History Main / GenreBlindness

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by King Boo in VideoGame/LuigisMansion when he says, "Who honestly thinks mansions are won in contests? Talk about stupid. What do they feed you Mario Bros. anyways? Gullible soup?"

* In ''[[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Wrath of the Lich King]]'', the titular character makes every Bond Villain mistake in the book. For almost every major blow your character deals to the Scourge, the Lich King makes some kind of appearance, many of them in person! Yet, except in one instance when he's provoked to an UnstoppableRage, the most he does is pull you in, [[DeathIsCheap kill you]], and then toss you aside without reanimating or corrupting you in any way, ''fully knowing'' you'll resurrect and come after him again later. (In fact, you can resurrect and then run [[TooDumbToLive right back to where he's still standing]], and he'll pull a WhatTheHellHero before ''doing it again''.) Instead of killing you for real, he often makes a small speech, punishes a minion, or sends a RedShirt lieutenant on you, before walking away. It was something criticized by many players, the writers falling into the cliche of making Arthas, formerly a terrifying badass, a pathetic Bond Villain.
** In the end, it's not Genre Blindness at all. He's DangerouslyGenreSavvy, but covers it with a lot of [[ObfuscatingStupidity Obfuscating Bond]] [[BondVillainStupidity Villain Stupidity]]. [[spoiler: The only reason he left the players alive as long as he did was that he ''wanted'' them to become stronger than he is. The entire fight is Arthas giving more and more to the battle, until he finally holds nothing back and fights with his full strength. If the players die, unfortunate, but still good minions. If they ''don't'', he's found minions that surpass even his ''own'' immense power, which is what he ''wants'', being a necromancer with near-unbreakable control over his resurrected minions, and the ability to trap souls in his blade. The raid can't actually slay him on its own - either you're weaker and he kills you, or you're stronger, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment and he]] ''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption kills you]]''. Knowing that [=NPCs=] are next to useless compared to players, he begins his reanimation ritual, mocking the frozen Tirion while he and the crippled and restrained Bolvar watch helplessly. And, in the end, he only loses because Tirion's rescue subverts every boss battle trope that WoW has. When, in any other Final Boss Battle, does an ''NPC'' disarm and permanently paralyze the boss, turning him into a glorified ''training dummy''? Arthas, with 10% HP remaining, can actually be struck by weak melee hits until death (which can take something like an hour, if Tirion is the only one doing it). Let's rephrase that: Arthas, the BigBad of an entire expansion, dies because an NPC gets up off the ground after [[TheProtagonist the party]] dies, and [[PrecisionFStrike flipping]] ''solos'' him. '''''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Outside of a cutscene.]]''''']]

* Horace Hogan (yes, Hulk's nephew) faced Meng on the April 15, 1999 episode of ''[[Wrestling/{{WCW}} Thunder]]''. At one point, Horace gave Meng a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_holds#Sunset_flip sunset flip]] for a 2-count. He tried it again and Meng gave him the [[{{FinishingMove}} Tongan Death Grip]] for his troubles.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by King Boo in VideoGame/LuigisMansion when he says, "Who honestly thinks mansions are won in contests? Talk about stupid. What do they feed you Mario Bros anyways? Gullible soup?"

