What An Idiot / Live-Action TV D to F

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D

• Dark Angel:
  • Max comes across a transgenic who can see into the future. At one point he tells Max several actions he can see her taking in the near future, then is shocked when he sees her die as a result of these actions.
    You'd Expect: The guy would warn Max that she'll die if she does all the stuff he just told her about.
    Instead: He keeps quiet and just starts crying, leaving Max to assume she's supposed to do what he just said. He ends up dying because of his own idiocy when he throws himself in front of the bullet she would have taken.
• Dead Like Me:
  • In the pilot, college dropout George Lass is interviewing for a temp job. George is a sarcastic young adult with a nihlistic view. It's revealed her mother pulled strings to get George this interview, which isn't for a great job but is for something.
    You'd Expect: She'd have followed basic job interview etiquette, even with the series set before the 2000s economic crash: dress business professional, prepare her answers, and be respectful. It isn't rocket science, it's just practice and selling yourself in the heat of the moment.
    Instead: George comes wearing a t-shirt and headphones, hasn't prepared her answers, and insults her interviewer when Dolores Herbig suggests she could smile and it would brighten her day.
    The Result: Delores, still smiling, gives George the worst possible job at Happy Time Temp in the office basement. George's mother calls out her daughter for being disrespectful.
    Fortunately: When George dies and becomes a Grim Reaper, she learns from her mistakes. When she interviews again at Happy Time Temp, she's wearing the same clothes she died in — "funeral clothes" as George called them — which are business professional, she isn't sarcastic, and she makes an effort to smile. That allows her to get a better job and Delores's friendship.
  • After George becomes a Grim Reaper, she's having a Logical Latecomer approach to all the arbitrary rules. Namely, she's upset at having to reap people who don't deserve to die, that she can't ever go back home or tell her family that she's undead, and that no one else will do the job or even pay you for it. Rube is the head of the local Reaping team, who is seeing George struggle with all the adjustments. It's implied that George reminds him of his daughter.
    You'd Expect: After George nearly messes up her first reap because she feels awful about having to "kill" a little girl, he would sit her down and lay all the rules on the table, and answering her questions. We're not sure how it went with Roxie, Betty and Mason, but surely Rube would empathize with George's Freak Out attitude.
    Instead: Rube takes a Because I Said So attitude and only explains each of the rules after George breaks them and discovers the consequences. He hopes that eventually she will adjust to how arbitrary death is, especially in their department of "murders, suicides and accidents".
    The Result: Eventually, George's attempt at Loophole Abuse to save a CEO creates massive consequences, in that dozens of people die from the CEO's faulty product. George keeps denying what she did, even as she's crying alone in the bathroom from remorse at her actions, and Rube gives her a What the Hell, Hero? speech about how she can't play God because God is upper management and they are middle management.
  • Meanwhile, George's family is grieving her. George's little sister Reggie is feeling pain the most, since she and George weren't close in life and she can't comprehend how a toilet seat flew out of the sky and immolated her sister.
    You'd Expect: The family would go to grief counseling after the funeral.
    Instead: Joy and her husband Clancy act on their grief in varying ways, and leave Reggie to her own devices. George wants to reconnect with her family but can't because if she tries, she loses her memories
    The Result: Joy and Clancy separate when it comes out that George's father is having an affair with one of his students, a sweet girl named Charlotte. Reggie in turn starts acting out; this includes developing a phobia about using the bathroom at home, stealing toilet seats from her school and hanging them on a tree in the woods as a shrine to George, and talking to what she thinks is her sister using an Ouija Board. George finding the branches with hanging toilet seats is taken aback but can't do more than return some of them. Joy finally takes Reggie to counseling when she sees the tree shrine, after a lot of damage has been done. In the Grand Finale TV Movie, the rules bend for George to reveal herself to a teenage Reggie when the latter threatens to kill herself, which finally allows Reggie to move on from George's death.
  • In the Grand Finale movie Life After Death, Rube is allowed to move on and a new head Reaper replaces him. This guy believes that the reapers are Above Good and Evil and can selfishly use their positions to attain luxury.
    You'd Expect: Mason is one thing since he is a former drug addict and not the brightest tool in the shed, but that Roxie and Daisy would know better. Roxie has seen the consequences of reapers using their powers for selfish purposes.
    Instead: George is the Only Sane Man who has to remind everyone that the rules for reapers exist for a reason, since she spent most of Season One learning that the hard way. Her reap also gets messed up so that the person who should be dead is in a coma. Roxie, Daisy and Mason without question follow their boss's lead and engage in selfish pursuits.
