History OnlySaneMan / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Community}}'': In the episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E20TheScienceOfIllusion "The Science of Illusion"]], Jeff starts to mention that he and Abed are this before Abed cuts him off. In the episode [[Recap/CommunityS3E05HorrorFictionInSevenSpookySteps "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps"]], it's shown that Abed has the highest sanity rating.

** And Hartley was one of these himself on ''TheBobNewhartShow''; with reason, because he was a counselling psychologist and most of the other characters were his patients, and Bob did deal with several sane people.

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Listen to any conversation where the group is discussing what to do next and you'll find that Miles is probably the one making the most sense. Now, if only [[IdiotHero Charlie]] would just listen to him.

* 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).
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': Jerry Seinfeld once talked about how the character he played is actually funnier than the others because he "brings the sanity back" by making everyone else look just as crazy as they should in real life in comparison to him, and therefore even funnier than they otherwise would. This is especially true whenever another character tries to get advice from/explain whatever's going on to Jerry, who usually not only sees through, but plays along, often quite indulgently, with the other characters' bizarre motivations and logic. Also a SubvertedTrope, as while Jerry thinks he's the only sane man, but it's more in comparison to his friends as he is shown to have a lot of troubles too, the most apparent being his tendency [[ManHands to break up for petty reasons]], being a NeatFreak and being a bit of a ManChild.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Rory could also be considered this. Given that both Amy and the Doctor have {{Cloudcuckoolander}} tendencies, Rory often has to act as the voice of reason. And not just in the {{Cloudcuckoolander}} sense either. Amy and the Doctor both have a tendency to abandon good sense altogether when they become too emotionally involved in a situation. Rory is easily the most emotionally stable of the three of them, making him the OnlySaneMan in that regard as well.
* ''Series/TeenWolf'': Jackson in that everybody but him cheers on Scott's rather miraculous change of athletic ability. He almost seems frustrated that no one else thinks that something is wrong with Scott - even his girlfriend starts hitting on Scott.
** However, as the story progresses, Jackson seems to be falling very far and very quickly on the scale of actual sanity.
*** Now the role has been doubly passed onto Stiles (for Jackson and Scott), and Lydia (for Allison).
*** Although I wouldn't really call Lydia sane as of the second season.
** Of Derek's pack, Boyd is easily the most level-headed of them, including Derek.

* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': The customer in the "Dead Parrot" sketch is another classic.
** Likewise the customer in the "Cheese Shop" sketch, who finally takes the only "reasonable" way out of the situation and shoots the shopkeeper.
*** However, since this ''is'' Python and both characters are played by Creator/JohnCleese, their sanity is relative.
** ''ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' also makes good use of the "sane customer, insane shopkeeper" concept.
* ''Series/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.
---> '''Carly''': How come ''I'' can hear me?
* ''SaturdayNightLive'': One sketch cast Norm Macdonald as a character in a musical (a ''West Side Story'' {{expy}}), who questioned [[CrowdSong why everyone was spontaneously breaking into choreographed song and dance]].
** The ''Saturday Night Live'' "Jeopardy" sketches LIVE by this trope.
*** In the second "Hip Hop Kids" sketch the kids are trapped in a cave and Andy Samburg's character tries in vain to convince the others that having dance contests against bears is a '''very''' bad idea!
** ''Saturday Night Live'' pretty much lives off this trope. The vast majority of non-political ''[=SNL=]'' sketches are based on the concept of one or more sane characters interacting with one or more insane characters. The main variables are the ratio of sane characters to insane characters and the way in which the insane characters are insane. Often, crazy characters recur through a number of sketches while their sane foils are variable. For example, the "Two A-Holes" sketches follow this.
* ''{{Blackadder}}'':
** Edmund Blackadder. Surrounded as he is by idiotic and / or mad superiors and underlings. For all his faults, Edmund is usually the only sane person around at any given time period. Unfortunately for him, if there are any ''other'' sane people around, they're usually gunning directly for him.\\
\\
He's also a lot more savvy than most people around him in a historical sense as well, being able to recognize where his contemporaries cannot that the application of leeches to various body parts isn't an effective medical treatment, and that WorldWarI is one long, muddy, blood-soaked and pointless waste of time and lives. "Whatever it was, I'm sure it was better than my plan to get out of here by pretending to be mad. I mean, who would have noticed another madman round here?"
** 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.
* ''{{Newhart}}'': Dick Loudon, 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.
** And Hartley was one of these himself on ''TheBobNewhartShow''; with reason, because he was a counselling psychologist and most of the other characters were his patients, and Bob did deal with several sane people.
* ''KeepingUpAppearances'': Richard. And also Elizabeth and Emmett.
* ''GreenAcres'': Oliver Douglas is either the most sane person, or the least--he's the only one who tries to view things logically, as it becomes increasingly apparent that in Hooterville, [[{{Cloudcuckooland}} logic no longer applies]].
* ''Series/ThirtyRock'': In one episode, Kenneth's page jacket is ruined by Jenna and the only way he can get a new one is by competing in a "page-off" against the head page Donny - a secret underground NBC trivia contest. Pete catches them doing it as none of the pages are upstairs working, and says "What, are you kidding me? This is a billion dollar company. Donny, give Kenneth a damn jacket!"
* ''NewsRadio'': Dave Nelson, but only sometimes. Occasionally he's completely crazy, and Lisa is the Only Sane Woman.

