History Main / JustIgnoreIt

* ''[[CarryOn Carry On Up The Khyber]]'': Used to great comic effect where the senior officers and ambassador have a dinner party and steadfastly ignore the pitched battle just outside, even when explosions blow in the windows and make plaster fall over the meal.

In a world where innocent people are DyingLikeAnimals, some people take it on themselves to be ostriches. Zoological accuracy aside, these folks tend to believe that all you have to do is ignore the problem and it will solve itself.

As implied by the DyingLikeAnimals writeup, when this strategy fails, it fails ''hard''. Sometimes played for comic relief, as when the [[WrongGenreSavvy ignoring character]] ''thinks'' it's just [[LookBehindYou an attention ploy]], and they're in for [[RightBehindMe a nasty surprise.]]

* ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel'': [[WilliamShatner Captain Buck Murdock of Alpha Beta Base]] is debating with a junior officer whether they should do anything about the impending crash landing of the lunar shuttle.

* In ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal is so stupid that it assumes that if you can't see it, then it can't see you. The best way to escape is to place a towel over your head. It will then get confused and wander away.

** That or her being simply humiliated by being [[spoiler: spanked]]
* While the events of the first two book in the ''KnightAndRogueSeries'' were personal, the third book has them just happening across a series of crimes. The Michael insists on helping, Fisk believes the best way to handle the situation is to go about their daily lives.

** In part we see that keeping quiet would have been a good idea, since that Ithorian had told someone from TheEmpire, which promptly sends someone who's clueless about how EvilIsNotAToy, and the Imperials wouldn't be the only ones who'd want to break it out to use it. But ''not'' telling the miners meant they thought there [[ShmuckBait might be treasure in there]]. This all could have been avoided if they'd picked a more remote asteroid.

* {{Troll}}s, on forums: "DontFeedTheTroll!" The idea being we don't reward kids from pooping their pants.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episodes "Cartoon Wars" (Part I and Part II), the people of South Park decide literally to bury their heads in the sand, so as to show Islamists that they have no part in the insult to Muhammad.

* The ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFourWorldsGreatestHeroes'' show used this, basically, to get rid of some sort of cosmic brat (Even though it seemed old enough to qualify as an adult...) by doing nothing after spending a whole episode trying to catch him, but they find it just plain impossible. Counts as a MythologyGag as said brat was the Impossible Man mentioned above.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': At the end of "Twisted," with an incredibly powerful entity twisting and altering the ship, their ultimate solution is the decidedly odd, but logical ([[StrawVulcan Tuvok said it, so it must be!]]) "solution" of not doing anything. That said, nothing else the crew had tried worked and all they could do was to repeat all ready ineffective moves. So, the best option remaining would be to wait and see if things change.

-->-- ''Film/Airplane II: The Sequel''

-->-- ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel''

-->-- ''[[{{Airplane}} Airplane II: The Sequel]]''

* ''AirplaneIITheSequel'': [[WilliamShatner Captain Buck Murdock of Alpha Beta Base]] is debating with a junior officer whether they should do anything about the impending crash landing of the lunar shuttle.

* ''{{Scrubs}}'': J.D. realized that the best thing he can do for the sick patient who was turfed to every department in the hospital (and for his fractured relationships) is to do nothing and let things heal themselves. Of course, by "realized," we mean he actually ''forgot'' about the patient entirely, and was told after the fact that his "treatment" was brilliant.\\
\\
For the curious, the patient was not actually suffering from any disease at all, but rather had a high fever that resulted from the rapidly increasing medications he was being given as he was moved from department to department, each department unable to find a problem and giving him generic medication in the hopes of fixing whatever was wrong with him. Since there was no disease, nobody could ''find'' a disease, and kept transferring him to a new department in the hopes that ''they'' could fix him, and he eventually ended up with JD, who cured him by ignoring him, which caused his fever to break when he stopped being stuffed with drugs. Apparently this happens in real life.

** For example, Necrons have Monoliths, which are giant flying tombs, and their gods Nightbringer and Deceiver, who devour souls by the truckload. Just stay out of their way and concentrate on eliminating their plain old infantry. If enough of them go down, the rest of the army vanishes.

* Toddlers and tantrums. Provided that there's nothing they need (not hungry, not tired, not in pain, not frightened, etc), ignoring a toddler's tantrum is usually enough to make them stop. Of course, if said toddler is throwing a tantrum due to not receiving enough attention...

*** It also depends on what type of media online the problem occurs in. If it is in a web site where people can make several alternate accounts or bans are rarely given, the harassment will continue. In other places, people can restrict their profiles, instant messengers, and other forms of media to friends only.

* In ''TheKingAndI'' (the animated film, not the original musical), the heroes' tactic against a giant sea monster that is about to eat the ship is to Whistle a Happy Tune. It works - the monster is just an illusion produced by the bad guy.

*** It also depends on what type of media online the problem occurs in. If it is in a web site where people can make several alt accounts or bans are rarely given, the harassment will continue. In other places, people can restrict their profiles, instant messengers, and other forms of media to friends only.

* This is the only known way to get an excitable terrier to calm down.

** Additionally, it's well-known on the Disc that putting a blanket over your head repels the bogeyman. This is all fine and good, but as seen in ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'' and ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', if you put the blanket over the ''bogeyman's'' head he'll be briefly overcome with doubt as to ''his own'' existance.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'': Teatime's plan to assassinate the titular Santa Claus pastiche is to control the childrens' thoughts so that they no longer believe in him.
** Additionally, it's well-known on the Disc that putting a blanket over your head repels the bogeyman. This is all fine and good, but Susan takes it a step farther - put the blanket over the ''bogeyman's'' head, and he'll vanish completely.
** ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'': It's stated that that doesn't stop them from existing, but leaves them in a state where [[NightmareFuel they believe they don't exist themselves]].
* In ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal is so stupid that it assumes that if you can't see it, then it can't see you. The best way to escape is to place a towel over your head. It will then get confused and wander away.