Space Ghost: Okay, so explain this now. Your human dad put his human penis in your shark mother's vagina. And you sat by and let this happen. Pathetic. You're a freak.
This trope is the aspect of most episodes involving Stan as the main character. His logic when it comes to solving problems tends to be so convoluted it often makes him The Load whenever there's a crisis.
When the blender's not working, he puts a sharpening stone inside and turns it on ("An Apocalypse to Remember").
When he thinks Steve is too old to be playing with toys, he takes him to Mexico to lose his virginity to a prostitute so Steve will become a man ("Toy Whorey").
When the house gets flooded and a shark is inside, he lets a bear in, thinking they're natural enemies ("Hurricane!").
In the James Bond spoof "For Black Eyes Only", when Stan is told that Roger's character Tearjerker survived his fall into a volcano in the previous Bond episode, Bullock states that a volcano won't hurt you if you fall in "the right way".
Master Shake uses this quite often throughout the series. One notable example is when he decided that the bus outside of the Aqua Teens' house was possessed by the ghost of Dracula. When Frylock disputes this by pointing out that it's 2:00 in the afternoon, Shake then claims that the bus is a "reverse vampire."
Frylock (using his scanning device): The call is coming from inside that school bus! Shake: Inside the bus? It is the bus! The bus of the undead! Vampires! Frylock: I'm not detecting any vampiritic activity. Besides, it's 2 o' clock in the afternoon. Shake: It's... it's a reverse vampire! They crave the sun! Love it. They love to get tans. Frylock: Really? And where do they come from? Shake: Uh... Tansylvania? Frylock: Oh, no. No, no, no way in the world! Shake: See the wheels? Those are the markings. Frylock: Where do you get this stuff?
Other characters also rely on Insane Troll Logic, including Carl, Meatwad, the Mooninites, the Plutonians — even the Cybernetic Ghost ofChristmas Past From the Future. Basically, all of the main and recurring characters except for Frylock (and even he's not completely immune).
MC Pee Pants also deserves a special mention. In his first appearance as a giant spider wearing a diaper, he creates a rap CD that induces an intense desire in the listener to eat candy. After giving the listeners directions in the rap to an abandoned warehouse where they can supposedly get said candy, he lies in wait and then straps them into chairs in order to use their brain energy to power a giant drill. This is so that he can drill down into Hell and release demons to start a pyramid scheme involving diet pills. His subsequent plans in later episodes are just as insane...
His scheme to make a rap CD and then release it exclusively in Transylvania (Meatwad had to import a copy) so that a vampire fan would come to bite him and make him a vampire actually worked.But then he stepped out in the sunlight.
Malory degenerates into this sometimes. For example:
Archer: That wasn't her fault! Who puts Oxycontin in a Xanax bottle? Malory: People with servants! Idiot. Archer: But if they're stealing pills, how does it help to switch the labels? Malory: Because they can't read English! Archer: (laughing) Okay... I'm gonna go, and leave you to rethink that whole train of reasoning.
Or this gem in "Diversity Hire":
Malory: Lana Kane, just because you're not the only black field agent... Lana: Hey! That's not... Malory: "Urban," whatever. You come in here and accuse Conway of...what, exactly? Lana: OK, I can't prove anything right now, but that's - Malory: ...but that didn't stop J. Edna Hoover from prosecuting Martin Luther King, now did it? Lana: What does that have to do with...wait, "J. Edna?" Malory: You never heard? That J. Edgar Hoover was this huge crossdressing chickenhawk? Lana: I had not. Malory: Well, that's exactly the kind of slanderous and unsubstantiated rumor that I will not tolerate at ISIS. Think about THAT while you're on suspension! Lana: While I'm on what? Malory: What are you, deaf and racist? Lana: I'm black! Malory: Oh, put it back in the deck.
The villagers who tried Aang for his past life Kyoshi's involvement in the death of their great leadernote who it was revealed was a bullying warlord who tried to push Avatar Kyoshi around and died because he was too stupid to back down. used logic that failed so badly and was basically just, "We feel this way, so there." that the only way the episode could end was by them just getting over it (of course she actually was guilty, but that's neither here nor there).
