39,327
edits
Only Sane Employee: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (Mass update links) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 2:
{{quote|'''Jack''': I don't do these things just to drive you crazy, Lemon. I do them for the good of the show.<br />
'''Liz''': Well, I'm the one who always has to clean up the mess afterward.<br />
'''Jack''': That's why my job is way better than yours.|''[[30 Rock
You're the [[Only Sane Man]] at The Company and your job description reads, "[[The Reliable One|Babysit everyone else, stay sane and, if you have any spare time, try to get some of your actual work done]]."
Line 15:
* A [[Fan Wank|possible viewpoint]] of Kyon's role in the SOS-Dan in ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]''. He is, basically, the babysitter/KidWithTheLeash for a [[A God Am I|potentially dangerous]] [[Reality Warper]] with a personality that can be argued as "Heroic Sociopath", or even "one-woman embodiment of [[Comedic Sociopathy]]".
* Riza Hawkeye in the first ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' anime. She's constantly picking up the work left behind by her boss Mustang and telling him and the others off for not doing their work- all with a [[Puss in Boots|long-suffering, exasperated expression on her face]].
* Kureha in ''[[
* Kiyone in ''[[Tenchi Muyo!|Tenchi Universe]]''. Although in her case, it's less "only sane employee" than "only sane employee in the local galactic region." (And let's face it, babysitting Mihoshi is a full-time job.)
** And let's not forget that Sasami pretty much keeps the house in order and running properly within the OVA contiuum. And every other continuum, to some small extent.
* [[Mahou Sensei Negima|Chisame's]] job description: [[Playful Hacker|Hack computers,]] [[Deadpan Snarker|make snarky comments]] [[Meta Guy|about everything around her,]] and keep [[The Hero|Negi]] from doing something pointlessly reckless.
Line 37:
*** Latterly also Rincewind.
*** The Bursar tried hard to be one of these before he required dried frog pills, but the Archchancellor proved a bit too much for him to handle.
** Vetinari as well, not so much the ''only'' sane man, but the ''most'' sane one. An example turns up in ''[[Discworld
** ''[[Discworld
* [[Tortall Universe|Kel]] adopts this persona, to an extent, with her male friends; however she also starts a number of (justified) fights with bullies outside their group. This is actually her being the voice of reason, however.
* [[Team Mom|Susan]] in Arthur Ransome's ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' books manages to keep a number of people sane.
* Police chief Arly Hanks, from Joan Hess's Maggody novels, is this for her ''entire town''.
* In ''[[Discworld
== Live Action TV ==
* The former [[Trope Namer]] is Liz Lemon, [[Tina Fey]]'s character on ''[[30 Rock
** To a lesser extent, Pete from the same show, as he has to take care of Liz when she goes off the rails herself, as well as (apparently) dealing with the NBC pages.
*** Although recently, Pete seems to be going off the deep end himself, more so than usual.
* Possibly the title character of ''[[Ugly Betty]]''. She babysits her boss 24/7, but she often comes to rescue of everyone else in the main cast, including the ones who treat her badly, not to mention the times she saved the entire magazine.
** Also the titular character of ''[[Yo Soy Betty,
* Michael Bluth from ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''. Even worse, the insane people are his ''family'', so he has to cope with them 24/7.
* Dave Nelson from ''[[News Radio]]''.
* Jen in ''[[
** Some episodes play with this by having ''her'' go completely off-the-rails over something which, although apparently more 'normal' than the geeky lifestyle she is surrounded by, she [[Serious Business|goes really overboard in taking seriously]], leading to Roy or even Moss having to hold the sanity ball.
* Polly in ''[[Fawlty Towers]]''.
Line 66:
** Coach Beiste has fallen into this role, occasionally even realizing that she is working in an insane asylum that masquerades as a high school.
* In short, the lead character of virtually every workplace sitcom.
* Cuddy in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. It's even lamp-shaded by Chase once when she goes off the rails: "Stopping the madness is ''her'' job!" "Somebody's gotta be Cuddy's Cuddy."
* On ''[[Bones]]'', it was FBI Agent Seely Booth's job to work with the no social skills "squints." Then Dr. Camille Saroyan was hired to oversee them all (including Dr. Temperance Brennan, despite what Brennan may think sometimes) so she can be this.
** Clark Edison, one of the interns, also falls into this category. He prefers a professional environment, often expressing annoyance when the topic of conversation switches from investigation to the episode's side-plot. Which makes it all the funnier on the rare occasion that he joins in, and the others think that his reaction is 'too much'.
Line 78:
* Laura from ''[[The Brittas Empire]]''. ''Most'' of the problems come from Mr. Brittas, but the other staff are plenty dysfunctional too.
* Chuck Bartowski from ''[[Chuck]]'' is this... at least he is at the Buy More, not so much at his [[Part-Time Hero|other job]] though.
* Daníel from ''[[
* Dennis in ''[[Auf Wiedersehen Pet]]''. Usually.
* [[
* This seems to be the entire point of the role of The Hand Of The King in [[Game of Thrones]]. It's even lampshaded by the King in the first episode:
{{quote| '''King''': Lord Eddard Stark, I would name you The Hand Of The King.<br />
Line 87:
* Trudy in ''[[House of Anubis]]'' does the actual day-to-day running of the house with no help from Victor whose only concern is keeping his secrets secret.
* Castiel in ''[[Supernatural]]'' often comes across as the only sane Angel in the heavenly choir.