    The Result: Massive consequences ensue, with all of the reapers feeling remorse for their actions. They have to brutally murder their boss, and George has to reap the boy in a coma, who happens to be Reggie's secret boyfriend, in Reggie's presence. Then once the chaos winds down, a reluctant George becomes their new boss due to being the only person that thought through the consequences of her actions.
• The Demon Headmaster:
  • In the second episode, Lloyd, Dinah, and Harvey end up in trouble when Harvey starts up a snowball fight, the Prefects punish them by making them shovel snow, even after they manage to make a pile of snow, Rose and the Prefects take the punishment further by pushing them into the snow, not caring that Harvey has asthma, Dinah is not happy about this.
    You'd expect: That Dinah would wait till they got home and talk to Mrs. Hunter about what happened.
    Instead: She goes and yells at the Headmaster, and as a result the Headmaster hypnotizes her into telling a completely different story.
• In the second to last episode of Desperate Housewives season 6, Lynette finds out that Eddie's (the strangler's) mother, has been killed. she arrives at Eddie's house, and Eddie tells her that he just spoke with his mother and he's running away to Florida to see her.
  You'd Expect: Lynette to play dumb as it appears she is ACTUALLY DOING at first, then get out of there and CALL THE POLICE.
  Instead: Lynette says that then that must not have been his mother, and Eddie now knows that she knows and the episode ends with her being held hostage as Eddie closes all the blinds.
• Downton Abbey: Sybil is about to give birth to her child. Two men - Doctor Clarkson, the professional, and Sir Philip, a knighted Doctor from Harley Street - are both there to help. When problems occur, arguments begin.
  You'd expect - that Robert, Sybil's father, would side with his wife, Cora, and listen to the freaking professional who has known Sybil for all of her life and will be able to save her!
  Instead - Robert sides with Sir Philip. Sybil gives birth. Everything appears to be fine... then, Sybil has convulsions and dies from Eclampsia... as Doctor Clarkson said she would unless they operated. Cue the almost divorce between Robert and Cora.
• The Dukes of Hazzard: Exercised several times by Boss Hogg and Rosco:
  • An episode from the series' final season – "When You Wish Upon a Hogg" – is built around this premise: two people so naive, child-like and stupid they are unable to question what's going on. Here, Boss Hogg's unethical, corrupt nephew, Hughie, has convinced Boss and Rosco into believing that an antique oil lamp contains a genie, who will help grant them wealth and a way to get rid of the Duke boys once and for all. The whole scheme is the result of Hughie's insight into his uncle and right-hand stooge (gullible individuals with the mentality of 7-year-olds, who can be tricked into believing anything with little to no convincing). Sure enough, everything unfolds exactly as Hughie plans, as the shockingly beautiful Trixie (Hughie's girlfriend, who played the seductress "genie") plays her part perfectly. Boss and Rosco – who should know that Hughie is corrupt and would normally have thrown him out of the county immediately – are so convinced that Trixie is legit that Bo and Luke can't even talk them out of taking the bait ... and the final steps toward their doom.
  • Of course, beautiful seductresses have caused plenty of trouble for Boss and Rosco before. Three years earlier, in "New Deputy in Town," Rosco fails to notice a simple FBI alert about a pair of criminals wanted for bank robbery and murder, one of whom is a beautiful, shapely, 20s-something woman named Linda Mae Barnes. One day, after Bo and Luke easily outwit Rosco for the day, Linda arrives and, impersonating a police officer, easily captures the Duke boys. An impressed Boss is SO turned on by Linda (as is Rosco) that he hires her on the spot ... neglecting to perform a simple background check that would have revealed many red flags. Coincidentally, Linda's arrival comes just as her boyfriend is scheduled to arrive for an overnight stay at the Hazzard County Jail... and it is left to Bo and Luke to do what Boss and Rosco should have done.
  • Even Enos – easily the most competent, honest lawman on the Hazzard County Sheriff's Department's force – has fallen into this trap several times. Most notably, he (along with Bo and Luke, surprisingly enough, and Boss (not surprisingly as all)) fail to immediately identify a criminal who exactly resembles Rosco as an imposter in "Too Many Roscos."
    Setup: Rosco had gotten into another accident during his usual daily cat-and-mouse game of the Duke boys, but this time, he is kidnapped by a trio of bank robbers, the ringleader being a man named Woody, who exactly resembles Rosco (James Best in a dual role). Days after Rosco is declared "dead," he is seen again and there is much joy and jubilation in Hazzard. Later, Rosco bungles simple facts, all while remembering in exact detail information about an expected armored car delivery to Hazzard Bank. When the fake Rosco talks about the armored car delivery, Enos – knowing that the phony had just bungled several facts about Bo and Luke – fails to call out Woody and instead begins to cry at Rosco's "weird" behavior; Bo and Luke, who normally would be very suspicious by "Rosco"'s unusual preoccupation on the armored car delivery, instead chalk it up to amnesia and a concussion and don't suspect a thing.
