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Idiot Ball (view source)

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On the other hand, making stupid mistakes can be the hallmark of [[Character Development]] if the person recognizes it in the end. Seeing someone discarding the idiot ball can be a rewarding moment when they are [[Taught By Experience]].
 
See also [[Villain Ball]], [[Hero Ball]], [[Distress Ball]], [[Idiot Plot]], [[Forgot About His Powers]], [[Alcohol-Induced Idiocy]], [[Oops I Did It Again]], [[Three Is Company]], [[Too Dumb to Live]], [[What an Idiot!]], [[Conflict Ball]], [[Bullying a Dragon]], [[Mugging the Monster]], [[Failed a Spot Check]], [[Ping-Pong Naivete]], [[Third-Act Stupidity]] <small>*big breath* </small>, and [[Out-of-Character Moment]]. A [[Stupidity-Inducing Attack]] is essentially what happens when a character deliberately throws the [['''Idiot Ball]]''' at another character.
 
This trope is the [[Opposite Tropes|Opposite Trope]] of [[Smart Ball]], and probably not closely related to [[Sanity Ball]], [[Happy Fun Ball]] or [[Advantage Ball]]. And not even ''remotely'' related to the [[Timey-Wimey Ball]].
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** And by the way, the reason is because {{spoiler|he invented the time machine for the purpose of saving her, so if she never died, he never had a reason to invent the time machine and therefore couldn't have saved her in the first place}}.
* In ''Open Graves'', the hero wishes to reverse time to a week ago, without wishing for his memories to remain, and thus damns himself to a horrific time-loop. What makes it especially idiotic is, even the villain granting the wish takes pity on him, warns him that it is a stupid wish, and gives him a chance to try a different wish. He does it anyway.
* Parodied in ''[[Scary Movie]],'' when the "Walking Dead teens" are in the theater wondering who the killer could be -- whenbe—when the Killer is right in plain sight in his Grim Reaper costume, mopping up the blood from his most recent victim.
* [[Roger Ebert]] also ponders this during his review of ''[[Paranormal Activity]] 2'':
{{quote|"The movie numbers the days as they tick away, and along about Day #12 I'm thinking, why are these people still here? The screening I attended was treated to a surprise appearance by three stars of that cable show about Chicago's Paranormal Detectives. These are real Chicago detectives. If the Sloats lived in Chicago, they'd have a SWAT team out there by Day #7."}}
* In ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'', Butch's storyline requires a number of idiot balls. Butch decides to risk going back to his apartment to get his watch, a precious family heirloom, despite the fact that he knows people are out to kill him. When it gets to his apartment, no-one seems to be there, so he decides to hang out and cook some ''Pop-Tarts'' rather than thank the gods for his good fortune and flee immediately. It turns out that Wallace and Vincent were waiting for Butch at his apartment, but Wallace decided to go get some snacks and had to leave his MAC-11 machine pistol behind. Vincent meanwhile went to use the restroom, leaving Wallace's gun sitting out in plain sight. Vincent had already shown several previous instances of stupidity.
* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]''. A crew finds Elizabeth's dress on board after she sneaks on board, prompting a mad rush to find the stowaway naked lady. None of them even stop to think said lady would be wearing men's clothes?
** Does it count as the Idiot Ball if they're all ''supposed'' to be idiots? (Note that the one smart guy in the bunch -- Barbosa -- easilybunch—Barbosa—easily figures out where and how Elizabeth is hiding.)
* One must seriously wonder why the workers in ''[[Metropolis]]'' do not notice a difference between the moderate, kind, and properly-postured Maria and her psychotic, scowling, hunched over robotic duplicate.
* King Leonidas in ''[[300]]'' brusquely rejects Ephialtes's offer to join his army because his deformity would cause a weakness in the ranks. Leonidas apparently doesn't realize that pissing off a man who knows your position's only weakness isn't such a smart idea. He also never thinks to suggest that Ephialtes fight with the other Greeks, who are mere "brawlers." It's also worth noting that the Spartans only fight a single battle in formation before breaking up into single-man wrecking crews anyway. There are several possible justifications for this. The first is that Spartans despised deformity, and it is true to Spartan culture for Leonidas to reject him out of hand. It also may be a case of Delios being an [[Unreliable Narrator]] who embellishes the truth to make a better story. The real life Ephialtes was a regular man who was simply greedy.
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* Marlene from ''[[The Hand That Rocks the Cradle]]'' holds it ''firmly'' in her hands when she reveals to [[Ax Crazy|Peyton]] that she knows who she is, prompting Peyton to lure her to her death.
* In ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]] II: The Golden Army'', Prince Nuada and Princess Nuala share a telepathic link that lets them know what the other is thinking and [[Synchronization|causes them to share any physical damage they incur.]] When Nuada is sentenced to death, Nuala accepts the verdict, sacrificing herself to prevent her brother's scheme. When Nuada escapes, Nuala tries to stop him, but she could, at any time, kill herself to stop him, as she was already prepared to do earlier. In a later scene, she allows herself to be taken to the heroes' headquarters, but neglects to inform them that Nuada can find her anywhere and knows everything they tell her, allowing him to progress in his scheme. When Nuada throws his magic bean into the gutter, Nuala neglects telling the others to keep it away from water until it's too late for them to do anything. Only in the end does Nuala {{spoiler|finally put two and two together and kill herself to stop Nuada.}}
** Abe gets it rather badly shortly after spinning the "my brother knows everything I know" idiot ball -- whatball—what does he do when he is informed of this rather critical piece of information? Go inform HQ that they'll probably be getting a PO'd elf prince breaking in? Work on evacuating everyone to safety? No, he and Hellboy get drunk and sing love songs.