* ''Series/TheDailyShow'': Portrays the studio host, Jon Stewart, as the OnlySaneMan, with all his reporters being weirdos and lunatics with various obsessions and derangements.
** ''The Daily Show'' also significantly revolves around playing clips of journalists and politicians looking foolish, cultivating the impression that Stewart is the only sane man in the entire country.
** Jon Stewart has explicitly described ''The Daily Show'''s purpose being to point out the absurdities of government and the world. Since they focus on the crazy stuff (like ''pirates'' in the Indian Ocean), it's entirely logical that he looks sane comparatively.
** Sometimes, the roles are reversed. For example, a scene on the aforementioned Indian Ocean pirates has John Olivier trying to talk about it seriously, while Jon Stewart is making a bunch of pirate jokes and puns.
** ''ShaunMicallef's Mad As Hell'', which is ''Series/TheDailyShow'' '''[[RecycledInSpace DOWN UNDER]]''', also makes use of this.
* ''TheMuppetShow'': Kermit The Frog qualifies as the Only Sane Amphibian, although he cheerfully admits at least once that he's only surrounded by crazies because ''he'' hired them. Contrast Sam the Eagle, who merely ''thought of himself'' as this.

* ''YoungDracula'': Chloe would often be the only character to notice how bizarre the situation actually was.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': Lister, mainly because Rimmer and The Cat's decisions are too selfish and Kryten's are too limited.
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Michael Bluth believes he's this. He really, really isn't, but compared to [[DysfunctionJunction the rest of]] [[BigScrewedUpFamily his family]] he may as well be. Funny enough, the OSM is the narrator/documentary crew. George Michael fits the role pretty well.
* ''Series/DueSouth'': Used very creatively to {{Lampshade}} a would-be case of TheOtherDarrin. 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.
* ''Series/CornerGas'': Has Lacey, although the title passes to Brent or Karen occasionally.
* ''TheBigBangTheory'': Has two Sane people in Penny and Leonard. Penny is there primarily to point out how hopelessly obsessed the geeks are, while Leonard is the only geek that has any understanding of human interaction.
** lets not forget that Leonard frequently acknowledges what he and his friends are doing is completely insane
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Dr. Crusher in the 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.]]
--> '''Dr. Crusher:''' If there's nothing wrong with me, there must be something wrong with [[spoiler:the universe.]]
** In the ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' 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 ''Series/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.]]
*** Specifically, [[spoiler: the pitcher plant's powers make people consumed with their desires once they seem within reach. The Doctor, being a hologram, naturally isn't affected, and Seven and Naomi remain clearheaded because they don't share the others' intense desire to return to the Alpha Quadrant.]] Unfortunately, [[spoiler:once Seven learns what's going on, she gets a desire to escape the pitcher plant, which itself makes her vulnerable to it.]]
* ''Series/{{Coupling}}'': Susan is a rare female example of this trope - the only sane voice among oft-ranting, chronically insecure Steve, beauty-obsessed age-fearing Sally, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} egomaniac Jane, brain-dead misogynist Patrick and, well... Jeff.
** Steve often fills this role when he's hanging out with Jeff and Patrick. Sanity is relative . . .
** Er, I'm pretty sure Steve is always the one that sees things for what they really are with his honest takes of the insanity he sees around him (like the pointlessness of cushions on a chair, or the riduculousness of taking a lock off a bathroom door) without the social delusions that Patrick and Jeff hold. That's where the root of Steve's rants come from. While Susan is always the one that's insecure about her place (insecure about Steve still comparing her to Jane, insecure about him cheating, to the point of high pitched breakdowns that never see things from the rational overview). If anyone is chronically insecure, it's her. Her rants come from her own subjective insecurities.
*** Well, Steve's major talent in this area is that he can invariably ''explain that he is this'', however far he has to go towards InsaneTrollLogic to do so (like, the cushion thing (which isn't as stupid as he thinks) was really not relevant to what was going on...)
** The point of the show is to contrast the two normal people (Steve and Susan) with the two incredibly insecure people (Jeff and Sally) and the two excessively confident people (Jane and Patrick). Steve and Susan's relationship isn't perfect and they themselves aren't perfect; they both have perfectly normal flaws and neither ignore them nor obsess about them (much).
** Jane [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} of all people]] fills the role in "Sex, Death and Nudity", calling out Steve on his attempt to shift the blame for his refusal to come to the funeral onto Susan (despite her not being in the conversation), correcting [[TheDitz Patrick]] when he fails to get that the aunt she just introduced him is not the same as the aunt whose funeral it is, making an effort to clear the air with Susan, and expressing frustration with Steve when he gets an [[RagingStiffie erection]] as a result of her talking about [[GirlOnGirlIsHot lesbianism]].
-->'''Jane''': Oh, ''Steve!'' How much longer?
-->'''Steve''': [[LiteralMinded About the usual amount.]]
-->'''Jane''': How much longer ''in minutes'' Steve?
*** Unfortunately, it all comes undone when she's the only one to succumb to the Giggle Loop.
* ''TheLeagueOfGentlemen'': Benjamin Denton 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.
* ''{{Taxi}}'': Alex Reiger.
* ''KyleXY'': Josh kept a detailed notebook on all the strange things that happen around Kyle, and concluded he was a space alien, which he constantly mentioned. Kyle (who was actually an escaped lab experiment) later had to admit that Josh was the person who came the closest to figuring it all out.
* ''MyFamily'': Michael. Technically an Only Sane Boy, at least in the earlier seasons. His father Ben only thinks he is.
* ''Series/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. There's also Ziggy, who is so GenreSavvy that you're surprised he doesn't look directly at the camera and inform the audience that yes, these people he hangs out with are ''serious.'' At one point, he actually does look directly at the camera and inform the audience that these people he hangs out with aren't Rangers, they just play them on TV; as a way to segue into [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent a behind-the-scenes episode]].
* ''FatherTed'': Father Ted is the only more-or-less normal (albeit [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist not particularly nice]]) person on Craggy Island.
* ''{{Reno 911}}'': Let us not forget Deputy Sven Jones and (most of the time) Jim Dangle. They are the only ones who aren't violent, racist idiots, or holier than thou religious zealots. Or conversely, no one but no one is sane on ''{{Reno 911}}''.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': 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. He makes statements like "So, do we think that Ben and Glory are connected?" and "Is everyone here very stoned?"