    • And what about the robbers themselves?
      You'd Expect: Having seamlessly pulled all of this off (see the entry in Criminal Doppelgänger), they would leave it at that and just hightail it out of town before anyone catches on.
      Instead: They bring the Dukes to their lair, where the imposter reveals himself and shows them where the real Rosco is being held. Rosco puts two and two together, and he is not pleased.

E

• ER:
  • Kerry Weaver is contacted by a private detective she hired to find her birth mother, who tells her that he's found the woman.
    You'd Expect: For her to make proper arrangements to meet with him to get the information.
    Instead: She leaves in the middle of her shift, with the ER clearly getting busy, without telling anyone where she's going. The result? A patient dies thanks to the errors made by the two less experienced doctors treating him. Doctors she should have been present to supervise.
  • In "Love's Labor Lost", Dr. Greene sees a pregnant woman who's near labor and displaying signs of pre-eclampsia (which he didn't initially catch until the couple came back a short time later). When she develops full-on eclampsia, the attending OB/GYN can't be reached at the moment, leading for them to ask Dr. Greene to induce labor and to keep an eye on her until another OB/GYN can be reached.
    You'd Expect: For Greene to realize that he is not an OB/GYN. Prior to this, he was asked by Dr. Coburn (the attending OB/GYN) if he was comfortable with the procedure, and should have responded in the negative. In the event that the OB/GYN unit is still too busy (the situation is such that he is told by a medical assistant that the ward is too full several hours into the traumatic induction), he would call an OB/GYN from a neighbouring hospital if the matter was too severe. He is also told by Susan twice that he could leave this in the hands of the OB/GYN unit (and her supervision) and the matter would be fine.
    Instead: He dismisses Coburn's question about feeling "comfortable", and even feels insulted by her advice, deciding on his own to go ahead with the induction. Then, when Susan confronts him over letting someone else take the reins of the operation, he refuses out of pride. What follows is a series of Disaster Dominoes where everything that can go wrong does go wrong, including a shoulder dystocia and then an abruption that makes her hemorrhage. No one has a clue what they're doing, and the patient winds up dying as a result of the botched 10-hour procedure.
    On The Other Side: Dr. Coburn gets several calls from Dr. Greene and his team telling her that not only are they dealing with an eclampsic patient, but one problem after another keeps popping up, turning a routine delivery into an emergency c-section.
    You'd Expect: For her to either get to County General ASAP or for her to send another OB/GYN to the hospital. Eclampsia is an incredibly serious and potentially life threatening condition, and the doctors currently tending to the patient are ER doctors, not OB/GYN's.
    Instead: Due to an undefined reason, neither Greene nor the assistant OB/GYN at County can reach her. When she finally arrives at County (in the early morning, no less), she gets there just as the patient is crashing. She then proclaims that it's not her fault and blames Greene for the substandard care, leading into the next episode, where she repeatedly (and obnoxiously) attempts to insult him during a investigation into the matter.
• Evil Lives Here: A woman named Sarita starts dating a man named Karim who unbeknownst to her is married and her coworker knows.
  You'd Expect: The coworker would pull her aside, tell her Karim is married, and call the wife to verify her claim.
  Instead: She just mocks Karim saying "How's the Mrs." in front of her and leaves when Karim calls her a bitch.
  As A Result: Karim is able to pass off the incident as the coworker just being a Jerkass mocking the fact he had an engagement before meeting her that ended badly because they didn't get approved for a marriage license.
  It Gets Worse: Turns out Karim is a sociopath infected with HIV who goes around infecting innocent women For the Evulz and Sarita not only gets infected, but nearly dies due to compounding ailments.
• Extant: After Ethan goes missing in the woods John gets angry at the Sheriff postponing the search for the morning. After the Sheriff questions the need to search for a robot he punches him and ends up getting not only himself but also his stepfather thrown into jail for the night. Enabling the ISEA to get to Molly without any interference.

F

• Faking It: Shane Harvey, Camp Gay most popular man in an extremely liberal school, pegs Amy and Karma as lesbians, and outright says Amy is gay at a party, though she continuously and vociferously denies it.
  You'd Expect: Shane would allow Amy to come out when she's ready, at the very least; at the very most, acknowledge he was wrong about her.
