History Main / SurroundedByIdiots

* In the movie ''Becket'', when Henry II sends some loyal members of his court to arrest the TurbulentPriest, Becket not only refuses to plead to the charges but manages to turn the tables on his accusers by reminding them that he's their spiritual father and threatening their souls if they arrest him on false accusations. Henry II, watching this turn of events from afar, breaks down laughing and says in amazement, "He's made mincemeat of them. I'm surrounded by fools! Becket is the only intelligent man in my kingdom and he's against me."

* [[PlayerCharacter The Courier]] from Fallout: New Vegas: Old World Blues is this (providing s/he has an INT higher than 1), with the majority of the people there being clinically braindead, with the beings actually capable of communicating with him being a nymphomaniac robot, his own Jerkass brain, a Large Ham Mad Scientist who cannot control THE VOLUME OF HIS VOICE!, a megalomaniacal toaster, and two bickering lightswitches. The only other sane people are Doctor Mobius, who is addicted to every drug in the game from the stress, and Doctor 8, who can only speak in programming code.

* The Sheriff of N.O.T.T. from Rocket Robin Hood shouts a variant of this tropes when insulting his Guards for failing to keep Rocket Robin Hood and Little John in a pit. The exact speech:

->''"Note to self: need to hire more henchmen. Good ones this time!"''
-->-- '''SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker''', ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum''

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* At one point, during a first season episode of ''[[MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'', Joel Robinson, prompted by yet another difficult wrangling of the robots, declares in anger 'I'm surrounded by idiots, of my own design!'

* Wrathchild America's ''Surrounded By Idiots''. Can be cathartic to hear.

* While not actually in the game, a player in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' may feel like he's in this if he is the only competent player on his team.

* In the ''FanFic/TamersForeverSeries, Ruki tends to show aspects of this when [[spoiler: Chaos]] and Takato do something moronic (which is pretty much all the time).

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** It's also literal - all the other maids are fairies. The most intelligent fairy appears to be '''Cirno''', and considering that she's ''the'' ⑨[[hottip:*:moron]], that sets the bar very low.

* In ''Anime/MazingerZ'', [[BigBad Dr. Hell]] often feels like this -and rightfully so-. When he was young it was because he thought he was smarter than anybody, but now it is because his minions are, well, stupids. In an episode he invokes the trope almost word by word. His CoDragons have been fighting for the whole episode, even when they were supposed to engage the enemy. At the beginning he had tried to stop them and force them to cooperate, but it did not work. So during their latest fight he is -unsuccessfully- trying to ignore them as he has dinner, and he grumbles he is surrounded by idiots.
** '''Dr. Hell''': Why, oh, why such a genius as myself is surrounded by idiots?

* People with UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome often feel like the OnlySaneMan, though usually this is more of a FishOutOfWater feeling than a sense of intellectual superiority. (e.g. "Why does no one share my overwhelming interest in the history and operation of British railways?")

The fact that the underlings may be TooDumbToLive explains why they continue to work for an [[VillainousDemotivator abusive employer]], but we still have to wonder why the EvilOverlord hired them in the first place. We can't pretend he's not aware of his hirelings' shortcomings, because of course, he never hesitates to exclaim about them: "[[YouFool FOOLS]]! CRETINS! BUNGLERS!" (there always seems to be [[RuleOfThree a basic formula of Mild Insult! Not-So-Mild Insult! EXTREME INSULT!]]), sometimes, "It's so hard to find good help these days..." and of course, the oft-repeated Trope Naming line, "I'm surrounded by idiots!" - sometimes accompanied by a {{Facepalm}}. Sometimes after one too many failures tend to say "If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself", and then proceeds to do far more damage than his underlings have ever done, making you wonder why he didn't just do this in the first place.

* [[DragonballZAbridged Poor Vegeta.]]

* You. Admit it. You think you're surrounded by idiots. Or, if you don't now, you probably have felt this way at some point in time.
** Being exposed to FanDumb too much can lead one to this trope.
*** Being exposed to FanDumb at all places them squarely within this trope for the duration.
*** Or ask any FanHater, and you'll find out more than you need to know.
** Being exposed to HateDumb too much can lead to this as well.

-->'''Higuchi:''' What's the point of having minions if they don't do your work for you! [[TheSlacker I should be watching the Home Shopping Network in my underware]] but ''NO'', I have to go out and commit a murder!

-> ''"He's as dumb as a bag of hammers, but he works cheap."''
-->-- '''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Dr. Insano]]''' about his new evil minion, ''[[Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Chester A. Bum]]''.

* Villain [[PsychoElectro Carla Brunelle]] from ''FlandersCompany'' is a DangerouslyGenreSavvy {{Magnificent B|astard}}itch and a DragonInChief who is an actual treath in season 2. Starting with season 3, however, [[spoiler:her boss is killed]], and the only remaining competent member of her team is BadassBookworm [[IntangibleMan Nadege]]; the three others consist in a bunch of morons with [[FashionVictimVillain horrible sense of fashion]], with only one of them possessing actual (but lame) powers and fighting skills.

* You. Admit it. You think you're surrounded by idiots.