Tropescilloscope: Idiot Ball

A character who is normally much more competent starts acting stupid in order to drive the plot forward. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Romantic Comedy Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Gender Flip World of Ham Drill Sergeant Nasty Double-Meaning Title Rule of Funny Break the Haughty Advertised Extra The Atoner Real Life Writes the Plot Early Installment Weirdness Action Prologue Match Cut Mad Scientist Soft Glass Kill 'em All '80s Hair Serial Killer Gainax Ending Badass in a Nice Suit Rated M for Manly Ungrateful Bastard Put on a Bus Sacrificial Lion Actually Pretty Funny Cool Guns The '60s Mercy Kill The Dreaded Be Careful What You Wish For Sole Survivor Cat Scare Credits Gag Dark Action Girl Shout-Out Eagleland Insane Troll Logic Reality Is Unrealistic Those Wacky Nazis Call-Forward Wounded Gazelle Gambit Large Ham Curb-Stomp Battle Insult Backfire Sexy Discretion Shot Crazy-Prepared Evil Sounds Deep Slashed Throat Dogged Nice Guy Creator Cameo Bi the Way Bound and Gagged Peek-a-Boo Corpse Redemption Equals Death Broken Aesop Eldritch Abomination He Who Fights Monsters Dark Is Not Evil Ms. Fanservice Broken Bird Apocalypse How The Un-Reveal Famous Last Words Dressing as the Enemy Bilingual Bonus Curse Cut Short Woman in White Brother–Sister Incest Extreme Doormat Every Car Is a Pinto Knight Templar Blood Knight Nice Guy Contrived Coincidence Re-Cut All There in the Manual Freeze-Frame Bonus Aside Glance Really Gets Around Well-Intentioned Extremist Unusual Euphemism Funny Foreigner Our Vampires Are Different Bald of Evil Breaking the Fourth Wall Cool Car Ship Tease German Films Very Loosely Based on a True Story Decoy Protagonist Took a Level in Badass Worthy Opponent Sanity Slippage Index of Film Westerns Department of Redundancy Department Better to Die than Be Killed Only a Flesh Wound Closed Circle Unresolved Sexual Tension Slasher Movie Dutch Angle Punch-Clock Villain Mama Bear Australian Movies The Starscream Big Fancy House Damsel in Distress Hell Is That Noise Video Credits Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Gratuitous English Toplessness from the Back The Cameo Grey and Gray Morality Big Brother Instinct Enemy Mine Fantasy Films Frame-Up Up to Eleven The Alleged Car Film Noir Index As the Good Book Says... Chase Scene Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Your Cheating Heart Adaptational Attractiveness Demonic Possession More Dakka Freudian Excuse The Smart Guy Guns Akimbo Too Dumb to Live Make It Look Like an Accident Happily Married Dark and Troubled Past Sequel Hook Adults Are Useless The Remake MacGuffin Meet Cute Historical In-Joke Adaptation Expansion Dissonant Serenity Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique N-Word Privileges Last-Name Basis Batman Gambit Throwing Your Sword Always Works Aluminum Christmas Trees Romantic False Lead Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Intrepid Reporter Dirty Coward Comically Missing the Point Facial Horror Alas, Poor Villain Ambiguously Gay Scare Chord Moment Killer Hidden Depths Cat Fight Daylight Horror A Minor Kidroduction Cool Old Guy Adaptation Distillation Evil Plan Drugs Are Bad Vomit Discretion Shot Male Gaze The Stoic Four-Temperament Ensemble Man on Fire Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Wicked Cultured Sci-Fi Horror Bloodier and Gorier Vitriolic Best Buds Kill It with Fire Laser-Guided Karma Jerkass Has a Point Genre Throwback In Medias Res Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Offscreen Teleportation Soundtrack Dissonance Canadian Movies Taking You with Me Expy My Greatest Failure All Girls Want Bad Boys Heroic BSoD The Ace Abhorrent Admirer Fatal Flaw Earn Your Happy Ending Deal with the Devil Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Cruel and Unusual Death Corpsing Malevolent Masked Men Expository Hairstyle Change Defrosting Ice Queen Suspiciously Specific Denial Super Strength Composite Character Half the Man He Used to Be The Musical Riddle for the Ages Artistic License – History War Is Hell The Sociopath Took a Level in Jerkass Dwindling Party Immune to Bullets I'm a Humanitarian Betty and Veronica Have a Gay Old Time Blatant Lies Bloodless Carnage Eiffel Tower Effect Whole Plot Reference Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Mexican Standoff Music Stories Anyone Can Die Mythology Gag Humiliation Conga Death Glare Bavarian Fire Drill Pimped-Out Dress Idiot Ball Gone Horribly Right A Date with Rosie Palms Spanner in the Works Beauty Is Never Tarnished Meaningful