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Idiot Plot: Difference between revisions
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[
* 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!: The Abridged Series
{{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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'''Yugi:''' Look. There's no way I'm stepping on any freaking map.<br />
'''Alex Brisbane:''' What if I told you there was ''candy'' inside the map?<br />
'''Yugi:''' You've got to be kidding me. [[Who Would Be Stupid Enough...?|I'd have to be an idiot]] to fall for that.<br />
'''Tea:''' Candy? That sounds pretty good.<br />
'''[[The Ditz|Tristan]]:''' Yes. Let's go get the candy! }}
* ''[[Sonic X]]'' takes this to absurd proportions when ''everyone on the planet'' [[Artistic License Astronomy|Fails Astronomy Forever]] for a couple of episodes, except Sonic himself, amusingly enough. Eggman rigs the moon to block out the sun, making it look like the moon pretty much stopped, along with the sun. Nobody finds this fishy because they've forgotten that the moon revolves around the Earth, and the Earth around the sun, not to mention the Earth spins on an embarrassingly wonky axis. Eggman takes the opportunity to try and [[Brainwashed]] everyone with the lamps he sells, only to have his plan foiled by Sonic yet again, because he was the only one not holding on to the gigantic [[Idiot Ball]]. The ball in this case being more of an Idiot Moon.
* In ''[[X 1999]] [[The Movie]],'' the seven Dragons of Heaven each guard a magical barrier which serves to prevent [[The End of the World
* In ''[[Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo]]'', Nami's sisters structurally fail to acknowledge her obvious depressed state, going so far as to kick her down even more, as Kazane does in one episode. Even after Nami's [[Face Heel Turn]], Akiha simply tells Nami to shut up instead of listening to her during their first critical confrontation. Yeah, that really worked, now did it.
* [[Yuria 100 Shiki|Yuria]] doesn't want to have sex with Shunsuke because if she does she'll become his life-long sex slave, being a [[Sex Bot]] and all. She's pretty sure she doesn't like that idea, even after she starts wondering if she's fallen in love with Shunsuke. That's all well and good, but Shunsuke also doesn't want to have sex with Yuria because he is ''bafflingly'' devoted to his [[Defrosting Ice Queen|chaste, ice-cold]] girlfriend who he rarely hears from and even more rarely gets to see. And anyway what kind of idiot makes a [[Sex Bot]] who is intelligent and emotional enough to decide they don't ''want'' to be a [[Sex Bot]]? [[Butt Monkey|(oh right, that kind)]].
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* "Stink Bomb", from the anime anthology movie ''Memories'' is about a salaryman at a pharmaceutical company who takes some experimental pills - thinking they're cold medicine - and becomes the vector for a chemical agent that kills everyone within several hundred meters from him. From then on, everyone just gets dumber. His immediate superiors call him out of a quarantine zone to deliver the pills to them. The JSDF try to kill him, but are so incompetent they just cause massive property damage and only exacerbate the problem. The American military screws things up even more by trying to capture him alive to get access to the chemicals. And throughout all this, the salaryman just '''can't figure out''' that he's the source of the obnoxious stink and no one EVER bothers to try explaining it to him. It's played for laughs, but galling all the same.
* In ''[[Lost Brain]]'' the entire plot is basically one when [[Fridge Logic]] kicks in. The plot is based off [[Villain Protagonist|Hiyama's]] plan of [[Did Not Do the Research|using hypnosis to remove human weakness with him controlling them]] having no chance at working, which any amount of additional research would have told him. The plot get even more stupid with the fact that [[Arch Enemy|Kuonji]] and the police never seems to even try to investigate Hiyama even though all the trouble happening can pretty much be linked to him.
* ''[[
* ''[[Infinite Ryvius]]'' would have been resolved if they had transmitted what happened to the rest of civilization, and definitely would have if they simply landed or had somebody leave the ship.
* 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
* The very first arc in ''[[
* This is how ''[[
* Any pre-Unova ''[[Pokémon]]'' episode is guilty of this, as Team Rocket would show up in ''every episode'' wearing [[Paper-Thin Disguise|easily transparent disguises]] and the protagonist would ''always fall for it'', then act surprised when Team Rocket tries to escape with their Pokemon.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Supreme Power]]'':
** The [[J. Michael Straczynski]] reboot of Marvel's ''[[Squadron Supreme]]'' (a typically Marvel-dark riff on the characters of DC's [[Justice League of America]]), has large parts of its plot dependent on the chronic tendency (seen before in much of Straczynski's work) for virtually everyone in any kind of government-representative role to be malicious, incompetent, or both.
** The most [[Egregious]] example is in the story of Mark Milton, or "Hyperion," the [[
* In the ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' storyline ''[[Amazons Attack]]!'':
** The ''entire Amazon race'' (the only apparent exception being Wonder Woman herself) carries an [[Idiot Ball]] the size of the moon. On the advice of Circe, an evil goddess who has tried to exterminate the Amazons on multiple occasions, they decide to declare war on one of the most powerful nations in the world; one that is home to many of the strongest superheroes in the [[DC Universe]]. The end result? The Amazon race is scattered across the world, the entire USA hates them, and the reputations of heroes associated with them ([[Wonder Woman]], Wonder Girl, [[Supergirl]] to name a few) are left tarnished.
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* Any plot that involves [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] or anyone else trusting [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|Loki]] becomes one of these after, oh, his tenth betrayal (so, since the mid-1960s). The current mega-arc by J. Michael Straczynski would be the most recent example. It is even pointed out, in-universe, that they don't really trust Loki. He's just ''that good''. He manages to get a good way into a plot to destroy Asgard largely by hanging around and making insinuations and perfectly true statements.
* The entirety of the [[Marvel Comics]] ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' storyline. Superheroes and the government lose their minds and start up a pointless brawl over laws that had no authority at the time because one superVILLAIN blew up a school.
* ''[[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
** 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
** 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''.
* When reviewing [[JLA:
* ''[[One More Day]]''. The sheer number of idiotic things that happen in it is ''phenomenal'', and the amount of dumb that goes into both [[Spider-Man]]'s decision to make a deal with Mephisto and Mephisto's decision to make a deal with Spider-Man, could fill up a page (it filled several minutes of review time when Linkara explained it); but special credit? To the ENTIRE MARVEL SUPERHERO COMMUNITY. Peter Parker's Aunt May gets shot by an assassin and is dying. Apparently the doctors can't save her. So Spider-Man runs all over the world, seeking out his ''dozens and dozens'' of superhero friends who have fantastic powers, abilities, and technologies that can save her...except they don't. Every single superhero throws up their hands and basically says that while they are capable of fighting [[Galactus]], bullet wounds are too much for them to handle, including [[Doctor Strange]], the sorcerer supreme, [[The Medic|Elixir]], an X-Men member whose ''entire mutant power'' is healing wounds, and every single one of the Marvel universe's impressive cadre of supergeniuses. In the words of [http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2902721.html?thread=97239489#cmt97239489 one scans_daily member], the entire process went something like:
{{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 />
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== Fan Fic ==
* The ''[[Harry Potter (
* 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 (
* Perfect Lionheart's [[
* The first case of ''[[
* ''[[
* 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-Alienating Premise]].
* This pretty much makes up ''[[
** 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 [[wikipedia:Sai chr(28)weaponchr(29)|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]].
