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{{trope}}
{{quote box|[[File:DisneyTheMadHatter_8075DisneyTheMadHatter 8075.jpg|link=Alice in Wonderland (Disney1951 film)|rightframe]]}}
 
{{quote|''I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.''|''A fridge magnet''}}
 
{{quote|'''Solomon Grundy:''' ''(to [[Lex Luthor]])'' You're crazy.<br />
''[[There Was a Door|Enter Joker, stage left]]''<br />
'''[[Talking to Himself|Joker]]:''' And what's wrong with that? It's done ''wonders'' for me.|''[[Justice League]]'', "Injustice For All"}}
|''[[Justice League]]'', "Injustice For All"}}
 
For a very long time, TV writers seemed to think that one of the universal signs of mental illness was a total inability to perceive one's self as acting oddly. It's tempting to have a mentally ill person utter such classic [[Mad Scientist]] lines as, "[[They Called Me Mad]], but I'm not mad, ''they're'' the ones that are mad!" And certainly, the near sociopathically quirky characters you find on the average [[Sit ComSitcom]] seem to think themselves perfectly ordinary. However, in the real world, some, but by no means all deeply disturbed individuals are like this.
 
Fortunately, this is not always the case. Few characters can be more fun than the Self-Aware Loon. He's crazy and he ''knows'' it. And he's [[Insult Backfire|making the best of it.]]
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Consequentially, he often gets to say clever lines like, "Well, I think it's a good idea, but then, I'm crazy," "I'm crazy, but I'm not ''stupid''," "I may be insane, but you're ''crazy''" or "Oh yes, I'm insane. And you're stuck here with me."
 
Mostly characters who have become unhinged by an exceptional ordeal; rarely results from an organic disorder. Often a facet of the [[Waif Prophet]] or the [[Rabid Cop]]; and frequently a major character component of the [[Shell -Shocked Veteran]] and [[Badass Army|Special Forces]] military types.
 
Usually a fun character, and a little cartoonish, though it can also be played tragically (this is how it usually goes when [['''The Mad Hatter]]''''s illness is organic in origin) as a character is overcome by the knowledge that he is losing his mind and is powerless to stop it.
 
Probably something of a convenience for the writer, as, just as is true of race and handicap, when it's the victim making light of their condition, it doesn't come off quite as insensitive.
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----
{{examples}}
=== '''Examples:''' ===
 