** At any point in the movie someone could have thwarted the prince's plan by destroying part or all of the crown that controlled the Golden Army, which is exactly what they end up doing in the end.
* Nero, from the new ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' movie has just seen his planet destroyed, and immediately falls into a time warp, sending him some 100 years into the past. What's his first idea? Destroy the planet of the man who was too slow in saving his planet. Not once, NOT ONCE is it ever mentioned that HE IS IN THE PAST. Had Nero simply returned to Romulus, he could have told his home of the disaster in the coming future, AND given knowledge of superior technology a century ahead of the times. The Romulans being the kind of folk they are would then take this technology, refit their ships, decimate the Federation and remember to evacuate their planet before their sun explodes (if they can't solve the problem altogether). He has 25 years to realize that his plan is stupid. Never crosses his mind.
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* Most of the trapped characters in the ''[[Saw]]'' movies. One very small point in their defense is that people might not mentally be at their best when they're about to die.
* The Doctor's Wife in ''[[Blindness]]'' is the ''only'' sighted person in the entire asylum. So what does she do when a blind guy in another ward starts waving a gun that he can't aim, stealing food and possessions, and demanding women? Why, lead a bunch of other women to him and let him rape all of them, herself included.
* Lyra at the end of ''[[His Dark Materials|Northern Lights]]''. She just goes to sleep, knowing full well her father/uncle is hiding something. She decides ''not'' to ask the alethiometer for details because ''she's afraid to know the truth'', which is not at all in sync with her character -- probablycharacter—probably [[Because Destiny Says So]].
* [[Bond Villain Stupidity|Every]] [[James Bond]] villain, by explaining the whole plot to James Bond, and then putting him in an easily-escapable trap with an inept guard. (Naturally, this is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in ''Austin Powers,'' where Scott says "[[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|Why don't you just]] ''[[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|shoot]]'' [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|him]]?" And Dr. Evil doesn't explain, but simply cuts him off by going "SHHH!" every time, saying "I've got a whole bag of 'SHHH!' right here!")
* In ''[[Dreamscape]]'', Max von Sydow figures out Christopher Plummer's evil plan and tells him so, right to his face. The response? "[[Have You Told Anyone Else?]]"?
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*** This [http://www.alternatehistory.com/gateway/analyses/Drakaproblems.html Alternate History page] actually points out all the historical problems the canon timeline has and how illogical the entire idea is.
*** For the Europeans to view the Draka as harmless requires them to ignore an empire which controls all of Africa and the Middle East, has the world's largest GDP, possesses the most technologically advanced military in the world (as demonstrated in multiple wars Europeans were involved in), and a displays a tendency to kill hundreds of thousands of revolting slaves. Ignoring a entity like that when it's just across the Mediterranean is flat-out insane.
**** They weren't ignoring it. Its just that by the time the Draka were ready to move on Europe, the Alliance's two choices were 'ally with the Draka against the Nazis' or 'ally with the Nazis against the Draka'. In hindsight, it would actually have been less awful for the world to make the second choice, but there is an understandable reluctance to criticize people for not wanting to work with -- andwith—and ensure the continued reign of -- theof—the architects of the Holocaust.
* Herodotus tells of a king named Croesus who consults an oracle to determine whether or not he should attack an enemy's kingdom. The oracle says that if he attacks, "a great kingdom will be destroyed," at which point Croesus commits his army and ends up losing his capital city and being enslaved. He could've just asked which kingdom would be destroyed, but that's not nearly as fun, is it?
** The Oracle was always intentionally vague, and there was even a quote upon the entrance to her temple saying, in effect, "Know thyself." In that respect Croesus held the idiot ball in that he overestimated his forces.
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** To make matters worse, Nan tells two different people, including Inspector Rutledge, that {{spoiler|Felicity set up the mock hostage situation.}} Nobody feels obligated to inquire further.
* In "The Marching Morons" by Cyril M. Kornbluth, the population of Earth has literally "Bred for stupidity" by smart people choosing to have fewer children while idiots continue to breed indiscriminately. They have to resort to reviving a [[Human Popsicle]] to solve the problem.
* [[Frankenstein]], in Mary Shelley's original novel, is warned that the monster will visit him on his wedding night. So he leaves his new bride alone while he goes outside to reconnoiter the area. And he's surprised when the monster {{spoiler|breaks into the bedroom and kills his wife}}? Not only that, Frankenstein could have avoided the whole problem if, instead of "aborting" the creation of a bride for the monster because he was worried about hordes of the creatures overrunning the world, he'd simply made her infertile. (As for the last, though, it has been argued that perhaps it wasn't obvious to the writer -- backwriter—back in those days, their science being whatever it was -- thatwas—that this should have ''been'' a possibility for someone who could create an approximation of a human being out of nothing much.) To be fair, the creature often watched Frankenstein work, so even rendering the bride infertile wouldn't have stopped the creature from making more like itself. No, Frankenstein's turn with the idiot ball comes when he doesn't talk to his creation, pointing out that while the creature had promised to go away and live quietly with its new bride, neither of them could assume that the bride would agree to the same arrangement. No, he just panics and destroys the bride while the creature watches, because [[Poor Communication Kills]].
* Huge example in the ''[[Mortal Engines]]'' series: The protagonist is just about to escape from a city under siege using an air balloon, which is about to fly to the place his love interest is staying. One idiot ball later, he jumps out of the balloon, while it's taking off, while everyone's shouting at him to stay in the basket, while the city's being destroyed, and runs off to fetch a letter from said love interest. A letter he's already read. Needless to say, the balloon's gone when he gets back.