  Instead: He publicly outs the two as gay at the party, and tries to get them elected homecoming queens.
  You'd Expect: Totally straight Karma to be pissed at being outed as gay even though she's not.
  Instead: Popularity-starved Karma sees how popular they are now, and decides to milk it for all it's worth, dragging Amy along with her. Thus, she inadvertently unlocks Amy's latent sexual attraction to her, gets the hottest guy in school to fall for her, and then for all hell to break loose when all the secrets come out.
• Falling Skies: Tom Mason, who was a history professor before aliens came down and killed almost everyone, was on an alien ship. The Big Bad cites Hitler, Pol Pot and other dictators as examples of humanity to justify the aliens actions.
  You'd Expect: That Professor Mason would point out the opposites of those, or at least cite a few visionaries who have overcome odds and led in peace, helping their citizens (Gandhi and Nelson Mandela).
  Instead: Tom stammers a bit and drops the ball.
• Fallout: Thaddeus comes across an Obviously Evil Snake Oil Salesman who promises him he can repair his damaged foot.
  You'd Expect: Thaddeus to ask more questions, or not trust a very blatantly evil-looking and sickly person.
  Instead: Thaddeus takes the man's word for it, tries to threaten him into getting a cure for free, then finally gives the Salesman his reactor core as payment when the man points out Thaddeus will likely only manage to poison himself without him.
  Later: Thaddeus takes the cure and his foot does miraculously knit itself back together. The Salesman is eager to leave. but remarks Thaddeus will no longer need to worry about the radiation in the middle of the Shithole.
  You'd Expect: Thaddeus would ask him what he means by that.
  Instead: Thaddeus brushes the comment aside. He later learns he's been transformed into a Ghoul.
• Family Matters: In one episode, Eddie is given the opportunity to be a judge at a bikini contest at the same time he's supposed to work as a peanut vendor at the Chicago Bears game. He decides to get someone to cover his shift so he can go to the contest.
  You'd Expect: Eddie would ask anybody but Steve Urkel to do it given the latter's reputation as The Klutz and the several accidents he's caused that Eddie has witnessed firsthand.
  Instead: He gets Steve to do it. Steve's clumsiness causes several mishaps and Eddie is fired as a result. Afterwards, Laura tells Eddie he should've known this would happen and he has no one to blame but himself.
• Fated to Love You: In episode 8, Anna wanted to go back to Taiwan to celebrate Cun Xi's birthday but the American girl Tiffany stops her and tells her that she can't leave without permission then it turns out she was just joking and lets her leave as long as she comes back.
  You'd Expect: For Anna to change her mind and stay.
  Instead: She finally rushes out to go back to Taiwan, and then she slips on marbles that Tiffany has placed on the stairs.
  Later: In episode 9, the boss says that Tiffany took her side and got kicked out of the program due to her twisted ankle and then returned to Taiwan.
• Father Ted:
  • In "Competition Time", Mrs. Doyle tries to tempt Henry into drinking a glass of sherry without realising that he is a man who is currently on the wagon. At that point, Ted walks in.
    You'd Expect: For Ted to remind Mrs. Doyle that they already have an alcoholic in the house (Father Jack, a priest well-known for keeping absurd amounts of alcohol) and that she might want to put it away. Sure he might say Jack would go berserk if he saw Henry with what he would believe to be his alcohol, but it would be a start.
    Instead: He supports Mrs. Doyle's fanatical refusal to let any of her guests turn down any drink of any description, which naturally leads to disaster when she forces him to drink the sherry.
    But You'd Also Expect: That Father Dunne, who had brought Henry to Craggy Island, would have called ahead to warn Ted not to allow Henry near any alcohol, especially given that he's going to be sharing a house with Father Jack.
    Instead: He apparently forgets to do this.
  • In "Think Fast, Father Ted", Ted discovers that the car Brennan gave him for the raffle has a slight, but noticeable dent in it.
    You'd Expect: Ted to just leave it as it is; anyone who wins a car for the miniscule price of a raffle ticket isn't going to be bothered about a slight dent. At most, contact Brennan and try to persuade him to pay for the car to be repaired.
    Instead: Ted decides to try repairing the dent himself with a hammer... and after a few hours of tapping, manages to completely destroy the car.
  • In "A Song for Europe", Ted and Dougal are listening to a B-side from a previous EuroSong entrant, and realise that its music matches the lyrics of their song perfectly.
    You'd Expect: They would check up on the song's history to ensure that it is really as obscure as they think it is.