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Jan Valentine of ''[[Hellsing]]'' fits the trope, sociopathically so. Despite being the loopy one compared to his brother, Luke, Jan is the superior soldier and sets off the fall of the Hellsing Organization for no real clear motivation except that he thinks it might be fun to do so. Commits magical seppuku while cackling.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[The Joker]] from ''[[Batman (Comic Book)|Batman]]'' is sometimes depicted this way, as are several other Arkham Asylum patients, including Jervis Tetch - who calls himself The Mad Hatter. Even Batman himself makes neutral-to-positive references to having mental problems.
** The Joker has claimed that the only difference between Batman and himself is what their insanity drives them to do.
** "He's just one man; dressed like a lunatic and armed to the teeth."
*** He also once described himself as "a certified, card-carrying, lock-me-up-throw-away-the-key looney!"
*** A number of Batman's [[Alternative Character Interpretation|Alternative Character Interpretations]]s state that he '''''is''''' certifiably crazy - just in a [[Reluctant Psycho|constructive manner]]. ''[[The Killing Joke]]'' ends on this:
{{quote| '''Joker''': ''See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum... And one night, one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum any more. They decide they're going to escape! So, like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moonlight... Stretching away to freedom. Now the first guy, he jumps straight across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daren't make the leap. Y'see... Y'see, he's afraid of falling. So then the first guy has an idea... He says, hey! I have my flashlight with me. I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk along the beam and join me! B-but the second guy just shakes his head. He suh- says... He says, Wh-what do you think I am? Crazy? You'd turn it off when I was halfway across!''<br />
'''Batman cracks up laughing.''' }}
** Funnily enough, Jervis Tech (aka. [[The Mad Hatter]]) is often portrayed as being afflicted with a serious mental illness (typically schizophrenia) and gets upset if called insane.
* Delirium of [[The Sandman|the Endless]] is completely aware that she's insane. She's also aware that everyone else is insane, and that she's ''sane'', and that she's a fish who swims in an ocean of words. With great concentration, she ''can'' force herself to align to more or less the same mental frequency that the rest of the universe runs on, but it's implied that it hurts her. Evidently she was once Delight, until some great cosmic truth happened to her and [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|drove her to madness]].
* ''[[Deadpool]]'' occasionally describes himself as an "addled moron", although it's never clear how much he's pretending to be stark staring mad and how much of it is ''actually'' being stark staring mad.
** [[Depending Onon the Writer]], of course. Considering a couple of times has him with three different thought bubbles going, each with seperate personalities? Not MUCH is pretending during those interpretations.
** An actual in-universe reasoning for the changes in "how" crazy Deadpool is: since his healing factor is out of control (his body is somewhat accurately described as "walking talking cancer") even his BRAIN is rewiring itself with some regularity. Of course, then there's the fact that he's one of the few that completely ignores the fourth wall; he may have learned about the fact that he's in a comic book and, while he loves it, he [[Gone Mad From the Revelation|may have been affected.]]
* ''[[The Creeper]]'', especially in his later versions where his insanity basically kept Ryder sane or was tempting and fun for him.
* Marv from ''[[Sin City]]'', who's aware he's borderline psychotic (and considers himself less clever than he really is). "I've got a condition. I get confused." He also worries about "turn(ing) into what they always said [he] was gonna turn into- a maniac, a psycho killer." In fact, when he uncovers the truth, he takes some time to find more evidence, just to be sure his mind isn't playing tricks on him.
* ''[[Johnny the Homicidal Maniac]]'' often wonders if he's really crazy. By series end, he pretty much seems to revel in it.
* Rosy the Rascal, Amy's evil counterpart from an alternate universe in the [[Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Bookcomics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]] comic series. A mentally unbalanced clingy jealous girl taken to the extreme (she believes the only way to get Scourge (evil Sonic)'s attention is to smash him with her hammer). She seems aware of her insanity (due to a magic ring she used on herself to get Scourge's attention, but which shattered her mind as a result) yet is unconcerned with his fact, as her only focus now is Scourge.
* Max from ''[[Sam and Max]]'' is very comfortable with his various mental issues, which mainly include [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|the total absence of an attention span]] and [[The Sociopath|being a sociopath]] (with that exact word used), but [[Depending Onon the Writer|occasionally]] include nihilism, paranoia, hallucinations (both the [[Hearing Voices]] kind and the visual kind, although not in combination), codependency, [[Too Kinky to Torture|enjoying being hurt a suspicious amount]] - basically, he won the mental illness lottery. The other characters just accept this as part of who he is, especially Sam, and Max himself is generally upbeat and has tons of fun going on adventures, coming up with wild and wonderful ideas, and [[Lawful Stupid|torturing jaywalkers]].
* [[Arkham Asylum a Serious House On Serious Ground|Amadeus Arkham]] pities the poor shades confined to the Euclidean prison that is sanity.
