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See also [[Idiot Ball]], [[Too Dumb to Live]], [[Credit Card Plot]], [[Forgot About His Powers]],[[Poor Communication Kills]], and [[Stupidity Is the Only Option]]. [[Nobody Ever Complained Before]] is a [[Sub Trope]]. [[Alternate Aesop Interpretation]] may result if the viewer tries to make any sense of what happened.
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Angel Densetsu (Manga)|Angel Densetsu]]'' raises the Idiot Plot to an art form - the entire concept is that the main character unwittingly becomes the most fearsome gangster in Japan because of the whole cast's inability to communicate properly.
* The ending of ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' hinged on the ''Minerva'' crew acting like complete idiots so that they would fight the [[The Alliance|Three Ship Alliance]]. The crew ignores [[Big Bad|Gilbert Durandal]] creating a fake Lacus Clyne and his [[Omniscient Morality License|plan to control people's destiny]]. They even let slide the fact that Durandal is willing to use his newly acquired doomsday cannon to ''blow away '''entire countries''''' if they don't agree to his Destiny Plan. Actually between all of the characters the idiocy extends to most of the series.
* [[Lampshaded]] in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!:
{{quote| '''Alex "[[Most Definitely Not a Villain|Definitely Not A Villain]]" Brisbane:''' Step on the map.<br />
'''Yugi:''' Make me.<br />
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* In ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'' a lot of trouble would be avoided if the [[Cool Ship|Argama]] crew could control the catapult deck traffic better.
* ''[[Guilty Crown]]'' episode 15 suffers from this. The entire plot for that episode depends on Souta and a few other unnamed characters acting like complete idiots, which eventually results in {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|Hare's death]].}}
* The entire plot of the latter half of ''[[Zoids Chaotic Century]]'' hinges on Hiltz, the main antagonist, being a ''complete imbicile''. His evil plot: [[Sealed Evil in A Can|revive the Death Saurer]], [[Kill All Humans]], ???, [[Memetic Mutation|profit]]. He wages a pointless war against the heroes, giving them all the time they need to [[Time to Unlock More True Potential|become more powerful]], [[Mid
* The very first arc in ''[[Clannad (Visual Novel)|Clannad]]'' hinged on ''the entire cast'' failing to have the common sense to question or search out a reason for why one character was being unseen and forgotten by more and more of the school and town.
* This is how ''[[Deadman Wonderland (Manga)|Deadman Wonderland]]'' starts, Ganta gets thrown into the titular prison, simply because he survived the brutal massacre. He pretty much gets accused of being responsible for said massacre.
* Any pre-Unova ''[[Pokémon]]'' episode is guilty of this, as Team Rocket would show up in ''every episode'' wearing [[Paper
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* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Book)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'':
** In issue 108, Eggman, using a machine and the residual effects of Chaos Knuckles' reality-warping powers, finds a way to reconstitute the scattered atoms of his predecessor, the original Dr. Robotnik. What do these two geniuses do with this startling turn of events? Have Robotnik form an alliance with the Freedom Fighters on the premise that he escaped Eggman's control, and lure them back to the machine so the two doctors can use the process that revived him to annihilate their hated enemies once and for all. Of course! What ''else'' could they do in that situation? It's not like they couldn't have combined their respective 300 IQ to come up with another Ultimate Annihilator, or used the alliance ploy to relearn the location of Knothole and/or learn about and/or sabotage their defenses or something diabolically ''useful'' like that, right? Fortunately, the Freedom Fighters get wise to this plot from the get-go, and only play along so they can destroy the machine so Eggman can't use it again (having learned that Robotnik's revival was only temporary)...but even ''they'' don't seem to realize how much of a freaking security leak having ''Robotnik in Knothole'' was.
** And then there's the utterly idiotic "Iron Dominion" saga. Virtually ''no one'' gets out of the debacle with their wits intact, and the only way ''any'' of the events could've happened is if everyone was written to be so brick-stupid, they could be used as paperweights. The only way to describe this saga is a long, torturous series of [[Forgot I Could Fly]], [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]], [[Love Makes You Stupid]], [[Red Herring Twist]], [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]], and [[Villain Ball]]/[[Conflict Ball]].
* ''[[Batman No Mans Land]]'':
** While many of the stories contained are actually pretty good, this requires a number of ''astoundingly moronic'' things to occur to set up its scenario. After an earthquake and ebola outbreak the US government decides Gotham is no longer part of the US because it would be too pricey to fix, blow up all the bridges leading to it, and bans people from going to or from it. Leaving aside the immense political improbability of this, it apparently keeps out most superheroes, who don't even try to help. This includes ones who have no reason at all to respect this order, such as [[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lanterns]]. Superman shows up, but ''[[Superman Stays Out of Gotham|somehow]]'' decides he's no use there. Even though the perennial excuse for why Superman can't help with such and such a problem is that he's dealing with an earthquake or a flood or something in a Third World country, so it's pretty well established that he knows what to do in these situations - certainly better than Batman, who's never demonstrated having any experience with large-scale disasters. But no, no one helps. The entire world just writes off a major city as too much trouble.
