History Main / IndubitablyUninterestingIndividual

'''Maude:''' ''[gasp]'' Ned!

* Apart from being the greatest political mind on the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' and therefore the ruthlessly pragmatic ruler of its most powerful city, Lord Havelock Vetinari fits this. His clothes are "the sober, slightly shabby black of a man who doesn't want to waste time in the mornings wondering what to wear". His taste in food is that "a glass of boiled water and half a slice of dry bread was an elegant sufficiency". His hobbies include strategy games like chess and Thud, political philosophy, and ''reading'' music -- the idea of it being ''played'', with a lot of sweaty people messing about with catgut and brass between you and the composer, makes him shudder "although not much, because he never did anything to extremes". Since Ankh-Morpork politics before him was largely based on playing on the current Patrician's vices and weaknesses, this drives the city's other power players mad. He also very rarely raises his voice or uses bad language ... but then, he doesn't ''need'' to.
** Mr. Bent of ''Literature/MakingMoney'' is an even more extreme example--Vetinari at least has some quirks, whereas Bent seems physically incapable of laughing or having fun; he describes most things people enjoy as "silly". Even when he had leave time, he spent it [[BusmansHoliday learning more about banking]] and making sure that he still read reports from the Ankh-Morpork bank every night. After having a mental breakdown from making a mistake, he reveals that [[spoiler:the Indubitably Uninteresting persona was his deliberate attempt to go against his upbringing as a circus clown]]. At the end of the book he's on his way to being a more well-rounded individual.

* [[ThePollyanna Kenneth]] of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' plays with this trope. He is decidedly old-fashioned, never swears (his idea of the "a-word" is "angry"), and refuses to listen to more than two notes of rock and roll for fear of the Devil corrupting his soul. However, it's heavily implied that this is because he is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld impossibly ancient]] and [[TheAgeless ageless]], and thus never adapts to the spirit of the twenty-first century because he's lived through many before it.
-->'''Kenneth:''' You're being a real c-word right now. That's right, a Cranky Sue.

** Sheldon Cooper has some of this, although it's more of a case of his vaguely defined mental disorder keeping his mind in line with a routine. Eventually, he learns to move outside his boundaries gradually. Although in the case of the main characters' interests, stigma against "nerdy" activities, such as computer programming, comic book reading, sci-fi television and movie watching, and action figure collecting, have fallen out of favor starting around the time the show premieres.
** Amy Farrah Fowler, who was originally [[DistaffCounterpart a female Sheldon]], started out this way. On their first date, she ordered a glass of tepid water; when she was invited to her first-ever "girl's night," she had to buy a set of genuinely comfortable clothes (since she didn't own any) and printed out a list of activities to follow; and her favorite TV show is the decidedly old-fashioned ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie.'' Over time, though, CharacterDevelopment kicked in, and she started exploring other activities and becoming more social. Tellingly, in the penultimate season, she gets legitimately angry when Penny and Bernadette arrange a quilting bee for her bachelorette party. They acquiesce and go to a bar instead... where Amy [[CantHoldHisLiquor promptly passes out after one shot of liquor.]]

* ''Series/MadTV1995'':
** The skit [[https://youtu.be/ExNvVnWLSWc "How To Telephone A Girl"]] parodies the depiction of the early 1950s as this, while also serving as a blatant advertisement for Bell Telephone and social propaganda from The Daughters of the Confederacy. Two school students, Eddie, a "normal" person, and Bud, a jock, are told about a hayride on Friday. Both of them plan to call someone for a date. Eddie later telephones Janet, a seemingly prim, proper girl, on a Bell Telephone. Unfortunately, Janet's mother tells Eddie that Janet is in the bathtub bathing; this arouses Eddie, who gets a bulge in his jeans. Eddie [[FelonyMisdemeanor acts as if he has sinned and goes to his bedroom to pray.]] Bud, on the other hand, calls Janet using an inferior "oriental" telephone and is seemingly destined for a bad date on the hayride. Despite this, Bud has the rowdiest romantic time of his life there, while Eddie and Janet (both dressed in spic-and-span clothing) treat touching each other as if it were blasphemous.
-->'''Eddie:''' Say, can I touch your collarbone?\\

* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series, the Vulcans appear to wear this hat, as their culture is based around logic, emotional control, spartanism, mentally-challenging-but-boring activities, and vegetarianism. Their voices also do not change emotionally. On the other hand, there are a [[Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier few Vulcans]] [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E17Fusion that resisted these ideas]]. Although for the normal individual, it is a VERY bad idea to let one's emotions go unchecked, as Vulcan emotions are very strong and can easily get out of hand. Plus, when a Vulcan loses emotional control or shows a hint of emotion, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness it is often a bad sign that something is wrong with them or the situation, or that they have become dead-serious about something.]]
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
** Return of the Archons: This is what the planet Beta III has become, with a healthy dose of StepfordSuburbia (although this is implied to be '''''planet'''''wide), because of the iron grip of Landru, who [[spoiler:is actually a [[AIIsACrapshoot computer]] working off the flawed programming of its eponymous programmer and previous leader.]]
* Some people seem to find the (fictional) future of humanity in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' much like this:
** Unless something is wrong aboard ship, on most starships (including the ''Enterprise-D''), the corridors, hallways, and crew quarters are spick-and-span spotless. This, combined with its design, has led some people to compare the ''Enterprise'' to a glorified cruise ship. Even Scotty, in the episode "Relics", points this out.
--->'''Scotty:''' Good lord, man, where have you put me?\\

** Design documents from when the show was still in the planning stages show this even more strongly, with a decentralized bridge that more-or-less resembles a retro-futuristic shopping mall.
** Most music selections are from composers like Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach. (Although Riker likes jazz and Worf likes Klingon opera.)
** Most selections of literature are based on vintage-looking books.
** Games are mostly board-based in the strategy category, and often simplistic in nature.
** Most egregiously, in the First Season children as young as 8-10 are taught CALCULUS (a normally middle-to-high-school subject!)
** Food, although rarely non-nutritional, is served in neat servings.
** Played with in the character of Data. He was built that way. He does not need to consume food, and he does not have a sensation of taste. (At least implied not to human standards) His off-duty activities include reading poems, studying schematics, listening to music, painting, being company for his pet cat Spot, and playing the violin. Despite this, his exploration of humanity and natural life, his desire to be more human, and his superhuman abilities make him interesting. Also averted in that he does find acting in certain stories, such as Literature/SherlockHolmes or The Tempest, appealing.
** In the episode "Starship Mine", one-time character Commander Hutchinson is shown to be like this in [[TheBore his manner of speaking]], consisting of nothing but small talk.
** In the episode "Phantasms", Captain Picard attempts to find a reason to skip the 2370 Admirals' Banquet. [[spoiler:Thankfully, due to the small [[MonsterOfTheWeek invisible parasites]] causing problems with, and inhabiting, the new warp core the engineering crew just installed, he gets to skip it.]] He describes it as "fifty admirals shaking hands, making dull conversation, uninteresting food [and] boring speeches...":
--->'''Picard:''' "I've just received a message from Starfleet Command."\\
'''Riker:''' "Bad news?"\\
'''Picard:''' "You could say that. I've been invited to the annual Starfleet admirals' banquet."\\
'''Riker:''' [[DeadpanSnarker "My condolences."]]
** Furthermore, in a canceled spin-off called ''Star Trek: Federation'', the United Federation of Planets becomes this, losing a lot of member worlds in the process.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E21SomeoneToWatchOverMe Someone to Watch Over Me]]", the one-time alien race that ''Voyager'' encounters, known as the Kadi, have this as their all-encompassing hat -- even more so compared to the Vulcans. They are actually '''offended''' by anything that does not match their bland way of life. The ambassador the ship accepts in exchange for mineral negotiation averts this, as he wants to take the chance to sample [[AssInAmbassador EVERYTHING that he can]]. (Including hitting on Seven of Nine, who doesn't take well to it.)
** Lieutenant Tuvok, the Vulcan tactical officer of the bridge crew, manages to be just as bad, if not worse. (possibly because of the quality of the writing at the time) For him, he somehow manages to be a hardass to the rest of the crew by standing aloof from them, insulting their emotions and culture, and taking the fun out of their ideas by being literate, logical, and socially distant ALL THE TIME; and he gets seriously called out for it not once, but TWICE, with other smaller callouts peppered throughout the series.
--->(From the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E2Flashback Flashback]]")\\

