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Just Eat Gilligan: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Gilligan screwed it up! Why don't they just kill him?"|'''Red Forman''', [[That '70s Show]]}}
{{quote|''[[Memetic Mutation|"If anyone listened to Jack Bauer, the show would be called '3'.]]"''|'''[[24|Jack Bauer Facts]]'''}}
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== Literature ==
* In ''[[Ella Enchanted]]'', it seems that Ella's curse could have been completely nullified if her mother or Mandy had just ordered her to make her own decisions about orders instead of obeying them. Whether it would have worked or not is debatable (some people argue that the next order would countermand it, but it's possible that if an order is about orders, it must be obeyed to the exclusion of other orders, meaning the only thing that would mess her up is if someone says "Obey me"), but it couldn't have hurt to try. It was tried (and failed) in the movie, but we have [[Dork Age|several tropes]] [[Fanon Discontinuity|for that]].
** It's established in-story that a subsequent order overrides an old one (Ella is at one point worried about Hattie ordering her to explain why she's so compliant, because that would break the order her mom gave her not to tell anyone). The solution would be, at best, temporary.
* In ''[[Journey to the West]]'', almost every story features Xuanzang believing Zhu Bajie's lies about Wukong, taking his bad advice, or taking his side in arguments. He gets captured by demons as a result, and despite this happening dozens of times in the story, he never realizes that Bajie is always wrong. Every single time.
* In the second ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' book, Edward thinks Bella is dead and goes to try and kill himself, leading to a rush to save him. That part of the book could've been taken out entirely if he just called or texted someone to confirm that she really is dead.
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** [[Big Bad|Voldemort]] would have been able to kill Harry many times in the series if he hadn't arrogantly insisted on having to kill Harry personally. Since his wand and Harry's are linked and unable to work properly against each other, Voldemort instead spends half the series being thwarted by this connection and half the final book trying to find a loophole by using other wands, when at any time he could have just ordered his servants to kill Harry on sight for him.
*** Though there is the point that Voldemort runs a fairly EVIL group, which has mixed loyalties, a near amatuer can take out the best Magician given surprise or some other advantage (Draco vs Dumbledore, Harry vs whoever) means that theoratically any of the Death Eaters could take out Voldemort, and the fact that Voldemort's ace in the hole, immortality, merely means he is reduced to a wandering spirit instead of outright killed... You must realize that Voldemort rules through FEAR and by keeping an image of supremacy and invulnerability. So... no, he CAN'T ask one of his minions to destroy his arch-nemesis for him. One, it makes him look bad. Two, it makes his minion look TOO GOOD...
*** Also, the prophecy in a round about way said that only one could kill the other, so he most likely decided not to waste the manpower doing something he believed to be pointless anyway.
** In the first book, when Harry, Ron and Hermione discovered that Quirrell planned to steal the Philosopher's Stone, rather than trying to stop him themselves, why didn't they tell the school's teachers or staff about Quirrel's plans? Granted, they tried to inform Dumbledore about it and were told he wasn't at the school at that moment. But there were so many other teachers and members of the school's staff who were far more capable than three first-year students and would have handled the situation much better.
*** They did try to tell McGonagall, but she refused to listen and just insisted that the stone was protected well enough. Still, they might have tried harder or tried other teachers.
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== Live Action TV ==
* Named after what is likely the most [[Egregious]] example: the title character from ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'', whose bungling so often sabotaged the rest of the cast's attempts to get back to civilization, that one has to wonder why they simply didn't eat him -- ''or'' at least arrange for some sort of "accident" to happen to him. Or if they didn't want to be killers, they could've just locked him up until they got off the island (which would likely only take a week), then send someone back for him afterwards. Or they simply could have given Gilligan a less critical role in the plan.
** [[Lampshaded]] on an episode of ''[[That '70s Show]]'', when Red, watching ''Gilligan's Island'', wonders why the rest of the cast doesn't just kill Gilligan.
*** Rebecca's father on ''[[Cheers]]'' made the same point:
{{quote|"As a man who has thirty years of naval experience, I can say with all confidence that if that crew got together and shot Gilligan, they'd have been off that island in a week. Problem solved."}}
** Evidence from the show itself actually help's Gilligan's case. [http://captaincomics.ning.com/forum/topics/the-baron-watches-gilligans?id=3370054%3ATopic%3A27071&page=29#comments Statistically speaking], out of 98 episodes, only 37 involved a direct possibility of escaping the island. Of those 37, only 17 potential rescues were foiled as a result of Gilligan's actions. Admittedly, that's still a lot of rescues for one man to screw up, but the series also has a large number of episodes where Gilligan's actions ''save'' everybody - from death, enslavement, imprisonment, etc.
