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What Were You Thinking? (view source)

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'''Buffy:''' It's the ultimate jinx!<br />
'''Willow:''' ''What were you thinking?!'' Or were you even thinking at all?<br />
'''Xander:''' You don't know... Maybe this time it'll be different...|''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', "School Hard" {{spoiler|It isn't.}}}}
 
The inevitable question asked when another character's rash plan or reckless behavior results in disaster or near-disaster. Asked upon discovery of the mayhem caused by said recklessness, or after picking up the pieces, and is usually asked by their superior, a concerned parent, or simply a friend or ally.
 
Popular answers include "[[Idiot Ball|I wasn't]]!", "I don't know!", "[[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At Thethe Time]]!", and "[[I Did What I Had to Do]]." If someone answers "[[For Science!]]!" it's a good bet that he's a lost cause.
 
Can follow a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] for a [[Kick the Dog]] moment. A [[Deal Withwith the Devil]] is almost always followed by this, [[Viewer Stock Phrases|if only from the audience]]. Not to be confused with [[What the Hell, Hero?]], which has less to do with recklessness and more to do with [[Kick the Dog|kicking]] or [[Shoot the Dog|shooting the dog]], though it can overlap.
 
Compare [[What an Idiot!]] and [[What the Hell, Hero?]]
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== Film ==
 
* ''[[The Goonies (Film)|The Goonies]]''. Stef barks this at Andi when she hits the wrong notes on the musical lock, causing part of the floor to collapse.
{{quote| '''Stef:''' What were you thinking?<br />
'''Andi:''' I hit the wrong note! I'm not Liberace you know! }}
* ''[[The Fast and The Furious (Film)|The Fast and Thethe Furious]]'': Dominic Toretto asks this of Jesse after he races Johnny Tran for pink slips.
* The captain asks ''[[Cool Hand Luke]]'' what he thought defacing parking meters would get him. Luke replies that, being drunk at the time, he probably wasn't thinking.
* ''[[Happy Feet]]'': Gloria asks a version of this after she discovers that him singing to her at the mating season is really him lip-synching and letting someone else sing (Mumble can't sing).
{{quote| '''Gloria''': "Mumble, what could you possibly be thinking?"<br />
'''Mumble''': "I...I don't know what else to do!" }}
* In the feature film adaptation of Shane Acker's ''[[9 (Animation)|9]]'', 7 asks 9 this {{spoiler|after 9 put the talisman into the machine, causing it to wake up and kill 2.}}
* In ''[[Oh, God!|Oh God! You Devil]]'', when Bobby literally finds God near the end of the film, the Almighty agrees to help him out of the predicament he's in, but not without giving Bobby a (for God) gentle rebuke.
{{quote| '''God:''' "You made a [[Deal With the Devil|deal with the Devil]]. How dumb could you be?"}}
 
== Literature ==
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** Captain Cragen also said this to Olivia Benson when she gave a reporter confidential information about an investigation involving Anthrax.
** Fin Tutuola heard this from John Munch and his ex-wife in the episode when he handled a case against his son poorly.
* A lot of people screamed this at Mohinder from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' when he {{spoiler|injected himself with a [[Super Serum]] he'd invented mere hours ago from studying a woman who cries death, while outside in a bad part of town. And also wanted to ''distribute it to the general public'', despite the fact that a remarkable proportion of those with powers kill people a lot or even try to destroy the world}}.
* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Americas Funniest Home Videos|America's Funniest Home Videos]]'' during the Daisy Fuentes season, where she gives a little speech about the three primary audience reactions: "hahahaha", "[[Share the Male Pain|owwwww...]]" and "what were they thinking?"
* ''[[Doctor Phil]]'', anyone?
* Used in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', see the page quote.
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'''Briss''' Are you out of your [[Precision F-Strike|fucking]] mind? }}
* Pops up in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' on occasion, such as Joel to Crow for letting [[Evil Twin|Timmy]] on board, or (much later) Crow to Mike after he's [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|just blown us his third planet]].
* Jay Leno famously asked Hugh Grant after the latter's [[No Such Thing Asas Bad Publicity|sex scandal]]: "What the ''hell'' were you thinking?"
** [[Denis Leary]] said the same thing about Marv Albert's scandal in his stand-up special, ''Lock and Load.''
 
