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Too Dumb to Live/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions
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** And then there's Dawn who is way too eager to get out of the house at nighttime either alone or with strangers, despite knowing perfectly well what lurks outside. For her defense, she's a teenager, a species not known for its rationality. [[Alternative Character Interpretation|There may also be]] [[Death Seeker|other reasons]].
** Principal Snyder nearly succeeds in this nomination when he attempts to leave a safe room besieged by vampires and then succeeds with flying colours when he attempts to explain a 20-feet long serpentine demon that its behavior is "unacceptable".
** Spike does a lot of crazy things because he's a little psychologically unbalanced and (from series four onwards) vaguely suicidal, but he gets special props here for constantly setting himself on fire by going out in daylight. He also gets bored and pulls a [[Leeroy Jenkins]] on his own scheme ("I had a plan. A good plan. But then I got bored") and he [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|dated Harmony and invites her along on his schemes]], despite how she messes up every one. Harmony holds the [[Idiot Ball]] everytime the two work together, but is quite effective whenever she . Also, it's revealed in ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' that he was once captured by the Secret Service because they invited him to a ''free virgin blood party''. He tells Angel never to go to one of those parties later because "[[Captain Obvious|it's probably a trap]]". When he tries to stake himself, he goes about it in such a stupid fashion that it obviously won't work, so he might also be Too Stupid To Die. At other times, he's pretty perceptive and comes up with decent schemes, so his shenanigans might have something to do with boredom and his suicidal tendencies rather than terminal idiocy. [[The Ditz|Harmony]] should get special mention, too, for trying to kill Buffy by using nothing but three [[Mook|vampire mooks]], long after much larger groups of vampires had ceased to be a serious threat.
** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in "[[Musical Episode|Once More With Feeling]]" when Xander reads a newspaper with the headline "Mayhem Caused: Monsters certainly not involved, [[Police Are Useless|officials]] say."
** And that's not counting the countless vampires who decide they'll be the ones to kill the Slayer.
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* Shane Vendrell from ''[[The Shield]]''. He put his and his entire corrupt team's necks on the line due to his attempts to work the system like his mentor, Vic Mackey. Never mind that twice, those schemes have cost innocent lives and given the worse guys reams of blackmail material. Oh, and he killed teammate Lem because he was afraid Lem was going to rat them out to the Feds. Never mind that they were making plans to sneak Lem to Mexico.
* In the ''[[CSI (TV)|CSI]]'' episode "Boom" from season 1, the team is investigating a bombing and receives offers of help from a guy who says he's a real amateur bomb enthusiast. Said guy is, of course, the primary suspect. The guy ends up blowing himself up by going to retrieve a bomb the real bomber placed in a high school.
** [[Epic Fail|Taking the cake]] is the deer hunter from 73 Seconds who [[What an Idiot!|tried to clean out a wound with a high-power air hose]] after getting gored by a [[Not Quite Dead]] deer, ''inflating himself to death''. For further impact, look at [[Flat What|Catherine's face]] as she tries to comprehend this complete failure to regard common sense.
* In the ''[[CSI: NY]]'' episode "Vacation Getaway", we have the horrendously [[Genre Blind]] uniform officer who lets himself get goaded into approaching the ''[[Serial Killer]]'' Shane Casey. There's a ''reason'' unis fulfill the function of [[Red Shirt]] in [[Crime and Punishment Series]].
* Mohinder Suresh of ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' fame. For someone who's supposed to be so intelligent, he manages to be pretty darn stupid. Perhaps the best example is how in the third season premiere, he decided to inject himself with a serum that he just randomly created without ANY regard to possible side effects. Too Dumb To Live indeed.
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* Susan Mayer from ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' is way Too Dumb to Live. Add her uncanny ability to misinterpret absolutely everything about everyone with her ungodly clumsiness and you just ask yourself how did she manage to live up to be twelve (let alone thirty... something). Oh, the characters of the series also ask themselves the very same thing.
* Most of the cast of ''[[The Red Green Show]]'' suffers from this trope to some extent, but by far the best example is Bill. Whether it's pouring gasoline into a go-cart while the engine is still running, using his finger to test the sharpness of an axe, carrying chainsaws around in his coveralls, attempting to pole-vault off the roof of a moving vehicle, or sitting on a beanbag chair filled with propane and using a lit match to blow himself into the air to catch something that had drifted off into the sky, it's a miracle that Bill is not only still alive, but has all his limbs still intact.
* Robin Maxwell in ''[[V]]: The Original Miniseries''. First she wanders out of hiding, to be discovered by collaborator Daniel, which leads to the Maxwells having to move, Daniel's parents being arrested, and his grandfather being killed. Having learned nothing, she leaves hiding ''again'', this time getting captured by the Visitors, which leads to the Resistance camp being attacked and her mother being killed. Not to mention actually falling for one of the Visitors' sweet talk -- very dumb, even if it did lead to a useful [[Half
** In the series that followed the mini-series, Robin passed this trait on to her daughter, Elizabeth.
* Marshall Wheeler of ''[[Black Hole High]]'', who never seemed to realize that taking old technology made by a company known for suspicious dealings from the basement of a school that ''has a wormhole in it'' might not be the safest idea.
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** And let's not forget the time that a beautiful, strangely-dressed woman turned up at the entrance to the secret base, talking weird. Despite all obvious evidence shrieking at them, they failed to notice she was a Go'auld and arranged for the top brass of the base to meet with her alone, then were surprised when she drugged them into doing her bidding.