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{{quote| '''Peter Parker:''' My Aunt May's dying from a bullet wound, [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|but that must be a piece of cake for you to cure right?]]<br />
'''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Reed Richards]]:''' No, no, I'm sorry... this is an impossible task that is far beyond the reach of even my genius.<br />
'''Peter:''' Wha? But...didn't you, like, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|build a portal to heaven]], [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|bang on the pearly gates]], and [[Rage Against the Heavens|yell at Jack Kirby]] [[Death Is Cheap|to give Ben back]] that one time?<br />
'''Reed:''' Uh... [[Go Look At the Distraction|Look at the pretty bunny! Look at the pretty bunny!]] }}
* Linkara may have made Chuck Austen's run on ''X-Men'' infamous thanks to "Holy War", but a few issues later, the revelation of who Nightcrawler's father is turns the entire thing into a farce. He's the son of a teleporting demon named Azazel (a name later co-opted into a much more interesting character in ''X-Men: First Class''). His plan was to create enough teleporting children to get him out of the dimension he's stuck in. The dimension which he ''had to get out of to conceive all of these children IN THE FIRST PLACE!'' And yet Marvel nixed the plan to have [[Gender Bender|Mystique be Nightcrawler's father]] and have Destiny be his mother for being too ridiculous.
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== Fan Fic ==
* The ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' fandom gives us ''[[Dark Secrets (Fanfic)|Dark Secrets]]'', a [[So Bad
* Also from [[Harry Potter|Potterfandom]] we have ''Courting Miss Granger'', about the Malfoy Marriage Curse. Said curse has been in force for several centuries, and dictates that the eldest male in every generation must marry a Witch -- not necessarily pureblooded, but no more than one year older or younger than he is -- ''before his twenty-sixth birthday'', or the family fortune devolves onto a cadet branch and said eldest male will suffer a gruesome death. The [[Idiot Plot]] element comes into effect when NO ONE TELLS DRACO ABOUT THIS CURSE until his ''twenty-fifth'' birthday -- when, conveniently enough, every Witch of his generation is conveniently married off ... except for one. And guess who that one might be?
* ''[[For Your Eyes Only (Fanfic)|For Your Eyes Only]]''. The only way this AU society could exist is if everyone in it was insane.
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* The first case of ''[[Brendan Namron Ace Attorney (Fanfic)|Brendan Namron: Ace Attorney]]'' relies almost exclusively on Night Russ's stupid lies to drive the trial. The second case is much better, thankfully.
* ''[[Eiga Sentai Scanranger (Fanfic)|Eiga Sentai Scanranger]]'' has abundant examples, but probably the best is "There's Something About Toni." The villainess's plan is to have a hate-inducing monster attack the school's Valentine's Day dance, and have a student use pent-up energy to blow up the rangers at said dance. Some problems arise 1) She doesn't appear to take any steps to make sure what the student uses his energy to blow up is the rangers 2) She doesn't take any steps to insure that the student will even be at the dance 3) She continues on with her plan to use her monster at the dance, even though she earlier used it in a flashy attack that got the rangers' attention and allowed them to discover how to reverse the effects of its powers. This end up being okay for her because the rangers seemingly forget they have this information 4) The villainess was taken by surprise when she found out another superhero would be performing at the dance, even though this was advertised on the dance's posters 5) When the monster shoots an arrow at the guest superhero, one of the rangers tries to perform a body block to save her. Even though the ranger in question's signature weapon is a shield, and moreover a shield she's supposed to be able to throw with Captain America-like skill. 6) Not really part of the Idiot Plot but still worthy of mention, the rangers waited until after classes to do anything about the monster's rampaging victims during its first appearance. Meaning also that classes were held during rioting on campus.
* The [[Daria]] [[Fanfic]] series 'Worldburner' (which is a [[Crossover]] event of epic levels with many, many TV, film, literature and comic series) takes this to such egregious levels that it should be the [[Trope Codifier]]. In order to further the plot, [[Forgot About His Powers]] is a mandatory requirement (unless you're a [[Butt Monkey]] or a [[Rookie Red Ranger]], in which case [[Curb Stomp Battle|you're allowed to win]] against [[The Snark Knight|Daria's]] [[Evil Counterpart]] Judith (who is blessed with [[Joker Immunity]]) because it's supposed to be [[Rule of Funny|hilarious]], but the [[Mood Whiplash]] that occurs when this happens and [[Badass Army|the heroes]] all wield [[Idiot Ball|Idiot Balls like weapons]] jut so they can end up [[Dying Like Animals]] while the plot awaits [[The Chosen One]] makes it all come across like an [[Audience
* This pretty much makes up ''[[Hogwarts Exposed (Fanfic)|Hogwarts Exposed]]'' and its sequels.
