A corollary to [[FinaglesLaw Finagle's Law]] which seems to have almost infinite applications in writing comedy:

->''Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.''

For a bit more information, see [[http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/Hanlons-Razor.html this entry]] in the Hacker's Jargon File.

Ignorance of [[HanlonsRazor Hanlon's Razor]] is one of the more common forms of GenreBlindness.

Disregarding HanlonsRazor is a prerequisite for plots involving an AncientConspiracy, GovernmentConspiracy or similar antagonist. The existence of a powerful, secretive and malicious cabal makes for juicier storytelling than the idea that bad things just happen when people don't do their jobs properly.

Most aversions involve someone saying that the noise you heard was [[ItsProbablyNothing just the wind]].

Granted, it does have a corollary of sorts, Grey's Law:
->''Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.''

And, of course, it relies on the assumption that ignorance, in and of itself, isn't malicious.

See also NoDelaysForTheWicked.

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* RobertAHeinlein's novella "The Logic of Empire" brings this up as two characters discuss how slavery and its equivalents are allowed to exist even though it's both immoral and economically self-defeating. One character says that it's a product of deliberate malice, and the other replies, "You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity."
** See the Jargon entry, "Hanlon" may well have come from Heinlein.
* Touched on in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by HPLovecraft. When the narrator's motel room door is rattled in the middle of the night by someone trying the lock, the narrator first suspects that the locals think he knows too much. He convinces himself to get into bed on the thought that someone just tried the wrong door by accident. It turns out the locals think he knows too much. They come back later well-armed.
* The fandom of ''ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' has frequently suspected that many of the [[AdultsAreUseless useless adults]] in the books are working for the villains or otherwise involved in the AncientConspiracy of V.F.D. More likely, if they have any involvement in the conspiracies, they are clueless pawns whose selfishness and stupidity is exploited through {{Xanatos Gambit}}s.
** If it's based on exploiting their various individual character flaws, wouldn't that make it more of a BatmanGambit, rather than a XanatosGambit?
** This is possibly a deconstruction, as many of the orphans' guardians (at least early in the series) are confirmed or strongly implied to be members of the V.F.D. on one side of the schism or the other. Even with this background knowledge, though, they still manage to be woefully ignorant of and/or inept at dealing with Olaf's schemes.

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Invoked on [[That70sShow That '70s Show]] when Charlie sees Kitty naked. Kelso advises him to walk in on Red naked: that way, Red will think he's an idiot rather than a pervert. It backfires when he accidentally walks in on Kitty naked again.

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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* Inverted in ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'': never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by malice. A puree of CrapsackWorld, EverythingTryingToKillYou, and BlackAndGreyMorality at its finest.
** Although there is a lot of stupidity -- see the Imperial Bureaucracy, and the Emperor's treatment of some of his sons (although Inverse Hanlon's Razor still applies to the latter, thanks to Horus).

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theater ]]

* ''RomeoAndJuliet''.
* ''Hamlet''.
* Damn near every comedy of manners.
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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The Umbrella Corporation in the ''ResidentEvil'' series appears to be a generic Evil Corporation, what with its using the T-Virus to experiment and attempt to create biological weapons. More often than not, the constant outbreaks of Zombie plagues are the result of massive stupidity and recklessness, rather than a deliberate desire to kill everybody.
** Technically, they thought they were working on something that could bring people back from the dead - the fact that it wasn't 100% effective (didn't bring the recipients back completely right) didn't mean it didn't look golden on paper. You can't tell me real-life medical companies wouldn't jump at the chance to perfect an immortality formula.
**Speaking of ''ResidentEvil'', in [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee Croshaw's]] ''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/624-Resident-Evil-5 review of Resident Evil 5]]'':
---> One really shouldn't worry about [the perceived racism] unless there's genuine hatred behind it. And I don't get that impression, Capcom aren't bad people, THEY'RE JUST IDIOTS!
**''RE5'' actually plays with this: [[spoiler: Umbrella's actions are attributed to stupidity, when in fact it all actually ''was'' a deliberate effort to generate a virus that would bring about AGodAmI.]]
* In ''StarControl II'', the Slylandro Probes seem hellbent on deconstructing everything in the galaxy to create more probes. Why was this plague of Von Neumann probes unleashed upon creation? Answer: a programming bug. The Slylandro purchased the self-replicating probes for peaceful exploration. They set the priorities wrong: they set the target priorities to seek out ships and evidence of civilization over raw (non-living) materials for replication. The problem was that they set the ''action'' priorities wrong; they set the action "Break target into component compounds" to maximum. So it did exactly that: seek out ships and evidence of civilization and destroy them. HilarityEnsues.

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[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* Used in [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/070613 this]] ''SluggyFreelance'' strip:
-->"Never underestimate the ability of stupidity to catch you off guard and mess up humanity."
** ''SluggyFreelance'' in general could be considered a big example of Hanlon's Razor. Half the story arcs in the series wouldn't exist if it weren't for people making incredibly stupid decisions.
** Heck, 90% or more of the time a villain has done something right, it's because he or she, one of his or her underlings, or even one of the good/neutral guys has screwed up. A good number of the plots end with two characters thusly:
---> Sluggy Character: Why did you do ABCDGFQRS XanatosRoulette?
---> Seemingly Malicious Character: Because I wanted Y outcome.
---> Sluggy Character: Why didn't you just do X action resulting Y outcome?
---> Seemingly Malicious Character: Oh, duh. Nohardfeelingsseeyanever! *Exit*

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Dib from ''InvaderZim'' put it best:
-->'''Dib:''' Chickenfoot, come back! You're not a freak! You're just ''stupid!''
* ''SouthPark'' hung a ''big'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] on this trope in an episode debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories. The existence of conspiracy theories is actually a government conspiracy; Washington failed to ''prevent'' twenty Muslim lunatics with box cutters killing three thousand people, so they'd rather allow people to believe that they ''made'' it happen -- it actually makes the government look more formidable than it is.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Just about everything surrounding WorldWarI can be explained by the leaders of Europe acting like a bunch of gibbering morons. The fact that four years of horribly bloody conflict were kicked off because of a student with a pistol boggles the mind.
** Austria had WANTED to go to war and so initially made demands of Serbia that they figured no one would accept. Serbia acquiesced to all but one demand, upon which Austria was not willing to compromise. Only after the declaration of war was sent did the Austrians learn that Serbia had sent a post saying they'd submit to the final demand.
* In contrast to the ''SouthPark'' entry below, conspiracy theories about 9/11 refuse to accept the possibility that any element, any tiny, inconsequential detail, is anything but the single thread that, if unraveled, will bring the whole conspiracy down into bite-sized chunks of truth. The simplest solution is that Bush is, in fact, a well-meaning guy who, during the 9/11 crisis and during the whole of his presidency made difficult decisions that he thought were right.
**The facts of 9/11 boil down to two possibilities: dozens, if not hundreds, of American politicians, servicemen, and agents deliberately and maliciously abandoned their oaths of protection and conspired to murder (by action or inaction) their fellow countrymen, or those in charge made a mistake and thought that the 9/11 plan wasn't a threat. I call Finagle's Law.
** Hell, conspiracy theories in general depend on the assumption that a ''lack'' of evidence is in turn ''proof'' of a coverup. Plain ol' incompetence with a dose of coincidence just doesn't seem like a cool enough explanation, apparently.
*** [[AncientConspiracy You'd]] like [[ProperlyParanoid us]] to think that, wouldn't you?!?
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