* The plot of ''[[The Demolished Man]]'' begins with an exchange of coded messages using a key described in the book. Check the translation.
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* A moment in the first ''[[Kingdom Keepers]]'' book. Finn and Philby, looking for clues, search ''[[Disney Theme Parks|Splash Mountain]]''. Since the ride inactive, they don't take a car, facing [[Hazardous Water]]. Philby waits until they are well into the ride before telling Finn that they can't get out on the sides without setting off alarms. Meaning they have no plans to survive a four story drop.
* Cergorn in the second ''[[Shadowleague]]'' book is definitely holding this when he [[Cardboard Prison|imprisons Veldan and Kazairl in their home, sets their good friends to guard them]] and expects them to stay put.
* The ''[[Eighth Doctor Adventures]]'' give [[Doctor Who|the Doctor]] a [[Worthy Opponent]] who is about twice his size and apparently has twice his brainpower, having to explain to the Doctor the [[Whoniverse]]'s second-most-obvious explanation for someone becoming a bit slimmer than they were previously:<ref>Turns out the most obvious explanation, diet and exercise, doesn't apply, but probably continues to plague the Doctor with confusion to this day</ref>:
{{quote|"Your suit [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|distracted me]] for a while," [the Doctor] added. "I couldn't understand how you managed to squeeze your [[I Shall Taunt You|rather ample form]] inside it."
Sabbath was amused rather than angered by the comment. "Really, Doctor?" [[Fascinating Eyebrow|He raised an eyebrow.]] "I didn’t expect you to have any trouble understanding how something can be [[Bigger on the Inside|bigger inside than it appears from without]]." }}
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* ''[[Digital Fortress]]'', where a half dozen computer scientists and mathematicians spend six pages scratching their heads before realizing that the word {{spoiler|PRIME}} in a password could refer to {{spoiler|Prime Numbers instead of Prime Ribs}}.
* ''[[The Crucible]]'' probably wouldn't have resulted in a [[Downer Ending]] if Elizabeth said to the court that Proctor cheated on her. Abigail along with the girls would have been thrown out of the court, and no one would've been hanged. Instead, the honest woman lies, resulting in [[Karma Houdini|Abigail proven innocent]], and eventually Proctor's death. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]].
** Not quite a case of the [[Idiot Ball]]- she had no idea who mentioned the affair or why she was being brought in to the trial- if it was Abigail, then John was standing accused and telling the truth could get him locked up or hanged; if it was John (and it was), then it was a desperate attempt to end the madness by exposing the lead accuser as a liar and a slut and undermining her credibility. The judge has her dragged in and refuses to let her so much as look at her husband, or anyone else, never mind tell her what this was all about. She gambled that it was Abigail (since this was the best-case scenario; if it was John he was damned either way), and the gamble failed. But a [[Witch Hunt]] is pretty damn stressful at the best of times, when you aren't pregnant and you and your friends and husband aren't facing the noose because the whole town has gone mad.
*** For the record, in [[Real Life]] this particular subplot ''never happened''. Not least because Abigail was ''12'', and John Proctor was not [[Daniel Day Lewis]].
* In ''[[Atlanta Nights]]'' Bruce Lucent spends a chapter trying to find out if his parents were his bio-parents when it turns out he's {{spoiler|black}} when his parents aren't.
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* In the ''[[Secret Series]]'', [[Cassandra Truth]] loudly remarks that a gourmet chef's cooking might be improved with the [[MacGuffin]] of the book. The only people who [[He Knows Too Much|know about its existence]] outside of her friends are part of [[Ancient Conspiracy|the Midnight Sun]], and Cass knows firsthand that they're willing to abduct and murder people who expose their plans. When [[Evil Chef|Senor Hugo]] asks Cass if she knows exactly what the [[MacGuffin|Tuning Fork]] ''is'', [[What an Idiot!|she tells him]], which results in Hugo (an agent of the Midnight Sun) [[Hostage for Macguffin|abducting her mother]]. Although this isn't the only time Cass slips up; in the first book, she decides to investigate the Midnight Sun's spa alone by posing as a celebrity, not stopping to think that they might have caller ID, and falls into a trap. Later, she and another character eat pieces of chocolate [[Schmuck Banquet|laid out in the villain's hideout]] (especially glaring since they know that enchanted chocolate is Hugo's M.O.), getting them captured. Then Cass eats ANOTHER piece at the end of the book, which puts her into a coma.
* The [[Lizard Folk|Race]] does this a lot in [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[Worldwar]]'' series. To be fair, though, human behavior is as alien to them as they are to us. However, they will mindlessly believe anything their superiors tell them, even when there is evidence to the contrary. Case in point, the Race medics have come up with a [[Truth Serum]] that works on humans and have claimed that it is 100% effective. It is then tested by a Race commander on a human, who is obviously lying, and the serum fails. While the commander is still suspicious of the man, he concludes that he must be telling the truth based solely on what he has been told by his superiors.
* Actually justified (at least in one case) in [[David Eddings]]' ''[[Elenium]]''. The [[God of Evil|Dark God]] Azash has no grasp of subtlety, and this quality creeps into those who serve him. Thus, formerly renowned [[Manipulative Bastard|Manipulative Bastards]]s are found concocting infantile plots which are undone with incredible ease. They seem to get over this, however, and serve a greater threat toward the end of the series.
* Semi-example in the Dungeons and Dragons fourth edition novel The Mark of Nerath. A death knight gets his hands on a vial of mysterious liquid which compels him to do things that are... not in his best interest.
