History Main / BoredWithInsanity

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' mentions that this happened to the second title character, Sirius Black. He's introduced as an AxCrazy {{Fantastic Terrorist|s}} who betrayed the Potters to [[BigBad Voldemort]] and murdered another former friend, Peter Pettigrew, in an explosion that also killed a dozen {{Muggles}}. When the authorities caught him, he was LaughingMad--presumably brought on by Voldemort's [[OnlyMostlyDead apparent]] death, and not helped by the Black family's history of mental illness or by the [[EmotionEater joy-sucking]] {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, called Dementors, that guard [[TheAlcatraz Azkaban]]. But Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge visited Sirius not long before the latter busted out in the first known escape in Azkaban's history.[[note]][[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire The next book]] mentions that another of Voldemort's followers secretly escaped over a decade before Sirius, though Sirius was the first to escape on his own while the latter escapee had help from his parents.[[/note]] Fudge later recalls that Sirius was unnervingly lucid, appearing unaffected by all the Dementors outside his cell and merely bored by his surroundings. Sirius ultimately turns out to have become TooBrokenToBreak, fueled by ThePowerOfHate instead of by any positive feelings that the Dementors could drain. It helps that he's [[spoiler:actually innocent: ''Peter'' betrayed the Potters and, when Sirius hunted him down for retribution, faked his own death by causing the explosion and cutting off his own finger before turning into a rat and fleeing down a drain. (In truth, Sirius was laughing incoherently because he was so distraught.) Without much happiness left for the Dementors to consume, Sirius came to rely on anger over his friends' deaths and his wrongful imprisonment to keep himself going. Eventually, the realization that Peter was still alive and in a position to hurt Harry gives Sirius the motivation he needs to break out.]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' mentions that this happened to the second title character, Sirius Black. He's introduced as an AxCrazy {{Fantastic Terrorist|s}} who betrayed the Potters to [[BigBad Voldemort]] and murdered another former friend, Peter Pettigrew, in an explosion that also killed a dozen {{Muggles}}. When the authorities caught him, he was LaughingMad--presumably brought on by Voldemort's [[OnlyMostlyDead apparent]] death, and not helped by the Black family's history of mental illness or by the [[EmotionEater joy-sucking]] {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, called Dementors, that guard [[TheAlcatraz Azkaban]]. But Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge visited Sirius not long before the latter busted out in the first known escape in Azkaban's history.[[note]][[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire The next book]] mentions that another of Voldemort's followers secretly escaped over a decade before Sirius, though Sirius was the first to escape on his own while the latter escapee had help from his parents.[[/note]] Fudge later recalls that Sirius was unnervingly lucid, appearing unaffected by all the Dementors outside his cell and merely bored by his surroundings. Sirius ultimately turns out to have become TooBrokenToBreak, fueled by ThePowerOfHate instead of by any positive feelings that the Dementors could drain. It helps that he's [[spoiler:actually innocent: ''Peter'' betrayed the Potters and, when Sirius hunted him down for retribution, faked his own death by causing the explosion and cutting off his own finger before turning into a rat and fleeing down a drain. (In truth, Sirius was laughing incoherently because he was so distraught.) Without much happiness left for the Dementors to consume, Sirius came to rely on anger over his friends' deaths and his wrongful imprisonment to keep himself going. Eventually, the realization that Peter was still alive and in a position to hurt Harry gave Sirius the motivation he needed to break out.]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' mentions that this happened to the second title character, Sirius Black. He's introduced as an AxCrazy {{Fantastic Terrorist|s}} who betrayed the Potters to [[BigBad Voldemort]] and murdered another former friend, Peter Pettigrew, in an explosion that also killed a dozen {{Muggles}}. When the authorities caught him, he was LaughingMad--presumably brought on by Voldemort's [[OnlyMostlyDead apparent]] death, and not helped by the Black family's history of mental illness or by the [[EmotionEater joy-sucking]] {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, called Dementors, that guard [[TheAlcatraz Azkaban]]. But Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge visited Sirius not long before the latter busted out in the first known escape in Azkaban's history.[[note]][[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire The next book]] mentions that another of Voldemort's followers secretly escaped over a decade before Sirius, though Sirius was the first to escape on his own while the latter escapee had help from his parents.[[/note]] Fudge later recalls that Sirius was unnervingly lucid, appearing unaffected by all the Dementors outside his cell and merely bored by his surroundings. Sirius ultimately turns out to have become TooBrokenToBreak, fueled by ThePowerOfHate instead of by any positive feelings that the Dementors could drain. It helps that he's [[spoiler:actually innocent: ''Peter'' actually betrayed the Potters and, when Sirius hunted him down for retribution, faked his own death by causing the explosion and cutting off his own finger before turning into a rat and fleeing down a drain. (Sirius's incoherent laughter was in fact an expression of how distraught he felt.) Without much happiness left for the Dementors to consume, Sirius was running solely on anger over his friends' death and his wrongful imprisonment. Eventually, the realization that Peter was still alive and in a position to hurt Harry gave Sirius the motivation he needed to break out.]]

