History Main / IgnoredExpert

** Hari Seldon in Asimov's ''Literature/{{Foundation}} Series'', even though he did have some listen to him. Partly because the collapse is happening so slowly that people don't really notice beyond occasional "this used to work better in my day". Seldon himself didn't believe it in the prequels until Chetter Hummin showed it to him. In fact, Hummin had Seldon develop psychohistory precisely to find a solution for the problem. He's actually put on trial outright once for treason, but since he says the empire will last for another thousand years he's mostly laughed off and informally exiled to a planet on the galactic fringe. [[BatmanGambit Just as planned.]]

** Durin completely ignores his own father when he is told that mining after mithril to help the Elves might come at the cost at their on kingdom. Guess who is awaken in the depths of Moria.

** ''Film/Godzilla2014'': {{Reconstructed}}. Graham and Serizawa's advice about letting Godzilla deal with the [=MUTOs=] is somewhat speculative on their part and is ignored on somewhat understandable grounds. PlayedStraight in ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', where Monarch advocate seeking ways to coexist with the Titans due to their essential role in Earth's ecology and humanity's inability to kill them all, but the government and military only care about trying to kill all the Titans to make humanity's existence (in their eyes) easier. Ultimately, the military going through with attempting to kill the Titans causes things to go [[FromBadToWorse from bad to]] ''[[FromBadToWorse so much worse]]''.
** ''Film/KongSkullIsland'': Packard could have avoided a lot of casualties if he'd thought to ask for a proper briefing on the dangers of the island once he met a man who'd been living there for 28 years.
** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell Emma Russell]] becomes a [[spoiler:villainous]] one to her captor [[spoiler:(actually her partner-in-crime)]] Alan Jonah when she realizes and warns him that King Ghidorah is forcing the other Titans to ravage their own planet instead of restoring it, only for Jonah to brush it off with InsaneTrollLogic courtesy of being a StrawNihilist.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseRenSerizawa Ren Serizawa]] is a villainous case. He argues that using [[spoiler:the Hollow Earth energy-formula]] for Mechagodzilla without testing it is a bad idea, but his boss Walter Simmons dismisses him. He's ''very'' right, as [[spoiler:the moment the formula is incorporated into the Mecha, Ghidorah's consciousness remnants in the skull being used as the Mecha's brain hijack the machine and take control]].
*** [[Characters/MonsterVerseMarkRussell Mark Russell]] ends up being an Ignored Expert in the novelization when he realizes before Godzilla's first attack in Florida that he's likely going to make landfall at a population center, but those who he tries to warn don't raise the alarm because of Godzilla's positive reputation as a protector.

* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'': Played with. Maggie breaks into a Pentagon meeting to present her theory about the nature of the machines attacking the Earth. The Secretary of Defense John Keller is willing to listen to her, but when she admits she has no evidence, he politely asks her to leave. She later gets herself arrested in the process of trying to find more information on the aliens. Soon after, Keller independently finds evidence that she might have had the right idea, so he collects her from custody.

* ''Literature/TheLastHorizon'': Varic tried to warn the Galactic Union that the Iron Legion was creating an Iron King, but they ignored him until it was almost too late. Varic tried to warn his father that the corpse of an Iron King was too dangerous to keep, but Benri ignored him. Varic tried to explain to the Galactic Union that their combat curriculum was insufficient, but was suspended. By that point, he gave up.

[[folder:Web Original]]

** In Season 2 "[[Recap/CentralParkS2E01CentralDark Central Dark]]", Despite Helen being a native of Weehawken, New Jersey, Bitsy ignores her advice on what direction they should take. This bites her in the butt when her competitors were able to get ahead of her when she tries to head towards the waterfront by following the sign instead of taking Helen's shortcut.
** In Season 2 "[[Recap/CentralParkS2E02MothersDaze Mother's Daze]]", Helen tells Lionel, the hotel bartender, to make Bitsy's drinks at the scheduled time despite Bitsy firing the service bartenders and don't talk to Bitsy about it until she gets back from her day off because she knows how to handle Bitsy. When Lionel is unable to make Bitsy's drink due to having to deal with the other customers and Bitsy goes to him for her drinks, he tells Bitsy to hire back the service bartenders or he'll quit and it goes as well as you expect. After Helen returns from her day off early, she gets Lionel to come back to the Brandenham by getting Bitsy to hire back the service bartenders and giving him a "Sorry, I was wrong" bonus.

* Done in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E7JurassicBark Jurassic Bark]]" one by one, the cast tries to jump into the lava to save the fossil. Each time, they are stopped and the Professor explains that they will ''die'' if they do. He finally reaches a peak of frustration and exclaims "Why is no one listening to me?? Professor! Lava! ''Hot!!''"