* The notorious ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
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== Films -- Animated ==
* ''[[Thumbelina]]'':
** Will you [[The Nostalgia Chick
** That bird isn't blameless either, since he waited the whole movie to offer her a ride.
** Thumbelina does ask the bird to take her home several times. It generally thinks that it's more important to abandon her in favor of finding Cornelius. Yeah.
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** The residents spend most of the episode oblivious to the possibility that their problems could be solved with an old-fashioned town hole digging (Willie asks himself why he didn't think of that), and it is a guest star (Sting) who is the best digger. Springfieldians just are not very smart, especially when it comes to digging holes, since moreover in another episode they dig themselves into a hole and their plan for digging their way out is to "Dig up, stupid." The real idiot plot in this movie is Homer dumping waste into the lake after he was warned by his non-idiot daughter that this would be the death of everyone and everything he loved. But then again, it's quite common for Simpsons plots to exist because Homer willingly crippled his IQ (with a crayon) and did something stupid. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in a later episode wherein the townspeople discuss the possibility of containing Springfield with a dome. Digging is mentioned.
* The last third of ''[[Gumby]] [[The Movie]]'' falls into this. Someone even suggests calling the police after the blockheads have Gumby and the band kidnapped, but the agent says "No time for that". While it thankfully turns out well with the blockheads tied up and the robot substitutes deactivated...They literally just ''leave the blockheads'' tied up...''in their lab''...and '''within a meter of the controls'''.
* ''[[
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[Burn After Reading]]'' is one of the few examples of an [[Idiot Plot]] done ''deliberately''. And thus, it manages to be hilarious and entertaining rather than annoying, like most straight examples.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Alien (
{{quote| '''Ripley:''' "Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?"}}
* ''[[Dumb and Dumber]]'' is one of the few movies that invokes this intentionally (it's in the [[Exactly What It Says
* The 2007 Christmas movie ''Christmas in Wonderland'' would be a 10 minute short film had everyone not been idiots. The family go to West Edmonton Mall to do some shopping, the dad lets the kids go, one brother leaves the younger kids alone to chase a girl at the Water Park, the two young kids find a bag of counterfeit money, not knowing it's counterfeit, spend tons of it, dad tries to use an expired card at Zellers, the two goons chase the kids around the mall for the money... and [[It Got Worse|it gets worse as the movie goes on.]]
* ''[[
{{quote| '''[[
* ''[[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
** 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
** The whole thing is full of "it's not as if" moments -- Magneto is ''surprised'' to realize that the guns are plastic, partway into the fight, but it's not as if he had some kind of ability to ''sense metal'' at a distance that had been highlighted in the plot about fifteen minutes ago.
** 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.
* The ending of the original ''[[Ocean's Eleven
* ''[[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.]
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** Not to mention that Sandman, a man with ability to easily move an infinite amount of sand, decides that [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|the best way for him to make money with his abilities]] is to be a criminal. It's not as if there are places with tons and tons of sand that need moving, perhaps to access a valuable resource of some kind.
** Outbidding the guys who created the [[wikipedia:World Islands|World Archipelago]] by a few million dollars would've netted him in excess of several billion. Even if we presume that such uses would be too boring for him, and he wants to be where he can hurt people with his sand; it's not as if the United States was not currently fighting a war, in a ''desert''. Or as if families of active duty military did not get unlimited free health care. (Granted that he's currently a fugitive from justice, still, if the man can't convince the US government to trade one free pardon in return for a guy who can single-handedly kick the ass of the entire city of Fallujah without getting scratched, he's just not trying.) Hell, even if he just supplied sand to the construction industry he'd probably be doing better than robbing banks.
* ''[[Chain Letter (
** It is about a [[Serial Killer]] who sends a chain letter to teenagers and kills them if they don't send it to five others because he was tortured by insurgents for having a government-issued cell phone. If the creators were trying to send a message that technology is bad, [[Broken Aesop|they did it in a fucked up way]].
** Also why does he only target teens? Don't adults use cell phones and computers too? And shouldn't he be targeting government officials, not harmless teenagers ''who had nothing to do with his torture?''
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** There's also the fact that Nuala seems completely unaware of the fact that she ought to actually ''warn'' the Paranormal Investigation team about stuff. She just stands there with her mouth hanging open when her brother drops the Forest God seed, not telling then to keep it from water ''until it's two inches from a drain''. She then oh-so-casually tells Abe that her very dangerous, psychotic, human-hating, murderous brother will be able to find their hide-out because they are mentally linked and thus he knows everything that she knows. Apparently this wasn't worth mentioning ''before'' bringing her there, so they could find some way to hide her without her figuring out where it is? Or that she only thinks to hide the map and crown piece when her brother is right at the door, breaking in? Or Abe deciding to get drunk and sing love songs after being told that Nuala's brother would be showing up for blood instead of warning the team?
* ''[[Open Water 2 Adrift]]'' concerns six people who sail a luxury yacht into the middle of nowhere and decide to go swimming. It would have been nice if one of them had remembered to lower the boarding ladder first. The one hydrophobic woman who didn't want to go swimming gets thrown overboard by her 'friend' trying to cure her fear of water. So now we have six people trapped in the water and an infant alone on board. Believe it or not the stupidity level increases from there.
* The three protagonists of ''[[Frozen (
* ''[[Star Trek V:
** Sybok's [[Evil Plan]] is pretty dumb and only works because everyone else in the galaxy is apparently an idiot. He takes a Federation officer, a Klingon and a Romulan hostage so that a starship will be sent for him and his primitive followers to hijack. This plan relies heavily on only one of the three most powerful governments in the galaxy bothering to make a rescue attempt, that they sent one ship rather than a whole fleet, and that that ship would not have functional transporters.
** Hilariously, Sybok is outraged when Kirk and company attack Paradise City, saying he didn't expect ''violence'' to result. Yes, how ''dare'' the Federation take the forced overthrow of Nimbus III as a hostile act! And that's to say nothing of how the Klingons or Romulans would treat it...
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** Let's not forget that the ''Enterprise-A'' is malfunctioning mess that even Scotty is having trouble with. Nonetheless, Starfleet decides to send her into the conflict to save the day. Kirk himself asks why another ship isn't sent given the obvious problems with his. An admiral responds that there aren't any other qualified captains on-hand. So why not just loan Kirk and company a functioning ship?
** 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?
* ''[[
** It starts off with an Army Ranger meeting his wife in a bar, and her getting hit on by a drunk guy who later tries to beat him up in the parking lot, along with two friends. The drunk guy ''had to rip off'' the lead's ribbons-several rows of 'em-before starting the fight. Poe, of course, rips 'em a new one, culminating in the first guy pulling a knife, whereupon Poe gives him a strike to the head that accidentally kills him. Cut to the courthouse, where his lawyer advises him to plead out so he can get a reduced sentence. The judge disagrees, citing the fact that Poe should be held to a higher standard because he's...an Army Ranger. (Which should have given him a trial in a military court to begin with.) Given that he was wearing a uniform before the fight, and the assailants tried to ''rape his wife'' and ''kill'' him, he should've gotten off with self-defense. The lawyer doesn't even have him dress in a spare uniform--or even rent a suit--at the trial. The rest of the film can be excused by [[Rule of Cool]].