    Instead: They decide to plagiarise the song's music for their lyrics without checking its history. Cue Ted panicking when he realises that it is actually well known.
  • "Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading" contains a phone conversation with Ted and his rival Dick, in which Dick tells Ted that he is giving up smoking for Lent, with his two companions also giving up their vices, and asks Ted to do the same.
    You'd Expect: Ted would quiz Dick on whatever he is telling the truth or not.
    Instead: He believes Dick without any question, and naturally it eventually turns out that Dick is still smoking like a chimney, Father Johnson is drinking copious amounts of booze, and Father MacDuff is still rollerblading.
  • This label can be applied to Dougal in general, between placing rabbits in a Bishop's bedroom, selling the house to a feminist and ruining a funeral.
    • Speaking of the funeral, he only volunteered to do it since Ted (who was supposed to have been doing it) was distracted by unrelated matters and had gone for a walk.
      You'd Expect: Mrs. Doyle to persuade Dougal to wait for Ted to come back, and/or try to convince whoever is doing the funeral to delay it for about a day.
      Instead: She lets Dougal on his way.
  • In "Are You Right There, Father Ted?", Ted puts a lampshade on his head and does an impression of a stereotypical Chinese person, only to discover that three actual Chinese people just happened to be stood by the window. Ted is horrified at the thought that he'll be considered a racist.
    You'd Expect: Ted to run outside, immediately apologize to the family for what he did, and admit that it was stupid and insensitive.
    Instead: He does run outside, but tries to give ridiculous excuses — such as claiming that he was stretching his eyes to prevent a condition called "Fat Eyes" — causing them to drive off in anger, and leading to rumours of Ted's supposed bigotry rapidly spreading across Craggy Island, leaving Ted as persona non grata among half the island's population, and with the other half of the population applauding his supposed white supremacism.
  • In "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep", Ted has just realised that a champion sheep's recent troubles with a 'beast' in the build-up to a new sheep competition are due to the farmer who owns the sheep arranging to have him scared. Effectively, that means the competition has been rigged, because the sheep has been entered into that competition.
    You'd Expect: Ted to remember that he bet the heating budget for the parochial house on that particular sheep, and so wait until after he's collected his winnings, then confront the farmer and threaten to expose the scam if the farmer does not admit to it in front of the islanders.
    Instead: He interrupts the aforementioned ceremony and exposes the scam there and then. This results in the parochial house being without heating for the winter.
  • In "Speed 3", Ted is stuck in a situation involving Dougal on a milkfloat that, because of a bomb, will blow up if it goes below 4 mph.
    You'd Expect: Ted and those helping him to realise that this is (A) too dangerous for them to get Dougal out of without either having something handy to keep the speed of the milkfloat above 4 or killing themselves, and (B) a situation similar to a certain Keanu Reeves film.
    Instead: First they try performing a Mass dangerously close to the milkfloat. Then they fail to spot the Whole-Plot Reference and get caught up with talking off-hand about The Towering Inferno, and irrelevantly watching The Poseidon Adventure only because 'Gene Hackman stars as a priest in it'.
    Implications: Firstly, the Mass example. If Dougal had let the milkfloat's speed fall below 4, not only would he be dead meat, but it's possible Ted and the others would have been caught in the explosion and been either burnt alive or get killed by flying debris. The second one relates to the film example; by the time they are able to figure out that they should 'put a brick on the accelerator', Dougal could have let the milkfloat's speed slip below 4, leaving no-one to save.
• In FlashForward (2009), there is a group called the Blue Hand. None of the members have had flashforwards, implying that they will die between the present and the time of the flash forward.
  You'd Expect: They'd try to find out when they will be killed, and orchestrate events so that everything will be as they want it when they die, possibly using the Mosaic site or even the other members of the Blue Hand to put their plans on fast-track. In short, doing what Demetri is doing. Or they'd even consider possibilities like being asleep at the time flash-forwards were showing.
  Instead: They start committing suicide together. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, anyone?
  • The people who did have flash forwards weren't much smarter. The flash forwards are all of the same 2-minute period, and they're all consistent with each other, i.e. if you saw yourself discussing work in a London office with a co-worker, the other co-worker had a flash-forward of themselves discussing work with you. Plus, thanks to everyone putting their flash-forwards into the FBI's Mosaic database, you don't have the Prophecy Twist excuse either; the details as well as the exact date/time of the flash-forward period should be available to everyone. Some people had bad flashforwards that seemed to predict horrible, tragic or life-altering events.