Name Small Name, Big Ego Works Set in World War II Obstructive Bureaucrat Evil Counterpart Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Biopic Redshirt Army Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Big Bad Made of Iron Unwitting Instigator of Doom Dark Reprise Same Language Dub Stepford Smiler Anachronism Stew Psychological Thriller Male Frontal Nudity The Voiceless Handicapped Badass Anti-Hero Leaning on the Fourth Wall One-Man Army Historical Villain Upgrade Evil Is Petty Laughing Mad Playing Gertrude Boom, Headshot! Genre Shift French Films Even Evil Has Loved Ones Irony Bad "Bad Acting" Parental Incest Your Head A-Splode The Bully Shower Scene You Killed My Father Would Hurt a Child Mighty Whitey O.O.C. Is Serious Business Neck Snap As Long as It Sounds Foreign Foil Abusive Parents Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Beard of Evil Race Against the Clock Villain Protagonist Names to Run Away from Really Fast Russian Films Those Two Bad Guys How We Got Here Bond One-Liner Love Triangle No Celebrities Were Harmed Epic Fail Combat Pragmatist Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Silent Movie Rule of Cool Camp Gay Psychopathic Manchild Pretty Little Headshots Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Flashback Drives Like Crazy Jitter Cam Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" "The Reason You Suck" Speech Crucified Hero Shot Missing Mom Mood Whiplash Pragmatic Villainy Manchild Christmas Movies Index Not So Different Dropped a Bridge on Him Exact Words Badass Bookworm Mind Screw Catapult Nightmare Major Injury Underreaction Dramatic Irony A.I. Is a Crapshoot Friend to All Children Improbable Aiming Skills Amusing Injuries Sassy Black Woman Cool Shades Reckless Gun Usage Chekhov's Gun Beware the Nice Ones Artistic License – Physics Fantastic Racism It's All About Me Bunny-Ears Lawyer Visual Pun folderlabel Evil-Detecting Dog Deliberately Monochrome Hong Kong Films Ugly Guy, Hot Wife The Great Depression Mistaken for Gay Running Gag Mundane Made Awesome Lampshade Hanging Awesome, but Impractical Villain Ball The Lancer Manipulative Bastard Framing Device Pretty in Mink Light Is Not Good True Companions Artistic License – Military Evil vs. Evil Paper-Thin Disguise Manly Tears Kick the Son of a Bitch Overly Long Gag Mooks Easily Forgiven Camera Abuse Chewing the Scenery Only Sane Man Straight Gay timeperiod Brick Joke Ambiguous Disorder Mugging the Monster An Axe to Grind Creative Closing Credits Faking the Dead Vampire Fiction Fire-Forged Friends Horror Films Parental Neglect From Bad to Worse Author Appeal Big-Bad Ensemble Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Adult Fear Stealth Pun Disappeared Dad It Will Never Catch On Action Girl Retired Badass Needs Wiki Magic Love The Chessmaster Exactly What It Says on the Tin Men Are the Expendable Gender BFG Deliberate Values Dissonance Amoral Attorney Once More, with Clarity! The Reveal Implacable Man Black Best Friend The Place Belligerent Sexual Tension Jerk with a Heart of Gold Chekhov's Gunman Book-Ends Real Life Spiritual Successor Stylistic Suck Undying Loyalty Superhero Hoist by His Own Petard Rule of Three The Oner Didn't Think This Through Henpecked Husband Jerk Jock Ominous Latin Chanting No Antagonist Eye Scream Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Improbable Weapon User Leave the Camera Running The Dog Bites Back The Load Villain with Good Publicity For the Evulz Ghost Fiction "Shaggy Dog" Story Greater-Scope Villain All There in the Script You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Agony of the Feet Calling the Old Man Out The Ditz Heel Realization I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Yandere Fanservice Extra Tempting Fate Red Shirt Precision F-Strike Improvised Weapon An Aesop Affectionate Parody Shell-Shocked Veteran Retcon Science Fiction Films Death by Adaptation Artistic License – Biology 20 Minutes into the Future Scenery Porn Evil Laugh Ascended Extra I Have Your Wife The Lost Lenore Made of Explodium Bottomless Magazines Authority Equals Asskicking Off with His Head! Jerkass Parental Substitute Knife Nut Military and Warfare Films The Cavalry Spiteful Spit For Want of a Nail Alliterative Name Fan Disservice Central Theme Death of a Child Face–Heel Turn Rape as Drama Final Girl Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Take a Third Option Blackmail He Knows Too Much Captain Obvious There Is No Kill Like Overkill Arch-Enemy The Dragon And Starring Rewatch Bonus Animal Title Index Politically Incorrect Villain