* Ragdoll in ''[[Secret Six]]'', to the extent that when other lunatics join the team, he resents no longer being the craziest guy in the room.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' EMBODIES (and named) this trope. Strangely enough, though, the Mad Hatter didn't offer many lines that exemplify this as well as the Cheshire Cat did:
{{quote| Alice: "But I don't want to [[Go Among Mad People]]!"<br />
Cat: "Oh, you can't help that, we're all mad here." }}
* [[Douglas Adams]]' ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life The Universe And Everything]]'' (the third book in the then-trilogy which began with ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Literaturenovel)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', but not the last, oddly enough) opens with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect trapped on prehistoric Earth. Arthur decides to make most of their situation by going mad, but is side-tracked by Ford, who had the same idea first and now wants to tell him at length how much fun he's been having.
{{quote| ''"...and then I decided I was a lemon for a couple of weeks. I kept myself amused all that time jumping in and out of a gin and tonic... I found a small lake that thought it was a gin and tonic, and jumped in and out of that. At least, I think it thought it was a gin and tonic. I may (grins crazily) have been imagining it."''}}
** They then chase a time-travelling sofa, leading to Arthur happily reflecting on just how fast his slip into insanity was.
{{quote| ''Arthur suddenly laughed with unexpected delight. For once his day was going entirely according to plan. Not half an hour ago he had decided to go mad, and now here he was, chasing a Chesterfield sofa across the fields of prehistoric Earth.''}}
* Antryg Windrose, from ''[[Literature/The Windrose Chronicles|The Windrose Chronicles]]'' by [[Barbara Hambly (Creator)|Barbara Hambly]]. This character -- influencedcharacter—influenced somewhat by [[Tom Baker]]'s [[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor]] -- is—is very charismatically eccentric, has a reputation for being "dangerously insane", and in deep characterization confesses that he really is mad, from long years of having to sustain beliefs contrary to the reality of others around him.
* The lost explorer Gordon Willikers (get it?) from [[Daniel Pinkwater]]'s ''The Worms of Kukumlima'' frequently discusses or makes reference to his insanity. No one questions this even though he's quite lucid and isn't a great deal more eccentric than anyone else in the book. His insanity, therefore, comes across as a mix of an [[Informed Ability]] and a [[Running Gag]].
* In ''[[I Never Promised You A Rose Garden]]'', the inmates at the psychiatric hospital have rules about such things: the disturbed ward gets to refer to themselves as "crazy", "mad", etc.; the less disturbed patients may call themselves "cuckoo" or other euphemisms. (It's an autobiographical novel, by the way.)
* Colonel Jax in the short story [[Alastair Reynolds|"Nightingale"]] freely admits that he has gone mad after {{spoiler|being turned into a living artwork representing the horror of war.}} The sentient hospital ship responsible for his fate, though, seems blissfully unaware of her insanity. (And some readers might agree that she's the sanest personality in the story....)
* ''[[Moby- Dick]]'': Ahab says, "They call me mad, but I'm demoniac: I am madness maddened."
* In Lisa Goldstein's ''A Mask for the General,'' a prison psychiatrist tells Layla MacKenzie that the complete economic collapse of the US drove her insane. She rejects that: "I made it [her madness] myself, like a work of art."
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Spike for a time on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' ("I'm crazy. What's ''his'' excuse?").
* Dr. Langstrom in the ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' episode "Quarantine".
* John Crichton after his ordeal with Scorpius on ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]''.
* Frank Parker in ''[[Seven Days]]''.
* Sylvia Van Buren in ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]''.
* Mick Belker on ''[[Hill Street Blues]]''.
* Dr. Geiger on ''[[Chicago Hope (TV)|Chicago Hope]]''. Justifying his own God-complex to a review board, he explains that because he thinks he's God, he never gets distracted by self-doubt.
{{quote| "Who's kiddin' who? Personally, I'm a mess. Should you let your sister marry me? Not a chance. But if her heart stops, you want her on my table."}}
* Deadbeat/Kingpin in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy".
** In "Caves of Androzani", the villain Sharaz Jek goes into a "Do you think I am mad?" rant, before quietly concluding "I ''am'' mad."
** The Master would like to give this trope two thumbs up.
** "...There's something you'd better understand about me, cause it's important, and one day, your life may depend on it: I am ''definitely'' a madman with a box!"
* "Howling Mad" Murdoch from ''[[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]]'' qualifies, assuming his condition wasn't ''totally'' an act to avoid the stockade.
* Who forgot the Mads from ''[[MST3KMystery Science Theater 3000]]''? [[Card -Carrying Villain|"What do you want from us? We're evil! ''EVIL!!!]]''"
* Tracy Jordan of ''[[Thirty30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]'' is so proud of how crazy he is that he was totally outraged when a tabloid called him "normal". Tracy felt this constituted "libel" and "character assassination".
* Walter Bishop on ''[[Fringe]]'' takes psychotic drugs at lunch to keep his edge. Walter '''owns''' this trope.
** ''Homemade'' psychotic drugs.
** Whenever a new character asks if Walter is crazy, Peter and Olivia just say yes and move on.
* The title character of ''[[Raines (TV)|Raines]]'' is well aware that the dead people he speaks to are just figments of his imagination. He deals with it with a reasonable degree of equanimity, considering.
* [[One Thousand1000 Ways to Die]]'s segment "Hats-Off folks" discusses the origin of this trope via the life and death of a hatter named Barnaby, who first goes mad and then dies out of mercury poisoning.
 