* As [[Noah Antwiler]] points out, a great deal of agony and stress in ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' could have been avoided if Edward just ''let Bella be on top when they have sex'', avoiding the problem of him being too strong and breaking her. Given his vampiric super-hearing, he should have known something unusual was going on inside Bella's body ''before'' she revealed to him {{spoiler|that she was pregnant}}.
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** Hank's not really carrying the Idiot Ball so much as he's [[Too Dumb to Live|just an idiot]].
* Every main character of ''[[Torchwood]]'''s first two series has been directly responsible for at least one of the crises they've had to face - Gwen in "Day One", Ianto in "Cyberwoman," Toshiko in "{{spoiler|Greeks Bearing Gifts}}" and Owen in "{{spoiler|End of Days}}". People also chalk Ianto's up to the fact that [[Love Makes You Dumb|his love for Lisa has blinded him to the fact that]], no, that isn't Lisa anymore (even though it looks like her)
** Captain Jack's been [[Idiot Ball|Idiot Balled]] twice in series 2:
*** {{spoiler|If he knows that Captain John Hart is dangerous, why not go with him himself, instead of sending someone who he thinks that John may get the better of}}?
*** {{spoiler|Using the resurrection glove to raise Owen just to give him two minutes to prepare for death (by which we mean "panic"), when he knows full well that good things do not happen when the gloves are used, ''and'' this is a new glove he just stole so whatever side-effects it might have are unknown}}. The side-effects? {{spoiler|Summoning Death himself to walk the Earth and destroy all humanity}}. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice job, "Captain"]].
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*** To be honest, this really isn't fair; the Scoobies have made a habit out of staying late at night in the school library, a vampire-friendly zone, ever since the first episode. Ms. Calendar is hardly alone in this respect. For all their experience with monsters, characters aside from Buffy really are not that [[Genre Savvy]].
** And then Angel picks it up a few episodes later when he's trying to awaken Acathla. He has to torture Giles for hours to find out that he has to use his own blood for the ritual, even though the Latin part '''contains the phrase''' Sanguia Meam. Roughly translated, it means my blood. And Angel definitely understands Latin.
** Also in "This Year's Girl"; after Faith has woken up from her coma, Giles and Xander are out searching for her, and try to enlist Spike's help -- onlyhelp—only for him to remind them that he hates them all, and despite his [[Badass Decay|ongoing Spikeification]] would be more than willing to sick a rogue psycho Slayer on them. Promptly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]]:
{{quote|'''Xander:''' We're dumb.}}
* If there weren't moments (and even an entire hour at the end of the miniseries) when he actually had a clue and wasn't screwing things up, [[Butt Monkey|Tony Lewis]] of ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'' would actually be [[Too Dumb to Live]]. With those additions to the character, he just carries the Idiot Ball for the entire adventure only to finally drop it during the assault on Wendell's castle. But the most obviously idiotic moment (aside from {{spoiler|breaking the [[MacGuffin|magic mirror]]}}) has to be in part one, when he proves he definitely [[Be Careful What You Wish For|never paid attention to Aladdin or any other wish-granting story]]. For his third wish on the dragon dung bean, he wishes for a vacuum cleaner which would clean the entire apartment so he would never have to lift a finger... even though for his first wish ''he caused his building's superintendent and his entire family to become his slaves forever.''
** Of honorable mention is his decision in Little Lamb Village to take the Traveling mirror, which had already shown a penchant for disappearing and being hard to track down, and ''{{spoiler|hide it on the only movable object in the barn.}}''
** We'd have to nominate the Midas Touch incident -- mostlyincident—mostly because by that time he'd been in the Nine Kingdoms long enough to know it ran on fairy-tale tropes, AND was warned by Wolf, who was actually native to the area, to forget it, but accepted the spell anyway, and managed to turn one of his friends to gold. Wolf later remarked, [[Lampshade Hanging|"It was almost... predictable."]]
** He walks in on the [[Wolf Man]] angrily backing his daughter up against a wall... and just goes on with what he was going to say, apparently not even noticing.
* Why, ''[[Supernatural]]''? Why on earth would Sam and Dean even let Bela see the Colt, let alone leave her alone with it? They know she can easily unlock the safe and they certainly know that she can't be trusted.
** They must have got it from their father. What was he thinking? Meg and her brother were obviously going to test the Colt out and they would obviously want to tear him and his sons apart when they found out that it was a fake.
** And another one for Sam in ''Long Distance Caller''. Leaving your unstable, few-seconds-away-from-losing-it brother alone in the hotel room, just telling him not to go anywhere and expecting him to actually stay? I thought you would have known better by now, Sammy.
** For such a smart boy, Sam has grabbed a lot of [[Idiot Ball|idiot]] [[That Came Out Wrong|balls]]. The most glaring was in ''Nightshifter''. He might be acting even colder/bitchier than normal and he certainly has all his attention on the job but telling Dean to get the guard outside where the news and police are waiting? Here's an idea, Sam, why don't you (y'know, considering you aren't the one being wanted for murder) do it while Dean takes care of the shifter. That would have made a lot more sense.
** And then Dean in "Swap Meat". They live in a world full of demons and shape-shifters (granted, the tattoos block out the demons) and {{spoiler|have angels hounding them to say yes to being possessed by Lucifer, in Sam's case}}, and yet Dean goes almost the entire episode without realizing that '' {{spoiler|Sam is not Sam}}.'' Particularly glaring when Sam noticed Dean wasn't Dean in "Skin" ''immediately'' from a miniscule hint.
