Ping-Pong Naivete: Difference between revisions

 

Compare [[Idiot Ball]], [[Smart Ball]], and [[Aesop Amnesia]]. See also [[Depending On the Writer]]. Usually justified by [[Rule of Funny]]. Can be considered a subtrope of [[Cloudcuckoolander]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** In the drama series this is very much true. However, in the manga series it becomes less as time passes. In the current round, she managed to {{spoiler|see through Yokoya's so-called psychic powers by putting something other than money in her suitcase (a teddybear) which he obviously couldn't know about}}. Also, when the team threatens to fall apart she convinces everyone to keep working together.

** Putting Mr. X part of their team wasn't exactly her fault, since at that time, they ''didn't know'' who Mr. X was. And as noted above, it happens much less later on in the manga, With Nao actually pulling off some of her own tricks.

* Atsushi Arisawa from ''[[Kusatta Kyoushino Houteishiki]]'' is a [[Genius Ditz]] who consistently gets some of the best grades ''in the country'', was invited to an elite highschool in Tokyo ''without'' an entrance exam and who sometimes has enough insight on other people's relationships to identify core problems and underlying psychologies that no one else sees. Unfortunately he has no idea that he's actually that smart, goes to a highschool for delinquents, doesn't see why he was invited to an elite highschool in the first place, completely misses the [[Oblivious to Love|most obvious aspects of most people's relationships]], and has the surface mentality and naivety of a small child on a sugar high! Yes, this is very frustrating!

* [[Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga)|Sakura Kinomoto]], who manages to capture Clow Cards using her brain and ingenuity but [[Oblivious to Love|remain oblivious about people's affection to her]].

*** This is worked into the plot, however, as Mary is horrified to find out that Dick hasn't been tipping the waiters when they've been going out. Suddenly all the rudeness on their return visits makes sense to her.

* Happens all the time on ''[[House (TV)|House]]'', with characters who have known the eponymous [[Jerkass|jerkass]] doctor for ''years'' expressing varying levels of shock every time he does something insane or unethical, to the point that the one time somebody reacted some other way instead, it was a symptom of a {{spoiler|horrible brain-eating parasite}}. These same characters, however, will at other times act familiar with his behavior patterns, usually for a gag. All of the above also applies to his rudeness toward patients and tendency to [[Eureka Moment|pull the correct diagnosis seemingly out of nowhere just when things look bleakest]].

* Nearly everybody on ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' displays this at some point. [[Idiot Hero|Peter and Mohinder]] are the most frequent, but even general [[Badass|BadAsses]] like Noah Bennet and Sylar have conveniently forgotten things they learned or should have figured out several episodes earlier.

* In another alien example: [[Mork and Mindy|Mork]]. One moment he mentions he still doesn't know where babies come from, the next he's making subtle sexual innuendos. This is probably the result of [[Robin Williams]] sticking to the script half the time and [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]] for the other half. It got particularly bad in the second season when [[Executive Meddling|ABC wanted Mork to become more "hip"]].

 

* After [[Booker T]] became "King Booker" in June of 2006, he not only started acting like an [[Upperclass Twit]] but apparently underwent a personality disorder of some sort that caused him to forget everything he had experienced as [[Booker T]]. When he saw [[Edge]] backstage, for instance, he would demand to know who he was - despite having bitterly feuded with Edge just a few years earlier. At other times, however, the old [[Booker T]] persona would reemerge and he'd once again speak in his stereotypical [[Jive Turkey|"Harlem"]] accent.

 

== Video Games ==

* Both [[Fanboy and Chum Chum]] cater to this in various episodes. In one instance they're ridiculously annoying someone with their ADD-riddled antics, and later they're acting perfectly normal, usually when having to deal with a problem caused by someone that's not them.

* Ickis of ''[[Aaahh Real Monsters]]''.

{{quote| '''Reggie''': Did you and Twister switch ''brains''?!}}

* ''[[Animaniacs]]'' has Skippy Squirrel, who switches between an innocent [[Foil]] to his Aunt Slappy and a companion to her shenanigans whenever the episode calls for one or the other.