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': John Crichton 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.
** And if you've ever [[FridgeLogic sat and thought about]] what his American pop culture references must sound like through the TranslatorMicrobes, you have to come to the conclusion that he must seem very insane indeed.
*** This includes yelling in faux-[[Franchise/StarTrek Klingon]] at a new companion who is good at picking up languages.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': In this circa 1980 Sci-Fi, the cowardly thief Vila (Restal) was the only crew member to habitually question "Why risk near certain death to make one point that the news will suppress when we could set up somewhere and let people come to us if they want to?" Early in their career, female characters sometimes expressed similar opinions but they soon became either unthinking fighters or equally unthinking back-up. A lowly Delta class in The Federation's strict regimen, Vila is the only man always known by first name like the women, though he claimed once that it cost him a lot of money to get Delta ID "Because I did not want to be a spaceship captain risking my neck for the Federation".
* ''Series/AbsolutelyFabulous'': Saffy.
* ''LifeWithDerek'': Nora.
* ''Series/BigTimeRush'': In one episode, James has sprayed himself with lots of orange spray, which is shown to them as "Hollywood Fever". Kendall, Carlos and Logan try to fix the situation, but Carlos ends up joining the Jennifers, and Logan becomes addicted to playing with bongos. Kendall is the only kid at the Palm Woods who manages to not change by this effect.
* ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': FBI Special Agent George Huang, M.D. 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.
* ''{{Soap}}'': Benson usually played this role within the Tate household. Mary and Jodie took turns with the SanityBall in the Campbell household.
* ''Series/{{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.
*** Like much of the tropes on TNG this has roots in the previous incarnations of the show. Snake was the only sane man of the The Zits as was Heather for the twins, Voula for Stephanie and Lucy etc. etc.
* ''AsTheWorldTurns'': Has Dr. Reid Oliver to act as a perpetual lampshade.
--> '''Reid''': What is this rabbit hole I've fallen down?
* ''Series/TheLeague'': Splits this trait between two characters, Pete and Kevin, who are seen as significantly more normal and well adjusted than their friends, and as such they are best friends.
* ''Series/HalfwayAcrossTheGalaxyAndTurnLeft'': X is a female example. Not only does she have to live with a gambling-addicted father, a scatterbrained mother, and a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} sister, she is also has to keep said family safe from the enemies it's made entirely on her own ''at around age 10'' (a result of her literally [[AlienAmongUs alien culture]]). Also contains a subversion as her younger brother is a genius but otherwise perfectly ordinary for his age - yet X seems ''see'' him the same way the rest of her cuckoo family, mostly because his slight immaturity and [[InsufferableGenius genius]] causes her no end of problems.
* ''Series/CougarTown'': Travis Cobb. Compared to the antics of his parents and their friends, the OnlySaneMan is the 19-year-old socially awkward college freshman; however, he does occasionally indulge in their antics.
* ''{{Shameless}}'': Teenage Fiona is, for all intents and purposes, the caretaker of the family, and spends almost all her time looking after her siblings and her alcoholic father.
* ''GilmoreGirls'': Luke Danes.
* ''{{LEXX}}'': Kai, who, despite being a more-than-2000-years old, former-slave-of-his-worst-enemy, single survivor of an entire destroyed civilization as well as being ''dead'' still is the most rational, honest and intelligent member of his crew by far. Of course, the competition aboard Lexx is not what you'd call ''fierce''...
* ''MyNameIsEarl'': By the halfway point of the show, Earl himself has become this. He even has a mini-HeroicBSoD when he realises he is now the one sane and competent guy in Camden. This really comes into force as a major plot point in the prison-arc where Earl is the only sane guy in the entire prison, including the governor.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'': In the episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E20TheScienceOfIllusion "The Science of Illusion"]], Jeff starts to mention that he and Abed are this before Abed cuts him off. In the episode [[Recap/CommunityS3E05HorrorFictionInSevenSpookySteps "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps"]], it's shown that Abed has the highest sanity rating.
* ''DrakeAndJosh'': Josh Nichols.
* ''Series/MaidMarianAndHerMerryMen'': Marian is the only sane person amongst the heroes and the Sheriff is the only sane one amongst the villains. At times, it appears that this pair may be the only sane people in medieval Britain.
* ''KenanAndKel'': Kenan Rockmore would qualify as he almost always shouts out "WHYYYYYY?!" whenever [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Kel]] does something wrong.
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Frasier Crane ''thinks'' he's this trope — his psychiatric skills are always on overload, analyzing his acquaintances with a keen eye and all-too-aware that he's surrounded by his anxious, foppish brother, his happy-go-lucky slob of a father, his violent-tempered, sex-crazed best friend, and his {{Cloudcuckoolander}} of a housekeeper who doesn't understand Americans. What he doesn't realize is that when it comes to reacting to the problems and issues in their lives, they are all far, far more well-adjusted and sensible than he is. Also, Martin frequently receives this role in the plots. He's not faultless, but if Niles and Frasier are doing something stupid it's a pretty good bet that he'll step in with some advice that resolves things.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Ted 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.
* ''JonathanCreek'': Jonathan Creek already gets a mention under this trope's close relative OnlySaneEmployee, but for most of the fourth season he ends up being the only person involved in the production of "Eyes and Ears" (think ''{{Crimewatch}}'' with the production values of a Fox News chat show) who seems to care or indeed even notice how tasteless, factually inaccurate and generally awful it is.
* ''GreenWing'': Mac, Jake and Lyndon are the only sane people in the entire hospital, both getting dragged into the others' insane antics. Mac doesn't seem to mind any of this as he likes to play around with everybody else, though Sue is his limit but that's due to her stalking problem. Lyndon, on the other hand, can't stand any of it and gets more and more frustrated as it goes along. Jake doesn't get too caught up in it and is too chilled to be as perturbed as he might be.
* ''TheRedGreenShow'': Harold often tries to be the Voice of Wisdom trying to get his uncle and compatriots to see the foolishness of this week's '''Big Plan'''. After all, Harold does actually have a high-school knowledge of physics and other sciences, and so can usually predict how things are about to wrong, badly!
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': SubvertedTrope. 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.]]
** Eliot also seems to think he is, given how frustrated he often gets with the rest of the team's antics...but especially Hardison's.
* ''HikoninSentaiAkibaranger'': Being a parody of SuperSentai, stars a team of Otaku. Mitsuki Aoyagi/Akiba Blue serves as the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]], in other words, the least Otaku of the team (AND the MissionControl, Mitsuki's more or less a closet one), and usually spends her time being bewildered at the ridiculous concept of the show.
* ''{{Friends}}'': Very often had one character playing this for the rest of the gang. Earlier in the show the gang's TeamMom Monica normally held the position but less frequently post-Flanderization. Ironically Chandler, who was initially very immature seemed to take over: as the gang's DeadpanSnarker, he'd use the situations to set up one of his jokes. As the two of them eventually ended up together there was definitely a DesignatedParents vibe set up. But there were plenty of occasions where they'd be the crazy ones and someone else would play the role instead. It usually depended on what joke the episode was going for as to who the OnlySaneMan would be in any one situation.
* ''Homeland'': SubvertedTrope: Carrie ''thinks'' she is this, because she's the only one who realizes that Brody is really working for Abu Nazir, about which she is, of course correct, but Carrie is also mentally ill, and not in a comedic way.
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Listen to any conversation where the group is discussing what to do next and you'll find that Miles is probably the one making the most sense. Now, if only [[IdiotHero Charlie]] would just listen to him.
* ''Series/{{Pixelface}}'': This is usually Claireparker's role. There might be some FridgeBrilliance at work here, as Claireparker comes from a survival horror game and therefore may be more grounded in reality and a have a more realistic idea of her own limitations than the other video game characters.
* ''TheAndyGriffithShow'': Sheriff Taylor is basically this for the whole town of Mayberry. Whenever he leaves town for any length of time, things tend to go haywire.