* ''Series/WhatWeDoInTheShadows2019'': Exploited by Colin Robinson, a day-walking energy vampire who [[VampiricDraining feeds off of the energy and life force of those around him]]. He's very generic-looking (a bald white man who dresses in beige and other boring colors -- his ancestry report even just says "100% White"), lurks around his StandardOfficeSetting workplace, has a monotonous way of speaking, and is prone to tangents about boring things. He also has IncrediblyLameFun interests because he knows that this [[EmotionEater causes frustration and misery that he can feed on]].

'''Strong Bad:''' Lemme guess. That doesn't include Bed Axe. ''[Holds up an axe]''

* ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperheroGirls'': Steve Trevor's only hint of personality is his desire to go to military school, which at least implies a sense of patriotism. Everything else about him is dullness incarnate. He shops at a store called Every Shade of Beige. As leader of a debate team, his stance on "Which way to hang a toilet paper roll" is "I don't know, both sides are great." Of course, this is all to highlight the absurdity of Wonder Woman's crush on him.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' has the Neutral People, where due to RuleOfFunny, they don't display any emotion, they don't take sides on ''any'' subject, their highest alert level is "Beige", and even they themselves as people are completely devoid of any substantial color.
-->'''Neutral President:''' If I don't survive, tell my wife, "Hello."

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' pairs this trope with TheDitz for Fred Fredburger.
** In one episode, the only "interesting" thing he wants to do after winning a "Spend the Day with Grim" essay contest is "...to eet sum frozun yogert" (The minimum word count requirement is 500 words, so he wrote it ''ad infinitum'' on the pages of paper.)

** Fictional celebrity Corey Masterson has his own phone line in "Brother From The Same Planet". For the low price of 4.95 a minute, you can hear him drone on and on. Of course, the tween and teen girls who use the phone service don't see the banality of it.

---> '''Ms. Krabappel:''' Ezekiel and Ishmael, in accordance with your parents' wishes, you may step out into the hall and pray for our souls.

---> '''Chairman:''' ...oh, we took that out. Yes, it is just like the other rooms.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Tad Strange is the only normal person in Gravity Falls. He dresses in a neat suit and tie, moves in a politely stiff manner, speaks in a cheery, yet almost robotic tone of voice even in traumatic situations, and [[PlainPalate loves bread]]. Part of the joke is that he's voiced by the creator of ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'', and ''this'' was the character they gave him.

* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' seems to paint this as one of the Vogons' hats, with VastBureaucracy and ObstructiveBureaucrat built-in. Their poetry is so uninteresting and terrible that it's used as a method of torture. It's even more egregious with the [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy2005 2005 Movie]] where every Vogon's lifestyle seems to revolve around conformity, bureaucracy, and inhibition of creativity. (All of their buildings are dull, almost-featureless block-like skyscrapers on the outside AND inside, the majority of them dress in ill-fitting suits, their lives are governed by filing and transfer of properly signed paperwork, and they work according to a consistent schedule.) [[spoiler:On Vogsphere, the planet of the Vogons, there is a species of subterranean plant that slaps anyone who has a coherent thought or idea upside the head.]]

'''Garfield:''' ''[[sarcastically, to the reader]]'' Silence, please, we're watching the linoleum curl.

