History Main / ChaoticStupid

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': The god of Magic, Nethys, was once a [[DeityOfMortalCreation mortal]] who absorbed the secrets of the universe itself. This knowledge granted him Godhood, and [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity insanity]]. Nethys is now torn between the creative and destructive aspects of magic, half of the time wanting to build up and educate the world, other half wanting to destroy it. This means Nethys is dangerously inconsitent and even other gods are warry of him.

* ''TabletopGame/Pathfinder'' God of Magic, Nethys, was once a [[''DeityOfMortalCreation'' mortal]] who absorbed the secrets of the universe itself. This knowledge granted him Godhood, and [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity insanity]]. Nethys is now torn between the creative and destructive aspects of magic, half of the time wanting to build up and educate the world, other half wanting to destroy it. This means Nethys is dangerously inconsitent and even other gods are warry of him.

* Invoked in ''Home on the Strange'': [[http://www.homeonthestrange.com/view.php?ID=18 I told you I'd play Chaotic Neutral if this didn't stop!]]

* Tednugent, the long-suffering protagonist of InteractiveFiction Fanfic Parody ''[[http://www.thelittlestmurloc.com You Awaken In Razor Hill]]'' is repeatedly forced into this trope and this sort of behavior, as a character whose actions were controlled by the whims of the readers of the story. Many of them — ''many'' of them — chose to Command Ted to do outright moronic things regardless of the severity of any given situation he was in, such as Commanding him to challenge the story's BigBad,[[ImplacableMan Pyramid Hogger]] to a "yo momma" contest, or licking things that ''ought not to be licked''. This led to a small WriterRevolt when the "Narrator" (the author of the story) began to respond to the more ridiculously self-destructive commands with some fairly brutal consequences.

* ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' Entropomancers tend to act like this since they're wizards who gain power over probabilities by putting things of value to themself (money, social standing, life and limb, etc) at risk. Unlike most examples, this behavior is played entirely for horror. As one reviewer put it, an Entropomancer with a single bullet and a revolver can gain, up to, [[RussianRoulette five]] significant charges within seconds.

* Wrath from [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime adaptation]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' is this due to his utter lack of impulse control or thinking things through. To illustrate, he fused with Trisha Elric's remains to prevent them from being used on his mother surrogate Sloth. [[spoiler:After he got done killing Lust, he fuses with Sloth while both she and Ed know what that would do, merging her with the remains and leaving her paralyzed, allowing Ed to finish her off.]]

* Jason Mendoza from ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' comes damn close to defining this alignment, having zero impulse control and a general inability to think of the consequences of his actions.

** To illustrate the distinction; Badger isn't so ''stupid'' that he doesn't notice and get suspicious about the [[PaperThinDisguise totally legitimate, random vans]] on the street where's trying to sell meth, but he is so ''clueless'' that he genuinely believes that if you ask the undercover cop trying to buy meth from you if he's a cop, he has to tell the truth.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* Michael Swain's WebAnimation/{{Blockhead}} is the living embodimen of this trope taken to its logical extreme. Wihin an hour he has managed to scare his neighbors and mailman, break his [=TV=], cause havoc at the mall and school, evade federal agents, get thrown into prison, break out of prison and destroy a Russian space station just for the kick of it.
[[/folder]]

* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} is the face of Chaotic Stupid in modern comics DependingOnTheWriter. He beat the Taskmaster (whose power is an almost supernatural ability to "read", copy, and ''perfectly perform'' and understand the muscle movements and fighting styles of his opponent) in hand-to-hand combat by taking a break in their fight to dance and otherwise make himself unpredictable. He even begins his gambit by pushing a female X-Men member through a skylight into an indoor pool entirely filled with pancakes. Which were only there in the first place because he just suddenly decided to make a few thousand pancakes when he woke up that day. Then again, this is from the guy who [[NoFourthWall knows he's in a comic book]]. Maybe he's [[GenreSavvy onto something]]. It gets taken UpToEleven when he fights Evil Deadpool.

** Roger has gradually become more ChaoticEvil as time goes by though. Like [[spoiler: murdering Hayley's new boyfriend for witnessing an overhearing Roger confessing to accidentally killing his new wife]].

* In ''Webcomic/TheZombieHunters'', two characters (who thankfully are not actual examples) are at one point described by a [[FanNickname Snarky Gas-Mas Guy]] as [[http://www.thezombiehunters.com/index.php?strip_id=82 "chaotic shortbus aligned."]]