** In the end, it's not Genre Blindness at all. He's DangerouslyGenreSavvy, but covers it with a lot of [[ObfuscatingStupidity Obfuscating Bond]] [[BondVillainStupidity Villain Stupidity]]. [[spoiler: The only reason he left the players alive as long as he did was that he ''wanted'' them to become stronger than he is. The entire fight is Arthas giving more and more to the battle, until he finally holds nothing back and fights with his full strength. If the players die, unfortunate, but still good minions. If they ''don't'', he's found minions that surpass even his ''own'' immense power, which is what he ''wants'', being a necromancer with near-unbreakable control over his resurrected minions, and the ability to trap souls in his blade. The raid can't actually slay him on its own - either you're weaker and he kills you, or you're stronger, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment and he]] ''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption kills you]]''. Knowing that [=NPCs=] are next to useless compared to players, he begins his reanimation ritual, mocking the frozen Tirion while he and the crippled and restrained Bolvar watch helplessly. And, in the end, he only loses because Tirion's rescue subverts every boss battle trope that WoW has. When, in any other Final Boss Battle, does an ''NPC'' disarm and permanently paralyze the boss, turning him into a glorified ''training dummy''? Arthas, with 10% HP remaining, can actually be struck by weak melee hits until death (which can take something like an hour, if Tirion is the only one doing it). Let's rephrase that: Arthas, the BigBad of an entire expansion, dies because an NPC gets up off the ground after [[TheProtagonist the party]] dies, and [[PrecisionFStrike flipping]] ''solos'' him. '''''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Outside of a cutscene.]]''''']]
*** This is a ''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]]'' moment if you're in a raid with GenreSavvy people who don't know how the fight plays out. [[spoiler:Yell out over voice chat "goddamn it, WIPE, ''WIPE!''" and listen to the panic and confusion when everyone dies instantly. Then listen to the ''awe'' when the ''rest'' of the scene plays out...]]
* In ''UnchartedDrakesFortune,'' Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher and Victor Sullivan witness firsthand that [[spoiler: the legend of El Dorado is largely twisting of reality over the ages, and that El Dorado is a big, golden coffin containing a mummy that turns people into [[UnexpectedGenreChange ageless zombies]]]]. In the sequel, ''Among Thieves,'' Nathan and Elena are just as incredulous as Chloe Frazer at the suggestion that [[spoiler: the Cintamani Stone could have some sort of supernatural or at least biologically enhancing property about it,]] often even saying "Do you really believe in this stuff?"

* In ''KingdomHearts: BirthBySleep'', Master Xehanort is often trusted by the heroes (particularly [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Terra]]) despite being so ObviouslyEvil it hurts.

* Rare in ''BobAndGeorge'', but when Dr. Wiley distracts Mega Man with "there's something behind you" -- ''[[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/041202 he forgets to run away]]''.

* Aelita in one episode of ''Series/CodeLyokoEvolution''. XANA makes a specter that resembles her mother and she buys it hook line and sinker. Note that this is the third time X.A.N.A. has used a spectre to trick Aelita with her dead parents.

Genre Blindness is what keeps the cast of ''ThreesCompany'' leaping to outrageous conclusions even after the hundredth stupid misunderstanding, instead of sitting down and talking things out. It makes young girls go for walks alone in the woods after midnight without a flashlight or a weapon when there's an axe murderer or a vampire around. It makes the supergenius {{supervillain}}s in JamesBond movies stuff the hero into an elaborate melodramatic DeathTrap from which he inevitably escapes instead of [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just shooting him]]. It's why a ProfessionalWrestling referee always holds {{face}}s to the strictest letter of the rules, even as the {{heel}}s break every rule in the book behind his back. It is one of the engines that drive the classic 1960s-70s sitcom.

** Twilight Sparkle, the [[IncrediblyLamePun mane]] character, insists that "the future of Equestria does not rest on me making friends.'' [[SpoilerOpening Read the title again]] and take a guess [[ForegoneConclusion how that pans out]].

* On ''Series/{{Cops}}'' or any RealityShow featuring criminals running from the cops, as well as jail, routinely features suspects who are surprised that their attempts to run from the police are unsuccessful and resisting police officers doesn't go so well for them.
** This is likely caused by selective editing. It's less entertaining to have the suspects surrender quietly. Well, once in a while it's funny like in the example below where it's the guy's second time on the show, but that's funny precisely because it's a rare subversion of this. Presumably, if shows like ''Series/{{Cops}}'' show chase scenes, then the kind of people who watch that show want to see chase scenes, or the producers think they do. So when suspected criminals don't run, it just gets edited out of the show. Unless ''Series/{{Cops}}'' reports on the percentage of times suspects run even if they don't get filmed, or makes a point to show every single case they follow an officer along on, or something?
* The whole "To Catch A Predator" segments on ''Series/{{Dateline}}''. People, the second Chris Hansen shows up (instead of the jailbait you met over the internet), points out the camera, and asks you to take a seat, just ask where the cops are and turn yourself in rather than embarrass yourself further.
** At least one guy simply walked out of the house and laid down on the lawn with his hands behind his head, waiting for the cops. This would have been GenreSavvy on his part [[SubvertedTrope had it not been]] '''[[WhatAnIdiot his second time on the show.]]'''
** Genre savvy actually led to one guy's ''death''. As soon as he saw Chris Hansen and company pulling into his driveway, [[DrivenToSuicide he killed himself]]. Perhaps we should be grateful for the genre blindness.

