Idiot Plot: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"''Narrow Margin'' is a clumsy version of the [[Trope Namer|Idiot Plot]], dressed up as a high-gloss chase thriller. The Idiot Plot, of course, is any plot that would be resolved in five minutes if everyone in the story were not an idiot. And rarely has there been a film in which more idiots make more mistakes than in this one."|'''[[Roger Ebert]]''' in his review of ''Narrow Margin'' (1990)}}

 

 

Even worse than that is "second-order idiot plot", in which the plot can only function if ''every'' character involved, including side characters, suddenly loses about 50 IQ points. In fact, author Damon Knight [[Turkey City Lexicon|originally coined the term]] "second-order idiot plot" to refer to a science fiction story that features a fictional society that can ''only'' exist if [[Planet of Hats|everyone living there]] carries an [[Idiot Ball]].

** 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 Man's Land]]'':

** In the short story where Superman shows up and ''somehow'' decides he's no use, he effortlessly defeats Mister Freeze and repairs an entire power plant with his powers and the guidance of the chief engineer. Although this restores power, the lawless citizens immediately form a new violent gang under the chief engineer's banner and flood him and Supes with more responsibility than they know what to do with. Superman takes off after Batman gives him a stern talking to. Now why Supes doesn't just fix say, the entire city instead...

** Of course, a lot of ''No Man's Land's'' plot hinges on the fact that 1) this was practically a ''Lex Luthor plot'' in the end and 2) Batman invokes the [[Superman Stays Out of Gotham]] trope on ''the rest of the DC Universe''.

'''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.

** This is actually lampshaded by Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman, when he fully debuts. As he's wrangling the supposedly-lifeless Doosmday, he notes that people like Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter could have stopped him easily. A few years later, it's noted that Green Lantern''s'' ''did'' try to stop Doomsday, but couldn't. Didn't help that he unwittedly stole a Power Ring and went rampaging through the cosmos with it.

 

== Fan Fic ==

* The ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' fandom gives us ''[[Dark Secrets]]'', a [[So Bad It's Good]] [[Hurt Comfort Fic]] in which the "hurt" half is provided by [[Ron the Death Eater]], whose [[Title Drop|dark secret]] is discovered by his [[Mary Sue]] girlfriend, to whom he starts behaving like a total bastard and leads her to seek the "comfort" half with [[Draco in Leather Pants|his mortal enemy.]] [[Fridge Logic|Yeah.]]

* ''[[For Your Eyes Only (fanfic)|For Your Eyes Only]]''. The only way this AU society could exist is if everyone in it was insane.

* Perfect Lionheart's [[Partially Kissed Hero]] definitely qualifies for this trope, as everyone but [[God Mode Sue|an Overpowered Harry Potter]] has had their IQs driven through sub-basement levels to make any plotline in the story work.

** 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 [[wikipedia:Sai (weapon)|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 [[Too Dumb to Live]].

 

 

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* Lampshaded in ''[[Alien (franchise)|Aliens]]''.

{{quote|'''Ripley:''' "Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?"}}

* ''[[X-Men: The Last Stand|X Men the Last Stand]]''

** It features a triple idiot plot. The government hears that [[Magneto]] is raising an army to attack the mutant cure laboratory on Alcatraz. In response, they arm the guards there only with mutant cure dart weapons in plastic dart rifles, thus leaving them totally defenseless against an attack with conventional weapons (Magneto could easily take care of firearms, but the dart rifles should be able to use the [[Instant Sedation]] darts seen in the second movie). Then, Magneto's army attacks, and no one in it brings along any weapons. Magneto and his army are attacking an island compound in order to kill the mutant being held within, as his blood is being used to make a mutant cure. In order to get there, Magneto rips up the Golden Gate Bridge and hovers it over to the island, with his entire army standing on the bridge. [[Rule of Cool|This looks very cool.]] However, rather than [[Hollywood Tactics|dropping the bridge at the entrance to the island and then fighting a pitched battle to get to the mutant]], Magneto could have literally ''[[Dropped a Bridge on Him|dropped the bridge on the mutant]]''.

