Best TV stupidity of all time

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Pokemon picture

Friend and Foe Alike - S1-E79

Stupidity: After eventually arriving at the stadium, why didn't Ash tell anyone that he was late due to getting kidnapped by Team Rocket? He arrived with half of his Pokémon exhausted and subsequently lost his battle. If he informed everyone about his situation, his battle with Ritchie would likely have been postponed until tomorrow, giving him some much-needed time to rest, which would have given him a bigger chance to win.

More Pokemon stupidity
Santa Clarita Diet picture

The Farting Sex Tourist - S1-E4

Stupidity: Joel finds prints in Serbian and is stressed because they'll never find someone to translate Serbian in Santa Clarita, goes to great lengths to interact with the principal's Serbian grandmother, etc. Google translate can understand Serbian just fine, but this doesn't even occur to him.

Jon Sandys

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Except the 16th century Serbian alphabet isn't available to most people to type into google translate. Plus the script used makes it difficult to distinguish which character is which sometimes even if you could find characters to cut and paste tediously into google translate.

Bishop73

More Santa Clarita Diet stupidity
Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends picture

Percy and the Signal - S2-E7

Stupidity: Sir Topham Hatt is cross with both Percy and James. But why is James being blamed? He had no idea that Sir Topham Hatt didn't actually say that he had to stay in the shed and wait for him. James shouldn't have been blamed since he had thought Sir Topham Hatt actually said that and Percy should've been the only one blamed.

More Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends stupidity
Prison Break picture

Allen - S1-E2

Stupidity: Michael is shown to test the dimensions of the Allen key against a tattoo. Why not just try it in the bolt? It would be a lot more accurate. (00:37:00)

Ssiscool

More Prison Break stupidity
Recess picture

Beyond a Reasonable Scout - S5-E3

Stupidity: Phil the Scout ties a rope to Mikey's see-saw end's handle to lower Gus down without hurting him. Couldn't Mikey just climb off and hold the see-saw down with his hands and lowered Gus's end down slowly?

More Recess stupidity
Death in Paradise picture

Episode #3.6 - S3-E6

Stupidity: The villain concocts a demented plan that puts him at absurd risk (if anything goes wrong, he is caught red-handed) and accomplishes nothing, since it does not make him and his accomplice unlikely suspects any more than anyone in the group. It does not make it look like it was an outsider doing it (no attempt is made to fake a robbery), nor a result of an accident. It makes obvious it was a murder (a knife plunged in the back!) but does not pin the guilt on anyone else in the team, which would have been really easy to do (plant the knife or any of the victim's belongings in anyone's tent) and with the two being in on the scheme without anyone suspecting they were connected to each other, it would have been easy to create an alibi for each other, but they don't have any. It should also be noted that there's no reason why the victim wouldn't have exposed the culprit's crime earlier to his fellow birders, since he knew he was going to harm the animals.

Sammo

More Death in Paradise stupidity
Gilligan's Island picture

Nyet, Nyet, Not Yet - S2-E9

Stupidity: Considering he had a watch on in nearly every other episode, the Professor did not have his watch in this episode where they had a rescue deadline time (11:00) to be picked up along with the two Russians. Even if he forgot to put his watch on, he definitely would have paid attention to what time it was and got everyone to the location well before 11:00 to guarantee the rescue. Instead he relied on Gilligan to come up with the time which failed (an earlier submitted entry explains that part).

More Gilligan's Island stupidity
Sliders picture

The Alternateville Horror - S4-E8

Stupidity: Colin tells the group he saw a ghost (a non-corporal shade) who walked through the door. They laugh at him and blame it on what he was watching on TV or too much sliding. Given everything the group has seen, vampires, a dragon, etc, they should have least checked it out. Quinn himself was once on the astral plane and nobody could see him except one girl who thought she was seeing a ghost, and he could walk through solid objects.

Bishop73

More Sliders stupidity
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries picture

King Memses' Curse - S1-E13

Stupidity: The bad guys tied up, bound and gagged a 100 pounds teenager, but left the policeman they captured completely free of any restraints whatsoever in the same room (no real reason why they wouldn't have killed him).

