Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Main / WeirderThanUsual

Go To

1->'''Carl:''' Jimmy! Jimmy!\
2'''Jimmy:''' What's the matter?\
3'''Carl:''' It's Sheen. He's acting ''really'' weird!\
4'''Jimmy:''' Yeah, Carl, where have you been for the past ten years?\
5'''Carl:''' No, I mean REALLY weird! ''He's not Sheen.''
6-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius''
7
8"Weirder Than Usual" is a dialogue trope where an eccentric (weird) character has a sudden change of behavior. Perhaps this character is acting rather normal (weird for a weird character) or perhaps this character is acting even more eccentric. It's unavoidable for friends of this character to discuss the character's behavior. Often occurs in the form "That was weird... ''[{{Beat}}]'' ...you know, weirder than ''usual''".
9
10It's a classic line.
11
12Variation: "That was weird, even for you."
13
14Compare the darker version NotHimself, and OOCIsSeriousBusiness.
15
16----
17!!Examples:
18
19[[foldercontrol]]
20
21[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
22* When Nozomu "Baka" Tanaka from ''Manga/WastefulDaysOfHighSchoolGirls'' is infected by a strange protozoa in chapter 72 of the manga, the usually ChaoticStupid character starts acting much nicer and more considerate than usual, becoming something of a NiceGirl and diligent (if still not particularly bright) student overnight. This OutOfCharacter moment [[NotHimself weirded everyone out]], though apparently not in an entirely bad way as Ota seems to like her in this state than her normal self. It doesn't stick, however, as she returns to normal after several hours of violent diarrhoea.
23[[/folder]]
24
25[[folder:Fan Works]]
26* In ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', when John is pushing the boat through the Hungry Sea, he quickly starts to sing and then speak only nonsense and make weird faces. George, who can't get a straight answer out of him, asks Ringo if he thinks John is acting funny. Ringo listens, then dismisses John's behavior with “Oh, it's just John bein' John.” [[spoiler: Unfortunately, George is right and Ringo is wrong. However, his behavior does provide a significant clue not many hours later.]]
27[[/folder]]
28
29[[folder:Films — Animation]]
30* ''WesternAnimation/{{How to Train Your Dragon|2010}}'': Astrid says to Hiccup something along the lines of "You're acting strange... well, stranger."
31* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAssaultOnArkham'': Batman tells Alfred that Harley Quinn is acting odd; [[ServileSnarker Alfred]] replies "Odder than usual, you mean?"
32[[/folder]]
33
34[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
35* At the beginning of ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'': "The captain seems to be acting a bit strange ''[{{beat}}]'' ''er''."
36* In the film adaptation of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', Frodo says this in the extended edition about Bilbo: "To tell you the truth, Bilbo's been acting a bit odd lately... I mean, more than usual."
37[[/folder]]
38
39[[folder:Literature]]
40* Used a few times in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''.
41** In ''Literature/WyrdSisters'', Granny Weatherwax asks a summoned demon if there's something strange going on in Lancre, and the demon replies "You mean stranger than usual?"
42** In ''Literature/TheTruth'', Sacharissa, when instructing new correspondents how to report "News", says that "Wizards doing strange things wasn't news. Wizards doing strange things was wizards."
43* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Towards the end of ''Literature/SmallFavor'', Harry Dresden is having an argument with Michael, who suspects that Harry may [[NotHimself not be wholly in control of his own decisions.]]
44-->"That's... possible," I admitted. "Anybody's head can be messed with. But if you go rewiring someone's brain, it damages them, badly. (...) If you know the person well enough, there are almost always signs. They act differently. Have I been acting differently? Have I suddenly gone crazy on you?" He arched an eyebrow. "More so than usual," I amended.
45* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'':
46-->'''Harry:''' Professor Dumbledore -- yesterday, when I was having my Divination exam, Professor Trelawney went very, very strange.\
47'''Dumbledore:''' Indeed? Er -- stranger than usual, you mean?
48* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'' takes care to explain how exactly Ford Prefect can be said to be "beginning to behave rather strangely":
49-->Ford was beginning to behave rather strangely, or rather not actually beginning to behave strangely but beginning to behave in a way which was strangely different from the other strange ways in which he more regularly behaved.
50[[/folder]]
51
52[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
53%%* Several lines of background dialogue later in the season have characters in class saying things like "[[spoiler:Umine is actually pretty cute" and "Ayumi has been acting really weird lately]]." Where's this from?
54* On an episode of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Sheldon and Amy terminate their friendship, and he tries to hide his loneliness by adopting first one cat, then several more. Leonard tries to express his concern to Raj and Howard, who at first don't understand the problem when he says he's worried about Sheldon. Howard notes that they are ''always'' worried about Sheldon, whom they described in an earlier episode as being "one lab accident away from a supervillain." After interacting with him and the first cat, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, they have a better grasp of the situation.
55-->'''Howard:''' Okay, I get it. We're ''worried about Sheldon''.
56* ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'': After Barry finds himself repeating a day due to TimeTravel, Joe asks why he was acting weird at that morning's crime scene.