** The protagonists know that a girl will be raped by her stepfather when she returns home for Christmas? Instead of just keeping her at Hogwarts, they teach her needlessly complex spells and ship her home, so she gets her clothes ripped off before saving herself. A four-year-old and an infant won't eat the food being given, while locked in a dungeon? Two of the girls magically enlarge their breasts to provide milk. Possibly one of the dumbest moments is when Emily agrees to a bet with a [[Muggle]] girl named Rosaline. The terms are that if Jamie doesn't win a race, Emily must provide [[Squick|sexual favors for Rosaline]]. Keep in mind that Rosaline is seventeen, while Emily is ''eleven''. Instead of refusing the bet (Rosaline gives the terms before Emily agrees) or going to Hermione or Harry to deal with a clear case of sexual harassment, Emily continues to panic in private, vomiting several times, before finally telling someone about it.
** Not to mention Hermione's kidnapping, which wouldn't have happened if Hermione herself and the rest of the Hogwarts faculty hadn't somehow managed to get themselves outwitted by ''[[Dumb Muscle|Crabbe and Goyle]]''.
* A relativity known ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' fanfiction called "[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5704409/1/A_Bullys_Return A Bully's Return]" has a example in Chapter 12. The epic battle that comes not too long after is put in motion when the main character goes to a weapons store to buy [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_<!-- 28weapon29 sais]]. After some bartering with the clerk, he lets the main character (which mind you is only 14 or 15 at the time) buy and leave the store with them. '''WITHOUT ANY QUESTIONS'''. '''AT ALL'''. Who in their right mind lets a 14 year old buy something that dangerous and think ''nothing'' is wrong? The bull clerk should be considered TooDumbToLive. -->
* The notorious ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' [[Troll Fic]] ''[[Pattycakes (Fanfic)|Pattycakes]]'' has this in spades. Sure, Dash. Just let your one chance to escape go rather than risk people seeing you in a nappy. Go ahead, Scoot, confront Psychoshy alone rather than get backup. Oh yeah, and everyone in Ponyville, feel free to indulge Fluttershy's growing obsession with [[Mind Rape|mindraping everyone into submission]]<ref>and this is the ''good'' interpretation - the alternative is that they're very much aware what they're doing and are simply evil</ref>.
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* ''[[Face Off]]'':
** Keep a dangerous terrorist lunatic in a coma in a hospital that three people know about under ''no security whatsoever'' while a top FBI agent pretends to be him in a super-secret high security prison. Oh, and leave the top FBI agent's face in the hospital so the terrorist lunatic can become the FBI agent. And don't tell the agent's boss, co-workers or the prison's warden about the plan so all the terrorist has to do to make sure no one knows (except the FBI agent, who's got the terrorist's face so no one will believe him) is kill two people. And he has an outgoing phone in his room, allowing him to call anyone if he wakes up.
** This is not even to mention that the entire plot of the movie relies on nobody noticing that [[Nicolas Cage]] and [[John Travolta (Creator)]] have ''switched faces'' in a process that apparently leaves zero scarring. Just their faces. There is a scene wherein Evil Cage-As-Travolta sleeps with Good Travolta-As-Cage's wife of about, let's say fifteen or twenty years, and she flat-out ''does not notice'' that her husband's body is ''completely different''. Tattoos, body hair, scars, moles, ''musculature'', weight, ''his freaking penis'', she does NOT notice. She's been with him for as many as ''twenty years'', she has NO IDEA A SWITCHEROO HAS BEEN MADE, having apparently only paid attention to her husband's face, and absolutely zero to the fact that Nick Cage and John Travolta are built ''completely and utterly differently''.
** Doesn't explain why Archer's wife doesn't notice anything different when she kisses Troy, mind, let alone sleeps with him.
* ''[[X Men the Last Stand (Film)|X Men the Last Stand]]''
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* ''[[Spider Man 3]]'':
** Much of the tension could have been relieved if Mary-Jane had asked Peter "You ''do'' realize my role in the play was replaced, right?" Or if Peter would have taken a deep breath and talked things through with her after "killing" Harry. On the other hand, he was under the effects of the evil suit, but it felt like he forgot her entirely after getting his revenge. In fact, there were a lot of problems with that movie's plot, many of which were pointed out in a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoNgMVFQNBI HISHE episode.]
** Don't forget the admittedly in-movie (but treading actual [[What an Idiot!]] territory) stupidity of, on a whim, {{spoiler|publicly giving an ''open-mouthed kiss'' to his lab partner at the same time he was still going steady with Mary-Jane. "Special kiss" in and of itself or not, and not even going into fidelity issues, it doesn't take a sociologist to realize that that is going to raise some hackles.}}
** Harry gets his memory back, and then threatens Mary Jane, telling her that he would hurt Peter unless she breaks up with him. Both Harry and Mary Jane somehow forget that Peter is just as strong as Harry, and has had ''far'' more experience dealing with superpowered people than Harry ever has. Mary Jane proceeds to break up with Peter, and forgets to tell him that Harry got his memory back, is once again dangerous, and that he threatened her.