** In "Bart's Friend Falls in Love", one-off students Ezekiel and Ishmael are prohibited from watching a sex ed film, and their appearance makes Flanders' family seem like Satanic black metal fans. Both wear clean white collared shirts and dress shorts, sit up straight, and sport eerily-proper haircuts. One of them has his hands clasped together over what is implied to be a Bible.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has the cutaway character "Buzz Killington", where his interactions cause any fun to cease, such as laughing stoically and humorously at a joke involving a Scotsman.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Tad Strange is the only normal person in Gravity Falls. He dresses in a neat suit and tie, moves in a politely stiff manner, speaks in a cheery, yet almost robotic tone of voice even in traumatic situations, and [[PlainPalate loves bread]].

** In "Bart's Friend Falls in Love", one-off students Ezekiel and Ishmael are prohibited from watching a sex ed film, and their appearance makes Flanders' family seem saintly. Both wear clean white collared shirts and dress shorts, sit up straight, and sport eerily-proper haircuts. One of them has his hands clasped together over what is implied to be a Bible.

* Apart from being the greatest political mind on the Literature/{{Discworld}} and therefore the ruthlessly pragmatic ruler of its most powerful city, Lord Havelock Vetinari fits this. His clothes are "the sober, slightly shabby black of a man who doesn't want to waste time in the mornings wondering what to wear". His taste in food is that "a glass of boiled water and half a slice of dry bread was an elegant sufficiency". His hobbies include strategy games like chess and Thud, political philosophy, and ''reading'' music -- the idea of it being ''played'', with a lot of sweaty people messing about with catgut and brass between you and the composer, makes him shudder "although not much, because he never did anything to extremes". Since Ankh-Morpork politics before him was largely based on playing on the current Patrician's vices and weaknesses, this drives the city's other power players mad. He also very rarely raises his voice or uses bad language ... but then, he doesn't ''need'' to.
** Mr. Bent of ''Literature/MakingMoney'' is an even more extreme example--Vetinari at least has some quirks, whereas Bent seems physically incapable of laughing or having fun; he describes most things people enjoy as "silly". Even when he had leave time, he spent it [[BusmansHoliday learning more about banking]] and making sure that he still read reports from the Ankh-Morpork bank every night. After having a mental breakdown from making a mistake, he reveals that [[spoiler:the Indubitably Uninteresting persona was his deliberate attempt to go against his upbringing as a circus clown]]. At the end of the book he's on his way to being a more well-rounded individual.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Mr. Boynton, Miss Brooks' {{Adorkable}} LoveInterest lives this trope. He likes to play chess. He hangs out at the Biologists Club. His other hobbies include leading a Boy Scout troop and taking care of his pet frog [=McDougall=]. He likes to take Miss Brooks to the zoo on their dates. His bedtime is usually ten o'clock, but is known to stay up until eleven on New Year's Eve. In "Hello Mr. Chips", Mrs. Davis remarks his habits are like those of a much older man.

* Knit Knots, the neighbor and manager of the ''Series/ImaginationMovers'', is a dull man who is wary of anything too exciting, contrasting with the eccentric and active Imagination Movers and his niece, Nina.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'':
** Sheldon Cooper has some of this, although it's more of a case of his vaguely defined mental disorder keeping his mind in line with a routine. Eventually, he learns to move outside his boundaries gradually. Although in the case of the main characters' interests, stigma against "nerdy" activities, such as computer programming, comic book reading, sci-fi television and movie watching, and action figure collecting, have fallen out of favor starting around the time the show premieres.
** Amy Farrah Fowler, who was originally [[DistaffCounterpart a female Sheldon]], started out this way. On their first date, she ordered a glass of tepid water; when she was invited to her first-ever "girl's night," she had to buy a set of genuinely comfortable clothes (since she didn't own any) and printed out a list of activities to follow; and her favorite TV show is the decidedly old-fashioned ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie.'' Over time, though, CharacterDevelopment kicked in, and she started exploring other activities and becoming more social. Tellingly, in the penultimate season, she gets legitimately angry when Penny and Bernadette arrange a quilting bee for her bachelorette party. They acquiesce and go to a bar instead... where Amy [[CantHoldHisLiquor promptly passes out after one shot of liquor.]]
** ''Series/YoungSheldon'': The prequel seems to expand certain aspects of Sheldon's characterization, possibly to the point of Flanderization. Then again, in this series he is a child with an unspecified mental disorder, working off what others might expect of him, and learning to expand his routines and ideas gradually.

