History Main / TheGuardsMustbeCrazy

** In "The Killing Game", two guards find Harry Kim suspicious and stop him to for questioning. He convinces them to let him go with this line: "All right! You'd better call the bridge. Tell your superior I'm going to be late, that I'm working under your orders now, not his. Go ahead, make the call. I don't want to take the blame for this."
** Standard procedure for security personnel on ''Voyager'' is to stand in the formal "at-ease" position, looking straight ahead (not at the person they're guarding) so they can be knocked unconscious at a suitably plot-related moment.

*** "A Taste of Armageddon". One particularly ridiculous scene has a guard of an enemy installation watch calmly and without taking action as Spock walks up to him and informs of an imaginary "multi-legged creature" on his shoulder before using the Vulcan [[Pressure Point Neck Pinch]] on him.

*** In "Whom Gods Destroy" Spock lies down and pretends to be unconscious. Two guards pick him up to haul him away and he Uses the Vulcan [[Pressure Point Neck Pinch]] on both of them to escape.

*** "A Taste of Armageddon". One particularly ridiculous scene has a guard of an enemy installation watch calmly and without taking action as Spock walks up to him and informs of an imaginary "multi-legged creature" on his shoulder.

*** In "Whom Gods Destroy" Spock lies down and pretends to be unconscious. Two guards pick him up to haul him away and he Uses the Vulcan NeckPinch on both of them to escape.

*** One particularly ridiculous scene has a guard of an enemy installation watch calmly and without taking action as Spock walks up to him and informs of an imaginary "multi-legged creature" on his shoulder.
*** Also seen in the episode "Space Seed" in which Khan, a man described as being strong enough to lift two men with one hand, has but a single guard keeping him prisoner. Suffice to say the guard doesn't last long. To their credit, when Khan is defeated and tried, he has multiple baliffs on him holding him at phaser point.

** [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries In the Original Series]], one particularly ridiculous scene has a guard of an enemy installation watch calmly and without taking action as Spock walks up to him and informs of an imaginary "multi-legged creature" on his shoulder.
** Also seen in the episode "Space Seed" in which Khan, a man described as being strong enough to lift two men with one hand, has but a single guard keeping him prisoner. Suffice to say the guard doesn't last long. To their credit, when Khan is defeated and tried, he has multiple baliffs on him holding him at phaser point.
** Also seen in the episode "All Our Yesterdays" in which the lone guard, with the key to the cell dangling from his belt, walks right up to the bars to give Kirk a drink of water. Kirk grabs him, takes the key, lets himself out and locks the guard in.
** "A Piece of the Action" has Kirk escape twice after being captured by each of the top rival gangsters. Most famously is his creation of a convoluted card game with the goal of confusing the guard trying to keep up with the rules Kirk is making up on the fly.
** Security has not improved in [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]], a century later: shouting for Security will get you Lt. Worf, Chief of Security, and Lt. La Forge, Chief Engineer ("Conspiracy"), while an extremely violent prisoner is greeted by three security guards, ''with their weapons lowered'', who forget they're still armed when he leaps at them ("The Hunted").

** The [[SpaceMarine M.A.C.O's]] in the next ''Trek'' series ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' acted [[ShowSomeLeg a bit more professionally]].
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''

* The guards at the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''-verse [[BedlamHouse Arkham Asylum]]. Whether it's letting the Joker substitute all their real guns for popguns, allowing him access to janitorial chemicals that let him mix together some Joker Venom, or constructing a ''hot air balloon that allows him to fly over the walls'', the increasingly ridiculous, contrived and unbelievable ways that the Joker and the other Bat-villains escape from Arkham would be construed as painfully bad in any other franchise. For the ''{{Batman}}'' comics, on the other hand, it's par for the course.

This isn't simply captured by an evil overlord either. Most public places have some simple form of security, like at the mall or a sports arena, and despite the "mall cop" stereotype of this security it's usually on-the-ball. Some events like chase scenes count on that sort of general security being totally absent or inept so the story can continue to be exciting. The good guy is being chased by the bad guys [[RealityEnsues to have him chased by security, too]] when it isn't really important to the plot gives viewers a little too much to keep track of.

* ''LoneWolf'': Although even smart guards would have a hard time against a psychic hero specialized in infiltration and camouflage, some over the series display the typical incompetence associated with this trope.

** In ''Dawn of the Dragons'', the Eldenorian guards capturing Lone Wolf and bringing him before Prince Lutha take his gold, backpack and weapons... but not the weapon-like special items. Including the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Sommerswerd]]!
*** This one was so glaring that the French version actually [[http://projectaon.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1574&page=1 changed the scene by adding an Eldenorian traitor who brings back his special items to Lone Wolf.]]

* Guards in ''{{VideoGame/Dishonored}}'' may notice if you take out one of their colleagues when they're not looking, but their only reaction will be to say something along the lines of, "Wasn't someone supposed to be patrolling here?" They won't actually raise an alarm unless they see you (for an amount of time varying by distance and difficulty level) or an unconscious or dead body.

** [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking He also got cigarettes upon request.]]

** [[spoiler:You can thank Yakra XIII for that oversight. He didn't think taking over as the modern Chancellor all the way through.]]

* Failing to thoroughly search prisoners, especially dangerous ones, before locking them up, thus allowing them to conceal weapons, lockpicks, etc.

* The comment threads of ''Webcomic/{{Terra}}'' offer a useful tip to any aspiring {{Mooks}} out there: When you capture a dangerous {{badass}} like Agrippa Varus, before putting him in a holding cell make sure to search him thoroughly so you know he isn't concealing something like, oh, [[spoiler:a hand grenade]].

* Never watching prisoners locked in a room [[BedsheetLadder with a bed and an unlocked window]].

* Never watching prisoners locked in a room [[BedsheetLadder with a bed]].

* Both fiercely subverted and then played straight in ''An Oblique Approach'', the first book of the ''BelisariusSeries'' by David Drake and Eric Flint. The Kushans guarding Princess Shakuntala were so highly disciplined, effective, and intelligently led that Raghunath Rao, greatest assassin in India, knew he could '''never''' rescue her from them. So [[spoiler: Belisarius tricked Venandakatra into '''replacing''' the Kushans with "guards" so inept that Rao had no problem wiping them out -- except for two killed by the princess herself.]]

** Subverted with the prison guards in Death Star. When Luke and Han, dressed as Stoormtropers, comes with Chewbacca as the TrojanPrisoner and says to the guards that they're transmitting him to their prison block, the commander doesn't fall for it, since he wasn't told of it before through the info comm. As he was about to check for conformation, Han and Chewbacca lose their shit and start shooting around. When Han then trys to contact the command and tell that everything is on control, they immediately demand his serial nummer, which he can't provide. After Han shoot up the comm link, the command immediately sends Stoormtropers to take care of them.

* Played with in Lesson Zero of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Twilight sneaks into the private library of the palace and does a ''VERY'' poor job of staying hidden, yet the guards are completely oblivious to her. She finally gets caught trying to open the door to the library, and the guard greets her politely and unlocks the door. ''Turns out that since Twilight is the protege of Princess Celestia, she's always welcome in the palace and library so the guards were just ignoring her.''
** And played straight during ''A Bird in the Hoof'' - where a ''pet phoenix'', dying of old age (therefore incredibly obvious because featherless) managed to trick Celestia's own PraetorianGuard ''while they were putting up Wanted posters with that bird's face on''.