    You'd Expect: As far as Screw Destiny goes, this is the easiest one ever. To stop your flash-forward from coming true, just make sure that on April 29th, you are as far away from wherever you saw yourself at the time. Only Olivia seems to comprehend this when she suggests to her husband Mark that the family move to a different house to avoid the flash-forward of her being involved with Lloyd (and effectively separated from Mark).
    Instead: Through various contrivances, most everyone who didn't die is exactly where they should be to have their flash forward vision or some approximation of it including Olivia who doesn't sleep with Lloyd but kisses him anyway. This isn't You Can't Fight Fate, it's "You didn't even try".
• Flavor of Love
  • In Season 2, episode 7, Bluckeey overhears Krazy gossipping to New York about the other girls in the house. Buckeey wants to give Krazy a piece of her mind.
    You'd Expect: For Buckeey to only confront Krazy verbally only, since Krazy never made any attempt to assault Buckeey.
    Instead: Buckeey does confront Krazy verbally, at first. When Krazy attempts to shove Buckeey to get her out of her way, Buckeey uses it as an excuse to assault Krazy and almost push her off of the balcony.
    The Funny Thing Is: Buckeey lampshades that Krazy is foolish for speaking with New York because New York was only using Krazy to start a fight to get someone eliminated. By Buckeey attacking Krazy, Buckeey foolishly took the bait.
    As A Result: Buckeey is eliminated because she was discovered to be the aggressor of the fight between her and Krazy.
• In the first season finale of Forever, Adam (a 2,000-year-old evil immortal) shoots protagonist immortal Henry with the flintlock that could cause Henry's death. As Adam gloats over Henry's dying body, Henry quickly stabs Adam in the neck with a syringe and injects air into Adam's brainstem. This visibly affects Adam.
  You'd expect: Adam to quickly kill himself and use his Resurrective Immortality to heal himself and undo whatever damage Henry just did.
  Instead: Adam stumbles into a crowded subway station, which is stupid because his body disappears whenever he dies, and that might draw unwanted attention. But he doesn't die, he just collapses — the air injection causes an embolism and causes Adam to get Locked-In Syndrome, meaning that he can see and hear but can't move or communicate, confining him to a hospital bed indefinitely since he never ages and now can't kill himself. And to top it all off, Henry resurrects anyway.
• In Fort Boyard, there's a game ("Ventouse" in French; "Burglary" in English) in which the player has to cross a room containing ladders, hammocks and tables without letting anything touch the floor. If at any time anything touches the floor that shouldn't, game over, the player gets locked in. Also, the key they need to get is inside a sealed container, which can only be opened using a suction cup carried with them.
  You'd expect: The lock-ins to be caused by the genuinely hard final obstacle, the unstable hammock, or the time running out.
  Instead: Quite a few times, once they get the key out, they suddenly forget the floor is alarmed. They throw the suction cup on the floor, alarms go off, locked in. It gets worse though. One player in 2006 thought that the first (about half-meter) jump onto a table couldn't be done straight, so stuck the suction cup onto the wall, began to swing from it, and looked genuinely shocked when he realised that the suction cup (that was only supposed to lift up a bit of plastic) couldn't take his body weight, it popped off, and so he dropped to the floor in what was probably the quickest lock-in ever.
• Frasier: In the episode "Can't Buy Me Love", Frasier wins a date with an attractive model named Kristina at a bachelor auction. On the night of the date, Kristina had a last minute shoot scheduled and has to postpone the date while leaving her bratty daughter Renata in Frasier's care, promising to make it up to him when she returns. During their unpleasant evening together, Renata tells Frasier about how neglectful and abusive Kristina is to her (abandoning Renata to get a shoulder tattoo, lying about her age, making her do daily weigh-ins), all the way up until Kristina comes to pick her up.
  You'd Expect: That Frasier, being a highly experienced psychiatrist, would calmly ask Kristina her side of the story, on account of the fact that Renata might have lied through her teeth to get attention.
  Instead: Frasier takes Renata's word for it and tears into Kristina for her poor treatment of Renata.
  As a Result: Kristina gets angry, debunks Renata's stories (particularly by showing that she has no shoulder tattoo) and leaves Frasier alone for the evening.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
  • Will is offered amphedimines from a classmate to help him stay awake and keep up with all his extracuricular activities. He reluctantly accepts them even though he's not really interested.
    You'd expect Will would simply throw the pills in the trash or flush them down the toilet. Just Get rid of them by any means nessecary.
    Instead he throws them in his locker and eventually forgets about them.
    As A Result Carlton get a hold of them, mistakes them for Vitamin E pills and ends up nearly dying for an overdose. After Confessing to his Uncle Phil, He rightfully asks how Will "Could be so stupid"!