57-->'''Barry:''' ... I always act weird.\
58'''Joe:''' Okay, weird''er''.
59* In a very early episode of ''Series/ILoveLucy'', Ricky is worried because Lucy's acting crazy (she thinks he's trying to murder her). To which Fred responds, "Crazy for Lucy or crazy for normal people?"
60* In ''Series/MorkAndMindy'', Orkan birthdays lead to temporary insanity among other symptoms. Orson warns Mork that he will become weird, "or... weird''er''."
61* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E21AllHellBreaksLoosePartOne All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One]]" [=(S02, Ep21)=], Jake says that learning about his super powers while serving in Afghanistan was "just too crazy". Sam replies, "Crazy is relative." Jake, realizing they are in a ghost town preparing to fight a demon, says, "I'm starting to get that."
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder:Video Games]]
65* Used in the ''VideoGame/SouthPark'' N64 game. Chef tells the kids that Big Gay Al has been acting strange, and they're indifferent. "Okay, stranger than usual."
66[[/folder]]
67
68[[folder:Visual Novels]]
69* The protagonist of ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'' uses this to describe Mortelli’s behavior after he comes into the diner after an unusually long absence. And he’s right to be suspicious; [[spoiler:Cecilia has been feeding Mortelli information “proving” that he let Lainie die]].
70[[/folder]]
71
72[[folder:Web Animation]]
73* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'':
74** The WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail118.html virus]] has a variant on this:
75--->'''Strong Sad:''' Have you been using the Internet irresponsibly?\
76'''Strong Bad:''' No more irresponsibly than usual.
77** And in [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail91.html caffeine]]:
78--->'''Strong Bad:''' After being exposed to my control Cheat, subject started acting ''way'' creepier than normal... like, even for Strong Sad.
79[[/folder]]
80
81[[folder:Web Comics]]
82* Appears in "Fuzzy-Wuzzy Is My Head" from ''Little Worlds'', when Derby gestures to a tooth that isn't missing as evidence that he's hurt. Lev tells him that he probably broke his head. More.
83[[/folder]]
84
85[[folder:Web Videos]]
86* There was a ''WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun'' [[http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/374/Loading-Time-03-All-The-Little-People video]] where Paul [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial denied]] having a family of tiny people living under his hat. Graham asked Matt if he seemed odd. Matt said he wasn't odder than normal.
87[[/folder]]
88
89[[folder:Western Animation]]
90* On an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', Sheen is caught under a weird spell. Carl runs to Jimmy to panic about Sheen "acting weird". Jimmy isn't concerned because Sheen is always acting weird. Carl then elaborates, "weirder than usual."
91* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' episode "Last Laugh":
92-->'''Gwen Tennyson:''' Ever since we decided to go to the circus, you've been acting weirder than normal. What are you scared of?\
93'''Ben Tennyson:''' I'm not scared of anything.
94* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': In "[[Recap/DuckTalesADuckTalesValentine A DuckTales Valentine]]", after Launchpad is jabbed by one of Cupid's arrows, Dewey asks if the love-struck pilot is sane enough to be piloting on their flight home. When Scrooge attempts to pass the dizziness off as nothing that [[CloudCuckoolander Launchpad]] doesn't usually have to deal with, Louie points out that trying to kiss a humongous predator is unusual even for Launchpad.
95* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'': In "Being Harley Quinn" While traveling through Harley's mind, the crew run into Harley. while Harley and Ivy are alone for a bit, Harley tells Ivy that she thinks there is something screwed up about herself. When Ivy asks if Harley was realizing that just now, Harley feels the need to clarify that she means screwed up on top of her usual screwed up.
96* Happens a few times on ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''.
97** One example, from the HalloweenEpisode :
98--->'''Female Student:''' Dib's acting even crazier than usual today. Can we use one of our Crazy Cards to send him to the Crazy House for Boys?
99** In "Future Dib":
100--->'''Gaz:''' You've been acting weird all day! Even weirder than usual!
101* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
102** A variation in the episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen", when Spike notices [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Pinkie Pie]] acting strangely. Twilight gives the standard response of "She's just being Pinkie Pie". Spike watches her for a moment and notes that she's being "Super-''extra'' Pinkie Pie today."
103** In "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows", Pinkie tries to pass off her weird behavior (due to the stress of keeping a secret) as her ''usual'' weird behavior, but the others are not fooled, with Rainbow Dash even using the exact trope name to describe Pinkie's behavior.
104--->'''Rainbow Dash:''' I know the bar is set pretty high, but does anypony else think that Pinkie Pie was acting weirder than usual?
105** Yet another instance with Pinkie Pie in "To Where and Back Again" when she is replaced by a changeling.
106--->'''Starlight Glimmer:''' That was... strange...\
107'''Trixie:''' Isn't she always strange?\
108'''Starlight Glimmer:''' Yeah, but... not like that.
109* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'', April comments that Casey has been acting strange even since he joined a new martial arts dojo. Mikey quips "And that's different because...?"
110[[/folder]]

Top