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' has this as a RunningGag for a good number of characters, particularly Captain Holt and his husband Kevin. For instance, they consider ''shaking hands'' to be an extreme amount of PDA for them.
* Somehow, this applies to a ''HOLIDAY''; the holiday of Festivus from ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', which also crosses over into depressing:
** The sole decoration of the holiday is a bare aluminum pole attached to a cross-shaped wooden floor stand.
** The only real "traditional" food of Festivus is what looks like a reddish meatloaf.
** During the meal, a tradition known as the "airing of grievances" happens, where family members talk about the various ways that others at the table have disappointed them this year.
** After the meal (or even ''during''), the head of the household selects one person to challenge to a "Feats of Strength" competition, which, at its base, is just a wrestling match. Rules state that the holiday is not over until the head of the household is pinned.
** Easily explainable events during the holiday are labeled "Festivus Miracles".

* On ''Series/SesameStreet'', this is one of Bert's defining qualities. His list of hobbies and interests include keeping pigeons, collecting bottle caps and paper clips, playing checkers, and eating oatmeal. Some of the spin-off books explore this further: his favorite color is apparently beige and when he meets a genuine genie, he wishes for things like new shoelaces and a birdcage for his pet pigeon Bernice (the genie even remarks that Bert is making the oddest wishes he's ever seen). Bert's hobbies are meant to teach AnAesop to children about not having the same interests as your friends while still getting along with them; Ernie, Bert's roommate, is far more social and likes typical kid activities like playing sports, inventing loud games, and going outside. This has led some to label Bert UnintentionallySympathetic -- even though he's ostensibly "the boring one" to Ernie's more convivial, energetic, child-friendly character, he also genuinely likes doing the things he does and has fun in his own way. Furthermore, Ernie often forces Bert to abandon his own activities just to go with what ''he'' wants to do while never trying Bert's choices for himself.

* ''WesternAnimation/DcSuperheroGirls'': Steve Trevor's only hint of personality is his desire to go to military school, which at least implies a sense of patriotism. Everything else about him is dullness incarnate. He shops at a store called Every Shade of Beige. As leader of a debate team, his stance on "Which way to hang a toilet paper roll" is "I don't know, both sides are great." Of course, this is all to highlight the absurdity of Wonder Woman's crush on him.

* The Pixies from ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' are a magical species modeled after boring businessmen. They dress in grey, speak in deadpan gloomy voices (except during occasional rap numbers), [[TheStoic and never show emotion]]. Unlike fairies, they refuse to grant fun wishes and only conduct magic through bureaucratic paperwork. The only game they enjoy is golf. Their primary interest involves replacing fun things with boring things, even kidnapping a clown child to raise him as an anti-fun lawyer -- the better to enforce their ideals.
* Jerry from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is this, as a contrast to all of the strangeness and adventure around the rest of the cast; he's an aggressively normal suburban dad, while the rest of the family is some stripe of adventurer.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' brings us Maud Pie. A LiteralMinded, exceedingly calm and seemingly emotionless pony. Her debut episode sees her visit her [[SiblingYinYang sister Pinkie Pie]] as well as gain the chance to meet Pinkie Pie's friends for the first time. They all find her off-putting due to her interests in rocks, rock-related poetry and her pet rock -- a pebble named Boulder. Presented with a collection of beautiful dresses that Rarity made, she promptly decides on wearing an old dishtowel. When offered a muffin, she inadvertently eats a sizeable rock that was dropped into the batch. Adding to the difficulty, [[CreepyMonotone she always speaks flatly.]] The episode culminates in all of them deciding that their friendship with Pinkie Pie is what unites them as friends. Though Maud's expression never changes in the slightest, Pinkie Pie remarks that she's never seen Maud more excited. However, at the end of the episode, she smiles a bit, still with half-lidded eyes.
* ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'': Alaquipa Ed, a minor character introduced in season 4, and upgraded to supporting character in 5, is basically the poster boy for this trope. He's an extremely plain and well-mannered midwestern man who always speaks in the same monotone voice, even while admonishing tardy employees. His favorite food is carrot soup, his favorite music is marching band, and expresses disbelief that anyone would prefer ''Music/LedZeppelin'' over the dead-eyed drones who play the kind of music he likes.