Notably the entire justice system of the town is tailored to fit Insane Troll Logic, with the biggest issue for the Gaang being that the defendant may not submit evidence to prove their innocence, reducing the whole trial to they-say-I-say against a jury made entirely of people raised in the town that believe in the defendant's guilt. Notably when Aang is in jail, everyone in there is a perfectly reasonable person, suggesting the system really is just that messed up.
Sentencing was the job of a game of "Wheel of Fortune". At the end of the episode, there's a new festival, where they eat little Aangs made of raw dough to symbolize how they commuted sentencing (boiled in hot oil, in this case) in favor of convincing the Avatar to save their sorry skins. The settlement is proclaimed to have been the worst town they have ever been to.
In the Biker Mice from Mars two-part episode "The Reeking Reign of the Head Cheese", the defense Modo gives against the false claim that he, Vinnie, and Throttle held up a toy store during their trial is that a toy store is way too large for them to hold up.
Bojack Horseman: Todd often lapses into this when trying to figure something out. He generally arrives at the correct conclusion, even though he goes through an ADD free association exercise to get there.
In Season 1 "Hat Luncheon", When one of the Park League members demands to know from the city officials why they froze their contract. One of the city officials tries to flip it back at them by asking them why do they have a contract that got frozen and tells them it works both ways. The socialite points out that doesn't make sense.
In Season 1 "Live It Up Tonight", when Cole thinks Molly got bitten by a bat, he thinks being bitten by a bat makes you a vampire.
The Clone High episode "Blinded With Pseudoscience: Magnetic Distractions" has a substitute teacher named Professor Hirsute who tries to push pseudoscience on the students, Candide later revealing that she hired him with the intent of weeding out students who aren't leadership material under the gambit that any of them stupid enough to believe what Hirsute tells them without question will get themselves killed. Much of Hirsute's claims are flagrant logical fallacies, one noticeable example being when he disproves gravity by letting go of a bird he was holding and pointing out that it's flying away.
Duke: Why the hell do you have to be so critical? Jay: I'm a critic. Duke: No, your job is to rate movies on a scale from good to excellent. Jay: What if I don't like them? Duke: That's what "good" is for.
Danger Mouse tries to keep him and Penfold from being eaten by an alligator as Penfold mistook the alligator's tongue as a carpet. DM saves them thusly using Bat Deduction:
DM: Carpet, rug. Rug, wool. Wool, sheep. Sheep, wolf. Wolf, pack. Pack, case. Case, trunk, Trunk, elephant! And it's worth a try! (He does a Tarzan yell, which summons a pack of elephants on which he and Penfold hop a ride)
Penfold tries to use it as well in weaseling out of their mission in "Ee-Tea!," which has him and DM inside a teapot-shaped spaceship trying to learn who is behind the theft of all the world's tea.
Penfold: Well, maybe that this is the scout ship for a planet of intergalactic teabags... who have been driven off course by a Storm in a Teacup...and are going stir crazy for a pound of tea leaves...and if tea leaves, then so can I! (tries to walk off, but DM nabs him)
This is generally Launchpad's train of logic throughout, from believing anyone could be a mole monster, including himself, to trying to shove a whole a whole bag of golfballs down his gullet despite seeing firsthand what they're used for. Usually, his stupidity is played as just that, but whenever it comes to the plane, his insane troll logic actually turns out to be the correct logic, as Della saw firsthand when he was able to fix the Sunchaser/Cloudslayer with gum, give it extra power with a hamster in a hamster wheel, and manage to safely get everyone on the ground via crashing the plane.
Launchpad: Everyone, relax: we're about to crash. Della: That actually is comforting...
This version of Steelbeak isn't that smart, so he makes some weird assumptions of Black Heron's plans. Even ones she already told him.