** And then there's Magneto's apparent decision that he's playing chess rather than fighting a war during the attack by sending in the "pawns" while the queen '''sits around doing abso-frigging-lutely nothing'''. Apparently Magneto was so focused on scheming the rest of his war that it took up 90% of his brain cells. The "pawns" are '''mutants''', the very people who Magneto has made perfectly clear are the superior form of humanoid life. Yet [[We Have Reserves|he sends them off to be killed and stands around watching it happen]]. Some mutants must be more superior than others.

** At the end, the heroes need to stop the Phoenix, a mutant of great power in this continuity, but still a mutant. They have custody of another mutant who can neutralize other mutant powers just by standing close to them. So, of course, they take him AWAY from her.

** This is especially ridiculous as an exterior shot shows the Excelsior in the same dock as the Enterprise! Or, what, is the engine STILL sabotaged from whatever Scotty did to it over a year ago?

* ''[[Con Air]]'':

** His wife implies that he was a hellraiser before he joined the army ("You were almost 'that guy' again"), Poe's wife runs before the knife comes out, and the guys' friends take the knife with them as they flee. This might make a self-defense claim risky...if there hadn't been dozens of witnesses in the bar to prove that the other guy started it earlier in the evening. The [[Idiot Ball]] was bouncing off every character in that courtroom.

* ''[[28 Days Later|Twenty Eight Days Later]]'':

** That's not even the start of it. For no reason whatsoever, they ''turn off the lights'' which not only lowers visibility and harder to see the (so far) lone infected coming, but greatly panics the civilians before it even shows up. Wouldn't it have been easier/safer to tell everyone to stay in their rooms? And what's more, the infection started because a man tried to see his wife (who was an [[Typhoid Mary|asymptomatic carrier]] of the virus) was able to enter the room. The room was ''completely'' unguarded, despite the military being well aware that she had the virus.

** There's also when, after everyone in that shed get infected, the soldiers have gotten orders to shoot everyone in sight. Including people trying to hide, drive away, avoid gunfire; if they weren't such idiots, they would have figured out that zombies would ''not'' be doing any of those things.

* In ''[[Sliding Doors]]'', so much trouble could have been avoided if James Hammerton had thought to say to Helen Quilley on their first date 'Oh, by the way I'm separated from my first wife and we're getting a divorce, but don't worry, it's all amicable'.

* ''[[Bride Wars]]''.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'':

** ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''. The idea of the Rebel scum falling into the Emperor's neat trap and only overcoming it because the strike team [[Rock Beats Laser|finds and allies itself with an unsophisticated but forest-capable warrior culture]] would work pretty well if those allies were Wookies, as was originally intended. Heck, judging by Chewbacca, the results could have been too brutal for that kind of movie. But when the furry aliens are instead Ewoks, short and cuddly teddy bears, the Imperial legions can only be defeated through the utmost incompetence, the officers losing 50+ from their IQs, and all the soldiers forgetting what "coordination" means. Top award goes to the officer who gets tricked by Han Solo into opening the bunker door.

** Pretty much ''everything'' that happens in ''[[The Phantom Menace]]''. Darth Sidious orders the Trade Federation to secretly kill the Jedi ambassadors when his whole plan hinges on the Federation's blockade being highly visible to stir up discontent in the Senate. When Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are trapped at the film's beginning, the Trade Federation sends in the battle droids instead of keeping the Jedi locked in a room filled with poison gas. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan split up and take separate transports down to the planet's surface without any way of knowing if they'll land remotely near each other. The Trade Federation lands its forces on ''the other side of the planet'' from their target. The captured queen is sent for "processing" rather than being held in the secure, occupied palace. The reason they need the queen in the first place is to force her to sign a treaty "legalizing" the invasion and occupation. Qui-Gon hatches a convoluted scheme involving betting on a slave boy entering a pod race to win spaceship parts (using the Force to cheat) instead of trying to get the parts from anther vendor, trading the ship in for a new one, buying passage on another ship to get where he needs to go, or just stealing the parts since he's willing to break the rules. The Trade Federation blockade is somehow devastating an advanced, civilized planet, and sends away all but one of its ships for the final battle. The Chancellor needs to send a committee to verify the testimony of the Jedi he personally sent to investigate a situation. When faced with reports of a Sith Lord running around, the Jedi council sends a whopping two Jedi to deal with him. The good guys commit to a ground war with the Trade Federation when all they needed to do was sneak some pilots into the hangar and shoot down the droid control ship, neutralizing the enemy army. And even after Anakin saves the day, ''nobody does anything about his still-enslaved mother''.