** Harry's butler tells Harry that Peter did not intentionally kill his father. Either the truth about Harry's father's death slipped his mind for several years, or the writers retro-actively made the butler an idiot to advance the plot, and make Harry and Peter friends again. ([[Word of God]] is that the butler is a hallucination which [[Voodoo Shark|makes no sense]] since there is a scene where Harry talks to the butler in front of Peter and he doesn't notice anything off!)
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** In his review, [[Bad Movie Beatdown (Web Video)|Film Brain]] notes that the entire reason for the movie - that the two women want to have their weddings on the same day, at the same hotel, is pointless, since the times of the wedding are still different. They could still both have their weddings on that day and at that place. The only handwave we get is the weak excuse that they don't want to have weddings on the same day. Somehow, just putting on a brave face and dealing with that isn't less difficult and more mature than completely trashing and ruining their lives and each other's lives.
* ''[[Mamma Mia]]'':
** Movie reviewer Eric D Snider felt that the film version had an Idiot Plot. Sophie invites [[
** That whole idiot plot could easily have been solved by a DNA test.
** Of course, Sophie eventually figures out that it was a pretty dumb plan and her fiancée gets really upset with her for it, so yeah. One has to wonder why Donna didn't start to suspect Sophie having any hand in it though, especially considering that it was her wedding coming up at conveniently the same time all three men did and she gave an outburst about how sucky it is for a child to grow up without a father.
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** The part where he saves himself from drowning by filling an inflatable dinghy by ''letting out the air from the car's tires''. All the while breathing the same said air himself.
* In ''[[Idiocracy]]'' the point of the plot is that [[Humans Are Morons|everyone is an idiot]] except for two average people from 2005, and even then Joe is very naive and panicked by his situation.
* ''[[Paranormal Activity (Film)|Paranormal Activity]]''; basically ''the whole reason the demon keeps getting stronger'' is [[What an Idiot!|Micah]], who is practically suicidal with stupidity. When an expert on the occult tells him to not aggravate a supernatural and malevolent demon, what does he do? He taunts it constantly. His perpetual skepticism about the demon flies in the face of ON CAMERA, concrete evidence that yes, it exists. {{spoiler|He's so stupid it's a relief when the demon finally murders him.}}
* ''[[The Strangers (Film)|The Strangers]]''; if the two leads had a brain ''cell'' between them, the movie would've been a lot shorter and NO ONE would've died.
** Subverted in ''[[Ils (Film)|Ils]]'' (aka ''Them''), the French film from which ''The Strangers'' cribs its premise. The two leads may be frightened, but they're not idiots, and they do pretty much everything right. {{spoiler|It still doesn't save them in the end.}}
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* ''[[Drop Dead Fred]]'' seemed to move along only because Elizabeth was clearly insane, and not a single character called her out on it until halfway through the movie.
* In ''[[Zack and Miri Make A Porno]]'' two friends who are [[Platonic Life Partners]] decide to make ends meet by creating a porno. Together. ''With each other''. The question that just popped into your head? Yeah, that happens.
* ''[[Mars Attacks (Film)]]'' Admittedly, it's a parody, but it doesn't make watching almost all of the characters make stupid decision after stupid decision any easier. Especially because a lot of the scenes are filmed in the style of a straight drama.
* ''[[Fright Night (Film)|Fright Night]]'' features a boy who tells everyone that his new neighbor Jerry is a vampire. Including the vampire's henchman. He is then surprised when it appears nobody believes him, and further surprised when said vampire tries to kill him. Vampire Jerry, for his part, is stupid enough to get stabbed ''through the hand'' by a sharpened No. 2 pencil.
* Played intentionally ''and'' lampshaded in ''[[Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay]]''.
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** Aside from Llewelyn, everyone who deals with Chigurh loses 50 IQ points. After pulling him over and handcuffing him, a deputy simply holds an entire phone conversation with his back to the man and gets strangled. The Sheriff realizes that this hired contract is running around killing people and going after Moss, and instead of contacting federal authorities, other law enforcement officials, etc.....he basically does nothing and just retires. Also, an idiot ball to anyone who works with Chigurh as he apparently is quite willing to off any employers or associates if it strikes his fancy.
* Fernando Meirelles' film adaptation of Saramago's ''[[Blindness]]'' has a brilliant premise but doesn't make much sense.