* Jerry Seinfeld once talked about how the character he played on ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' is actually funnier than the others because he "brings the sanity back" by making everyone else look just as crazy as they should in real life in comparison to him, and therefore even funnier than they otherwise would. This is especially true whenever another character tries to get advice from/explain whatever's going on to Jerry, who usually not only sees through, but plays along, often quite indulgently, with the other characters' bizarre motivations and logic.
** Also subverted, as while Jerry thinks he's the only sane man, but it's more in comparison to his friends as he is shown to have a lot of troubles too, the most apparent being his tendency [[ManHands to break up for petty reasons]], being a NeatFreak and being a bit of a ManChild.
* Rory from ''Series/DoctorWho'' could also be considered this. Given that both Amy and the Doctor have {{Cloudcuckoolander}} tendencies, Rory often has to act as the voice of reason.
** And not just in the {{Cloudcuckoolander}} sense either. Amy and the Doctor both have a tendency to abandon good sense altogether when they become too emotionally involved in a situation. Rory is easily the most emotionally stable of the three of them, making him the OnlySaneMan in that regard as well.
* In ''Series/TeenWolf'',Jackson in that everybody but him cheers on Scott's rather miraculous change of athletic ability. He almost seems frustrated that no one else thinks that something is wrong with Scott - even his girlfriend starts hitting on Scott.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheATeam'', Face confides to a client that he suspects [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Murdock]] is the only one of the Team who is actually in touch with reality, "...and the rest of us should just be sprinkled over ice cream."
* The customer in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' "Dead Parrot" sketch is another classic.

