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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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Why?
Because it's
While [[The Hero|heroes]] of every genre will come up with these, expect a lot of them from [[Badass Unintentional
[[Lampshaded]] frequently enough that it's become a [[Stock Phrase]] of the [[Genre Savvy]].
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
** And when the flying kick only scratches the side of the [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier]]? They at once make the captain fling the wheel over in the most exaggerated way possible, turning the flying kick into a flying ''roundhouse'' kick that of course succeeds.
** Everything that happens in Gurren-Lagann is too crazy to work. And yet it does...
* ''[[Bleach]]'': In episode 135, we see Matsumoto, with Kon by her side, saving the life of a girl that was about to drown when falling in the water after her plushie. How? By removing Kon from his plushie body and tossing him in the mouth of her plushie, to get
* 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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* [[Deconstructed Trope|Deconstructed]], [[Discussed Trope|discussed]] and ultimately played straight in [[Hitman (Comic Book)|Hitman]].
** Tommy suggests that they "do something completely and totally crazy" to escape the SAS at the end of #24. [[Gilligan Cut|The cover of #25 is Tommy hung upside down and bleeding and Nat unconscious on the floor with the SAS soldiers behind them holding automatic weapons.]]
{{quote|
==
* In ''[[
* ''[[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|
'''Kirk''': That's the general idea.
'''McCoy''': But that's '''crazy'''!!!!!!
'''Kirk''': You've got a better idea?? Now's the time. }}
* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'', when Jack Sparrow uses the recoil of a cannon to toss him from one ship to another, it prompts the exchange between him and Lord Beckett:
{{quote|
'''Jack Sparrow:''' Thank goodness for that, 'cause if I wasn't this would probably never work. }}
** And upon landing in front of his bewildered crew:
{{quote|
* ''[[Star Wars]], Episode V: [[The Empire Strikes Back]]''. Asteroid belt. Han Solo.
{{quote|
* The basis behind the plan to rescue Morpheus in ''[[The Matrix]]''. Complete with call out.
{{quote|
'''Neo:''' That's why it's going to work. }}
* Parodied in the Dana Carvey film ''[[The Master of Disguise]]''. The line is repeatedly used for the most simple and straightforward plans. Dramatically.
* ''[[Iron Man]]'': Okay, so you're a rich playboy snarker who's out for a relaxing afternoon drive in the deserts of Afghanistan, when a bunch of psycho terrorists blast the crap of your armored truck, fill your chest with shrapnel, hook you up to a car battery, toss you in a cave, and then tell you that if you don't make a missile for them, they're gonna feed you to the hyenas. [[Oh Crap|Sounds like you're screwed, don't it]]? Here's what you do: build a tiny chestplate that puts out more energy than the warp core of a Federation starship, forge some iron and heavy metal by hand, and design a [[Powered Armor|badass suit]] that's capable of kicking doors of hinges, bitch-slapping terrorists by the dozen, equipped with a rocket launcher, a pair of flame-throwers ''and'' has a rocket pack so that you can blast off after wreaking havoc. Oh, and you have to do this while trapped in a terrorist bunker being monitored 24/7 on camera. Most people don't have the audacity to attempt something so brazenly outrageous. But then, Tony Stark ain't most people!
* [[Indiana Jones]] cutting the rope bridge in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom|Temple of Doom]]''.
{{quote|
'''Short Round:''' He no nuts, he's crazy! }}
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings
{{quote|
** 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.]]}}
* ''[[Batman: The Movie]]'': Catwoman says this phrase word or word about the Penguin's [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee|Unspoken Plan.]]
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* ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' had this when Egon suggested that they cross the streams to defeat Gozer.
* ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (animation)|How to Train Your Dragon]]'' has it like this:
{{quote|
'''Hiccup''': Something stupid.
'''Astrid''': Okay, but...you've already done that.
'''Hiccup''': Then something crazy.
'''Astrid''': That's more like it. }}
** Shortly after that, when the other kid Vikings figure out Hiccup's plan
{{quote|
* 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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* [[Discworld|It's a million-to-one chance, but it just might work...]]
* ''[[Troy Rising]]''
{{quote|
'''Granadica''': 'It's not crazy.' You humans are the only sophonts in this galactic region to have that saying. Most people just go with 'that's crazy'. }}
* In ''[[Redwall]]''s ''Martin the Warrior'', Feldoh says this after hearing the Rambling Rosehip Players's plan.