* The reporters from [[http://www.theonion.com/content/video/experts_agree_giant_razor_clawed this]] ''Website/TheOnion]] segment.

* The reporters from [[http://www.theonion.com/content/video/experts_agree_giant_razor_clawed this Onion segment]].
* On ''[[{{Maury}} Maury Povich]]'', you'd think the people who are brought out to be ambushed with big secrets would guess ahead of time what was about to happen. This is particularly {{egregious}} on "cheating man" shows, when they put a suspected cheater in the green room with a sexy decoy to see if he makes a move. Naturally, the guy ''always'' takes the bait -- if he'd ever seen the show, he'd know there was a camera taping his every move.
** Of course he might just figure that he might as well be hung for a thief as a liar, so....

** ''Series/{{Justified}}'' lampshaded this when a corrupt cop wonders whether he should make a run for it. He is too proud to subject himself to the embarrassment of being chased down and then apprehended like all those idiots that are shown on TV. On the other hand he figures that the ones who get away are not shown on TV since audiences do not want to see the bad guys get away. While he ponders this, the heroes make their move and he gives up easily. He was Genre Savvy to know he was screwed from the very start and he was just hoping that the good guys would have the Idiot Ball this time.

* Aelita in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyokoEvolution. XANA makes a specter that resembles her mother and she buys it hook line and sinker. Note that this is the third time X.A.N.A. has used a spectre to trick Aelita with her dead parents.

* Aelita in one episode of Code Lyoko Evolution. XANA makes a specter that resembles her mother and she buys it hook line and sinker. Note that this is the third time X.A.N.A. has used a spectre to trick Aelita with her dead parents.

* And how long will it take for the Brain or ''ComicBook/Iznogoud'' to understand that the problem in their quest for power is not Minus or Dilat Larat, but themselves?

* And how long will it take for the Brain or for Iznogoud to understand that the problem in their quest for power is not Minus or Dilat Larat, but themselves?

** And Zuko tends to be fairly Genre Blind throughout. No, the golden egg on the pedestal that we found in the [[TempleOfDoom ancient and seemingly abandoned temple fortress]] couldn't possibly be booby-trapped. Then here comes the flood of glue.

* While still GenreSavvy, Sokka from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has had one or two moments of Genre Blindness. Most notable was in [[spoiler:"The Boiling Rock", where he tries to talk to Suki while still wearing his guard disguise. Later, he does ''the same thing'' when he tries to talk to his father.]]

* While most of the cast members of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' are GenreSavvy, there are a few exceptions, particularly among the Azurites. In particular, Lord Shojo actually sits and strokes a [[RightHandCat white cat]] but no one sees him as the cunning Chessmaster that he is until Haley figures it out.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' had Clark go through a WonderfulLife experience. It takes him over a quarter of the episode to realize what happened. Despite seeing all the alterations to reality, he kept going all "What's wrong with you guys? Don't you remember me?"

* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' Scully ought to have realized after a while that her persistent scepticism is misguided. Eventually, she ''did''. It's a theory that her scepticism dropped as the show ran its course... she just kept contradicting Mulder just to be contrary.

* Comically averted by Morgan Grimes on ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', when his obsessive knowledge of bad Kung-Fu movies helps him realize [[spoiler: Shaw faked a fight with several Ring agents and has actually been working with them]]. In fact Chuck and Morgan both show significant multiple-genre awareness throughout the series.

** Typically played straight with Sarah and Casey, who are often left confused by the antics and comments of their more genre savvy partners.
*** Sarah in particular suffers from this. Casey, at least, recognizes that you should never say things like "[[TemptingFate one last mission]]" and displays a much better grasp of popular culture.

