History Main / BoredWithInsanity

*** Personally, I'd say that he's a little ''too'' sane for my tastes...
*** To me it seems more like a case of OnlySaneMan, just on a universal level.

* Arthas of ''{{Warcraft}} 3'' gradually slips into insanity during his days as a Paladin, but then is mostly back to normal after he returns as a Death Knight, except that he's traded off being LawfulGood for NeutralEvil.

* Arcueid of ''{{Tsukihime}}'' ([[RoadCone Near Side routes]]) goes through this (in the course of one night, nonetheless!) after being "killed" by an [[EnemyWithin out]]-[[EvilFeelsGood of]]-[[SuperPoweredEvilSide control]] Shiki. Except she's a True Ancestor vampire, and arguably the most powerful being on the planet. So instead of dying she lies there regenerating, then goes to [[UnstoppableRage look for vengeance]] - [[CloudCuckoolander until she starts to wonder about who he is, and what kind of person he's like]]...

* Seemingly has happened to Johan in ''{{Anime/Monster}}''. He has been a mass murdering psychopath for pretty much all of his life, but he seems to have become pretty nonchalant about all the evil plots and groups that revolve around him and the possibility that he is the AntiChrist. He has seen a vision of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt several times and while other characters are either horrified or entranced by this, he has grown weary of it and doesn't regard it as a big deal any more. His suicidal impulses can be traced to boredom with his own sociopathy.

** Seeing as how the fiction included living incarnations of abstract ideas, no. But, on the subject of the reality, one cop, Armand Barbier, actually did arrest Norton with the intent of putting him in an asylum. There was a huge backlash from the citizens of San Francisco, including outraged news editorials, and the chief of police soon released Norton from custody saying "that he had shed no blood; robbed no one; and despoiled no country; which is more than can be said of his fellows in that line." While Joshua Norton clearly suffered from megalomania he did so in such a way that let him continue in society in a way he couldn't when he was sane, but had lost everything.
* Also in ''Sandman'', Delirium, the embodiment of madness (and, according to her brother Destruction, by inclusion also the measure of sanity) is forced, when her brother Dream breaks down in the face of an impossible decision, to take charge, and go sane. In this state she is downright scary without being menacing, but when she speaks of this later - having returned to her daft normal self - the memory is so traumatic she can only say "It ''hurt''", while crying.

* Mr. Myxzptlk is said to go through cycles like this every few eons in ''[[{{Superman}} Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?]]'', where he claims to feel he's been random, chaotic, and "silly" for too long, and is just going to be evil for a few milennia.

* [[Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehog Dr. Eggman]] recently pulled off something similar in the ten issues following his decent into insanity in #200. A stray rebuke by another character caused the delusional doctor to begin to mumble and ponder, and seemingly through free-association, brought himself back to sanity, or at least a functional level of madness, depending on one's opinion.

* Arthur Dent in ''[[TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Life, the Universe and Everything]]'' decided to go mad after being stranded on prehistoric Earth for a few years and Ford Prefect tells him this is a good idea (but that insanity is a gradual process and he shouldn't rush). Ford also says that he went mad for a bit and spent several months thinking he was a lemon and jumping in and out of a lake that thought it was a gin & tonic (at least he ''thinks'' it thought it was a gin & tonic... he may have been imagining it) Then he got bored with that, went sane, and tried to learn to fly.

*** His Igor doesn't think he's sane (there's a short section where he wonders if he finally got a sane master, but...ah, no). It is, however, likely that without his meds, Jeremy goes straight through sanity into... ytinasni?

*** In fact the other wizards keep him well supplied with hallucinogens to ''keep'' him thinking he's sane, so he is. Apparently this is a very common hallucination, one shared by most people.

->''"At first, I went mad, of course. But after a few millennia, I got bored with that, too, and went sane. '''Very''' sane."''

->''"At first, I went mad, of course. But after a few millennia, I got bored with that, too, and went sane. ''Very'' sane."''

->''"As I'm sitting there with a severed head in my hand, talking to it - or looking at it and I'm about to go crazy - literally I'm about to go fly away loose and just far apart I say, 'wow. This is insane.'...and I told myself, 'no it isn't. You're saying that and that makes it not insane.' "

* Possibly played with in The Simpsons movie with a particular character, upon being accused of going mad (with power) immediately responds, "Of course I have! Have you ever gone mad without power? It's BORING!"

** See also jokes and/or anecdotes about how insanity is perceived. One famous example: a man gets a flat tire and pulls over, coincidentally outside a mental hospital. As he's changing the tire, a truck passes too close and scatters his lugnuts. While he's pondering what he's going to do about this, he hears someone trying to get his attention. It's a man inside the hospital's fence. "Take one lugnut from each of the other wheels," the patient says, "that will hold on the spare long enough for you to buy some new lugnuts." The man thanks the mental patient and expresses his surprise that he was able to come up with such a clearheaded solution. "I'm in here because I'm crazy," says the patient, "not because I'm stupid."

* An example of sorts in [[RealLife real life]] is people who have manic or depressive phases expressing annoyance and frustration at their condition in their lucid phases. This isn't quite the trope because rather than being bored of their present insanity they are bored the ongoing condition of having been insane and [[NightmareFuel knowing they may become insane again.]]