* A ''SaturdayNightLive'' sketch cast Norm Macdonald as a character in a musical (a ''West Side Story'' {{expy}}), who questioned [[CrowdSong why everyone was spontaneously breaking into choreographed song and dance]].

* ''{{Blackadder}}''

* 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.

* Richard on ''KeepingUpAppearances''.
** And also Elizabeth and Emmett.
* Oliver Douglas on ''GreenAcres'' is either the most sane person, or the least--he's the only one who tries to view things logically, as it becomes increasingly apparent that in Hooterville, [[{{Cloudcuckooland}} logic no longer applies]].
* In an episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Kenneth's page jacket is ruined by Jenna and the only way he can get a new one is by competing in a "page-off" against the head page Donny - a secret underground NBC trivia contest. Pete catches them doing it as none of the pages are upstairs working, and says "What, are you kidding me? This is a billion dollar company. Donny, give Kenneth a damn jacket!"
* Dave Nelson in ''NewsRadio''.
** Only sometimes. Occasionally he's completely crazy, and Lisa is the Only Sane Woman.
* Greg from ''DharmaAndGreg''.
** Greg's father, Edward, also counts. Although it should be mentioned he has long since resigned himself to the insanity that surrounds him.
** While not as overt as Greg, Dharma is sometimes the Only Sane One, when Greg's quirks (like his over-organizing) come up.
* ''Series/TheDailyShow'' portrays the studio host, Jon Stewart, as the OnlySaneMan, with all his reporters being weirdos and lunatics with various obsessions and derangements.

* On ''TheMuppetShow'', Kermit The Frog qualifies as the Only Sane Amphibian, although he cheerfully admits at least once that he's only surrounded by crazies because ''he'' hired them.
** Contrast Sam the Eagle, who merely ''thought of himself'' as this.
** ''FraggleRock'''s Boober frequently plays the role of Only Sane Fraggle; though not as often as he believes he does. The Minstrels have Murray as their Only Sane... Something.
* Jim and Ryan each take on this role from time to time in the American version of ''TheOffice'', although they seldom speak up for fear of losing their jobs.

* Bobby from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' fits this trope from time to time but the most notable is "Tall Tales": Sam and Dean are bickering like an old married couple and are annoying the hell out of each other so Bobby is the only one to see that the Trickster is pranking both of them.
* In ''YoungDracula'', Chloe would often be the only character to notice how bizarre the situation actually was.
* ''TheTwilightZone'' TOS loved this one.

* Lister in ''Series/RedDwarf'', mainly because Rimmer and The Cat's decisions are too selfish and Kryten's are too limited.
* Michael Bluth in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' believes he's this. He really, really isn't, but compared to [[DysfunctionJunction the rest of]] [[BigScrewedUpFamily his family]] he may as well be.
** Arguably, the OSM is the narrator/documentary crew.
** George Michael fits the role pretty well.
* Used very creatively to {{Lampshade}} a would-be case of TheOtherDarrin on ''Series/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.
* ''Series/CornerGas'' has Lacey, although the title passes to Brent or Karen occasionally.
* ''TheBigBangTheory'' has two Sane people in Penny and Leonard. Penny is there primarily to point out how hopelessly obsessed the geeks are, while Leonard is the only geek that has any understanding of human interaction.

* Dr. Crusher in the ''Series/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.]]

* Susan on ''Series/{{Coupling}}'' is a rare female example of this trope - the only sane voice among oft-ranting, chronically insecure Steve, beauty-obsessed age-fearing Sally, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} egomaniac Jane, brain-dead misogynist Patrick and, well... Jeff.

* Benjamin Denton on ''TheLeagueOfGentlemen'' 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.
* Alex Reiger on ''{{Taxi}}''.
* On ''KyleXY'', Josh kept a detailed notebook on all the strange things that happen around Kyle, and concluded he was a space alien, which he constantly mentioned. Kyle (who was actually an escaped lab experiment) later had to admit that Josh was the person who came the closest to figuring it all out.
* Michael in ''MyFamily''. Technically an Only Sane Boy, at least in the earlier seasons.
** His father Ben only thinks he is.
* ''Series/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.
** There's also Ziggy, who is so GenreSavvy that you're surprised he doesn't look directly at the camera and inform the audience that yes, these people he hangs out with are ''serious.''
*** At one point, he actually does look directly at the camera and inform the audience that these people he hangs out with aren't Rangers, they just play them on TV; as a way to segue into [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent a behind-the-scenes episode]].
* FatherTed is the only more-or-less normal (albeit [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist not particularly nice]]) person on Craggy Island.
* Let us not forget Deputy Sven Jones and (most of the time) Jim Dangle on ''{{Reno 911}}''. They are the only ones who aren't violent, racist idiots, or holier than thou religious zealots. Or conversely, no one but no one is sane on ''{{Reno 911}}''.
* In ''Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}}'' 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.