** ''[[Attack of the Clones]]''. Obi-Wan impulsively jumps out a window to grab a droid without knowing where its going or what its armed with. A bounty hunter hired to kill Padme subcontracts to a second assassin instead of doing the job himself. When pursued into a nightclub, the assassin attempts to ambush and kill the pursuing Jedi warriors rather than getting the hell out of Dodge. The Jedi send the young, rash Anakin to guard a woman he already had emotional bonds with ''and'' was clearly flirting with. The safest place for the endangered Senator is evidently picnicking in romantic, wide-open areas on her home planet. Obi-Wan is told that the clone army was ordered years ago by someone impersonating a dead Jedi, but nobody investigates where this suspiciously convenient army came from.

* 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.

** 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.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Mystery Team]]''.

* A fine example of this trope not being bad is the ''[[Creepshow]]'' segment "The Lonely Death of Jordy Verril." Everything that goes wrong in that segment is a direct consequence of Jordy being an ignorant idiot, which is how he's characterized from the first frame.

* The spread of the disease in ''[[Outbreak]]'' is only made possible by repeated instances of utter stupidity on the part of several characters, many of whom are supposed to be qualified professionals. An outbreak of a virulent disease is discovered in Africa. A biotech company illegally transports an infected monkey back to United States. Then, an employee steals what he knows to be an intended test animal to sell in the black market. When he fails to find a buyer, he sets the monkey free in the wild. As if this wasn't enough, a lab technician who was working with the blood of one of those infected by the monkey manages to break a vial and infect himself.

* The whole plot of ''[[Speed 2 Cruise Control]]'' is predicated on the cruise ship passengers being unable to jump off the ship, as they'll supposedly be sucked into the ship propellers. Wha--?

* ''[[The Comic Strip Presents]]:'' ''[[The Movie|The Supergrass]]'' would have been about 15 minutes long had the police actually bothered to investigate Dennis and find that there was no truth to his claims of being a drug dealer. [[Played for Laughs|It's the Comic Strip, after all.]]

* In ''[[Star Trek: Insurrection|Star Trek Insurrection]]'', Picard learns about a plan by an under-the-table Starfleet, working with an alien race, the Son'a, to move another race, [[Perfect Pacifist People|the]] [[Space Amish|Bak'u]], off their homeworld so they can take advantage of their world's fountain-of-youth powers, so Picard decides to stand against them to protect the Bak'u. Except there's no need to move the Bak'u anywhere. '''[[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|IT'S A FREAKING PLANET!]]''' The Bak'u are comprised of only six hundred people, so Starfleet could easily set up colonies far beyond the reach of the Bak'u. And if it got overcrowded, they could set up stations in orbit of the planet without the Bak'u ever discovering them.

* ''[[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]]'': 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.

* Mentioned in one of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Black Widowers]]'' stories: One character mentions he's having trouble writing his story without it turning into an Idiot Plot, and was trying to find a way to prevent characters from asking the obvious question that would resolve the mystery. Their guest then causes another Idiot Plot in much the same way.

