Only Sane Employee: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

You're the [[Only Sane Man]] at The Company and your job description reads, "[[The Reliable One|Babysit everyone else, stay sane and, if you have any spare time, try to get some of your actual work done]]."

 

 

* The anime [[OAV]] ''Animation Runner Kuromi'' combines this with animation-industry self-parody.

* Rossiu, from ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', after the timeskip, is the only one in the [[Alternative Character Interpretation|Dai-Gurren Junta]] (with the possible exception of Leeron, who just wants to do Science!) with any ability to run things. At all. Seriously, they're shocked by his development of standardisation and law courts. It ''might'' just be because he's the only one who grasps the concept of sitting down and thinking about things, rather than just running off to blow something up.

** Of course, [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|when he takes it too far]], their complaints began to make sense...

* A [[Fan Wank|possible viewpoint]] of Kyon's role in the SOS-Dan in ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]''. He is, basically, the babysitter/KidWithTheLeash for a [[A God Am I|potentially dangerous]] [[Reality Warper]] with a personality that can be argued as "Heroic Sociopath", or even "one-woman embodiment of [[Comedic Sociopathy]]".

** And let's not forget that Sasami pretty much keeps the house in order and running properly within the OVA contiuum. And every other continuum, to some small extent.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Mina Murray in the ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' comics. She even states that she is "In charge of this menagerie." Well, when your team consists of an old opium-addicted hunter; a science-pirate; an insane, lecherous invisible guy, and a wussy doctor who can turn into a rampaging behemoth, 'menagerie' is the only word to describe it. She takes it to the point that she's the ''de facto'' leader of the group, as she's the only one normal and grounded in reality enough to actually keep them together and pointed in a relatively useful direction.

* Robin Chapel of ''[[Damage Control]]''.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Stranger Than Fiction]]'', Karen Eiffel is given a personal assistant to help her out with writer's block and make sure she finishes the book (key word: ''given''. She does not want a personal assistant, and she does not want to be forced into finishing her book, she just wants to let it happen organically. [[Executive Meddling|Her publishers, on the other hand]], want another book to sell. And to be fair, she's already quite far beyond the deadline.).

* It's unlikely the listing for the "cemetery caretaker" job in ''[[Cemetery Man]]'' mentioned having to stop the living dead from escaping the graveyard. Hell, the town doesn't even pay for the bullets.

 

== Literature ==

** Also at Unseen University where this role is filled by Ponder Stibbons, the Archchancellor or the Librarian, depending on what job needs doing.

*** Latterly also Rincewind.

*** The Bursar tried hard to be one of these before he required dried frog pills, but the Archchancellor proved a bit too much for him to handle.

* [[Team Mom|Susan]] in Arthur Ransome's ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' books manages to keep a number of people sane.

* Police chief Arly Hanks, from Joan Hess's Maggody novels, is this for her ''entire town''.

 

** To a lesser extent, Pete from the same show, as he has to take care of Liz when she goes off the rails herself, as well as (apparently) dealing with the NBC pages.

*** Although recently, Pete seems to be going off the deep end himself, more so than usual.

* Possibly the title character of ''[[Ugly Betty]]''. She babysits her boss 24/7, but she often comes to rescue of everyone else in the main cast, including the ones who treat her badly, not to mention the times she saved the entire magazine.

* Dave Nelson from ''[[News Radio]]''.

* Polly in ''[[Fawlty Towers]]''.

* Andy Travis from ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]''.

* In ''[[Primeval]]'', Captain Becker is flat out told that this is his job description. Babysit the [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|scientists]], don't get sucked up in their insane theories, don't let them get themselves killed, and, <s>when</s> if he has time, review the security of the base.

* Kermit the Frog on ''[[The Muppet Show]]''.

** Coach Beiste has fallen into this role, occasionally even realizing that she is working in an insane asylum that masquerades as a high school.

* In short, the lead character of virtually every workplace sitcom.

