History OnlySaneMan / LiveActionTV

* In ''{{Buffy}}'' this happens a few times, generally due to magic addling people's minds. One example is in season 5 where Glory is using magic to obscure the fact that she and Ben share the same body. Only Spike, who's not human, is immune to the magic, and tries to explain to the heroes what's going on: everyone else is unable to understand what he's saying, bizarrely misinterprets him or ignores or forgets immediately.

* ''{{Friends}}'' is a rather unusual example of this trope. In the beginning, Monica was definitely this (she was a 3, to be exact). However, as her obsessive-compulsiveness gradually shot UpToEleven and Chandler's quippiness/snarkiness decreased, ''he'' gradually became the OnlySaneMan of the group. Albeit more of a 2 than a 3.

* ''{{Babylon 5}}'': The expression on Londo Mollari's face when [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] first talks to him privately about his impending ascension to godhood being lit by the bonfire of a burning Centauri Prime, is priceless. Fortunately he wasn't the only sane man (but other sane men in the Royal Court had to be discreet about it [[OffWithHisHead or else]]), and ended up leading a successful plot to assassinate this mad Emperor before [[ItMakesSenseInContext he could actually get their world destroyed]].

* Weirdly enough Rachel, who started as a spoiled, naive, incompetent UpperClassTwit had enough CharacterDevelopment to be definitely the closest to OnlySaneMan in later seasons, while the rest of the characters got flanderized into caricatures of themselves.

* ''{{Babylon 5}}'': The expression on Londo Mollari's face when [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] first talks to him privately about his impending ascension to godhood being lit by the bonfire of a burning Centauri Prime, is priceless. Fortunately he wasn't the only sane man (but other sane men in the Royal Court had to be discreet about it [[OffWithHisHead or else]]), and ended up leading a successful plot to assassinate this mad Emperor before he could actually get their world destroyed.

* ''{{Babylon 5}}'': The expression on Londo Mollari's face when [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] first talks to him privately about his impending ascension to godhood being lit by the bonfire of a burning Centauri Prime, is priceless. Fortunately he wasn't the only sane man (but everyone in the Royal Court had to be discreet about it [[OffWithHisHead or else]]), and ended up leading a successful plot to assassinate this mad Emperor before he could actually get their world destroyed.

* ''{{Babylon 5}}'': The expression on Londo Mollari's face when [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] first talks to him privately about his impending ascension to godhood being lit by the bonfire of a burning Centauri Prime, is priceless. Fortunately he wasn't the only sane man (but everyone had to be discreet about it [[OffWithHisHead or else]]), and ended up leading a successful plot to assassinate this mad Emperor before he could actually get their world destroyed.

* ''{{Babylon 5}}'': The expression on Londo Mollari's face when [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] first talks to him privately about his impending ascension to godhood being lit by the fire of a burning Centauri Prime, is priceless. Fortunately he wasn't the only sane man (but everyone had to be discreet about it [[OffWithHisHead or else]]), and ended up leading a successful plot to assassinate this mad Emperor before he could actually get their world destroyed.

* ''{{Babylon 5}}'': The expression on Londo Mollari's face when [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] first talks to him privately about his impending ascension to godhood being lit by the fire of a burning Centauri Prime, is priceless. Fortunately he wasn't the only sane man (but everyone had to be discreet about it [[OffWithHisHead or else]]), and ended up leading a successful plot to assassinate this mad Emperor.

* ''{{Babylon 5}}'': The expression on Londo Mollari's face when [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] first talks about his impending ascension to godhood being lit by the fire of a burning Centauri Prime, is priceless. Fortunately he wasn't the only sane man (but everyone had to be discreet about it [[OffWithHisHead or else]]), and ended up leading a successful plot to assassinate this mad Emperor.

* The expression on [[Babylon5 Londo Mollari's]] face when [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] first talks about his impending ascension to godhood being lit by the fire of a burning Centauri Prime, is priceless. Fortunately he wasn't the only sane man (but everyone had to be discreet about it [[OffWithHisHead or else]]), and ended up leading a successful plot to assassinate this mad Emperor.

* ''ICarly'': Freddie, complete with ''volunteering'' for a LizLemonJob (almost exactly [[Series/ThirtyRock Liz Lemon's]] [[ShowRunner actual job]], for that matter.) Also Carly early on but they seemed to move away from this so she could do more physical humor.

*** And more recently John Watson to the higher-functioning sociopath Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's ''{{Sherlock}}''. Martin Freeman's made a career of it.