* Tom Godwin's short story "[[The Cold Equations]]" was originally [http://zoo.nightstar.net/viewtopic.php?p=335078#p335078 a brutal, much-needed subversion] of early [[The Fifties|1950s]] [[Science Fiction]] and its omnipotent men of ''SCIENCE!''. [[Dead Horse Trope|That trend is over and done with]], so [[The Cold Equations/Headscratchers|attention is instead drawn]] to the [[Insecurity System|idiotically]] [[Your Door Was Open|negligent]] [[No OSHA Compliance|design]] and [[Now You Tell Me|procedure]] choices of [[Idiot Ball|the ship builders]]. This results in a [[Broken Aesop]].

*** The really ironic thing? The person in this story who is most called out for being an idiot (the stowaway) is actually '''the least idiotic person in this whole mess'''. In that unlike everyone else her error was one of ignorance and not stupidity, and in addition she is the ''only'' person who actually has any ''excuse'' for being ignorant, because unlike everybody else in this mess she is simply a civilian passenger, not a trained space pilot or engineer.

**** Which also means that an untrained civilian passenger was allowed onboard a spaceship without any kind of basic safety briefing, ''and'' that there is no security guard outside the courier ship hangar to warn people of this thing, ''and'' that there is also no warning sign on the door. We can add 'the captain and crew of the mothership' to the list of people who have to act like idiots in order for the plot to exist.

* Robert Jordan's ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'':

** The self-absorption and patronising behavior of almost every single ridiculously misandristic Aes Sedai, female politician, noblewoman and varied other females is one of the most famous things about the Wheel of Time books.

*** Aes Sedai acquired reputation of weasels whose every other word is twisted and even they know that people don't trusts them. You'd think that either they'd get a clue and try to fix this problem rather than just whining about it - or absolute political bankrupcy would follow. It's so easy to blame them for anything (honestly or not) and wave away objections that not just Whitecloaks, but ''everyone and their dog'' would readily believe that Aes Sedai are child-eating evil witches, and then their status will hold on brute force alone, but almost no one will want to become Aes Sedai, while anyone opposing them will be seen as heroes until proven otherwise. The end. Instead: mind-controlling magic users whom people don't even pretend to trust walk around openly, and this setup somehow remains mostly stable for centuries.

** Bella's decision to go to a meadow, alone, with an admitted [[Serial Killer]], and let him wander around behind her, is how the great romance is begun.

** Bella's decision to do as James said - regardless of the likelihood of him actually had her mother or the fact there were two more-than-capable [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]] with her who could have at least given some advice - is what causes the climax.

** In the film version of ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'', Bella feels insulted when Edward doesn't talk to her so she spends weeks (possibly even a month or more) waiting to tell him off for being a jerk. As pointed out by [[Riff Trax]], a normal person would've moved on after a few days or so.

* In ''[[New Moon]]'':

** Arguably most of the second and third act of ''New Moon'' fits this. Edward has spent all of ''Twilight'' and the beginning of this book talking about how he loves Bella more than anything in the world, but is constantly terrified of something bad happening to her. She is then nearly killed by Jasper at the party. Then Edward tries to tell her that he doesn't love her anymore (in order to keep her safe) before leaving. Bella spends the rest of the book completely believing this, without ever ''once'' considering that he lied to her or attempting to ''talk'' to him about it. Even when she knows that he curled up in a ball and didn't do anything while they were apart, even when she knows that he left to commit suicide when she supposedly died, even when he hugs and kisses her and clings to her when she shows up alive, even when he returns to America with her, she still is either convinced that he's putting on an act for her or doing it out of guilt, or that she's dreaming.

** Also from ''New Moon'': Despite living in the present and having enough money to have every form of technology ever, Edward ''immediately'' takes Jacob's word for it that Bella has died, rather than check his email/phone for any messages about it, check Forks' newspapers for Bella's obituary, ''call anyone else'' to confirm what he heard, etc.

** Which is even worse when you consider that Alice was the one who had the vision and ''he had Alice's cell phone number''!!! There was no reason he couldn't have called Alice directly! Alice herself doesn't help though, as she apparently thought it was a grand idea to hang around with Bella for a few days, instead of calling Rosalie and Edward and telling them "Never mind, Bella's alive after all".