* On ''[[Bones]]'', it was FBI Agent Seely Booth's job to work with the no social skills "squints." Then Dr. Camille Saroyan was hired to oversee them all (including Dr. Temperance Brennan, despite what Brennan may think sometimes) so she can be this.

** Clark Edison, one of the interns, also falls into this category. He prefers a professional environment, often expressing annoyance when the topic of conversation switches from investigation to the episode's side-plot. Which makes it all the funnier on the rare occasion that he joins in, and the others think that his reaction is 'too much'.

** However, somewhat averted when you look deeper into the source material: most of the company commanders were untested in combat, and falling back on their training and what little experience they had. In fact, one company commander's assistant, who was viewed as a brown-nose by all the men in the company, actually turned out to be one of the most competent and respected commanders when he was promoted.

* On the American version of ''[[The Office]]'', the employees at Dunder-Mifflin can be grouped into "sane" and "insane", although this definition is fluid and many characters have drifted over time. Notably, many characters who started out very sane have since dove off the deep end (Jan, Ryan, and Toby, though he recovered). Some characters who are insane have flashes of sanity or at least competence (Michael, Angela, Andy, and even Dwight), and some characters are sane but helpless (Phyllis) or apathetic (Stanley, Darryl). Jim and Pam are usually portrayed as sane, though sometimes they let their flights of fancy get the better of them, and, as a recurring theme, whenever Jim finds himself in a leadership position, he is far less competent (since his worst fear is "becoming Michael"). By far the most rational, level-headed character in the office is Oscar, and in more recent seasons he has taken to [[Lampshade Hanging|pointing this out]] repeatedly. (He cites himself, Jim, Pam, and Toby as the "coalition of reason", and when Jim and Pam took their honeymoon, complained that the ratio of sane-to-insane employees was disrupted.)

** While Oscar is often shown as having more knowledge than anyone else, the job of looking after the insane characters falls squarely on Jim's shoulders. He had to defuse Michael's and Dwight's schemes for years. The clearest example is when he goes along as they prank another company branch, because left to their own devices they would have used explosives. Oscar sometimes gives background comments, but he never misses work time to do damage control.

* Ally and Georgia were more or less this in ''Ally Mcbeal'' - though Georgia was clearly the more level-headed as Ally is completely bonkers in her personal life. This may be why Georgia was often paired with Richard in cases, trying to drive sense into a guy who was in it to make money and destroy the law as a bonus. By contrast, Ally usually worked well with John because she was the only one who ''understood his neuroses''.

* This seems to be the entire point of the role of The Hand Of The King in [[Game of Thrones]]. It's even lampshaded by the King in the first episode:

'''King''': I'm not trying to honour you, I'm trying to get you to run my kingdom while I eat, drink, and whore my way to an early grave! }}

* Trudy in ''[[House of Anubis]]'' does the actual day-to-day running of the house with no help from Victor whose only concern is keeping his secrets secret.

* Castiel in ''[[Supernatural]]'' often comes across as the only sane Angel in the heavenly choir.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* ''[[Dilbert]]'' is what happens after the last sane guy ''quits'', replaced by the biggest [[Cloudcuckoolander]] of them all.

** And when those who once tried to keep everything under control (Dilbert, Wally and Alice) flat out gave up and started exploiting the system for their own personal gain.

*** He has started taking lessons from Wally.

* Inverted ''[[Gaston Lagaffe]]'': Gaston is the only dysfunctional employee, but he is crazy enough to turn everyone's job into this trope. Fantasio (and later Prunelle) spends most of his time trying to get Gaston to work. And then when Gaston tries to work, [[The Klutz|he just screws it all up]].

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In any game, in nearly all gaming groups, there '''WILL''' be one of these among the players/Dungeon Master.

 

== Video Games ==

** For the record, the rest of the unit consists of a British officer obsessed with James Bond and his own Britishness, a doctor obsessed with B-movies and [[Foreshadowing|cloning]], and a veteran soldier obsessed with [[Extreme Omnivore|eating everything that moves]].

