"When your life has been directly threatened by your boss and there's already been one unsolved murder in your office building, always work late
and alone!"
The character who puts life and limb at risk by
doing things that no sane human being would do. Walking down the alley alone to tell his friend about the
Serial Killer. Telling everybody in earshot he has vital evidence that he'll be taking to the authorities very shortly.
Hovering in a known dangerous area without backup.
Not telling the rest of the heroes about the upcoming trap laid out for them.
Bullying a Dragon.
Refusing to believe his glory days are behind him. Not only possessing
Genre Blindness, but putting
Zaphod Beeblebrox's Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses on over it. Even close friends have to
facepalm upon hearing of his or her exploits. (Though it never
penetrates their own heads.) This trope is, surprisingly,
Truth in Television, as many people can attest to.
If the character's actions are motivated by romantic feelings, be extra careful when labeling a work with this trope. In this instance, a character putting him- or herself in harm's way for the sake of their love interest may not be enough.
Love Makes You Dumb or
Love Makes You Crazy may better cover this scenario, and to apply those tropes alongside this one is perfectly redundant.
If a character is stupid, but does not put himself at an obvious risk of harm, it is not an example of this; see instead
What an Idiot,
The Ditz, or
Idiot Ball. Compare
Artificial Stupidity, the video game equivalent of this which is a result of AI rather than the script being against them. Contrast
Death By Pragmatism and
Let's Get Dangerous. Not to be confused with
Evilutionary Biologist or
The Social Darwinist, although
they generally consider it a Moral Event Horizon to not murder the dumb in cold blood. See also
Suicidal Overconfidence, another video game version.
Note: This trope has been subject to some
misuse. If you see any examples or
pot holes to this page in which the character's stupidity does not pose any threat to his physical well-being, please remove them or point them to one of the alternative idiocy tropes.
As this is a
Death Trope,
expect unmarked spoilers on the subpages.
For
Real Life examples, see the
Darwin Awards and
What The Fuck Is Wrong With You.
Examples
Visual Novels
- You can play as someone like this in School Days. This is a good thing, as doing so is both hilarious and leads to the bad endings that made the game (in)famous.
- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni plays a lot with this trope, being a horror game.
