History Main / OnlySaneEmployee

Subtrope of TheReliableOne and OnlySaneMan. Related archetypes include the NerdNanny, CloudcuckoolandersMinder, BeleagueredAssistant, and HypercompetentSidekick.

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--> '''Soren''': Door's open. This is almost certainly a trap.
--> '''Ike''': Hm. How about we all barge in through the front door?
--> '''Soren''': Probably the best course of action. Let's go.
--> '''Ranulf''': Errr, ''guys''?! Isn't this the part where we stop and carefully consider strategies?! No? (Sigh.)

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'': Chisame's job description: [[PlayfulHacker Hack computers,]] [[DeadpanSnarker make snarky comments]] [[MetaGuy about everything around her,]] and keep [[TheHero Negi]] from doing something pointlessly reckless.
* In ''Manga/ZettaiKarenChildren'', Minamoto often plays this role for the good guys at BABEL, and Shiro plays this role for the [[AntiVillain antagonists]] at PANDRA.

* In the ''FanFic/AllGuardsmenParty'', Jim and Hannah are the only members of the Machine Cult on board the Occurrence Border who ''aren't'' fanatical, completely out of their gourd, flat-out heretics, or some combination of the three. It's eventually made official when the Magos Juris (Mechanicus internal affairs) investigate the Occurence Border after a long story involving xenotech and threatened mutiny, and find that basically all the Mechanicus except for Jim and Hannah are idiots and remove them from the ship, placing the two in charge.

* Only a few of the captains under Yamamoto in ''/FanFic/PleaseStopEatingTheHellButterflies'' are this, as the rest range from 'disturbed but do their jobs well' to 'disturbed and they only stay on the payroll because they don't have better options'. These are the Captains Ukitake and Konamura, as well as Yamamoto's Vice Captain Sasakibe.

* In ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', unlike [[DeathSeeker the rest of Millennium]], the Doktor has more orthodox goals, like continuing his research. He sometimes gets exasperated with his more eccentric colleagues and their antics. Considering his research will in the end benefit mankind, he is '''somewhat'' better than the rest of them. The fact that he's the OnlySaneEmployee while still being a Nazi scientist in a perpetually blood-stained lab coat says more about the rest of Millennium than it does about the Doktor.

* Albert Speer was this to the governing echelons of {{Those Wacky|Nazis}} UsefulNotes/{{Nazi|Germany}}s: someone who wasn't a delusional megalomaniac (Hitler), a self-indulgent junkie (Goering), a crazed fanboy (Goebbels) or all of the above (Himmler). His organizational skill and grasp of reality were largely to blame for the fact that the Third Reich lasted as long as it did. Heck, his status as OnlySaneMan is probably responsible for his KarmaHoudini status, since while the others remained completely insane, blinded by ideology, crazed by drug abuse or some combination thereof, he was one of the few who recognized in advance that the war wasn't going to end well for the Nazis and that it was probably a good idea to make sure you could plausibly come out the other side in one piece. The fact that he was the only one out of the Nazi High Command to express any kind of regret or remorse for what had happened probably helped spare his life as well.

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** And Redcloak as well, considering he has to [[strike: stop]] keep the rest of Team Evil wasting time on games of Feed the Paladin to the Shark.

** Vetinari as well, not so much the ''only'' sane man, but the ''most'' sane one. An example turns up in ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', surrender was the most logical course for Ankh-Morpork from the very beginning, but only Vetinari is able to see it.
** ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' states that for any organization to survive, it needs at least one person who is this.
** In ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'', Salzella appears to be this at first, but by the end of the book...

* Lorna Dilbrook from ''Webcomic/{{Newshounds}}'', especially in the comic's first incarnation.

* In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'', the Crimean army is [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits almost entirely made of nutcases]], with trusty right-hand Titania and stern strategist Soren the seemingly only persons to do any work outside of fighting. Captain Ike has said explicitly stated he couldn't do anything without them. Then again, there was this one exchange about storming an enemy fortress in which Soren succumbed to the craziness and Ranulf was the OnlySaneMan left. It went something like...

* The titular agency of LockwoodAndCo comprises a scatterbrained, revenge-driven young man who may only be avoiding committing VanHelsingHateCrimes on a technicality (depending on your perspective), a slob verging on MadScientist territory in his spare time, a borderline ClingyJealousGirl who doesn't even know she's verging on Clingy Jealous Girl territory...and Holly Munro, who's found herself with the unenviable job of cleaning up after all of them. Although she's only just been introduced, it's a fair bet that she will end up being this trope.

** Also the titular character of ''Series/YoSoyBettyLaFea'', who, while not exactly babysitting her boss, seems to have internalized that "Secretary of Presidency" actually means "make all things possible so the boss don't screw it up his job", doing things from shielding the boss' fiancée from finding about his sexual escapades (and distracting the exes so they don't reach the man), to actually creating a full finances plan with a healthy dose of fiscal trickery so the company don't goes bankrupt under her boss' administration.

* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', Light Sided Imperial players tend to come across as being this for the Empire. In-universe, Keeper claims that this is Imperial Intelligence's ''real'' job, to just let the Sith [[AxeCrazy do their thing]] and the military go ahead and play soldier, while Intelligence cleans up the mess they leave behind and keep the Empire actually ''running'' in the meantime.\\
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** [[spoiler:Immediately after Intelligence is disbanded]] things go south for the Empire in a hurry. Darth Malgus rebels splitting the Empire in two, the Emperor gets killed and the Empire loses several key battles throughout the galaxy, among them Corellia. It gets so bad that Darth Marr has to send player on a suicide mission to Makeb to get Isotope-5 so the Empire gets a ''chance'' at survival. It's not only implied but extremely likely none of this would have been necessary if Imperial Intelligence had been there to keep things in check. The mere fact that Darth Marr even knows about Makeb is simple dumb luck as Darth Marr informs Imperial Agent players that he only knew that Isotope-5 had been found on Makeb due to files he found in Keeper's office before Intelligence was liquidated.

[[spoiler:Immediately after Intelligence is disbanded]] things go south for the Empire in a hurry. Darth Malgus rebels splitting the Empire in two, the Emperor gets killed and the Empire loses several key battles throughout the galaxy, among them Corellia. It gets so bad that Darth Marr has to send player on a suicide mission to Makeb to get Isotope-5 so the Empire gets a ''chance'' at survival. It's not only implied but extremely likely none of this would have been necessary if Imperial Intelligence had been there to keep things in check. The mere fact that Darth Marr even knows about Makeb is simple dumb luck as Darth Marr informs Imperial Agent players that he only knew that Isotope-5 had been found on Makeb due to files he found in Keeper's office before Intelligence was liquidated.

* Heloise on ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''. In an episode where [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity she's fired]], everything falls apart.

* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', Light Sided Imperial players tend to come across as being this for the Empire. In-universe, Keeper claims that this is Imperial Intelligence's ''real'' job, to just let the Sith [[AxeCrazy do their thing]] and the military go ahead and play soldier, while Intelligence cleans up the mess they leave behind and keep the Empire actually ''running'' in the meantime.
** In their defense they do have a point. [[spoiler:Immediately after being disbanded]] things go south for the Empire in a hurry. Darth Malgus rebels splitting the Empire in two, the Emperor gets killed and the Empire loses several key battles throughout the galaxy, among them Corellia. It gets so bad that Darth Marr has to send player on a suicide mission to Makeb to get Isotope-5 so the Empire gets a ''chance'' at survival. It's not only implied but extremely likely none of this would have been necessary if Imperial Intelligence had been there to keep things in check. The mere fact that Darth Marr even knows about Makeb is simple dumb luck as Darth Marr informs Imperial Agent players that he only knew that Isotope-5 had been found on Makeb due to files he found in Keeper's office before Intelligence was liquidated.

* Paige in ''Series/{{Scorpion}}''. Her job is to "translate" the geniuses of Scorpion to the rest of the world, but there is an unspoken assumption that she will also help them deal with the parts of the real world they find confusing/frustrating. Cabe also qualifes, but as he is not technically an employee, but rather the one providing the jobs, he might better be described as as a 'sane employer'.

** In their defense they do have a point. [[spoiler:Immediately after being disbanded]] things go south for the Empire in a hurry. Darth Malgus rebels splitting the Empire in two, the Emperor gets killed and the Empire loses several key battles throughout the galaxy, among them Corellia. It gets so bad that Darth Marr has to send player on a suicide mission to Makeb to get Isotope-5 so the Empire gets a ''chance'' at survival. It's not only implied but extremely likely none of this would have been neccessary if Imperial Intelligence had been there to keep things in check. The mere fact that Darth Marr even knows about Makeb is simple dumb luck as Darth Marr informs Imperial Agent players that he only knew that Isotope-5 had been found on Makeb due to files he found in Keeper's office before Intelligence was liquidated.

** With the [[TroubledProduction troubled]] realease of ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'', however, fans have realized he may not have been as sane as he appeared to be....

* Waylon Smithers from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is pretty much the only person at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant who actually knows what he's doing. Several episodes show that Homer is just the worst of an ''extremely'' stupid and incompetent workforce. A few episodes have portrayed Smithers as quietly arranging for this to be the case to keep the owner (Burns) completely dependant on him.

* In the ''{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, junior graduate Assassin Ruth N'Kweze is first the student to, then later the assistant Assassin to, Johanna Smith-Rhodes. She is also Assistant Housemistress to Johanna in Raven House, making her Johanna's personal assistant on several levels. Ruth isn't above delivering snark and reality checks to her boss, and the two play out the relationship between the Disc's black and white "South Africans" in their interactions.