Crazy Sane: Difference between revisions

Often a staple of wartime environments and the resultant [[Black Comedy]] which often transpires, where the psychological demands of having to deal with death and suffering on a daily basis requires pretty extreme measures to retain one's grip on reality. Compare [[Bored Withwith Insanity]]. Contrast with the so-called "[[Morton's Fork|Catch 22]]" situation, where going crazy is conclusive evidence that you're sane enough to stay on the job.

* The Comedian from ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' dealt with the terrible things he saw and did by seeing the world as a huge joke.

* ''[[MashM*A*S*H (Filmfilm)|Mash]]'' is an obvious example, with Hawkeye and Trapper being the most prominent in the film version.

* Private Handjob gets discharged from the Marines in ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' for [[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms|compulsive masturbation]].

* In ''[[Zombie LandZombieland]]'', Tallahassee suggests the gang smash everything in a store in order to keep from going crazy.

* ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Literaturenovel)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'':

** In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life The Universe And Everything]]'', after being stranded for far too long on a primitive planet, Arthur Dent finally announces to the world "I shall go mad!"...just before a flying sofa carrying Ford Prefect tootles past his view. Ford has gone insane to keep from going insane with boredom. He convinces himself that he's a lemon and spends some time jumping in and out of a lake that thinks it's a gin and tonic (at least, he thinks it thought it was).

** In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/So Long And Thanks For All The Fish|So Long And Thanks For All The Fish]]'', Wonko the Sane makes his house an inside-out "Outside the Asylum" (the rest of the world is "Inside the Asylum").

* The Duck Man in the ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' series has suffered many setbacks in his life, some of which we've seen and some of which remain mysterious, and through it all he's remained intelligent, cultured and a wellspring of good sense -- except that he is never seen without a duck on his head, the existence of which he denies if anybody ever asks about it.

* In ''Brain Twister'' by [[Randall Garrett (Creator)|Randall Garrett]] and Laurence Janifer, most people with a particular mental condition are catatonic or gibbering wrecks. The one known exception is Miss Thompson, who is not only ''compos mentis'', she's arguably the sanest and most sensible character in the book -- except that she's unshakeably convinced that she's a 400-year-old immortal who used to be [[The Virgin Queen|Queen Elizabeth I]].

* ''[[M*A*S*H (TV)|Mash]]'' follows directly in the movie's footsteps, practiced by several characters throughout the series' run, most notoriously by [[Ascended Extra|Klinger]] (who wasn't in the film).