counter that the idea of flying a hot-air balloon filled with dry ice over Wall Street is so outside the realm of conventional thinking that, paradoxically, it just might work.''"
|''[[The Onion]]'', [http://www.theonion.com/articles/fraternity-in-danger-of-losing-house-launches-hare,2604/ Fraternity In Danger Of Losing House Launches Harebrained Scheme To Fix Economy]}}
In real life, when someone is in serious trouble, they, even on the fly, have to think of a logical, sensible and reasonable strategy that can get them out of it with as little loss as possible, in the best conditions possible as well.
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Routinely pulled off by [[Crazy Awesome]] characters. Compare [[Million-to-One Chance]]; the less probable a plan is to work, the more likely it will succeed in Hollywood conditions. See also [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum]] and [[Refuge in Audacity]] (which run on a similar premise) and [[It Will Never Catch On]] (which is a specific type of joke that invokes a similar reaction in the audience). See also [[Confusion Fu]] for people who weaponize this trope.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'': If smashing a small robot into a big robots head, almost impaling the pilot of the big robot (who, by the way, was the one who thought of this) in the process is not Crazy Enough to Work, then nothing is. Oh, and they also run a walking, nonflying battleship up a mountain and jump through the air for a good half a mile just to get a chance to ''kick'' an [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier]]. This universe runs on [[Rule of Cool]], so it was destined to succeed.
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* In the early episodes of ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' when their torpedo ship is cornered by an attack chopper the 2 badasses and the tech nerd onboard were getting ready to kiss their asses goodbye when the timid loser businessman they had taken hostage comes up with a plan to charge the copter head-on and use a shipwreck as a ramp to launch them high enough that they can hit it with a torpedo. It works, of course.
* In ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'', sometimes when Sena or Monta comes up with an implausible or just plain ridiculous strategy, Hiruma will tell them something like "That plan's completely stupid! ...Let's do it!"
** Almost all of the strategies Hiruma uses ([https://web.archive.org/web/20090120024941/http://www.onemanga.com/Eyeshield_21/265/11/ Staying on the field when your arm is broken], [https://web.archive.org/web/20100724091642/http://www.onemanga.com/Eyeshield_21/326/16/ getting three players to abandon their position to blitz the opponent's quarterback], [https://web.archive.org/web/20090130040234/http://www.onemanga.com/Eyeshield_21/190/17/ completely ignoring the most power player on the opponent's team]) are so crazy nobody in their right minds would do them. As such, none of their opponents consider the possibility that they'll actually use such a strategy - which is precisely why they almost always use them.
* Isaac and Miria in ''[[Baccano!]]'' usually get away with their crimes because they are so absurd that no-one can take them seriously, or believe that they could pull something like that off. For example, they robbed a Mafia money delivery dressed up as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, and knocked out the wise guys with baseball bats in the middle of the day on an open street only a few yards from their office.
* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': [[The Hero|Kouji's]] plans CAN be carefully and throughtfully planned strategies, but many times his plans are an [[Indy Ploy]] or... this. One example happened in episode 32: Mazinger Z got the crap beaten out of it by Gelbros J3, a flying, three-headed dragon-looking [[Robeast|Mechanical Beast]]. Mazinger could not fly -yet-, so Kouji could not fight back. His plan was... equipping [[FemBot|Aphrodite A]] with even bigger [[Torpedo Tits]]. During the battle Sayaka shot them, Mazinger latched on the giant missiles and was propelled it skywards, where he was capable to reach the [[Robeast]] and shooting it down.
* ''[[Getter Robo]]'': Practically the Getter team lives -and survives- on it! Ryoma usually comes up with some absolutely crazy maneouver and his teammates simply go along it. And it works! One example (from Getter Robo G) was when they trapped a flying [[Robeast|Mecha Oni]] by allowing it impaling their [[Humongous Mecha]].
* Several of Misato's plans in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', particularly her idea to deal with Sahaquiel, the butterfly-like Angel going for a suicide drop from orbit, by using Evas to ''catch it'' on its descent.