** There is an epidemic across the city that renders people blind. The people who are blind are almost immediately thrown into concentration camps despite no one knowing anything about the virus. While hysteria and quarantines would be expected, the movie decides to crank [[Humans Are Bastards]] and [[Humans Are Morons]] [[Up to Eleven]] by having the blind tossed in prison and forgotten. There is never any attempt to learn what the virus is or how to cure it. [[Julianne Moore]] is the only woman in the camp who can see. She goes along in order to help her husband but decides to pretend to be blind to both the inmates the few guards that come by. Since she is immune to the virus, she could easily be an asset in finding a cure. [[What the Hell, Hero?|She doesn't help at all.]] As for the inmates, they stop caring about hygiene for whatever reason, going so far as to [[Squick|take dumps in the middle of the hallways]] of the prisons. [[It Got Worse|The stupidity doesn't stop there.]] A guy sneaks a gun into the prison. Apparently, when he was arrested and placed there by government agents, no one decided to search him, nor did the man decide to start shooting. So the guy with the gun holds the entire prison hostage and even {{spoiler|rapes the women... including Julianne Moore}}. You might remember that Moore's character can see perfectly fine while the GUN MAN is totally blind. You might also remember that he has no idea that she can see. Before you ask, no she isn't too scared to act. She openly defies him and even threatens him while he has the gun. She also has no problems sneaking around him and could have snagged the gun at any time, so her choice not to fight back can only be chalked up to lazy writing and [[Rape As Drama|drama.]] She does eventually {{spoiler|stab him to death}}, which renders her past inaction even more of a wall banger.
** It is an [[Idiot Plot]] because the politicians in the novel and the sequel ''SEEING'' ARE idiots. Fortunately, no real politician would act like them.
** Oh, and the filmmakers are of the belief that not only do people stop caring about hygiene when they go blind but they [[Unfortunate Implications|will be reduced to crawling around and acting like animals.]]
** It should be noted that, in ALL of those aspects, Meirelles was merely being faithful to José Saramago's novel, and Saramago's point is exactly that society is a very fragile structure and can easily collapse into chaos. Moore's character is exactly an anti-heroine, and a big plot point is exactly how hard it is for her to accept her role and her responsibility. Also, nowhere is it implied that the blindness is caused by a virus. Basically, the "stupidity" described in this item are, at least according to Saramago, only human nature. It something should be condemned for this, it's the book, not the film.
* In ''[[Johnny Mnemonic]]'', the bad guys looking to '''suppress''' the data stored in Johnny's head<ref>That they have no intention of using in any way themselves</ref> are, for some reason, bent on ''specifically'' cutting off Johnny's head and cryogenically freezing it, even though suppressing the data would be as simple as killing him and destroying his head (which is even easier and [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|only requires a gun and a bullet to achieve]]). Johnny also gets the bright idea that the data in his head is "worth a lot of money," despite that among the two factions who want the data, one doesn't want to use it for anything at all and the other wants to give it all away for free; nobody is in any position to get any money or make any money from the data.
* ''[[Unknown]]'': {{spoiler|A GM corn company hired a team of assassins for industrial espionage. They assumed that the head of the project would have a copy of the genome on his laptop, and most likely that it was the only copy. They trick an insane assassin into getting rid of a piece of evidence, when they could easily have done it themselves.}}
* Played for laughs in ''[[Mystery Team]]''.
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* ''[[Night of the Lepus (Film)|Night of the Lepus]]'': "We have to stop this insurgence of rabbits, so let's inject one with a serum I know absolutely nothing about. That should do the trick!"
* ''[[The Grey (Film)|The Grey]]'': The entire plot is started by Liam Neeson's character, in defiance of any survival guide such as this [http://www.ussartf.org/survival_wilderness.htm one], decides the group should start walking away from the crash site. This is also in spite of the fact that the crash site has shelter, fuel, and materials to make weapons with.
* ''[[The Woman in Black (Film)|The Woman in Black]]'': [[Harry Potter]] is a grieving lawyer who travels to a small village to sort through the paperwork of a recently deceased woman who lived in an [[Old Dark House]]. Rather than ''taking the paperwork back to town'' and looking through it, he decides to stay there. He spends most of his time wandering around and looking at creepy things without doing anything at all. Message on the wall written in blood under the wallpaper? Huh, I'll go wander around more. The one thing he ''tries'' to do [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|doesn't work.]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|He also doesn't get a lick of paperwork done.]]
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** Most of the things that have gone wrong in the series, have been either directly, or indirectly caused by Hiro. Actually, everything was indirectly caused by him, since he caused the formation of the company.