** Paradox is a bit of a [[DoctorWho Third Doctor]] {{Expy}}, though he brings in other aspects of The Doctor and is distinguished by...not needing a time machine. He has a sack of gumballs. And acquires a companion at the end of his introductory episode. And is very, very annoying.

*** To me it seems more like a case of OnlySaneMan.

* Seemingly has happened to Johan in ''{{Monster}}''. He has been a mass murdering psychopath for pretty much all of his life, but he seems to have become pretty nonchalant about all the evil plots and groups that revolve around him and the possibility that he is the AntiChrist. He has seen a vision of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt several times and while other characters are either horrified or entranced by this, he has grown weary of it and doesn't regard it as a big deal any more. His suicidal impulses can be traced to boredom with his own sociopathy.

* Seemingly has happened to Johan in ''{{Monster}}''. He has been a mass murdering psychopath for pretty much all of his life, but he seems to have become pretty nonchalant about all the evil plots and groups that revolve around him and the possibility that he is the AntiChrist. He has seen a vision of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt several times and while other characters are either horrified or entranced by this, he has grown weary of it and doesn't regard it as a big deal any more. His suicidal impulses can be traced to boredom with his own sociopathy.

* At the Chat-based RPG OnRails, ran on the messageboard ''Casa Dos Jogos'', the RealityWarper (but that for some reason couldn't use his powers, them being controled by his EnemyWithout - that is trying to do an evil SplitPersonalityTakeover, by the way) Loki went crazy through the story, specially after getting his powers and failing to use them when their lives where at risk (reason already mentioned). After years in-game (centuries, actually) he finally snapped - again, and regained his sanity, going from a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} PluckyComicRelief always trying (and failing) to use his powers either in battle or on MundaneUtility to a OnlySaneMan {{Jerkass}} [[TheScrappy hated by even his player]]. Of course, it has been hinted, with him actilng as a Jerkass anytime his EnemyWithout is around even before coming back from crazy, and acting full-jerkass on an LotusEaterMachine scenario - not counting the fact the fact that said EnemyWithout is [[JerkassDissonance a much more charismatic jerkass]] (not counting GodModeSue and ManipulativeBastard), to EnsembleDarkhorse proportions.

* Seemingly has happened to Johan in ''{{Monster}}''. He has been a mass murdering psychopath for pretty much all of his life, but he seems to have become pretty nonchalant about all the evil plots and groups that revolve around him and the possibility that he is the AntiChrist. He has seen a vision of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt several times and while other characters are either horrified or entranced by this, he has grown weary of it and does'nt regard it as a big deal any more. His suicidal impulses can be traced to boredom with his own sociopathy.

Expecting people to do this in RealLife situations will likely get you punched in the face, as mental illnesses are by definition impossible to overcome by "pulling yourself together", much less "[[SingleIssuePsychology going so insane you become sane]]".

* And who can forget Emperor Norton from ''TheSandman?'' According to Delirium, "His madness keeps him sane." And just so you know? Norton was a real person. Reality is stranger then fiction, right?

* This happened once to Alice in ''{{Dilbert}}.'' She's ranting about some bizarre corporate policy, then abruptly stops and realizes that she's suddenly sane. Carol gently tells her to breathe into a paper bag until she gets over it.

* {{Deadpool}} did this apparently, in an alternative future featuring in Cable's most recent comic series. He hides in a meat locker, gets buried within it, goes insane, plays tic tac toe for a few hundred years, gets bored, plays hangman against a personality he developed on purpose in order to be able to play hangman (complete with a college graduation hat thingy), decides his other personality is too intelligent, kills it, and then gets bored, goes sane, more or less, and gets freed by a bunch of scavengers. All in 800 years.

* [[Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehog Dr. Eggman]] recently pulled off something similar in the ten issues following his decent into insanity in #200. A stray rebuke by another character caused the delusional doctor to begin to mumble and ponder, and seemingly through free-association, brought himself back to sanity, or at least a functional level of madness, depending on one's opinion.

* Arthur Dent in ''[[TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Life, the Universe and Everything]]'' decided to go mad after being stranded on prehistoric Earth for a few years and Ford Prefect tells him this is a good idea (but that insanity is a gradual process and he shouldn't rush). Ford also says that he went mad for a bit and spent several months thinking he was a lemon and jumping in and out of a lake that thought it was a gin & tonic (at least he ''thinks'' it thought it was a gin & tonic... he may have been imagining it) Then he got bored with that, went sane, and tried to learn to fly.

***His Igor doesn't think he's sane (there's a short section where he wonders if he finally got a sane master, but...ah, no). It is, however, likely that without his meds, Jeremy goes straight through sanity into...ytinasni?

*** In fact the other wizards keep him well supplied with hallucinagens to ''keep'' him thinking he's sane, so he is. Apparently this is a very common hallucination, one shared by most people.

* Paradox from the ''{{Ben 10 Alien Force}}'' episode (wait for it) "Paradox." He lived for hundreds of thousands of years, went insane, tired of that, and became sane again. Very, ''very'' sane. To the point of seeing reality exactly as it is.

--> ''Arthas: WHO IS THIS "DARKNESS," ANYWAY!?''