(Black Heron turns two eggheads stupid with an intelli-ray. One starts chewing on a rubix cube it was originally working on) Steelbeak: Of course! With this, we will make Scrooge so hungry, he'll eat all the world's toys!
When these two idiots try to play a game of cards that neither of them know how to play but are too stubborn to ask the rules for, this trope playing out is inevitable.
Steelbeak: (puts down two diamond cards) Go fish! Launchpad: (puts down two heart cards) Old maid! Steelbeak: (puts down one card with two diamonds) Crazy eights! (Tense zoom in on Launchpad, then Steelbeak, then an extremely confused Dewey) Launchpad: (confidently throws down all cards) Checkmate! Steelbeak: Grr! Well played. Dewey: It was?
Eddy thinks that by acting like a jerk, the other kids would like him. Heck, even in his (made-up) story in "Once Upon An Ed," he acts rude to the kids and yet the kids still like him. How are you going to gain admirers and friends if you're constantly rude to people and constantly trick people out of their money?note This becomes less this trope and more Harsher in Hindsight after the movie; Eddy's brother was, to put it lightly, the biggest jerk ever to step foot in the cul-de-sac, and Eddy misinterpreted the other kids' fear of him as respect, as previously demonstrated in "Ed, Pass it On".
In the episode "Your Ed Here", Eddy somehow believed that the things Kevin made him do to keep Kevin from revealing his middle name (which include dressing up like Jimmy, kissing Edd and acting like a seal) were less embarrassing than his middle name, "Skipper".
In an episode of The Fairly OddParents!, Crocker thinks that Timmy loaned his fairy godparents to Tootie. He's right, but he's suspicious not because the entire town of Dimmsdale is celebrating her birthday (except for Vicky, who was basically the reason behind her sister's fairy loan in the episode's first half), but because her cake has real buttercream icing. Come to think of it, the same could be said for a lot of situations that make Crocker think Timmy has fairies. Crocker once had an argument with Steven Hawking about basic addition, which ended up with Hawking proving that 2+2=5. From the end of the episode: "Hawking! I've done the math! Two plus two isn't five! It's SIX!!! SIIIIIX!!!"
On The Flintstones episode "Little Bamm Bamm", Barney and Betty Rubble wish to adopt the eponymously-named baby that was found abandoned on their doorstep. But the State mandated that the baby go to the next couple in line waiting for a child. When the Rubbles fight for custody in court, the other couple hires famed lawyer Perry Masonry to represent them.
Perry Masonry: Where were you on the night of January 7th? Barney: My memory fails me. Perry Masonry: Your memory fails you, eh? What if your memory when it was time for the baby to be fed? That little fellow could go hungry for days!
In one episode, Mr. Herriman is sending any friend he comes across to their rooms without supper in order to hide that he's relapsed on his carrot addiction. Wilt warns Eduardo to stay out of his way, and Eduardo deduces that he can't avoid Mr. Herriman unless he knows where he is. Fair enough, but then he reaches the conclusion that the only way to avoid Herriman is to follow him around.
In "Camp Keep A Good Mac Down" (where Bloo, Mac, Coco, Eduardo, Wilt, Mr. Herriman, and Madame Foster go camping):
Mac: I need a break. Where's the trail mix? Bloo: I ate it. Mac: What!? Why? Bloo: Because we were walking on the trail. Where's the campsite mix?
Bloo: I need your trash! (...) For the needy! Old Man Bitters: Why do the needy need my trash? Bloo: It's elementary school, my dear Watson! The needys need! It's their thing. Therefore, they must also need trash!
Used in the Goof Troop episode "Bringin' on the Rain". Pete intends to water his yard thoroughly in an attempt to win a gardening contest. PJ objects, because they're in a drought. Pete then claims that since we have oceans and "the human body is 98.6% water", there can't possibly be a drought. PJ is too exhausted to respond with anything other than a resigned "Whatever you say, Dad."
Stan: You know, studies show that keeping a ladder inside the house is ten times more dangerous than a loaded gun. That’s why I own ten guns, in case some maniac tries to sneak in a ladder.
