Completely Missing The Point

From Tv Tropes

Revision as of 20:25, 19 April 2012 by Tropers (Talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Current revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Please help us adapt this page to Mediawiki, following the general editing guidelines where needed.
I started to walk down the street when I heard a voice saying: "Good evening, Mr. Dowd." I turned, and there was this big white rabbit leaning against a lamp-post. Well, I thought nothing of that, because when you've lived in a town as long as I've lived in this one, you get used to the fact that everybody knows your name.
-- Elwood P. Dowd, Harvey

A character completely misses a really obvious point, usually for comic effect but can also be used to demonstrate a growing imbalance in the character's personality. The point is the sort of thing that any reasonable or informed person will spot and understand given a few seconds or enough information. However, the center of this trope is a person who, despite having all the time in the world and all the information, comes to a conclusion so wrong it's hard to be even further from correct.

Compare Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering, Cloud Cuckoolander, Failed A Spot Check, Not Actually the Ultimate Question and Ralph Wiggum.

Contents

Anime & Manga

  • Sagara Sōsuke from Full Metal Panic! does this. A lot. With pretty much anything that isn’t military-involved. This causes many of his admirers great amounts of frustration and anguish.
  • Might Guy of Naruto fame does this a lot. When battling an extremely dangerous opponent for a few minutes he eventually realizes that his enemy uses a sword as his weapon. Never mind the fact that the enemy used that sword to slice into Guy's best friend, Kakashi, right in front of Guy.
    • Backstory exposition has revealed the Uchihas to be an entire clan of this. Long story short, The Messiah had two sons. The elder believed world peace could only be attained through power; the younger believed The Power of Love was the key. The younger brother was appointed successor, which pissed off the elder so much that he dedicated himself and his descendants (the Uchiha clan, in case you haven't figured it out) to showing up his younger brother and his descendants (the Senju, the other clan that founded Konoha), drawing the entire ninja world into their feud and betraying all the ideals of peace and equality their father had worked for.
    • One Uchiha in particular, Sasuke, who is the last, took this concept to heart with regards to motivations. His goal is to revive his clan. Logical route: make lots of babies, thus making the clan exist as a clan again. Sasuke's route: kill everyone who ever badmouthed the Uchihas, even if it means him, the last source of Uchiha sperm, dying, thus destroying the clan forever and making its name associated with genocide on a national scale.
      • To be fair, his original intention was simply to kill Itachi and then revive the clan. However, Uchiha Madara stepped in and fed him a distorted version of the events leading up to the Uchiha massacre that caused Sasuke to want to kill everyone who ever badmouthed the Uchihas, so his is less a case of Completely Missing the Point and more a case of having the point covered up with cheap wallpaper.
      • To be even more fair, reviving his clan was never implied as reproduction in the first place, but restoration of honor. Hence the reason he says cannot follow Itachi's will, who wanted him to return to the village as a hero, because he wants to revive Uchiha "his way". Perfect example of when a large component of the fandom's audience completely misses the point for over half of the story.
    • Naruto himself, repeatedly and with intent to wound.
  • Two Breast Expansion fetish mangas explore this concept with hilarious or saddening results:
    • In one a loli girl insecure about not developing, and thinking her boyfriend wants big-breasted girls (he actually only wants her because she's a flat-chested loli) gets basketball sized breast implants...her boyfriend hates it and throws her out. The girl suspects it's because she's still too small and at the end she gets even bigger ones to try and please him. The second pair is bigger than her entire torso. At the end she struts arrogantly out of the clinic, boasting about her new size, only to fall over under the weight and find that she can't lift them, and ends up looking ridiculous.
    • In another a Pettanko gets rejected by breast obsessed boys, who only care about busty anime girls, one time too many and gets huge breast implants to try and meet their standards...but when they see it "in the flesh" they're so comically huge that they get squicked and reject her again. So she goes off and gets bigger ones, and they still reject her. At the end she once again thinks she's "too small" and has gotten even bigger implants, this time almost too big to move, hoping this will do the trick...
  • When Shamisen the calico cat suddenly speaks (with with the voice of an old philosopher) in The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya, Itsuki is first surprised that it's a male calico. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded] by Kyon, of course.
    • Considering the circumstances, Haruhi picking a male calico by chance was probably the bigger surprise.
  • Parodied in the first Megami Sound Stage of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which featured a part where characters submitted messages to be read aloud, typically their thoughts on the present situation or other characters. The somewhat ditzy Amy's message tells Nanoha and Fate to come straight home for snacks, and asks them to pick up juice and coffee freshener for her; she apparently thought the message to the audience was actually for Nanoha and Fate.
  • Possibly a minor example from Pokémon in this exchange between Roark and his father, Byron, after they enter the room where Team Rocket has stolen Byron's fossils, but all Byron notices is that there's one well-dug hole. Roark points out the room, but Byron only sees that there's a second, less-well-dug hole.
    Roark: Hey, Dad, you'd better look over there.
    Byron: Closer examination reveals this hole was dug by a machine.
    Roark: CAN'T YOU SEE ALL OF YOUR FOSSILS HAVE BEEN STOLEN?!?!
    • Another repeating example is the Team Rocket trio not thinking about how rare a Pokémon is, bu t what Giovanni can use it for. He may not want to use it for that purpose, but they're single-minded to realize that.
  • This Fullmetal Alchemist omake (the strip on the left) ends with the narration box commenting, "that isn't what's wrong here" when Edward complains that Alphonse lost too much weight.
  • In InuYasha, a demonic witch kidnaps Kagome so she could use her to transfer her spiritual power into a copy of Kikyo (Inu Yasha's late love interest) made from dirt and her buried ashes. When a part of her soul is transferred back into Kagome's body, she wakes up visibly shaken - not because she just had her soul temporarily torn out of her body, but because she had a bad dream that involved failing her math test. Cue looks of disbelief from Inu Yasha.
  • Minor example in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Simon...took a couple of tries to understand Kamina's lessons about Manly Combining.
    • Also, slightly better case, in Gurren Lagann The Satire: After Kamina's death, Simon had trouble dealing with it, leading Kittan to attempt to encourage Simon by saying "He avenged himself! How many people can say they did that?" to which Simon replies "Not Bro, 'cause he's dead", after which Kittan outright says "YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT!"
  • In Sasami: Magical Girls Club, a TV reporter concludes his report on a boy with the power to levitate with "What will become of the next Olympics?!"
  • An exchange in the twelfth Dragonball movie is an example of this:Vegeta: Fuse with you? I'd rather die!

Goku: Vegeta, you're already dead.

  • Welkin in Senjou no Valkyria is famous for these moments. In one instance, he tells Faldio to put a shirt on, not because Alicia told him so, but because he doesn't want him to catch a cold, and another instance when he asks when "the best time is to run away" before the Imperials sack their town. These bring out a lot of Alicia's Tsundere traits really easily...
  • In the horror manga Emerging, the protagonist starts celebrating when the lab results confirm that the deadly disease rampaging through Tokyo is not Ebola... until his partner informs him that the news means they're dealing with a completely unknown new viral pathogen.
  • During the Waking The Dragons story arc in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yami loses a duel against Raphael, one of Dartz's henchmen. When the cast calls Kaiba and informs him of this, also telling him that Yugi's soul was taken, Kaiba freaks. Not because of Yugi's soul being stolen, but because Yami lost to someone other than him.
  • In Kuragehime, Wholesome Crossdresser Kuranosuke falls over with a pain in his chest. The girls of Amamizukan, who think "Kurako" is a girl, pull down "her" shirt and are shocked to see fake boobs. Mayaya later tells Tsukimi about Kurako's treachery: she's really a flat-chested girl who pads her bra to look more attractive.

Comedy

  • On his first album, Shame Based Man, Bruce McCulloch had a recurring bit with a radio call-in show. The last of these is some happy idiot calling to say all the lonely people should "pair up". The host then gives her a list of reasons this is a dumb idea, all of which are lost on her.
  • Comedian Mike Williams bases a comedy routine around McDonalds drive-throus having a sign saying that they have Braille menus (for people who can't see) and picture menus (for people who can't read). To repeat, this is in the DRIVE-THRU. He claims to go up to the window in dark shades to ask for a Braille menu, to be told, "Sorry, we're out of Braille menus; would you like a picture menu?"
  • A skit goes with a person walking into a restaurant and ordering a drink and a sweet roll. The waiter informs them that they are out of sweet rolls. The person thinks that apparently ordering different combinations of "sweetroll + drink" will eventually get them one, and they continue to order a sweet roll despite the waiter's increasingly angry responses that they don't have any. Eventually, the waiter gives up and walks off. The person then says "I wonder how long it'll take my sweet roll to get here."
  • On the soundtrack album to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, John Cleese plays a logician commenting on the 'witch burning' segment, citing the same logical lapses that his wife commits:Given the premise "All fish live underwater", and "All mackerel are fish", she will conclude not that all mackerel live underwater, but that if she buys kippers it will not rain, or that trout live in trees, or even that I do not love her anymore.