== [[Music]] ==
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== Radio ==
* This exchange from ''[[The Goon Show]]'':
{{quote| '''Bloodnok''': Do you think I'm crazy?<br />
'''Seagoon''': Yes.<br />
'''Bloodnok''': ''What a splendid judge of character this fellow is.'' }}
 
== [[Tabletop RPGGames]] ==
* The Malkavian Clan in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]'', and their spiritual descendants the Malkovian Bloodline in the [[ReContinuity BootReboot]] ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''. Although all Vampires lose their sanity over time, these guys start out full of crazy and then some. Their madness may have a mystical explanation, or it may just be the fact that since they live in a total [[Crapsack World]] where insanity is inevitable, you may as well skip merrily to bonkers and enjoy yourself.
** The Malkavians of ''Masquerade'' have a variety of opinions on their madness and [[Mad Oracle|the insight it brings]]. A good chunk of the clan just views them as part and parcel of one another (heck, the clan's formal nickname is "The Clan of [[Lunacy|the Moon]]"), whereas a few holdouts (such as Dr. Netchurch in the books, or Alistair Grout in [[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines|Bloodlines]]) view themselves as perfectly normal individuals with keen insight into the ways of the world.
** This has led to a particularly contemptible sort of player character known as the "fishmalk"[https://web.archive.org/web/20151102194043/http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Fishmalk\], who is crazy in a way they think is "wacky" but all the other players think is juvenile, stupid, and distracting from the rest of the game. It is named after a bizarre picture of a Malkavian kissing a fish, check it out at that link.
* Occasionally played very darkly in ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' as a symptom of corruption by Chaos, particularly by Tzeentch.
** And by the good guys. [[State Sec|Inquisitors]] and other Imperial officials occasionally muse that to the average man, doing things like blowing up your own planet to stop the enemy from claiming it, or abandoning millions to die because they aren't worth the cost of life required to save them, are unfathomably evil acts. Yet those who know the true nature of the threats facing the Imperium realize that such atrocities make a chilly sort of sense. "The very existence of the human race is the prize for victory. Our sanity is the sacrifice we make to win that laurel."
* ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'': The good Geniuses are the ones who know they're crazy. The ''bad'' Geniuses are the ones who think they're ''totally sane''.
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== Toys ==
* Vezon from ''[[Bionicle]]'':
{{quote| '''Vezon''':You haven't truly lived until you have seen the world through the eyes of madness. Why, half the time I don't know if what I see is what's really there, or what I wish was there ... or what I pray, I beg, I plead is not.}}
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* [[The Elder Scrolls|Sheogorath]]. That is all.
** Give man a credit, he is the ''God of Madness''. Player too to certain extent, after {{spoiler|you replace Sheogorath}}
*** [[Self -Demonstrating Article|I thought he was the Daedric God of Cheese?]]
* In the [[Touhou]] game ''Imperishable Night'', when [[Cute Witch]] Marisa Kirisame {{spoiler|is exposed to "pure" lunar rays, which can drive humans mad, she isn't concerned because, in her own words, "I'm insane to begin with"}}. This is the only time she comes out and says this, however.
* [[Plants vs. Zombies (Video Game)|Crazy Dave]] is a good example. Why? because he's Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy!
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Most people in ''[[Narbonic]]''. [[Mad Scientist]] is a job description, and the mads are [[Contractual Genre Blindness|perfectly aware]] of the impossibility of their schemes -- leavingschemes—leaving the sane characters chagrined when they succeed anyway. Cue great amounts of tropeplay and [[Shout -Out|Shoutouts]].
** Including the Alice in Wonderland quote, which takes on a darker meaning... {{spoiler|After all, Dave is mad!}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100603075448/http://www.antiheroforhire.com/d/20080208.html Wizard] of ''[[Antihero for Hire]]''.
* Coyote from ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' shows some traits of this, along with being a god.
* Kisume in ''[[Touhou Nekokayou (Webcomic)|Touhou Nekokayou]]'', who implies that her entire species must be mad for opting to spend their lives in buckets.
 