Grojband: Corey Riffin's brain practically runs on this, as is well evidenced by his talent for Zany Schemes and Spoof Aesops that often sound totally nonsensical or come about through the strangest leaps in his thoughts.
Laney: You gotta let it go, Core. We can't fill up the reservoir. Corey: That's it! We will fill up the reservoir! Laney: How does your brain work!?
In one episode of Here Comes the Grump, Terry and Dawn visit a town where everyone has this trait. For example, a man is wearing oddly shaped shoes that allow him to walk forward or backward without turning around, and a woman has a diver's helmet on her head in case of rain.
Histeria!: What's the World's Oldest Woman's reasoning that the egg came before the chicken? Because you have eggs for breakfast and chicken for lunch, naturally.
Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.: at the end of “All About Ego”, J. Jonah Jameson is somehow conviced that Spider-Man (who wasn’t involved in the episode’s plot in any way) was behind Ego the Living Planet almost crashing into Earth.
In the I Am Weasel short "I Architect", Baboon and Weasel accidentally get their brains switched. Baboon-as-Weasel ends up ordering some construction workers to rebuild a skyscraper Weasel designed out of copper pipes, on learning that the plumbing in the building was guaranteed to last a lifetime, under the grounds "If water pipes last for lifetime, whole building made of water pipes last forever!"
Jackie: But I am not Agent Tag. I am Jackie Chan, a researcher. Dr. Necrosis: Of course if you were Agent Tag, you would deny it emphatically. Jackie: No, I would claim to be Agent Tag, assuming you would not believe me. Dr. Necrosis:But I would anticipate your assumption that I would not believe you. Jackie: I would foresee you're anticipating my assumption of your not-believing. Dr. Necrosis: But how could you predict I wouldn't expect you're foreseeing my anticipation of your assuming my not-believing? Ha! Answer me that. Jackie:[gasps] I do not even know what you just said! Dr. Necrosis: Precisely what I expected you to say, Agent Tag.
One episode of Jem has the main characters stuck on a deserted island. After Jerrica disappears (as she has to keep up her alter ego as Jem), Pizzazz believes that she went on top of the island with reporters as a publicity stunt. Stormer notes how illogical that is but Pizzazz doesn't buy it.
Adam West:[reading fortune cookie] "Your heart's afire." ...Hmm, that rhymes with "tarts on a wire", which in turn sounds like "carts for hire". ...Billy, your Momma's at the golf course!
Stumpy reaches insane conclusions based on whatever he hears. For example, in one episode, he finds out that magic doesn't exist, and he decides that since he has heard the expression "Life is magical" several times, life must not exist.
In one episode, Mr. Cat says that he believes that women must stay in the kitchen and do housework. Kaeloo points out how backward his thought process is, and Mr. Cat says that he has no problem with gay couplesnote The show portrays Mr. Cat as Ambiguously Bi and therefore he can't be thinking backward.
Stumpy tries to tan himself in Episode 45 by setting up a bunch of barbecue grills to accelerate global warming and make the planet hotter.
In the first episode, during a game of prison-ball, Mr. Cat sets up a basketball hoop to catch the ball in. Kaeloo says that it's cheating, and Mr. Cat explains why it isn't: The game is called "prison-ball", and "all prisoners play basketball".
In one episode, the main cast write a sitcom, and in the sitcom, the main characters are harboring an illegal immigrant from Mexico in their home. Their neighbor starts to suspect that they may be harboring a Mexican immigrant because... they had Mexican food for dinner one day.
Les Sisters: In the Camping Episode, Marie and Wendy are being attacked by swarms of mosquitoes. Marie picks up a fairy-themed handheld video game which she brought along with her, and the game says "lemongrass can repel trolls". Marie decides that if it works on trolls, it must also work on mosquitoes. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's no lemongrass around, but there is a bottle of orange juice. Since "lemongrass" starts with "lemon" and lemons and oranges look somewhat similar, Marie reasons that orange juice and lemongrass are the same thing.