* Interestingly enough, the later series ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' (not canonically related to the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse) subverted this, with a flashback revealing that Jor-El was believed, and enacted a plan to save Krypton using a new invention housed in the city of Kandor. But then Brainiac shrunk it, and...
* ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'': [[Creator/RalphBakshi Ralph Bakshi]], when he gave Mighty Mouse a Franchise/{{Superman}}-like origin, created a Jor-El parody who tried (in vain) to warn other residents of the condemned building it'd be demolished.
* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' when Twilight Sparkle tries to warn the citizens of Ponyville of an impending disaster. Of course disasters happen there regularly enough to set your pony watch to, but every pony laughs anyways... until she takes off the Groucho Glasses she inadvertently ended up wearing. With those off, they take her ''deadly'' serious and proceed to fix up all of Ponyville.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' episode "Haunted House Hang-Up," Velma tells Fred and Daphne "I tried to tell you" when they discover a headless spectre is roaming around the haunted mansion the gang is at. (If she did, it was off-screen as at no time did we ever hear her tell them.)
* This is the plot of at least half of the episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2021}}'', where [[OnlySaneMan genuinely brilliant scientist Dr. Quinn]] is invariably SurroundedByIdiots. Refusal to pay attention to Quinn's advice (or increasingly hysterical avowals of how unbelievably stupid everyone else is being) usually gets the undersea station blown up, though this is the kind of comedy series where there's [[NegativeContinuity next to no continuity]] and everyone can be dead at the end of one episode and [[SnapBack back in the next]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "Trash of the Titans", Homer runs for Sanitation Commissioner against incumbent Ray Patterson. Patterson tries to tell Springfielders that Homer has no clue what being an elected official is all about, with all kinds of extravagant promises. Homer wins in a landslide, but true to Ray's predictions, Homer proves himself unqualified for the position, spending his year's budget in one month because he hadn't realized how expensive his campaign promises would actually be, recouping the money by having other cities take their trash to Springfield. This leaves Springfield so badly trashed [[spoiler:that they have to move the town five miles away]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** The scientist stereotype relating to this trope is parodied in ''Recap/SouthParkS13E14Pee''.
** Al Gore is portrayed as this; constantly warning everybody of the dreaded... Manbearpig. The idiotic way that he approaches the problem (although [[AdultsAreUseless all adults on the show tend to be idiots]]), make his endeavors useless. Manbearpig was a complete fabrication of Gore's, though his belief was "proven" when Manbearpig came through to the real world from Imaginationland.[[note]]Much of this is a play on the RealLife Al Gore being regarded by many as a TruthInTelevision example of this trope. ''Website/TheOnion'' treats Al Gore as a literal Jor-El (well, "Gore-Al"): [[http://www.theonion.com/content/news/al_gore_places_infant_son_in Al Gore Places Infant Son in Rocket to Escape Dying Planet]][[/note]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': In the pilot episode, "The Last Son Of Krypton", Jor-El was actually discredited by Brainiac, who realized that Jor-El was right, [[ItsAllAboutMe but wanted to ensure his own survival over that of the Kryptonians]].

* In a flashback episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' Hunter Gathers, and Brock Samson try to tell the rest of OSI that the Guild of Calamitous Intent is still around. No one believes them, ridiculing them for not fighting Sphinx. Sargent Hatred, TheMole for the Guild has Hunter relocated to Guam, and Brock relocated to "Rusty's blanket", a task for rookies. Given that in the present the Guild is a WeirdTradeUnion known to most super-scientists and wizards, something must have happened between then and now.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

** In ''ComicBook/LastSon'', General Zod's backstory was rewritten to include involvement in Jor-El's story. Zod supported Jor-El's claims, but no-one would listen to him either. His motivation for trying to take over Krypton was to [[WellIntentionedExtremist supplant the Science Council and]] ''[[WellIntentionedExtremist force]]'' [[WellIntentionedExtremist everyone to listen]].
** It also happened to other members of the House of El. In ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles'' Sul-El, an astronomer who developed the first Kryptonian telescope, tried to warn the governor of Kandor that he had spotted an -possibly hostile- alien fleet approaching Krypton. He was mocked and despised by everyone until the Vrangs landed and began shooting people off indiscriminately.

** ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles''
*** The naturalist Tio-El understands that the winged beasts are NotEvilJustMisunderstood and have the intelligence and good nature to survive the upcoming deluge. No one listens to him, not even his prophetic brother who foresaw the flood in the first place, until the creatures directly act to rescue them from the flood.
*** Kil-Gor is an inventor who finds a way to measure the tides and maximize the seaweed harvests that his tribe of nomads needs to survive and prosper. Everyone besides his future son-in-law Bur-El sees Kil-Gor as a tinkerer with ideas above his station, and they only accept the value of his ideas after Bur-El risks his life to prove Kil-Gor's theories.
* One issue of the ''ComicBook/JLA1997'', specifically #42, features a city of sentient bacteria living in the folds of a young boy's brain. The bacteria mine the brain tissue to harness neural electricity for energy [[GreenAesop which is slowly killing him]]. One scientist is aware that "the world" is alive and they are killing it, but no-one will listen. Eventually doctors are forced to cut out the city with a laser, killing them all, but before it does the scientist and his wife load their son into a vessel and launch it towards the liver, where "the iron-rich blood will give him powers and abilities undreamt of by our race". The last panel of the comic is the rocket lying on the surface of the liver, with two bacteria moving towards it.