* In ''[[Fire Emblem]] 9 (Path of Radiance)'', the Crimean army is [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|almost entirely made of nutcases]], with trusty right-hand Titania and stern strategist Soren the seemingly only persons to do any work outside of fighting. Captain Ike has said explicitly stated he couldn't do anything without them. Then again, there was this one exchange about storming an enemy fortress in which Soren succumbed to the craziness and Ranulf was the [[Only Sane Man]] left. It went something like...

Ranulf: Errr, ''guys''?! Isn't this the part where we stop and carefully consider strategies?! No? (Sigh.) }}

** The team assassins, the Spy and the Sniper are also, unlike their colleagues, capable of extended rational thought. In Meet the Spy, the BLU Spy was dead serious about the threat posed by the RED Spy, while the Heavy and Soldier {{spoiler|(the Scout was the RED Spy in disguise)}} were hardly so concerned.

 

** And Redcloak as well, considering he has to <s> stop</s> keep the rest of Team Evil wasting time on games of Feed the Paladin to the Shark.

*** No Useful Advice Goes Unpunished, does it, Right-Eye?

* Lorna Dilbrook from ''[[Newshounds]]'', especially in the comic's first incarnation.

* Tip from ''[[Skin Horse]]'' to Unity and Sweetheart. And, when Tip isn't around, Sweetheart to Unity.

 

== Web Original ==

* This is the premise of [[Chad Vader]], although it's highly debatable who the sane one is.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Stan from ''[[South Park]]'', especially since season 6. His extremely frequent [[Catch Phrase]] gesture in any situation in which he is forced to play Liz Lemon (usually to a bunch of ''adults''), he will squeeze his eyes tightly shut and [[Face Palm|pinch the bridge of his nonexistant nose]] in one of the most expressive and dead-on displays of utter exasperation ever witnessed. Often accompanied by a muttered "Oh goddamnit..."

** He and the band have both stated that it is understood, if not directly outlined in his job description, that part of his job is to talk them out of bad ideas they think of when they're drunk (not that they can't think of bad ideas when they're sober), meaning that this trope is almost his literal job description.

*** Further evidenced in the opening episode of Season 3, in which the band almost goes bankrupt due to spending money too recklessly in his absence.

* Hank Hill in ''[[King of the Hill]]'', especially in the later seasons as his co-workers grew more and more quirky. Also, his role in his group of friends. Things tend to deteriorate rapidly when Bill and Dale (sometimes Boomhauer) are left to their own devices. Consider the episode where Boomhauer accidentally gets committed to an asylum because the people in Houston [[Motor Mouth|can't understand him]]. He calls Dale, who ends up there too (he tried to sneak in as if he were a secret agent), and ''he'' calls Bill, who checks himself in voluntarily. Finally, at this point, the grudgingly admit they need Hank, who gets the matter resolved in minutes.

* Heloise on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. In an episode where [[George Jetson Job Security|she's fired]], everything falls apart.

** For a ''very loose'' definition of "Sane".

 

== Real Life ==

* Albert Speer was this to [[Those Wacky Nazis|Those Wacky]] [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]]: someone who wasn't a delusional megalomaniac (Hitler), a self-indulgent junkie (Goering), a crazed fanboy (Goebbels) or all of the above (Himmler). His organizational skill and grasp of reality were largely to blame for the fact that the Third Reich lasted as long as it did (he achieved questionable [[Karma Houdini]] status thanks to a half-hearted attempt to assassinate Hitler, by the splendidly appropriate means of poison gas.)

** Heck, his status as [[Only Sane Man]] is probably responsible for his [[Karma Houdini]] status, since while the others remained completely insane, blinded by ideology, crazed by drug abuse or some combination thereof, he was one of the few who recognized in advance that the war wasn't going to end well for the Nazis and that it was probably a good idea to make sure you could plausibly come out the other side in one piece. The fact that he was the only one out of the Nazi High Command to express any kind of regret or remorse for what had happened probably helped spare his life as well.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]