* When the [[Epic Hail]] signaling the war's end fails to stop two armies from charging at each other and re-igniting the war, [[
* If there's anybody who is able to get more powerful from perversity, it's [[High School DxD|Issei Hyodou]]. Seriously, almost every single power up he has involves Rias' breasts or the breasts of his harem. Some of these include: [[Clothing Damage]] to a female enemy and bombarding them with powerful attacks, ''hear'' breasts talk and it will only tell the truth, {{spoiler|and use Rias' breasts ''as a battery source''.}}
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==
* In ''[[Aeon Natum Engel]]'', during the brainstorming on how to kill a [[Monster of the Week]], a certain Tactical Director was mumbling in her drunken stupor about the miniguns. More sober minds heard this, made some math in their heads, tested it and lo and behold, it's actually viable (It must be noted that the Author in general tries to avoid [[Crazy Awesome]]).
* ''[[Company 0051]]'' has grenades taped onto dodgeballs. Granted, it'd just be easier to throw the grenades themselves, but it does allow the [[Child Soldiers|Kid Soldiers]] to show off their mad dodgeball skills.
* Every single one of Takato's plans in the ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]''.
* The whole plot of ''[[Decks Fall, Everyone Dies|Decks Fall Everyone Dies]]'' is to pull off a plan that's so crazy it might work to bring card games back.
* Chapter 81 of the ''[[Halo]]'' fanfic ''[[The Life]]'' involves the protagonists team dropping without him. He convinces the captain of the ship to do a flyover near the position of his squad. He jumps from the cargo bay of a frigate with a jetpack that he doesn't know how to use and a [[Rule of Cool|tank with parachutes attached to it]].
** While playing Iron Man by Black Sabbath on the helmet's speakers.
* ''[[In The Dark]]'', ([[Spice Girls]]/[[Backstreet Boys]] fanfic), around Chapter 27, due to a lack of process, Melanie's parents opts to trying some form of role-playing. Since she was regressing to a child-like after the trauma with went though, Melanie is given 'time-out' for running off. Dennis explains that she'll be thinking of getting a beating, which what Melanie's kidnappers had done. They had to show that nothing is going to harm her if she did something wrong. Alan thought the idea is pretty stupid as Melanie is an adult.
** Near the end of Chapter 54, Geri suggests hypnosis in order to help Melanie's case and put her torturers in jail. Simon agrees to the idea, but they had to lie in order to get her to go those with it. While under hypnosis, Melanie goes into details of what she went through. To Geri's credit, hypnosis has even been tested [[MythBusters|on TV]] about recovering suppressed memory, [[Shown Their Work| which got similar results]].
** Chapter 56, Mel gets Melanie to throw rocks at the cabin that had been her [[Torture Cellar]] in order to help. The rest realizes what Mel was doing and saw the welcome results.
* ''[[Astral Journey: It's Complicated]]'' ([[Spice Girls]] Fic) : Part 8, Victoria explains to the narrator, Emma, about what happened to Melanie after her second escape attempt. While being placed in a wheelchair didn't sound weird at first since Melanie was injured, but it was done in a way to keep her from losing any more weight as she was already dangerously ill thanks to her eating disorder. Brandy pointed out how this was common in folks with eating disorders, but for someone to be locked, it's a first for all of them. Considering this is a bizarre yet common in treating eating disorders, one can image how this strange would work.
* Invoked sarcastically in chapter 9 of the ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' story ''[http://www.eyrie.net/UF/FI/OOTR/TXT/12-federation/ch9.html The Order of the Rose: "The Federation Lives Forever!"]'', when the girls of ''[[K-On!]]'' struggle to come up with a way to help friends who have suffered a terrible loss:
{{quote|[Ritsu] paused for a moment, thinking, then hit the table with the flat of her hand and declared, "All right, I have a new plan."
"You do?" asked Yui, puzzled.
"I do," Ritsu replied. "And it is... uh, we go home and try to think of a new plan."
"That's so crazy it just might work," Mio deadpanned.}}
== Film ==
* Ordinarily, when a mining ship from the future commanded by an [[Ax Crazy]] Romulan shows up and starts laying waste to ships and planets, most folks would decide to steer clear of the damn thing. Of course [[Star Trek (film)|Captain James T. Kirk]] decides that the best course of action is to take them head on.