** "The Song Remains The Same": Even after it is established that you can't change the past ("all roads lead to one destination"), Anna attempts to go back in time to kill Sam and Dean's parents. She also insists on walking in slow motion when fighting them.
** The whole show has always been driven by idiot balls, from the beginning. The deals with the crossroads demon are the most irritating, but, also, a lot of their problems with the law would have resolved themselves if they'd just taken proper precautions and cleaned their crime scenes.
*** As of Season 6, the idiot balls now seem to be superglued to the Winchester brothers' hands. Most of their wangst--andwangst—and the survival of so many individuals--couldindividuals—could have been prevented if not for their incredibly dumb decisions.
* In ''[[Numb3rs]]'' the entire FBI hauls around an idiot ball the size of the shop. While for the sake of the plot [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief|it's all right]] that every case they meet requires advanced math to solve, it does not explain why the FBI is incapable of any police work. One of the more outrageous example concerns a fugitive whom the FBI has been after for months. They know the man is on the run, but has not left his home county. Even with that they still cannot find him, but even worse is the fact that the show's resident math genius uses advanced math to reveal to the FBI that the fugitive ''is regularly stopping at his old home to visit his wife''. Indeed, at no point in those long months has it ever occurred to any of the FBI's agents that the fugitive who's staying in his home county may be contacting his loved ones and that they could just catch him by putting up surveillance on the man's wife. The whole show is like this, featuring FBI agents whose only qualifications are that they are damn good at kicking down doors while shouting for people to drop their weapons.
* Generally inverted on ''[[Reno 911]]''... During every sketch, one of the idiotic policemen seems to be handed the [[Smart Ball]], demonstrating an inconsistent amount of skill and intuition in dealing with the idiot criminal or idiot partner. This could be [[Handwaved]] by the necessity of the comedic [[Straight Man]].
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** In the beginning of the ''SG-1'' episode "Forever in a Day", several cast members pass around the Idiot Ball in order to contrive the circumstances that result in {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|Sha're's death]].}} First, the SG teams are pinned down by an ambush of superior numbers just behind the nearest hillside, leaving Daniel to wander into Sha're/Amounet's tent ''alone'', armed with a pistol rather than a zat'nik'tel. Unwilling to kill Sha're, he is almost killed by her ribbon device when Teal'c enters the tent at the last moment, ''also'' carrying only a lethal staff weapon.
** In the last half of the episode "Rite of Passage", the entire cast held the Idiot Ball together in order to create a moral division, which was actually a false dilemma. Daniel ''might'' forget it, but O'Neill, Hammond, Carter and Teal'c would certainly remember that firstly, they were under absolutely no moral or other obligation to keep their word to the bad guy of the week, who was responsible for various genocides, and if they were, the Pentagon would ''never'' allow it. Still, they could have had it both ways. The ultimate aim for this was so that Doc Frasier could lose patience and [[Mama Bear|save the day]]. But it did the rest of the pragmatic-at-heart members of the cast a terrible injustice.
** In the episode "Gemini", Carter is handed the [[Idiot Ball]] so that she'd fall for [[Repli Carter]]'s [[Reverse Psychology]] and lets the walking security breach access her brain ''and'' the computers at the Alpha Site.
* In the season finale of ''[[Stargate Universe]]'', there's a particularly annoying example when the main cast is faced with the possibility of the Lucian Alliance boarding the ship and taking it over. {{spoiler|Col. Young's plan is to suck the air out of the gate room after the Lucian Alliance gates through; the problem is that Rush-in-Telford's-body shows up with them. Now despite the fact that he just drained the air out of the cabin where he was holding Telford in Rush's body, and then revived him, he chooses to not drain the air out of the gate room altogether.}}
* Lee Adama is the usual carrier of the Idiot Ball in ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]''. It's lampshaded when Roslin tells him she knows she can count on him to do the right thing, but the smart thing? Not so much.
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** Tom Zarek and Lieutenant Gaeta also get this during their attempted coup. So, they are in control of ''Galactica's'' CIC, have Admiral Adama and the humanoid Cylons in custody, but Lee and Starbuck are still at large, there are unsecured/unguarded areas of the ship, and Laura Roslin is on the Rebel Basestar (which might be beat up, but still has its weapons). So, what do they do instead of consolidating their hold on ''Galactica'' and the fleet? They spend two hours putting Adama on trial for "betraying humanity and providing aide to the enemy", taking a break to [[Moral Event Horizon|murder the entire Quorum of Twelve]]. At least Zarek was genre savvy enough to know that Adama was a liability as long as he was alive. Gaeta was the one who pushed to have him stand trial.
* Every so often, [[House (TV series)|House]] or one of his team will miss something ridiculously obvious so the plot can be padded out to 42 minutes:
** "Maternity" -- Every—Every doctor at Princeton Plainsboro managed to conveniently forget that newborns carry the same antibodies as their mothers.
*** Admittedly kinda silly, but they were more concerned with dying babies and they were only stumped for a short time before the "Oh that's right!" moment
** "Histories" -- Foreman—Foreman didn't make a connection between the bats he found at a homeless patients shelter and {{spoiler|rabies}}.
*** Normally that'd be forgivable - {{spoiler|rabies}} is ridiculously rare in the western world. Unfortunately this is House's team; masters of the rare
**** I'm not sure how forgivable it was. Surely someone on the team would have seen the episode of Ben Casey they ripped off the plot from (complete with George Hamilton as a {{spoiler|rabid}} dying anthropologist with an australian accent that will make you wish for Dick Van Dyke).