Sammo

More Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries stupidity
Batwoman picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Stupidity: Batman and his security guy Luke Fox have the worst IT security in America, since the security network of Wayne Enterprises has had the same password for years, and it is just six letters.

Sammo

More Batwoman stupidity
Magnum, P.I. picture

Try to Remember - S2-E14

Stupidity: Magnum totals his car and suffers " a severe concussion, numerous cracked ribs, bruised hip and a contused kidney." The injuries are methodically listed and can't be dismissed, but he's driving, on his own, literally the next day, and the Ferrari (which requires importing pieces, plus an insurance claim) is repaired just a day after. Both are more than miraculous recoveries - and his friends who care this much about him just let him drive in such condition (one has to assume that with damage so severe he'd also be on pain medication, but that's not mentioned).

Sammo

More Magnum, P.I. stupidity
CSI: Miami picture

Point of Impact - S8-E8

Stupidity: After talking to the bartender, Calleigh goes back the lab and talks to Caine, and he wonders if they got a false positive from the vic's blood alcohol. Calleigh then gives a detailed description of how that could happen; Caine already knows how (obviously this was done for the audience, to explain it, but in the context of the show, it makes no sense).

brianjr0412

More CSI: Miami stupidity
More Star Trek stupidity
Fantastic Four: The Animated Series picture

Behold, a Distant Star - S2-E10

Stupidity: When Johnny finds out his father is alive and wanted for murder, he is livid with his sister for telling him neither fact. When Sue decides to tell him the whole story, she asks Reed to pull a photo album from the drawer next to him, which contains a newspaper clipping detailing that their father was wanted for murder. If Sue didn't want Johnny to know about that, she shouldn't have placed the clipping in a photo album, and then kept the photo album in a communal area where Johnny could have easily discovered it at any time. (00:06:19 - 00:07:34)

Phaneron

More Fantastic Four: The Animated Series stupidity
Justified picture

The Promise - S6-E13

Stupidity: Markham lets Ava call her uncle's phone, and she doesn't let on that Boyd answers instead. He later says "I don't trust anyone", but he didn't demand she put the call on speaker for transparency, he's quite happy (at the time) to just hear one side of the call.

Jon Sandys

More Justified stupidity
Ahsoka picture

Show generally

Stupidity: Recurring issue when Ahsoka is fighting with dual sabers - there are often times in a duel when one saber is clashing with the other person, but she still has a hand free with her shoto that she could use to stab/slash and win the fight easily. Would make for shorter battles of course.

Jon Sandys

More Ahsoka stupidity
Dracula picture

The Dark Compass - S1-E3

Stupidity: This highly prepared organisation knows Dracula is coming, but comes armed with guns they're not prepared to use, and allow him to grab a weapon and shoot one of them. Then they give him a tablet but assign the most basic of passwords to the Wi-Fi, rather than disabling it entirely, or even just giving him a Kindle, given the only point of it was access to books. Plot-serving idiocy.

Jon Sandys

More Dracula stupidity
Continuum picture

A Stitch in Time - S1-E1

Stupidity: During a shootout in front of a bank, one of the bank robbers lays his shotgun on the trunk of a car and yells "I'm out!" However, he has 6 additional rounds in a shell holder on the side of the gun. (00:35:20)

More Continuum stupidity
Passions picture

Show generally

Stupidity: On 9/12/05, during Eve's trial, her sister Liz stood up in the courtroom and began a diatribe in which she discussed subject matter relevant to the trial. Ethan then told Eve that this had harmed her chances. Why, then, didn't Ethan ask for a mistrial? A prolonged outburst like that is a classic example of something that would precipitate a mistrial.

DavidK93

More Passions stupidity
Boy Meets World picture

City Slackers - S3-E11

Stupidity: After Cory and Shawn fish Mr. Feeny's watch from the septic tank, he suggests they jump into the lake to clean off. Cory protests, reasoning that it's only 20° outside, to which Feeny dismissively tells them to take a sweater. They then reluctantly abide. Someone of Feeny's education should know better than to allow them to jump into a freezing cold lake. They could both get hypothermia, and they're all currently isolated in the Pocono Mountains with no nearby medical facilities.

Phaneron

More Boy Meets World stupidity

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