** James T. Kirk is the living embodiment of this trope.
*** This exchange from ''[[Star Trek IV: The
{{quote|'''McCoy''': So you're saying you want to go backwards in time, find some of these whales, bring them forward in time, drop'em off and hope to hell that they tell this probe what to go do with itself??!!
'''Kirk''': That's the general idea.
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{{quote|'''Willie Scott:''' ''(sees Indy raising his sword)'' ''Oh my '''GOD'''!'' Oh my god, oh my god, oh my ''GOD'', is he '''nuts'''?!
'''Short Round:''' He no nuts, he's crazy! }}
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings
{{quote|'''Gimli:''' Certainty of death, ''small'' chance of success... What are we waiting for?}}
** An explanation for the insufficiently nerdy: they're about to suicidally attack [[Big Bad|Sauron's]] far superior army to distract him while Sam and Frodo try to complete ''their'' insane plan of attempting to [[Memetic Mutation|simply walk into Mordor]], somehow bypass the tens of thousands of bloodthirsty orcs, climb up an active volcano barefoot, and destroy a telepathic [[Artifact of Doom]] before it takes over their minds and/or gets stolen from them and handed to Sauron, which would grant him godlike power. {{spoiler|Not only does it work, but all the heroes survive, except for Gollum and [[Fingore|a bit of Frodo.]]}}
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'''Hiccup''': Then something crazy.
'''Astrid''': That's more like it. }}
** Shortly after that, when the other kid Vikings figure out Hiccup's plan
{{quote|'''Ruffnut''': You're crazy! (leans in closer) I like that.}}
* During ''[[Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves]]'' this is invoked by Will Scarlett (Christian Slater) after he launches Robin (Kevin Costner) over the castle wall with a catapult... "Fuck me, he cleared it!"
* The attack on Aqaba in ''[[Lawrence of Arabia]]'' probably qualifies as this.
* Parodied in the film adaptation of ''[[Sgt. Bilko (film)|Sgt. Bilko]]'' when Steve Martin's title character utters a variation of the Trope Name upon learning the new recruit to his
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* A fair number of ''[[Star Trek]]'' adventures feature somebody coming up with plans that are Crazy Enough to Work. Scotty especially had a habit of making stuff work that simply defied the laws of physics.
** Subverted for some darn reason, later, in which we learn that sometimes Scotty exaggerated the time limits to make himself look awesome.
* Played with in ''[[Star Trek:
* Many of the myths tested on ''[[
* Every single episode of ''[[MacGyver]]'', of course. Crazy Enough To Work is the driving principle behind [[MacGyvering]].
* Also pretty much every episode of ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]''.
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* On ''[[The Daily Show]]'', when John Hodgman suggests that America fake its own death to avoid debt, Jon Stewart said "Wow, that's so crazy... it just might be [[Precision F-Strike|fucking]] crazy."
* Any and all prison escapes by Michael Scofield of ''[[Prison Break]]''. Features of his plans include structural engineering know-how, coded phrases and last minute improvisations due to being failed and/or betrayed by other people. However special mention must go to his later plot to steal Scylla. Let's take the most prized possession of the powerful Company that keeps trying to torture and kill us!
* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':
{{quote|'''Cordelia:''' That must be the ''stupidest'' plan I've ever heard!
'''Oz:''' We attack the mayor with hummus!
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer
* ''[[Halo]]''
** In ''[[Halo]] 2'', the Master Chief dives out of Cairo Station with a bomb larger than himself and falls into the engine of a Covenant Carrier, detonates the bomb, and falls again to land on a UNSC ship that is miniscule by comparison.
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==
* ''[[Annyseed]]'' uses a love potion in order to deter someone from her, rather than attract someone to her. Winston, you’re a genius! Mmwa! Page 61.
* Most of Red Mage's plans in ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'', constantly lampshaded. A most notable example is when he explains his plan has to work because it has ''no logical basis whatsoever on which it could fail''.