* ''Franchise/JurassicPark'': Every movie has at least one guy who knows more about dinosaurs than everyone else and has to watch his warnings go unheeded, from [[Film/JurassicPark1993 Alan Grant]] to [[Film/JurassicWorld Owen Grady]]. It's especially bad for Ian Malcolm in [[Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark the second movie]] and Grant in [[Film/JurassicParkIII the third one]]; having survived the events of the first movie, they both know first-hand how insanely dangerous an island full of dinosaurs is and yet both deal with people who are far too cavalier for their own good.

->''"Prophet is concerned that this will make the aliens come back... But everyone blows him off, and sure enough, the aliens come back. Wow, who could have seen that coming? If only there were someone around here whose name means "someone who predicts things"!''

* ''Literature/TheDragonBusiness'': When orcs storm King Longjohn’s castle in the second book, a serving girl injures one orc by throwing hot chowder in his face. A second servant tries this with her dish, but the finger sandwiches she’s carrying are less effective.

* In ''Film/{{Stripes}}'', [[DrillSergeantNasty Sgt. Hulka]] repeatedly tries to tell [[GeneralFailure Captain Stillman]] he's unknowlingly led his platoon into Czechoslovakia, who keeps dismissing him, saying "This is my mission. I would appreciate if you let me run it.". Eventually, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Hulka gets so pissed that he hops out of the truck before the platoon is captured by Soviet troops]]. In the end, [[GetOutOfJailFreeCard John and Russell save them and are heralded as heroes]] [[ReassignedToAntartica while Stillman gets reassigned to a weather station in Alaska]].

* ''Film/{{Aquaman}}'': Oceanologist Dr. Stephen Shin appears on the news a few times trying to convince people Atlantis is out there and behind the recent tidal waves of garbage. He's completely ignored and insulted by the TV pundits... which'd be understandable if it weren't for the fact Aquaman's a public figure.

* ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'': After his previous encounter with Peter Venkman goes south, Walter Peck barges in at the Ghostbusters HQ to shut down their ghost containment unit with a police officer and a city-employed electrical-worker in tow. While Peter protests, the electrical-worker takes a look at the equipment and determines that it really isn't a good idea to mess with it. Peck says tells the electrical-worker [[IDontPayYouToThink "I'm not interested in your opinion; just shut it off!]]".

** Galadriel warns Gil-galad and Elrond that she had found clues in the far North that Sauron is out there somewhere trying to regain his power. She gets sent to Valinor and completely ignored out of fear that searching for Sauron might just invite him at their door. Both sides are right on this one. Galadriel is right to search for Sauron, as he did try to gain the power of Seen and the Unseen World in order to gain control over Arda after Morgoth's destruction, while his forces multiplied in secret for centuries. On the other hand, Galadriel does bring Sauron right in her own home his without even knowing.

The Ignored Expert is very similar to TheCassandra, but he also he has an impressive track record to back himself up. Of course, this doesn't help him one bit, and he can still be subject to CassandraDidIt. This can be especially egregious if they were specifically brought in as an ExpertConsultant. If the "expert" is someone totally unrelated to a situation who manages to notice something all the experts working on it have missed, he is an EinsteinSue. An "expert" whose credentials or expertise aren't too clear is TheWormGuy.

* David Duchovny's Ira Kane in ''Film/{{Evolution}}'' and the associated napalming. This has less to do with the government distrusting Kane (which they do thanks to his huge screw-up with the anthrax vaccine) and more with him being a complete JerkAss to his former commanding officer, who's in charge of the napalming.

* ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}''. NASA scientist Hans Zarkov warned that the unusual events were the result of an an attack on the Earth. He was fired from NASA and the authorities rejected his ideas as "irrational". It turned out that he was absolutely correct: the phenomena were sent by the Emperor Ming to amuse himself.

** In [[Film/Godzilla1954 the original film]], guess how Tokyo ended up when Dr. Yamane told them to never use lights on Godzilla? In ''Film/GodzillaRaidsAgain'', the military were wise enough to listen to him.
** ''Film/Godzilla1998'': ZigZagged. Nick discovers through blood testing that Godzilla is pregnant and has arrived in Manhattan to reproduce. He's believed up until his confidential data is leaked (by his girlfriend, Audrey), and then his idea is discredited... for... some... reason. Elsie does convince Colonel Hicks to sweep the city just in case, but by then it's too late: the eggs are real and they're already hatching. If it weren't for Nick and the DGSE already having discovered the nest, this would have turned into an apocalyptically stupid blunder.