* In the show ''[[Survivor (TV)|Survivor]]'':
** The ''entire'' cast of Samoa, with the exceptions of Russell Hantz, Brett, Natalie, Marisa, and Betsy. They never learned to keep an eye on the idol-hunting Russell, repeatedly changed their votes, didn't think that maybe the ''minority'' tribe might actually have a ''hidden immunity idol'' in their grasp, or that they're actually a tight knit alliance. (Hm, we have a 8-4 majority...[[What an Idiot!|let's ignore them and take out our own, first!]]) Perhaps most egregiously, members of the Galu tribe were practically shown a map to the Hidden Immunity Idol...and ''they didn't look for it''. Really? Russell had ''just'' played ''two'' hidden immunity idols...yes, let's just stand there! Marisa and Betsy were voted out because they ''weren't'' [[Too Dumb to Live]] (Russell Hantz said that he went after them first because he knew those two could beat him), Natalie realized what was going on and feigned stupidity, and Brett merely kept his mouth shut while everyone else got themselves voted out.
** James had ''two'' hidden Immunity Idols. At that point in the game, he had a free pass to the final five (The rules were changed after the Idol was a [[Game Breaker]] in ''Cook Islands''). What does he do? ''Not play the idol''.
** Yes, J.T - give the idol to Russell Hantz. Maybe he's on the wrong side of an Amazon Brigade. Whoops!
** Let's see, Erik is on the wrong side of an all female alliance. What does he do? ''Give up the immunity'' to one of them. ''Great move''.
** Phillip manages to actually become too honest and flat out spilled ''everything'' going on at the first tribal council. It's amazing he's still around!
*** Of note, he claims to just be [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]. Considering he's got a plan to make it into the finals. And it's working. As it hasn't killed him yet, and moreover may have actually ''helped'' him, this is more of a [[What an Idiot!]] moment.
** And in Redemption Island, Russell Hantz comes back for the third time. He doesn't have the advantage of being a newcomer/not having any of the other players view ''Samoa'' like he did the previous times. So now everybody knows his game and has ''finally'' learned to keep an eye on him and watch out for his harem. Russell then tells them he's playing the game differently... only to assemble his usual harem and hunt for the idol without even making sure he ''wasn't'' in plain sight or being tailed by people who want his ass gone. Then he tried to ask someone to flip and vote out someone who is ''physically strong'' while making them become a ''third wheel'' in the alliance. (Oh yes, you're going to take her to the finals? When you already have ''two'' people with you, there can only be three in the finals? No Shambo here. And no Natalie W or Parvati, either.) Amazing - one of the most [[Manipulative Bastard]] types in the game who is often considered the best fitting in this category? The Galu tribe probably got a great big hoot out of ''that.''
*** And one of his girls, Stephanie, intentionally proceeded to put a ''huge'' target on her back. She's already in the minority because almost everyone else wants Russell Hantz gone, knowing how [[Sarcasm Mode|good]] he is at the game (and that the producers [[
** The Ometepe somehow managed to [[Up to Eleven|outdo the cast of Samoa]] in terms of pure stupidity and [[Reality Show Genre Blindness]]. You're put on a show with someone who is one of the most ''[[
** Oh, and then there's Brandon Hantz, from the South Pacific season. Wins immunity with only a few players remaining. Erik Reichenbach probably got a good laugh out of what happened next.
* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' has a great example in the episode "Whispers". Carson and an alien are trapped in a room, being hunted by a group of blind creatures with incredible hearing. It has been established multiple times that these creatures hunt by sound. The other guy starts ''yelling'' at Carson, refusing to quiet down despite Carson reminding him (once again) of this fact, and is abruptly eaten, to the relief of the audience. If they had been on Earth, then this guy would have surely been nominated for a Darwin Award.
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** However, in the real world, someone would get very angry at Sheldon and attack him, causing him(Sheldon), and possibly witnesses, to be hospitaliazed and possibly even killed. That person could get arrested for disturbing the peace, and witnesses could get seriously injured or even killed out of the attacker's rage, if Sheldon angers him that much.
** All in all, Sheldon and Howard would not fare well at all in the real world, and they are so lucky to not exist in the real world.
** The show does have an example of Too Dumb to Live, though: When the check engine light is one, that means YOU CHECK YOUR ENGINE!!!! And what does Penny do? She ignores it. Sheldon, Leonard's mom, and Amy all warned her about it, and she just ignored them. Three brilliant minds told her about the check engine light, and she ignored them as if they were crazy about that effecting the car. And when her engine does break down, she doesn't seem to see the connection between it and her ignoring the check engine light.[[What an Idiot!]].
* One [[Girl of the Week]] in ''[[Star Trek TOS]]'' had a [[Red Shirt|guy]] obviously in love with her who was Too Dumb to Live. Given that said girl had to spend four years on Vulcan to retain her sanity, I'm sure trying to make her feel strong emotions is a wonderful idea! Oh, and what better way to get a girl to like you than by ruining her career by murdering the ambassador she's accompanying? The ambassador is an eldritch abomination the mere sight of which can make humans go mad. Just walk up, look it straight in the whatever-seeing-organs-it-possesses, and kill it. What could possibly go wrong?
** Almost every [[Red Shirt]] on ''[[Star Trek TOS]]'' seems Too Dumb to Live in a way. (Except in the cases where their deaths were the direct result of the orders or actions of a superior officer.)
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