History Main / SanityBall

* In YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries, the sanity ball is usually held by Yugi, but is passed around liberally; in recent episodes, even Cloudcuckoolander Tristan has held it.

When characters on the same show take turns being the OnlySaneMan or StraightMan, but only one of them is sane at a time, that character is holding the Sanity Ball. Differs from the SmartBall in that the SmartBall gives a character the ability to problem-solve; the Sanity Ball gives its holder a rational perspective (and the knowledge that everyone around them is acting ''ir''rational).

Whenever the character holding the Sanity Ball gets a HeroicBSOD, or falls for LoveMakesYouCrazy, or gets PutOnABus, or otherwise loses the ball, someone else on the show picks up the Sanity Ball and runs with it, becoming the new OnlySaneMan.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

** The witches' coven has a Sanity Ball, usually (though not always) carried by Nanny Ogg.

** The Watch's Sanity Ball is usually carried by Vimes, but he'll toss it to Carrot or someone else once in a while, as in the '''That! Is! Not! My! Cow!!''' incident.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the characters seem to be playing a constant game of hot potato with their Sanity Ball. Sometimes the Doctor, sometimes a companion, sometimes a companion's family member, currently, Rory seems to be holding it the most.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

* Used a lot in ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''. Usually, both Thief and Black Mage can be relied on to be sane, but Thief will constantly behave irrationally as part of his own schemes, or Black Mage will go crazy and try to kill everyone. When these both happen at once, Red Mage will step in as the voice of reason, but usually his plans turn out to be even worse. But they tend to work anyway. And when the three of them are caught up in bickering and semantics, Fighter becomes the reasonable one, because he's too stupid to realize what's going on.

[[AC:{{Web Original}}]]

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]

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Every {{Nakama}} has its own Sanity Ball, so the heroes may share one while the villains are sharing another.

* The [[TheSlayers Slayers]]' Sanity Ball is usually tossed back and forth between [[ObfuscatingStupidity Gourry]] and [[DeadpanSnarker Zelgadis]]. The secondary Sanity Ball is usually toted around by [[AffablyEvil Xellos]] (maybe that's what's on the end of his staff?), since he seems to be the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Villain]]. Usually.

* In ''CalvinAndHobbes'', Hobbes generally carries the Sanity Ball when Calvin's interacting with him. When Calvin interacts with adults, Calvin's usually the one with the ball. When he interacts with Susie, though, it's usually by chucking the Sanity Ball at her and running away.
** Calvin may hold the ball when his father is getting into one of his hobbies, but mostly the adults are a foil for his complete lack of common sense and some other qualities that don't exactly qualify him as the most sane character.
* In TheSandman - Brief Lives, Delirium (the {{anthropomorphic personification}} of madness) acts generally insane and wacky while her older brother Dream serves as her rational and pragmatic foil. After receiving some distressing news, however, he starts to lose it, and Delirium has to pick up the Sanity Ball, since "one of us has to keep this thing going". Later on when describing the event, she seems unable to remember anything beyond saying "It hurt..."

* Whenever there's a villain and sidekick in any story, the main villain stands a better-than-even chance of losing the Sanity Ball at some point, and passing it to his second-in-command, who then either joins the heroes, or [[TheStarscream pulls a Starscream]] and takes over the villainy himself, or recognizes the madness but chooses to stick by his master to the end. For example, in ''[[StarWars Return of the Jedi]]'', the Emperor turns psychotic at the end, and tosses the Sanity Ball to Darth Vader. Vader then gets the ball, has his first moment of sanity in a while, and [[HeelFaceTurn switches sides]].

* Each of the StationeryVoyagers gets a chance to hold the ball, but some hang on to it longer than others. As TheAtoner, Liquidon often gets it [[MartyrWithoutACause for the shortest amount of time]].

* This happens a lot on ''{{Lost}}'', especially between Jack and Locke, who seem to alternate between being the voice of reason and acting insane. Usually when Jack is acting crazy it's Locke who is the sane man, and the other way around when Locke is acting crazy. And for most of season five it was ''[[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Sawyer]]'' who had the sanity ball, oddly enough, as Jack had been relegated to second string and Locke was [[spoiler: NotHimself]].
* In ''{{House}}'', Wilson or Cuddy both hold the sanity ball for House usually. This enables House's brilliance/insanity to counter his teams' mediocre/pragmatic approaches with the sanity ball holder to act as referee. But the ball is sometimes passed, to 13 (when Wilson is dealing with Amber's accident) and to House (when Cuddy is dealing with sick babies). House is reliably crazy when it comes to medical diagnostics but with regards to each team members individual problems (Cameron marrying chase, Foreman switching 13 off placebo, Taub confessing his affair, etc.) House has been sought for his REASONABLE opinion.
* Early on, Crichton is the OnlySaneMan in ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. As the series progresses, John becomes [[GollumMadeMeDoIt a bit less sane]], and Aeryn and even D'Argo are assigned occasional ball-carrying duties.