** 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
** Monkeys infected with a deadly and highly contagious virus, that makes them super aggressive and can spread by the slightest scratch or bite are held in steel frame cages? Check! A scientist discovers activists trying to release the monkeys, and tries to get them to stop by [[Poor Communication Kills|cryptically telling them]] the monkeys are infect with "Rage" and leaving it at that? Check! Said activists see said scientists getting all panicked about it, but don't bother finding out what he is so afraid of? Check, check, and double check!
** Jim, walks into an abandoned gas station, alone, because "we don't have any cheeseburgers." His companion Selena reminds him that they have plenty of food, but by God he wants those cheeseburgers. Surprise surprise, Jim finds a zombie in the store and has to fight it off on his own. At this point, everyone is holding the idiot ball. Jim is risking not only his own life, but everyone else's as well. What happens if he gets turned? Meanwhile, Selena, instead of restraining him or telling him he can't go in, shrugs her shoulders and walks away. This particular episode is [[Egregious]] because it doesn't even drive the plot, only some minor dialogue later in the story. A soldier tells Jim that there's no way he could have gotten this far without killing someone. Well, he could have if he and his buddies weren't all holding the idiot ball.
* ''[[28 Weeks Later
** The so called "shelter", where people are crammed in at the first sign of trouble ''without first checking whether the zombie that started the trouble is inside or not!'' And then demonstrate how the doors to this impenetrable shelter can be breached by zombies and panicked humans alike from inside - had no-one in the military heard the saying "don't put all your eggs in the same basket"?
** 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.
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* ''[[Bride Wars]]''.
** The entire plot is driven by everyone involved being petty, self-absorbed, vindictive, and above all stupid. [[Truth in Television|Granted, it's a decent]] [[Rule of Funny|satire of wedding preparation insanity]]...
** In his review, [[Bad Movie Beatdown
* ''[[Mamma Mia]]'':
** Movie reviewer Eric D Snider felt that the film version had an Idiot Plot. Sophie invites [[Who's Your Daddy?|all three of her possible fathers]] to her wedding, believing she'll just ''know'' which one is actually her dad when she sees him. And then when they individually figure it out and each tell Sophie that they're giving her away, she just goes with it.
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** For the record, that's the plot of the original stage musical too.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'':
** ''[[
** Pretty much ''everything'' that happens in ''[[
** ''[[
** Everything about Anakin's training. In ''[[
** No reason is ever given as to why the Separatists would follow Sidious. In the second movie the Trade Federation only follows Dooku because he claims to be opposed to Sidious after he betrayed them in the first movie. All of Palpatine's plans seem to rely on every leader of both factions being completely incompetent, to the point of leaving obvious clues that the Separatist leadership commissioned the clone army specifically to be used against them. A lot of the problems in the trilogy could be explained as him making things extra convoluted for his own amusement, just because he could get away with it. His hologram doesn't even hide his face or change his voice.
** [[Red Letter Media]] points out many of the above problems, and paraphrases Palpatine's addresses to the Senate in ''[[
{{quote| Oh, and I just also happen to look and sound like a monster that wants to take over the world now. Don't mind my creepy black cloak, my horribly evil sounding voice or my terrifying face. Also don't mind the fact that I'm yelling about creating a galactic empire run exclusively by me. No, no, no, you see it's the ''Jedi'' that are trying to take over. That warranted them all being executed by the army that is controlled by myself without any kind of evidence to prove what I'm saying is true. Yup, we just killed them all, '''even the children'''. Then we '''burned down their temple''', and you're all just gonna have to take my word for it. Trust me, look at my face. Would this face ''lie'' to you? ''(cut to a poster saying "Vote Palpatine, 3036, '''or else!'''")''}}
* ''[[Transporter 3]]''.
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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.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Subverted in ''[[
* ''[[A Sound of Thunder]]'', which [http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/A_Sound_of_Thunder_2005.aspx the Agony Booth's recap] describes as an "Idiot Plot fractal".
* ''[[
** The only one in the movie who wasn't a complete idiot was the mother. Esther breaks her own arm in a vise to frame her, and the doctors somehow believe that the mother was able to do it one-handed. Daniel (her son) decides not to reveal Esther's violence until he has evidence, even though the mother had already asked him about it and would believe him anyway. But Maxine (the deaf daughter) swept the medal podium at the [[Too Dumb to Live]] Olympics. Maxine watches Esther break a young girl's leg and murder a nun, but covers for her out of fear. Okay, I'll buy it, even adults can be cowed by threats. But then Esther tries to murder Maxine herself ''twice'', tries to murder Daniel at his treehouse (Maxine at least intervenes), and then ''succeeds'' (in certain cuts of the movie) in murdering Daniel at the hospital - '''Maxine never tells a single adult.'''
** Throw in the fact that Esther was a [[Creepy Child|little creeper]] right from the start. Maybe the family really ''did'' want a slightly different child, but surely there were less morbid ones at the orphanage?
* In ''[[Best Laid Plans]]'', the entire plot is moronic, but the viewer doesn't learn this until near the end. It starts with a deadbeat kid (Nick) learning that he's inheriting nothing from his dad (he'd expected to get a tidy sum of money so he could move away and start a new life). Nick meets a girl ([[Reese Witherspoon]]). They hit it off and become a couple. A co-worker asks Nick to help him rip off a drug dealer. Nick would get $10,000 just for driving. Nick agrees, they pull of the job, but end up getting caught by the drug dealer who demands Nick pay him $15,000 in return. Nick then plots to steal a valuable artifact from a house where his friend is house-sitting. To keep his friend from reporting the theft, he sets up a scenario where his girlfriend has to sleep with his friend and she threatens to charge him with rape. The friend panics and cuffs the girlfriend to a pool table and calls Nick. Nick pretends to kill his girlfriend and puts her in the trunk of his car. The drug dealers steal his car, then let him walk home where they're waiting for him, so the reason for stealing the car is beyond me. When they ask him for the money, he finds out it was all a scam because there are peanut shells on the floor and his supposedly-dead friend eats peanuts. He realizes they weren't drug dealers after all. They were college graduates who set up the elaborate scam to pay off their student loans. Aside from the other intricacies of the plot, four guys committing numerous felonies and faking the death of Nick's co-worker hardly seems worthwhile when the payoff is only $3,750 each, which would only make a small dent in most student loans. Plus, their reasoning was overly optimistic. They had thought he had inherited some money, but then assumed he would turn right around and pay the $15,000 on demand.
* [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[
** The entire series of escalating problems encountered by the main characters (almost culminating in their destruction) stems from their inability to [[Read the Freaking Manual|comprehend the Handbook for the Recently Deceased]] which was provided to them, and failing to heed the advice of their caseworker. Clearly the handbook itself was not incomprehensible, because every character in the movie except the Maitlands seemed able to understand and make use of the book's contents. The running gag was "this thing reads like stereo instructions." Adam quotes one part of the Handbook, "Geographical and temporal perimeters: Functional perimeters vary from manifestation to manifestation."<ref>Translation: Different ghosts have different boundaries.</ref>(slaps book shut in disgust, spraying dust in his face) [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] (and arguably justified, since it was the reason he picked them) by the title character, whose first scene has him reviewing the obituaries, seeing the Maitlands, and saying, "What have we got here? The Maitlands, huh? Cute couple. Look nice and stupid, too." Truer words were never spoken.[[hottip:*:Interestingly, the Maitlands are the only main characters who don't appear in [[Beetlejuice (
** Everybody here's a [[Turn of the Millennium]] troper who can confidently use and troubleshoot computers and text editing software at the basic level ''at the very least''. Remember [[The Eighties]] joke about how only geniuses could program VCRs? The Maitlands were [[Country Mouse|Country Mice]] - a small-town architect and a housewife. The Deetzes were yuppies - and so were the caseworker and her fellow afterlife bureaucrats!