* ''PowerRangersRPM'' has the villainess Tenaya 7, who once spent ''an entire episode'' asking the BigBad if his evil plan had failed enough for her to go take a nap.

* Ted from ''HowIMetYourMother'' is an unconventional case, as he's a bit ditzy and is often neurotic, impulsive, and irrational, but he constantly reverts to this trope whenever his friends start going off the deep end, is often told that he acts like [[TeamDad the group's dad]], and usually is the person everyone runs to when they've got a problem. One of his most impressive demonstrations of this is in "False Positive", when the other four all chuck their dreams and plans away and make selfish, shallow, cowardly decisions, prompting Ted to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech dish out a brutal tongue-lashing]] and literally forbids them from doing anything of the sort -- they're going to do exactly what he tells them to do instead, ''or else''. They are all ''extremely'' thankful for it afterwards.

* Subverted on ''{{Leverage}}''. Nate believes he's the only sane man on the team because he's the only one who's not a thief. It quickly becomes apparent that he's an unstable, self-absorbed, risk-taking alcoholic and the rest of them, despite their law-breaking, are much closer to normal, or at least functional. [[spoiler: He only starts getting better once he acknowledges that he's a thief too and no better than the rest of them.]]

* In the BBC comedy ''{{Outnumbered}}'' the sensible Jake Brockman often ends up as this, when thrown together with his younger and crazier siblings Ben and Karen. (Resulting in endless frustration and eventual snarking on his part).

* The customer in ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' "Dead Parrot" sketch is another classic.

** ''{{A Bit of Fry and Laurie}}'' also makes good use of the "sane customer, insane shopkeeper" concept.
* ''{{iCarly}}'': Freddie, complete with ''volunteering'' for a LizLemonJob (almost exactly [[Series/ThirtyRock Liz Lemon's]] [[ShowRunner actual job]], for that matter.) Also Carly early on but they seemed to move away from this so she could do more physical humor.

* Greg from ''{{Dharma and Greg}}''.

* Used very creatively to {{Lampshade}} a would-be case of {{The Other Darrin}} on ''DueSouth''. After the actor who played Ray Vecchio left the show, the next episode features Benton Fraser completely dumbfounded at another guy that shows up claiming to be him, with everyone else at the station also insisting that this is Vecchio. Eventually it turns out Fraser was left out of the loop for a bit that the real Vecchio is undercover with the mob, and the new guy is an FBI agent who's impersonating him.

* Benjamin Denton on ''{{The League of Gentlemen}}'' is the only sane person in his plot thread on the show. Similarly, in every scene set in the Local Shop, whichever character Mark Gatiss is currently playing will be the only sane man. He will probably also be tortured to death.

** In the ''DeepSpaceNine'' episode "The Search Part II", [[spoiler:Sisko, O'Brien, Dax, Bashir, and T'Rul are put through a Virtual Reality MindScrew which posits a treaty between the Federation and the Dominion, an alliance that gives the Dominion the upper hand -- and Bajor. These five are the only military officers (four Starfleet, one Romulan) on Deep Space Nine who see the treaty for what it is: a betrayal of Federation ideals, Bajor, and ultimately the Federation itself. Sisko turns down a bribe-promotion and our heroes risk vaporization or court-martial and a trip to Elba II to keep the Dominion away. Odo and Kira get them released and whew, it was AllJustADream.]]

* In the BBC comedy ''Outnumbered'' the sensible Jake Brockman often ends up as this, when thrown together with his younger and crazier siblings Ben and Karen. It's hard not to feel sorry for him when they begin discussing how he should get a girlfriend.

* Dr. Crusher in the ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Remember Me", who is the only one to notice people disappearing. [[spoiler:She really is out of touch with reality, but she's perfectly sane: it's the rest of "reality" which isn't.]]

** In the ''StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Bliss", Seven of Nine, the Doctor and Naomi Wildman are the only ones who notice the crew acting strangely when they find an opportunity to get home. [[spoiler: That was actually a telepathic pitcher plant making everyone hallucinate their own desires in an effort to eat them.]]