* In the circa 1980 Sci-Fi ''Series/BlakesSeven'' the cowardly thief Vila (Restal) was the only crew member to habitually question "Why risk near certain death to make one point that the news will suppress when we could set up somewhere and let people come to us if they want to?" Early in their career, female characters sometimes expressed similar opinions but they soon became either unthinking fighters or equally unthinking back-up. A lowly Delta class in The Federation's strict regimen, Vila is the only man always known by first name like the women, though he claimed once that it cost him a lot of money to get Delta ID "Because I did not want to be a spaceship captain risking my neck for the Federation".
* Saffy in ''Series/AbsolutelyFabulous''.
* Nora of ''LifeWithDerek''.
* In one episode of ''Series/BigTimeRush'', James has sprayed himself with lots of orange spray, which is shown to them as "Hollywood Fever". Kendall, Carlos and Logan try to fix the situation, but Carlos ends up joining the Jennifers, and Logan becomes addicted to playing with bongos. Kendall is the only kid at the Palm Woods who manages to not change by this effect.
* 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.
* ''Series/{{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.

* ''AsTheWorldTurns'' has Dr. Reid Oliver to act as a perpetual lampshade.

* ''Series/TheLeague'' splits this trait between two characters, Pete and Kevin, who are seen as significantly more normal and well adjusted than their friends, and as such they are best friends.
* X on ''Series/HalfwayAcrossTheGalaxyAndTurnLeft'' is a female example. Not only does she have to live with a gambling-addicted father, a scatterbrained mother, and a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} sister, she is also has to keep said family safe from the enemies it's made entirely on her own ''at around age 10'' (a result of her literally [[AlienAmongUs alien culture]]). Also contains a subversion as her younger brother is a genius but otherwise perfectly ordinary for his age - yet X seems ''see'' him the same way the rest of her cuckoo family, mostly because his slight immaturity and [[InsufferableGenius genius]] causes her no end of problems.
* Travis Cobb on ''Series/CougarTown''. Compared to the antics of his parents and their friends, the OnlySaneMan is the 19-year-old socially awkward college freshman; however, he does occasionally indulge in their antics.
* On ''{{Shameless}}'', teenage Fiona is, for all intents and purposes, the caretaker of the family, and spends almost all her time looking after her siblings and her alcoholic father.
* Luke Danes from ''GilmoreGirls''.
* Kai from ''{{LEXX}}'', who, despite being a more-than-2000-years old, former-slave-of-his-worst-enemy, single survivor of an entire destroyed civilization as well as being ''dead'' still is the most rational, honest and intelligent member of his crew by far. Of course, the competition aboard Lexx is not what you'd call ''fierce''...
* By the halfway point of ''MyNameIsEarl'' Earl himself has become this. He even has a mini-HeroicBSoD when he realises he is now the one sane and competent guy in Camden. This really comes into force as a major plot point in the prison-arc where Earl is the only sane guy in the entire prison, including the governor.
* In ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E20TheScienceOfIllusion "The Science of Illusion"]] Jeff starts to mention that he and Abed are this before Abed cuts him off.
** In [[Recap/CommunityS3E05HorrorFictionInSevenSpookySteps "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps"]], it's shown that Abed has the highest sanity rating.
* [[DrakeAndJosh Josh Nichols]].
* On ''Series/MaidMarianAndHerMerryMen'', Marian is the only sane person amongst the heroes and the Sheriff is the only sane one amongst the villains. At times, it appears that this pair may be the only sane people in medieval Britain.
* Kenan Rockmore from ''KenanAndKel'' would qualify as he almost always shouts out "WHYYYYYY?!" whenever [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Kel]] does something wrong.
* In ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', Frasier Crane ''thinks'' he's this trope — his psychiatric skills are always on overload, analyzing his acquaintances with a keen eye and all-too-aware that he's surrounded by his anxious, foppish brother, his happy-go-lucky slob of a father, his violent-tempered, sex-crazed best friend, and his {{Cloudcuckoolander}} of a housekeeper who doesn't understand Americans. What he doesn't realize is that when it comes to reacting to the problems and issues in their lives, they are all far, far more well-adjusted and sensible than he is.
** Martin frequently receives this role in the plots. He's not faultless, but if Niles and Frasier are doing something stupid it's a pretty good bet that he'll step in with some advice that resolves things.
* Ted from ''Series/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.
* JonathanCreek already gets a mention under this trope's close relative OnlySaneEmployee, but for most of the fourth season he ends up being the only person involved in the production of "Eyes and Ears" (think {{Crimewatch}} with the production values of a Fox News chat show) who seems to care or indeed even notice how tasteless, factually inaccurate and generally awful it is.
* Mac, Jake and Lyndon from ''GreenWing'' are the only sane people in the entire hospital, both getting dragged into the others' insane antics. Mac doesn't seem to mind any of this as he likes to play around with everybody else, though Sue is his limit but that's due to her stalking problem. Lyndon, on the other hand, can't stand any of it and gets more and more frustrated as it goes along. Jake doesn't get too caught up in it and is too chilled to be as perturbed as he might be.
* On ''TheRedGreenShow'', Harold often tries to be the Voice of Wisdom trying to get his uncle and compatriots to see the foolishness of this week's '''Big Plan'''. After all, Harold does actually have a high-school knowledge of physics and other sciences, and so can usually predict how things are about to wrong, badly!
* Subverted on ''Series/{{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.]]