== Web Original ==
* ''[[WALLEWALL-E Forum Role Play|InfernoRoleplay]]'': Inferno, oh so very very much.
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* Most of the [[Looney Tunes]] gang know how far out-of-kilter they are.
** This was practically Daffy Duck's catchphrase in his [[Screwy Squirrel|early days]].
{{quote| Random Person: "That duck's crazy!"<br />
Daffy: "You ain't just whistlin' Dixie!" (maniacal laughter) }}
* Really freakin' creepy example: Tarantulas in ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]''. It's unclear how much of his lunacy is genuine, and it's been theorized by at least one fan that this is intentional, and he's actually the most lucid among the Predacons. Either way, the attempts at draining vital fluids of other characters, the gleeful sadism, the maniacal laughter all add up to an over-the-top loon who enjoys being an over the top loon, ''especially'' when it creeps people out... In his own words:
{{quote| '''Tigerhawk''' ''(shocked)'': [[You're Insane|You're insane!]]<br />
'''Tarantulas''' ''(casually)'': So they say. }}
** ''[[Transformers Animated|Animated]]'' has Blitzwing's [[Split Personality|"Random" personality]]. Generally much more humorous and [[Cloudcuckoolander|silly]] than Tarantulas (though he's made at least one reference to cannibalism).
{{quote| '''Blitzwing''' ''(in reference to Megatron's plan)'': That's crazy, even for me!}}
** Not to mention Rampage from ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]''. The quote speaks for itself:
{{quote| '''Rampage''': Is that fear you're feeling, Maximal? Mmm...yes. My spark, it feeds on terror. Let it grow! Let it consume your circuitry! Feel it! Yes, feel it! Feel the fear!}}
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' ''[[The Movie|Movie]]'':
{{quote| '''Scared Underling:''' Sir... I'm afraid you've gone mad with power...<br />
'''[[General Ripper]]:''' Of course I have! Have you ever tried going mad without power? It's boring. Nobody listens to ya. }}
* In ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', after Shriek explains his demands to Barbara Gordon:
{{quote| '''Barbara''': You're out of your mind.<br />
'''Shriek''': ''Duh''. (hangs up) }}
* ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'': [[Psycho Electro]] Megavolt gives us this gem.
{{quote| "They called me crazy, they called me insane, they called me loony! Boy, were they right!"}}
* [[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|The Monkey King]], once he stops being a pest, brings out the [[Ax Crazy]] and lowers [[Puppet Permutation|Puppet-Jackie]] into a woodchipper.
{{quote| Jade: You wouldn't! That's [[For the Funnyz|not funny!]]<br />
Monkey King: Haven't you noticed? I have a '''WEIRD''' sense of humour! }}
* Doctor Weird from ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Animation)|Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'', possibly. "It works! ''I'' am one can short of a six-pack!"
* [[Screwy Squirrel]] knows he's nuts, and ''loves'' it. (To the point where [[Insane Equals Violent|some find him very disturbing]].)
* The early [[Daffy Duck]]-[[Expy]] version of [[Woody Woodpecker]] used to sometimes deny his insanity even though [["I Am" Song|he frequently sang a theme song about how insane he was]]. Which only made him seem ''more'' insane.
{{quote| ''So I'm crazy, what what what can I do?''<br />
''[[Paranoia Fuel|So are you]]!'' }}
 
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* Crispin Hellion Glover ''lives'' this trope.
* Possibly (though not necessarily) true Urban Legend. A man suffers a flat tire while driving by a mental institution one night. He removes the lug-nuts from the tire and places them in the hubcap while he puts the new tire on. A car comes by and hits the hubcap, scattering the lug-nuts, which are impossible to find in the dark. As the motorist frets an inmate from the other side of the fence points out that he can just take one nut from each of the remaining tires. The motorist is impressed, and admits that he didn't think the resident of an asylum would be so lucid. The inmate responds "I'm crazy, not stupid."
* It is a common belief among those serving in the military that special forces/special ops troops are a special kind of crazy. It's believed that, even if you're not already a few bananas short of a tree when you join up, the [[Break the Cutie|intensive training]] and/or [[Shell -Shocked Veteran|combat experience]] will eventually push you over the edge into madness territory. Their image in entertainment very often invokes this trope, portraying them as a self-aware [[Ax Crazy]] or borderline [[Sociopathic Hero]]; and usually an [[Emotionless Girl|emotionless]] [[The Quiet One|quiet one]], [[Deadpan Snarker]], or obnoxious jokester fond of [[Black Comedy|black]] or [[Dead Baby Comedy|dead baby]] comedy. [[Gallows Humour]] is commonplace among special forces troops. This portrayal is often [[Truth in Television]]. The Urban Legend above is a popular self-deprecating joke among US special forces personnel.
* A possible definition of eccentricity by psychologist Dr. David Weeks goes as follows: People with a mental illness "suffer" from their behavior while eccentrics are quite happy.
 
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[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:TheShout-Outs Elder Scrolls (Video Game)Index]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mad Hatter, The}}
[[Category:Doctor Who Sorcerers Apprentice (Fanfic)]]
[[Category:The Mad Hatter{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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