** Also, Peter Petrelli meets his father, {{spoiler|[[Parental Abandonment|Arthur Petrelli, who was presumed dead]]}} ''[[Parental Abandonment|despite]]'' [[Parental Abandonment|the fact he hasn't seen him in years]] and is the head {{spoiler|of a shady organization}}, does not stop to ''read his mind'' to understand what the hell was going on, and why he had disappeared for so long. Instead, he runs to give him a hug, {{spoiler|and loses his powers (all of the ones he absorbed) to his father (who took in a lot of powers to begin with), launching the latter ever closer to [[A God Am I]] status, and the former being telekinetically thrown out a window by Sylar, as Arthur's way of saying "thank you" to his son. In fact, Sylar spared him death [[Too Dumb to Live|even if his idiocy didn't suggest so.]]}}
** Arthur Petrelli is easily the stupidest villain ever. He absorbs every power Peter ever absorbed, which is a hell of a lot of powers, including teleportation, phasing, many, many ways to blast somebody to pieces, and healing, so they can't really hurt him back. In short, there's nothing to stop him from going over to Primatech and kicking everybody's ass. What's he do? He sits on his ass, drawing the future, and sends out his incompetent mooks to fail at doing his dirty work. Furthermore, he draws a future where Claire is dead, and he needs her alive. He could teleport straight to her, capture her, and teleport back to ensure her safety. What's he do instead? He sends out his two most psychopathic followers to capture her, and is surprised it didn't work. [[What an Idiot!]] indeed.
** As stupid a villain as Arthur Petrelli is, his wife, Angela, may well surpass him. Deciding that the best way to fight Arthur was to {{spoiler|send Hiro to fetch Adam}} was just one of a long string of extremely questionable choices she has made over the course of the series.
** The latest season finale (Volume 4) takes the cake. {{spoiler|Having finally rendered Sylar helpless, do they finally kill him? No. They need Nathan to convince the President to end the project, and Nathan's just been killed by Sylar. So they use Matt Parkman to brainwash Sylar into believing that he's Nathan, and using his shapeshifting to support this. ''And the episode ends with Sylar having been left in this imposture for weeks''. Angela Petrelli, Noah Bennett, and Matt Parkman are just having Sylar walk around in Nathan's role and life permanently and expecting everything to be OK. Why? Why not ''at absolute minimum'' dispose of Sylar the instant he's finished with what you needed "Nathan" for? Better yet, since Peter had already absorbed/mimicked the shapeshifting power from Sylar, why not just have ''Peter'' pretend to be his brother for a little while, convince the President, and then pretend to go missing or die? And above all else, '''why not at least tell Peter, Claire, et al that "Nathan" isn't actually Nathan, so they don't trigger inevitable disaster via their ignorance next season?!?'''}}
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*** In that episode, most of the cast had their idiot balls firmly in hand long before Lore actually set his plan into motion. Allowing a perfect double for your second officer to roam the ship freely is stupid. Allowing the second officer to go off somewhere alone with his perfect double is ''really'' stupid--especially when the perfect double is strong and fast enough to take on a small army by himself.
*** Thanks to the loss of records as a result of the destruction of Omicron Theta Starfleet had no reason to expect Lore to be any different from Data. Until Lore's actions in that episode, they probably assumed he'd be basically the exact same person Data is, like 2 of the same product off an assembly line.
*** Was there an episode of TNG that involved [[
** One of the most [[Egregious]] examples is in the ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "By Inferno's Light", in which the plot hinges on {{spoiler|a captured Federation runabout being left unsecured and fully operational outside of a Dominion prison camp asteroid, close enough for transporter range, yet far enough away to make a getaway}}. Later [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the episode "Inquisition", in which it's used as evidence that Bashir is a {{spoiler|[[Manchurian Agent]]}}.
** In the ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation|Next Generation]]'' episode “Identity Crisis,” the crew know that LaForge has an affliction which cause him will to turn into an alien and flee the ship, so the crew leave him alone on the holodeck. Guess what happens next.
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* In the ''[[Mad About You]]'' episode "The Caper", several different couples go into the Buckmans' neighbor's apartment to fetch food. Each couple, when they return, comments on the neighbor's gorgeous painting. When the painting goes missing, each couple in turn is accused of having stolen it while they were fetching the food -- ''despite the fact that the later couples reported it was still there when they saw it.''
* One episode of the Dawn French anthology series ''[[Murder Most Horrid]]'' sees her as a scientist who kills her nice but clueless husband after his bizarre and seemingly unmotivated behavior interferes with her attempts to invent time travel. Later, after serving a jail sentence, she returns home and completes her machine. {{spoiler|She goes back to the day of the murder and, despite being apparently one of the smartest women on Earth, overlooks a number of fairly simple ways of preventing the tragedy; as a result, she ends up causing the bizarre behavior that results in the murder.}}
* Some episodes of ''[[Friends]]'', such as "The One With The Sharks". Monica walks in on Chandler having [[A Date With Rosie Palms]], causing him to jump and change the channel from porn to a documentary about sharks. Seeing which programme was on the television, Monica reaches the only logical conclusion: Chandler has a [[Rule
* There are a few in ''Series/{Charmed}}''.
** Like for instance in "Hyde School Reunion", Phoebe said a poem out loud causing an accidental spell. After several years, you would think that she would not say anything that rhymes out loud. And at the end, when the mortal held a gun at Phoebe's head, a mortal that knows about magic. What did Paige do? She killed him via demon rather than just simply orb the gun.
