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1%%
2%% Zero-Context Examples have been commented out.
3%%
4%% Please add context before uncommenting an example.
5%%
6%% Mentioning the action alone isn't context. You need to explain why it was a stupid decision.
7%%
8
9
10->''"But, yeah, whatever! Kids are dumb! They can be used as literally whatever plot device you want, and it's totally fair no matter what they do!"''
11-->-- '''[[WebVideo/YourMovieSucksDOTOrg Adam Johnston]]''' [[https://youtu.be/FSKvQBKADJU?t=223 reviewing]] ''Film/AQuietPlace''
12
13Characters (adolescent or young adults, usually) get together to do something [[FearlessFool manifestly dumb]] and often [[ForbiddenFruit prohibited]], but hey, they're young and so immortal, aren't they? The hold-outs are often persuaded because they don't want to look like a DirtyCoward, and often one of the bolder characters urges it's NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught. Visiting an abandoned house or performing a ritual are common. BullyingADragon can be a form of it; you're not afraid of him just because he can warp space and time with his thoughts! The CallReceptionArea and the ForbiddenZone are popular destinations. A particularly idiotic WildTeenParty may feature one, especially if the participants [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy got very, very drunk]].
14
15Occasionally performed by a solitary figure (but even then he often bragged about it beforehand).
16
17Popular [[HorrorTropes Horror Trope]]. Often makes them TooDumbToLive. "Hey everyone, we should ''so'' go to the abandoned campground where dozens have been slaughtered in the last year and have a party with bad music and alcohol! Afterwards, [[LetsSplitUpGang we'll all split up]] and [[SexSignalsDeath have sex]]!!"
18
19Compare {{Kimodameshi}}. ScareDare involves even younger characters, children, and is much less likely to be dangerous; and StrayingBaby a character younger still, who really is oblivious.
20
21Contrast DeadlyPrank, where someone else is imperiled. If whatever they do ends up backfiring and yet they get out of it without a scratch, then it's NoOneShouldSurviveThat. If the character is habitually dumb, they may be a DumbassTeenageSon.
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23Note: does not cover shows that set challenges; this is something the characters dream up of their own stupidity.
24
25Because this is often TruthInTelevision, no need for RealLife examples.
26----
27!!Examples
28
29[[foldercontrol]]
30
31%% [[folder: Advertising]]
32%% * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKpZ_6BSDhU This 2011 Hyundai Sonata ad.]]
33%% -->"This year, 3 million young adults out there will get their drivers' license. Better get yourself a safe car."
34%% [[/folder]]
35
36[[folder: Comics]]
37* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': Bruce Banner became the Hulk because Rick Jones accepted a dare to drive onto a ''[[TooDumbToLive nuclear testing site.]]'' To his credit, Rick has spent a good chunk of the rest of his life trying to make it up to Bruce as best he can.
38[[/folder]]
39
40[[folder: Fan Fiction]]
41* This is basically what got [[FanFic/ABriefHistoryOfEquestria Chancellor Puddinghead]] into power: A younger generation reached voting age and figured that awesomeness would be a better criterion for governing one's nation than say, competence. [[TheCaligula Or Sanity.]]
42* Found in ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'' as Chloe's classmates are around Year 5 (age 10 to 11) and decided that it would be such a ''smart'' idea to bully the girl who is associated with their goal to be Pokémon trainers instead of just ''asking'' her father what it would take to be one. So they bully her, mock her, and do all that is possible to break her self-confidence into nothing, resulting in one dare to fight Alola League Champion Ash to cause her to run off onto the Infinity Train and to ''them'' getting exposed for their cruelty and then expelled from school. Even worse, they were ''warned'' earlier by Chloe to never do it again after she pummeled their ringleader with a paint can and got suspended, believing that if they just used ''words'' instead of ''actions'' then the stupid teachers wouldn't notice. Needless to say, they learned why you shouldn't bully anyone the very hard way.
43[[/folder]]
44
45[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]
46%% * The game of chicken in ''Film/RebelWithoutACause''.