Comic Books

  • This exchange from Starman:Jack: This one isn't about collectibles but it's the same kind of thing. I'm in a book store ... for new books. I've gone a little bit crazy and I'm about to spend a couple of hundred bucks. I murmur under my breath "money's too tight to mention". Now the guy behind the register, he hears this. He looks at me, nodding his head knowingly like we're in some "club of cool" together. He says, "Yeah, Simply Red" like it's a password, and now we do the secret handshake. And I'm thinking "Simply Red"? Lame English band. More soul at a polka convention. And the book store guy thinks he's on some kind of inside loop with that.Sadie: That's the smuggest thing I ever heard. A guy tries to be nice and you stand there hating him just because he hasn't heard of the Valentine Brothers. You're like my ex-boyfriend. He was that way about authors. He'd deliberately drop obscure quotes and references. He'd take over conversations at parties. But none of what he read was for the love of it. His knowledge was like a weapon. Don't tell me you're like that. I don't want another jerk. I've had...Hey, why are you smiling?Jack: Because you've heard of the Valentine Brothers.
  • Gaston Lagaffe once invented an improved form of seat belt. These seat belts were designed to stretch, so someone wearing them can leave their car for a short distance without taking them off to, for example, drop off a letter.
  • In Astonishing X-Men, Kitty Pryde intentionally missed the point in order to play Deadpan Snarker to Emma Frost:
    Emma: Three students were missing from my ethics class. Seventeen overall. Logan had to break up two fistfights and a mystical swordfight. And that dreadful Guatemalan crab-boy is at Benetech telling reporters this is every mutant's only chance to avoid burning in everlasting hellfire. This is eating us from the inside out.
    Kitty: Oh my God ... you teach ethics?
    • Perhaps that was the point, and Emma Frost missed it

Fan Fic

  • The Bag Enders episode Strider: Scoutmaster features this exchange:
    Let me get this right. You have become a Scoutmaster in order to try and become respectable? Were there no openings for gigolos?
    What do you mean? It's a well respected youth organisation.
    I've met Baden Powell," said Legolas very darkly.
    Wow! Could you come and give a talk?
  • In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, after Kyon is received by a with a pillow in his face thrown by Haruhi:
    Kyon: Haruhi? Was that you?
    Haruhi: Wah! Seriously? You can tell it's me because of how the pillow hit you?
    Kyon: I can tell it's you because you hit me with a pillow at all.

Film

  • One of the few things played straight in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and even then verging on parody. Jay's monkey is kidnapped and driven away in a van with a poster on the back that clearly shows its destination. After about 3 minutes of stupidity, "Silent" Bob is forced to set his friend straight.Silent Bob: The sign! On the back of the car! Said Critters! Of Hollywood! You dumb fuck!
    • Additionally, after Bob's tirade Jay is bothered more by getting spittle on him than the significance of Bob speaking for once.
      • That may have been just an attempt at saving face.
  • Cannon Films had a major case of the trope when they wrote a Spider-Man film script, which would have been very In Name Only. Said script centered around Peter Parker getting kidnapped by a Mad Scientist and being mutated into a large spider beast which craved death. Understandably, Stan Lee was not pleased with this treatment and ordered a rewrite - just the start of a long Development Hell for the wall crawler.
  • In the movie Half Baked, Thurgood is telling his friends not to spend any money, as they have to save it. Then:Scarface: You said you gave Mary Jane a pearl necklace!

Thurgood Jenkins: Obviously you missed the whole point of that story.

  • Zoolander. The titular character, observing a model of the school building he plans to open: "What is this? A center for ants?!"
    • Not to mention the scene where the lead, a male model, reads a magazine with his picture on the front. The title reads, 'A Model Idiot.' Not getting the insult, the main character reads it as 'A Model, Idiot.'
    • Later in the story, Zoolander strikes a pose that saves a vital character from dying. When he is cheered on for his actions, he thinks it is because they noticed he turned left to do the pose. (Zoolander admitted that he was incapable of making left turns, and has to make a full right turn instead.)
  • In Kingpin, this happens twice. Once, he holds out his rubber hand to Ish, to show him is bowling championship ring and Ish comments on his hand. Later in Reno, he holds out his hand to demonstrate its fake-ness and the guys he's showing think he's going on about the ring.
  • When Brian writes treasonous graffiti, all the Centurion notices is that the Latin is wrong... and then makes him correct it and write it out 100 times.
  • A similar situation occurs in Canadian Bacon. Sherriff Boomer, Kabral, and Roy Boy steal a truck and paint anti-Canadian graffiti on it. They later get pulled over by a Canadian highway patrolman because of it. However, it's not because the graffiti is anti-Canadian. It's because it's only in English and not also in French.
    • He then helpfully provides translations and the spray-can to do them with. Aren't Canadians just the nicest people?
    • And, the cop is Dan Aykroyd (who is Canadian IRL).
  • Dr. Evil of the Austin Powers films misses the point when Frau tries telling him that she's pregnant.Frau Farbissina: Herr Doktor, I'm late.Dr. Evil: No, you got here right on time.Frau Farbissina: No, I mean, I'm late.
    • The first film Lampshades this trope with a memorable exchange:
      Vanessa Kensington: Mr. Powers...let me be perfectly clear with you, perhaps to the point of being insulting. I will never have sex with you, ever. If you were the last man on Earth and I was the last woman on Earth, and the future of the human race depended on our having sex simply for procreation, I still would not have sex with you.
    •  : Beat
      Austin Powers: What's your point, Vanessa?
      • Austin knows what she means. He's heard that before and is well versed in Slap Slap Kiss.
    • And later, in the same film:
      Vanessa Kensington: You know, I sometimes forget you’ve missed out on the last thirty years: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first female British prime minister, the end of apartheid....
      Austin Powers: Yeah, and I can't believe Liberace was gay. I mean, women loved him! I didn’t see that one coming!
  • In Year One, Jack Black's character doesn't understand what lesbian means and gets into an awkward situation when he tries to sleep with one. She even tells him she likes to have sex with women and he stills doesn't get it. Admittedly he's just that stupid.
  • In Sin City, Marv says of his probation officer Lucille: "She's a dyke, but God knows why. With that body, she could have any man she wants." Being a lesbian, Lucille wouldn't want any man.
  • In Tremors 2 Earl throws a timebomb into the bed of a large army truck loaded with explosives, hoping it will kill the Shriekers trapped in the building in which the truck is parked. When he gets back outside and tells the truck's owner, Burt, what he has done:Burt: That's two and half tons of high explosives, Earl!Earl: You mean that's not enough? Oh Burt, don't tell me it's not enough!Burt: Not enou... Never mind, just run! Run!
    • They're dealing with creatures that asexually reproduce exponentially when they eat too much, inside a warehouse full of snackfood and MREs in Burt's truck. Earl's worry is something of Truth in Television, as Burt is the only expert on explosive present in the movie.
    • More accurately, in the parts where Earl has to remind Grady to stay off the ground. And when the Graboid eats the radio.Earl: You left the radio on the ground?!

Grady: Sorry, I forgot...

  • In Some Like It Hot, when Joe learns that Osgood proposed to Jerry (as Daphne):Joe: What are you talking about? You can't marry Osgood.Jerry: Why, you think he's too old for me?
  • In Dumb and Dumber, Lloyd is with Mary, who he's infatuated with, and asks:Lloyd: What do you think the chances are of a guy like you and a girl like me [sic]... ending up together?
    Mary: Well, Lloyd, that's difficult to say. I mean, we don't really...
    Lloyd: Hit me with it! Just give it to me straight! I came a long way just to see you, Mary. The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?
    Mary: Not good.
    Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
    Mary: I'd say more like... one out of a million.
    Lloyd: So you're telling me there's a chance? YEAH!
    • The kicker was however the one at the end of the movie! As Lloyd and Harry are on the road out of Colorado on foot, a bus pulls up filled with hot bikini girls and... Look, just read the exchange:
      Bikini girl: Hey, guys. We're going on a national bikini tour and we're looking for two oil boys who can grease us up before each competition.
    Harry: You're in luck... There's a town about three miles that way. I'm sure you'll find a couple guys there.
    Bikini girl: (weirded out) Okay... Thanks.
  •  : (the bus starts leaving)
    Lloyd: (upset at Harry) Do you realize what you've done?! (starts running after the bus) Hey! Wait!
    (the bus stops as they get to the door)
    Lloyd: Y-you'll have to excuse my friend. He's a little slow... [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TooDumbToLive The town is back that way! (points at the opposite direction Harry pointed to earlier on)
  • Happens several times in The Hangover, invariably by Allen.
    • "I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust!"
  • In Bertie and Elizabeth Edward the Eighth complains about the annoyances of "tradition". Whereupon his father growls "Monarchy is tradition". Well, duh!
  • In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the principal is chewing over the fact that the title character is absent from school yet again, and he mutters, "I don't trust that kid any further than I can throw him." This prompts the cheerful secretary to respond, "Well, with your bad knee, Ed, you shouldn't throw anybody." He's somewhat less than calmed by her concern.
  • In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack tries to explain Christmas by way of talking about gifts and stockings. The other citizens of Halloween don't quite get it. In fact, Nightmare's entire plot hinges on the fact that neither the Halloween Town's citizens quite get the point of Christmas.Jack: We pick up an oversized sock, and hang it like this on the wall.Various Hydes:Oh, yes! Does it still have a foot. Let me see! Let me look! Is it rotted and covered with gook?!
  • Near the opening of the 1983 To Be Or Not To Be, authorities rush into the theater, stopping the performance of "Naughty Nazis." The complaint was that it could be construed as an insult to Chancellor Hitler.Construed! It was meant to be an insult!
  • Used in The King's Speech where Edward accuses his brother Albert of trying to take his place as king when what Albert was trying to do was telling him to get his act together specifically because Albert didn't want to be king.
  • This exchange in There's Something About Mary where Pat Healy is pretending to have the same interests as Mary:
    Pat Healy: Really, [architecture is] only a side thing for my true passion.
    Mary: And what's that?
    Pat Healy: I work with retards.
    Mary: Isn't that a little politically incorrect?
    Pat Healy: Yeah, maybe, but hell, no one's gonna tell me who I can and can't work with.