* The main reason [[Fritz Lang]]'s ''[[Woman in
* ''[[The Neverending Story (
** Bastian has an item that will grant an unlimited number of his wishes. No further commentary is really needed here, but for the sake of it, we'll go a bit further: He spends the first half or so of the movie being inexplicably reluctant to make any wishes at all despite repeatedly being confronted with deadly situations and surviving at the last second through other means. At one point he accidentally creates an incredibly destructive dragon, and then has to spend a chunk of time hunting it down and lucking into it being blown up instead of just wishing it became nice or any number of similar solutions. He then discovers that any time he makes a wish, an evil witch uses a machine to steal one of his memories. His wishes are now limited by the number of memories he has left. It never occurs to him to simply wish for all his memories back, and for the machine to explode, and the witch to vanish, or any big picture solution at all until he's down to his last wish.
** It's worse then that. Bastian easily gets a confession out of the villain that she's the one responsible for all the bad things going on(after seeing the monsters guard her castle). Her and her bird-boy lackey(who makes no attempt to pretend he's not working for the villain) have been urging Bastian at every opportunity to make wishes. Bastian, who has held out pretty well until now, starts making wishes like crazy, because it never seems to occur to him that doing what the bad guys want you to do is a bad idea. He also starts getting really chummy with the villain, doing what she says, despite the fact she's supposed to be HIS prisoner and even believing Atreyu is plotting against him (despite the fact he knows and should trust Atreyu far better), because the villain says so. What's incredibly sad about all of this is that Bastian is supposed to be a very well-read kid (in the first film he rattles off a list of classics he's read....at ten years old) so you'd think he'd be a bit more [[Genre Savvy]].
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** The villain Xayide also acts like an idiot. She can summon giant killer robot monster-things, teleport anywhere at will, and who knows what else. She could just zap to Bastian's location, surround him with monsters, kill him and take Auryn for herself. Of course, she does no such thing.
* ''[[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
* ''[[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.
* ''[[
* Played intentionally ''and'' lampshaded in ''[[Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay]]''.
** Nothing would have happened if Kumar had the patience to wait until their plane touched down in Amsterdam, where weed is ''100 percent legal'', to start lighting up. And that's just the beginning. Similar to the original, the severity of their situation is only heightened by the stupidity (and, often, racism) of all the people around them.
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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
** 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.]]
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* ''[[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]]''.
* A fine example of this trope not being bad is the ''[[
* In its last third or so, [[Kevin Smith]]'s ''[[Chasing Amy]]'' rapidly becomes an [[Idiot Plot]]. By the end of the film, only two characters remain sympathetic: Banky, who started off as an idiot and becomes slightly less of one; and Hooper, who spends most of the film [[Lampshade Hanging|pointing out]] the idiocy of others.
* 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.
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* ''[[Underworld Evolution]]'' features what is intended to be a crack squad of [[Badass Normal|elite troops trained in killing vampires and werewolves.]] At the climax, they must seek out and destroy a lair of werewolves before they can unleash the [[Big Bad]]. They are surprised to find this lair is only accessible from an underwater entrance, but that's fine -- they [[Crazy Prepared|have scuba gear.]] Oh, wait. [[Idiot Ball|They forgot the silver ammo for their werewolf hunt,]] so if they go in, they're incapable of doing any damage to the enemy before werewolf bites turn them into werewolves. [[Too Dumb to Live|So they go in anyway.]]
* ''[[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
** It's made clear in the movie that they are not setting up long term colonies but plan to explode the space around the planet making it uninhabitable for centuries. Or rather, that's the ''villain's'' plan, because, they are too close to death to [[Immortality Immorality|become immortal]] by the natural effect of the planet. Why the Starfleet people went along with that -- when the natural healing effect is already enough for any non-villainous purpose -- is never brought up.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[The Woman in Black (
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** Strong argument? More like absolute truth... 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.
** The greater majority of the protagonists problems are caused by their own lapses in judgement and failure to communicate, to the point that it would take hours to list them all. They refuse to work together, they run off by themselves in secret (repeatedly), they almost never ask for help, and even those that *should* trust one another withhold secrets for no good reason. Not only does it allow the antagonists to win many of their conflicts, it also prevents the heroes from gaining the strength they need to oppose the Dark One. Fortunately, the antagonists also have this failing.
** The White Tower rebellion plotline has turned into this. One side of the conflict has rediscovered several lost spells, has a large army led by a famous general, and has surrounded the White Tower, preventing most movement. The other side, inside the tower, are at each other's throats, constantly in-fighting, and are vastly outnumbered due to their leader being [[Too Dumb to Live]]. Not to mention the fact that the [[Chosen One]] will never make a treaty with the Tower because their leader {{spoiler|ordered his kidnapping, and beating}}. Granted, [[The Mole|the Black Ajah]] is doing its best to foster these problems, but one would think that the Tower's ruling body would, at some point, notice that they are in a ridiculously weak position, their leader is a fool, and remove her from power. And all this is going on with the final battle over the [[The End of the World
** The whole thing ends with the White Tower raising Egwene {{spoiler|and only because Elaida was captured by the Seanchan}} followed by Egwene calling the entire tower Aes Sedai disgraces because only Sylviana had the balls to do what was right.
* ''[[Twilight (
** If Bella were smart enough to stay away from Edward, there would be ''no'' series, period. For the first book specifically, almost every plot point is introduced because Bella does something idiotic. About the only plot point not directly caused by Bella is Tyler's death van, which was just a flimsy excuse to get the story running.
** Bella's decision to wander Port Angeles alone, as it got dark, and in the back alleys, is how [[The Reveal]] is set up. A particularly gifted level of stupidity was required for her to do so, since Port Angeles (not a large city) is notably deficient in back alleys. Roving gangs of rapists are also uncommon.
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** 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.
*** The James plot could have actually been resolved even easier if the Cullens had just fought him earlier. The odds were seven-against-three in their favor. Oh, what's that? James' ally Laurent wasn't willing to fight for him? Okay, seven-against-''two.'' Laurent goes on about how the Cullens are sure to lose because James is such an amazing fighter, but in the end, it only takes Jasper and Emmett to kill him anyway--if the whole Cullen family had attacked him and Victoria in Forks, they could have easily won ''without'' Bella getting horribly beat up beforehand.
** In the film version of ''[[Twilight (
* In ''[[New Moon]]'':
** Bella's decision to go cliff-diving without any prior experience, anyone else to help her out or save her, and any knowledge of how deep the water she's jumping into is, is how the climax of the story is set up to bring Edward home.
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** This is particularly stupid given that Edward can read minds and Jasper can influence emotions. Logically, Edward could have gone to Seattle, read the minds of at least some of the newborns and/or their victims and determined who was behind this army, while Jasper projected calmness on the newborns that Edward discovered. The army members would have been identified, their secrets uncovered and their attacks rendered useless with comparative ease--and no one ever considers this. Not even Jasper, who is canonically the strategist.
* ''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 (
** The title character would have never sunk his fangs in Mina's neck if the heroes had remembered anything they'd learned about [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]] during their ordeal with Lucy. Especially since Mina was displaying all the symptoms of being a vampire victim that Lucy displayed earlier... Exacerbated by the fact that Mina was with her when Lucy was first attacked and started displaying those symptoms. And they had '''Van Helsing''' with them the whole time.