** Elan, despite first impressions, isn't quite an example of this. He ''can'' often be stupid ([[CharacterDevelopment less so as the comic goes on]]), but it's not inherently related to him being Chaotic, it's just part of who he is. The page picture makes sense when you realize that Elan trusts Haley implicitly and Haley had just snapped at Elan that, as a party of player characters, everything they do is technically an adventure. Elan, being [[IdiotHero Elan]], took this literally.[[note]]Bonus points for LawfulStupid Miko coming upon the scene.[[/note]] Some of the weirder moments come as the result of his being GenreSavvy, but ''wanting'' to be GenreBlind so that it'll work better for the story. The Adventure Game calls him "Chaotic Foolish", meaning his actions are more from a lack of Wisdom than Intelligence.
** Belkar, on the other hand, has his moments. For instance, setting a tent on fire while trying to sneak into a bandit camp, despite being told three times not to.

** Elan, despite being the page picture, isn't quite an example of this. He ''can'' often be stupid ([[CharacterDevelopment less so as the comic goes on]]), but it's not inherently related to him being Chaotic, it's just part of who he is. The page picture makes sense when you realize that Elan trusts Haley implicitly and Haley had just snapped at Elan that, as a party of player characters, everything they do is technically an adventure. Elan, being [[IdiotHero Elan]], took this literally.[[note]]Bonus points for LawfulStupid Miko coming upon the scene.[[/note]] Some of the weirder moments come as the result of his being GenreSavvy, but ''wanting'' to be GenreBlind so that it'll work better for the story. The Adventure Game calls him "Chaotic Foolish", meaning his actions are more from a lack of Wisdom than Intelligence.

** Roger has gradually become more ChaoticEvil as time goes by though. Like [[spoiler:
murdering Hayley's new boyfriend for witnessing overhearing Roger confessing to accidentally killing his new wife]].

* Michael Swain's WebAnimation/{{Blockhead}} is the livin embodimen of this trope taken to its logical extreme. Wihin an hour he has managed to scare his neighbors and mailman, break his [=TV=], cause havoc at the mall and school, evade federal agents, get thrown into prison, break out of prison and destroy a Russian space station just for the kick of it.

* UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_drive wrote more than once]] -- ''Beyond the Pleasure Principle,'' ''The Ego and the Id,'' etc. -- that on some level, human beings in general are instinctively somewhere between this and StupidEvil. What he called the "death drive" and the "id" are two distinct aspects of the human psyche that, according to him, seem to demand chaos, even when it runs counter to a person's overall well-being.
* ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'': Fizban the Fabulous (and his [[SarcasmMode creatively named]] {{Expy}}, [[Literature/TheDeathGateCycle Zifnab]]) puts up a deliberate front of being Chaotic Stupid. [[spoiler:He's actually the chief LawfulGood god, disguising his interference as sheer randomness. It's a ''very'' effective ruse.]]

* [[HeroicComedicSociopath Nathan]] from ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' is a pretty good example of this on a British show. [[spoiler: Doesn't help that he's [[ResurrectiveImmortality immortal.]]]]

* Jesse Pinkman from ''Series/BreakingBad'' starts out as the poster boy for this trope, for all he's not exactly thick. He's just ''really'', '''''really''''' impulsive and is seriously bad at weighing consequences, however good he otherwise is at spotting left-field connections and answers. He actually starts to wise up as the costs keep getting steeper and CharacterDevelopment hits him like a freight train. Badger, however... nope: Chaotic stupid all the way. Well, Chaotic Clueless would be a ''better'' description in his case, really.

---> "He said he was looking for the Happy Hunting Grounds. I didn't know what he was talking about... so I ate him."
*** In fact, 4th edition gave Slaadi the official alignment of ChaoticEvil because they are so Chaotic Stupid that they want to tear down all of the rules everywhere... Including the rules that keep the very fabric of existence functioning. ForTheLulz. (And also because 4th Edition did not have the Chaotic Neutral alignment.) Of course, Slaadi could be presented as "opposed to all law" without being "opposed to all sanity"... but RuleOfFunny has its place in these games.

** A good part of why Chaos hasn't yet conquered the galaxy is because of this: the four main gods simply hate one another too much to allow alliances to continue very long. It's not just that they hate each other ([[EnemyCivilWar well, they actually do, but]]...), it's more that they cannot '''EVER''' be organised. It's called [[ShapedLikeItself Chaos]] for a reason, ya know?

