History Main / LaboriousLaziness

** On [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2012/05/06 another occasion]], Garfield, Jon and Liz are watching TV together when the remote control stops working. Jon and Garfield go to a shop to buy new batteries. When they come back, Liz points out the set is ''five feet'' away. Garfield comments, "Girls".

** In the comic quoted, the lazy cat ''nails the TV to the ceiling above his cat bed'' so he can watch it without getting up. Think about how much effort it would've taken to hoist that television up there and then keep it in place while he nailed it there, and then think about how much effort it would've taken simply to get up and walk over to where the TV was.
** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2012/05/06 another occasion]], Garfield, Jon and Liz were watching TV together when the remote control stopped working. Jon and Garfield went to a shop to buy new batteries. When they came back, Liz pointed out the set was ''five feet'' away. Garfield commented "Girls".

* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'': Dexter's father finds the idea of walking over to the TV so horrible he doesn't have the courage to tell Dexter people used to do it before the remote control was invented. (He thought Dexter was screaming because the remote was missing, he was actually screaming because [[FullFrontalAssault he was wearing a pair of x-ray specs and had just watched his father sit spreadlegged in his recliner]].)

--->'''Hobbes:''' "If you do it and nobody ''makes'' you do it, it's fun."

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/39258951 It's all Nami's Fault]]'', Zoro has ''vigorous'' sex with Nami and becomes a SexGod with many conquests implicitly because he cannot be bothered to argue or do anything besides agreeing to do as asked. This is explicitly the case when he first has sex with Nami, who he can't even be bothered to eject from his bed post-coitus despite her presence disrupting his sleep. His response when she states her intention to make it a nightly ritual is to complain mentally that he'll lose time for sleeping and training.

* Shiromi Kosegawa in ''Manga/{{Saki}}'', mainly in "Saki Biyori". In the first Miyamori chapter of Saki Biyori, she pulls a hand cart to bring a kotatsu to school, wanting to rest under it but knowing that she won't be able to get out once she does. In the second Miyamori chapter, she rests in various places around the mall, under the pretense of doing things such as waiting for a friend or trying on shoes, but ends up moving around the mall quite a bit, [[LampshadeHanging as Sae points out]].

* Hana in ''Manga/MyHeavenlyHockeyClub'' studied hard to get into a top-tier high school just because it was the school closest to her home and hence would let her sleep the longest amount of time possible in the morning before classes.

* For someone who claims that she just wants to be left alone to laze around all day and enjoy a comfortable, shut-in lifestyle, Yuna of ''Literature/KumaKumaKumaBear'' is constantly going through hell and high water, revolutionizing the the world and vastly improve the lives of others in her selfish quest to acquire creature comforts for herself. She saves an orphanage from bankruptcy and having to beg for scraps on her quest to get a cheap and reliable source of [[spoiler:chicken eggs]], she [[spoiler:defeats a Kraken, exposes and overthrows a corrupt Guild Master, and arrests a horde of murderous bandits]] for the sake of rice, soy sauce, and other Japanese-like ingredients, and she becomes a legendary restaurant owner and chef that even the Royal Family's Cook bows down to in awe because she wanted [[spoiler:junk food like potato chips and pizza.]]

* Sloth from ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' is an extreme version. Father gets him to spend ''decades'' (if not centuries) digging a giant tunnel because Sloth is literally just too lazy/apathetic to say no. Despite that, Sloth spends a lot of time griping about how much work he has to do, when he could've avoided that in the first place by just refusing to do it.

* Roger the Dodger of ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' may be an example of this; on some occasions, his parents and teachers try to point out that his elaborate dodges to get out of schoolwork or housework take up more effort and cause more damage than he'd expend or create if he just did what they were asking him to do in the first place. One notable example is an Annual storyline where Roger literally travels ''around the world'' just so that he can sneak in through the back door of his house to avoid getting in trouble for sneaking out the front.