Literature

  • Kitty and Lydia from Pride and Prejudice go mad over "the officers, the officers" when the militia arrives at Meryton. This despite the fact that the Napoleonic Wars are in full swing; any even halfway competent officer, even one in the militia, would be in Europe. The officers left in England were the dregs of the corps, suitable only for training raw recruits.
    • Lydia and Mrs. Bennet are both thrilled with Lydia's Shotgun Wedding to Mr. Wickham, in spite of the fact that Wickham ran off with Lydia for two weeks with no intention of marrying her and left a pile of debts behind him, making it clear that he's horrible husband material by any standard of the time. Mrs. Bennet at least is upset about the situation until the marriage is confirmed, but it never occurs to Lydia for a moment that she's done anything to be embarrassed about, and she first smugly congratulates herself for the great joke she's playing on everyone by running off with the man, then later badgers her sisters to congratulate and praise her for her marriage.
  • Angela and Diabola: When Diabola first enters school at the age of six, she draws a number of extremely disturbing pictures involving people dying horrible deaths. Her principal praises the pictures and labels Diabola an artistic genius, while completely failing to grasp her obvious violent and sociopathic tendencies.
  • Unusually important version in The Wheel of Time, the Aes Sedai have forgotten why they took an oath to always tell the truth. Incidentally, it was so people would trust them, not to improve their ability to twist the meaning of words. As a result, no one believes a word they say.
    • Also the Wheel of Time Aiel, who took an oath not to use swords as part of their devotion to peace. Nowadays, they cheerfully use bows and spears and are seen as barbarian warriors. Just so long as they're not killing people with swords, that would be terrible. The revelation of how totally they've missed the point sends a lot of them crazy.
    • The Aes Sedai know perfectly well what the oath against lying is for. It's just that the oath was unsuccessful at making people trust them (maybe Aes Sedai in the era when the oath was required were Completely Missing the Point, but then again maybe the oath was just insufficient to make up for all the other stuff that hurt their reputation, like an Apocalypse How), so modern Aes Sedai figure what's the harm in relying on Exact Words if people are going to distrust them anyway?
      • It's also shown that there are a few Aes Sedai who simply see this as an annoying tradition more than anything else, which isn't surprising given the sheer arrogance they all seem to possess. Most of them actually pride themselves on getting around the oath.
      • The real point missed here is that Aes Sedai in the Old Tongue means Servant of the People...sure, in a way the Aes Sedai and the White Tower do this, but with how prideful and full of themselves most members are, it's really hard to call them 'Servants' of anyone save themselves. Of course, being human, individual exceptions do apply, in both directions.
  • Neverwhere: Croup and Vandemar are hiding out in an Abandoned Hospital, and Mr. Croup performs a miniature knife-throwing act with his hand and five razor blades, demonstrating perfect aim. Mr. Vandemar is not impressed, as "you didn't even hit one finger." He then proceeds to throw his own knife directly through the back of his hand, which neatly shows the supernatural nature of the pair as he does not bleed and the wound closes up instantly.
    Oh, Mr. Vandemar, if you cut us do we not bleed?
    ... No.
    • Croup seems to be disappointed about not hitting any fingers, implying that he couldn't even tell the difference.
  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: "How about some ether?"
  • A conversation in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn between Huck and Jim makes this Older Than Radio. They are discussing historical kings, and when Huck brings up King Solomon, Jim goes on a rant about how foolish it is to split a child in half to settle a custody dispute. Nevermind that it was an obvious bluff, and the real mother would give up the child to save its life. Huck calls him out on this, saying "You missed the point by a thousand mile".
  • In James Thurber's short story "Mr. Preble Gets Rid of His Wife," Mr. Preble is planning to murder his wife so he can run off with his secretary. She is suspicious when he asks her to go down to the cellar with him, and he blurts out the truth almost immediately — and ends up in an argument about the selfish and inconsiderate way he's chosen to go about it (she's in the middle of a book and doesn't feel like going down to the cellar to be murdered just now; it's cold down there, and he's picked out a lousy murder weapon and makes her wait while he goes to find another one... and so on).
  • One Tom Holt novel featured the best way to describe this in history. Missing the point with all the futile diligence of a blind machine-gunner."
  • New York magazine used to have various humorous reader competitions. One of them was to write literature and theater reviews as if by a critic who Completely Missed The Point. (E.g., one entry panned Crime and Punishment for revealing the murderer's identity at the beginning, thus spoiling the mystery. Another reviewed a Dick and Jane book, saying that the author seems to be aiming for a Hemingway-like style, "but the effect is mechanical rather than taut.")
  • The novel The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud has this exchange, after Nathaniel/John Mandrake has summoned Bartimaeus:
    Bartimaeus: Two measly human years to get over the trauma of meeting you. Sure, I knew some idiot with a pointy hat would one day call me up again, but I hardly thought it would be the same idiot as last time!Nathaniel: I don't have a pointy hat!
  • Subverted by the antique-shop owner in the Maggody mystery novels, whose sign ("Antiques: New and Used") seems like this trope, but is actually Obfuscating Stupidity employed to lure in gullible tourists.
  • It is a common theme in The Bible for a prophet to accuse religious leaders of doing this because they were more interested in being Obstructive Bureaucrats than in being Good Shepherds.
    • Micah 6:7-8 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, [or] with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn [for] my transgression, the fruit of my body [for] the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
    • Samuel does this in a big way when Saul spares some of the Amalekites and their livestock (which God had previously ordered completely destroyed for their crimes against the Hebrews during the Exodus). Saul says, more or less "I offered the usual sacrifices," and then Samuel more or less flies at him:1 Samuel 15:22-Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in hearkening to the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice!
      • Samuel then went to the Amalekite king Agag and "hewed him in pieces," saying (implicitly), "this is the point, you idiot! Just why did I ever make you king?"
  • Reflections Of Eterna by Vera Kamsha. Richard Oakdell is sent by August Shtanzler to poison the First Marshall Roque Alva because Cardinal Quentin Dorak threatens to massacre all the People of Honour, including Richard's Love Interest Katarina. Richard hesitated more than 2 hours over Moral Dilemma but could not even try to ask: how exactly murder of Alva could stop Dorak?
  • Divine Diva by Daniel Gagnon. The famous singer Iolanda is dying; the President, corrupt head of a corrupt and crumbling government, repeatedly calls her, pleading with her to return to the stage and revive both of their glory days, and making a thousand excuses as to why the political situation isn’t his fault. Iolanda tells him she’s rejected her earlier life of hedonism and extravagance and at last found love, in the person of Francesca, the humble young woman who cares for her. Francesca bluntly tells the President his faults. The President, denied Iolanda by death, tries to instead win over Francesca, but without ever admitting wrongdoing: having completely missed the point of what Iolanda values in her, he tells her that he’ll gladly listen to her talk of corruption and starvation if she’ll only have dinner with him at a fancy restaurant. He gets the only possible response when Francesca hangs up on him.
  • In the Tiffany Aching subset of Discworld books, Tiffany's father takes great care to keep the clock on the mantelpiece set properly. He does this by looking at the clock tower in town each time he visits the market, remembering how it looked all through the slow, miles-long trek home, and then adjusting the Achings' clock to match what he'd seen. (It's mentioned that, since he gets up at dawn and works until it's dark, it doesn't really matter what time it is, but then, why try to set it at all?)
    • A running gag in The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents is that some of the more thoughtful rats think you shouldn't eat other rats. The more practical rats think this is sound advice: obviously you shouldn't eat a dead rat until you know what it died of, and you certainly shouldn't eat the green wobbly bit.
    • Here's an exchange between Vetinari and Colon in Jingo, the latter obviously having never heard of a firing squad:'I should imagine they'd give you a cigarette.A cigarette?' said Fred.Yes, sergeant. And a nice sunny wall to stand in front of.'Sergeant Colon examined this for any downside. 'A nice roll-up and a wall to lean against?' he said.'I think they prefer you to stand up straight, sergeant.Fair enough. No need to be sloppy just because you're a prisoner.'
  • In Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman, Richard Feynman describes his experiences with physics education in Brazil. For example, students knew cold that "Brewster's Angle is the angle at which light reflected from a medium with an index of refraction is completely polarized." They knew that the light is polarized perpendicular to the plane of reflection. They even knew that the angle's tangent equaled the index of refraction. But when Feynman told them to look out over the water — nothing. When they looked through polaroid, they gushed "Ooo, it's polarized!"
  • A Running Gag in the Adrian Mole books is self-proclaimed intellectual Adrian completely missing the point of whatever book he's reading. For instance, after finishing Animal Farm he declares "From now on I'm treating pigs with the contempt they deserve. I am boycotting pork of all kinds."
  • The Sci Fi novel Malevil has an amusing example: Fulbert of La Roque and Emmanuel of Malevil are having a pissing contest over who has authority in the region after World War III. Religion is their primarily weapon, Fulbert appoints himself priest of La Roque and so Emmanuel is elected as priest of Malevil. When Fulbert announces he is appointed as Bishop, Emmanuel decides to respond with sarcasm and his own ridiculous claim. He digs out 600 year old documents from the Hundred Years War claiming that the Lord of Malevil is Feudal Overlord over La Roque and that he inherits the title and power by virtue of owning the property before the war. His friends unfortunately rally under the idea that they now have the "legal" right to overthrow the evil priest.

Live Action TV

  • In an episode of Community, the entire group (except Jeff and Abed) have various adventures that teach them about themselves, and at the end of the episode proclaim what they don't like about themselves and start crying and group hugging, and then Pierce cries out "Let's never let Jeff divide us again!". whoosh
    • At the end of the Halloween episode, after everybody has had their minds erased of the incident, Troy listens to a voicemail that not only reveals that Shirley and Senor Chang had sex, but that the school was infested with zombies. His reaction? "Why did they call me?"
  • Brass Eye lives off this trope. "CAKE is a made-up drug. It's not made from plants, it's made from chemicals... by sick bastards..." It's made from some of each, with animal secretions thrown in to boot. Wheat flour, sugar and cocoa are all plant products; add animal-derived milk and eggs, plus chemical baking powd-oh, wait..."This is a scientific fact. There's no evidence for it, but it's still a fact."
  • In Scrubs, Carla, who is from the Dominican Republic, has a dream that involves her friends conspiring to kill her. What disturbs her? That the dream isn't in Spanish.
    • Another example in Season 5 when Carla loses a patient and has the Janitor help her look. He mentions that he didn't find his head, then goes on about how he once found a head and, since it was a weekend, left it in his locker and decided to take care of it later. On the next work day, he's forgotten about it and discovers a dismembered head in his locker now filled with rats. He punts the head off the roof, but sees that it'll land directly on Dr. Kelso. He then claims that an eagle swooped by and snatched the head in midair and carried it off. When he tries to explain why he thinks an eagle is near a hospital, Carla goes "...I can't believe you get a locker and I don't."
      • This could be because the Janitor is known to be a pathological liar and the fact he has a locker maybe is the only sensible part in the whole story.
  • Woody Harrelson's eponymous character on Cheers is the personification of this trope. This sets up a classic subversion:
    Woody: I don't get The Far Side.
    Cliff: Well, you see, Woody, that's showing how cows act when humans are not around.

