Stupid Crooks: Difference between revisions

[[File:Dummy_4330.jpg|frame|[[Epic Fail|N00BS can't ever get anything right!]]]]

People in general are never really the brightest of folks in the first place, but there's something about [[Stupid Crooks]] that always distinguishes them from the rest of the pack. Naturally, the very fact that they seek to commit acts of crime doesn't win them any favors or admiration from anyone, but [[Do Wrong Right|the fact that they can't even succeed at it]] doesn't do them any good, either. Knowing that, the escapades involving this type of criminal usually amount to one of the greatest forms of [[Comedic Sociopathy]] one can find ''anywhere''.

Most commonly, [[Stupid Crooks]] are low-level burglars and petty thieves; other times, they may be people who don't even have criminal records or have never committed a crime before but are suddenly tempted to commit one for fast cash or some other small reward. No matter what though, these guys [[Plethora of Mistakes|always get]] ''[[Plethora of Mistakes|everything]]'' [[Plethora of Mistakes|wrong]]. They use [[Paper-Thin Disguise|Paper Thin Disguises]] (that don't work), they rob a store that they visit daily where all the employees know them, they use their real names to communicate with each other, they do all three of those things at once and more! Stupidity has no limits, and that has never been truer than in instances involving [[Stupid Crooks]].

On most occasions, [[Failure Is the Only Option]] with the crook(s) either bungling a job that has low-risk and is extremely petty (like taking candy from a baby) or one that comes with greater risk in a criminal field that they have no experience with. [[Stupid Crooks]] always get caught by the cops (even when [[Police Are Useless]] for anything else) or otherwise end up having [[Laser-Guided Karma|a price to pay for their idiocy]]. In either conclusion, [[Amusing Injuries]] are very likely to occur.

The few times when a crook manages to get away with anything, the matter usually comes down to a [[Contrived Coincidence]] or two and a hefty dose of [[Subverted Trope|subversion]] that allows the crook to slip by when everyone else is preoccupied with a much larger mess that was made, especially true if the character isn't actually after any plot-crucial [[MacGuffin|MacGuffins]] and the character [[Bit Part Badguys|only serves to advance other circumstances of a story]]; in the very rare event that a Stupid Crook ''does'' get away with a plot-crucial [[MacGuffin]] by the end of the story, expect this to feel like a [[Shocking Swerve]].

* As the ''[[Snatch]]'' example would suggest, [[Stupid Crooks]] are very popular topic among late night talk show hosts, especially [[The Tonight Show|Jay Leno]]. Whenever Jay does his "Headlines" segment, you can always expect at least one story about a dumb criminal to crop up.

* The [[Darwin Awards]] also includes some. This being the Darwin Awards, most of the [[Stupid Crooks]] mentioned there manage to kill or injure themselves in the process of proving themselves worthy of that site and this trope.