* As noted in the page quote, ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' is prone to this sort of thing.
** In the comic quoted, the lazy cat ''nails the TV to the ceiling above his cat bed'' so he can watch it without getting up. Think about how much effort it would've taken to hoist that television up there and then keep it in place while he nailed it there, and then think about how much effort it would've taken simply to get up and walk over to where the TV was.
** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2012/05/06 another occasion]], Garfield, Jon and Liz were watching TV together when the remote control stopped working. Jon and Garfield went to a shop to buy new batteries. When they came back, Liz pointed out the set was ''five feet'' away. Garfield commented "Girls".
* In ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', Peter tells his friend Steve about all the job leads his father is sharing with him, and his persistence in doing so.
-->'''Steve:''' So you're going to spend the summer hiding from your dad?\\
'''Peter:''' I only wish my not working didn't require so much work.
* In ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' Wally has been shown to be very active in his efforts to not do any work, and is largely successful. He was [[WriteWhoYouKnow based on a former co-worker of the creator, Scott Adams]], who realized that the severance package was more beneficial than working, so he became fiercely dedicated to being extremely unproductive. To quote Wally:
-->'''Wally:''' I'm not lazy, I'm useless. There's a difference.

* Sometimes the title character from ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey''. According to him, when it comes to slacking, no effort is wasted.
** An example is when he refuses to go through the obstacle course and tries to hide from Sarge. Sarge discovers him and ends up chasing him through the very same obstacle course.
** That is nowhere near the only case -- he's also been known to unfold a sleeping-bag, change into his pajamas, brush his teeth, fluff his pillow, and finally tuck himself into bed... while slacking off for five minutes on the job. Quoth Plato: "No-one puts more effort into slacking off than Beetle."
** Another strip features an extremely long chase-sequence where Sarge pursued Beetle through a huge variety of environments -- up cliffs, through forests and swamps and across rooftops, with brief interludes of searching when Beetle found a temporary hiding-spot in a trashcan or at the bottom of a pond with a reed... but in the end, Sarge catches up with him and drags him home by one leg, even as he digs his fingers into the ground to resist. What was he trying to get away from so ardently? The Escape and Avoidance Course, naturally....

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8746563/18/With-a-Forked-Tongue-I-Lie-in-Wait-Taming-Snakes With a Forked Tongue I Lie in Wait (Taming Snakes)]]'' Harry and the Weasley twins fake a kappa infestation to support a lie he told about a missing Transfiguration essay. [=McGonagall=] gives him two points for being the first person in twenty years to pull the wool over her eyes.
-->'''[=McGonagall=]:''' It would have been more, but it is somewhat less impressive since you're spending so much more time and effort on getting out of the homework than it would actually take to sit down and do it like you're supposed to.

* Zoro in [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/39258951 It's all Nami's Fault]] has ''vigorous'' sex with Nami and becomes a SexGod with many conquests implicitly because he cannot be bothered to argue or do anything besides agreeing to do as asked. This is explicitly the case when he first has sex with Nami, who he can't even be bothered to eject from his bed post-coitus despite her presence disrupting his sleep. His response when she states her intention to make it a nightly ritual is to complain mentally that he'll lose time for sleeping and training.

%%* The unnamed protagonist in "The Tale of The Man Who Was Too Lazy To Fail" in {{Time Enough For Love}} by Creator/RobertAHeinlein.

* {{Inverted}} by Ivan Xav Vorpatril of the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga''. It's specifically noted that he is ''very'' efficient at his job precisely because he realized long ago that doing the job efficiently meant he didn't actually have to work very hard at it.
* Literature/CiaphasCain combines this with being a Professional Coward in the analogous sense. He goes out of his way to make his life as lazy and comfortable as possible while serving in the army in a galaxy where everything is trying to kill you. It's theoretically efficient and rational, but the catch is that he [[SlaveToPR relies]] on his FakeUltimateHero reputation to do this -- so every time he has a choice between really looking like a coward or being a hero, he goes to whatever lengths it takes to be the hero.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': Al Bundy even tried to walk over to the TV but eventually grew tired of it and agreed to have sex with Peggy for the remote.
* Ron Swanson of ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': "Normally, if given the choice between doing something and nothing, I'd choose to do nothing. But I will do something if it helps someone else do nothing. I'd work all night, if it meant nothing got done."

* George Costanza of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' is perhaps the UrExample of this trope. In nearly every episode he goes to great lengths to avoid work, effort, or even discomfort. He puts so much effort and scheming into being lazy that one wonders if it wouldn't just be easier to to the original task in the first place.
* The one-time ''Don Ramón'' from ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' decided by himself to go look for a job was after he read a phrase "The thing that takes the most work is not having a job".
* ''Series/LazyTown'': Robbie Rotten prides himself on being lazy, and schemes to make the rest of the town as lazy as he is, but due to these elaborate schemes, he's easily one of the most active people in the entire town. To the point that he once helped the town avoid winning a MedalOfDishonor for being the laziest town out there.