** "Distractions" -- Every—Every doctor failed to notice the cigarette burn and nicotine stains on the patient.
** "Skin Deep" -- Every—Every doctor managed to miss the fact that their patient had {{spoiler|no uterus}} and didn't notice {{spoiler|the pair of undecended testes in "her" abdomen}} despite numerous ultrasounds and scans.
*** She only had the one ultrasound as far as I can recall - Wilson mucked it up thinking her ovaries were simply undersized and wouldn't be looking for a uterus when he was searching for ovarian cancer. When they got a proper scan, that's when the problem reared its ugly head
*** A {{spoiler|lack of uterus}} is a pretty big thing to miss in an ultrasound, even if you aren't specifically looking for it. That would be like looking at a chest x-ray to see if your patient has lung cancer and not noticing that he doesn't have ribs.
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* ''[[LazyTown]]'s'' Robbie Rotten has one goal and one goal only: Get rid of Sportacus and return the town to its original lazy state. So when he gets his hands on a genie's lamp, what '''doesn't''' he wish for? Sportacus to disappear!
** Admittedly, Robbie eventually ''did'' use his final wish to get rid of Sportacus, but by that point, the genie was so sick of him he got rid of Robbie instead!
* After the first season, [[Blackadder]] [[Growing the Beard|got a major upgrade]] and became the snarky, [[Genre Savvy]] [[Only Sane Man]] that everyone knows and loves. This didn't stop him being handed a major [[Idiot Ball]] in the Series 2 episode "Bells", where he cannot figure out that "Bob", his manservant, is really a girl. (She doesn't make any effort to disguise her face or voice -- itvoice—it is obvious to every viewer from the moment Bob appears onscreen.) They have a rather sweet courtship anyway -- whichanyway—which ''in itself'' was an [[Out-of-Character Moment]] for him.
** This is particularly notable as even the writers seemed to regret it -- theyit—they brought "Bob" back in Series 4 episode "Major Star" and this time Blackadder recognizes her real sex right away, and doesn't even attempt have a relationship with her. Everybody else is still fooled, but this fits perfectly with their characterization and Blackadder's status as the [[Only Sane Man]]. To be fair, Blackadder II was set during Shakespearean times when this was a recognised trope (even Baldrick in a dress managed to attract both Percy and Flasheart).
* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' has many, especially the episodes with time travel. Some examples:
** In "Walking Distance", Martin Sloan finds himself in his own past where he encounters his mom and dad and a younger version of himself. Instead of playing it cool, he acts like an idiot, scaring his mom and his dad. When he encounters the younger version of himself, he chases him, then later finds him and does the same thing again. Instead of offering some sage advice to his younger self, he gives himself a broken leg, which causes him to limp the rest of his life.
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** When Chloe went out of her way to tell [[Dark Action Girl|Tess]] that red kryptonite, for lack of a better phrase, makes Clark evil. Chloe is lucky that not long after Tess underwent a [[Heel Face Turn]], because who knows what she could've done with information like that.
* ''[[Suits]]'': Is it possible for the Wunderkind lawyer, who remembers everything he reads and passed the bar (twice) without actually going to law school, to be able file a simple patent without assistance from his suave mentor or the sexy paralegal? Short answer: no.
* This has happened a lot in ''[[Survivor]]'', but one example is the Ometepe tribe in ''Redemption Island''. Both teams were put with two of the biggest [[Creator's Pet|Creator's Pets]]s in the show's history. Both of them are credited with knowing the game inside and out. The Zapatera knew that if any of them wanted to win, Russell had to go ASAP. (Unless your name was Stephanie Valencia.) Unfortunately, most of the Ometepe seemed to think that they could win against Rob and never once seemed to think about tossing him; the ones that ''did'' know were gone quick. Once again, Rob manages to be placed on the Buffoon tribe... and the ''stupidest'' tribe to ''ever'' play.
** Except that he didn't have a problem with ''their'' buffoonery.
* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' seems to be relying upon this for it's plots more and more. You would think that agents who have been tracking down mystical artifacts for three years, seeing everything from earth-tremour causing walking sticks, to density manipulating spandax underwear, to a machine that can bronze people in such away that can be revived with no problems, that whenever shit doesn't make sense, they'd realize it's an artifact that caused and start trying to think of something that could do it, or looking on the computers. What does Pete do? Immediately thinks it's some wicked plot by the baddie du jour, rather than yet another artifact mishap which he seems to attract like moths to an open flame.
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** "Orpheus, you vanquished every obstacle in your path and made us weep, you love your girl so much. She can come back to the living world, just don't look back, okay ?" "Derp!"
*** Being fair to Orpheus, that was a case of bastard referee. ''Orpheus'' had already made it out of the cave and so thought it was safe to look back, but Hades went 'Nope, you ''both'' have to be outside the cave before one of you can look back, and she was still one step inside the door. So, fuck you.'
* In [[Norse Mythology]], Frigg went on a pilgrimage throughout the world and extracted a promise from ''everything in existence'' that they would not harm her beloved son Balder. The other gods even made a game out of it, putting the amused Balder in the middle of a circle and throwing things at him just to watch the things dodge him. That's not the [[Idiot Ball]]; that's cute. The [[Idiot Ball]] shows up when Loki disguises himself as an old woman who manages to get Frigg to explain that she didn't get this promise from one thing - mistletoe, because she deemed it "too young" to be bound to such a vow. He immediately gets mistletoe and tricks Balder's blind brother into throwing it at him, resulting in Balder's death. Frigg, you twit, why would you tell ''anyone'' about that, especially knowing that there's a nasty trickster god running around who's really good at disguises?