** Also frequently subverted on the frequent occasions when these plans spectacularly fail to work.
*** [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2010/01/29/episode-1215-so-stupid-its-brilliant/ This.]
* ''So'' many things in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''. One of the best examples is the [
* Parodied in ''[[Xkcd]]''. When [[Nathan Fillion]] wants to try the Crazy Ivan maneuver from ''[[Firefly]]'' on his electric skateboard, he insists it's so crazy it has to work. [[Jewel Staite]] replies "No, that's the ''opposite'' of true." She was right.
{{quote|'''[[Alt Text]]''': "Things are rarely just crazy enough to work, but they're frequently just crazy enough to [[Epic Fail|fail]] [[Hilarity Ensues|hilariously]]."}}
* Also parodied in ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire]]'' when [https://web.archive.org/web/20150409232347/http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20070331 Buck is dropped out of the sky].
* A lot of the inventions the Sparks come up with in ''[[Girl Genius]]'' fall under this trope. Granted, they probably make perfect sense to the Spark making them, but to everyone else...
{{quote|'''''Agatha:'''' "This has a small, but fascinating, chance of ''actually working!'' Let's do it!"}}
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== Web Original ==
* [[The Onion|The Onion Radio News]]' clip "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100225045816/http://www.theonion.com/content/radio_news/area_idea_so_crazy_it_just_0 Area Idea So Crazy It Just Might Work]".
* In ''[[Dark Dream Chronicle]]'', Hanna tends to resort to this immediately when running doesn't work.
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* [[Alexander the Great]]'s [[wikipedia:Siege of Tyre|Siege of Tyre]]. The city was impregnable from land and sea. It was a goddamn island. So what did Alex do? [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Turned it into a peninsula]]. You can just hear the Tyrian general's [[Flat What]] as he saw it going on.
** To be fair, the Tyrians reacted quickly to the situation and managed to hold off Alexander for a while by employing their sea advantage to hold up Alexander's initial attempt at a causeway. Only when Alexander tried again, this time with ships helping in the work were the Tyrians defeated.
** Generals throughout history could occasionally get away with pulling off stunts like this due to this exact trope, usually involving an attack so unlikely (say, through a seemingly insurmountable desert, swamp, or mountain range), the enemy is caught completely off guard (think the Blitzkrieg in the Ardennes Forest). If it's crazy enough, the enemy will never see it coming, and it just might work. Of course, if the opposing general or his intelligence officers are good enough to see the method in the madness, it tends to be a spectacular failure.
* Zhuge "Sleeping Dragon" Liang was a Chinese general famous for his masterful battle strategies and deceit. Once during the War of the Three Kingdoms, he was trapped in a town with only a handful of soldiers and an opposing army of a hundred thousand men approaching fast. He immediately
* The fate of Apollo 13. So your [[Cool Ship]] has an explosion ''literally'' halfway to the moon. Here's the plan: 1) Use a machine designed strictly for landing and taking off as a lifeboat, even though it will have to support three people when it was only designed to support two; 2) Shut down all electricity, subjecting your crew to near-freezing temperatures (not to mention the havoc the frost is sure to wreak with the electronics when you have to turn them back on); 3) Kitbash a working carbon dioxide filter out of whatever you have lying around because the ones in the lifeboat can't handle the workload; 4) Carry out course corrections with an engine unsuited for such fine maneuvering, using such high tech navigational methods as "placing your thumb over the Earth and lining it up with your window frame"; and 5) Literally invent a new procedure to restart all your electronics so as to not blow every fuse in the craft, thus stranding yourself in space. The [[Subverted Trope|Subversion]] of this is, in the hands of ordinary people, yes, it would be '''''Crazy Enough to Work'''''. In the hands of NASA's highly trained corps of [[Fan Nickname|Steely Eyed Missile Men]], it came off as almost...commonplace. The reality is somewhere in between; they weren't [[Crazy Prepared]] for this type of situation, but they ''were'' trained enough not to panic even when [[Murphy's Law]] struck (note the tone of the now-famous line, "Houston, we have a problem."—concerned but not freaked out), trained enough to coordinate with mission control, work out a solution, and ''get home alive''! Apollo 13 was a technological disaster but a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|human triumph]].
** That may or may not be the point of the Steely
* Hannibal's conquering of Italy in 218 BC. The Romans never expected ''anyone'' to be crazy enough to march over the Alps, and certainly not for it to work. He did lose half of his army and most of his war elephants doing it, but he Rome on the run for nearly 15 years.