• Friends
  • Ross is known to do a lot of stupid things due to being more interested in being proven right than getting along with people, but the whole "we were on a break" saga probably takes the cake. When their relationship is strained, Rachel suggests they take a break (from the relationship), which Ross understands as a breakup since he's already convinced himself she's been cheating on him anyway. He is very upset and gets drunk, and wakes up with the girl from the copy place. He seems remorseful and doesn't want Rachel to find out or it'll ruin things. Eventually, Rachel finds out.
    You'd expect Ross to say something like "I was so upset over losing you that I got drunk and this just happened. I'm sorry."
    Instead he claims he was completely justified and it was all her fault.
  • Rachel eventually then decides to write a very lengthy letter to Ross, telling him that if he accepts full responsibility for his actions, she can start to trust him again.
    You'd Expect Ross to simply forget about trying to justify his actions in the past and move on so he can be with Rachel. Even Joey and Chandler point this out to him!
    Instead, Ross, during sex with Rachel while she gives him credit for manning up to his mistakes, wants to prove that he isn't fully responsible for what he did. He screams "WE WERE ON A BREAK!" and then proceeds to admit that never read the letter before accepting its terms simply because it was too long and when he did finally read it, he didn't agree with it because he feels the break up wasn't all his fault. Ross and Rachel promptly break up and proceed to make each other miserable as possible for the next season or two as revenge.
  • Phoebe in "The One with the Cop" finds a police badge in the coffeehouse.
    You'd Expect: Phoebe to hand the badge over to a police precinct so they can find the owner.
    Instead: Phoebe uses the badge to pretend to be a cop. In case you're unaware, this happens to be illegal. She eventually gets caught by a real cop who is the owner of the badge. You'd also expect the cop to arrest Phoebe for impersonating him, but he decides to ask her out on a date instead.
  • In the season 9 finale, Chandler uses Ross' laptop to check his e-mails. Chandler, being knowledgeable about computers and the internet, should know about the pitfalls about e-mails from strangers.
    You'd Expect: Chandler to not open strange emails, especially ones promising free porn.
    Instead: Chandler opens the e-mail anyway and gets Ross' laptop infected with a virus, which deletes Ross' keynote speech that he had typed up. This would have gotten Ross in trouble since he had to make a speech the next day but Charlie managed to help him recreate the speech.
  • In "The One with Ross' Tan", Ross manages to rival Joey for stupidity when he gets a spray-on tan.
    • Ross is told to go into the tanning booth and allow the nozzle to spray his front, count to five, and turn around to allow it to spray his back.
      You'd Expect: Ross would be able to follow these simple instructions and count to five like a normal person.
      Or: Ross can turn around immediately after being sprayed the first time, as there's no reason why he should count to five in the first place.
      Instead: Ross counts one-Mississipi, two-Mississipi, three-Miss...
      The Result: Ross barely reaches three-Mississipi before he gets sprayed on his front a second time.
    • Now Ross needs to get two more sprays on his back to even it out. However, he notices that there's no light to indicate when the spraying will start on the other wall.
      You'd Expect: Ross would realise that it doesn't matter if he knows when the spraying is about to start, he can just wait until he feels the spray on his back.
      Instead: Ross turns around to look at the light.
      The Result: Ross gets sprayed on the front again, and some of it gets in his eyes, disorienting him enough for him to get sprayed on his front a fourth time
  • In "The One with the Sharks", Monica walks in on Chandler masturbating to porn; When she enters the room, Chandler jumps up and quickly changes the channel to a shark documentary.
    You'd Expect: Monica to understand that Chandler simply changed the channel away from his porn when he heard her come in.
    Instead: Monica thinks that Chandler has a shark fetish.
  • In "The One Where Ross Is Fine", Chandler & Monica want to discuss adoption with a couple who adopted a kid who they haven't told yet is adopted.
    You'd Expect: The couple to have the discussion at Chandler and Monica's place and not bring Owen.
    Or At Least: Wait till he's not home to have it there so he can't accidentally walk in and hear them.
    Instead: Not only do they have it at their house with Owen at home, they don't even warn them beforehand.
    As A Result: Chandler understandably has questions for Owen too, and learns too late nobody told him he's adopted. Owen is upset with his parents, and Chandler gets blamed for the accident.
  • In "The One with Ross's Grant", Ross is a finalist for a big scientific grant, but unfortunately, the grant is being administered by Benjamin Hobart, the ex-boyfriend of Ross's girlfriend Charlie. Hobart asks Ross to break up with Charlie. When Ross refuses, Hobart sabotages him during a group interview with all the finalists, then informs Ross that the grant is his if he'll break up with Charlie.