* Lampshaded in the {{Psych}} episode "Not Even Close...Encounters" when Gus and Shawn try to refrain from indulging in alien theories during their investigation:

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the characters seem to be playing a constant game of hot potato with their Sanity Ball. Sometimes the Doctor, sometimes a companion, sometimes a companion's family member...currently, Rory seems to be holding it the most.
* Tossed around quite frequently on {{Fringe}}, as everyone has a slightly different theory on where to draw the line between the very, very strange and the just plain impossible.

* The Sanity Ball is abounced around in ''[[http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com Jayden and Crusader]]'' a lot. Jayden started out with the ball acting as the straight man to Crusader, but eventually her anger issues and Zoiberg fetish made her pass the sanity ball to Crusader, who passes it off whenever he has something crazy to do. Third is arguably so sane he's crazy.

* The CiemWebcomicSeries tended to have designated ball holders. If Candi herself wasn't holding it, then it was Laurie. Or Miriam. Or Denny. Or [[TheObiWan Imaki]]. Or Wilbur. Pretty much literally everyone else, however, was either one-dimensional or completely insane on a regular basis.
** Arfaas gets to act somewhat normal whenever around Musaran, if only to emphasize what an off-the-chain rabid monster Musaran is.

** Same for the RoosterTeethShorts, where the Sanity Ball seems to be in the hands of someone different every episode. Most obvious with Joel, who tends to swing between being the Only Sane Man and being a complete Cloudcuckoolander.

* On ''{{Jimmy Two-Shoes}}'', either [[ThePollyanna Jimmy]] or [[EnfantTerrible Heloise]] hold the ball, depending on the joke. When interacting with Jimmy and Beezy, [[TheCaligula Lucius]] will occasionally hold.
* [[SpongeBobSquarePants Spongebob]] tends to act like an actual ''adult'' whenever he and Patrick are the only characters on screen, if only to emphasize exactly how brain dead of a person Patrick really is. However, expect him to drop the Sanity Ball like a rock once [[OnlySaneMan Squidward]] gets involved.
* InvaderZim's robot GIR, dispite his processor being mostly made from trash and spare change, has occasional moments of clarity. The first would be when he question's Zim's plan to kill Dib in the past with time-travel, the second is when Zim decides to stop an explosion by undoing the timefield that's slowed it down.
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* In ''OrderOfTheStick'', a good dozen or so characters have passed the Sanity Ball around. Roy usually carries it, but when he was [[DeathIsCheap killed]], Haley and Durkon picked it up for their respective parties. Elan occasionally takes the ball for a bardic GenreSavvy moment.
* Used a lot in ''EightBitTheatre''. Usually, both Thief and Black Mage can be relied on to be sane, but Thief will constantly behave irrationally as part of his own schemes, or Black Mage will go crazy and try to kill everyone. When these both happen at once, Red Mage will step in as the voice of reason, but usually his plans turn out to be even worse. But they tend to work anyway. And when the three of them are caught up in bickering and semantics, Fighter becomes the reasonable one, because he's too stupid to realize what's going on.

* [[SpongeBobSquarePants Spongebob]] tends to act like an actual ''adult'' whenever he and Patrick are the only characters on screen, if only to emphasize exactly how brain dead of a person Patrick really is. However, expect him to drop the Sanity Ball like a rock once [[ButtMonkey Squidward]] gets involved.

* Early on, Crichton is the OnlySaneMan in ''{{Farscape}}''. As the series progresses, John becomes [[GollumMadeMeDoIt a bit less sane]], and Aeryn and even D'Argo are assigned occasional ball-carrying duties.

* In ''DoctorWho'', the characters seem to be playing a constant game of hot potato with their Sanity Ball. Sometimes the Doctor, sometimes a companion, sometimes a companion's family member...currently, Rory seems to be holding it the most.

* [[SpongeBobSquarePants Spongebob]] seems to magically gain twice the amount of IQ points whenever he has to interact with Patrick, if only to emphasize exactly how brain dead of a person Patrick really is. However, expect him to drop the Sanity Ball like a rock once [[ButtMonkey Squidward]] gets involved.