* Taking a page from the [[Steely Eyed Missile Men]], a number of folks in commercial aviation likewise summon [[The Determinator|crazy calm resolve]] to combat problems that arise.
** With the help of the US Coast Guard a [[wikipedia:Pan Am Flight 6|similar feat was pulled 52 years earlier]] in the '''middle of the Pacific Ocean'''. And like the above, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|all survived]].
* Operation Desert Storm. US tanks drove through featureless, utterly unnavigable desert relying on barely proven GPS to catch the Republican Guard by surprise. (But fortunately, we went slow enough to ensure we were detected before we could actually use that surprise.)
* In [[WW 2]], the British were seriously thinking about making aircraft carriers out of ICE. The idea was that they would cover it in a very insulating wood covering, which would hold off the ships from melting long enough
* Murphy's War Law states; If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.
* Since the Nazis were aware
* If you ever heard of everyone flushing at the same time causing trouble, try explaining to the residents of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe was told to do just that. As a strange situation to [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/23/zimbabwe-simultaneous-toilet-flush sewage problem] during a drought, the city council resorted to this action. It worked.
* Some Navy ships had resorted to blasting random music to scare off pirates, and you’ll be surprised have effective they are.
* Due to the cost of maintenance was getting costly, [https://web.archive.org/web/20171012061534/http://www.dumblaws.com/law/311 West Virgina] allows people to take home any roadkill as food.
* After signs failed to stop people from going into the lagoon due to the toxicity, [[wikipedia: Far Hill Quarry| Far Hill Quarry]] was dyed black in hopes it would keep people out. They felt making the lagoon black would trick trespassers into staying away. It's worked!
* When one thinks of abstinence, one would think of people being told not to the "nasty". Well, for a group of women in [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/colombia/8830666/Colombian-women-end-crossed-legs-abstinence-protest-for-new-road.html Barbacoas, Colombia], they just that after they got fed up with poor road conditions. It got the message.
* [https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-12/air-forces-new-supercomputer-made-1760-playstation-3s The Condor Cluster] supercomputer ended being cheaper to maintain as its parts, i.e. Playstation 3s, were easier to find and it ran better than a normal one.
* Because the color blue is often linked to authority, many governments, like Japan, resorted add such color around train stations to reduce the rates of suicides.
* A [http://www.espn.com/soccer/blog/the-toe-poke/65/post/3478585/turkish-fan-hires-crane-to-watch-denizlispor-match?src=com Turkish Fan] hired a crane to watch a soccer game despite a ban. He thought the ban only applied to his presence at the pitch, and not a crane outside the stadium. The police weren't amused. On the flip side, the team the guy is a fan of won that game.
* [[wikipedia:Bill Millian|Bill Millian]], a Canadian born Scottish bagpiper, was ordered to play the bagpipes during the D-Day invasion in 1945 by [[Wikipedia:Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat|Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat]] [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right|despite the English banning it since they were Scottish]]. It was a common practice for Scottish and Irish soldiers as a form of motivation, but Lovat felt there was to that when he gave that order to go with his fellow soldiers. Lovat thought the Nazis would consider a waste to shoot at a mad man. The tactic worked as the Nazi soldiers thought Millian was crazy to only be armed with a dagger, a common Scottish tradition upon soldiers. Millian was called the 'Mad Piper' doing his job, [[Unflinching Walk|without missing a beat]] as he helped any wounded soldier.
* An English soldier named William Speakman began to throw beer bottles and tin cans at 6,000 enemy troops when his unit ran out of grenades during the Korean War. [https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/that-time-william-speakman-held-back-6000-enemy-troops-with-beer-bottles The then 24-year-old soldier's method worked, as the troops ran for it.]
* [[https://youtu.be/0ZjCOAnmUaQ This Farmer in Colorado]] knew he had to save what he can of his fields from a wildfire. Since fire requires a fuel source, which sadly was the crops, the farmer just uses a tractor to sacrifice a path of his crop to save the rest. The strategy worked, and the farmer was able to save 50 of the 80 acres of his field.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Universal Tropes]]
[[Category:Stock Phrases]]
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