    You'd Expect: Ross to file a formal complaint against Hobart, whose actions constitute a major ethics violation.
    Or: Another member of the panel to do the same, because Hobart wasn't even bothering to be subtle with his sabotage.
    Instead: Ross's only action is to tell Charlie that her ex-boyfriend sabotaged him because he's still in love with her. Charlie finds this notion romantic and gets back together with him. And even after losing both the grant and his girlfriend, Ross still does nothing.
  • During season 5, Monica and Chandler are having an affair. At first, it's just sex, and they decide to keep the whole thing a secret from everyone, because it probably won't last long. However, after a while it becomes evident to them they're actually in a serious relationship.
    You'd expect: Monica and Chandler to finally tell the truth to their friends, since most likely they would be nothing but happy for the couple.
    Instead: Due to the bad breakup between Ross & Rachel, Monica and Chandler feel they're "not ready" to spill the beans on their relationship. So, in order to cover their tracks, they have to keep telling increasingly complex and ludicrous lies to their best friends for months. And when said friends eventually discover the truth, they're nothing but happy for the couple.
  • In Season 2's "The One with the List," Ross is torn between his feelings for Julie and Rachel and doesn't know who to be together with. Chandler and Joey convince Ross to make a list of their pros and cons. After they list some cons for Rachel, when thinking of a con for Julie, Ross comes to the realization that her con is she isn't Rachel.
    You'd expect: Realizing that Rachel is the one he truly loves, Ross would get Joey and Chandler to have the list deleted immediately.
    Instead: They leave it on the compueter the whole time. When Rachel eventually comes into Joey and Chandler's apartment, she notices her name on the computer and is curious to what it says. Chandler closes his computer's screen, but then his printer ends up printing the list. Chandler quickly snatches the paper.
    You'd then expect: Chandler to completely rip up the paper before Rachel is able to get a look at it.
    Instead: Chandler, Joey, and Ross try to keep playing keep away and pass the paper to each other so Rachel can't see it. She's eventually able to snatch it from the three and gets a good look at the list.
    You'd also expect: Joey and/or Chandler to step forward and say the list was their idea (which is true) and claim Ross didn't know about it.
    Instead: The two immediately bail and leave Ross alone to face Rachel's wrath.
    As A Result: Rachel angrily calls out Ross and tells him that she refuses to ever date him.
  • Season 5 "The One with Ross's Sandwich": Donald approaches Ross about seeing a psychiatrist for his apparent anger management issues. He then learns the sandwich he stole and ate a couple days ago was Ross’s lunch, and that that’s the reason for Ross’s behavior.
    You'd Expect: Donald would immediately give a sincere apology to Ross and promise to make it up to him by paying for the sandwich or buying Ross lunch.
    Instead: Donald flippantly confesses that he ate Ross’s sandwich despite reading the note on it that clearly stated it belonged to someone.
    Even Worse: He tries to calm Ross down by offering him the stale sandwich leftovers in his trashcan, admitting he didn’t even eat most of the sandwich he stole and threw it away.
    As A Result: Ross is pushed over the edge and flies into a rage that’s loud enough to be heard outside the building.
  • Rachel in "The One Where Emma Cries" is, along with Monica and Phoebe, watching her newborn daughter sleeping in her crib. She suddenly wants to wake her up, but Phoebe warns her about why you should never wake up a sleeping baby.
    You'd Expect: Rachel would listen to Phoebe and let Emma sleep.
    Instead: "I can do whatever I want. I made her."
    As a Result: Emma ends up crying for days, leaving the three girls exhausted, sleep-deprived and unable to put Emma back to sleep.
• In the Full House episode, "Sisters in Crime", D.J. is forced to babysit Michelle and Stephanie while their Father, Danny and Uncles Joey and Jesse participate in a charity ice hockey game and Becky takes her twin sons out to her Aunt's. D.J.'s boyfriend, Steve comes over to take her to the movies, but instead of staying home to babysit, D.J. takes both Stephanie and Michelle with them. Later, D.J. gives Stephanie and Michelle some of the money and they decide to buy some food.
  You'd Expect: Michelle and Stephanie to come to their sister before buying food, since the money D.J gave them goes to two extra tickets while Steve buys her the other two tickets.
  Instead: They spend all their money on food. Unfortunately, Steve doesn't have any more money to buy them two extra tickets.
  As A Result: DJ hatches a plan to get her friend, Kimmy to let Michelle and Stephanie sneak into a movie with her and Steve when they only have two tickets. They later get busted for sneaking.

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