* [[SpongeBobSquarePants Spongebob]] seems to magically gain twice the amount of IQ points whenever he has to interact with Patrick, if only to emphasize exactly how brain dead of a person Patrick really is.

When characters on the same show take turns being the OnlySaneMan or StraightMan, but only one of them is sane at a time, that character is holding the SanityBall. Differs from the SmartBall in that the SmartBall gives a character the ability to problem-solve; the SanityBall gives its holder a rational perspective (and the knowledge that everyone around them is acting ''ir''rational).

Whenever the character holding the SanityBall gets a HeroicBSOD, or falls for LoveMakesYouCrazy, or gets PutOnABus, or otherwise loses the ball, someone else on the show picks up the SanityBall and runs with it, becoming the new OnlySaneMan.

* The [[TheSlayers Slayers]]' SanityBall is usually tossed back and forth between [[ObfuscatingStupidity Gourry]] and [[DeadpanSnarker Zelgadis]]. The secondary SanityBall is usually toted around by [[AffablyEvil Xellos]] (maybe that's what's on the end of his staff?), since he seems to be the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Villain]]. Usually.

* In ''CalvinAndHobbes'', Hobbes generally carries the Sanity Ball when Calvin's interacting with him. When Calvin interacts with adults, Calvin's usually the one with the ball. When he interacts with Susie, though, it's usually by chucking the SanityBall at her and running away.

* Whenever there's a villain and sidekick in any story, the main villain stands a better-than-even chance of losing the SanityBall at some point, and passing it to his second-in-command, who then either joins the heroes, or [[TheStarscream pulls a Starscream]] and takes over the villainy himself, or recognizes the madness but chooses to stick by his master to the end. For example, in ''[[StarWars Return of the Jedi]]'', the Emperor turns psychotic at the end, and tosses the SanityBall to Darth Vader. Vader then gets the ball, has his first moment of sanity in a while, and [[HeelFaceTurn switches sides]].
* Characters in the ''AustinPowers'' films spend a lot of time passing the SanityBall around. For example, Scott Evil is usually the only sane man among the villains, but Number Two sometimes has sane moments as well.

** The witches' coven has a SanityBall, usually (though not always) carried by Nanny Ogg.

** The Watch's SanityBall is usually carried by Vimes, but he'll toss it to Carrot or someone else once in a while, as in the '''That! Is! Not! My! Cow!!''' incident.

* In ''[[TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'', Arthur starts off with the SanityBall, but he soon gets out of his depth. Ford Prefect carries the ball for most of the story, though Trillian/Tricia gets to hold onto it sometimes too.

* In ''DoctorWho'', the characters seem to be playing a constant game of hot potato with their SanityBall. Sometimes the Doctor, sometimes a companion, sometimes a companion's family member...currently, Rory seems to be holding it the most.

* In ''OrderOfTheStick'', a good dozen or so characters have passed the SanityBall around. Roy usually carries it, but when he was [[DeathIsCheap killed]], Haley and Durkon picked it up for their respective parties. Elan occasionally takes the ball for a bardic GenreSavvy moment.

** Or, when they're ''all'' being retards, White Mage.

* PlayedForLaughs on ''FamilyGuy''.

** In Death's family, Susan or Death usually have the ball, but Alberto takes it occasionally, such as when Death goes on vacation in ''Mort''.

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]

[[AC:Film]]

* Characters in the AustinPowers film trilogy spend a lot of time passing the SanityBall around. For example, Scott Evil is usually the only sane man among the villains, but Number Two sometimes has sane moments as well.

* In DoctorWho, the characters seem to be playing a constant game of hot potato with their SanityBall. Sometimes the Doctor, sometimes a companion, sometimes a companion's family member...currently, Rory seems to be holding it the most.

* The Sanity Ball is abounced around in [[http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com Jayden and Crusader]] a lot. Jayden started out with the ball acting as the straight man to Crusader, but eventually her anger issues and Zoiberg fetish made her pass the sanity ball to Crusader, who passes it off whenever he has something crazy to do. Third is arguably so sane he's crazy.

* StarWars:TheCloneWars. Only a few clone troopers (from Hidden Enemy and Deserter) seem to realize that they are mostly used just to senselessly charge into battle and die.

<<|ThisIndexHasBalls|>>

* In ''OrderOfTheStick'', a good dozen or so characters have passed the SanityBall around. Roy usually carries it, but when he was killed, Haley and Durkon picked it up for their respective parties. Elan occasionally takes the ball for a bardic GenreSavvy moment.