Hypocrite Motor Mouth Love at First Sight Off-into-the-Distance Ending Show Within a Show Refuge in Audacity Not Quite Dead Character Development Shipper on Deck As Himself Break the Cutie Wham Shot Never My Fault Country Matters Brutal Honesty Disney Villain Death Papa Wolf Never Trust a Trailer Dying Moment of Awesome Slap-Slap-Kiss Car Fu Stuff Blowing Up Fanservice Darkest Hour Costume Porn Early-Bird Cameo Dramatic Gun Cock Cassandra Truth From Nobody to Nightmare Shown Their Work Jump Scare Attempted Rape Card-Carrying Villain Token Minority Reasonable Authority Figure Mr. Fanservice Guile Hero The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Noodle Incident Twist Ending Recycled IN SPACE! Arc Words British Films Monumental Damage Film Series This Is Gonna Suck Silence Is Golden Continuity Nod Extremely Short Timespan Scary Black Man Badass Longcoat Villain Song Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Imagine Spot Race Lift Nice Hat Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Humans Are Bastards Left the Background Music On Let's Get Dangerous! Sequel Escalation Offscreen Moment of Awesome Parental Abandonment NO INDOOR VOICE Daddy's Girl Funny Background Event The Power of Love Anachronic Order Obviously Evil Not So Above It All Smug Snake Domestic Abuse Setting Update Only One Name Dumb Blonde Adaptational Badass Age Lift Bowdlerise The '50s Bring My Brown Pants Scenery Gorn Beta Couple Red Oni, Blue Oni "Well Done, Son!" Guy One Steve Limit Overprotective Dad Neck Lift Animated Credits Opening Berserk Button Heterosexual Life-Partners Body Horror Death Seeker Reality Ensues Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Cowboy Cop Downer Ending The Hero Dies Good Is Not Nice Intergenerational Friendship Hypocritical Humor Pet the Dog Market-Based Title Badass Boast Casting Gag It's Personal The Ghost The '90s Kids Are Cruel Does Not Like Shoes Covers Always Lie Shoot the Shaggy Dog Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Adapted Out Homage She's Got Legs Distracted by the Sexy Accidental Murder Bad Boss Due to the Dead Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Time Skip Spared by the Adaptation Five-Man Band Corrupt Corporate Executive Evil Is Hammy Death by Irony Award-Bait Song Coming-of-Age Story The Casanova The Mafia Disguised in Drag Sinister Minister Naked People Are Funny Hollywood Law Hollywood Darkness Alpha Bitch Stalker with a Crush Nothing Is Scarier Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Danny Peary Cult Movies List Deconstruction Crapsack World Double Entendre Bond Villain Stupidity Interrupted Suicide Room Full of Crazy Totally Radical Bare Your Midriff Loophole Abuse Call-Back Historical Hero Upgrade The Quiet One And I Must Scream The Bad Guy Wins Villain Opening Scene Cold-Blooded Torture Butt-Monkey Accidental Misnaming Documentary Line-of-Sight Name Big "NO!" The '70s Kubrick Stare May–December Romance Hope Spot Wrong Genre Savvy Title Drop Grievous Bottley Harm Fat Bastard Public Domain Feature Films The Mole "Awesome McCool" Name Word of God Animal Motifs Self-Deprecation Punny Name Epic Movie Martial Arts Movie Hero of Another Story Protagonist Title Gilligan Cut Foreshadowing Green-Eyed Monster Catch-Phrase La Résistance Artistic License – Geography Big Bad Duumvirate Asshole Victim Badass Grandpa The X of Y Suddenly SHOUTING! Bloody Hilarious Bland-Name Product Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Mystery and Detective Films I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Unreliable Narrator Big Damn Heroes Here We Go Again! Diabolus ex Machina Demoted to Extra Never Found the Body Madness Mantra Ass Shove All for Nothing The Brute Dirty Old Man I Need a Freaking Drink Darker and Edgier The Smurfette Principle Bullying a Dragon Translation Convention Smoking Is Cool Sadistic Choice Hate Sink Dull Surprise Storming the Castle Antagonist Title Bolivian Army Ending Poor Communication Kills Ax-Crazy Eureka Moment Product Placement The Stoner All Men Are Perverts Meaningful Echo Ironic Echo The Alcoholic Chiaroscuro Action Genre Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Based on a True Story Establishing Character Moment Lock and Load Montage Genre Savvy Zombie Stories Death by Sex Brainless Beauty Victoria's Secret Compartment Morality Pet The Hero Horror Comedy Rousing Speech Failed a Spot Check B-Movie Did Not Get the Girl Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Big Applesauce Fiery Redhead Vacation Films Police Brutality It Can Think The Film of the Book Say My Name Thriller Gorn Pre-Mortem One-Liner Dual Wielding Film Noir Rich Bitch Posthumous Character Deus ex Machina Conspicuous CG And the Adventure Continues The Big Guy Our Zombies Are Different What You Are in the Dark Dramedy "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Cloudcuckoolander No-Sell Properly Paranoid Not Even Bothering with the Accent Femme Fatale Television Movie Index Getting Crap Past the Radar Almost Kiss Random Events Plot Plot Hole The Faceless The End... Or Is It? Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Heroic Sacrifice Fatal Family Photo A Father to His Men Defiant to the End Anguished Declaration of Love Non-Indicative Name Black Dude Dies First Naïve Newcomer Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Gory Discretion Shot Artistic License – Law Spell My Name with an "S" Loads and Loads of Characters Celebrity Paradox Driven to Suicide Heroes Want Redheads Skewed Priorities Black and Gray Morality Flipping the Bird Tagline Auto Erotica Mr. Exposition Canon Foreigner Bury Your Gays Action Survivor Cain and Abel Determinator aka: The Determinator Fainting Depraved Bisexual Narrator Babies Ever After Older Than They Look Badass Normal Important Haircut Blood from the Mouth The Chick Get Out! Slasher Smile Adaptational Heroism Fingore Retirony Wham Line Red Herring Cool Old Lady Face Death with Dignity Unusually Uninteresting Sight Wretched Hive Woman Scorned Insistent Terminology Even Evil Has Standards Faux Affably Evil Ripped from the Headlines Dies Wide Open Fate Worse than Death The Stinger Author Avatar Adorkable In the Back As You Know Meaningful Background Event Drowning My Sorrows Outrun the Fireball Those Two Guys My God, What Have I Done? Not Using the "Z" Word Destination Defenestration Karmic Death Japanese Films Tap on the Head Bar Brawl No Ending Rasputinian Death Truth in Television Ambiguous Ending Leitmotif Only Known by Their Nickname Air-Vent Passageway Bait-and-Switch Villainous Breakdown Adaptation Name Change Annoying Younger Sibling An Arm and a Leg Killed Mid-Sentence Dirty Cop Vomit Indiscretion Shot Adaptational Villainy Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Pyrrhic Victory Back from the Dead Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Not So Stoic Chekhov's Skill Despair Event Horizon Shut Up, Hannibal! All Just a Dream Training Montage Together in Death Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Sports Stories Would Hit a Girl After the End Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Children Are Innocent Actor Allusion Crazy Jealous Guy Suspiciously Similar Substitute Maybe Ever After Informed Ability Foregone Conclusion No Name Given Cluster F-Bomb Honor Before Reason Stock Footage Red Eyes, Take Warning Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Pragmatic Adaptation Oh, Crap! Fourth Date Marriage Married to the Job Novelization In Name Only Plucky Comic Relief I Did What I Had to Do What the Hell, Hero? Artistic License – Gun Safety A God Am I Sealed Evil in a Can Broken Pedestal Determinator Only in It for the Money Kick the Dog Fish out of Water One-Word Title Not What It Looks Like Red Right Hand Shirtless Scene My Beloved Smother Tranquil Fury Sir Swears-a-Lot No OSHA Compliance Stealth Hi/Bye Empathic Environment You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Logo Joke Psycho for Hire Manic Pixie Dream Girl Heel–Face Turn Pay Evil unto Evil Bittersweet Ending Hair-Trigger Temper Unspoken Plan Guarantee Hero Antagonist Historical-Domain Character Everyone Has Standards Lighter and Softer Captain Ersatz Becoming the Mask Trailers Always Spoil Disney Death Serious Business Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Revenge Creepy Child Developing Doomed Characters Arranged Marriage Take That! No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Affably Evil What Happened to the Mouse? Groin Attack Rule of Symbolism Obfuscating Stupidity Karma Houdini Fake Shemp Taking the Bullet Big Eater The Vamp Evil Brit Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Disproportionate Retribution Deadpan Snarker Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! She Cleans Up Nicely Hooker with a Heart of Gold Black Comedy Reality Has No Subtitles Italian Films Anti-Villain Adaptation Dye-Job Star-Crossed Lovers Fun with Acronyms Armor-Piercing Question Roaring Rampage of Revenge Police are Useless The '80s Gold Digger Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Eyepatch of Power You Have Failed Me Black Comedy Rape Does This Remind You of Anything? Instant Death Bullet