Idiot Ball/Western Animation
Examples of characters carrying the Idiot Ball in Western Animation include:
- In the Ben 10 episode "A Change Of Face", Grandpa Max doesn't notice that Gwen is acting odd, the reason being that villainess Charmcaster has swapped bodies with Gwen. Even later on, after the ruse has been revealed and more body-swapping has occurred, Grandpa Max still can't tell who's who without a scorecard... This is pretty glaring, given that Max is a former Plumber (this show's The Men in Black equivalent), has been repeatedly shown to be pretty clever, and above all is their grandfather.
- Another example is in the Alien Force episode "Good Copy, Bad Copy". You'd think that, considering how much weird stuff they've seen, Kevin and Gwen would immediately be suspicious of "Ben" (really a Galvan named Albedo) claiming he's looking for Ben. Instead, they just assume he's the real thing and has lost his mind, setting up for the old "Which one is which?" bit.
- Also "Duped" from Ultimate Alien. With Ben splitting into three of himself, each a different aspect. Sending the sensitive part to fight Forever Knights and the asshole part to Julie's tennis game is an idiot ball the size of Texas.
- In the Gargoyles episode "Vows", Demona gains possession of an artifact known as the Phoenix Gate, which allows the holder to travel to any place at any time at will. She travels back in time and informs her past self (also in possession of the past version of the Gate) that SHE should use the Gate to change history, instead of just doing it herself with the Gate she already possesses. The ultimate lesson is that history is immutable, though the reason for this apart from a large, conspicuous Idiot Ball is unclear.
- Made worse by the fact that present day Demona says she remembers the whole incident (well, Goliath's talk after she got knocked out), but if she remembers that, it's pretty odd to think she'd have forgotten meeting herself and seeing her other self's defeat. So if she already had memories of her plan failing, why go through with it? It reeks of Dr. Manhattan style pre-destination.
- The aforementioned PALES in comparison with the sheer idiocy Demona displays in "Hunter's Moon". Goliath and Co. break in when she's about to deliver the fatal blow against humankind and unleash the enchanted virus lethal to all sentient beings (Gargoyles will be protected by a magical figurine she has on her table). Not only does Demona start monologuing, in the worst Bond Villainesque manner possible, but she actually POINTS at the figurine as if asking Goliath to smash the thing. He obliges.
- This is actually an explicit feature of Demona's character. She's such a mess of contradictory issues, topped with a healthy dose of repressed self-loathing, that she has a noticeable tendency to sabotage herself. Word of God even outight says that Demona is, and always has been, her own worst enemy.
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold, specifically when Grod thought turning Batman into a 400 pound gorilla would ensure his total victory.
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- Honorable Mention: The Orb of Confusion—a literal Idiot Ball (pictured above).
- The trope applies to several episodes, with varying results - SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, and/or Plankton will be saddled with the idiot ball at any time whatsoever. The only ones safe are Sandy and Squidward... and even then...
- Squidward has been known to hold the Idiot Ball. In "The Snowball Effect", Squidward tells Patrick to think of him as SpongeBob, to teach him how to have a snowball fight. Squidward throws a snowball at Patrick and says, "Now, what are you going to do?" Patrick throws a snowball back at Squidward, who had said not five seconds ago to think of him as SpongeBob. Squidward asks why Patrick didn't throw it at SpongeBob.
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Patrick:You said you were Spongebob, Spongebob. |
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- Same goes for Sandy on occassion. In "Doodle Dimensions', she builds an interdimensional portal device that can open gateways to infinite realities, and then tells SpongeBob and Patrick to watch it. You'd think after twelve seasons she'd realize its dangerous to even trust them with a pair of shears. Bonus points for Sandy grabbing it a second time after they turn it on, screaming at them not to walk into it, even though with these two that's practically an invitation to do so.