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* Comes up quite a lot in WWE, either from skits backstage after a loss (or near-loss) because of a tag team partner, or when a commenter wonders what a high-flyer was thinking after attempting a high risk move successfully (or unsuccessfully) and losing the match.
* [[Kane (Wrestlingwrestling)|Kane]] buried [[The Undertaker]]...[[Death Is Cheap|again]]. He decided to hold a funeral in respect of him...and then [[Alberto Del Rio]] interrupted. Now, given that Alberto has only been on Smackdown for a few months, and Kane is a veteran who ''just took out [[The Undertaker]]'', and that Alberto interrupted his "funeral" just to challenge Kane, the audience, Kane, and pretty much anyone else who may have been watching all exclaimed...
{{quote| --"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?"}}
** ...the funny thing is, Alberto then proceeded to [[Oh Crap|slap Undertaker's urn]] from [[Paul Bearer]]'s hand, dodge Kane's punch and ''[[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|kick him across the face.]]''
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* Take an RPG, any RPG, and one character will inevitably say this to another.
** And most likely, the player was thinking about [[Stupidity Is the Only Option|why they had to do that to continue.]]
* In ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]]'', Shirou gets this a lot, because what he does tends to get him disemboweled or otherwise grievously harmed while the person he was helping probably would have been okay, or whoever he was trying to save was clearly beyond help. Unusually for this trope, Shirou fully realizes that what he's doing is mind-bogglingly stupid ''even as he's doing it'', [[Honor Before Reason|but he's so dependent on his "save everyone" philosophy that he refuses to compromise it in any way]], [[Death Seeker|even if it means his own life.]]
 
== Webcomics ==
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== Web Original ==
 
* "What were they ''thinking''!?" is one of [[The Angry Video Game Nerd (Web Video)|The Angry Video Game Nerd]]'s many [[Catch Phrase|catchphrases]], used for an asinine flaw with a bad game.
* Mike Mozart of [[Jeepers Media]] uses this catchphrase when he comes across a toy with a... [[Freud Was Right|suggestive]] design flaw.
* There is actually an entire blog dedicated to asking this question about old comics. It's even titled [http://luchins.com/wwtt/ What Were They Thinking?]
* Some editors in [[This Wiki]] tend to use this at times as a reaction... and [[Pothole]] it to this very page.
* During [[The Cinema Snob (Web Video)|The Cinema Snob]]'s crossover with [[Phelous]]<ref>Neither has brought anything to review, so Brad is looking at a clothes iron held by Phelan</ref>:
{{quote| '''Phelous:''' Um...clothes...wrinkly...<br />
'''Cinema Snob:''' Doesn't look to terribly b-<br />
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== Western Animation ==
 
* Spoofed in the ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' episode "Cry Ed", where, after Ed drops a ''house'' on Eddy in response to Eddy's scheme to get himself injured and gain sympathy, the following exchange occurs:
{{quote| '''Edd''': Ed! What in heaven's name were you ''thinking''?!<br />
'''Ed''': Absolutely nothing, Double-Dee. }}
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{{quote| '''Skinner:''' Now I... I finally have time to do what I've always wanted: write the great American novel. Mine is about [[Jurassic Park|a futuristic amusement park where dinosaurs are brought to life through advanced cloning techniques.]] I call it "[[A Boy and His X|Billy and the Cloneasaurus]]."<br />
'''Apu:''' Oh, you have got to be kidding sir. First you think of an idea that has already been done. Then you give it [[Fail O'Suckyname|a title that nobody could possibly like]]. Didn't you think this through... (timeskip fade) ... it was on the bestseller list for eighteen months! Every magazine cover had... (timeskip fade) ... one of the most popular movies of all time, sir! ''What were you thinking?'' (pause) I mean, thank you, come again. }}
* ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', "Mac Daddy": Bloo says this about Mac having apparently conjured up "Cheese". Mac's response: "Exactly, I wasn't thinking."
** "World Wide Wabbit" has Frankie ask this to Bloo when he starts a website base don Herriman's embarassing "funny bunny" video that got ''20 million hits.''
{{quote| '''Bloo:''' I just thought it was funny.}}
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