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* ''[[Lazy Town]]'':
** No-one ever realises the person causing trouble in every episode is just Robbie Rotten in a silly outfit. This is especially hilarious because his cover is blown at the end of EVERY episode, yet the townspeople will ''still'' fall for his [[Paper
** A particularly hilarious example is when Robbie impersonates Sportacus. The other characters can't tell the difference despite Robbie being, among other things, 4-5 inches taller and a lot less muscular than Sportacus. The episode would be a very touching [[Aesop]] on friendship if it wasn't for the simple fact that Robbie and Sportacus look nothing alike, and they ''should'' have been able to tell them apart by looking at them.
** Then there's the episode 'Double Trouble' where Robbie impersonates the mayor, and once again everyone falls for it, despite the fact that Robbie looks nothing like the mayor.
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** Of course, even worse is the fact that Mario ''wasn't even on the island when the crimes he's accused of were committed'', and there were ''numerous witnesses '''right there''' who could attest to that''.
** Add in to ''Super Mario Sunshine'' that the point of the game is that the inhabitants of the Isle Delfino are in a panic because of the disappearance of their Shine Spirites...and a good chunk of said Shine Sprites are in the possession of said island inhabitants. If the various people would just give Mario the damned Sprites instead of making him win the watermelon contest or bringing them a pinapple or breaking all of the crates in the room, or forking over blue coins, the game would be over a ''lot'' faster.
* A very, very good example is the entire plot of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (Video Game)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]''. It's not an exaggeration to say that everything, ''every single thing'' in the plot is the result of rampant stupidity on the parts of the characters. The examples from [[
* The plot of the original ''[[Sonic Riders]]'' begins with Dr. Eggman appearing on public TV screens worldwide, announcing he's holding some races where entrants need to give him a Chaos Emerald. In what can only be explained as this, Eggman manages to get all seven of these all-powerful jewels, one of them from Sonic himself, in this manner.
* Another really good example is ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]''. A very large portion of the plot can be credited to most, if not everyone involved being either hypocritical, self-centered and short sighted, or astonishingly stupid.
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** He refuses to hand over gold-plated guns needed to open a door unless you can give him "something fully automatic" - which sends you on a wholly unnecessary [[Fetch Quest]].
** Not to mention, taking those gold-plated guns triggered a death trap. When Claire did it, she was smart enough to put them back and escape. Steve is too stupid to figure this out and requires you to save him. After that, he still won't give up the guns!
** When he has an opportunity to shoot the unarmed villain, he completely freezes up because it turns out said villain is a transvestite (at least, that's what it looks like; he has a good thirty seconds to pump the guy full of lead and doesn't). This gives him time to set the [[Self
** While trying to escape Antarctica, Steve screws up operating a crane and flooding the room you're in with poison gas. Because (ready for this?) he's too busy [[Male Gaze|staring at the player character's butt]].
* ''[[Clock Tower (Video Game)|Clock Tower]] 3''. Alyssa gets a message from her which amounts to "Whatever you do, don't come home for your fifteenth birthday." Go ahead and take a guess what she does. When she arrives, an obese cadaver-looking man hints that he's killed her mother and basically threatens to rape her. Her reaction? "I have to save Mum!" Later, when the [[Big Bad]] is revealed, things get ever more idiotic, such as Alyssa's grandfather's name apparently being Dick. Not Richard. Dick. Someone actually named their son Dick Brown. And this leads him to believe in a totally ridiculous set of myths which require him murdering his granddaughter with no real hope of reward. [http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/ClockTower3/ The Dark Id] has quite a lot to say about this one too. Mostly invectives.
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** That brings us to the Forbidden Land of Orre, which is a bit of a mixed bag. Sure, [[Police Are Useless|the police are bloody failures]], but Cipher heeds the First Rule of Warfare - "don't let the enemy know what you don't want them to know". The only way the player character (a rogue Snagem goon in the first game, a prodigal agent in the second) can learn anything is to engage Cipher firsthand, and everyone else is left in the dark. As one troper said, a Plasma Grunt said that Teams Rocket and Galactic failed because they were too overt; Cipher would be a dream team for them.
* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep]]'':
** Plot only really keeps going because the main heroes are idiots that [[Poor Communication Kills|lack common sense and social skills]]. [[Unwitting Pawn|Terra]] and [[What an Idiot!|Eraqus]] are the worst examples, {{spoiler|[[Too Dumb to Live|Eraqus even gets taken out for his role in starting the mess]]}} but [[Plot Coupon|Ventus]] and [[Team Mom|Aqua]] aren't much better. (The former mostly has [[Big Brother Worship|denial issues]] and the latter is a little TOO willing to call Terra out.) By the time they wise up enough to take on the [[Big Bad]], {{spoiler|[[Too Dumb to Live|it turns out to be too late and their stupid decisions catch up to them]] leading to a [[Downer Ending]].}}
** To give one a view of the tree of lack of communication that keeps the plot going: Aqua immediately believes Maleficent's claim that {{spoiler|Terra removed [[Sleeping Beauty (Disney)|Aurora]]'s heart}}, even though the person telling her that is, well, [[Devil in Plain Sight|Maleficent]] <ref> that was only very partially true</ref>. Terra, we should note, believes in just about every Disney villain he comes across (save one or two exceptions), and has his journey driven by the words of [[Devil in Plain Sight|Master Xehanort]]. You could say he isn't guilty of trusting Xehanort, and that is true, since Eraqus didn't give him any reason to not do so... but he ''should have''; Eraqus for whatever reason never seems to mention that Xehanort {{spoiler|kind of tried to commit genocide for shits and giggles}}, instead opting for presenting him to his pupils as a righteous, good Master. The plot moves along because the good guys never, ''ever'' seem to stop and tell each other why they are doing what they're doing, or what have they found out about their particular quests, which increasingly accumulates doubt and grievances among them. {{spoiler|Predictably, it doesn't end well for any of them}}.