->'''Lenore:''' ''"You've gone mad!"''\\
'''Hector:''' ''"I've been mad. This doesn't feel like that. Maybe I've gone sane."''

->''"At first, I went mad, of course. But after a few millennia, I got bored with that, too, and went sane. '''Very''' sane."''
-->-- '''Paradox''', ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce''

[[folder:Film (Live Action)]]

* ''ComicBook/TheJoker's'' done this multiple times, to the point that the character is often portrayed as [[HollywoodPsych "super sane"]], not being nearly as crazy as everyone else is. Whenever Batman appears to die, in fact. Or once when faced with an EldritchAbomination.

-->'''Maxie''': ''[After witnessing an explosion that kills his nephew]'' ...Get my toga.
* Mr. Myxzptlk is said to go through cycles like this every few eons in ''Comicbook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'', 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 millennia.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': The kids remark from time to time that the only thing they find strange anymore is that they don't find anything strange anymore. Constantly {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Marco, who often remarks, deadpan, on how utterly insane their lives have become. Let's see: started with aliens, added shapechanging, destroyed some spaceships, traveled through time...again, manipulated by god-alien, bartered hair and holograms for tour guide on distant planet, the oatmeal issue...and that's just the beginning.

* The controversial and sometimes-cut 21st chapter of ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' has [[spoiler:Alex outgrowing his sadism because he's just not that interested in "the old ultra-violence" anymore]].

---> Obviously, he reasoned, if sticking screws up your nose was madness, then numbering them and keeping them in careful compartments was sanity, which was the opposite-

--> ''"I was mad, now I am in my senses; I was Don Quixote of La Mancha, I am now, as I said, Alonso Quixano the Good"''

--->'''Angel''': You asked for a soul, I didn't! It almost ''killed'' me! I spent [[HeroicBSOD a hundred years trying to come to terms with infinite remorse]]! You spent three weeks [[BasementDweller moaning in a basement]], and then you were fine! What's fair about that?!

* Wrestling/SamiCallihan had long come to realize he was little "weird" by the time EVOLVE started up but had also come to embrace it, loudly updating anyone who would listen about his ever changing obsessions. Then he got suspended for attacking Wrestling/ElGenerico and was deeply remorseful, vowing to go on a {{redemption quest}} to make up for it during his banned days. It wasn't until Dave Finlay [[WarriorTherapist beat some sense]] in Sami that he realized obsession and insanity were ''problems'' though. And despite gaining a desire to be sane, he still really wasn't.[[/folder]]

'''Shiki:''' "...... I don't get it. If you hated me so much, why are you forgiving me?"\\

* Played with in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', where Sheogorath remains a CloudCuckoolander, but is noticeably calmer and more inclined to PetTheDog than before. [[spoiler: This is heavily implied to be because they are really the Champion of Cyrodiil, who became the ''[[LegacyCharacter new]]'' Sheogorath at the end of ''Shivering Isles'' and chooses to be a far [[BenevolentBoss more]] [[TookALevelInKindness benevolent]] deity than their predecessor]].