Woody: I mean my hometown newspaper doesn't carry The Far Side! But thanks for making me feel like a one-year-old!

  • This was the whole schtick of Gilda Radner's classic Saturday Night Live character Emily Litella... Oh, you mean it wasn't? It was based on Mondegreens instead? um... never mind.
  • In one episode of Happy Days, Chachi starts earning money from giving dancing lessons, but is too embarrassed to tell anyone and instead claims that he has written and sold a song. When asked to sing the song, he claims that for copyright reasons, he can't sing the whole song, but can only sing bits of it out of order. He then begins to sing random drivel. After he leaves:Fonz: He's lying badly.

Marion: You mean, he didn't write that?

  • In an episode of The Big Bang Theory, where Penny dates Leonard's colleague, David Underhill, and he is jealous:Leonard: You said that you didn't want to go out with me because I was too smart for you! Well, news flash, lady, David Underhill is ten times smarter than me!

Penny: Dave is not smarter than you. He's an idiot. Leonard: Really? Why would you say that? Penny: Because a smart guy takes the nude photos of his wife off his cell phone before he tries to take nude photos of his girlfriend. Leonard: You let him take nude photos of you? Penny: That's what you took from that?!

  • A 3rd Rock from the Sun episode had Dick catch one of his students drawing a doodle of him with antlers and a tail. Dick thought it was brilliant and praised the student for effectively picking up "the essence of my rugged good looks".
    • Probably not Completely Missing the Point. After all, that's probably what he really looks like.
    • Really, it's the premise for that show...
      If they think that women are just going to line up to exploit themselves —
      Yeah, I hate waiting in line...
  • James May, on Top Gear, about rally driver Kenny Block: "The man is completely useless, he can't drive in a straight line."
    • Earlier, Jeremy Clarkson was being teased by the other presenters about his... rather enthusiastic interview with Will Young, culminating in Hammond singing "Jeremy's in looooove" and all he got out of it was "Are you suggesting Will Young is gay?"
    • From a Series 9 episode:
      Jeremy: I have passion for the Ferrari, and I respect [the Porsche 911] ...it's like David Attenborough. I respect David Attenborough, just infinite respect, in the same way as I respect that car, but I have no passion for it, I don't want to make love to it.Richard: Yeah, but I have respect and passion for the 911.Jeremy: There you are. You've just admitted on television you want to make love to David Attenborough.Richard: Your logic, sometimes, mate, is the most warped thing...
  • Michael Scott, from the US version of The Office.
  • In an episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, London and her book club review Pride and Prejudice, and identify with Caroline Bingley and lambaste Mr. Bingley for "marrying beneath him."
  • In an episode of That 70's Show Hyde shows Fez a shirt with "Funland University" on one side and "F.U." on the other. The joke is lost on Fez (who thinks it has to do with it saying Fu).
    • In another episode, shortly after Jackie starts dating with Hyde, she sees her previous boyfriend Kelso kissing with his new girlfriend, and - in the presence of Hyde - screams: "GET OFF MY BOYFRIEND!" Fez, who had his hand on Hyde's shoulder, says: "I don't know why she's so upset. I was barely touching you."
      • One could argue either of three ways about that one. Either Jackie's missing the point, Fez is missing the point, or anyone trying to make a case either way is missing the point.
  • Barney from How I Met Your Mother makes hot, sweaty monkey love to this trope.
    • In the Pilot episode:
    Ted: So these guys think I chickened out. What do you think?Barney: I...can't believe you're still not wearing a suit!
    • Episode 2x03 "Brunch": When Barney shows a picture he took of Ted's dad having an affair with Wendy the Waitress, Ted is naturally mortified. Barney assumes this Angst is because Ted's dad violated his duties, not as a husband, but as Barney's wingman. He called dibs on Wendy first, dammit!
    • Episode 4x13 "Three Days of Snow": Barney explains how he plays a game called "Party School Bingo" where he takes a list of the Top 25 party schools in the country, arranges them on a bingo card, and fills in a space every time he sleeps with a girl from that school.Ted: So how many people are in on this Party School Bingo thing?Barney: Oh, it's just me.Ted: Then what's the point, then?Barney: The point is to get five in a row.Ted: And what do you get when you get five in a row?Barney: I get Bingo.
    • Episode 4x15 "The Stinsons": When Barney watches movies, well ...Barney: Hey, The Karate Kid's a great movie. It's the story of a hopeful, young karate enthusiast whose dreams and moxie take him all the way to the All Valley Karate Championship. Of course, sadly, he loses in the final round to that nerd kid. But he learns an important lesson about gracefully accepting defeat.Lily: Wait, when you watch The Karate Kid you actually root for that mean blonde boy?Barney: No, I root for the scrawny loser from New Jersey who barely even knows karate. When I watch The Karate Kid I root for the karate kid, Johnny Lawrence from the Cobra Kai dojo. Get your head out of your ass Lily.
      • The same episode has him revealing that he roots for Hans Gruber in Die Hard (believing him to be the title character), Principal Vernon in The Breakfast Club (the only one who wears a suit) and The Terminator (and proceeds to start crying over his death scene, saying "And she doesn't even help him!")
    • Episode 3x11 "The Platinum Rule": Barney becomes convinced that an ex-girlfriend is trying to kill him.Barney: I dump her, and she says, "no hard feelings." She's a psycho, what other explanation is there?!
  • In Friends, when Rachel realizes that she still loves Ross, and the rest of the group knew that, she asks Phoebe, why didn't they tell her:Phoebe: Well, because we thought you knew!! It's so obvious tell! God, that would be like telling Monica, "Hey, you like things clean." Or, y'know, "Hey, Joey, you're gay!"Rachel: What?!Phoebe: Oh, please! She's always got a broom in her hand!
    • Phoebe's actually fairly common for this trope. There's an episode when she has to change all her shopping habits to avoid a stalker, leading to this conversation:

Phoebe: I need to find a new grocery store, a new adult book store.Monica: What?!Phoebe: (slowly) A new grocery store.

  • The Nanny: Maxwell wonders why Fran dating another guy bothers him so much as he bites into an apple. Niles suddenly says that he wants the apple. "It was right in front of me the whole time, but I never knew I wanted it until someone bit their teeth into it and now I'm left with this aching hunger." Maxwell tells him to try a pear instead before leaving. Then Fran comes in, Niles tries the same metaphor, to which she replies "You snooze, you lose."
    • Niles should know better. When it comes to that subject, those two are morons. He's lived there for years and he makes this same mistake over and over. He's not as smart as he seems, obviously.
  • In the Season 29/Series 3 Doctor Who episode "Smith and Jones": the Doctor has just absorbed a lethal-to-humans dose of radiation and is trying to expel it via his foot into his shoe.The Doctor: Ow, ow, itchy, itchy, itchy... (shakes foot wildly, hopping around on one foot, before pulling his shoe off and binning it triumphantly)Martha Jones: You're completely mad.The Doctor: You're right. I look daft with one shoe. (pulls other shoe off) Barefoot on the moon!
    • And a few episodes later, we get this exchange in "Blink".

Sally Sparrow (on realizing the Doctor was speaking to her through the DVDs): The 17 DVDs, they're all the DVDs I own. The Easter egg was for me.Larry Nightingale: ...You've only got 17 DVDs?

  • In episode 10 of Glee, when Mr Schuester performs a mashup of "Young Girl" and "Don't Stand So Close To Me" to get the point across to Rachel that it's not appropriate for her to have a crush on him and for her to back off. All Rachel has to say at the end when he asks her if she got the message is "Yes. It means I'm very young and it's hard for you to stand close to me." Emma was also there and knew the point, but still missed it because she was so smitten with Will.
    • Also, Kurt thinking that homophobia is the reason why Finn objects to his behavior towards him:

Finn: The way you were all over me last year... if I did that to a girl, she'd take out a restraining order.Kurt: You have issues with me being gay, I get it.Finn: No, actually I don't. I have issues with the fact that you don't understand that no means no.