** The way Lucy's mom undermines every effort to save her. Really looks like she's doing it on purpose.
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** Completely left unaddressed is the presence of France in the presumptive Drakan empire. The French presence in west Africa was well-established by the time the Draka get there, and France is almost as powerful as Britain during the 19th century (they have the second-largest navy in the world, and the largest modern army, during this period). Why there wasn't a more generalized conflict between Britain and France over a rogue British colony impinging upon the French sphere of influence (or why the French didn't just send the Draka home with their asses firmly kicked) is an exercise for the reader.
** [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 [[
* ''[[Being There]]'', both novel and film, is a satire that uses an [[Idiot Plot]] to help make its point. The whole story hinges on how people who believe themselves to be sensible and intelligent nevertheless jump to their own, desired conclusions time after time in their dealings with [[Seemingly-Profound Fool|Chance the Gardener]], never asking the questions most people would be tempted to ask based on what he says. This is partially because he ''appears'' to be a sensible, intelligent person himself, but is in fact an imbecile who doesn't understand what's going on and thus isn't able to correct others.
* 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.]]
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* Pretty much all of the fifth [[Magic Kingdom of Landover]] novel is a textbook [[Idiot Plot]]. Due to writing himself into a corner at the end of the fourth book, the author ended up having a situation on his hands where his main cast had every reason to suspect that the main focus of the book {{spoiler|(the main characters' daughter getting kidnapped by the series' recurring [[Big Bad]] Nightshade and being turned against them)}} was going to happen. So they end up absolutely discounting the possibility with the exact same excuses several times, all of which are based around the assumption that a [[Diabolus Ex Nihilo]] called Rydall of Marnhull is telling them the truth. Even though they openly express skepticism that he's ever telling the truth and all evidence from day one suggests that he is not. [[Fridge Logic|And it takes them the entire book]] [[Idiot Ball|to come to the conclusion they would have reached in 5 minutes]] [[Plot Induced Stupidity|had the plot not required them to discount it.]]
* "Dismissed with Prejudice" by J. A. Jance. Let's see, the back cover tells us about a Japanese businessman found dead of an apparent suicide. But an error in the ancient ritual pointed to... murder! The actual problem, according to a Japanese-American investigator, is that the scene is "totally wrong" for the ritual suicide. But we have a Caucasian medical examiner persist with his theory of suicide. A couple days later, we discovered that the victim was indeed murdered -- bludgeoned over the head. "We couldn't see it until after we moved the body."
* The protagonist of ''Vollidiot'' (''Complete idiot''), a novel by German writer Tommy Yaud [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[House Rules (
* [http://lib.sarbc.ru/koi/EFREMOW/tuman_engl.txt Classic of Russian SF Ivan Efremov's Andromeda] is a perfect example of [[Idiot Plot]]. Starship crew was trapped on the planet of Iron Star because watchkeepers just didn't want to wake their commander (despite they knew that he wanted to drive the ship in this area himself). On the planet they've found another Earthian starship, abandoned because it's crew was terminated by local agressive fauna. The last member of dying crew left a record, which contained nothing helpful - except the advice not to leave the ship, never (considering the fact that this record could be picked only by one who had already left his ship, advice is more than senseless). And it is just the beginning...
* ''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 ''[[
* "The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass". So a man travels back in time and pretty much literally [[Giving Radio to
* 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.}}
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': The minor side-plot that gives name to the sixth book rests entirely upon it. It's traditional in British schools for teachers to keep their favourite moth-eaten, scrawled on textbooks in the book cupboard with the books normally passed out to the children who forget their books, resulting in plenty of amusing anecdotes about the fights kids get into to avoid being the one stuck with that torn copy despite the fact it's often the most useful book to end up with. Rowling clearly played on this, right down to Ron and Harry fighting over who got stuck with it, and yet somehow they were both completely incapable of ever wondering if it belonged to either the current or past Potions Master. Not even Hermione was capable of wondering what really should have been an obvious first suspicion for a British kid in a British school system to have. Of course, if they had jumped to the logical suspicion, the sixth book reveal would have happened at the start instead of the end - although that would not have changed the overall plot of the book in any significant way.
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* In ''[[Falling Skies]]'', despite the fact that the aliens are swarming over the Earth like locusts, marching everywhere in patrols and having ships scouring the skies - they are apparently unable to see large groups of humans wandering down streets in broad daylight, accompanied by noisy trucks, tanks and motorbikes, or to spot even larger groups camping in tents, again in broad daylight, right out in a huge open field, without making any attempt whatsoever to hide themselves. Also, after the alien invasion, women's abilities seem to have shrunk to the point where they are only able to cope with looking after the kids or dishing out dinner. 99% of the resistance fighters are male and the one woman seen so far who is a scout is clearly seen as an exception to the rule and an oddity.
** This show is a classic of stupidity. They capture an alien and then discover that it can speak through a once enslaved human. So do they try to interrogate it? No. They don't even ask one question.
* Pretty much every episode of ''[[
* Also ''[[Married...
* ''[[Lie to Me]]'' had an episode in which Cal Lightman had to determine whether or not a gang leader imprisoned for murder and awaiting a parole hearing was truly remorseful. Lightman and his team shared an Idiot Ball that caused Genre Blindness when the victim's mother testified at the hearing that she believed he was truly reformed, but they knew she was lying. They determined she wasn't being coerced, then scratched their heads until dramatically figuring out her motive at the last minute. Yes, a wizard did it. No, she wanted him free SO SHE COULD KILL HIM!
* ''[[Lost Tapes]]''. Characters often forget that videocameras have a VCR function that allows them to see what they just taped.
* Ditto for virtually every episode of ''[[The Secret World of Alex Mack]]''.
* ''[[Primeval]]'' too. When half the plots wouldn't happen if the main characters didn't think they had to evade their security team, and everyone is convinced the [[Deadpan Snarker]] is a villain without any evidence...
* The entire ''premise'' of ''[[I
* ''[[Smallville]]'':
** Episode “Whisper,” in which Clark gets super-hearing and everybody's IQ drops 30 (desperately-needed) points. Even the villain!
** Another glaring example is “Action,” where super-secretive Clark Kent stupidly rents his farm to a film crew for the Movie-Within-the-Show, "Warrior Angel". This is especially idiotic because only a few episodes previous, Clark's Super Powered Cousin, Kara, arrived and she's far less careful about keeping her secrets than Clark is, increasing the chances of being found out tenfold. Also, why a big-budget movie is being filmed on a ''goddamned Kansas farm'' rather than [[California Doubling|in California, or, better yet: Canada]] is never made clear.
** Once the plots got a little longer and more complicated than finding out who the [[Monster of the Week]] is and having Clark throw them thirty feet, this has been happening all over the place. Mostly because Clark is so powerful he could stop everything bad from happening if only he would get off his ass.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has so many examples of forced [[Railroading]] that this trope page may as well be called "Heroes Plot".
** Near the end of the season, Claire has several [[Damsel Scrappy]] moments, fleeing from people who obviously had her best interests at heart and into trouble on more than one occasion. Ando's deciding Hiro would give up if he had one more conversation with his dad, and thus going to take on ''Sylar''(!) ''alone'' (!!), isn't much better.
