Mad Mathematician: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* While he's not crazy in the usual sense, Daichi/Bastion Misawa of [[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]] does snap a bit more... strangely... during the White Society arc in season 2. The way he snaps out of it [[Brain Bleach|ain't pretty]]. His going insane was canonically because [[Small Name, Big Ego|people weren't worshiping him as the brightest guy around anymore]], but the snap back (which involved stripping, and then racing around in his birthday suit) was indeed, induced by math. As a side note, before the [[Freak-Out]] he was the proud owner of a [[Room Full of Crazy]] that he regularly repainted just so he could cover the walls with formulas all over again.

* Moriaki-sensei from ''[[Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru]]'' looks like your average [[Stern Teacher]] at first, but he takes Mathematics ''way'' too seriously.

 

== Comic Books ==

* The [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Mad Thinker]] is a big brain mathemagician as well. He once managed to calculate how long it would take the Fantastic Four to invade an enemy fortress, take out the enemies, and escape, and had ''planted a bomb to go off exactly as they had left the building'' blowing up their mutual enemy but not the Four. How on Earth did he do that? 10 minutes to go in, factoring in the Human Torch's average temperature of 2000 celcius... carry the 2... divide by 5... leave 2 minutes for electric signals...

** *grabs black marker and crosses through entire sum* AARGH.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Proof]]''. Entire movie (and, earlier, stage play) about a woman obsessed with the idea that she inherited both her father's mental illness and math abilities.

* [[Ensemble Darkhorse|John Givings]] from ''[[Revolutionary Road]]''. After a mental breakdown, he's placed in the care of his parents. At first, he praises and admires the Wheelers for their desire to have something more out of life, rather than a conformist suburban existence. After they've abandoned these plans, he [[Cluster F-Bomb|calls them out on their hypocrisy]].

 

== Literature ==

** A Game of Shadows conflates his legitimate research with his criminal career, especially if you read any of the articles on the actual (non-evil) mathematicians the filmmakers consulted with in order to design his personal financial code. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130702163532/http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/blog/view/131]

* John Givings from ''[[Revolutionary Road]]'' (see above).

** This could actually be considered a subversion, as his madness is caused not so much by his math skills as by {{spoiler|his repression of his clown heritage}}.

** A more harmless example is the [[Talkative Loon]] Bursar of Unseen University. Mad as a spoon (in recent years, he's gotten better, mostly because the university staff hit upon the idea of using medication to have him hallucinate he was sane, the same way most people do), but can be calmed by asking him a complicated mathematical question, which he can figure out in about a second.

* In [[Dragaera]], the Dragaerans of the House of the Athyra who study pure logic and philosophy tend to become cold and evil, driven to pursue their studies at the expense of anything and anyone.

* The math monks of ''[[Anathem]]'' probably aren't mad, but their very sequestered lifestyle gets them pretty close. Of course, many in the outside world believe they actually are Mad Mathematicians.

* [[H.P. Lovecraft]] was never outright against mathematics, but it did seem to have some unfortunate consequences for his characters, namely in ''"Dreams in the Witch-House"''. Basically, a brilliant young mathematician went mad after moving into a 'haunted house' and discovering [[Alien Geometries|vast, untold of geometries]] [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|outside of human comprehension.]]

 

* The client in the ''[[Burn Notice]]'' episode "Signals and Codes" is a cryptanalytic genius who's uncovered a conspiracy to sell government secrets, but he believes it's a conspiracy by evil aliens against good aliens who send him messages on beams of light. He's a schizophrenic who's been in and out of psych wards for years. He eventually gets a job and meds.

* Winifred Burkel in ''[[Angel]]'' was a gifted young physicist who got trapped in [[Another Dimension]] (more specifically, a demon-ruled, medieval-level [[Crapsack World]] where humans are treated like cattle) for five years. She quickly recovered and became one of the main characters after returning with the heroes to Los Angeles, but when they first met her she'd taken to [[Room Full of Crazy|scribbling equations on cave walls...]]

* Averted by ''[[Numb3rs]]'' - Charlie has his problems but overall he is a pretty sane, steady, and approachable guy. Larry, on the other hand...

* The unsub in the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode "Derailed" had to take a few years off from his groundbreaking work on M-theory to be involuntarily committed due to his violent schizophrenia.

 

== Music ==

And a million miles away, a butterfly flapped its wings

On a cold November day, a man named Benoit Mandelbrot was born }}

 

== Video Games ==

{{quote|'''Wahl''': [[Meaningful Name|Sigma]] [[Deadly Euphemism|must be removed from the equation.]]}}

* N from ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' shows tendencies towards this. He adores functions and formulas, carries a Menger Sponge accessory, and he's trying to "solve the equation to change the world". His [[One-Letter Name]] even fits, since "n" is frequently used as a variable in math equations. However, he's not so much insane as he is... [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|horribly misguided]], {{spoiler|a [[Adult Fear|sheltered and abused]] [[Man Child]] [[Tyke Bomb]] designed to destroy Unova's political system so his [[Treacherous Advisor]] can take over}}, and convinced that [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|Humans Are Bastards]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'': The Mathter

 

== Real Life ==

** This also has to do with his hatred of the current mathematical community, and the associated cultures. He isn't insane, just angry, and considers himself retired from academic mathematics.

* Andrew Wiles (the man who ''finally'' proved Fermat's Last Theorem) claims that he'd probably have gone mad from the effort of doing so, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|if he hadn't made time to play with his children every day.]]

 

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Attention, you factoring Hectopascals! [[The World Ends With You|(It's x 2)DIE!!]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Madness Tropes]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Make My Index Live]]

[[Category:The Turing Option]]

[[Category:Introversion Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]