* In the Taiwanese CopShow ''Black and White'' they meet an undercover and ask him to find some information. The guy is already leaving when he turns around and declares "Please remind the chief that he promised to [[{{Retirony}} retire me after this case.]] I have promised my [[FatalFamilyPhoto girlfriend that I'll marry her soon. My boy is already five years old and still illegitimate..."]] This ''complete'' and ''utter'' lack of genre savvyness had me cringe in my seat as if I was watching someone take a head dive into a shark basin. And for good measure another cop explains that "[[TemptingFate He's the last surviving undercover in that group]]." It was just painful.

* They might have gotten better in later seasons but throughout Season One, the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' boys were always fighting about if the problem of the week was supernatural or not. With the exception of "The Benders," where it was just human cannibals, you would have thought with their years of training they would know better than that.
** In all fairness, in-universe they presumably follow a lot of false leads looking for supernatural things, which aren't shown in episodes because they're boring.

* Katherine Reimer in ''{{Jekyll}}''; when you're all alone with Mr. SuperpoweredEvilSide, who's explicitly warned you to make sure that the lights are ''never ever'' out when the good personality isn't firmly in control, anyone who's seen a single horror movie ''might'' want to think of some ways to disable the security system that don't involve drugging him and cutting off the power to the entire huge, soundproofed house...
* The main characters of ''TheBigBangTheory'', being humongous nerds, should probably have no problem with sidestepping their Genre Blindness, maybe realizing they are at least in a situation similar to a ''ThreesCompany''-type sitcom... Sadly (and gladly...?) they never do. It works just fine, though, so no biggie.
* An interesting example with the police in OrphanBlack. They haven't yet made the mental leap to clones despite all the evidence of identical people involved in a murder, but they're smart enough to use the evidence they have well - to the point where they're closing in on Clone Club without really knowing what they're looking for.

* Arthur from ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' has got himself a bad case. ItsProbablyNothing ''and'' LetsSplitUpGang within five minutes of each other? He probably gets it from his dad, who lets wandering weirdos stay at Camelot far too often for someone who's as paranoid about magic as he is.
** When two people carrying ornate staffs show up at his castle, what does the magic-hating Uther do? [[TerribleJudgeofCharacter He gives them a room]].
** Arthur is pretty genre-blind for ''missing the fact that Merlin is a sorcerer.'' [[spoiler: ''For five entire seasons.'' Merlin has to tell him face-to-face!]]
** Although Arthur is a bit of a deconstruction in that he constantly curses his inability to see the truth, wonders how fit he is for command if he keeps making these decisions, and goes into HeroicBSOD in the series four finale when he feels that most of his people have died because his [[GenreBlind Genre Blindness]]. Although, give him credit, he did turn into GoodIsNotDumb in series four, and honestly did suspect his uncle several times.

* The characters in ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' and ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' are usually pretty GenreSavvy, but in Season 4 of ''Atlantis'', Samantha Carter has two instances of genre blindness combined with ArbitrarySkepticism: The first where she is skeptical about [[spoiler:Teyla's visions]]; the second where she is skeptical about [[spoiler:John's time-travel story]]. Given her wacky adventures as a member of [=SG-1=], and the mission reports from Atlantis that she would have read about, she ''really'' should have known better.

*** Hammond has at least one instance of GenreBlindness himself, in the third season, when Daniel is hallucinating and Hammond and everyone else dismisses it as schizophrenia. By this point Daniel has already been presumed dead two or three times (and the entire team has come back from the dead at least once), they have dealt with bizarre alien [[TheVirus viruses]], the team has used TimeTravel and negotiated a peace treaty with the help of [[TheGreys Roswell greys]]... but if Daniel says he sees something no one else can, he must be crazy!
**** To be fair, Daniel thought he was going crazy, too.

* Almost any character in ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' is afflicted with this, it would actually be quite a bit quicker to come up with a list of characters who aren't Genre Blind. A few quick examples:
** This also goes for anytime they try and make a deal with a bad guy to the point where when a bad guy keeps his word it is pretty difficult to argue it isn't an example of TheUntwist.

* In one episode of [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]], Xander and Giles make the mistake of enlisting Spike's help at one point, and he just outright tells them he's going to now betray them, asking if they've all forgotten he's an evil demon who hates them.