In "Roughly Squeaking", mice Hubie and Bertie convince Claude the cat that he's actually a lion (and that the bulldog outside is a pelican). Hubie's logic; "A lion is a member of the cat family, so that means that a cat is a member of the lion family!"
After being pelted by a snowball, the villain of the episode ask Bugs Bunny how he can make snowballs in the summer. Bugs responds with, "It's too cold to make them in the winter".
In The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Cap'n K'nuckles seems to function on a mixture of this and Know-Nothing Know-It-All. When Flapjack says "This candy tastes like horse poop, Cap'n!" (Flapjack is actually trying to eat a flower at the time), K'nuckles' immediate response is "Then horse poop must taste like candy!", and he starts looking for a big pile of it.
Nathan: Bleach is healthy. It's mostly water, and we're mostly water. Therefore, we are bleach.
The British adult animated series Monkey Dust featured a recurring character named the Paedofinder General, whose gimmick was that he'd accuse random people of being kiddy fiddlers for trivial reasons, put words in their mouth when they try to object to his accusations, and then kill them. One notable logical fallacy had him confront a woman who owned a photograph of herself holding her infant son while he's naked, responding to her confirmation of parentage by saying that her admittance to imprisoning a naked child in her stomach for nine months and forcing him backwards through her genitalia proves that she's a paedophile. Another occasion had him accuse a gay couple of being paedophiles and replying to one of the men's protests that his accusations are "nonsense" with "So, you freely admit you are the possessor of nonce sense"note "Nonce" is British slang for child molester.
In Mr. Puzzles Wants You to Be Less Alive, Mr. Puzzles claims to know Jennifer's name because she has a body, and all Jennifers have bodies. This is an example of the fallacy of affirming the consequent, and also, what. Of course, the whole logic of the story itself makes about as much sense.
In the Muppet Babies (1984) episode "Muppets Not Included", there is a scene where Kermit and Animal are told to draw pictures and have celebrities from the past having to identify what is being drawn. When the thing to be drawn is a cow, no one is able to guess that Kermit has drawn a cow, while Edward G. Robinson gives the answer as cow in spite of Animal drawing a smiley face. Edward G. Robinson's reasoning was that smiley faces are drawn by happy children, children are happy when they drink milk and milk comes from cows.
Patch: Anyone who makes schoolbooks can't be completely on the up-and-up. Sweetheart: What?! But I like school. Patch: See? They've even got you brainwashed.
Pooh deduces how they can play chess with missing pieces in "A Knight To Remember".
Tigger: Then there's no way we can play chess! Pooh: Unless... Rabbit: There is no unless, Pooh. How can we play with missing pieces? Pooh: By playing the missing pieces. Tigger: Are my ears on too tight or is fluff boy making sense?
Patrick: If Ouchie's not here, maybe he's there? But if I'm me and you're you, who is the man in the purple pants? ...And why does my armpit smell like lemonade?
In "The Patterfly Effect", Patrick has to convince his mother, as a kid, that he's her son in the future. All he does is say, "Your favorite color is purple!" This convinces her, somehow.
In "A Root Galoot", Squidina explains to Patrick that Shmandrake isn't actually going to offer wishes to anyone. He's just tricking them so they'll wait on him hand and foot. Patrick misunderstands the phrase and thinks that he needs to be even more intense with pampering Shmandrake so he can get the wish.
Patrick: You think if I wait on his shoulders, spine, and back too, he might grant my wish!?
This happens in the episode "Go Fish" from The Penguins of Madagascar. It all starts out fairly normally (considering the source) with King Julien and Skipper claiming that they somehow managedto out-think the other, when Skipper has this gem: "But what you didn't see coming is that I am actually you!" and he pulls off a penguin costume to reveal that he is Julien. Julien counters with "But if you are me, then by processing of elimination, I must be you!" and pulls off a costume to reveal that he's Skipper. The other characters are appropriately baffled by the exchange.