47%% * The game of ship's mast in ''Film/DeathProof''.
48%% * All of the Spring Break festivities in ''Film/SpringBreakers''.
49%% * In ''Film/{{Heathers}}'', the cow-tipping.
50* The three teenagers who follow the firefighter and father into the obviously dangerous, quarantined apartment block in Film/{{REC}} 2.
51* An InvokedTrope in ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods''. The five selected victims must be both young ''and'' ignore the HarbingerOfImpendingDoom, engage in "transgressions" (e.g. SexSignalsDeath), and choose the manner of their demise (by going down into the CreepyBasement and handling the SchmuckBait). If they fail to do these things, the ritual can't take place. Of course the Facility does everything possible to make the selected five engage in these actions, [[EnforcedTrope including drugging them to ignore common sense.]]
52* The teens in ''Film/TalkToMe'' feel the typical invulnerability and rebelliousness that come with the age, which is why they continue to mess with the spiritual realm and play at being possessed, despite it being clear that the results are unpredictable each time. Of course, inevitably, [[spoiler:one of the possessions turns deadly]].
53[[/folder]]
54
55[[folder: Literature]]
56* In Creator/DanAbnett's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''Literature/BrothersOfTheSnake'', Space Marines are forbidden to try a stunt, diving into a sea trench and leaving something. One young Marine does it, and has an older Marine come to ensure that he needs no help. Then, later, another tries, and the Marine who goes after him is only able to recover the corpse.
57* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/OperationChaos'', when Stephan goes back to college after the war, a prankster conjures up [[ElementalEmbodiment a fire elemental]], and it escapes his control.
58* In Lee Lightner's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/SpaceWolf novel ''Sons of Fenris'', Lieutenant Paulinus tries to remember his travels in the city in his younger days. He was ashamed of them -- "callow youths looking for cheap thrills" -- but now, he needs to lead his men in those sections.
59* The fake terrorists from Creator/LarryNiven and Pournelle's book ''Oath of Fealty'' are in a word, idiots, and have almost no survival instinct whatsoever.
60* OlderThanPrint: In ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', the titular hero describes his and his cousin's swimming across the sea as something they did when they were young and prideful.
61%% * In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'', the old Count even named his castle "Dontgonearthe Castle" to invoke this trope. It worked.
62* In Creator/SandyMitchell's ''Cain's Last Stand'', Literature/CiaphasCain observes that Kayla has too much sense to keep up with Jurgen's crazy driving, despite the delusions of immortality that youth gives.
63* In a ''Literature/WarriorCats'' ExpandedUniverse story, this is why the tradition exists of having new warriors sit a silent vigil for one night to watch over the camp. A [=RiverClan=] medicine cat named Meadowpelt was worried because his Clan's young warriors were repeatedly injuring themselves doing stupid stunts, such as deciding to jump off a cliff for fun, or having a "who can fall out of a tree the hardest" contest. Eventually, he convinced them to grow up by having them sit a silent vigil for one night. They were uncertain about it at first, but Nettlepad heard a fox about to sneak into the camp and attack the nursery, and Molewhisker and Lightningpelt chased it away. This incident made them realize they never would have heard the fox if they had been playing around. They decided to take their warrior duties more seriously from then on, and the vigil tradition was instituted for new warriors in all Clans as a result.
64* In Creator/RobinMcKinley's ''Literature/{{Sunshine}}'', youngsters sometimes gang together to see if they can spot a vampire. Sunshine did it herself, and her little brother Kenny might be doing it.
65%% * In Creator/JulieKagawa's ''Literature/TheIronDaughter'', the nurse describes Ash's attempt to get up as this, owing to the severity of the wounds.
66* ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'' explains in the introduction why young people are too dumb to know their country's history:
67-->Young people have ''always'' been stupid, dating back to when ''you'' were a young person (1971-1973) and you drank an entire quart of Midnight Surprise Fruit Wine and Dessert Topping and threw up in your best friend's father's elaborate saltwater aquarium containing $6,500 worth of rare and, as it turned out, extremely delicate fish. (You thought we didn't know about that? We know ''everything''. We are a history book.)