* ''Series/FraggleRock'' has this as Boober's main character trait. His [[OneHourWorkWeek job]] is doing everyone's laundry, and his hobbies are cooking and cleaning. Occasionally, the other Fraggles' behavior suggests that, even though they don't understand why he enjoys these tasks, they are glad ''someone'' enjoys them, since they like eating good food and wearing clean clothes.

Have you ever seen a character that never seems to move outside the boundaries of what society deems as mundane or boring?

The air around them is so dry and uninteresting that it makes you want to drink a water-cooler-jug's worth of water. Their most extreme hobbies include such things as solitaire, knitting, reading the newspaper, and listening to chamber music. Their favorite foods tend to be white bread, white rice, water, plain boiled macaroni, unflavored oatmeal, or any dull, tasteless fare. Their collections tend to involve paper cuttings or chotchkes that have no real subjective value (such as doilies or painted walnut shells). They love IncrediblyLameFun. They may dress in muted or prim-and-proper attire (barring tuxedos and evening gowns), even when the situation may not call for it. Their house is immaculate and clean, and their manners are polite, courteous, and non-threatening. They may even stick closely to a planned-in-advance schedule. They sit up straight, follow the rules, and never make a fuss -- so much so that their voice may never waver above an octave or 50db (the normal decibel range for conversation). Sometimes they are meek and timid. Even if they do "lash out" and "curse", either what they say is cute at best, or has no verbal force at worst, and [[FelonyMisdemeanor people who have the same personality may overreact as if they actually HAD said something offensive.]] Furthermore, when they become "greedy" (whether related to food or buying), their additional desire is only a slight step above what they normally have (i.e. obtaining an extra spoonful of cereal, or asking for just a few extra mundane items for Christmas).

Sometimes, the character may be overly weak, even unable to defend themselves or offer any offensive strength. If they are older, GamesOfTheElderly, such as checkers, chess, bingo, bridge, etc., will likely be depicted as the most exciting event of the day, and for extra comedy, they may move extremely slowly, at a snail's pace. The rooms of elderly individuals may either be spartan, or feature old-style decor and, again, chotchkes. [[note]]However, some of this may just be an outer appearance, as the old person may have some HiddenDepths to them (e.g. They were a war veteran, and their room contains memorabilia related to the war that they served in, or their chotchkes are a heartfelt reminder of significant-others passed on)[[/note]]

As with similar tropes involving personal opinions, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease!!!''' Also, please note that this trope page is not for characters that are personally considered terrible. This is for characters that, by consensus, have little-to-no-basic-personality overall, either as an intentional and normal character flaw, as a foil, or by accident; for good or for bad.

** ''Series/YoungSheldon'': The prequel seems to expand certain aspects of Sheldon's characterization, possibly to the point of Flanderization. Then again, in this series he is a child with an AmbiguousDisorder, working off what others might expect of him, and learning to expand his routines and ideas gradually.

** Sheldon Cooper has some of this, although it's more of a case of his AmbiguousDisorder keeping his mind in line with a routine. Eventually, he learns to move outside his boundaries gradually. Although in the case of the main characters' interests, stigma against "nerdy" activities, such as computer programming, comic book reading, sci-fi television and movie watching, and action figure collecting, have fallen out of favor starting around the time the show premieres.