* Most of [[Cool Old Guy|Uncle]] [[Crazy Awesome|Ebbitt's]] plans in ''[[The Seventh Tower]]''.
* The majority of plans crafted by the ''[[Codex Alera]]'s'' hero, Tavi of Calderon, hinge on this. So much so, in fact, that his lover is able to correctly reason Tavi's chosen location for the series [[Final Battle]] by thinking of a place that only a lunatic would willingly enter.
** You want examples? Of course you do! Take, for instance, his role in the defense of the Elinarch. Due to a lot of things going wrong at once, he ended up in command of a single, inexperienced legion (about 7,000 soldiers) who had to [[You Shall Not Pass|hold a bridge]] against an army of more than 50,000 Canim: centuries-old, enormous, [[Big Badass Wolf|and incredibly dangerous]] [[Wolf Man|wolfmen]]. First, to stop them from crossing the river anywhere else, he had all the butchers in the camp and the towns at either end of the Elinarch throw buckets of blood into the river to attract [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks|sharks]]. Any Canim trying to swim across quickly learned the error of their ways. He also went out to try to negotiate with the leaders. By himself. He proceeded to use his knowledge of their culture to laugh in the face of an [[Evil Sorcerer]] and exploit a division in their leadership. Then he sat for an hour and [[Smart People Play Chess|played chess]] with [[The Strategist|Nasaug]] during a truce to let them remove their dead from the field,<ref>Tavi won</ref>
{{quote|
** And that thing mentioned above about going into the most suicidal place he could think of? His plan was to {{spoiler|piss off the [[Eldritch Abomination]]-like Great Furies Garados and Thana and use them against the Vord Queen. It only really works when she tries to claim the furies and he has the even crazier idea of cutting her connection and letting them go free to wreak random destruction. They are ''very'' pissed about the attempt to control them, and Thana, an enormous, sentient thunderstorm, pretty much literally chews the Vord Queen up and spits her out.}}
* Harry's plans in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' are often of this variety. Since they are written by the same man as the Codex Alera, this is far from surprising. {{spoiler|Zombie dinosaur, anyone?}}
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** Possibly the craziest-or at least the riskiest- was in the third book when one of his plans hinged on deliberately ingesting lethally poisonous mushrooms.
* ''[[John Dies at the End]]'' has this come up a lot, usually for [[Cloudcuckoolander|John]]'s plans. About a third of the way through the book, after the heroes decide to fight a ballroom full of monsters with [[The Power of Rock]], he even speaks a variation of the [[Stock Phrase]]:
{{quote|
* ''[[X Wing Series]]''. Wraith Squadron specializes in these plans. Just during their first active mission, they fake the Millenium Falcon to decoy a Star Destroyer away from an evacuating Rebel base then proceed to capture(and utilize in a [[False-Flag Operation]]) a Correlian Corvette pocket carrier with an X-wing's laser cannon carried by the squadron's resident Gamorean.
* [[Guile Hero|Kelsier]] of ''[[Mistborn]]'' pretty much can't go a single chapter without ''someone'' saying he's nuts, usually because of the sheer, ludicrous [[Refuge in Audacity]]. His plans usually work for exactly that reason.
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* Pick any (and we do mean ''any'') of the plans hatched by the folks on ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. Blowing up a sun; using ''every'' Stargate simultaneously to generate a wave capable of disintegrating matter '''''across the whole galaxy.'''''; sneaking into a conference where ''all'' your major enemies are gathered; storming an enemy mothership with just four people. Believe it or not, these aren't the craziest ones.
** One later season episode [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the escalating ridiculousness:
{{quote|
'''Maj. Carter''': Wackier than strapping an active Stargate to the bottom of the X-302?
'''Col. O'Neill''': [As he walks out the door] Oh, yeah.
'''Maj. Carter''': [Calling after O'Neill] Wackier than blowing up a sun?
'''Col. O'Neill''': [From the corridor, unseen] Yep!
'''Maj. Carter''': [to Jonas and Daniel] ...He's probably right. }}
* Some of the stuff that [[Chuck]] Bartowski comes up tests the very limits of sanity. But somehow, it works.
** There are [[Rule of Funny|reasons]] [[Rule of Cool|why]] [[The Power of Rock|it]] [[Chekhov's Gun|works]].
* ''[[Farscape]]'': See John. See John have a fight with a large empire. See John strap a nuclear bomb to his chest and walk into their headquarters as a diversion. See John Win.