--> '''Superman''': Self-help books? You don't seem the type.
--> '''Vandal Savage''': (''Shrugs'') I read [[AfterTheEnd whatever I can find]]. Besides I've got ''issues'', what with [[ApocalypseHow/Class3A destroying the Earth]] and all.
* [[GreatGazoo Puck]] from ''{{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}}'' noted that for all his centuries being a GreatGazoo, he had never tried the role of the StraightMan--which is why he [[spoiler:invented the identity of [[TheStoic Owen Brunett]]]].

* Fujiwara no Mokou from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''. We only meet her after she's calmed down, but apparently she spent 300 years in a state where she could only preserve her sense of identity by killing everyone she met. And then got bored of that so she spent 300 years doing ''nothing''. And then she got better.

Usually, this is more of a throwaway piece of dialogue or plot to explain how a character has managed to go back to normal or left the ranks of {{Cloudcuckoolander}}s. Of course, it is ''by definition'' uttered by an UnreliableNarrator, so they may or may not be as sane as they claim.

There are many causes for insanity. Too many, honestly. However, insanity does have [[SanityHasAdvantages its limits]]; specifically, if you [[{{Cap}} go past 32,767]] you roll over the "insane-o-meter" and go back to being sane. Other characters simply grow bored with being insane and choose to become sane again. [[EpiphanyTherapy So they do.]]

* In the last chapter of ''Literature/DonQuixote'', a poster boy for LoonyFan of ChivalricRomance, his FanDisillusionment is so great that he gets BoredWithInsanity and comes back to his senses.

* [[GreatGazoo Puck]] from ''{{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}}'' noted that for all his centuries being TheTrickster, he had never tried the role of the StraightMan--which is why he [[spoiler:invented the identity of [[TheStoic Owen Brunett]]]].

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013:'' Lara theorizes at one point that [[BigBad Mathias]] is "so beyond crazy that maybe he's come right back around to some kind of sane."

* Ishamael, TheDragon for [[GodOfEvil the Dark One]] in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''. When we first see him he is easily angered, has NoIndoorVoice, and is basically inhuman, and he's so gone so insane that [[AGodAmI he believes]] he ''is'' the Dark One. After he dies and gets a new body, he's reached the other side of insanity; his new incarnation Moridin is a calm, patient [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who regularly draws on [[TheDarkSide the True Power]], which is supposed to be addictive and madness-inducing, with no negative side-effects. He's still a nihilistic OmnicidalManiac, but he's perfectly logical and philosophical in his reasoning. He gradually degrades back toward his original personality- the cost of being DrunkOnTheDarkSide.

*** Given that he once attacked someone for having an improperly-set clock, his problem is simply a ''different'' form of insanity, probably an extremely severe form of [[HollywoodPersonalityDisorders Hollywood OCD]].

* In ''Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehog'', Dr. Eggman pulled off something similar in the ten issues following his descent 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.

--> [after witnessing an explosion that kills his nephew] ...get my toga.

* 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 controlled 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 acting 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.

** Played with in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', where Sheogorath remains a CloudCuckoolander, but is noticeably calmer and more inclined to PetTheDog than before. [[spoiler: This is heavily implied to be because they are really the Champion of Cyrodiil, who became the ''[[LegacyCharacter new]]'' Sheogorath at the end of ''Shivering Isles'' and chooses to be a far [[BenevolentBoss more]] [[TookALevelInKindness benevolent]] deity than their predecessor]].

** Similarly, the Bursar of [[WizardingSchool Unseen University]] is so insane that he sometimes hallucinates that he's sane. 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.