 
== Professional Wrestling ==
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** Also, Raynor finds out that {{spoiler|Tychus}} has a killswitch transponder, but instead of ditching him as a liability or somehow neutralizing the transponder, he displays his impressive knack for leadership by just passively wondering what has {{spoiler|Tychus}} gotten himself into.
* ''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]'' gives essentially the whole cast bar a few the Idiot Ball for essentially the whole plot. Even when they weren't hopped up on interdimensional [[Unstoppable Rage]], the characters did a bang up job of not trusting eachother and, at times, straight up not noticing clues that maybe the other fighters from the other universes are possibly going through the same thing they are. As a result, massive [[Let's You and Him Fight]]. It doesn't help that whenever anyone starts to wonder whether they weren't fighting enemies, someone would suddenly appear going through said Rage and attack, though even then the symptoms of the rage are obvious (they recognize it when it affects each other, for instance). This mainly just hinders them from doing anything relatively productive, and, ironically, the only person doing anything towards fixing things is {{spoiler|Lex Luthor}}. Meanwhile, the only other people who aren't held back either use it to {{spoiler|go on a spree of destruction (Joker being Joker, really)}}, or loses opportunities to figure things out once they arrive ( {{spoiler|Batman}}). Superman, [[The Messiah|being Superman]], is the only other one who remains optimistic and friendly despite aggression from everyone.
** Granted, this is absurdly common in most [[Fighting Game|Fighting Games]]s, just this is one of the more recent big offenders.
* A glaring one in ''[[Mortal Kombat]] 9'' has Raiden standing back and doing nothing {{spoiler|as Lin Kuei cyber-ninjas attack Sub-Zero and take him away, even going as far as to stop Smoke from helping out. This is despite the fact that, in a nearly identical situation involving Smoke, Raiden didn't hesitate to blast all of the cyber-ninjas with lightning, taking them out and saving Smoke.}} He stated that if he got involved that it would make the situation worse, but even then that was a weak excuse...especially considering his attempts to ''not'' intervene in the game's events were only making things worse.
** Also, if Raiden had sent his past-self a ''more specific message'', {{spoiler|the amount of casualties suffered on the heroes' side would have most likely been avoided. Though to be fair, he was about to be killed when he sent the message which might've left him little time to clarify.}}
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* The entire playable cast grabs the idiot ball at one point in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. They're trying to stop Sephiroth from getting the [[Artifact of Doom|Black Materia]], and they know that Cloud is vulnerable to being [[Brainwashed]] by Sephiroth. So what do they do once they've reached the Black Materia first? ''They give it to Cloud.''
** This is made even worse by the fact that Cloud ''told'' them not to give it to him, under any circumstances. The character holding the Black Materia is left behind before the big confrontation, and told to stay put. Then, Sephiroth uses an illusion to trick them into thinking Cloud is in trouble, they rush forward to help, and when they see Cloud surrounded by a group of Shinra, they calmly hand it over.
* In ''[[Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al Revis]]'', ''all'' the characters get their stupid moments (mostly seen in their personal [[Sidequest|sidequestssidequest]]s). Though this is intentional, the things they do are ''so'' dumb (up to and including using deadly force on each other, only to be [[Easily Forgiven]]) that it breaks the [[Suspension of Disbelief]].
* ''[[Silent Hill]]'' games [[Stupidity Is the Only Option|often force the player to accept the Idiot Ball in order to advance]], possibly deliberately as part of the ongoing torturous [[Mind Screw]]. Consider the number of times in one particular game that the player is asked whether James will stick his arm into a dark hole or leap into a pit whose bottom he cannot see.
** James is a different case entirely - his suicidal actions are supposed to instead be a demonstration of how completely uncaring he is about his own life. At first, this seems Idiot Ball, but once you {{spoiler|find out what he did to his wife}} you realize that in reality James' willingness to jump possibly to his death and stick his arms into dangerous holes with no apparent regard for his own safety is actually a show of his {{spoiler|own guilt}}. The fact that he'll do it before he even truly {{spoiler|remembers what he's done}} actually ends up being like [[Fridge Brilliance]].
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** Bowser holds the Idiot Ball in general in the RPG games, with the exception of the first ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' (and even then he had his moments).
*** It's a running gag that a villain will ask one of the protagonists what things Mario fears most, and then accept their answer even if it's something they logically should know Mario is not only not afraid of, but actually likes or is empowered by.
* In ''[[Grandia II]]'', Elena. Full stop. Once it is revealed that {{spoiler|she and [[Action Girl]] [[Black Mage|Millennia]] are one and the same person, with the latter being a superpowered, "inner demon" alter ego of the former}}, Elena decides to have herself exorcised--thisexorcised—this despite the fact that {{spoiler|Millennia}} has done nothing more evil than testify quite blatantly to her sexual attraction to Ryudo, wreck an empty building and display a love of fighting and killing...but only of ''monsters and villains''. The pope then proceeds to tell her, quite explicitly, that if he exorcises her, he will {{spoiler|use the shard of Valmar within her to reconstruct the demon and with him, destroy the world}}. He could not have been any more explicit. What does she do? ''Ignore what he said'', and still agree to the exorcism just because, in her [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]], [[Purity Sue]] nature, she cannot stand to have anything demonic within her. So just to recap, what is being weighed here is: {{spoiler|[[Dark Is Not Evil|Millennia]]}} versus the release of the [[Big Bad]] and [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. What does she choose? To top it off, this stupidity of Elena's gets one of your party members killed--{{spoiler|the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]], [[Gentle Giant]] Mareg who was also the strongest and arguably most useful in a fight}}, right after he received his ultimate weapon -- leavingweapon—leaving you with the [[Joke Character]], [[Spoony Bard]] Prince Roan. So, [[Heroic Sacrifice|you lose]] an utterly awesome, superlative fighter for one 40 levels weaker whose best move is ''throwing rocks at the enemies'', AND doom the world... all to get rid of a pair of wings and a slightly oversexed action junkie? And even before she learned of what the [[Big Bad]] was really going to do with all the shards of Valmar, she appeared to be perfectly willing to commit ritual suicide (What she originally believed the plan was) in order to get rid of a pair of wings and a slightly oversexed action junkie.