In fact, they are so boring, perfect, and unwavering that one may think something is wrong with them; to drive their characterization home further, [[ObsessivelyNormal their interests and tastes may be entirely arbitrary as if they know that other kinds of desires exist, but they are putting on a face or find the other desires to be negative, rude, or evil in some way.]] They may stick so closely to them that you're afraid if they try to push themselves any closer to "normal" that they'll proverbially crack emotionally. The individual may even have a HolierThanThou air about them, and be condescending towards others, sometimes trying to force that "extreme normality" on others if they think it will benefit the other person. However, if being completely uninteresting is the character in question's basic way of living, and they decide to go beyond their boundaries, it may be a case of OOCIsSeriousBusiness; or for the better, CharacterDevelopment.

* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' seems to paint this as one of the Vogons' hats, with VastBureaucracy and ObstructiveBureaucrat built-in. Their poetry is so uninteresting and terrible that it's used as a method of torture. It's even more egregious with the [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy 2005 Movie]] where every Vogon's lifestyle seems to revolve around conformity, bureaucracy, and inhibition of creativity. (All of their buildings are dull, almost-featureless block-like skyscrapers on the outside AND inside, the majority of them dress in ill-fitting suits, their lives are governed by filing and transfer of properly signed paperwork, and they work according to a consistent schedule.) [[spoiler:On Vogsphere, the planet of the Vogons, there is a species of subterranean plant that slaps anyone who has a coherent thought or idea upside the head.]]

* ''Series/MadTV'':

The air around them is so dry and uninteresting that it makes you want to drink a water-cooler-jug's worth of water. Their most extreme hobbies include such things as solitaire, knitting, reading the newspaper, and listening to chamber music. Their favorite foods tend to be white bread, white rice, water, plain boiled macaroni, unflavored oatmeal, or any dull, tasteless fare. Their collections tend to involve paper cuttings or chotchkes that have no real subjective value (such as doilies or painted walnut shells). They love IncrediblyLameFun. They may dress in muted or prim-and-proper attire (barring tuxedos and evening gowns), even when the situation may not call for it. Their house is immaculate and clean, and their manners are polite, courteous, and non-threatening. They may even stick closely to a planned-in-advance schedule. They sit up straight, follow the rules, and never make a fuss -- so much so that their voice may never waver above an octave or 50db (the normal decibel range for conversation). Sometimes they are meek and timid. Even if they do "lash out" and "curse", either what they say is cute at best, or has no verbal force at worst, and [[FelonyMisdemeanor people who have the same personality may overreact as if they actually HAD said something offensive.]] Furthermore, when they become "greedy" (whether related to food or buying), their additional desire is only a slight step above what they normally have (i.e. obtaining an extra spoonful of cereal, or asking for just a few extra mundane items for Christmas.)

* In the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio drama "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho014TheHolyTerror The Holy Terror]]", Court Scribe Eugene Tacitus seems extremely comfortable being the most boring and powerless man in the royal court: he lives alone, drinks nothing but water (lukewarm or tepid), wields no authority, and has no interests outside of chronicling the lives of the Emperors -- an especially dull task, given that it mainly consists of recording literally every moment in a given Emperor's life, no matter how mundane. Plus, nobody in the Castle ever reads the Royal Bibles except for him. ConditionedToAcceptHorror, he barely reacts to mass-murder, torture, or threats against his life, but grows so confused around events that don't fit in with the usual routines of the Castle that he can sometimes be reduced to blind panic. [[spoiler: The twist is that Eugene is actually the all-powerful RealityWarper that created [[PocketDimension the Castle]] and all its people, along with the [[EternalRecurrence recurring cycles]] that govern its history; he's using these patterns to keep his life orderly, comfortable and ritualized so he can forget [[PaterFamilicide the crime]] that had him imprisoned in this dimension in the first place.]]

* ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}'' plays with this, with a bit of CrapsaccharineWorld to boot. The titular [[ShowWithinAShow show within a movie]] is a ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''-esque black-and-white program where everyone is perpetually pleasant, the firefighters do nothing but rescue cats from trees, families are completely wholesome, and all problems (which are minor inconveniences to begin with) can be solved within a single twenty-two-minute episode. Main character David thinks that Pleasantville must be a paradise, while his sister Jennifer calls it stupid. Eventually, David and Jennifer are [[TrappedInTVLand sucked into the world of Pleasantville]]; while they try to find a way to escape, David quickly learns that the so-called "perfect" town is more like a StepfordSuburbia where everyone ''must'' be Indubitably Uninteresting: the books are all blank because no one reads, the roads don't lead anywhere because no one can escape, no one thinks for themselves or questions anything because they literally can't imagine any other type of life, and--most shockingly of all--no one knows anything about sex. As Jennifer (and later David) start to introduce new ideas and concepts to the citizens of Pleasantville, the townspeople begin to feel genuine emotion for the first time, which turns them (along with various objects) from black-and-white to fully colored. The change leads to some rather [[{{Anvilicious}} heavy-handed]] but important metaphors about "coloreds" ruining the town and how being old-fashioned is the only way to live. [[spoiler: By the film's end, ''everyone'' in Pleasantville has fully changed, and the world is lush and colorful; to symbolize that the world is now real, the roads actually lead out of town, setting people free to live their own lives.]]

** Mr. Bent of ''Literature/MakingMoney'' is an even more extreme example--Vetinari at least has some quirks, whereas Bent seems physically incapable of laughing or having fun; he describes most things people enjoy as "silly". Even when he had leave time, he spent it [[BusmansHoliday learning more about banking]] and making sure that he still read reports from the Ankh-Morpork bank every night. After having a mental breakdown from making a mistake, he reveals that [[spoiler: the Indubitably Uninteresting persona was his deliberate attempt to go against his upbringing as a circus clown]]. At the end of the book he's on his way to being a more well-rounded individual.

** In the episode "Phantasms", Captain Picard attempts to find a reason to skip the 2370 Admirals' Banquet. [[spoiler: Thankfully, due to the small [[MonsterOfTheWeek invisible parasites]] causing problems with, and inhabiting, the new warp core the engineering crew just installed, he gets to skip it.]] He describes it as "fifty admirals shaking hands, making dull conversation, uninteresting food [and] boring speeches...":

* Parodied in Music/WeirdAlYankovic's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qYF9DZPdw ''White'n'Nerdy'']], where the eponymous nerd's interests as well as taste in food, music, and games fit this trope. However, like the Spongebob and Big Bang Theory examples, with the advent of nerd culture becoming mainstream, much stigma against the knowledge of sci-fi TV, comics, and computer programming has fallen out of favor. On the other hand, the nerds have other mundane and odd interests; for example, his idea of a good gift is a surge protector plug strip. His personality is summed up in the lyric:

* ''Series/FraggleRock'' has this as Boober's main character trait. His [[OneHourWorkWeek job]] is doing everyone's laundry, and his hobbies are cooking and cleaning things. Occasionally, the other fraggles' behavior suggests that, even though they don't understand why he enjoys these tasks, they are glad ''someone'' enjoys them, since they like eating good food and wearing clean clothes.

* ''Series/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'': Exploited by Colin Robinson, a day-walking energy vampire who [[VampiricDraining feeds off of the energy and life force of those around him]]. He's very generic-looking (a bald white man who dresses in beige and other boring colors -- his ancestry report even just says "100% White"), lurks around his StandardOfficeSetting workplace, has a monotonous way of speaking, and is prone to tangents about boring things. He also has IncrediblyLameFun interests because he knows that this [[EmotionEater causes frustration and misery that he can feed on]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Hermes is somewhat this trope, since he seems to enjoy being a bureaucrat. His Jamaican ethnicity makes him a little livelier, though, and his non-bland hobbies include limbo and [[TheStoner ganja.]]

--->'''Neutral President:''' If I don't survive, tell my wife, "Hello."