Best TV stupidity of all time

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The Flash picture

Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3 - S4-E8

Stupidity: After the power cuts out, Thawne realises an obvious hiding spot and races to the secret room. He sees it's empty and just...stops looking? We literally just saw The Flash take a fraction of a second to scout out an entire enemy base we're told was 22km away! While he's dawdling in the secret room, Iris and Felicity get to Kara, knock out the guards, and get her down the corridor to the lift. He could have checked the entirety of Star Labs 10 times over in that time.

Jon Sandys

More The Flash stupidity
Hogan's Heroes picture

One in Every Crowd - S3-E10

Stupidity: A prisoner, Jack Williams, rats out Hogan and his team to the Germans, so they fake his death and smuggle him back to London for court-martial. What a stupid thing to do. They should just shoot him and be done with it. First, what if he escaped from captivity on the way through occupied Europe? Second, he has done nothing wrong. Being a grass isn't a crime. Third, Hogan and his men are the war criminals - they often engage in combat activities out of uniform. Williams is going to be acquitted.

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

Suggested correction: Not true. The crime he committed was treason, a capital offence under both civil and military law at the time. Being a partisan is not an offence under the Geneva Convention, as these were mainly captured flyers, led by a small team of specialists. To execute a prisoner, as you suggest Hogan's men should do, is murder, also a capital offence at the time.

stiiggy

Nobody from Stalag 13 accompanies Williams back to London - so where is the evidence of his "crime"? Hogan and his men often take part in combat activities both out of uniform and even wearing German uniforms, which is itself a one way ticket to a firing squad.

More Hogan's Heroes stupidity
Batman: The Animated Series picture

Heart of Ice - S1-E3

Stupidity: Ferris Boyle tries to cover up his sabotage of Victor Fries' experiment, but he opts to store the incriminating security tape of the event in a filing cabinet instead of simply destroying the footage.

Phaneron

More Batman: The Animated Series stupidity
Monk picture

Mr. Monk and the Astronaut - S4-E14

Stupidity: Steve Wagner is shown expertly constructing an elaborate hanging machine, but he adds a superfluous complication by having it triggered by a garage door remote control that he posts to the address in question. Anything could (and does) go wrong! Why doesn't he simply have it triggered by a bog standard timing device that you can buy in a hardware store for a tenner? I am not sure I'd trust him with my space shuttle.

More Monk stupidity
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: He was being blackmailed by Gary Roberts. He "reopened" the case as a ruse to kill Roberts.

Bishop73

More Murder, She Wrote stupidity
Westworld picture

Les Écorchés - S2-E7

Stupidity: The highly trained, elite security officer who tracks Angela down to the backups knows exactly what she is, how dangerous she is, and what she's capable of, but still drops his guard, flirts with her, lets her get up close and personal with him, and as a result gives her a clear window to grab his grenade to blow up herself, him, and all the backups.

Jon Sandys

More Westworld stupidity
More Batman stupidity
Star Wars: The Clone Wars picture

Show generally

Stupidity: Whenever General Grievous fights another lightsaber-user, there's almost always a moment with all the sabers crossed dramatically in front of both participants, one preventing the other striking a killing blow. Looks good, but utterly ridiculous, because he's got 4 arms and 4 lightsabers - he could easily block the blade in front of him with one or two arms, and simultaneously swipe at their head and legs, which no-one with two arms could ever defend against. Of course that would make for a lot of very short duels.

Jon Sandys

More Star Wars: The Clone Wars stupidity
Supergirl picture

Medusa - S2-E8

Stupidity: At the beginning, James and Winn argue in whispers about who gets to tell Kara that James is the Guardian, a secret they've been keeping from her, both of them apparently forgetting that she has superhuman hearing.

Cubs Fan

More Supergirl stupidity
Black Lightning picture

The Book of Rebellion: Chapter Three: Angelitos Negros - S2-E10

Stupidity: The SWAT van transporting Khalil comes upon the most obvious setup in the history of setups, a crashed car with a miraculously unharmed woman lying in the street next to it, one arm suspiciously out of view. And of course one highly trained SWAT agent, instead of going in with backup, circling around for a proper look, or driving around (as his teammate suggests) or anything similar, wanders over and is immediately killed for his trouble. And then of course despite being surrounded by armed cops, she somehow manages to kill all of them without a problem (offscreen of course, because there's no way to believably show her single handedly killing about 20 cops).

Jon Sandys

More Black Lightning stupidity
The Vampire Diaries picture

Season 4 generally

Stupidity: Damon and Stefan are trying to get Elena's humanity back - they could have just asked Rebekkah or Klaus or Elijah to compel her to turn it on.

More The Vampire Diaries stupidity
Castle picture

Crossfire - S8-E22

Stupidity: When Castle and Beckett discuss the trap LokSat set for them at the dead drop and any forthcoming retribution, Beckett comments that her dad should be relatively safe from reprisal because he's on business out of town. Someone as smart as Beckett would never make such brain-deadly dumb assumption; considering how powerful and how dangerous he's supposed to be, especially with the resources of the CIA at his disposal, LokSat surely would have no trouble finding and getting to, and certainly no qualms about eliminating, Beckett's dad if it stopped her in her pursuit of him.