* Almost any character in PowerRangers is afflicted with this, it would actually be quite a bit quicker to come up with a list of characters who aren't Genre Blind. A few quick exapmles:

[[folder:Film]]

* The Cy-bugs in ''WreckItRalph''. They are the only characters who don't seem to realize that they are in a video game. Unfortunately, this means that they do not know when to stop, so they actually pose a bigger threat than any of the GenreSavvy villains.

* In {{Brave}} Merrida spends way more time consorting with magical creatures in mysterious woods then any sensible Scottish girl reared on stories about TheFairFolk has any business doing.

** Almost sounds like a modern version of ''Literature/DonQuixote''.

* In ''TimeBandits'', the dwarves don't recognize RobinHood when they see him. [[GenreSavvy Kevin]] attempts to explain after they have lost all their treasure to the poor.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XsAYrmc8Po Any mooks]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsJ5s6CKmog in any]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTTZTweoSJ0 all-against-one]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWvPxP0Lpbs&feature=related martial-arts movie]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1rF3jB0M6g fight scene]] ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kI7YoeckKg ever.]]'' Seriously, after seeing the first dozen or so of their fellows being fed to a human blender, you'd think they'd re-evaluate their strategy, but no. Unless they're relying on ConservationOfNinjitsu (which, being genre blind, they aren't).
** It's the last Mook standing who you really have to feel the sorriest for. If only he'd ever seen a martial arts flick, he'd know to just smile and walk away at that point.
* In ''{{Timecrimes}}'' Hector has clearly never seen or read any stories about TimeTravel, thus he's completely unable to wrap his head around the fact that "that man" is himself from an hour ago, and not some impostor. [[JustifiedTrope This is pretty consistent with how intelligent he's shown to be prior to this point.]]

* The delightfully cheesy 80s film ''American Dreamer'' features a housewife who gets bonked on the head and decides that she's the heroine of her favorite series of books, which feature the female, JamesBond -esque Rebecca Ryan. She manages to live through several assassination plots through sheer luck, dragging along the [[OnlySaneMan only person]] who doesn't buy into her delusion. She's an odd combo of Genre Blind and GenreSavvy, because she seems to be aware of all her tropes but thinks of them as the way the world's supposed to work.

* Any "victim" character in ''TheStrangers'' is so genre blind it's astounding they're not forced to wear dark sunglasses and follow a seeing-eye dog. The first death involves [[spoiler: the husband's friend, Mike, walking into the house after the three killers have already pinned the protagonists down in a corner. The husband, James, has a shotgun pointed at the door to the room they're hiding in. Instead of turning off the deafeningly loud record player and calling out to the couple, Mike slowly....creeps....down....the hall....* BLAM!* .]] It gets really horrid when Kristen, the wife, attempts to [[spoiler: run across the backyard for a radio in the barn. Instead of carefully selecting her steps, she tumbles into a two foot deep trench and [[TwistedAnkle snaps her leg like a twig]].]]

** In Film/ScaryMovie 2, this is parodied, when one girl says: "Okay now, it's important that we don't split up." and the others ignore her and immediately split up and walk away.

* The first ''ScaryMovie'' parodies this when a character being chased by a killer is confronted with two signs pointing towards "Safety" and "Death" respectively. In classic horror movie fashion [[TooDumbToLive she chooses the wrong one]] and, unsurprisingly, is the first casualty of the film.
** [[EddieIzzard Maybe if the first sign said cake instead...]]
** In one of the sequels, this is parodied, when one girl says: "Okay now, it's important that we don't split up." and the others ignore her and immediately split up and walk away.

* In ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', Captain Barbossa retorts Elizabeth Swann's denial of ghost stories by showing her the true, undead forms of himself and his crew.

* Man a Fairy Tale hero. The most common mistakes they make is eating the ForbiddenFruit and [[DoNotTauntCthulhu pissing off]] [[TheFairFolk the fairies]]. When there are aversions, they are usually accompanied by straight examples, with the story turning into a "Right Way/Wrong Way" approach to dealing with fairies. The heroes who play it straight usually get out of it alive owing to their companions and the magical thing that someone gave them, so perhaps that was just learning they were the heroes.