** In “Landslide,” Peter Petrelli telepathically eavesdrops on Sylar's plans to enlist the police's unwitting aid in attacking {{spoiler|Ted Sprague}}… and then does ''nothing'' when he's subsequently arrested.
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** 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?!?'''}}
** The newest season's finale certainly qualifies. After {{spoiler|living through the events of volume 4, which were the result of the government learning about people with abilities, and hearing her dad plea ''on his deathbed'' that he wanted her to stay hidden and not reveal herself, Claire is compelled to jump off a Ferris wheel to do just that in front of national television. No reason is given for this decision, other than pissing off her dad who had poured his heart and soul out to her roughly ten minutes ago. Meanwhile, every other character in the series simply stands there gawking and dropping forced dialogue such as "she's going to change everything!", even though half of them had the power to stop her without making nearly as much of a scene (looking at you, Hiro!). After spending several episodes building up how much Claire-bear loves her crazy daddy, they have her just throw it all away for ''no apparent reason'' while the rest of the "Heroes" stand around and prepare for a repeat of volume four.}}
* Too many episodes of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' to count, but it occurs in ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', too. Either the main characters have to act like morons for the sake of "conflict" or "suspense", or the crew runs into some stubborn [[Monster of the Week|Aliens Of The Week]] who behave like belligerent jerks or fanatical idiots solely so that there will be a conflict of interests.
** A lot of the conflicts on [[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]] seem to stem from ''the entirety of Starfleet'' being so dumb that they don't even bother with establishing protocols for dealing with even a single, solitary thing the crew might have to deal with, up to and including ''first contact'' and ''planetary exploration'', two tasks they were '''specifically sent out to do!'''
*** 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:
*** 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 [[Creator's Pet|Wesley Crusher]] and ''didn't'' invoke this trope?
** 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:
** ''[[Star Trek]]'' original series episode "[[Star Trek
** ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'':
** One episode had some people rob a bank of gold and then put themselves in suspended animation (which one of the robbers invented) for years in order to avoid getting in trouble for it. Had they just [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|patented and sold the invention]] not only would they have probably made more money than they did in the bank robbery, it also would've prevented them from having to worry about the law in the first place. As the above-linked trope indicates, this is actually the problem with a LOT of villainous inventors.
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** Quinn {{spoiler|has to tell Finn that she got pregnant when he ejaculated in a hot-tub with her in it, which is completely crap, when the reality was she slept with Puck. Instead of lying about the hot-tub, she should have just had sex with Finn the moment she found out, and waited a week or 2 before revealing she was pregnant, and told Puck the baby wasn't his.}}
** Terri {{spoiler|has a hysterical pregnancy, and at first tries to get pregnant for real, but it fails, so she starts wearing a fabric baby bump. Instead of faking a miscarriage, she continues the ruse for fear of losing Will, her husband. Eventually she hits upon the idea of adopting Quinn's baby, when it's likely that ''everyone'' in the Glee club would be around the birth, and it'd be damn near impossible to hide the fact she now has Quinn's baby. There's also the question of exactly how far along the 2 women are. If Quinn was even a month behind, it'd mean the baby would be massively overdue. An even smarter solution would be to fake a miscarriage with her doctor, then offer to adopt Quinn's baby properly.}} Of course, it all comes crashing down, spectacularly.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[CSI: Miami]]''.
** Many, many times. When the main cast aren't being idiots for the sake of contrived personal issues, the case of the week inevitably depends on everyone ''else'' being idiots.
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** Don't forget the season finale where she singlehandedly went after a very powerful organization with absolutely no regard for the consequences. She doesn't even check for security while ''breaking into their mansion headquarters'' so of course she gets caught on tape. When another character states she just made some powerful enemies, she just [[Hand Wave|handwaves]] it away with "It wouldn't be the first time." No, you idiot: This time you pissed off the kind of people who can make you disappear and the fact that this is America ''isn't going to save you''. At the end of the episode, the head of the organization states quite clearly to a shocked Veronica (who literally thought she had won) that he's decided to make her life a living Hell because he ''knows'' she's responsible. He does.
* In an episode of ''[[CSI New York]]'', an escaped convict's plan to flee to Canada involves hijacking a commercial airliner flying out of New York and landing at an abandoned airstrip in Montreal. Leaving aside the writers apparently not realizing that Canada does, in fact, have police who would respond to a hijacked plane entering Canadian airspace, there's also the stupidity of the plan given that the bad guy could have taken a bus or train to upstate New York, gotten off, and found someplace to quietly ''walk across the Longest Undefended Border in the World''.
* The BBC remake of ''[[Survivors (TV series)|Survivors]]'' has 99% of the global population killed by a plague. The survivors apparently suffered massive brain damage given their behavior. In episode #6 the protagonists head into Manchester, now a cesspit of disease populated by scavengers and countless unburied dead, to try and find a runaway teenager who doesn't want to be found. And they do this while being hunted by one of the local colonies who is trying to take them in by force under the pretense of being the new government. Naturally they make no attempt to protect their meager supplies from the desperate survivors who remained in the city. From the way they act you'd think nothing had changed and it was just another day out in the city.
* In ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'', Mark of the Berserker, there's a serious issue. Rani gets the bright idea of leaving an Artifact of Doom alone, unguarded in the room, Sarah Jane shut down Mr. Smith while she was out, Clyde decides to spill all his secrets, Rani, when she starts to act, forgets to grab the Artifact of Doom. Clyde also, you know, spills his secret to his iffy father.
* The miniseries ''[[Kingdom Hospital]]'' is about 80% [[Filler]]. The hero is hit by a car, whereupon a monster appears and tells him that he won't die, if he helps them. An ambulance then takes him to the titular hospital, where he talks to ghosts and other presences. The reason he got taken there is because they want him to break their curse. Of course, [[You Will Know What to Do|they don't mention how]], and he doesn't figure it out until the last few minutes of the finale. To top it off, the task at hand - {{spoiler|drawing a fire extinguisher which becomes real in the dreamworld, and using it to put out the mill fire that killed the children which started the curse}} - takes all of two minutes.
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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
* 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.
** There are far more than a few in ''[[
* ''[[Spooks]]'' series 9. The series arc revolved around {{spoiler|Lucas North}} not being who he said he was but being an imposter. The whole problem could have been avoided had Mi5 done his vetting ''after'' meeting him face-to-face for his interview and not before.
* ''[[Little House
** In the episode "For My Lady", everyone thinks Charles is cheating on Caroline because he's doing some work for the attractive Widow Thurman. Every major character gets his or her turn with the idiot ball to make this plot work. Only Harriette acts like herself, but this helps the plot. Early in the episode, Widow Thurman gets some new China and offers her old China to Charles in exchange for some work he did for her. Mary is there and hears the conversation. Later, Charles gets the idea to do some additional work for the widow in exchange for the China. Here are the idiot balls:
*** Mary is the biggest offender. When she hears Pa is hanging out at Widow Thurman's after work, she should realize he worked something out with her for the dishes. Instead, she and Laura are convinced Pa is cheating on Ma.
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*** Caroline gets suspicious when she asks Charles what he's been doing. Charles comes right out and tells her he's been working for the widow. Caroline asks what the job pays. Charles says he doesn't know yet. This conversation makes all the previous lies unnecessary. If he was just going to admit to Caroline that he was working for the widow, why act like he was at the mill the whole time? In the end, it all works out.
