Does this include the plot points where there’s a misunderstanding in a relationship? Like where a girl sees her boyfriend hug another girl but doesn’t know it’s his cousin or something and instead of talking about it just ignores him and so he ignores her and it’s just dumb and entirely avoidable?
“wait! I can explain!”
No waiting or explaining ensues
The real idiots are the audience who finds that compelling instead of enraging
Ah that’s end of season 2 or beginning of season 3 of every series that has a couple in it, right?
Often, but not always, yes. If the misunderstanding is reasonable and they had ample opportunity for an explanation but didn’t, then yes, it’s an idiot plot.
If they legitimately didn’t have an opportunity to explain, or the explanation, while true, was completely unbelievable, that’s not an idiot plot IMO.
I feel like there are so many plots that stem from simple miscommunications or a lack of communication between two charatcers which would easily resolve the whole situation.
That’s gotta be its own trope
It is, they even reference it in the IT crowd.
“So I followed him to the restaurant.”
“She was his sister, wasn’t she.”
“Yeah.”
I think idiot plot is supposed to be so stupid that it’s essentially not possible to happen irl
The example you outlined could happen in real life if one person completely blocks the other or something
Would be an idiot plot if everyone involved is fully able to communicate to the other parties, everyone has plenty of information, and they decide to go through with whatever stupid shit they think they need to do, that would be completely unavoidable and anyone with half a brain would understand that they don’t need to do what they think they need to do.
Like a movie where there’s a killer on the loose and nobody thinks of even trying to call the police. No “oh there’s no signal here”, just straight up nobody even tries.
The entirety of American history, or at least since Jan 6, 2021, when Trump would have been immediately arrested and tried for treason in a sane and efficient society
Brazil nearly suffered the same consequence, thankfully bozonazi is jailed now. Too bad a lot of the supporters are still out and about, including his sons
I always call the trope “Steve” when I see it.
“Hey look, Steve left the door open so the dinosaurs got out.”
“Oh no, Steve forgot to zip his hazmat suit now all the apes are smart.”
“Steve took his helmet off on an alien planet because the air smelled fine.”
“Steve went on a spacewalk without a tether cable!”
“Smoking indoors near flammable chemicals again, Steve?”
“Really Steve, no condom?”
So… the majority of popular sitcoms and movies.
I immediately thought of the Cohen brothers
Yeah Burn After Reading, Fargo, and the Big Lebowski were my first thoughts
They usually involve competent professionals though. I’d say some of their plots are more about idiots than they are idiot plots.
That’s the entire “It’s always sunny” plot!
Every episode of Frasier.
It’s crazy to me how many gay and liberal folks worked on Frasier and Kelsey Grammer is a huge Trump supporter.
Once you learn that term, you start noticing it everywhere in movies and shows. So many conflicts would disappear if just one character asked a simple question. 😅
Oh look, the USA
You shouldn’t attribute to idiocy what is committed in malice.
There is also another similar trope, defined by “Any problem important to the plot that can be solved by 5min honest conversation between participating parties”
What do we call it when it happens in real life? The News…
Do I put the /s?The current state of affairs in the US.
based
This is almost every horror movie or series.
Pretty sure most of the Walking Dead cast would never have survived an initial outbreak of gingivitis, let alone zombies…
Sons of Anarchy. There’s a season ender where some Irish bloke kidnaps a child and sails away. They had to make an entire season in Ireland because these knobheads of criminal but also mechanics can’t figure out to follow the kidnapper on water, even though they’re standing on a pier with hundreds of boats.
They are motorcycle guys and were looking for jet skis, the motorcycle of the ocean.
I remember watching SoA, because people said it was good. It was alright i guess, from the three or so episodes i’ve seen. I read somewhere that the ending was mind-blowingly bad, so i peeped on YouTube and i had to laugh so god damn hard and i knew i could never again take this show seriously and stopped watching
and this lead to a season full of atrocious irish accents
I have no idea how I made it through that entire series. I don’t even remember anything about the ending, other than relief. Right from the beginning I was constantly telling my wife “these are the stupidest criminals ever”.
Real Life.
Makes me think of Gilligan’s Island. The scientist could make a radio from a coconut, but couldn’t fix a hole in the side of a boat, and no one questioned that.
Show should have been over in no more than 2 episodes.
just like all the news coming from the US nowadays
