Only Sane Employee/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Only Sane Man, but in the workplace.

  • Straight: Alice often has to keep her co-workers Bob, Claire, and Danny under control.
  • Exaggerated: She spends more time doing this than she spends actually doing her job.
  • Downplayed: Alice will occasionally have to calm her co-workers down, but not much else.
  • Justified: Hey, someone's gotta keep these people in line!
  • Inverted: Alice is the only quirky co-worker of an otherwise sane cast. They spend most of their time keeping her under control.
  • Subverted: Alice is actually just as insane as the rest of them.
  • Double Subverted: ...but she knows that she has to behave herself at work, and tries to make the others do the same.
  • Parodied: Every workplace in Troperville has someone like this.
  • Zig Zagged: Whether Alice is holding the Sanity Ball or not varies Depending on the Writer.
  • Averted: Alice's co-workers are just as sane as she is.
  • Enforced: "We need some sanity in this show! Let's introduce someone to keep the others in line."
  • Lampshaded: "Honestly, without me, they'd never get their work done!"
  • Invoked: Alice's boss, Eudora, hires her specifically to help her keep her employees under control.
  • Defied: "I give up! I'll never be able to get these people to get their work done!"
  • Discussed:

Eudora: Thank God I hired you. Otherwise no one would ever get their work done.

  • Conversed: "Have you ever noticed that there's always one normal employee in these shows?"

Danny, put down the stapler and head back to Only Sane Employee.