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)

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

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