*** This includes yelling in faux-[[StarTrek Klingon]] at a new companion who is good at picking up languages.

*** However, since this ''is'' Python and both characters are played by JohnCleese, their sanity is relative.

** In the first series, it is Baldrick, of all people, who has this role. He's more well-known as the BumblingSidekick he becomes in later series.
* Dick Loudon on ''{{Newhart}}'', where he dealt with eccentric, over-the-top characatures of people on a near-constant basis. George Utley (Tom Poston) is the nice but dim-witted handyman who is not too good at his job, but still insists that he'll be inducted into the handyman's Hall of Fame. Stephanie Vanderkellen (Julia Duffy) is the spoiled maid who also is virtually incompetent, while TV producer boyfriend Michael Harris (Peter Scolari) is the epitome of alliteration and yuppiness. There was Larry (William Sanderson) and his mute brothers, Darryl and Darryl, backwoods outdoorsmen who owned the Minuteman Cafe; Larry introduces the group the same way every time they make an appearance: "Hi, I'm Larry; this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl," and makes wild claims that often turn out to be true. Dick somehow tries to keep his sanity but finally snaps at the end of the [[GrandFinale final episode]], "The Last Newhart" ... only for "Dick" to be the starring character in Dr. Robert Hartley's nightmare.

** lets not forget that Leonard frequently acknowledges what he and his friends are doing is completely insane

* In ''{{Buffy}}'' this happens a few times, generally due to magic addling people's minds. One example is in season 5 where Glory is using magic to obscure the fact that she and Ben share the same body. Only Spike, who's not human, is immune to the magic, and tries to explain to the heroes what's going on: everyone else is unable to understand what he's saying, bizarrely misinterprets him or ignores or forgets immediately.
** "So, do we think that Ben and Glory are connected?"
*** "Is everyone here very stoned?"
* Andy Travis of ''WKRPInCincinnati''. Created as the show's protagonist -- that's him being referred to in the theme song -- but the writers soon realized he was too dull to drive many plots and made it into an ensemble series with Andy at the bemused centre of the crazy.
* John Crichton of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' usually manages to keep his head while all those around him are losing theirs. Justified by the fact that he is the only human in the main cast and aliens are likely to react to situations much differently, as well as by the fact that most of the rest of the crew are rebellious escaped prisoners who the Peacekeepers locked up for the sake of maintaining strict order.
** On the other hand, Crichton actually shows clear signs of mental instability as a result of his experiences over the show. He does manage to pull himself together and get things done, but his base level is pretty off what would be considered ordinary.

* Saffy in ''Series/AbsolutelyFabulous''.
* Nora of ''LifeWithDerek''.

* FBI Special Agent George Huang, M.D., on ''[[LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit Law & Order: Special Victims Unit]]'' always sees the big picture, and is often the only reasonable person. If the rest of the cast ever actually listened to him, instead of using him to wheedle confessions out of perps, most of their problems would be solved.
* On ''{{Soap}}'', Benson usually played this role within the Tate household. Mary and Jodie took turns with the SanityBall in the Campbell household.
* ''{{Degrassi}}'' hands off the hat of sanity to at least one character... usually. While one character has a zany poorly designed scheme, another character will be there to say "You're kidding, right?" The most consistent with the sanity hat are Jimmy, Ellie, and Clare. Jimmy is sane to offset Spinner's [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny Attention span]]. Ellie paired off against [[FallenPrincess Ashley]], [[{{Gayngst}} Marco]], or [[MoodSwinger Craig]] to point out when they were doing something stupid. Clare's paired off with [[HormoneAddledTeenager Alli]], who is on a mission to become popular, Clare gets to tell Alli when her popularity plans are dumb. Now, earlier I said '''most''' capable. All three of these examples have had off days, just not as many as the rest of the cast.
** [[AlphaBitch Paige and Holly J]] have at times invoked this trope, suggesting they might be the only sane woman at the school. However they don't have the hat of sanity as often as the above.

* In ''{{Community}}'' episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E20TheScienceOfIllusion The Science of Illusion]] Jeff starts to mention that he and Abed are this before Abed cuts him off.

* Michael Bluth in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' believes he's this. He really, really isn't, but compared to [[DysfunctionJunction the rest of his family]] he may as well be.

* Michael Bluth in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' believes he's this. He really, really isn't, but compared to[[DysfunctionJunction the rest of his family]] he may as well be.

* Michael Bluth in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' believes he's this. He really, really isn't.

* {{Friends}} is a rather unusual example of this trope. In the beginning, Monica was definitely this (she was a 3, to be exact). However, as her obsessive-compulsiveness gradually shot UpToEleven and Chandler's quippiness/snarkiness decreased, ''he'' gradually became the OnlySaneMan of the group. Albeit more of a 2 than a 3.