- SpongeBob even outdoes himself in "Bubble Trouble"; after he and Patrick accidental destroy Sandy's source of air (something she will die without) Sandy has to get to the surface, so SpongeBob "graciously" opens the door to her submarine, causing it to flood and break. Patrick's opinion of this? "Even I knew that was dumb."
- The same goes for The Fairly OddParents, where in most episodes it's Timmy's idiocy that gets the plot moving.
- This very web page is referenced and linked to in Ed Liu's Toon Zone review of The Flintstones sequel series The Pebbles and Bamm Bamm Show. To wit:
- "[Pebbles is] the one most often saddled with the Idiot Ball, since most of the episodes rely on her misunderstanding something and then finding the worst possible way to fix her mistakes."
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Iroh, usually The Obi-Wan, Retired Badass and The Caretaker in one, once almost killed himself by drinking tea made of the leaves of a perceived delicious tea plant that wasn't (well, he and Zuko desperate for food at the time). Followed by a small Find the Cure plot. (Though this may have been a bit of character exposition, meant to demonstrate exactly how much Iroh enjoys his tea.) However, this also could have been a Batman Gambit on his part. As up until then Zuko refused to go to a village for help, and Iroh did this to make him decide to go.
- Also, using Firebending to heat his tea while they were trying to stay incognito... in the Earth Kingdom... surrounded by refugees from the invading Fire Nation forces. Zuko immediately lampshades: "What are you doing firebending your tea?! For a wise old man, that was a pretty stupid move!" Iroh doesn't make that mistake again, though- a later scene has him borrowing spark rocks for their stove even though as far as he knew nobody would see him lighting it himself.
- Katara, who before had been hiding out of sight, deciding to step out and into the crazed Azula's line of vision just as Zuko has taunted her to shoot him with lightning. This is just so Zuko is knocked out of the fight protecting Katara so she can defeat Azula.
- Despite being relatively sane, Slinkman of Camp Lazlo likes to carry the Idiot Ball around a lot.
- In the Sonic Sat AM animated series, Antoine would occasionally be used for this. The mini-episode Fed Up with Antoine was the most blatant example of this trope.
- The Simpsons
- In one episode, Lisa is no less smart than she usually is, but she's feeling like an idiot because a new girl in class, Alison, has proven to be better than her at everything. Visiting Alison's house, Lisa attempts to play an anagram game with Alison's father but fails miserably. Taking her to be a simpleton, Alison's father hands Lisa a red rubber ball, saying "this is a ball. Perhaps you'd like to bounce it."
- "Pranksta Rap". The plot revolves around Bart faking his own kidnapping and gives rise to two idiot ball moments. Bart handwrites the ransom note. Marge fails to recognise her own son's handwriting.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars has an episode where Obi-Wan and Anakin are sent to negotiate with some Weequay who have captured Count Dooku. Right from the start, they go in expecting a trap, yet apparently did not bother to think of any countermeasures. They quite willingly hand over their lightsabres rather than hide them and worst of all, at the end when they've finally broken free and have the Weequay leader at blade point, ready to give up and come to prison quietly, Obi-Wan tells Anakin to let him go. Why? Why? Why? They never even try to explain why Obi-Wan suddenly wants to let someone who lied to them, drugged them, kidnapped them, and tortured them get off scot free!
- That's not necessarily true about the scot free part. Obi-Wan did a little instituting of paranoia by saying that while the Jedi would let it slide, Count Dooku wouldn't. Implying that the Sith Lord would probably come back soon with a nice chunk of his forces, all gung ho for vengeance in which he will end them. Kinda workable to make the bounty Weequay look over his shoulder now at all times from now on.
- The Clone Wars also has Cad Bane, a bounty hunter who seems to have the power to hand out idiot balls to all of his enemies. In every one of his appearances, he manages to succeed by turning the Jedi into complete morons. Bigger idiots than they usually are in the prequel era, that is.