Peter Pan & the Pirates: In the episode "Peter on Trial", Peter Pan is put on trial by Captain Hook, with his pirates as the jury and Wendy as Peter's defense lawyer. Wendy's defense is that Captain Hook is the most feared pirate of all time because he regularly does things that are [morally] wrong. If Captain Hook, the prosecutor, is always wrong, then Wendy must be right, and Peter is therefore not guilty. Surprisingly, this actually convinces the jury. Unsurprisingly, Hook counters with some actual logic: If he's such an awful fiend, why should he bother to respect the rule of law and release Peter?
Doofenshmirtz once created an -inator that turned eggs into dodo eggs because he believed dodos to be like dinosaursnote technically speaking, they are dinosaurs, but there's a distinct line between avian dinosaurs— birds — and non-avian dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurs and Triceratops. His reason to sustain that belief was the fact both dodos and dinosaurs were extinct. Makes one wonder how the dodo ended up looking like a dodo instead of a dinosaur.
Professor Poofenplotz (who was rejected from the residential league of villains L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. by a letter from Doofenshmirtz saying she isn't even close to their standards) tried stealing a vast supply of royal jelly so she could grow 40 times bigger, live 40 times longer, and be Queen of the World. All that the royal jelly did was immobilize her for long enough for Pinky the Chihuahua to ensnare her.
The Real Ghostbusters: In the episode "Citizen Ghost", Peter and Egon are repairing the ghost containment unit, checking to see if every part is stable before they go to bed. Peter's getting tired, so he says "Check" to everything without actually checking it. Egon notices Peter dozing off, and asks him to check the TranswarpDrive next. When Peter says he's checked it, Egon calls him out on it, saying they don't have a Transwarp Drive. Peter reasons it can't malfunction if it doesn't exist, and if it doesn't exist, then nothing's wrong.
Egon: I'm not talking to you again for at least a week. It's not good for me. Peter: Hey don't make fun, this is how I got through college.
Regular Show: In the episode "House Rules", Mordecai and Rigby follow the 'No Rules Man' into a dimension where there are no rules, so anything is possible. When they find themselves getting lynched by the other occupants, Mordecai uses Benson's house rules to save them because apparently there's no rule against it.
Mordecai: Yo! No Rules Guy! You do have at least one rule down here. You have a rule against rules. No Rules Man: There's no rule against rules. Mordecai: That's all I needed to hear.
In The Ren & Stimpy Show episode "Insomniac Ren", Ren comes to the conclusion that he's having difficulty sleeping because he's too smart to sleep, his reasoning being that Stimpy is an idiot and is already slumbering like a log.
The Rick and Morty season 2 premiere has Rick do this to an alien cop to weasel his way out of arrest.
In Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright, when Daphne asks Fred why there are monsters wherever they go, Fred reasons that it would be too much of a coincidence if it was only them, so therefore it happens to people all the time.
In Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Scrappy makes use of this to fit his beliefs that Scooby-Doo is the bravest, most heroic dog ever. In one case when he can't figure out how to make Scooby taking a detour to the kitchen into a monster fighting tactic, he draws the same conclusion anyway.
Shaggy: Like I know the just the place [to look for clues]! The kitchen! Scooby: Rummy! Scrappy: Oh, I get it! No, wait, I don't get it! But I know Uncle Scooby always gets his monster! Ruff!
Seven Little Monsters: In "Mystery of the Missing Five", Five goes missing and the other six monsters try to find their brother. Three comes to the conclusion that they'll find him at the hospital on the basis that Four told Five that he wishes he wasn't born before Five disappeared and that hospitals are where babies are usually born in.
The Sheep in the Big City episode "Wish You Were Shear" begins with Sheep captured by a dogcatcher after he's bought a large bone he intends to give to his love interest Swanky the Poodle. The dogcatcher concludes that Sheep is a dog because he's carrying a bone and dogs love bones.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Sea Hawk manages a particularly absurd logic loop in "Boy's Night Out", after his plan to get himself, Bow and Swift Wind fake-kidnapped, itself far from a shining moment in the history of planning, goes wrong and they end up getting real-kidnapped instead.
