Idiot Ball / Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick
  • In a case of a literal Idiot Ball, Xykon wipes out the Azure City paladins by tossing a superbounce ball inscribed with a Symbol of Insanity into their midst, causing them to turn on each other in a tremendous bloodbath of confusion.
  • Old Blind Pete believes that coming home while it is in the middle of a massive Thieves Guild operation involving fighting numerous high-level characters he personally betrayed was a good idea. He couldn't even wait ten minutes (literally, the cleric couldn't cast Sending in that time, which has a ten minute casting time).
  • Author Rich Burlew is also on the record stating that characters carrying the idiot ball for whatever reason is sometimes necessary for good drama: if everyone always made the best available decisions, there wouldn't be much plot, and it would also be unrealistic.
• Hazel from Girls with Slingshots goes through an insane level of mental gymnastics in her belief that Jaime's new love interest must be male, despite knowing she's been with girls before. When Jaime tells Hazel her new "boyfriend" is Erin, Hazel (who, admittedly, doesn't remember Erin's name) hears it as "Aaron", even when Jaime repeats it several times, and when Erin herself points out her own name with a meaningful stare. They then go on a double date, where Erin shows up in a bowler hat, glasses, and a fake moustache, and not only does Hazel not recognize her, but has to be told by her boyfriend that Erin is female, after she and Jaime have gone to the restroom together.
  • "Aaron" and "Erin" are homophonous in many regions in North America. Erin is an androgynous name, also.
• Sidekicks: Camilla, the former Secretary General of the Committee that deals with supublics, holds it right at the end of season 1. Having found out that her former master hero, Guardian, was dead and that the Big Bad has usurped into Theo's body she comes to the conclusion that Theo, Guardian's son, could still be saved no matter what. Just as Darkslug is about to rid the world of the Big Bad for good, Camilla jumps right in the way to protect him, with her back facing the villain. She promptly gets attacked from behind and gets her superpowers drained from her.
• A rather in-character Idiot Ball is given to Jade in Jade 6, when she helps with a rather... dangerous-sounding deal. Thing is, she said she'd help, the person really needs it, it SHOULD all go okay, right? (She's shown ALMOST catching herself, but she keeps slipping back.) Partially caused by a massive Hero Ball, as well.
• Darths & Droids
  • The entire plot of the comic is based off of people refusing to let go of the Idiot Ball, not to mention that the entire point of the comic is to explain the large amount of Idiot Balls in the prequels (see above).
• In The Dreamer at the end of issue #10, Alexander offers to take Beatrice to safety to Washington's headquarters, but Beatrice stays put with Alan and Nathan. Alan is supposed to take Beatrice to Washington for interrogation about what happened when she was with Howe - and Alexander could easily have taken her to Washington himself!
• This strip from Chaff City features a literal Idiot Ball for sale in a gadget shop - the characters experiment with picking it up, and as the title of the strip states, Hilarity Ensues.
• Dubious Company
  • Barry declared a mutiny in front of a drunken Tiren while she shouts "I didn't lose! I Can Still Fight!!".
  • Izor decides to personally alter a complex magical ritual to suit his needs rather than get Gary Stu to do it. Even Walter calls him out on it.
• Sunstone. Keen to convince Alan to try more intense bondage with her, Marion did something everyone including herself agrees was stupid. Unfortunately for Marion she realised this only at the moment she slipped the knots about her wrists tight without a way to undo them.
• In Commander Kitty, pretty much everyone except the eponymous character (in a surprising twist) grabs the ball pretty tightly after they find the hard drive containing the transporter patterns of 45% of the galaxy's population. Not only is CK the only one who seems to understand that escaping Zenith Central with their precious cargo (not to mention their lives) is a higher priority than him getting a new outfit, but Nin Wah's attempt to sabotage CK in the process ends up sabotaging the entire rescue attempt.
• In Questionable Content, Dora lampshades the idiot ball when she explains that she could have fixed every bad relationship in college way earlier by simply breaking up with the person.
• In The B-Movie Comic, Mopey is actually seen holding it (and lampshades it) while giving uncharacteristically dumb advice.
• In El Goonish Shive, Sarah and Grace decide to go down a dark alley despite acknowledging the danger in order to encounter the mugger that threatens them and therefore let Grace reveal her half-squirrel form and telekinesis.
• In #Killstagram, cops come to Remi's door because her friend Jia has been missing for two days. Remi says she got texts from Jia the night before asking for Remi's address, hands over her phone, and says someone tried to break in last night. The homicide cop sees all the social media Like notifications, lectures Remi on her social media addiction, tells her about infuencer-targeting kidnapper^note Both Jia and Remi are influencers. Jia's apartment was left bloody. The cop even calls it "gruesome". instead of caring about the obvious clue, says the break-in should be reported to another department, and continues to lecture her about leaking her personal info online. If nothing else, the cops should check the cell towers Jia's phone pinged. And this is a story set in and created by someone from South Korea, where the cops do that sort of thing all the time. The scene ends after the lecture, with no evidence the cop cared about the clues at any point, even if his priorities were in the wrong order.
  • Also, when Remi opened the door for the cops, she said "Thank God you're here!" and none of the three cops outside asked her about that, apparently. They just told her about Jia's disappearance, then we cut to the station.
• DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything: The second target of the War Quest is teacher Chun Sobong, but neither Dongtae nor anyone nearby so happen to remember who that is, so he side-tracks to check the student roster. He doesn't consider finding Mio, who has True Sight, or Eunju, who does remember a teacher in their school, or to continue asking around. Even Samsusaeng, who have graduated 3 years ago, remembers the teacher. By the time Dongtae finds the staff list, the target is isolated by an attacker. Mio and Eunju try to reach him through a locked door, but only scare the target away and remember the room has the second entrance when it's already too late.

• Dean & Nala + Vinny: Seized by Vinny (an intellectual, well-read roach that often can be the Only Sane Man of the trio) when he decides to show cat Nala where they will be traveling next... on an inflatable globe, completely neglecting what will happen when (not if) Nala's claws meet the globe.

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