*** The backstory between Gilligan and The Skipper is that Gilligan saved The Skipper's life by pulling him away from a land mine. This sets up an even more interesting paradox: Gilligan saved the Skipper, and as a result they teamed up to eventually strand themselves and five other people on an island. If Gilligan just let him die, there would have been no series at all.
** Alternate question: if the professor is [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|such a genius on every subject]], how come he doesn't know how to build a new boat?
*** Russell Johnson's (The actor who played [[The Professor]]) stock answer: If you were a mega Science Geek trapped on an island with two beautiful girls...would YOU be quick to get rescued?
** Third question: if the Minnow had, as passengers, one of the world's richest men, and one of Hollywood's favorite actresses, why weren't there more exhaustive rescue attempts? Considering how many people managed to stumble onto the island, it couldn't have been all ''that'' far from the mainland, and since the boat was still in one piece, even if it wasn't sea-worthy, it should have been visible from a low-flying plane ''specifically searching for it.'' It was probably really all Thurston Howell's fault. Someone had plotted to eliminate him, and when he wasn't killed in the shipwreck, then to keep him on the island, in order to have control of his money. Either his nearest relative, or estate trustee probably knew where he was the whole time.
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*** The sad thing being that, in the pilot episode, Neelix was comic relief, but he was ''competent'' comic relief. He owned his own starship, was a combat-hardened veteran, was a successful businessman, and had the stones to manipulate the Voyager crew into being weapons against his enemies. Next episode, he suddenly becomes the [[The Scrappy/Live Action TV|Scrappy]].
*** He's not just put in charge of morale, but also of ''cooking'', of all things. His [[Lethal Chef|food is so awful]] that in one episode he actually ''poisons'' the ship with his cooking fumes. Not the ship's crew, but the ''actual ship itself.''
*** In [http://www.sfdebris.com/voyager/e835.asp "Investigations"] Neelix conducts a rogue investigation, makes an accusation using weak evidence, and violates the privacy of fellow crew members.
*** A [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMHzOjggHoA youtube] clip on how Neelix should have been handled in the series.
*** In the episode [http://www.reviewboy.com/memorial.html "Memorial"] Neelix is more overbearing than usual. He insists that a [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Memorial_(episode) memorial] that transmits [http://sfdebris.com/voyager/e936.asp painful] memories into others be left active. The only person who supports him is Janeway.
*** What makes the above example even more ridiculous is that his reaction to experiencing those traumatising memories was to hallucinate, pick up a phaser and hold Naomi hostage in the Mess Hall, believing he was protecting children in a combat-zone. It took a while for Tuvok to talk him down. And that is one of the memories you want someone ''else'' to remember? The poor sod who next undergoes that could easily kill half of his crew, blow a hole in the side of the ship or get himself shot!
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* ''[[Mission Impossible (TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'' actually has this inverted. Whenever there seems to be an easier, alternate way to accomplish the goal for the episode, one of the characters will bring it up in the pre-mission briefing and then an explanation as to why that can't work is given. In fact, the standing reason why the Impossible Mission Force can't just assassinate targets (which is obviously much easier than the convoluted schemes on the show) is because of a "policy decision" on behalf of the higher-ups in the United States.
* ''[[Dennis the Menace (TV series)|Dennis the Menace]]''. Mr. Wilson's life would be much better if the Mitchells would move away. The worst part is that the man is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to know this, and his warnings to the other characters are tragically ignored.
* In ''[[Survivor]]'', several seasons had people shouting, "Just vote out ''x''!" at their TVs. Especially recent seasons, wherein players seemed to have become afraid to rock the boat and try taking control of their alliances and vote out the designated "leader".
** ''Redemption Island'' would have had a ''very'' different outcome if the [[Too Dumb to Live|Ometepes]] realized Rob was too dangerous to be allowed to run the game. Especially jarring considering the very first tribal council, Kristina reveals she has the idol meaning that Rob doesn't, and has a ''very'' big sign reading, "Vote me out" on his face. Unsurprisingly, he wound up winning.
** ''South Pacific''. Did it simply never occur to the Savaiis that they probably should have voted out Cochran? Especially after all they did to him?
** ''One World''. Viewers very quickly began to expect that everyone would just let Colton walk all over everybody. He did- until he was medevaced.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' Season Seven would have had far less complications ensue in the second half of the season had the main characters invented some kind of mandatory "touch" system where they would have to make regular physical contact with each other to see if everyone present was corporeal. The First Evil caused so many problems by imitating other characters as an illusion that it seems odd that no system is invented to regularly verify that everyone there is really who they say they are.
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