A particularly egregious example comes from "Live At The Filmore", where Space Ghost has to be bailed out of jail for dining and dashing, where he explains that he thought it was a good idea to inform his waiter that he was going to do so, and when the police were called he ordered more food with the reasoning that he'd "pay for the food he ate with the food he just ordered." He then reveals that he was carrying $1000 in his pants the whole time, but didn't want to reach down his pants in front of a female officer.
One time, Space Ghost was humiliated by a montage of his most embarrassing moments on the show, so he decided to blow up France because "Montage" is a French word.
The 1960s Spider-Man series had J. Jonah Jameson take his vendetta against Spider-Man to truly bizarre levels, such as insisting in one episode that the Green Goblin was actually Spidey wearing a different costume.
Roughly 90% of all insane troll logic can probably be contributed to Patrick Star, the all around village idiot. SpongeBob occasionally falls into it as well, and while he is literally the only sane man in the show, Squidward will come up with some ITL just to counter SpongeBob and Patrick's.
Case in point, Patrick manages to come up with an entire study of life based on one extremely incorrect observation. It is known as Wumbology.
Patrick: I see what the problem is. You have it set to "M" for Mini, when it should be set to "W" for Wumbo!
Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Terminal Provocations", while Freeman is doing her best to avoid opening fire on the Drookmani, their captain still insists that she's fighting them because she's trying to evade the debris that they're throwing at her ship.
Drookmani Captain: I thought you said this trash wasn't worth fighting for. Captain Freeman: We're not fighting! Drookmani Captain: Avoiding damage is fighting! Captain Freeman: Ugh! We can talk this out. Drookmani Captain: *bleep* you!
Street Fighter: M. Bison drops this one on Chun-Li when she mentions, once again, that he killed her father:
Bison: (to Chun-Li) "Yes, yes, I killed your father. What is it with you women anyway? I killed my father too and you don't hear me whining about it!"
Stroker and Hoop played with this a lot, but most memorably with a cult of cannibals whose philosophy is that "You are what you eat".
Cultists: Eat a person, be a person... Stroker: So wait, your philosophy is you are what you eat, right? Cult Leader: Yes. Stroker: So, if I eat a hamburger, then I'm a hamburger, right? Cult Leader: Yes. Stroker: And then... if you eat me, you're hamburgers too, right? Cult Leader: ...
As with the Batman examples above, the Super Friends' dealings with the Riddler when he joined the Legion of Doom involved this trope. In any of these situations, it's difficult to be sure which is worse: that the Riddler could come up with this nonsense or that the heroes could figure it out?
In another example, two of the Super Friends go back in time and get stuck there with no way to return. Aquaman, the genius that he is, walks to the exact location of where the Hall of Justice will be tens of thousands of years in the future. When he gets there, he takes out his communicator and turns on the homing beacon, then buries the communicator. Why? The communicator will appear in the future. Superman will be able to hear it and will know what it means, then go back in time to rescue them. Which would work if carbon dating had been invented and if the communicator (already shown to be nigh indestructible) had enough carbon to be dated successfully and enough battery to last all that time. When digging the foundation for the Hall of Justice, it would be found. A few time-hops (a few dozen probably to get the date right), and then young Supes would come up, ask when in time they wanted to go, and voila. It's bad when you can make these things work easily.
Teacher's Pet had a humorous instance of mental gymnastics in the episode "Attack of the 50-Inch Girl" when Leonard, Scott and the other boys want to enter the girls' bathroom to find out what Fred Bitters and the other girls are laughing about in there, but know that it isn't right for boys to go in there. After seeing a girl exit, Scott asks the girl if there are any other girls in there and if there are any baths in there. After the girl says no to both questions, Scott then comes to the conclusion that a lack of girls and baths make it just a room and it is therefore okay for the boys to enter.