* ''HikoninSentaiAkibaranger'', being a parody of SuperSentai, stars a team of Otaku. Mitsuki Aoyagi/Akiba Blue serves as the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]], in other words, the least Otaku of the team (AND the MissionControl, Mitsuki's more or less a closet one), and usually spends her time being bewildered at the ridiculous concept of the show.
* ''{{Friends}}'' very often had one character playing this for the rest of the gang. Earlier in the show the gang's TeamMom Monica normally held the position but less frequently post-Flanderization. Ironically Chandler, who was initially very immature seemed to take over: as the gang's DeadpanSnarker, he'd use the situations to set up one of his jokes. As the two of them eventually ended up together there was definitely a DesignatedParents vibe set up. But there were plenty of occasions where they'd be the crazy ones and someone else would play the role instead. It usually depended on what joke the episode was going for as to who the OnlySaneMan would be in any one situation.
* Subverted in ''Homeland'': Carrie ''thinks'' she is this, because she's the only one who realizes that Brody is really working for Abu Nazir, about which she is, of course correct, but Carrie is also mentally ill, and not in a comedic way.
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Listen to any conversation where the group is discussing what to do next and you'll find that he's probably the one making the most sense. Now, if only [[IdiotHero Charlie]] would just listen to him.
* This is usually Claireparker's role in ''Series/{{Pixelface}}''. There might be some FridgeBrilliance at work here, as Claireparker comes from a survival horror game and therefore may be more grounded in reality and a have a more realistic idea of her own limitations than the other video game characters.
* Sheriff Taylor on ''TheAndyGriffithShow'' is basically this for the whole town of Mayberry. Whenever he leaves town for any length of time, things tend to go haywire.

* Rory from ''Series/DoctorWho'' could also be considered this. Given that both Amy and the Doctor have CloudCuckoolander tendencies, Rory often has to act as the voice of reason.
** And not just in the CloudCuckoolander sense either. Amy and the Doctor both have a tendency to abandon good sense altogether when they become too emotionally involved in a situation. Rory is easily the most emotionally stable of the three of them, making him the OnlySaneMan in that regard as well.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheATeam'', Face confides to a client that he suspects [[CloudCuckoolander Murdock]] is the only one of the Team who is actually in touch with reality, "...and the rest of us should just be sprinkled over ice cream."

* Susan on ''{{Coupling}}'' is a rare female example of this trope - the only sane voice among oft-ranting, chronically insecure Steve, beauty-obsessed age-fearing Sally, CloudCuckooLander egomaniac Jane, brain-dead misogynist Patrick and, well... Jeff.

** Jane [[CloudCuckoolander of all people]] fills the role in "Sex, Death and Nudity", calling out Steve on his attempt to shift the blame for his refusal to come to the funeral onto Susan (despite her not being in the conversation), correcting [[TheDitz Patrick]] when he fails to get that the aunt she just introduced him is not the same as the aunt whose funeral it is, making an effort to clear the air with Susan, and expressing frustration with Steve when he gets an [[RagingStiffie erection]] as a result of her talking about [[GirlOnGirlIsHot lesbianism]].

* X on ''Series/HalfwayAcrossTheGalaxyAndTurnLeft'' is a female example. Not only does she have to live with a gambling-addicted father, a scatterbrained mother, and a CloudCuckoolander sister, she is also has to keep said family safe from the enemies it's made entirely on her own ''at around age 10'' (a result of her literally [[AlienAmongUs alien culture]]). Also contains a subversion as her younger brother is a genius but otherwise perfectly ordinary for his age - yet X seems ''see'' him the same way the rest of her cuckoo family, mostly because his slight immaturity and [[InsufferableGenius genius]] causes her no end of problems.

* Kenan Rockmore from ''KenanAndKel'' would qualify as he almost always shouts out "WHYYYYYY?!" whenever [[CloudCuckoolander Kel]] does something wrong.
* In ''{{Frasier}}'', Frasier Crane ''thinks'' he's this trope — his psychiatric skills are always on overload, analyzing his acquaintances with a keen eye and all-too-aware that he's surrounded by his anxious, foppish brother, his happy-go-lucky slob of a father, his violent-tempered, sex-crazed best friend, and his CloudCuckooLander of a housekeeper who doesn't understand Americans. What he doesn't realize is that when it comes to reacting to the problems and issues in their lives, they are all far, far more well-adjusted and sensible than he is.