* ''[[Bully (Video Game)|Bully]]''. At least during chapter one, Gary was giving Jimmy a couple good reasons to trust him and didn't openly stab him in the back until the end of Chapter one. However; had Jimmy simply looked for Gary to get revenge instead of trying to get the other cliques to respect him in chapter two, he could have avoided most of the game.
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== Western Animation ==
* Virtually every episode of ''[[Fantastic Four Worlds Greatest Heroes]]'' involves a catastrophe either A. started when Reed Richards' latest invention malfunctions, B. [[Idiot Ball|triggered by Johnny Storm's stupidity]], or C. [[Bread Eggs Breaded Eggs|set off when Johnny Storm's stupidity causes Reed Richards' latest invention to malfunction]].
* The entirety of ''The Grim Adventures of the [[Kids Next Door]]'' was just one big Idiot Plot that involved all kinds of KND and Billy and Mandy characters falling for some of the most pathetic [[Paper
* As mentioned above, this is standard fare for ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'', to the point where few episodes begin without being catalysed by Billy AKA [[Idiot Ball]] incarnate and Grim and Mandy stupidly giving in to his demands. Sure, Grim is their best friend/slave forever, but one expects better from the relatively [[Genre Savvy]] Mandy.
* You'd think [[Scooby Doo|Scooby]], Shaggy, and the rest of the gang would have the common sense not to run from ''every'' monster they see after so many frauds...
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{{quote| '''Leela''' (checking e-mail): Spam, spam, junk. (GASP) The very last pygmy rhino is going extinct?! Unless it gets my credit card number?!}}
** The third ''Futurama'' movie, Bender's Game, features an idiot plot set into motion and resolved by Professor Farnsworth in one of his "less than worthy of being a professor" moments. Because fuel prices are higher than they were before, he reasons that the world would be better off if he and his crew went on a difficult quest to destroy the source of that fuel and then replace it with something almost the same... but infinitely inferior, effectively crippling society as they know it. This plot is made even stupider when another character, Bender, becomes so insane that he cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. He eats a (literal) shitload of radioactive waste that transports all of the characters into his dream, wherein they still try to accomplish the professor/wizard's idiot plot.
* ''[[The Weekenders]]'': Usually a good show, but "Tish's Hair" hinges on <s>[[Hey
* ''[[The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (Disney)|The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad]]'' had Toad and friends breaking into Toad Hall to get the deed from Winkie and the Weasels to verify Toad's story. They don't seem to realize that the very presence of the Weasels in Toad Hall would be enough for the police to suspect Toad's story was true and search the place for the deed. Get a constable to see that Toad Hall is "ablaze with lights!" and see whatever Badger saw.
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'''s whole series is based on this--the story could be resolved instantly if any human [[Ignored Expert|except for]] [[Paranormal Investigator|Dib]] noticed that Zim was [[Paper
* Every episode of ''[[Beavis and Butt-Head]]'' is this.
* This is the premise of the "Chicken Boo" segment on ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]''. Chicken Boo is dressed in a [[Paper
* A few episodes of ''[[Jimmy Two Shoes]]'' revolve around this.
* ''[[X-Men Evolution]]'':
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** Also, with all of the security at the mansion, things were really flimsy enough that a group of kids who couldn't properly beat a training simulation could crack security and sneak off in the various cars and jets? Surely after it became apparent that someone was using the vehicles, the team would think to at least put a better lock on the garage.
** Also, the entire [[Romance Arc]] for Lance and Kitty, not to mention that very plot, could have been avoided (along with a lot of heartbreak for both) if she had realized that he was still villainous, since the event that made her think he was nice was because he saved her from a falling statue, a falling statue that HE CAUSED.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'':
** The episode "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" of had a lot of logical conclusions; in fact the "happy" ending the episode had wasn't the best posible solution.
** Especial mention of the Flim-Flam brothers who could have won a lot of money if they weren't so greedy and Granny Smith who caused all the problem to begin with since the Flim-Flam brothers could´t force them to participate in the competition.
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[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:Idiot Plot]]
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