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Shredder uses this to support his delusion that Splinter is responsible for everything wrong in his life, especially whenever it's his fault. Tang Shen chose Splinter over him? Obviously Splinter stole what was rightfully his, and it has nothing to do with her loving Splinter instead of him! Tang Shen takes the killing blow meant for Splinter? It was Splinter that really killed her! Karai turns against him when she finds out that not only is he not her father, but that he killed her mother? Splinter turned Karai against him! He dangles Karai over a vat of mutagen and turns her into a snake-monster when he cuts the chain to get to Leonardo, who came there to her rescue? Splinter's fault, even though he wasn’t anywhere near the chain!
Total Drama: Sometimes, when her strategies are failing. Courtney calls Lindsay selfish for voting herself off since it left Courtney with only one other girl to try and ally with... but Lindsay wouldn't have been eliminated if Courtney hadn't voted for her too. Also pops up in World Tour when she argues about leading Team Amazon:
Courtney: I happen to like winning and being in first class, which happens to make me an ideal leader.
In The Transformers two-parter "Desertion of the Dinobots", the Transformers were low on Cybertonium and began to malfunction. Namely, Megatron blows his vocal components, and Starscream somehow believes this is a valid reason to supplant him as a leader!
Megatron: It's the Autobllrrrrgh! THE AUMMLLLLBLLLRRRGHHHH!!! Starscream: Too bad! He's blown his vocal components! I guess that makes me the new leader!
In Beast Machines, this is the basis of Obsidian and Strika's My Master / Country Right Or Wrong attitude. Their loyalty is to Cybertron first and foremost, and according to them, whoever is ruling Cybertron is Cybertron, so they'll follow that person without question. Their fellow Vehicon Thrust eventually calls them on this:
"If you're loyal to everybody, can you really be loyal to anybody?"
VeggieTales: Larry has some good examples of being impossible to counter.
Larry: Eli says here that there's a bully in his school, and- Bob: A bully? Larry: Yeah, you know. A kid who's real mean to all the other kids? Bob: I-I know what a bully is, Larry. Larry: Then, why'd you ask? Bob:(Death Glare) ...Well, it's just that Caleb wrote about the same thing! Larry: Wow, that's one busy bully!
Bob: It's not the same bully!
Larry: ...How do you know?
Bob: W-Well, I don't, but-
Larry: But... you seem so certain.
Bob: Well, I am certain!
Larry: How do ya' know?
Bob:Well, Larry! It's just highly improbable! Statistically speaking, that one bully is causing problems for two kids 500 miles apart! Y'know, sometimes, being certain of something... just means highly probably! Highly probable!
Larry: Bob. Instead of talking about this, wouldn't it be a better idea to answer the question?
Wander over Yonder: In "The Little Guy", when Commander Peepers briefs the Watchdogs on capturing Wander and Sylvia, he tells them "And although technically we are the bad guys, these two are the real bad guys!"
On Wild Kratts episode "The Gecko Effect", Zach thinks he is smart enough to build a miniaturizer, so the one built by the Wild Kratts must belong to him.
In one episode, Omi found himself stuck in the past, so he went to where he knew Wuya's palace would be built, and actually froze himself using the Shen Gong Wu he had so that he could take a 5,000-year nap and be woken up in his own time, underneath the palace, after it had been built. (And the plan actually worked.) This is also an example of an Artistic License, and perhaps Cartoon Physics.
Near the end of the series, Omi decides to use a time travel Shen Gong Wu to go back in time and prevent Chase Young from turning evil. The problem: Omi's future self took said Wu with him to the future for safe keeping. Omi's solution: freeze him self with the same Wu as last time, hook up a Wu that shoots energy blasts to a timer set for fifty years, wake up, and get the time travel Wu from future!Omi. Naturally, this results in a Bad Future where Jack Spicer beats the monks and other villains, and rules the world unopposed. Lampshaded by future Clay and future Raimondo.
Nathan: Bleach is healthy. It's mostly water, and we're mostly water. Therefore, we are bleach.