- Also, once Obi-Wan and Anakin were drugged, they seemed to magically forget that Jedi have poison-neutralizing powers.
- The entire clone army seems to be equipped with standard issue idiot balls. While it is reasonable for the droids to not really have any sort of care for self-preservation, the clones will often completely ignore cover and tactics to charge enemies head-on.
- Lion-O of ThunderCats (1985) runs headlong down the field with the Idiot Ball held very tightly ("I'm going to go exploring! Uh-oh, trouble I can't handle myself! Wait, can't call the other Thundercats, the episode's not three-quarters over yet!") though he occasionally passes it off to other Thundercats. Tygra, especially, seems willing to run with it. Lion-O has the justification of being a child in a grown-up's body, but Tygra and the others have no excuse.
- Every character in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon would carry the ball when the plot required. A stand-out moment includes a scene in the series' third episode, when, left to their own devices in April's apartment, the turtles suddenly become retards: Leonardo begins throwing tubes of lipstick at a painting, calling it "target practice"; Raph interprets "insert capful of Shampoo into tub" as referring to an actual baseball cap; Donny starts fiddling with April's answering machine with no regard as to her privacy; and Mikey proves incapable of making instant pizza which he had no permission to touch. April is understandably furious.
- Transformers Generation 1: Optimus Prime gets whacked hard in the face with this in the episode "Heavy Metal War". He's been fighting Megatron for centuries, long enough to know which powers Megatron does and doesn't have...and yet he doesn't realise that Megatron cheated during a one-on-one battle until Teletraan-1 spells it out for him. Even though Megatron uses powers that he has never used before.
- Thrust is actually pretty smart in Transformers Armada when he first shows up. After several Deus Ex Machina-induced failures he starts spending a lot more time around the Idiot Ball, culminating in getting his rear kicked by human children.
- In a Justice League Unlimited episode, you have rebelling young twin heroes, one of whom can turn into different animals, real or not, and the other can turn into water. When these two heroes (and other young, misguided heroes) try to blow up the base they live in after the reveal, a group of Justice Leaguers tries to stop them. The twins attack a member of the Justice League by drowning him in a room filled with water and have a T. rex, obviously not an aquatic creature, attack said hero, underwater. Again, this happened underwater. Who's the Justice Leaguer they fought? Aquaman. Though the characters were in the middle of a mental breakdown, so thinking clearly was not exactly something to be expected. If they're inspired, as it seems likely, by the Wonder Twins of Superfriends, then one could say they keep pretty true to the original characters.
- Teen Titans hands Robin a huge idiot ball at the end of "Trust". After spending an episode fighting against a shapeshifter who had both shown that she could mimic both the appearance and voice of anyone, cannot replicate powers, and loses her structural integrity when she's exposed to strong heat. What does Robin do after a fight where the result isn't clear? Immediately trust the Not!Hot Spot, and handed over a spare communication device - which allowed The Brotherhood of Evil to track down every. single. superhero. that the Titans gave the com device to. Nice Job Breaking It Robin. This makes it worse since Robin is supposed to be the smart, suspicious one.
- Inverted by Inspector Gadget, bizarrely enough. While Penny and Brain were typically the ones who saved the day, there were quite a few isolated moments when Gadget himself could actually show competence when the plot demanded it.
- Episode 12 of Sym-Bionic Titan has some Idiot Ball moments when you consider two things: One, why didn't Lance and the others consider stomping and or obliterating the supposedly dead Monster of the Week's body just to be safe. Two, wouldn't it have occurred to Ilana and Lance by now that Octus isn't a normal robot considering his build and powers? It's made clear early on that everyone on the show occasionally picks up the ball for the plot (episode 4, anybody?).
- The Animals of Farthing Wood: Weasel conveniently forgets Fox's message for Adder to kill Scarface and mixes it up as simply killing a blue fox, despite she being the one who suggests they get Adder to kill Scarface.
