Weirdness Coupon: Difference between revisions

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== [[Live Action Television]] ==

* In ''[[The Addams Family]]'', Gomez and Morticia are implied to have an active and ''kinky'' sex ~~life -- absolutely~~ unheard of in TV at the ~~time -- but~~ it's accepted because they're so odd. (Also, it's obviously not shown.)

* In ''[[The Addams Family]]'', Gomez and Morticia are implied to have an active and ''kinky'' sex life—absolutely unheard of in TV at the time—but it's accepted because they're so odd. (Also, it's obviously not shown.)

* It was repeatedly commented by the producers of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' that if they had a joke that some might find to be in poor taste, they always had one of the robots make it. Because people were more willing to accept that sort of thing from a puppet.

** ''[[South Park]]'' uses a similar tactic to help with [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]].

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== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'', the titular Doctor is apparently licensed by the city of Cumberland to deal with all the weird supernatural occurrences, such as giant rampaging Paul Bunyans, dinosaur-riding banditos, tricky lobster-men, and zombie ninjas.

** As revealed in "There's a Raptor in My Office", the law has been bent to accommodate the ~~Doc--his~~ actions are frequently less than legal, but if he can get back to his office and declare "Base", then all charges against him are dropped.

** As revealed in "There's a Raptor in My Office", the law has been bent to accommodate the Doc—his actions are frequently less than legal, but if he can get back to his office and declare "Base", then all charges against him are dropped.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'': she, or her [[Sidekick]], are often hit by weird ray-guns, or grabbed by [[Clingy MacGuffin~~|Clingy MacGuffins~~]], or affected by magic amulets or whatever, and have to deal with the wacky consequences to their home lives, but no-one seems to think this behaviour out of the ordinary - for her. And that's not even mentioning their [[Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?|frequent bunking off school]] to go and save the world.

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'': she, or her [[Sidekick]], are often hit by weird ray-guns, or grabbed by [[Clingy MacGuffin]]s, or affected by magic amulets or whatever, and have to deal with the wacky consequences to their home lives, but no-one seems to think this behaviour out of the ordinary - for her. And that's not even mentioning their [[Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?|frequent bunking off school]] to go and save the world.

* An absolutely huge example occurs in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', when the Question discovers {{spoiler|an alternate universe where [[Superman]] kills Lex Luthor leading to a coup where the Justice ''Lords'' rule the world}}. The Question, in response to what he thinks is a probable future, attempts to {{spoiler|kill Lex first}}, because as he is a well known loon, the Justice League will be able to diplomatically calm things down afterward.

** Likewise in a later part of the same Arc, Batman gets away with not [[Clear My Name|turning himself in]] with the rest of the big 7 by playing on his Loner image.

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== [[Real Life]] ==

* "Manny being Manny.": Ex-Boston Red Sox, ex-Los Angeles Dodgers, ex-Chicago White Sox, now Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Manny Ramirez is a great hitter but has a tendency to be really flaky and tends to get away with a lot more because of his talent. It's (almost) always written off as "Just Manny being Manny". Though this was subverted in 2008 when Boston ran out of Weirdness Coupons and finally were sick of his crap and traded him. And again in 2010 when the Dodgers finally were sick of his crap and traded him. And ''again'' in 2011 when the White Sox... well, by now you get the idea.

* The role of [[The Jester]], or "[[The Fool|fool]]", in olden times was closely tied to this trope. A fool could pretty much say anything he wanted, however offensive, because he was "just a fool". Either he was a professional ~~fool--in~~ which case he had been granted permission to act the way he did for comedic ~~purposes--or~~ he was a "natural" fool, a guy who was [[Cloudcuckoolander|eccentric]] or [[Values Dissonance|mentally ill]], in which case he "couldn't help" the way he acted and had to be excused. As a result, the fool often served as the [[Deadpan Snarker]] and/or [[Only Sane Man]], who had free permission to say whatever he liked...and in a lot of cases, it was what everyone else was thinking, but didn't have the guts to say themselves. The Weirdness Coupons only extended as far as the tolerance level of the Fool's ~~master--if~~ a fool went ''too'' far, the punishment was a whipping.

* The role of [[The Jester]], or "[[The Fool|fool]]", in olden times was closely tied to this trope. A fool could pretty much say anything he wanted, however offensive, because he was "just a fool". Either he was a professional fool—in which case he had been granted permission to act the way he did for comedic purposes—or he was a "natural" fool, a guy who was [[Cloudcuckoolander|eccentric]] or [[Values Dissonance|mentally ill]], in which case he "couldn't help" the way he acted and had to be excused. As a result, the fool often served as the [[Deadpan Snarker]] and/or [[Only Sane Man]], who had free permission to say whatever he liked...and in a lot of cases, it was what everyone else was thinking, but didn't have the guts to say themselves. The Weirdness Coupons only extended as far as the tolerance level of the Fool's master—if a fool went ''too'' far, the punishment was a whipping.