Best TV stupidity of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Sliders picture

Dead Man Sliding - S3-E10

Stupidity: And the end, after sliding to another world, the group is caught on film by someone in her house. Quinn goes (illegally) into the home to get the tape. There is no point to this. Throughout the series, many people have seen them arrive, or leave, and usually when there's a mix up with one of their doubles, they spend so much time trying to convince people they are in fact from another world but can't prove it. Quinn doesn't even bother to see how long they're going to be on that world first.

Bishop73

More Sliders 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
CSI: NY picture

Zoo York - S2-E3

Stupidity: When Mac and Lindsay are reconstructing the stab wound found on their victim on their pig specimen, a couple of the weapons they use are long, thin knives; since they obviously don't match the circular wound, Mac at the very least would know those could be excluded by default.

Cubs Fan

More CSI: NY 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
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
More Star Trek stupidity
The Blacklist picture

The Forecaster (No. 163) - S4-E10

Stupidity: Farnsworth tells Charnquist they've been compromised by a girl listening in on their phone calls and that Charnquist needs to take care of it. He is able to identify the girl, elude FBI, tries to burn his apartment down, is able to gains access to Maggie's apartment and knock out Aram in order to kidnap Maggie. He's a killer who works for someone who has arranged dozen of murders, and knows "take care of her" means kill her. There is absolutely no reason for Charnquist not to have just killed Maggie, Aram, and Fiona. He had opportunity and he ends up killing 3 cops in order to kidnap her and kidnapping Maggie would not have solved anything.

Bishop73

More The Blacklist stupidity
Designing Women picture

Julia Gets Her Head Stuck in a Fence - S4-E8

Stupidity: Once he decided to finally saw into the banister, all Anthony had to do to get Julia's head out was to saw through one of the thin posts on either side of her head. Instead, he saws through an enormous section of the staircase, later causing the governor to accidentally fall through. If he didn't realise that, one of the other designers, all who were looking on, should have. It's a lot to presume they all would have been that careless just for the benefit of a sight gag.

Michael Albert

More Designing Women 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
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
Star Trek: Voyager picture

Unforgettable - S4-E22

Stupidity: When Kellin is hit with the neurolytic emitter, it erases her memories of the outside world. However, the effects aren't immediate and take some time (enough to get her to sick bay and have time to talk to Chakotay). However, she spends her time telling Chakotay to help her remember their relationship, etc. when her memory is gone instead of just making a recording of herself describing the relationship and her feeling which can then be shown to her after her memory is gone. She might not believe the recording, but seeing herself discuss the situation would be better than just relying on Chakotay (who will soon be a stranger she never met) telling her something so unbelievable.

Bishop73

More Star Trek: Voyager 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

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.