- My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: The entire mane cast is handed an idiot ball in the first episode of Season 2, where Discord manages to fool all the main cast but Twilight with tricks a person with half a brain wouldn't have fallen for. Twilight, the smartest of the group, somehow manages not to notice that all of her friends have turned some shade of gray and are now acting in a manner that is the complete opposite of how they usually act. And at some points Discord manages to trick them when he outright shows up in front of their faces. Yes, your ancient enemy whom you know loves sowing chaos is someone who is perfectly legit, guys. You can totally trust this guy.
- Admittedly, it didn't work on Fluttershy, so he used a straight-up Mind Rape. So the other ponies might have been under his influence during the illusions (and he would have brainwashed them anyways)
- The greying out of the character's color schemes was a visual cue for the audience representing metaphorically Discord's control. Note how Discord himself didn't notice the ponies' return to saturated colors for the episode's climax. Twilight Sparkle gets no points, however, for failing to notice five people that had become her closest friends over the previous year were suddenly and inexplicably acting wildly out of character.
- and yet Spike pointed out they looked grey when they got back to the library in part 2, so it's probable that it did have a visual effect noticable by the other characters, that was largley ignored. Discord himself also qualifies due to not realizing everyone was in a much more unified mood upon their second attempt to "friend him". and that they weren't grey anymore.
- Twilight did notice that her friends were acting strangely. The fact that she didn't suspect of Discord's influence (at first at least) is probably due to the fact that she couldn't imagine him cheating on the rules he sets up for the game by Mind Raping all of them (which he didn't (well, partially), with the exception of Fluttershy and maybe Rainbow Dash too). It also sure helps that the maze was very big (as seen in some scenes), so they probably travelled separeted for some hours at least, which maybe made Twilight think that they acted like that because of stress and fear, rather than Discord's influence. As for Spike, he maybe was tslking about how grumpy they were looking, not necessarly the color.
- It also doesn't help that this is in early season 2, which was well before Twilight Sparkle had sufficient character development to finally overcome her greatest weakness. Which was that she had the emotional intelligence of a brick. Criticizing her for being unable to pick up social cues from her friends is about like criticizing Mr. Magoo for being unable to read the eye exam chart. Remember, it's not really this trope if the character is supposed to be stupid.
- Many of the episodes hinge on one or more of the cast picking up the Idiot Ball. Among the ones that stand out are Applebuck Season, A Bird in the Hoof, Green Isn't Your Color, Lesson Zero and Luna Eclipsed.
- In Voltron Force S2E1 ("Inside the Music"), Pidge picks up the Idiot Ball and runs with it for a touchdown. He's so heavily invested in keeping his secret identity as the mastermind of the band "Stereolactic" a secret, that he doesn't even tell his True Companions. This results in the Cadets wasting time and effort chasing him down, believing that he's the Drule agent, that could have been used finding the real agent.
- In the Series Finale of Codename: Kids Next Door Number 363's team is implied to have the best success rate of any team in the organization. In the episode itself, he starts to prove it during the global scavenger hunt. He manages to gain some of the most valuable items, and while often doing so via underhanded (and rather mean) methods, with Sector V often bearing the brunt of the humiliation, he still manages to cleverly gain a substantial lead. However, when his lead seems so large that he likely cannot be beaten, he decides to go after the Golden Snitch item - Father's pipe; obviously breaking into Father's mansion and robbing him would be suicide. Sector V learns this when a reporter asks Numbuh One if he intends to go to Numbuh 363's funeral, and even Numbuh Four (who has the reputation of being The Ditz and has pulled many Leeroy Jenkins stunts in the past) thinks Numbuh 363 is off his rocker. Indeed, number 363’s attempt to steal the pipe nearly gets him and everyone else killed, and causes his team to turn against him, ruining his reputation and standing in the organization. The adult Numbuh Five (acting as Narrator) says that the first thing she did upon becoming Supreme Leader of the KND was to fire him.