* In ''[[Luigi's Mansion]]'', this is lampshaded in game by King Boo, with the plot itself relying on insane amounts of idiotic decisions by the characters. Luigi actually believes he won a free mansion in a contest he didn't even enter (already the setup for your standard scam)? Then Mario explores the place early... and gets captured. And Luigi finds out the mansion looks nothing like the picture and is haunted. Later, Luigi presses the switch that says 'do not press', unleashes the fifty odd Boos trapped under the grate, and approaches various suspicious events without hesitation.
* ''[[Mother 3]]'' has Lucas and company hit with one wrecking-ball-sized Idiot Ball after beating Tanetane Island's boss. {{spoiler|Just as they're about to pull the needle, the Pig Mask Army theme starts playing, they land, pull out the red carpet, and has the Masked Man pull the needle out right in front of them.}} [[Cutscene Incompetence|The whole scene plays out for about five minutes]].
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** Ventus and Aqua, although ultimately faring much better, still made some major blunders. Ventus {{spoiler|is told ''multiple times'' that he absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, fight Vanitas, but does so anyway (granted, it was only because Vanitas was threatening to kill an incapacitated Aqua).}} Aqua, meanwhile, {{spoiler|had Maleficent completely at her mercy, but allowed her time to escape, thus leading to her plot in the first game.}}
*** A less serious moment happens briefly during Aqua's storyline. During her visit to [[Cinderella (Disney film)|Castle of Dreams]], Aqua has to protect Jaq while he carries the key to Cinderella's room across a room infested with Unversed, conveniently forgetting for a moment that her keyblade can open any lock on its own.
* Mentioned in a news article in ''[[Freelancer]]'': 500 years ago, the Emperor of Rheinland at the time commissioned a project to install gigantic mirrors on the great space-station orbiting the planet, with the intent to use these mirrors to reflect sunlight onto the dark side of the capitol, New Berlin. The mirrors ended up focusing the sunlight into a gigantic laser beam and burning a city to the ground. The Rheinlanders now commemorate the anniversary of this event -- andevent—and the chief custom is to go out and do something stupid.
* Most of the characters on Rokkenjima in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' are pretty intelligent in their actions, at least most of the time. Then we get to the end of EP7. {{spoiler|"Hey everyone, we've found a pile of gold and we'll never have to work again! Let's kill the only one who has the connections to make the gold useful, then continue to kill each other and then blow up the island!"}}
* Genevieve Aristide has the Idiot Ball permanently glued to her hands in both [[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]] games. In the first game, as a multitude of phone messages reveal, multiple experts dealing with Alma Wade and Paxton Fettel advised Aristide ''not'' to reopen the Vault in a hope of restarting Project: Origin, and they were ignored. Subsequently, the team sent in disappeared and Alma began reaching out to Paxton again. Then, multiple people noticed certain unexplained indicators in Paxton Fettel that he was building towards another [[Noodle Incident|synchronicity event]], and that the results of such would be exponentially more catastrophic than the original one. Aristide and possibly others in charge completely ignore their warnings, and Fettel is psychically directed by Alma to send his army of telepathically linked clone soldiers to start conducting mass murders. In the second game, Snakefist, ''another expert,'' repeatedly tells Aristide that Alma cannot be contained and that the only option is to try to kill her. Aristide again disregards advice from people who know a lot more than her and tries to continue doing things her way. Everything is her fault, and she still [[Karma Houdini|has yet to pay for her crimes]].
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* ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|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 -- aConfusion—a ''literal'' Idiot Ball (pictured above).
** The trope applies to several episodes, with varying results - [[The Fool|SpongeBob]], [[Genius Ditz|Patrick]], [[Money Fetish|Mr. Krabs]], and/or [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|Plankton]] will be saddled with the idiot ball at any time whatsoever. The only ones safe are [[Gadgeteer Genius|Sandy]] and [[Perpetual Frowner|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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* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|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, Hero|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 [[Playing Possum|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|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. [[Sarcasm Mode|Yes, your ancient enemy whom you know loves sowing chaos is someone who is perfectly legit, guys. You can totally trust this guy.]]
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** 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 Rape|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.
** Many of the episodes hinge on one or more of the cast picking up the [[Idiot Ball]]. Among the ones that stand out are [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E04 Applebuck Season|Applebuck Season]], [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E22 A Bird in the Hoof|A Bird in the Hoof]], [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E20 Green Isn't Your Color|Green Isn't Your Color]], [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E03 Lesson Zero|Lesson Zero]] and [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E04 Luna Eclipsed|Luna Eclipsed]].
* In [[Voltron Force]] [[S 2 E 1]] (''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 [[Kid Sidekick|Cadets]] wasting time and effort chasing him down, believing that he's the Drule agent, that could have been used finding the real agent.
 
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[[Category:The Plot Demanded This Index]]
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:indexIndex]]
[[Category:Idiot Ball]]
[[Category:Ball Index]]
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