68* ''Literature/{{Edenborn}}'' has Deuce and Penny, who steal a CoolPlane, ransack pantries and wine cellars across Europe for victuals, and realize they're in way over their head with their parents.
69* In Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/AWizardOfEarthsea'', the young students are showing off their spellcraft when Ged casts a dangerous and powerful spell. He nearly dies himself, the Archmage ''does'' die, and a creature is unleashed.
70* The informant ghost invokes it in ''Literature/ShamanBlues'', noting that pure bravado makes young ghost try to feed on shady energy sources, rather than build their own reserves safely.
71* ''Literature/SkippyDies'': In a flashback to Howard's teen years, Guido [=LaManche=] rigs up his own custom-made bungee-jumping setup, and talks a bunch of friends into jumping off a cliff with it in the middle of the night. Everyone is initially gung-ho about it, but all back out out of fear, so they choose lots to see how it goes. Howard is chosen, but backs out of it out of fear, leading to his nickname "The Coward". [[spoiler: Tom]] goes in his place, and is permanently disabled after the device unsurprisingly fails and he hits the bottom.
72[[/folder]]
73
74[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
75%% * ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' and its spinoffs sometimes have to deal with the aftermath of a hazing gone wrong; ditto ''Series/{{CSI}}''.
76%% * Alex and Max Russo in ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''.
77%% * Sam Puckett in ''Series/ICarly''.
78%% * Half the population of Sunnydale in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. The rest? [[ExtraStrengthMasquerade In serious denial]].
79* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
80** In the serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators The Dominators]]", Cully and his friends arrive on the island without permits, for thrills. It makes it hard for him to persuade anyone after [[spoiler:the others get killed.]]
81** In the serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime The Invasion of Time]]", the Doctor assures Borusa that his faciliating the invasion of Gallifrey is not this.
82* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' features a particularly severe and tragic example with [[PosthumousCharacter Lyanna Stark]], as [[TheReveal revealed]] in Seasons 6 and 7. Young Lyanna (in the books she was stated to be around sixteen) [[spoiler: ran off with Rhaegar Targaryen, the handsome (already married) prince she'd fallen in love with, rather than marry her betrothed Robert and without telling anyone what she was up to. Subsequently, everyone thinks she's been kidnapped, which culminates in [[LoveRuinsTheRealm a bloody civil war]] that ends with both Rhaegar, Lyanna and several members of their families dying. It can be assumed she [[DidntThinkThisThrough didn't consider how disastrously things could end]] before she decided to elope with Rhaegar]].
83* Virtually ''all'' the teenage characters in ''Series/TwinPeaks'' are so dumb it's almost painful to watch. From Bobby trying to scam [[MagnificentBastard Ben Horne]] to Shelly offering live-in care to her comatose AxCrazy ex-boyfriend Leo (on Bobby's advice) to cash in on insurance checks to James...well, anything James does, ever, it's a wonder anyone ever reaches old age in this town.
84* For all the intelligence shown by the younger generation on ''Series/TerraNova'', it might as well be Series/TwinPeaks InSpace. Favorite pastimes include making out in the raptor-infested jungle, among other idiotic pursuits.
85* Teenagers and young adults did many, many stupid things over the course of ''Series/VeronicaMars'', from vehicular manslaughter to accidental arson to assault and even rape. Many of the kids depicted doing these things weren't even stupid; it was TruthInTelevision in that a young person's decision-making skills are prone to be compromised by a number of things, including hormones, substance abuse and lack of life experience.
86* In the second season of ''Series/{{Lexx}}'', the crew finds and unthaws a group of HumanPopsicle teenagers. When two of them find the hibernating Kai, they decide it would be fun to pretend he can be given subconscious commands, and tell him to kill everyone on the ship. Including themselves. He proceeds to do so, and only the main cast are spared by snapping him out of it, but not before the teens all bite it. What makes it extraordinarily dumb is that the kids had no in-story reason to do what they did; they were just goofing around in the arguably dumbest way possible. Even disregarding whether they believed it would work or not, they could have picked literally any other instruction than "kill everyone".