* A fair number of ''[[Star Trek]]'' adventures feature somebody coming up with plans that are
** 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]]''.
{{quote|
'''Newkirk''': With all due respect, sir, you're dreaming.
'''Hogan''': If you've got a better dream, I want to hear it. }}
* ''[[The A-Team]]''. Period. Consider this quote from [[The A-Team (film)|the Movie]].
{{quote|
'''Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith:''' It gets better! (starts laughing) }}
* ''[[Corner Gas]]''. Many of the schemes tried by Brent LeRoy and Hank Yarbo (and a pretty significant chunk of the schemes everyone else in the main cast try) fit into this trope. Most of the time the plans fail miserably, but even when they work, the success just creates another problem they hadn't anticipated.
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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|
'''Oz:''' We attack the mayor with hummus!
'''Cordelia:''' I stand corrected.
'''Oz''': Just gettin' things in perspective. }}
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'', "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7boeBf5pbQ Time Crash]" (though it happens [[Mad Scientist|more than you might imagine]]):
{{quote|
'''Tenth Doctor:''' Only way out.
'''Fifth Doctor:''' Who told you that?! }}
* Major Bunny Colvin comes up with a pretty interesting plan in season 3 of ''[[The Wire]]''. Faced with the drug trade sprawling over more and more of his streets, as well as an increasing pressure to get crime rates down, what plan does he come up with? {{spoiler|Legalize drugs.}} More specifically, he sets up {{spoiler|three "safe zones" in his district and makes a deal with the dealers: if they move all their trade there, the police won't touch them.}} And it works. Dangerous street corners are cleared for ordinary people and his men can focus on fighting crime more concretely, as opposed to making endless futile drug raids. Crime goes down 14%. But in the end, ''The Wire'' is too naturalistic for such a [[Zany Scheme]] to be workable: {{spoiler|once his superiors find out about the whole thing, "Hamsterdam" is shut down, Colvin is disgraced and the streets return to normal.}} Major Rawls even comments that his plan was brilliant - insane and illegal, but brilliant.
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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.
{{quote|
'''Master Chief:''' So? Stay here.
'''Cortana:''' Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy.
...
'''Sarge:''' For a brick, he flew pretty good! }}
** In ''[[Halo: Reach]]'', Kat proposes a way to take out a covenant super-carrier that involves "the single most expensive piece of equipment made by man".
{{quote|
'''Kat:''' ''"...inspired?"''
'''Carter:''' ''"Not the word I would use."'' }}
* Subverted in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Sacred Stones''. Ephraim, along with his 3 bodyguards, plans to raids the enemy castle and take it over, on the basis that "If the enemy thinks the same [that the plan is insane], there's our opening." Unfortunately, it turned out that {{spoiler|one of the aforementioned 3 bodyguards was [[The Mole]], and therefore the enemy was completely prepared for the siege}}.
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** Nintendo has a tradition for being nontraditional. Gamepads instead of joysticks, twin-screen portables, autostereoscopic 3D, motion-sensitive controls standard, the list doesn't end here. While many of their innovations took hold and were accepted by the mainstream for being different, others didn't fly so well because other and more mainstream innovations (like CD and later DVD game media) managed to overshadow Nintendo's efforts. Like any company, Nintendo both hits and misses.
* Played with in ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]''. Coach comes up with an idea to start up a band's pyrotechnics in order to call for a helicopter. After hearing this, Nick drops this line.
{{quote|
* In ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' this is intentionally [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] when Brave Vesperia formulates the best way to {{spoiler|destroy the Adephagos by using Spirits and the removal of blastia from the world, something that would be all but impossible. However, it works, and the world is saved.}}
* This is how the UberCharge system in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' came to life, as revealed in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc "Meet the Medic"].
{{quote|
'''Medic''': HA HA! I have ''no'' idea!!! }}
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'': Budd, being [[Crazy Awesome]], tends to come up with plans that are this. In Uldum, his plan to escape from the Neferset (the cat equivalent of centaurs) is to [[Paper-Thin Disguise|dress the captives up in a few pieces of Neferset armor with two of them carrying the third person between them, so that their shapes are vaguely similar to the Neferset]], and then walk out the front door hoping nobody notices. The sheer stupidity of this plan is lampshaded by the other party members, with himself Budd actually going as far as to say [[Tempting Fate|nothing can possibly go wrong]]. {{spoiler|Nothing does.}}
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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
** 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|
* 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|
* The "party" of ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' (and quite a few actual Tabletop RPG parties) runs on these kinds of ideas. In [http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0477.html this comic] Pete points out that Jim is their group's resident master of this trope.