* ''SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}}'' did this apparently, in an alternative future featuring in a run of the ''ComicBook/XForce'' series while Cable was raising Hope. 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 split personality he developed on purpose in order to be able to play hangman (complete with a college graduation hat), decides his other personality is too intelligent and kills it, and then gets bored, goes sane, more or less, and gets freed by a bunch of scavengers. All in 800 years. "Sane" is a relative term for [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Deadpool]].

* Professor Paradox from ''Franchise/Ben10''. His debut episode in ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]'' called (wait for it) "Paradox" has him explain that he lived trapped in a no-man's-land outside of time at the edge of a black hole for almost ten thousand years, [[AndIMustScream completely aware and not aging]], after a time travel experiment went wrong. He went insane at first, then became tired of that, and became sane again. ''Very'' sane, as he put it, to the point of seeing reality exactly as it is, allowing him to become a TimeMaster.

* Professor Paradox from ''Franchise/Ben10''. His debut episode in ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]'' called (wait for it) "Paradox" has him explain that he lived for trapped in a no-man's-land outside of time for almost ten thousand years, [[AndIMustScream completely aware and not aging]], after a time travel experiment went wrong. He went insane at first, then became tired of that, and became sane again. ''Very'' sane, as he put it, to the point of seeing reality exactly as it is, allowing him to become a TimeMaster.

* ''SelfDemonstrating/{{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. "Sane" is a relative term for [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Deadpool]].

* Played with as part of one ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' fiction. The main character became a Hollow while maintaining his human mind; the stress of realizing he was a monster that needed to devour souls to survive drove him to insanity. Eventually the insanity broke and he tried other methods of passing the time that involved less murders.
* ''Fanfic/DoingItRightThisTime'': Asuka had gone through huge emotional and psychological trauma during the original timeline (her mother's madness and death; her father's adultery and abandonment; people using her like a doll; her surrogate family and friends hurting her, betraying her or leaving her; constant beatings, humiliations and even a MindRape at the "hands" of alien monsters; the boy she liked treating her as masturbation fodder after spending months clueless to her hints; getting chopped into pieces and eaten alive...) and it had rendered her mad and unstable. Even though she survived the end of the world, she was so broken she decided to kill herself. Then she got sent to the past. She was so thrilled with having a second chance she decided to forget about her mental issues and start from scratch. [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/4047455/ In an outdated version of a scene of the second chapter]] She blatantly says she got bored of being crazy.

* Professor Paradox from ''Franchise/Ben10''. His debut episode in ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]'' called (wait for it) "Paradox" has him explain that he lived for hundreds of thousands of years trapped in a no-man's-land outside of time, [[AndIMustScream completely aware and not aging]], after a time travel experiment went wrong. He went insane, tired of that, and became sane again. ''Very'' sane, as he put it, to the point of seeing reality exactly as it is, allowing him to become a TimeMaster.

--> '''Vandal Savage''': *''Shrugs''* I read [[AfterTheEnd whatever I can find]]. Besides I've got ''issues'', what with [[ApocalypseHow/Class3A destroying the Earth]] and all.

* Sami Callihan had long come to realize he was little "weird" by the time EVOLVE started up but had also come to embrace it, loudly updating anyone who would listen about his ever changing obsessions. Then he got suspended for attacking Wrestling/ElGenerico and was deeply remorseful, vowing to go on a {{redemption quest}} to make up for it during his banned days. It wasn't until Dave Finlay [[WarriorTherapist beat some sense]] in Sami that he realized obsession and insanity were ''problems'' though. And despite gaining a desire to be sane, he still really wasn't.[[/folder]]

-->'''Angel''': You asked for a soul, I didn't! It almost ''killed'' me! I spent [[HeroicBSOD a hundred years trying to come to terms with infinite remorse]]! You spent three weeks [[BasementDweller moaning in a basement]], and then you were fine! What's fair about that?!