Cubs Fan

More Castle stupidity
Goosebumps picture

Stay Out Of The Basement (2) - S1-E13

Stupidity: When the real Dr. Brewer is found in the basement, he has duct tape over his mouth and needs his daughter to remove it for him. His hands are tied around the wrist, but not behind his back, so he could have easily removed the tape from his mouth himself long before he was found.

Phaneron

More Goosebumps stupidity
Little House on the Prairie picture

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1) - S7-E1

Stupidity: Charles and Caroline are dancing at the church social. Charles makes a comment about Laura getting married. Caroline responds with "I'm just dying to call you Grandpa." Mary's son just died. Charles has already been a grandfather. That comment was beyond insensitive, and just plain stupid as written. She should've said, I can't wait to call you Grandpa again.

Ellexx

More Little House on the Prairie stupidity
Spider-Man picture

The Return of Hydro-Man: Part 1 - S5-E7

Stupidity: When Spider-Man is working in the lab, he uses his webbing to barricade the door shut so no-one interrupts him. When Debra Whitman shows up and asks who is in there, he identifies himself as Peter Parker. When he is finished with his work, he leaves out of the window so that by the time the security guards break the door down, he has vanished. Since he used his webbing to keep the door closed, it would be pretty easy for Debra and the security guards to figure out that Peter is Spider-Man since Spider-Man's webbing is at the scene and Peter seemingly vanished into thin air.

Phaneron

More Spider-Man stupidity
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier picture

The Whole World Is Watching - S1-E4

Stupidity: The Dora Milaje arrive to take Zemo. John calmly attempts to talk them down, but it leads to a huge fight when he puts his hand on Ayo's shoulder. There are multiple instances during this fight where they totally would have stabbed John and Lamar with their spears, and are only stopped because Sam and Bucky intervene. While it's understandable they would want to obtain Zemo, attempting to kill two people to do so is completely out-of-character and goes against all of their morals and principles.

Casual Person

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Suggested correction: I watched the scene and I never saw any of them try to straight up murder anyone. They were very skilled and precise in their attacks (for example, pinning John) and wouldn't have murdered anyone.

Bishop73

Here's a link to the scene (https://youtu.be/cpUq-kYMPkc). I counted three times when they almost kill them. First, after Ayo knocks John to the ground after he puts his hand on her shoulder, she attempts to stab him with her spear, prompting John to pick up the shield to stop himself from getting stabbed. There is no way she could have known that he would have picked up the shield, and if he did not do that, she would have totally stabbed him.

Casual Person

Second, there is another attempt where Ayo tries to stab John, which is only avoided because Bucky grabs onto the spear with his metal arm. Third, the two other Dora Milaje get into a fight with Lamar, and there is a point where one of them is about to throw her spear at him, but Sam grabs onto the back of the spear, so she cannot stab him. These are clear attempts to kill John and Lamar and were only avoided because Sam and Bucky intervened.

Casual Person

More The Falcon and the Winter Soldier stupidity
Star Trek: The Next Generation picture

Identity Crisis - S4-E18

Stupidity: When Riker and Worf are searching for Geordi on the holodeck, why don't they just terminate the program, instead of looking for him in the simulated jungle? Would have made it a heck of a lot easier to find him in the relatively small empty holodeck, invisible or not.

wizard_of_gore

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

Suggested correction: Geordi had already mutated and since one of the abilities of the mutation is invisibility, shutting off the holodeck wouldn't have helped as, without being able to see Geordi, it would be impossible to know where or if he was still in the holodeck.

The original stupidity still holds though. As the original poster said, it would be easier to find Geordi in the smaller holodeck, without the simulated jungle, "invisible or not."

wizard_of_gore

No, it wouldn't. Before going to the holodeck, the computer was asked where Geordi was with the response he was no longer on board. This would indicate that any type of scanner would not be able to find him. Plus, how would shutting off the holodeck help? Geordi was now invisible, being invisible would have no shadow and shortly after Worf and Riker had even got to the holodeck, a partially mutated Geordi had already got to the transporter room and beamed himself down to the planet.

I have to agree. How would shutting down the holodeck be useful in finding Geordi since he was now invisible and the scanners on the Enterprise couldn't detect him?

Because of how the Holodeck works, turning off the program would leave him in a small room and standing on the floor, so they could at least try to physically sweep the room. Leaving the program running, he's still invisible, but now a physical sweep would be nearly impossible since he could be in trees above them or hiding below them and not on the same ground level.

Bishop73

More Star Trek: The Next Generation 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
Line of Duty picture

Episode #3.1 - S3-E1

Stupidity: Ronan Murphy is left handed. Watch carefully as he disarms himself. His weapon is replaced in his right hand. In a suspicious shooting, they never thought to check something so basic? (00:04:12)

More Line of Duty 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

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