{{quote| '''Castiel''': Why won't any of you ''[[Surrounded
== Newspaper Comics ==
Line 103:
== Video Games ==
* The premise of the [[Casual Game|casual]] ''[[
* If you take your shirt off in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]'' and call SIGNT, Snake will ask if he can take off his pants. SIGNT reacts in disgust and wonders if he's the only sane man of the unit.
** For the record, the rest of the unit consists of a British officer obsessed with James Bond and his own Britishness, a doctor obsessed with B-movies and [[Foreshadowing|cloning]], and a veteran soldier obsessed with [[Extreme Omnivore|eating everything that moves]].
* In many [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]], a more experienced player in a group will often be put in these positions. The real challenge isn't in fulfilling their own role, rather keeping others from [[Leeroy Jenkins|doing overtly stupid things]].
Line 112:
Soren: Probably the best course of action. Let's go.<br />
Ranulf: Errr, ''guys''?! Isn't this the part where we stop and carefully consider strategies?! No? (Sigh.) }}
* The Engineer from ''[[
** The team assassins, the Spy and the Sniper are also, unlike their colleagues, capable of extended rational thought. In Meet the Spy, the BLU Spy was dead serious about the threat posed by the RED Spy, while the Heavy and Soldier {{spoiler|(the Scout was the RED Spy in disguise)}} were hardly so concerned.
== Webcomics ==
* The eponymous ''[[
* Roy Greenhilt from ''[[
** And Redcloak as well, considering he has to <s> stop</s> keep the rest of Team Evil wasting time on games of Feed the Paladin to the Shark.
*** No Useful Advice Goes Unpunished, does it, Right-Eye?
* Lorna Dilbrook from ''[[Newshounds]]'', especially in the comic's first incarnation.
* Rival Cycle's Flux in ''[[Yehuda Moon and The
* Tip from ''[[Skin Horse]]'' to Unity and Sweetheart. And, when Tip isn't around, Sweetheart to Unity.
* Elliot from ''[[
== Web Original ==
* This is the premise of [[Chad Vader]], although it's highly debatable who the sane one is.
* Dana from ''[[
** Watch [[Terrible Interviewees Montage|Episode 3]] to see just how sane she is compared to the rest of the population of ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* Stan from ''[[South Park]]'', especially since season 6. His extremely frequent [[Catch Phrase]] gesture in any situation in which he is forced to play Liz Lemon (usually to a bunch of ''adults''), he will squeeze his eyes tightly shut and [[Face Palm|pinch the bridge of his nonexistant nose]] in one of the most expressive and dead-on displays of utter exasperation ever witnessed. Often accompanied by a muttered "Oh goddamnit..."
* Frankie from ''[[
* Charles Foster Ofdensen in ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' is what happens when a Liz Lemon [[Took a Level In Badass|takes a level in Badass]].
** He and the band have both stated that it is understood, if not directly outlined in his job description, that part of his job is to talk them out of bad ideas they think of when they're drunk (not that they can't think of bad ideas when they're sober), meaning that this trope is almost his literal job description.
*** Further evidenced in the opening episode of Season 3, in which the band almost goes bankrupt due to spending money too recklessly in his absence.
* Hank Hill in ''[[King of the Hill]]'', especially in the later seasons as his co-workers grew more and more quirky. Also, his role in his group of friends. Things tend to deteriorate rapidly when Bill and Dale (sometimes Boomhauer) are left to their own devices. Consider the episode where Boomhauer accidentally gets committed to an asylum because the people in Houston [[Motor Mouth|can't understand him]]. He calls Dale, who ends up there too (he tried to sneak in as if he were a secret agent), and ''he'' calls Bill, who checks himself in voluntarily. Finally, at this point, the grudgingly admit they need Hank, who gets the matter resolved in minutes.
* Bob the Tomato, on ''[[
* Heloise on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. In an episode where [[George Jetson Job Security|she's fired]], everything falls apart.
* Harvey in ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney
** For a ''very loose'' definition of "Sane".
Line 156:
* Albert Speer was this to [[Those Wacky Nazis|Those Wacky]] [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]]: someone who wasn't a delusional megalomaniac (Hitler), a self-indulgent junkie (Goering), a crazed fanboy (Goebbels) or all of the above (Himmler). His organizational skill and grasp of reality were largely to blame for the fact that the Third Reich lasted as long as it did (he achieved questionable [[Karma Houdini]] status thanks to a half-hearted attempt to assassinate Hitler, by the splendidly appropriate means of poison gas.)
** Heck, his status as [[Only Sane Man]] is probably responsible for his [[Karma Houdini]] status, since while the others remained completely insane, blinded by ideology, crazed by drug abuse or some combination thereof, he was one of the few who recognized in advance that the war wasn't going to end well for the Nazis and that it was probably a good idea to make sure you could plausibly come out the other side in one piece. The fact that he was the only one out of the Nazi High Command to express any kind of regret or remorse for what had happened probably helped spare his life as well.
* In more recent years, Keiji Inafune seemed to serve this role for Capcom, being quite possibly the only employee there who both wanted to do something other than turning [[Capcom Sequel Stagnation]] [[Up to Eleven]] and had the ability and clout to do so. (In fact, ''[[Lost Planet]]'' and ''[[Dead Rising]]'' were facing cancellation more or less for not being a sequel, so Inafune intentionally made their "demos" go way over budget for the sole purpose of being able to say "we've poured all this money into it, why cancel it now?") Then he resigned from Capcom because he didn't want to spend the rest of his career making half-baked sequels. In no time flat, Capcom made a series of questionable decisions, each of which managed to annoy fans more than the last, culminating in a massive [[Internet Counterattack]] in response to the cancellation of ''[[
{{reflist}}
| |||