** Not to mention the fact that Bella ''was'' still alive and, upon realizing Edward had left the country, went into a deep depression that had her bedridden for months. Her father, for some bizarre reason, didn't even bother to do anything (e.g send her to ''a psychiatrist'') even though she was having severe night terrors and wouldn't leave her bedroom for months.

* In ''Eclipse'':

** The Cullens know that there's at least one newborn tearing up Seattle and they know that Victoria has been trying to kill Bella since the previous book. They then learn that there is a newborn army being built in Seattle and that a vampire has apparently broken into Bella's room and stolen one of her shirts. Common sense would dictate that Victoria had the newborn army made and ordered the theft of Bella's shirt so that the army could track her down and kill her. It's not until a good number of chapters later that they figure out that Victoria was behind the theft of the shirt and it's not until the ''actual climax'' that they realize that Victoria was behind the army of newborns.

* ''The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner'' only gels with the plot of ''Eclipse'' because the characters have all been severely lobotomized. Despite the fact that Bree knows that Riley is kidnapping teenagers to become vampires, that he makes no effort to protect them once they've become vampires, and that (as she later remembers) he kidnapped her himself, breaking her arm in the process and terrifying her. It's not until the very last few pages that she actually gets it in her head that he's a bad guy. This novella also makes ''Breaking Dawn'' into this trope, because Bree mentally gives Edward her knowledge of the events leading up to the battle, which includes how the Volturi were willing to turn a blind eye to Victoria's plans, in the hope of the Cullens being killed. This means that Edward at least was well aware that the Volturi were actively trying to get his family killed...but in ''Breaking Dawn'', he was quite shocked at the idea of the group being so corrupt.

* Bram Stoker's ''[[Dracula (novel)|Dracula]]'':

** [http://www.alternatehistory.com/gateway/analyses/Drakaproblems.html This site] does a good job of pointing out most (though not all) of the flaws in logic, not to mention the blatantly illegal things done by the Draka while they are still firmly under British rule (illegal under 19th century British rule that is).

* Pretty much everything that [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]] ever wrote, but the man was so incredibly good at it, you barely notice. Plus, let's face it; when you're dealing with characters like [[Upper Class Twit|Bertie Wooster]], what else do you expect?

* The entire Dutch novel ''Descartes' Dochter'' (Descartes' Daughter), which revolves around the discovery of a lost manuscript of Descartes. When the main character Henriette returns home to her girlfriend Maartje in a coat covered in blood, Maartje gives up trying to find out what happened after a half-assed attempt at questioning, and the two proceed to make love. Later in the story, when Henriette murders her own mother, Maartje does not go to the police, does not get the hell away from Henriette, but e-mails the French professor she has been corresponding with about it. Who responds with only some vague philosophical stuff about "the gift". Later on, Maartje converses with a German professor about a lost manuscript of Kant that has turned up. When the German professor hears that Maartje has also been corresponding about it with that French guy (the actual French philosopher Jean Luc Marion), she exclaims: "Oh no! A Catholic!" and takes a train to Holland straight away, where she is immediately murdered by Henriette. Later, Henriette lures Maartje into the toilet on a train and then kills her. Serves her right for being [[Too Dumb to Live|too dumb to live.]]

** Tristan is finally allowed to marry Isolde after a bunch of totally epic adventures ending in winning her heart [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|while he's naked in a bath]] even though she had [[Foe Yay|sworn to kill him]]. So he [[Values Dissonance|decides she'll marry]] king Mark instead. She hates him for it.

** They accidentally drink the [[Love Potion]] meant for Isolde and Mark. They don't even consider asking king Mark permission to marry or anything. Granted, an oath is a pretty big thing, but so is permanent magic, and it's not like Mark cared that much.