    • Kurt complained that Blaine was hogging the spotlight with him getting all the warblers solos. Blaine conceded to this and offered rependance by changing one of his solos to a duet between Kurt... and him!
  • Alisha from Misfits gives us this gem:"Maybe he's on crystal meth - that stuff makes you crazy! My friend Chloe did it one time and she nearly shagged her brother! And he's really ugly."
    • And later on, when Kelly is upset about accidentally having sex with a monkey, Nathan genuinely seems to believe he's being helpful by reminding her that technically, it was a gorilla.
  • Many games on Whose Line Is It Anyway? which involve someone trying to guess someone else's identity. A lot of times the guess will be nowhere close.
  • Dimwitted Kandi on Two and a Half Men is a living, breathing example of this trope.
    • In episode 3.16, she pays Alan a surprise visit while he's eating dinner with his family:Alan: K-Kandi? What are you doing here?Kandi: (in loud voice) I thought I'd surprise you with a BOOTY CALL!Alan: Shhh! Lower your voice!Kandi: (deeper voice) BOOOTY CAAAALLL!
      • After overhearing the exchange, Alan's son Jake wants to know what a "booty call" means. Alan responds by concocting an elaborate, G-rated etiological story. The ruse appears to have worked, until....Kandi: Wow. Alan, you really make history fun.Alan: Well, thank you.Kandi: So when did it start meaning 'casual sex'?
    • On another occasion, Kandi greets Alan's ex-wife at the door dressed in a string bikini. Alan's ex asks her to put on more clothes, explaining that her outfit "isn't appropriate for Jake". Kandi replies, "I agree—he would look ridiculous in this!"
  • An ER moment when Doctor Greene reminisced about his first job to his teen-aged daughter. He was probably doing it on purpose.-Greene: I got $1.25 per hour.-Rachel: That's slave wages.-Greene: It was enough to keep me in new records and good weed.-Rachel: [Shocked look.]-Greene: What? You know, records. LPs? Vinyls? Those funny big black things that your hip-hop heroes likes to rip off for their songs.
  • Survivor: Russell Hantz said, "What NEEDS to happen, is that America should control a portion of the votes!". Apparently, he wasn't watching around the first All Stars, in which Rupert won a million dollars for being "America's favourite". This was actually removed because the executives worried that people would start playing to be the fan favourite, not actually trying to win the game.
    • Jeff Probst even told Russell after his mention of audience participation that, "That's not Survivor." Rightfully so; because the game wasn't really made for Audience Participation as Audience Participation in that kind of show actually would pretty much eliminate any useful strategies beyond "Okay, I'm gonna be like Rupert or Russell!"
    • And even if Russell got his way and America had a portion of the Jury votes, the most he could get was 5...and even if he got all 5, he still would have only won second. Anymore and that would pretty much eliminate the entire point of the jury altogether, thus meaning the final tribal council was pretty much a waste of time. Undoubtedly, Russell knew he would be the fan favourite and that he could win a popularity contest...He was also Completely Missing the Point of Survivor being a social game.
    • Another example from Survivor: Exile Island. Shane is asking Courtney to have his back with the vote that night and Courtney absentmindedly hedges. Shane responds:

-Shane: I will drive over to your shitty little apartment and murder you, and then I will drive to my club and that will be that.-Courtney: That was really nice. I don't have a shitty apartment.

  • In Chuck Vs. the Mask, Morgan and Ellie are talking about Chuck's secretive behavior:Morgan: "I had an epiphany last night."Ellie: "What’s that?"Morgan: "A sudden intuitive realization…"Ellie: "I know what an epiphany is, Morgan! I'm asking what epiphany you had."
  • In the first episode of My Family, Ben's assistant Brigitte criticises him for not making the time to treat his own wife and children, comparing him to the story of "The cobbler's children who had no food." Ben corrects her, and she replies that "That makes no sense, their dad was a cobbler."
  • Vila of Blake's Seven, frequently.
  • In Castle, a psychiatrist has been found dead with lots of ranted gibberish scrawled over her.Lanie: Looks like a patient lost their patience.Castle: Also his command of grammar. 'Your' should be 'you-apostrophe-r-e' as in 'you are', and that's not even a tough one; not like when to use 'who' or 'whom'.Beckett: Do you really think that's the take-away here, Castle?Castle: I'm just saying, whoever killed her also murdered the English language.
    • He's still banging on about it later in the episode.
  • Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Oh god, Anya.
    • Also this wonderful exchange:Buffy:"Chasing a bus naked - that's a dream. An army of vicious vampires - that's a vision."Principal Wood:"A bus to where?"
    • What about Cordy in "The Wish" who, when she first sees Xander and Willow in the Wishverse after being told they were dead, and is given quite a few hints that the two of them are now vampires, gives us:Cordelia:"I wish us into bizarro world and you guys are still together? I cannot win!"
  • The West Wing: The Leadership Breakfast. Following a series of snafus, the President is being asked to speak to a reporter. He wants to know why, and focuses on the most politically esoteric of the bunch.Bartlet: Donna wants me to call Karen Cahill and make it clear she wasn't hitting on her when she gave her her underwear.Leo: Yeah, that's because I made fun of her shoes and Sam said there were nuclear weapons in Kyrgyzstan and Donna went to clear up the mix up and accidentally left her underwear.Bartlet: There can't possibly be nuclear weapons in Kyrgyzstan.Leo: Mr. President, please don't wade hip deep into this story.
How does one accidentally give a reporter underwear?
  • She went to an event which the reporter was also attending. Unfortunately, being a hugely busy aide, she tried to save time when dressing that morning by wearing the same pair of pants she'd worn the previous day, grabbing them off her bedroom floor. She didn't notice that her panties from the previous day were still stuck in the leg of the pants and they worked their way free and onto the floor when she walked away from the reporter. The reporter sent them back to her in a package to her desk at work, where she was suitably mortified.
  • An episode of That Mitchell and Webb Look featured David Mitchell complaining about the tearjerker ending of Blackadder Goes Forth saying that he didn't get the joke of just a few people running over a field and getting shot; judging from the audience reaction, it obviously fell flat in the studio.
  • On Pit Boss, Hercules auditioned to play the canine companion of a little boy in a feature film, impressing the casting people and really hitting it off with the young actor. The film's story is of how this young boy is beaten and terrorized by gang thugs, but recuperates physically and emotionally once a loving dog comes into his life. Replace "boy" with "puppy" and "dog" with "owner" in the previous sentence, and you've got the word-for-word life story of thousands of real pit bulls, who've been rescued from fight-breeders and rehabilitated into faithful household pets. Did Hercules get the part? No, because the filmmakers couldn't picture a pit bull in the role.
  • In the Deadwood episode "Reconnoitering the Rim", Brom Garrett goes to Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter for help negotiating with Al Swearengen, who he believes has swindled him. Bill and Charlie refuse to get involved. When Brom persists, Charlie tries to point out that Al is not above murdering those who make trouble for him.Charlie Utter: [of his immediate predecessor in his hotel room] Fresh stain on the floor when I moved in. He may have checked out short a useful amount of blood.Brom Garret: Wouldn't surprise me in the least.Charlie Utter: That would make these accomplices you're talkin' about... dangerous people to deal with.Brom Garret: Yes, I quite take your point. No honor among thieves. [pause] Well. Thanks for your time: I'll pursue my remedies in some other fashion. [leaves]Wild Bill Hickok: I don't think he took your point... quite.Charlie Utter: I think he quite missed it.
  • Stargate Atlantis: Rodney McKay gets an excellent opportunity to show off his people skills when he tries to convince his equally brilliant but actually human sister to leave her husband and daughter for a month in order to help him with a experiment:Jeannie: [explaining why she can't go] "Madison's ballet recital is next week."Dr. Rodney McKay: "She's four! How good could she possibly be?"
  • In episode 2x10 Michael Bluth finally tells his brother in-law that he probably should tape-record himself to notice his 'uncommon speech pattern' aka the gay innuendos he unwittingly utters all day. When Tobias listens to the tape he realises "Oh Tobias, you blowhard!".
  • The season five opener of Little Mosque On The Prairie had a local woman chide Reverend Thorne for angrily calling Mercy, Saskatchewan a one-horse town filled with morons and imbeciles; she'd pointed out that there were seven horses and one of them was due to foal soon.
  • In a scene from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2, Bulk finds a note in his locker, the sender asking to meet as "I [the sender] have what you're looking for". Bulk gives the note to Skull, asking (rhetorically) "Do you know what this means?" Skull responds, "Yeah: Someone knows the combination to your locker." Bulk is not impressed.
    • To be fair to Skull, though, he does have a point: Assuming a mundane explanation for how the note got into Bulk's locker. (Of course, it's still the wrong point...)
  • On Lost, Hurley's parents throw a surprise tropical island-themed birthday party for him... after he's spent 100 days stranded on a tropical island.Sayid: Interesting choice of theme.Hurley: Yeah, Mom really doesn't get it, dude.
  • In "Mr. Monk and the End, Part I", Monk has been poisoned:Dr. Shuler: You're gonna feel normal for a while. And then there's gonna be some vomiting, followed by death.Monk: ...Vomiting?

Music

  • Jim Steinman's monologue "Love and Death and an American Guitar", released on the Meat Loaf album Back Into Hell as "Wasted Youth", catalogues the adventures of a boy who murders people with his guitar. Finally, he attacks his parents:"... and just as I was about to bring the guitar crashing down upon the centre of the bed, my father woke up screaming 'Stop! Wait a minute! Stop it, boy! That's no way to treat an expensive musical instrument!"
  • Jaron and the Long Road to Love gives us this gem in "Pray for You":Haven't been to church since I don't remember when
    Things were goin great, til they fell apart again
    I listened to the preacher as he told me what to do
    He said you can't go hating other who have done wrong to you
    Sometimes we get angry but we must not condemn
    Let the good Lord do his job and you just pray for them
    (beat)
    I pray your brakes go out running down a hill...
  • The Velvet Underground's song "Sister Ray". The narrator's entire reaction to somebody getting shot is "You shouldn't do that/Don't you know you'll stain the carpet."

Newspaper Comics

  • Candorville gives us this little gem.
  • A Calvin and Hobbes strip involves Calvin looking for a movie to watch. He finds one that contains "adult situations", to which he asks Hobbes what that means. Hobbes replies "You know, paying the bills, going to work, that sort of thing." Calvin wonders how they make money.

Calvin: Bird... I've got it! Yellow Bellied Sapsucker.Hobbes: But there are only 5 boxes.Calvin: I know. These idiots make you write real small.

    • Calvin occasionally subverts this by deliberately missing the point. Live and don't learn indeed.
  • Zero in Beetle Bailey lives this trope. Usually.

Radio

  • In Old Harrys Game, this is Thomas's usual reaction to Scumspawn's attempts to make him a better person. For instance, when it turns out Thomas once sold a baby to a rag-and-bone man.
  •  :Scumspawm:But you wouldn't do that now, would you?
    Thomas: Of course not! You don't get rag-and-bone men any more.
  • Frequently in The Doings of Hamish and Dougal, for instance when Mrs Naughtie goes missing.Dougal: There's only one place she could be. Hamish, tonight we camp out on the moors!