%%* Wario is ''made'' of this trope.
* The mobile incremental game ''Ultimate Kept Man Life'' is this trope, but [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerated to its logical extreme and then some.]] The titular [[{{NEET}} Kept Man]] wants to maintain his lazy lifestyle, hoping to live off his [[UptownGirl rich girlfriend's]] allowance without ever having to get a job. But he has to get the approval of his girlfriend's dad, so what does he do? Starting from doing her girlfriend's chores and handling domestic tasks for her, he gradually goes to more ludicrous tasks like building an entire house for her, creating technology to make ''10 billion'' of himself, making a warp portal, and completely terraforming Mars in just the span of '''a few days''', he even builds a time machine to deal with his girlfriend's father disapproving of him despite his efforts, but stops after figuring out a much more simple solution: Marrying his girlfriend while taking the role of HouseHusband, which succeeds completely, since it doesn't actually require him to be employed.
* ''For Love Of Digby'' involves coming up with a convoluted way for the main character, whose remote is broken, to change the channel in time for his umpteenth viewing of ''Digby the World's Biggest Dog'' without leaving his recliner.

* Sans in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' is a self-professed [[TheSlacker slacker]], to the point where he avoids doing his actual job (border patrol) by doing a ''different'' job (hot-dog sales). Two jobs means twice as many legally allowed breaks!
* The Engineer in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' has the Rancho Relaxo, a taunt where he takes out a mechanical lawn chair with an umbrella and sits in it while drinking beer. [[https://youtu.be/Fpt0XX0qa28 More trolly players]] will often activate the taunt and then stay that way for the whole game, in full view of everyone - but since it makes the Engineer helpless, they frequently have to take the effort to set up a full base to defend themselves, find isolated places, exploit mobility methods to get out of reach... in short, it's not much different from the effort that it would take to play and actually win the game.

* ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'': The [[BigBad Big Bad's]] actions for his grand plan is possibly the epitome of this. [[spoiler:[[OverlordJr Gristol]] [[TheChessmaster Malik]], aka Nick Johnsmith, has infiltrated the Psychonauts organization as a mail delivery man, in the process gaining the adoration and respect of nearly everyone in the organization through his hard work (with the exception of the leader [[SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond Truman Zanotto]], who would be part of his grand plan), all the while devising a complex scheme that involves brainwashing the unstable Dr. Loboto, and by proxy carrying out two world-domination conspiracies, swapping his brain with Truman so he can impersonate the man in his quest to find [[PersonOfMassDestruction Maligula]], and also manipulating [[TheHero Raz]] into helping him do so. '''And what was his big reason for doing all of this?''' He was pissed off at his tyrannical family being cast away from his homeland of Grulovia, and thus [[SpoiledBrat he couldn't live a life of luxury]] eating [[TrademarkFavoriteFood large amounts of caviar]] anymore, and wanted to use Maligula as a way to get his throne back so [[IdleRich he could go back to being a rich idiot.]]]] The stupidity of this is only further exacerbated in that [[spoiler:his current living situation is a ''five-star hotel penthouse'' where he can leave '''cans upon cans of caviar all over the place like moldy pizza boxes''', his planning capabilities and the fact that he was well-educated as a child meant that he could have easily landed a cushy job if he wanted to, ''and'' he had the love and respect of an entire organization of psychic super-spies; the love and respect that he ''earned'' unlike his family being utterly '''hated''' when they were still royalty. It's only his utter lack of common sense and ''enormous'' [[ItsAllAboutMe sense of entitlement]] that drives him into doing all of the above.]]
* In ''VideoGame/HiFiRUSH'', the heroes are out to stop [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Kale Vandelay]] from unleashing the AI SPECTRA, which could allow him to control the minds of everyone with one of his corporation's cybernetic enhancements. From the get-go, they figure he's obviously going to use this to take over the world with an army of brainwashed cyborgs, right? [[spoiler:No, he's just tired of having to keep up with marketing trends; if he makes everyone automatically buy whatever new product he puts out, then he doesn't have to bother with research and advertising anymore. Needless to say, [[DisappointedByTheMotive everyone finds this revelation to be incredibly underwhelming]].]]
* Sayu from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' regularly attempts to skive off her ninja training in favor of napping. Her primary method for doing so is by using the very ninja skills she's trying to avoid practicing.

* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'': Sometimes [[http://xkcd.com/1205/ optimizing efficiency]], [[http://xkcd.com/1319/ automating a task]], or [[http://xkcd.com/1445/ figuring out the best approach]] takes more time and effort than plowing ahead.

--> [[https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-20th-2016 Y'did a load of work just so's you'd never have t'work?]]\\

* In ''Webcomic/EnnuiGo'', [[http://ennuigo.thecomicseries.com/comics/130/ Izzy spends a whole week]] coding an algorithm to calculate what meals take the least amount of work (and rotate it so she's not living on jam sandwiches all the time) so she doesn't have to do dishes. Hiring a chef and/or maid never occurs to her either.
* ''Webcomic/{{Forestdale}}'': In order to avoid doing a simple homework assignment, Izabell Carroll is willing to break into her elementary school during winter break, fill the entire building with snow, and then crank the air conditioning up to it's maximum setting to turn it all into ice, ensuring that school would be cancelled for several more days during the cleanup. At this point she's being more stubborn than she is lazy.

-->'''Friend:''' It's funny. [[LampshadeHanging In being lazy, I actually did something that required more effort.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E15HomieTheClown Homie The Clown]]", [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense one sign of Krusty's wasteful spending]] is purchasing a brand new home instead of simply hiring somebody to clean his messy home.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E7KingSizeHomer King-Size Homer]]", Homer dedicates himself to gaining a dangerous amount of weight to qualify as disabled and work from home. Why? Because he didn't want to do a few minutes of basic calisthenics at the plant.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E12BartCarny Bart Carny]]", Bart and Lisa have been tasked to clean the back yard but they're too lazy to do so.
--->'''Bart:''' Man, look at all this stuff... pull weeds, mow lawn, scoop and bag dog business. There's gotta be a way out of this. Lisa! Chop off my hands!\\
'''Lisa:''' No! Then who'd chop off my hands?\\
'''Bart:''' All right, you chop my hands halfway off, and then, I'll still have enough strength to chop--\\
'''Marge:''' Get to work!
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E14ImWithCupid I'm With Cupid]]", Apu is showering his wife, Manjula, with elaborate gifts everyday leading up to Valentine's Day. Homer and a few of the other guys start to get annoyed because their wives wish to be treated that way as well, so they end up spending the day trying to follow him around and see what he's up to, and try to put a stop to it. Flanders eventually lampshades this, noting that [[StatingTheSimpleSolution instead of spending a whole day trying to stalk and sabotage Apu's plans, they could be trying to put that effort into actually doing something nice for their wives.]] He gets thrown out of the car for that.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E18IAmFuriousYellow I am Furious (Yellow)]]" has Homer lose the remote, and rather than walking across the room to the TV set to change the channel, he starts tearing apart the couch looking for the remote. (It was eaten by the family dog.)

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': When Cyborg and Beast Boy were searching for a lost remote, Cyborg took Raven's suggestion of walking over to the TV for a tasteless joke.
* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'': Dexter's father finds the idea of walking over to the TV so horrible he doesn't have the courage to tell Dexter people used to do it before the remote control was invented. (He thought Dexter was screaming because the remote was missing, he was actually screaming because [[FullFrontalAssault he was wearing a pair of x-ray specs and had just watched his father sit spreadlegged in his recliner]])
* In ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' "The Boss", Dan goes to great lengths to avoid doing any real work on his first day at the office and doesn't understand why he's so tired. Chris tells him that looking busy is usually harder than actually being busy, and suggests that maybe Dan should just do his job.

* "Franklin's Day Off" from ''Literature/{{Franklin}}'' has AnAesop of sorts about this. Franklin spends most of the episode dealing with problems he wouldn't have had if he had just done the work was supposed to do instead of putting it off, such as needing a rake that was holding up the BlanketFort he didn't take down in order to rake up leaves which have buried a bicycle pump that he wouldn't have had trouble finding if he had put it away properly in the first place.