87[[/folder]]
88
89[[folder: Music]]
90* The Music/WeirdAlYankovic song "Young, Dumb and Ugly" combines this trope with PokeThePoodle, and showcases the titular youths doing dumb things like driving with one hand on the wheel and swimming right after a big heavy meal.
91[[/folder]]
92
93[[folder: Theatre]]
94* In many productions of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', the fights that break out among the young men in the feuding houses are the result of this. The only cool heads among them, Romeo and Benvolio, get called out on being scared to fight. The title characters are also guilty of this themselves. They're teenagers, have known each other for all of three days, marriage was ''entirely'' for business and family honor reasons in their era and social class (MarryForLove was considered laughable back in the day - indulging in romance was what ''mistresses'' were for), Romeo was on the rebound from a breakup, and the absolute ''worst'' idea either of them could have picked was the cute boy or girl from the arch-rival's house. By the time it's over, half the cast is dead.
95[[/folder]]
96
97[[folder: Video Games]]
98* The premise of VideoGame/Shivers1995 is that you get locked in an abandoned haunted museum on a dare.
99** Reading some abandoned notes also reveal that this is why the museum is haunted in the first place. Fifteen years ago, two teenagers broke into the place (the guy because he was curious; the girl because she thought the boy was cute). After opening one of the Ixupi pots and being impressed by the "cool special effects" (read: a murderous spirit being released into the world), they opened ''all the others too.'' They did not survive the night.
100* In ''The Woods Are Dark'' six Irish teenagers decided it'd be a great lark to visit the home where a local boy had murdered his entire family. Despite the fact that one of them disappeared and another was found white-haired and gibbering a few days afterwards, five years later the four remaining idiots actually decide to ''go back''.
101[[/folder]]
102
103[[folder: Webcomics]]
104* In ''Webcomic/{{Erstwhile}}'':
105** [[http://www.erstwhiletales.com/brothersister-11/ Brother insists on going out when there's a hunt -- and he's a deer.]]
106** Rose Red and Snow White engage in bear-tipping.
107* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', one drone taunts another into diving through traffic.
108* Pretty much the entirety of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' is based on one of these, though it's not apparent to the B1 kids that Sburb is going to be anything more than a video game (well, Jade seems to be aware of it, but for all sorts of reasons she's actively encouraging them to play). [[spoiler: And it turns out the whole thing is a causal loop, so they were going to do it anyway.]]
109[[/folder]]
110
111[[folder: Western Animation]]
112* Bumblebee in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' might not technically be a kid (as far as we can tell), but he's got the mind of one and does equivalent stupid stuff. The most notable might be his upgrading himself with illegal and dangerous boosters and sneaking out onto an underground racing circuit with Sari.
113* The ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "The Inconveniencing" involves Wendy and her friends breaking into an abandoned convenience store, which turns out to be haunted by a [[RealityWarper reality warping]] elderly couple with a homicidal grudge against teenagers. They only survived because the ghosts were willing to negotiate with 12-year-old Dipper ([[LoopholeAbuse technically not a teen]]), who has no choice but to to play the DeliberatelyCuteChild after spending the whole episode trying to [[EndOfAnAge prove he's cool enough to hang out with the teens]].
114* In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'', a group of college students performs a ritual that revives Solomon Grundy as a mindless rage monster. The resulting rampage begins with Grundy attacking one of them.
115* In the ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' episode "Adventures in Squirrelsitting", the Rangers are hired to babysit two young squirrels right in the middle of an ongoing case against Fat Cat. One is the toddler Bink, the other one is the teenage Tammy who is completely smitten for Chip. In order to impress him and show him that she's just as worthy for his attention as Gadget, she decides to go and solve the Rangers' case. Neither the fact that she knows the villain (Fat Cat has threatened to throw her and Bink out of the tree while holding them by their tails) nor the one that she doesn't have much of a plan or experience won't stop her.
116[[/folder]]

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