Hamish: Seems a bit callous when we could be searching for Mrs Naughtie, but whatever you say, old friend.

    • Another one, where evidence is piling up that the Laird is a vampire:Dougal: Hamish, does that coffin-shaped wardrobe remind you of anything?

Hamish: Of course! A coffin-shaped sideboard! Dougal Precisely! Tabletop Games * Warhammer Fantasy has a Chaos God of, among other things, Atheism. He has followers. When dealing with Chaos Cultists, do not expect an overabundance of anything resembling sanity or logic. Of course, a god of Atheism is made weaker through worship.

    • There is a reason he tries to keep any and all material regarding him hidden from mortal eyes as much as possible.

Theatre

  • In Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy when Bruce makes a reference to horses in the play "Equus" and his blind date (through the personals) Prudence says he should be a vet, Bruce rebukes her for missing the metaphor and says he could never respect anyone who missed a metaphor.
    • For those not in the know: The play Equus concerns a young man whose religious/sexual obsession with horses drives him to blind six of them by driving a metal spike into their eyes.
  • In the musical and Showtime movie of Reefer Madness the main characters sing about how much they are like Romeo and Juliet. They even state that they haven't read the ending, but they're 'sure it turns out real swell.'
  • Cyrano de Bergerac: In-Universe: Cyrano (a Broken Ace with an enourmous nose) invokes two famous historical romances (Cesar and Cleopatra, Tito and Berenice) and compares himself to the Cesar and Tito to justify why he cannot win the beautiful Roxane’s love. The point is that Cesar and Tito were loved not because they were fair, but they were highly charismatic leaders (like Cyrano himself, as his best friend Le Bret lampshades). Given that Cyrano is a Broken Ace and certainly this point would be obvious to him, this shows us how talking about love he will always deceive himself.CYRANO (shaking his head): Look I a Caesar to woo Cleopatra?A Tito to aspire to Berenice?Le Bret: Your courage and your wit!

Video Games

  • Several reviews that chastize handheld games as being "simplistic" compared to even console titles. Handheld games (and systems) were made to be portable. I.e., you can do something in a couple hours or as little as 30 minutes on a bus ride home or to kill time during a lunch break.
  • When Herzog Zwei, one of the early Trope Makers of the Real Time Strategy genre (predating Dune II), was released in 1990, several reviewers went into it expecting a traditional top-down shooter (Technosoft had created the Thunder Force series, after all) and rated it as one, that is to say, horribly.
  • In Phantasmagoria of Flower View, quite a few characters miss the point of what Sikieiki's trying to tell them, even when Siki's being direct. Even Reimu and Marisa are guilty of this.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, Lloyd is relating stories of extrinsic motivation to Colette and Regal. Despite the fact that Regal CLEARLY tells Colette that Lloyd was referring to the temptation of the food that boosted his memories, Colette seems convinced that it was Dirk's cooking itself, and not the incentive of it, that taught Lloyd how to memorize the Dwarven Vows.
    • Likewise, in the sequel, Tenebrae complains about the others thinking of him as a stick-in-the-mud. Colette tells Tenebrae that he has no mud on him, and that he shouldn't feel bad. After Emil tells her that, "there was never any real mud to begin with," Colette asks if it was more like a muck or a slime instead.
      • In another scene from the sequel everyone is guessing what the guardian of the tree looks like. Zelos guesses a hot woman (as is his nature), Presea and Regal hope that it has paw pads, Raine thinks it's a being like a centurion, and Marta just thinks it'll be old. Here's what Colette says:

Colette:So to sum up, the guardian is a wise old lady with a killer body and paw pads.

  • Shirou in Fate/Stay Night has this problem when any of the Deus Sex Machina problems come up, as well as at the end of UBW good ending. To be fair, it really is kind of a stretch to link "not enough mana" to "have sex with Saber/Tohsaka". In their defense, there is actually an Oriental belief that while masturbation results in you 'releasing' energy, sex involves exchanging energy so either you lose nothing or gain something if your partner has more energy than you due to something about balancing energies. Incidentally, there are a number of martial arts schools that say you shouldn't wank before training but it's ok to have sex.
  • The Judge from the Ace Attorney games falls into this trope many, many times. From case 5 of this first game, this is his response to being told that a witness was using another character as his "puppet"...Judge: Wait, you mean the witness, a man of his stature... plays with puppets?
    • Though he sometimes manages to correct himself:Oh you mean someone who uses someone else, nevermind.
  • Philippine national hero Jose Rizal is an unlockable character in the multiplayer of one of the Medal Of Honor games, complete with rocket launcher. The game deliberately misses the point in the name of Rule of Funny since in Real Life Rizal was a pacifist.
  • In Sly Cooper 3:Don O: I know you're nothing without this little guy's brain. So I figure I'll scoop him out real slow and use him to fertlize my tomato plants.Bentley the Turtle: I'm allergic to tomatoes!
  • In Jolly Rover, James wonders why Melvin is smoking — next to a large barrel of gunpowder:Melvin: Capt'n Howell hates it too, says smokin's bad to ya health.
  • The match commentators in Mad World are only focused on the match about half the time. The rest leads to situations like this:Kreese: (Spends a minute recounting his fight with Elise, the boss Jack is currently facing)Howard: AWESOME RACK ON HER THOUGH!Kreese: Aww, true dat!

Webcomics

  • Miko Miyazaki from The Order of the Stick immediately assumes that because her own conclusions led her to kill her lord, the titular band somehow made her do it. She then takes it as far as assuming everyone in the room is working against her, and she can do no wrong because she is the strongest member of the Sapphire Guard.Roy Greenhilt: It's like she has that Monk ability that lets you jump as far as you want, only for her, it applies to conclusions.
    • Miko is also responsible for the quote: "The term is "smite evil", not "bump uglies"."
    • Also, Vaarsuvius.

Vaarsuvius:As the size of the explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero. (Beat) And that would be wrong.

    • In another example, when Haley and her rival were forced to go on thieves' guild missions, Haley would remove the pickles from her sandwiches. Her rival assumed that she was PHYSICALLY WEAK to them, and later attacks Haley by pelting her with pickles. It helps that said rival is a complete and total idiot.
  • Ben Winchester from Loserz meets and befriends a girl who's much like his old (platonic) friend Jodie — a bisexual girl hot for Anything That Moves. The conclusion he makes... see for yourself here and here.
  • This Misfile strip.
  • Pokemon-X does this when Brendan describes May to Professor Birch, saying that she's 5'4", 100 lbs, brown hair, and then mumbles "nice... firm... breasts..." while drooling (it's a long story, okay?). Professor Birch looks shocked. After Brendan leaves, Birch gets excited... because he thinks May is cooking chicken breasts for dinner.
  • This Cyanide and Happiness comic. Cyanide And Happiness loves this joke.
  • The "Cuckolded Husband" storyline in Sexy Losers sees a man repeatedly walk in on his wife having sex with his best friend. He immediately believes their implausible excuse and innocently runs with it until they regret saying anything.
  • Boy Meets Boy: Mikhael decides to use humour to lighten the situation when coming out to his new poker group, by putting down his cards and saying "Y'know, it's funny that I got a straight, because I'm not." Long awkward silence ensues, and Mik figures they're squicked and leaves. We cut back to the group, still sitting in amazement:"I can't believe he got a straight that early on!"
    "The man's luck is incredible!"
    "Guys ... shut up."
  • This Basic Instructions strip. For added fun, it seems that both of them are missing the point in different ways.
  • The Science Fair arc of Gunnerkrigg Court features two layers of this. Kat's peers (and most of her teachers) focus on the anti-gravity chamber that she invented, completely ignoring the protein crystal growth experiment that was Kat's entire reason for inventing said gravity chamber. And Kat fails to understand why anyone would be more interested in anti-gravity than protein crystals.
  • Blur The Lines features a stip where Rick Rick is kicked out of a Dungeons & Dragons round because he keeps trying "bluff" has way into the pants of his fellow players; he thinks they kicked him out just because he's gay.
  • Suicide For Hire: Mitch confronts Autumn.
  • In Freefall:

Police Robot: We are being trained as a police force to help solve conflicts among the planet's non-human population.Mayor's Assistant: Our non-human population consists of one person. Sam. Do we really need an entire police force for one alien squid?Police Robot: Sir, I believe if you look past the obvious answer, you'll see one that's even more obvious.

Web Original

Western Animation

  • In a Family Guy episode, Lois is shown several drawings that Stewie has done. All of them have Lois dying in a particularly gruesome fashion. Lois realizes that this can mean only one thing: "His father's not in any of these pictures; they should spend more time together." Note that the teacher concurs with her.
    • Peter misses the point pretty much every other minute.
      • One instance of this:

Meg: "If I can't drive, I'll never have any boyfriends, I'll never get married and then I'll have to adopt a kid like Rosie O'Donnell!"Peter: "Meg, are you implying that Rosie O'Donnell can't drive?"