* ''WesternAnimation/LegendsOfChamberlainHeights'' has Malik admonish his older brother Montell about how much effort he puts into being a lazy stoner, such as making a nest of snacks next to the couch before he gets high.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Unikitty}}'' episode "R & Arr," Unikitty and Puppycorn go to absurd lengths to stay on the couch so "Lazy Sunday" won't end. Richard even points out that all the effort they're putting into avoid doing their chores could have just been used to do the chores.
* Throughout ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] has often put aside his usual lazy attitude to attempt various elaborate methods of achieving his goals rather than take the obvious option. These range from trying to avoid studying for a test by attempting to deliberately trigger a flashback of history (one such method involved using [=TiVo=] to record fifty hours of the History Channel and an elaborate system to drop him and the [=TiVo=] box into a pool of water), to opening his own real estate firm to put his mother out of business so that she could devote herself to him full-time.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' has a one-off group of villains known as Robin Food and his Hungry Men. They're MO is to rob the school lunches of kids and give it to the elderly. What Robin doesn't know (or does and chooses to ignore it) is that the senior citizens he gives the food to don't actually want it, as it wreaks Hell on their digestions. So what brought this mission of his? Robin and his men are actually the cafeteria staff at the Sure Would Retirement Home, and they steal kid's lunches because they're too lazy to cook the old people's food like they're supposed to.

* The ''Shape Island'' episode "Triangle Gets Carried Away" has Triangle building a HumongousMecha to automate the task of... dunking his donuts in his coffee.
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': [[Characters/RickAndMortySummerSmith Summer Smith]] confesses in "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS1E2LawnmowerDog Lawnmower Dog]]" that she gets C-grades on purpose because she believes intelligent people are jerks, and even when she manages to break this habit to achieve Honor Roll in "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS6E4NightFamily Night Family]]", it's only because she has her Night Person do her studying for her. Even her interest in adventures can wane rather quickly depending on the situation: she gets tired of the decoy situation rather quickly in "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS5E2Mortyplicity Mortyplicity]]", and the Gaia camping adventure barely retains her attention at all in "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS4E9ChildrickOfMort Childrick of Mort]]".

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': When Cyborg and Beast Boy were searching for a lost remote, Cyborg took Raven's suggestion of walking over to the TV for a tasteless joke.

-->'''[[TuxedoAndMartini Double 0-0]]:''' [[StatingTheSimpleSolution You realize you could just...buy a bigger watch? Or maybe a wall clock?]]
-->'''Dr. Doofenshmirtz:''' Yes, but then I would have to drive to a store, and find a parking space, then you have to choose from, like, dozens of styles—it just seems like so much work. This will be much less complicated.

* Roger the Dodger of ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' may be an example of this; on some occasions, his parents and teachers try to point out that his elaborate dodges to get out of schoolwork or housework take up more effort and cause more damage than he'd expend or create if he just did what they were asking him to do in the first place. One notable example is an Annual storyline where he literally travels ''around the world'' just so that he can sneak in through the back door of his house to avoid getting in trouble for sneaking out the front.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Supergirl}}'' : Silver Age villain Shayla got sent to the Phantom Zone before the destruction of her planet because she wanted to be an astronaut but decided to invent an energy draining device to pass the physical rather than devote her energy to fairly passing the test. Someone died when she accidentally took too much energy, and Shayla got sentenced to the Phantom Zone.

* Roger the Dodger of ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' may be an example of this; on some occasions, his parents and teachers try to point out that his elaborate dodges to get out of schoolwork or housework take up more effort and cause more damage than he'd expend or create if he just did what they were asking him to do in the first place.

* ''TabletopGames/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': The Big Yellers are a tribe of Orruk Kruleboyz (the subspecies of Orruk that venerates cunning and dirty tricks) who are infamously lazy; so lazy, they live in cog-work fortresses filled with booby-traps, and automated shooting ranges to practice their archery skills (as just shooting someone with a crossbow save you the trouble of the walk over to them). One imagines they force [[SlaveRace the Hob-grots]] to do the heavy lifting, but they presumably still had to ''design'' all of that themselves.

* ''VideoGame/ForLoveOfDigby'' involves trying to come up with a convoluted way for the main character, whose remote is broken, to change the channel in time for his umpteenth viewing of ''Digby the Biggest Dog in the World'' without ever leaving his recliner.

* Throughout ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Eric Cartman has often put aside his usual lazy attitude to attempt various elaborate methods of achieving his goals rather than take the obvious option. These range from trying to avoid studying for a test by attempting to deliberately trigger a flashback of history (one such method involved using [=TiVo=] to record fifty hours of the History Channel and an elaborate system to drop him and the [=TiVo=] box into a pool of water), to opening his own real estate firm to put his mother out of business so that she could devote herself to him full-time.