** George Michael fits the role pretty well. Maybe would be if not for her compulsive lying.

* ''{{Friends}}'' very often had one character playing this for the rest of the gang. As the gang's DeadpanSnarker, Chandler came the closest to being the regular example to set up one of his jokes, but there were plenty of occasions where he'd be the crazy one and someone else would play the role instead. It usually depended on what joke the episode was going for as to who the OnlySaneMan would be in any one situation.

* X on ''HalfwayAcrossTheGalaxyAndTurnLeft'' is a female example. Not only does she have to live with a gambling-addicted father, a scatterbrained mother, and a CloudCuckoolander sister, she is also has to keep said family safe from the enemies it's made entirely on her own ''at around age 10'' (a result of her literally [[AlienAmongUs alien culture]]). Also contains a subversion as her younger brother is a genius but otherwise perfectly ordinary for his age - yet X seems ''see'' him the same way the rest of her cuckoo family, mostly because his slight immaturity and [[InsufferableGenius genius]] causes her no end of problems.

* ''{{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.

* Travis Cobb on ''CougarTown''. Compared to the antics of his parents and their friends, the OnlySaneMan is the 19-year-old socially awkward college freshman; however, he does occasionally indulge in their antics.

** Jon Stewart has explicitly described ''Series/TheDailyShow'''s purpose being to point out the absurdities of government and the world. Since they focus on the crazy stuff (like ''pirates'' in the Indian Ocean), it's entirely logical that he looks sane comparatively.

** ''ShaunMicallef's Mad As Hell'', which is ''TheDailyShow'' '''[[RecycledInSpace DOWN UNDER]]''', also makes use of this.

* ''TheDailyShow'' portrays the studio host, Jon Stewart, as the OnlySaneMan, with all his reporters being weirdos and lunatics with various obsessions and derangements.
** ''TheDailyShow'' also significantly revolves around playing clips of journalists and politicians looking foolish, cultivating the impression that Stewart is the only sane man in the entire country.
** Jon Stewart has explicitly described ''TheDailyShow'''s purpose being to point out the absurdities of government and the world. Since they focus on the crazy stuff (like ''pirates'' in the Indian Ocean), it's entirely logical that he looks sane comparatively.

* ''{{Friends}}'' is a rather unusual example of this trope. In the beginning, Monica was definitely this. However, her obsessive-compulsiveness gradually shot UpToEleven on later seasons and she lost her OnlySaneMan status.
** Ross was also this in the early seasons, coming across as the responsible who kept the others out of trouble; his main gag was that he was extremely depressed about his divorce from Carol. It was only as the show went on that he really went off the deep end.
** 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.

* Jerry Seinfeld once talked about how the character he played on ''{{Seinfeld}}'' is actually funnier than the others because he "brings the sanity back" by making everyone else look just as crazy as they should in real life in comparison to him, and therefore even funnier than they otherwise would. This is especially true whenever another character tries to get advice from/explain whatever's going on to Jerry, who usually not only sees through, but plays along, often quite indulgently, with the other characters' bizarre motivations and logic.

* In ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E20TheScienceOfIllusion The Science of Illusion]] Jeff starts to mention that he and Abed are this before Abed cuts him off.
** In Community episode Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps, it's shown that Abed has the highest sanity rating.

* Lister in RedDwarf, mainly because Rimmer and The Cat's decisions are too selfish and Kryten's are too limited.

* Bobby from ''{{Supernatural}}'' fits this trope from time to time but the most notable is ''Tall Tales'': Sam and Dean are bickering like an old married couple and are annoying the hell out of each other so Bobby is the only one to see that the Trickster is pranking both of them.

* Mac, Jake and Lyndon from ''GreenWing'' are the only sane people in the entire hospital, both getting dragged into the others' insane antics. Mac doesn't seem to mind any of this as he likes to play around with everybody else, though Sue is his limit but that's due to her stalking problem. Lyndon, on the other hand, can't stand any of it and gets more and more frustrated as it goes along. Jake doesn't get too caught up in it.

*** Well, Steve's major talent in this area is that he can invariably ''explain that he is this'', however far he has to go towards InsaneTrollLogic to do so (like, why did the cushion thing become so important all of a sudden? And women do use cushions. Women's backs often don't fit squarely into chairs...)

* ''{{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]].

** Also subverted, as while Jerry thinks he's the only sane man, but it's more in comparison to his friends as he is shown to have a lot of troubles too, the most apparent being his tendency [[ManHands to break up for petty reasons]], being a NeatFreak and being a bit of an AdultChild.

* Used very creatively to {{Lampshade}} a would-be case of TheOtherDarrin 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.

* Kochanski in the final two seasons of ''Series/RedDwarf''. Previously, Rimmer had fitted most of the criteria for being an OnlySaneMan, except for actually being any more sane than the other characters. They ignored him when he pointed out how ludicrous things were because his own opinions were equally ludicrous in a different way.

** George Michael fits the role pretty well. Maeby would be if not for her compulsive lying.

* ''TheLeague'' splits this trait between two characters, Pete and Kevin, who are seen as significantly more normal and well adjusted than their friends, and as such they are best friends.