** When they try to mimic [[What Would X Do?|what Jim would do]], Annie keeps doing things to try to slow a spaceship's fiery descent from orbit. Each time, Pete responds, "Not crazy enough!" Finally, her plan is to fire all of the ship's missiles at the ground just before landing, using the explosion to cushion the fall. Pete's response? "''Too crazy!''"
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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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* Razor of the ''[[Swat Kats]]'' seems to come up with these very nearly [[Once an Episode]].
* In an episode of ''[[Futurama]]'', the Planet Express crew and the Globetrotters are trying to solve the problem of "time skips" that jump everyone in the Universe forward in time, leaving them with no memory of what went on in the interim. At one point, Hermes Conrad says, "Say, I'm no physicist, but I think I know how to stop the skipping. We'll just--" after which time skips, everyone but Hermes is nude and in a conga line (Hermes is in a Hawaiian shirt, playing a steel drum) and Hermes cries, "I don't know how this was supposed to work!"
** Of course, most of the (often successful) plans in ''Futurama''
* Parodied in ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'':
{{quote|
'''Johnny''': It's just crazy enough to work!
'''Carl''': But you haven't heard it yet.
'''Johnny''': Enough talk! I need action! }}
* ''[[Beast Wars]]''. After Optimus Primal ''jumps'', in beast mode, from a flying island that's just more or less gone nuclear, in the hopes of catching a tree branch on the way down before he and Rattrap go splat or get charred to a crisp. He does.
{{quote|
'''Optimus Primal:''' Sometimes crazy works. }}
* Seen in ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'':
{{quote|
'''Lilo''': So crazy it just might work?
'''Jumba''': No, just crazy. }}
* Used often in ''[[Hey Arnold!]]!'' Usually with the phrase, "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Let's do it!"
* Played with in ''[[Maryoku Yummy]]'' when Maryoku and Shika are searching for Bob. Shika starts out by systematically checking every spot in Nozomu, but Maryoku suggests starting with the places they'd usually find Bob.
{{quote|
'''Maryoku''': Good! Follow me!
'''Shika''': But I said it sounds crazy!
'''Maryoku''': Yet you're still going to give it a chance. That's so nice. }}
* Used almost word for word in an episode of the 2010 ''[[Pound Puppies]]'':
{{quote|
'''Lucky''': So crazy, it just might work. }}
* Parodied in ''[[Drawn Together]]''. When Spanky fills in every blank in a mad-lib with "Penis", Wooldoor suggests using words other than penis, to which Spanky replies "That's crazy, Wooldoor! Just crazy enough to penis."
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* Many variants on this are attributed to Niels Bohr, notably to Wolfgang Pauli, on Pauli's nonlinear field theory: "We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct."
** Reputedly, when Lee Smolin was running around proposing that black holes give birth to new universes, Murray Gell-Mann said, "Smolin? Is he that young guy with all the crazy ideas? He may not be wrong."
* A relatively new chess opening, dubbed the Halloween, is a perfect example of this trope. [[wikipedia:Halloween Gambit|1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nxe5?!]] The faces of people who've seen this
* Back when legalized racism was rampant in the USA, no shortage of people were trying to find ways of eradicating it. You wouldn't have thought that simply ''not'' taking the bus would make a difference. Martin Luther King and those who worked with him proved otherwise.
* After [[The Great Video Game Crash of 1983]], stores refused to sell video game consoles and people were wary of video games. So what did Nintendo do? They packed in the Robotic Operating Buddy (which was a piece of garbage that worked with two games) so they could tell stores it was a toy, and they made it a front-loader so it resembled a VCR more than a gaming console. Today, Nintendo is one of the richest companies in the world.
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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 of how deadly typhus can be, a doctor named [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Lazowski Eugene Lazowski] came up with a way to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. The plan, claims there was an epidemic of typhus in one Polish town. Considering the fact the Nazis knew death was almost certain, the logic was… they wouldn’t deport anyone to a prison camp who was going to die anyway. As a result of the fake typhus outbreak, up to 8,000 Jews avoided capture and Lazowski was called the “Polish Schindler” for putting his life on the line to do so.
* 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.
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[[Category:Universal Tropes]]
[[Category:Stock Phrases]]
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