** The Tom Robinson trial only hangs together if every white person in town save the Finches totes an [[Idiot Ball]] into the courtroom. When presented with obvious, incontrovertible proof of his innocence, neither the Prosecutor, Judge, or the Jury is smart enough to acquit him. [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|'Cause they're racist.]] Unfortunately, very much [[Truth in Television]] at the time.

** Tom's real crime in the eyes of the town is not the rape, of which he's obviously innocent, but that he admits to feeling sorry for Mayella. The way the prosecuting lawyer leaps on that heartbreaking slip of the tongue says it all. Most likely he would have been found guilty anyway, but the fact that a black man admitted to feeling sorry for a white woman meant that most of the characters didn't even feel bad about it.

* The protagonist of ''Vollidiot'' (''Complete idiot''), a novel by German writer Tommy Yaud [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|is.. well..]]. [[Played for Laughs]], though.

* ''[[House Rules (novel)|House Rules]]'' is often criticized for this. Many reviewers note that the entire premise of House Rules depends on absolutely nobody asking Jacob whether he committed the murder or not. His mother and lawyer immediately organise an insanity defence instead. This is particularly glaring because one of the traits of Jacob's Asperger's is that he's terrible at lying. The plot would also be over in fifty pages if Theo didn't sit through his brother's arrest, jail time and trial, and all the strain this causes on his family, without telling anyone that he broke into Jess's house on the day of the "murder" and saw her fall down and hit her head. All right, maybe he's frightened of being charged with causing her accidental death, but when he finally owns up that doesn't seem to have occurred to him.

* ''Blacklisted'' by Gena Showalter has a mild version of this. The Alien Investigation and Removal agency hunts down and arrests high schooler Camille and her crush Erik. First of all, why would she follow him, when he apparently seems to be a drug dealer? Even if you hand wave that to blind love, why would AIR not just ask her if she was with him or not? As seen in the companion book, their policy is to keep civilians out of their business. Instead they assume that she a drug dealer too and shoot and arrest her.

* The [[Fetch Quest]] that forms the plot of ''[[Hothouse Flower and The Nine Plants of Desire]]'' would never have happened had Lila not told Exley about the titular plants, which he stole. The protagonists' lack of foresight also adds complications to the plot.

** And if everything else fails, the traditional way of dealing with overpopulation is simple: start a war, losses for territories is a "win-win" deal (for survivors, that is). Of course, as often as not it backfires... but really, ''Romans'' missed this one?

* A debatable one in ''Dirty Little Secrets'' by C.J. Omololu. Lucy is the daughter of a compulsive hoarder who {{spoiler|comes home one day to find her mother dead under a stack of junk. She starts to dial 911, but panics and doesn't dial. She was afraid that her friends might find out about how messy her house was and pity her. In the end, she burns the house down. She only calls her brother once, and gives up. Instead, she tries to clean up the house so it at least looks presentable. If she had just called 911 after cleaning up the house somewhat, she probably could have been better off. If she had even called her brother a second time, she probably could have avoided having to burn the house down.}}

*** The entire point of Enterprise's mission is that humanity had no experience whatsoever in exploring space, and that the mission was so that they could figure out how. The Vulcans did have experience, but at that point in their history they were a bunch of tremendous Jerkasses that they had no real reason to listen to.

** A few of the [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Next Generation]] plots had this too, like the 'Datalore' episode where Picard sends Wesley to check on Data, and when Wesley says that Lore is disguised as Data, [[Cassandra Truth|no one believes him]]. Cue the obvious signs that Lore is disguised as Data.

*** 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 [[Creator's Pet|Wesley Crusher]] and ''didn't'' invoke this trope?

* Speaking of ''Angel'', when the above incident of soul loss and reensouling concludes, what does Angel do? [[Fridge Logic|Does he ask to the powerful witch that reensouled him if there's a way he can keep his soul permanently? Nope. Do some research or travel the world looking for a way to keep his soul forever so he can go back to his sweetheart? Nope.]] Thus, an entire series is born from, and partially running on an idiot plot.

* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'':

** That example also illustrates a recurring Idiot Ball in both Atlantis and the original. How many people somehow fail to see that "there's an open door to ''anywhere in the Universe'' in my back room" is a security issue? Dear Bad Guys, GUARD THE GATE! The Goa'uld in ''[[Stargate SG-1|SG-1]]'' at least ''sometimes'' put some guards at the Gate at their major outposts, and sometimes they even bother to set up a [[BFG]] or two rather than just [[Mooks|foot soldiers]]! The Wraith in ''Atlantis''? Not so much.

*** Only Good Guys (humans, and Ancients) ever have an Iris. This may have been justifiable at the start as a “really clever idea” on the part of humans, but it's shown that the Ancients had one installed in their cities. And not a single civilization ever thought to copy this?

 

== Video Games ==

* The ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' series is ''really'' guilty of this. Most of the time your clients are in a pickle because they [[Be as Unhelpful as Possible|won't talk]].

** ''[[Apollo Justice]]'':

** In every sequel people ''anyone'' seem to forget that Lan saved the world in the previous game(s), which makes for a bunch of dialogue of how he is just an ''ordinary kid'' or how ''inexperienced'' he is to fight this time.

** Lan doesn't really help his own case, as he not only [[Bag of Spilling|regularly throws away his godly chipsets and configurations altogether]], but also [[Forced Tutorial|seems to forget how to battle or use chips at all]] after every world-saving. It's part [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], but some fans offer some [[Fridge Brilliance]] <ref>Someone thought that maybe Lan received updates since his PET appears to have been updated and likewise the old chips probably wouldn't have been useful anymore</ref>...and in ''5'', he's actually acknowledged as the person who saved the world from the WWW.

* The ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' computer game ''Death Knights of Krynn'' featured a stunning moment of idiot plot. For most of the game, the party have been accompanied by Sir Durfey, a veteran knight and expert undead hunter. Bear the latter in mind. During the penultimate dungeon (an evil tower in this middle of undead-infested countryside), the party rescues Lenore, a (very large and muscular) serving girl who is blatantly Kitiara (minion of the Arch-boss) in disguise. Durfey immediately volunteers to leave the party and escort her home on his own. Repeat: The expert undead hunter wants to lead the thinly disguised henchwoman home through undead country. He leaves (the player can't control this; he will leave the party regardless) and is, unsurprisingly, ambushed by the undead, killed and bought back as a zombie to fight the party. Note that he's only two rooms ahead of the room that he left from. That's right, he was killed, bought back as a zombie and positioned with an army of minions to fight the players ''in the time it takes to cross two rooms''. Imagine a Necromancer Nascar Pit Crew. Able to zombify a person in 12 seconds.

* ''[[Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks]]''

* 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]].}}

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Saints Row]] The Third''.

* ''[[The Weekenders]]'': Usually a good show, but "Tish's Hair" hinges on <s>[[Hey, It's That Voice!|Lil]]</s> Tish (the smart chick of the clique, mind you!) reading a sign that's supposed to say "Your hair is the pits" as "Your hair is it" and not notice that it's been obscured by a tree, and hearing Carver's sister's comment "That's the worst I've ever seen" and thinking it's referring to Carver's shirt instead of her 'do.

* ''[[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.

* Every episode of ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' is this.

* This is the premise of the "Chicken Boo" segment on ''[[Animaniacs]]''. Chicken Boo is dressed in a [[Paper-Thin Disguise|painfully obvious costume]] yet still manages to fool everyone (except for [[Only Sane Man|one person]]) each time.

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|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.

** Also, the Flim-Flam brothers left the town because they couldn't sell cider, but only sold the "bad" cider; they had a lot of good cider and even could make more.

* "The Nasty Patty" episode of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' where Spongebob and Mr. Krabs thought they killed the health inspector, when all they did was knock him out. When the police arrive and they confess, the health inspector walks out of the freezer, dazed, leading Spongebob, Krabs, and ''even the police'' to believe he is a zombie! It was all intentional, however, and the narrator even lampshades it at the very end.