*** It may go beyond that. Where the other three Chaos gods hate and scheme against each other, Tzeentch actively schemes against himself as well, possibly without even realising. It's even hinted at that Tzeentch may not really be a Chaos god at all, but rather essentially the personification of scheming - he was around long before the others, played the part of (or actually was) one of the [[EldritchAbomination C'tan]], and is simply incapable of not going ahead with a sneaky plan even if it directly opposes another one he's just started. The other gods scheme against each other; Tzeentch ''is'' scheming.

** The Dark Eldar feature a notable aversion -- their entire race are hedonistic thrillseekers who need to inflict pain to survive and run on KlingonPromotion, hiding in the Webway to avoid having their souls eaten by the Chaos god they created. You'd think their raids would fall apart as soon as they started, but each of them understands the risks of screwing up in realspace. Once they're safely back in the Webway with loot and slaves, all bets are off.

* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' Has a DummiedOut "evil option" that would let you sell a baby into slavery. Instead, you just... keep the baby. In your GridInventory. [[spoiler: [[EasterEgg You can use it as a key]] in Hordes Of The Underdark.]]

* Sonic from ''inSONICia''. He's the kind of guy who will push a BigRedButton that will bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, then yell at you to stop criticizing him. It gets to the point where Sonic becomes [[TheScrappy so annoying]] and [[TheLoad useless]] that it's a wonder nobody [[JustEatGilligan just offs him to save themselves a headache]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' has Rico. He's incredibly chaotic, and he's not all that bright... but he's PluckyComicRelief... as are most of the cast. He's also insane...

** Roger has gradually become more ChaoticEvil as time goes by though. Like [[spoiler: murdering Hayley's new boyfriend for witnessing overhearing Roger confessing to accidentally killing his new wife.]]

There's a subtle distinction between StupidEvil and Chaotic Stupid. Sure, the Chaotic Stupid character is also likely to KickTheDog. But they're just as likely to PetTheDog, Shave The Dog, Paint The Dog Purple or even Ignore The Dog Entirely To Run Off Chasing Butterflies. In short, the 'true' Chaotic Stupid character is the one who thinks that being ChaoticNeutral means being downright [[CloudCuckoolander insane]]. And by "insane", we mean more [[WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures Gogo Dodo]] than [[Literature/SilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]].

** Dark Elves were originally this, being unable to keep their ChronicBackstabbingDisorder in check made for an entirely society of chaotic halfwits that would have logically wiped themselves out due to petty infighting and backstabbing for the hell of it. Later editions toned it down so that while Dark Elves will backstab anyone or anything for the slightest advantage, they can keep themselves in check if there's no way they could come out ahead, giving them level of cunning Elves are usually portrayed as having.

A LawfulStupid character is defined as someone who will follow a set of rules beyond when it is reasonable to do so. A [[TitleDrop Chaotic Stupid]] character is just the opposite. They abide by no rules whatsoever — not laws, not customs, not ethics, not even common sense. Actually, ''especially'' not common sense. Or, for that matter, any concept of sense whatsoever.

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[[quoteright:177:[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CS_Elan_5783.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:177:[[MetaphoricallyTrue Well, you're definitely on your way to the hospital.]]]]

* While not an Adventure example, [[GenkiGirl Tomo Takino]] of Manga/AzumangaDaioh qualifies as this. For example, the time that she threw the keys to [[BeachEpisode Chiyo's Summer Home]] into the forest just as Chiyo was about to unlock the door. And thought that it would be funny if she did it a second time.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* While nearly every ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' character is ChaoticNeutral, they tend to avoid this trope (or at least Reimu reminds them to behave.) [[TheFairFolk Fairies]] however are both dirt stupid (Cirno, who has various memes centered around how dumb she is, is actually the ''smartest'' fairy yet encountered) and highly unpredictable, due to their ability to immediately resurrect after death or serious injury, and lack of long-term memory preventing them from learning from their mistakes, creating decidedly warped views of mortality. As noted in ''[[AllThereInTheManual Perfect Memento in Strictest Sense]]'' their most reliable behaviour is playing pranks, but even then they range between getting people lost or stealing their food to pushing them off of a cliff or setting them on fire, and tend not to differentiate between a powerless human, a not-so powerless human that can manhandle them into submission, and a centuries-old being with enough power to effortlessly disintegrate them.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[quoteright:177:[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CS_Elan_5783.png]]]][[caption-width-right:177:[[MetaphoricallyTrue Well, you're definitely on your way to the hospital.]]]]