* ''[[
** 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-Thin Disguise]] in the next episode.
** 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.
* The ''[[MASH]]'' episode, “Operation Noselift” has Private Baker convincing the doctors to arrange a nose job for him. Cosmetic surgery is against regulations. If Houlihan and Burns find out, everyone will be in trouble, so they have to concoct a plan to keep them from finding out. Instead of pretending Private Baker breaks his nose and needs surgery, they come up with a more complex and unnecessary plan. Private Baker is seen leaving the base on a two-day pass, then sneaks back to get the operation. Meanwhile, Father Mulcahey pretends to break Radar's nose with a baseball, all in front of Burns and Houlihan. Radar is rushed into the OR, the plastic surgeon arrives, Radar swaps out with Baker. The doctor performs the operation. Afterward, Burns sees Radar and questions him because his nose is fine. Burns realizes something is up and says he's going to get everyone in trouble, but just about everyone in camp is wearing a bandage on their noses, making it impossible to tell who had had the surgery. The problem with this is that it was completely unnecessary in the first place. They could have pretended Baker got hit with the baseball instead and that would be the end of the problem. This, however, wouldn't have given them so many opportunities to mess with Burns.
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' is pretty rife with these, though 99% of the time it's the patient being the idiot. Many of the caes could be solved in two seconds if the patient didn't lie, deliberately hide parts of their past, or simply forget things that might be relevant. One that was on the doctors was when a patient died because one of them didn't ask all the proper questions regarding the patient's past, missing one that is a pretty damn big question. House doesn't do anything about it though because, really, how often is that gonna happen?
* Two episodes of ''[[Fear Itself (TV series)|Fear Itself]]'' exude this: ''Chance'' (see YMMV section in the article for an elaborate breakdown) and to a lesser extent ''In Sickness and In Health''.
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== Newspaper Comics ==
* Newspaper comic ''[[Watch Your Head]]'' had a long-running subplot about [[Handsome Lech]] Quincy's impending marriage to his pregnant girlfriend Erika. Whenever Quincy was in focus, we would hear about preparations and get evidence that the less-than-brilliant Quincy saw no reason to give up his womanizing ways. After about a year of this, the entire thing comes crashing down at the altar when local [[Jerkass]] Omar points out that the bride ''has been allegedly pregnant for over a year and has not even gained an ounce of weight in that time!''''[[
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* ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]''. The whole tragedy could've been averted had the eponymous characters (and others) bothered to think rationally for a few moments rather than emotionally. [[Tropes Are Tools|Which was arguably the point of the play.]]
* Pretty much any of Shakespeare's plays fit this arguably, although like mentioned above, that can be the point of the play. For example, in ''Othello'', Desdemona probably wouldn't have died if Othello had just flat-out asked her "Were you having an affair with Cassio?" or waiting to point fingers until after Iago brings the "occular proof" that he had asked for. (Assuming Othello would have ''believed'' Desdemona.)
* In ''[[Thirteen (
* In Clare Boothe's preface to her play ''[[The Women]]'', she notes that if Mary, the principal character of her play, were a reasonably intelligent woman, she would quickly have found a different play to be in.
* The opera la Sonnambula, by Bellini. Sure, she's in a compromising position... but it's completely out of character for her.
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== Video Games ==
Video Games really can't get away with these, as they can cause brutal [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], but developers try anyway. If the player character is the idiot, see [[Stupidity Is the Only Option]]. Plot-essential [[NPC]] stupidity can go here. <ref> However; at the same time, doing something that's [[Too Dumb to Live]] is usually given a game-over scenario.</ref>
* The ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' series is ''really'' guilty of this. Most of the time your clients are in a pickle because they [[Be
** ''[[Apollo Justice]]'':
*** There is a case where the protagonist must figure out how a magic trick is performed, not because it has any relevance to the case but simply because ''the judge wants to know''. Despite the fact that everyone else in the courtroom has figured it out, including your client and your assistant, no-one will help because "[[Serious Business|you can't tell a magician's trick]]".
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** And that the cute little dog that the Bard adopted wouldn't have been killed in the game's major [[Kick the Dog]] moment.
** And with the kind of things he does pull while conscious of his actions, Finstown and the Nuckelavee for example, one could argue that he'd make things worse, {{spoiler|or possibly just go through with it anyway since you'll find that the evil ending is one sweet deal for the bard, while being good gets him nothing.}} The bard is a self-serving liar and crook, hardly a hero in any case.
* Much of the conflict from ''[[
* Similarly, Mario and Shadow Mario in ''[[
** Shadow Mario looks like he's made of dark blue water, while Mario is Caucasian with a red shirt and hat (although the overalls are blue).
** 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 (
* 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.
* ''[[Mega Man (
** ''9'' Dr. Wily, the villain for the last 9 games, appears on TV to declare that Dr. Light, the man who helped put him away the last 8 times, is the true villain. He then goes on to ask for money to be transferred into his [[Swiss Bank Account]], so that he can fight Dr. Light himself. For some reason, a planet full of idiots falls for this, and Dr. Light is arrested.
** ''7'' gets special notice in that once Dr. Wily was finally arrested after the events of ''6'', he was imprisoned in the middle of the city. Dr. Wily, the man who's undoubtedly caused billions in property damage and has killed thousands, if not millions, because he feels slighted by the world and tried to take it over ''6'' times, is ''imprisoned in the middle of the city''. As opposed to executing him immediately because he's too dangerous to be left alive. With no explanation why they did that.
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*** Many robots are {{spoiler|infected by a computer virus that makes robots violent.}} No one is able to make a cure because humanity doesn't have the support that robots provide. No one, not even Dr. friggin' Light himself, decides to either just cut their losses, back up as much data as possible, and reset the robots to factory settings to purge the virus. Hell, this game points out how stupid humanity is since they followed Dr. Light's example and made the robots that friggin' complicated in the first place.
*** ''10'' also gets a special notice in that it's the '''third''' time Dr. Wily has gotten something of his to Dr. Light's lab. The first was when Dark Man kidnapped Dr. Light in ''5's'' intro. The second time was Bass infiltrating Light's lab in 7 so he could steal Mega Man's Rush Adaptor. Instead of piloting his flying saucer himself Dr. Wily could've flown it by remote with a bomb inside and turned Mega Man into a crater. Heck, just shooting Dr. Light at ''any'' point in 5 would've saved Wily so much trouble.
** Every Mega Man game is full of idiots. In ''[[
* ''[[
** 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.
* Many of the [[Story Arc|Story Arcs]] in ''[[City of Heroes]]'', especially when [[Villain Sue|Nemesis]] gets involved. A lot of it involves blatantly misplaced trust in blatantly villainous organizations with proven track records. None of it quite compares to the free comic books involving the Freedom Phalanx, however. They are depicted as total caricatures of their in-game selves, completely incompetent to a level that makes one wonder how they could have become the premier superhero group. They also get defeated by opponents that, in-game, would just go squish in a single attack from them. It has to be seen to be believed. It still bothers a majority of the players that these comics are, sadly, [[Canon]].
* 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.
* ''[[
** Made especially [[Egregious]] when you realize it's an action-adventure remake of ''[[
** In particular is the fact that "Raiden" makes a big point of the fact that Shang Tsung grows more powerful the more people die and yet sends Liu Kang and Kung Lao to go kill a bunch of powerful warriors - that should have been a huge red flag on its own when dealing with a [[Shapeshifting|shapeshifter]], but it gets even dumber when you consider how often he got angry at the two for asking any questions whatsoever and actively worked to turn them against each other.