    • In "Back to the Woods" James Woods steals Peter's identity and kicks him out of the house. Brian points out that identity theft works both ways and Peter can be Woods. Peter figures if he was a famous movie star, he wouldn't even want his family.
  • Something similar happens in a SpongeBob SquarePants episode, where a new student at Mrs. Puff's driving school draws himself punching the title character on the chalkboard and repeatedly threatens to kick his butt. This naturally horrifies the character, while Mrs. Puff just thinks he's a talented artist.
    • It depends on your interpretation, though. Mrs. Puff really hates SpongeBob.
    • In the episode "Dying for Pie", Squidward accidentally buys an exploding pie for Spongebob. Mr. Krabs, "inspecting" it, pinches off a tiny piece of crust to eat. When he drops the piece on the ground, it explodes and leaves a huge, gaping hole in Mr. Krabs' office, blasting Mr. Crabs and Squidward outside. Then Spongebob comes in: "Mr. Krabs, are you okay? I heard a... WOW!! (completely ignores the hole and points at the pie) A pie!"
    • Happens again a second later when Squidward explains he paid $25 for the pie, not realising it was a bomb. Guess which detail Mr. Krabs remembered first.
    • Also in an episode where Spongebob has to stall kids for Mr. Krabs by hurting himself, Spongebob comes to him all battered up and pleads to him to make 'Krabby the Clown' appear already. Mr. Krabs asks him where his arms and legs are, and Spongebob tells him the kids are using them as boomerangs (with one leg even flying around among them). Mr. Krabs then gets worried that it might break his windows.
    • Mr. Krabs is fond of this. In Born Again Krabs when Squidward called out Krabs for selling Spongebob's soul:

Squidward: "Mr. Krabs, I can't believe I'm saying this, but how could you sell Spongebob for 62 cents?"Mr. Krabs: "You think I could have gotten more?"

    • Spongebob seems rather fond of this trope, actually...

Mr. Krabs: "Neptune preserve her!"Squidward: "How long can she stay like that?"Spongebob: "I dunno!"Patrick: "Sandy's a girl!?"

  • Dale in King of the Hill manages to do a single-person version of this by relating to Hank about how 9 months before the birth of his son, he was watching aliens while his wife was with some other guy. Hank says, "Your wife loves you," but then Dale comes to the conclusion that his son is an alien, and asks Hank if there's any better explanation. Obviously there is, but Hank decides to refrain from pointing out the obvious.
    • Well, there is no other explanation. After all, Dale's known John Redcorn to be gay for years...right?
  • The reason that the Muggles of Invader Zim are such Bats. Despite admitting many, many times that he is an alien intent on conquering Earth, Zim is dismissed as talking about something completely different.
    • But he's so bad at it.
  • In a flashback episode of The Simpsons, when the entire town knows that Marge is pregnant, Homer keeps thinking the townspeople are congratulating him for landing his dream job, including Moe's "Way to get Marge pregnant!" Only after someone actually does congratulate him for the job, he realizes Marge is pregnant.
    • Similarly, in "Homer's Night Out", while coming home from work people keep greeting him and doing hula dances. He isn't aware that the picture of him dancing with a woman has circulated (despite there being a copy of the picture right behind Apu), and just figures that they're on drugs.
    • In the episode where Marge stars in a musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire, after she delivers the last line ("I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.") the cast breaks into a musical number about how "You can always depend on the kindness of strangers..."
    • During the gay parade, Marge hears Patty and Smithers, hidden each in their own closets, proclaiming that they're gay and proud of it. Marge then asks, "Wouldn't it be nice if that man and that woman got together [romantically]?" (for a real life version, read the Troper Tales).
    • "Goodbye Adil! I'll send you those Civil Defence plans you wanted!"
    • One Running Gag is Homer missing the point of a joke and laughing at the wrong part.
    • "I loved Young Frankenstein. Scared the hell out of me!"
    • In the Union episode, Homer mistook Mr. Burns offer of a bribe as Burns hitting on him. It helped that Mr. Burns was being pretty flamboyant.

Marge: Homer, the plant called and said if you don't come in tomorrow, don't bother coming in Monday.Homer: Woohoo, four day weekend!

    • Similarly, when Marge asks Homer why he hasn't left for work:

Homer: They said that if I come in late one more time I'm fired. I can't take that chance!

    • In "Hurricane Neddy", when Ned Flanders viciously lashes out at the Springfielders who did a really lousy job rebuilding his house, he finishes with Homer:Flanders: (quietly) Homer... you are the worst human being I have ever met. (walks away)Homer: Hey, I got off easy...
      • And then when a flood hit Springfield Ned builds an ark and takes on two of every animal...but only males because he doesn't want any hanky-panky going on. I Need A Drink.
    • In one scene, Chief Wiggum gives some rather obvious hints that Homer could get off the hook by bribing him. Homer does what he does best. Bart is also there and tries to point out the obvious, but Homer tells him to be quiet.
    • Another Homer example - searching for his half-brother Herbert, Homer asks the Orphanage where he might be. The director tells him that such data is confidential but says that Detroit is a good place to look for him. Homer keeps asking and missing the obvious hints, even bribing the director. The director has to say "He's in Detroit" point-blankly for Homer to get it.
      • And of course in the episode Homer's Phobia Homer is blissfully unaware that John is gay. Marge attempts to point out this fact when Homer suggests John and his wife come over for dinner, with Homer Completely Missing the Point until she tells him point blank:

Marge: Homer, didn't John seem a little "festive" to you?Homer: Couldn't agree more, happy as a clam.Marge: He prefers the company of men!Homer: Who doesn't?Marge: Homer, listen carefully. John is a Ho - mo...Homer: Right.Marge: ...Sexual!Homer: AAAAHHH!

      • Also the clerk in the episode "Bart Star" is a subversion: at the end, it's revealed that he only wanted to play a crude joke on Marge:

Marge: He's going to need, uh… you know, protection.Guy: Sure… one helmet coming up.Marge: I was thinking more of… protection… down there.Guy: Oh, why didn't you say so? Knee pads. You got it.Marge:(laughs very nervously) I'm talking about his (quietly) personal area.Guy: Ah ha. Say no more. I read you loud and clear. The old shoulder pads.Marge: (annoyed) Look, I want a cupGuy: Cup, could you spell that?Marge: C - U - P I wanna C - U …oh my god!

      • In the episode 'Grade School Confidential'

Lisa: I was in the library at the time, but Janey told me Principal Skinner and...what's her name? Bart's teacher?Marge: Mrs. Krabappel?Lisa: Yeah, Krabappel. They were naked in the closet together!Marge: GASP! Oh my goodness!Homer: Wait a minute...Bart's teacher is named Krabappel? I've been calling her Crandall! Why didn't someone tell me? Oh, I've been making an idiot out of myself!

  • Captain Hero of Drawn Together is notorious for missing the point, as illustrated by the following example.Unusually Flexible Girl: I missed you more than a retard misses the point!

Captain Hero: What do you mean?

  • South Park: Cartman perfectly modeled this trope once when he was caught in class mimicking certain Nazi gestures and phrases, and was made to watch an anti-Nazi film, which of course only fueled his fascination with the subject. Considering that the film only showed Nazis marching and never mentioned any bad things that Hitler did, only that he "was a very naughty person", and considering that Cartman's anti-semitic and a sociopath... yeah.
    • In addition to this, we had the "Major Boobage" episode with the sub-plot of Cartman rescuing the cats from being put into the pound (eventually taking in around 100) - even going so far as to suggest that Mr. Kitty "Write a journal.", as well as replying "They're innocent victims in this! They have to hide or they'll be put to death. Something you just can't understand." when asked why the cats are in his attic. By the end, we have this exchange between Cartman and Kyle

Cartman: "But ya know, we've all learned something, you guys. We can never persecute living beings and force them into hiding. It's wrong."Kyle: "And you don't see any parallel between that and anything else in history?"Cartman: "Hmmm, nope. I have no idea what you're talking about Kyle."

    • To some extend Truth in Television as Natzi had many eco-friendly policies - so considering hunting animals as cruel does not imply considering hunting humans as cruel (however many people who consider hunting animals as cruel definitely consider hunting humans as cruel).
    • Though given that it IS Cartman, this could just be Eric being a Jerk Ass.
    • One more! In the episode where Wendy fights Cartman, Cartman is terrified that Wendy might actually be able to beat him, which would be terribly uncool. He manages to get her into enough trouble so that she'll be severely punished if she goes near him, effectively defusing the situation... at which point he starts taunting her again, which makes her even more determined to fight him. Repeat about three times. When they finally fight she beats the crap out of him (even declaring "I'm finished!"). When Cartman gets back onto his feet he tells the boys that since he's been beaten by a girl he'll be uncool. The boys tell him they never thought he was cool to begin with. Cartman decides that since this is obviously impossible, the boys are lying to spare his feelings because they think he's so cool.
    • An example of Completely Missing the Point that's Heartwarming: Chef finds the flag of South Park (depicting four white guys lynching a black guy) offensive for some reason. In an epic buck-passing motion, the Mayor decides to delay the vote until the kids have a debate on it. When Stan and Kyle say they're in favour of keeping the flag as is, Chef is naturally dismayed. The debate arrives, and the main point of Stan and Kyle's argument: Killing is natural, so changing a flag that has a guy being killed is pointless. Chef explains that this isn't why he finds the flag offensive, and explains the real reason, to which Stan responds "But...why does the colour of his skin matter?"
    • One Halloween:Chef: Don't you children see? Kenny's turned into a zombie, along with everyone else in town!Stan: Oh my God! That means..Kyle:...if everyone has been turned into Zombies...Cartman:...then there won't be anyone to give US CANDY!!!!!!!!!
    • When KFC is outlawed in Colorado at the same time that medicinal marijuana is legalized, a bunch of men deliberately dose themselves with radiation to get testicular cancer so they'll be able to legally obtain medicinal marijuana. Meanwhile, a cartel responsible for smuggling and selling black-market KFC (which is depicted as highly addictive) has brought a huge amount of crime with it. However, the crime influx is mistakenly blamed on marijuana being made available, and the town doctor decides that since cancer rates shot up when South Park's KFC was replaced with a medicinal marijuana dispensary, the KFC must have been protecting everyone from cancer somehow. Thus, against all logic, the town successfully solves its problems by once again criminalizing marijuana and legalizing KFC (renamed Medicinal Fried Chicken).
    • Cartman is revealed to be Scott Tenorman's half-brother in 201. Cartman gets upset not because he killed his own father (and turned him into chili), but because this means that he's half-ginger.
    • In the episode where Cartman wants to become a Nascar driver, he thinks he can't because he isn't "poor and stupid enough," and even after he crashes a car and kills 11 people, he thinks it's because he's not poor enough
      • In this episode, it had multiple people insulting him (Kyle telling him he's a broke, ignorant retard, the doctor saying that it was the most idiotic thing he had ever seen anyone do) and Cartman replying with "Thanks for trying to make me feel better, it's not going to work"
      • Even in the end, when he loses, he just simply realizes that he will never be poor or stupid enough
      • Kenny tries to sneak a sniper rifle into the track to shoot Cartman for making Nascar drivers look like poor dumbasses, and the security guy simply says "You're the type of person that makes us Nascar fans look like idiots"
  • In "Cartman's Incredible Gift", the police believe Cartman is psychic and can help find a serial killer. After arresting the person Cartman has fingered, another person is murdered in an identical fashion. The police conclude that a copycat killer is on the loose and need Cartman's help. This continues...Sgt. Lou: They just found another body! That means a fifth copycat killer is on the loose! Where's my psychic?!
  • In "Fishsticks" Jimmy comes up with a joke while Cartman sits on the couch. Cartman then believes he came up with the joke and when he sees Carlos Mencia claim to be the originator, he angrily tells Jimmy that some fat turd is taking credit for something he didn't do. When he asks Kyle for advice because he thinks Jimmy is taking credit away from him, Kyle explains that people like Cartman have such big egos that it makes them think they are awesome when they are not. Cartman simply thinks that Kyle was trying to warn him about Jimmy.
  • There are many, many instances of this in Beavis and Butt-Head.
    • In Beavis and Butthead Do America, Butthead is woken from his dream by Beavis with the alarming news that their TV has just disappeared and he can't work out why. After looking at the broken in door, the muddy footprints leading to the door, and the two people talking about how they're going to sell a TV for about a minute, Butthead finally says "Hey Beavis, I've figured something out... this sucks!"
    • Also, at the McCarran Airport, they see a guy holding out a sign with their names written on it. Beavis attempts to read it: "B...U...T—'Boot?!' There's a guy named 'Boot?!'" Butthead corrects him, sort of. "It says Butthead. Beavis, you idiot; these guys have the same names as us!"
    • In a regular episode, when some girls at a shopping mall tell the two to come back in ten years, instead of interpreting this as "I don't want to see you for a really long time", they think the girls literally mean to come back to them in ten years. Butthead tells Beavis to hurry up and get rid of their "beards" so that they can actually meet them again in ten years. (Of course, they're gonna forget by then anyway.)
    • In one episode the two spend the day at Stuart's house while he and his family are out. Two "moving men" break in and they help them steal most of their things. Stuart's dad isn't happy when they tell him the movers took everything. Butt-Head assumes he's angry because his new house was a ripoff.