** Also ''Deception'', the plot of which basically happened because [[Unwitting Pawn|Shujinko was so gullible.]]
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** 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-Destruct Mechanism|self-destruct system]] and force you to go to ''Antarctica'' when you do escape.
** 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 (
* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]''. Almost every problem in the second half of the game that isn't strictly the war itself could have been easily solved by someone, ''anyone'', looking at {{spoiler|Alicia's Valkyria abilities and the effects they would have on her}} from an objective standpoint, instead of making assumptions based on the bad example set by [[The Dragon|Selvaria]] and her first traumatic power eruption. Welkin only manages to come close by {{spoiler|tying it in with his love confession}}, and of course this only happens at the most dramatic moment possible rather than taking her aside to reassure her when she first expressed how overwhelmed she was. {{spoiler|By the time she decided to attempt the [[Suicide Attack]] on the Marmotah, Alicia had clearly gained control over her new abilities, and could use them as much or as little as she chose. Everyone could have avoided a lot of trouble if someone had just pointed that out early on and attended to her emotional state for five minutes, instead of Welkin waiting until the last minute while everyone else ignored her repeated cries for help.}}
* In ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'' the major town in the second act has a castle under generally heavy guard. The chapter would be SO much easier if the king in your party would just come right out and say, "I'm King Albert, here's my proof, and I can vouch for these people." But he never does. Oddly enough he even comes right out and says he will not bring up his royalty to get around, despite the rather massive stakes.
* ''[[Suikoden I]]''. For fuck's sake, they straight-up call it ''Robber's Tea''! Even if the [[Heroic Mime]] main character is suspicious, the [[Boisterous Bruiser]] will still ''drag him along.'' It all wouldn't be so bad if the [[Boisterous Bruiser]] in question didn't usually seem to be so clever as to be utilizing [[Obfuscating Stupidity]].
* ''[[Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story
{{quote| '''Bowser''': “TOO MANY WORDS.”}}
* ''[[
* ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]''.
** The Crowning Moment of Stupidity comes when one of your party members ''blows himself up for absolutely no reason whatsoever''.
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* 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 film)|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 (
* ''[[Saints Row]] The Third''.
** The prequels were intentionally over the top, but at least things made sense in the bizarre world where police reality shows involve chainsaws and gang conflicts are solved with radioactive waste. The third game does away with realism altogether and relies on every NPC being an idiot.
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== Web Comics ==
* ''[[
** Sonichu #1: Rosechu could have escaped on her own, considering she is just as powerful as the title character. But no, she willingly became the [[Distressed Damsel]].
** Sonichu #4: If Chris-Chan hadn't done... whatever it was... that got him suspect of solicitation, this issue wouldn’t even have a premise, let alone a plot.
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== Western Animation ==
* Virtually every episode of ''[[Fantastic Four:
* 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-Thin Disguise|Paper Thin Disguises]] in fictional history. We can expect this thing from those minor Billy and Mandy characters but ''every single KND moon base operative too''? The only ones without an Idiot Ball attached were Mandy, Grim, Numbuh Five, The DCFDTL, and (most of the time) Numbuh One. Billy, on the other hand, ''is'' an idiot ball, so he doesn't count.
* 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.
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** If they don't know who's behind the mask, why would they assume the [[Monster of the Week]] isn't dangerous?
** Some incarnations (particularly Mystery Inc.) justify this by making the monsters total psychopaths who are perfectly willing to commit murder and widespread destruction if someone gets in their way. They may be frauds but that doesn't mean they're not dangerous.
* Happens more than it should to poor Eddie Spenser, Jr. on ''[[
* The various ''[[Super Mario Bros. (
* Almost any given episode of ''[[
* One ''[[Chaotic]]'' episode involves {{spoiler|Kaz's [[Evil Teacher|science teacher]]}} receiving scans from the UnderWorlders in exchange for the technology to travel between dimensions. Did he not stop to consider that if Chaotic was invaded, ''all his scans would be worthless''? ({{spoiler|[[It Was All Just a Dream]] though.}})
* ''What's with Andy?'' is a walking Idiot Plot as you'd have to be a complete idiot to fall for ANY of Andy's pranks.
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** In episode "Where Is Thy Sting," first when {{spoiler|Bumblebee and Wasp switched places with none of the other Autobots noticing that Bumblebee (Really Wasp) has purple eyes as oppose to his normal blue ones. This was visible even ''with'' Bumblebee's battle mask up.}} Then, Optimus and Ratchet get into [[Let's You and Him Fight|a battle with Jetfire and Jetstorm of the Elite Guard]] which could have been avoided.
** [[Most Definitely Not a Villain|"Wasp - I mean, Bumblebot - I mean, ''I'' will stay here in case Bumblebot - I mean, Wasp - comes back."]] He's being so incredibly obvious and while Bulkhead can be forgiven (though he really should notice his best friend acting so strangely), Prowl cannot. Especially since at one point they both ''gape'' at him before he corrects himself.
* Every single episode of ''[[
* On ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', the incredibly awesome Fireside Girls are trying to raise money to protect an endangered critter. They ask P&H's help because their attempts at making money, like running a lemonade stand, ended in disaster. Unlike other instances of sudden ability lack on the show, it is not presented as ironic or even pointed out that these girls have been a race-pit crew, mission control on a space flight, and rebuilt a time machine despite faulty instructions. Yet they cannot run a lemonade stand.
* ''[[Two Stupid Dogs
* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]''.
** The Idiot Plots don't detract from the show since they're a large part of what drives it along, but they're there nonetheless (and, as stated, are a HUGE part of what drives it along). The only reason nobody discovers Timmy Turner's fairies is because of the stupidity of everyone else. Even when they're disguised as ordinary objects, ''with obvious faces'', and '''they speak while in this state, in front of large crowds.''' Timmy's parents (and even random people on the street at times) will, instead of questioning Timmy's various talking possessions, simply remark that "That [object that clearly should not be speaking but did] is right!"
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** 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, 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.
* ''[[
* ''[[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-Thin Disguise|obviously]] an alien. Their sheer stupidity is [[Tropes Are Tools|part of the humor]], though. Even Zim and Dib themselves hold the [[Idiot Ball]] a lot, so a lot of specific episodes fall under this trope.
* Every episode of ''[[Beavis and
* This is the premise of the "Chicken Boo" segment on ''[[
* A few episodes of ''[[Jimmy Two
* ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'':
** 'Joyride'. To put it simply, Villain Avalanche joins the X-Men to get into Kitty's pants. Scott doesn't trust him. Meanwhile, the New Recruits start taking the X-Vehicles out for joyrides. When it becomes obvious ''someone'' is taking the vehicles out for a joyride they start to suspect Avalanche. Two ways this could have been avoided: Lance could have told them it wasn't him and that he saw the New Recruits sneaking around, or Xavier could have checked their minds/Logan could have used his advanced senses to smell the cars and detect who had been using them. In the end Avalanche takes Kitty with him when he realizes they're taking the X-Jet, thanks to their presence, Jubilee accidentally fries the control panel, and they're nearly blown up by the US military. Avalanche then quits because life at the mansion is too hard.
** 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
** 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.
** 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 ''[[
{{quote| ''Narrator'': Yes, they are all idiots aren't they?}}
* ''[[
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