Stuart's Dad: Movers? You idiots! We've been robbed!Butt-Head: Robbed? We were here all day, we didn't see any robbers.

Jack: Hey! They said my name!

  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  •  :Sokka: "Who ever took Aang and Toph left this."Katara (reading the note): "If you wanna see your daughter again, bring five hundred gold pieces to the arena... It's signed Xin Fu and The Boulder."Sokka: "I can't believe it... (grabs the paper from Katara) I HAVE THE BOULDER'S AUTOGRAPH!"
    • Also, when Zuko tries to join the group:Zuko: ...and I never should have sent that Fire Nation assassin after you. I'm gonna try to stop—Sokka: Wait, you sent Combustion Man after us!?Zuko: Well, that's not his name...
    • When Sokka and Suki share a quiet moment in "The Serpent's Pass."Suki: "I lost someone I care about. He didn't die, he just went away. I only had a few days to get to know him, but he was smart, and brave, and funny..."Sokka: (offended) "Who is this guy? Is he taller than me?"Suki: "No, he's about your height."Sokka: "Is he better looking?"
  • On the Arthur episode "Arthur Goes Crosswire," Arthur gets paired with his class's shallow Rich Bitch, Muffy Crosswire to work on a project, and he quickly begins to act like her. At the episode's climax, all of Arthur's friends start acting like Muffy to show him how obnoxious he's being. Muffy thinks they're trying to flatter her:Muffy: I didn't mind when Arthur started acting like me, but I'm sorry, there's only one me, and that's enough.
    • In "Sick As A Dog", when Pal has to stay overnight at the vet, Arthur has an overblown anxiety-induced dream about Pal calling Arthur and being kidnapped by the other dogs, who leave a ransom note written in pawprints and are pursued by a police helicopter. When Arthur wakes up, he says, "Wow, what a ridiculous dream. Pal doesn't even know our phone number."
  • In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Greece Lightning," Dr. Doofenshmirtz, the nemesis of superspy Perry the Platypus, watches an old educational film and finds out that due to the effects of encroaching development, "the enemy of the platypus is Man!" So . . . he builds a giant robot man, complete with business suit, to defeat Perry the Platypus with.
    • In the episode "The Doof Side of the Moon," Doofenshmirtz plans to rotate the moon so that the "dark side" always faces the Earth. At the end of the episode, he realizes his mistake (moonlight is reflected sunlight), and chastises himself, "Dummkopf! I should have rotated the sun!"
  • The Penguins of Madagascar. After accidently being zapped by the penguins' enhancement ray, Mort (a tiny mouse lemur) quadrupled in size and strength, capable of bringing down animals larger than himself and many times taller than his bossy, but absent-minded ring-tailed lemur leader, King Julian. Julian's advisor, Maurice, takes note of this transformation immediately. Maurice: "Do you, uh, notice anything different about Mort?" Julien: "Well yes, he's obviously doing something different with his hair! It's nice actually."
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: In the future, Mandy has mutated into a giant slug creature to obtain immortality and ruled the Earth with an iron fist, keeping a collection of artificially grown Billy clones to keep her company. Demonstrating the same cluelessness as his predecessor, Billy clone 2188, upon activation, asks if Mandy got a new haircut.
  • In The Critic episode "Miserable":Jay's # 1 Fan: Whenever I get into a relationship with a man, they tend to get dominating and overcritical.Jay: I can see your point. Although, I wouldn't have used overcritical, and I think your delivery was wooden and unconvincing!
  • An episode of Jimmy Two-Shoes, Jimmy and Heloise are strapped into a roller coaster designed to kill them. One section involves passing through several giant meat cleavers...which only results in a Close Call Haircut. She angrily yells "Your henchmen do shoddy work!"
  • In Total Drama World Tour, a challenge requires the contestants to use riddles as clues to help capture "Jack the Ripper". When Noah and Owen run into the final clue, Noah is in stunned disbelief when Owen figures out the clue on his first try with no help, remarking, "So there is a brain in there. You've been holding out on me." Owen responds that he was not holding out on Noah, because he told him about the sausages he smuggled.
  • In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Boast Busters," a unicorn named Trixie comes to town claiming to be incredibly powerful and capable of vanquishing the dreaded Ursa Major. Most of the ponies don't buy it, but two young boys fall for her story and proudly defend her. Spike tells them that unless they actually see her pulling off the feats she claims, they shouldn't believe her. They take this as a cue to find an Ursa Major and bring it to town so Trixie can defeat it in front of everyone. Bad idea.
    • In "The Show Stoppers," The Cutie Mark Crusaders enter the school talent show hoping to get their cutie marks, but each tackles something they're not suited for (and that another one of them is perfect for). They do actually win an award, but don't get their cutie marks. They realize they failed to get their marks because they neglected their true talents, but decide that their actual calling in life must be comedy, since they won Best Comedy Act.
  • In an episode of the 2010 Pound Puppies, McLeish attempts to keep his mother from finding out he's a dog catcher, but when his ruse fails, his mother threatens to cut him out of her will, remove him from the family scrapbook, and disinvite him from Thanksgiving. McLeish's comment: "But the turkey!"
    • In the same episode, he resolves to tell his mother that he's actually a CIA agent working undercover, "If I told you more, Mother, I'd have to make you disappear." Olaf, whom he was testing this out on, asks, "Disappear? So are you a spy or a magician?" Annoyed, McLeish storms out, leaving Olaf to mumble, "Being a magician's nothing to be ashamed of."
  • A Daria episode involved a hotel bellboy giving Quinn fantastic room service and upgrades using the excuse of his "uncle" who supposedly owned the hotel. Later Quinn along with her parents was informed by police that the bellboy was in fact billing the family for these, then deleting them from the system and was effectively a stalker. Quinn's reaction:Quinn: You mean I almost went out with...

Police: That's right. Quinn: A COMPUTER GEEK?!

  • In Futurama, Professor Farnsworth says the crew is about to be attacked by an albino humping worm.Fry: Why do they call it an albino humping worm?
    [beat as the worm starts humping the ship]

Professor Farnsworth: Because it lacks pigment.

  • In The Oblongs, Pickles tries to teach Milo that she's cool because she married a great guy and had great kids. Milo reaches the conclusion that he must marry his father.Bob: You just ruined what could have been a very poignant family moment, son.
  • In Sheep in the Big City, the Ranting Swede's rants tend to come from him misunderstanding a simple american custom, metaphor or item; such as refrigerators ('I came here to get AWAY from the cold!'), coffee tables ('Is every beverage going to want their own table?') juggling his job, house and family ('It's hard enough trying to have those things, let alone juggle them!') or answering machines. ('I ask it "Will I ever find true love?", and it just SITS there!')
  • In a meta example, there was an episode of The Powerpuff Girls called "Meet the Beat-Alls", which was an 11-minute Homage to the Beatles, with heaps upon heaps of references to their songs and their history. It ends with Blossom trying to quote one of their songs, messing it up, and saying "Aw who cares? It's just a song by some dumb old band anyway!" Shortly after it aired, a blogger posted an angry rant about how terrible the show was was for insulting such legendary musicians.
This page uses content from TV Tropes. The original article was at CompletelyMissingThePoint.
The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of this article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.
Retrieved from "http://72.14.177.54/Tv_tropes/Completely_Missing_The_Point"
Personal tools