History Main / ObstructiveBureaucrat

* ''Series/TheMagicians2016'': The library in the Neitherlands runs on one. Creator/FranzKafka wrote ''Literature/TheTrial'' after a week there.

* Creator/FranzKafka [[TropeCodifier practically invented this trope]], most notably appearing in his novels ''Literature/TheTrial'' and ''Literature/TheCastle''. Kafka manages to incorporate (obstructive bureaucratic) evil into the very fabric of reality. This was actually based on his day-job, where he did everything he could to not be one of these. He largely succeeded, doing more work before 2 PM than most people did all day.

* In ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', Aldaris [[spoiler: sends a fleet to Char, the planet that Tassadar was stranded on. To arrest him for, in short; disobeying orders and not purifying the infected Terran planets, not returning to Aiur to be punished, demoted, and maybe executed; attempting to help his race and home world by allying with the Nerazim; whom the Conclave had exiled for "heretical powers born of darkness", and not returning to Aiur after his ship was destroyed and he was marooned. His military contingent (led by the player) defects to Tassadar on the spot when they finally hear this spelled out.]] The entire Conclave likely fits this trope, although Aldaris is the only Judicator you meet. Also, [[spoiler: the Confederacy when they arrested James Raynor for "destruction of Confederate property". The destroyed property? Infested Terran bases that were making more infested Terrans.]]
** The last example actually makes sense later on; [[spoiler: the real reason Raynor was arrested was for disrupting the progress of the Zerg on Mar Sara. The Confederacy WANTED to let the Zerg run free as a sort of sick "weapons test".]]

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

* ''Film/TwelveOClockHigh'' includes a good version of this trope, done in a darkly humorous fashion. After General Savage takes over the 918th Group, he institutes policies that are seen as excessively harsh, leading to all of the pilots putting in for transfers. Savage needs time to prove that he is right, but is at a loss as to how to proceed. To the rescue comes the Group's Ground Adjutant, Major Stovall, formerly a civilian lawyer. He points out that all those transfer requests will have to be carefully checked, since of course the General doesn't want incomplete paperwork coming out of the Group. Many requests will have to be returned to the squadrons to be redone, then checked again. By the time ''all'' of the requests are ready to be submitted to higher headquarters, Savage should have been able to convince the crews that his methods are justified. Savage remarks that it's "a hell of a way to run a war."

* Wink Vavasseur's aim seemed to be taking the "fun" out of the "Director Of Fun" position when promoted to it in Wrestling/{{Chikara}}.[[/folder]]

This species might easily proliferate around a VestigialEmpire.

* In the 116th episode of the 1981 AnimatedAdaptation of ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'', in an an anime-unique sequence in the first half of the episode, Ten and Kotori arrive at an unidentified bureaucratic building of some kind looking for Kotori's uncle and his puppies. Each person that Ten speaks to on Kotori's behalf just instructs them to go to a seemingly random window the next floor up, with this repeating until they reach the second-highest floor, who instructs them to go right back to window three on the first floor -- which is where Ten ''started''. This proves to be the last straw for Ten, who tries to barbeque the unhelpful jerks with his BreathWeapon, but they take him down with a massed fire extinguisher volley.

** Another story shows that Duckburg's city bureaucrats were astoundingly lazy and unmotivated workers who'd leave the office to laze about or go shopping and ''proud'' of it-to the point their supervisor, seeing how fast and precise Scrooge's office workers were, at one point lied and claimed a permit Scrooge needed was being held up by his workers' laziness just to get him to break them out of it. [[CoolOldGuy Scrooge]] [[{{Determinator}} being]] [[GuileHero Scrooge]], he outsmarts and outplays constantly, breaking most of them out of their lazyness in ''days'' and the last stubborn wastrels, who decided to hide in the city hall's basement with the other covering for him just to prove he could still avoid working, being dealt with by ''locking him in''.

* Probably the biggest one in the ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' was Henry Peter Gyrich, who gave ComicBook/TheAvengers quite the headache as government liaison. He's forced the team to cut down its numbers from 15+ to 7, forced ComicBook/TheFalcon to join the team just to fill in the TokenMinority hole (something Sam was ''not'' happy about) and infamously got the team's government approval yanked, leading to the infamous scene in ''ComicBook/TheKorvacSaga'' where the team races into battle ''on a city bus''.

On the other hand, sometimes he is obstructing a MatterOfLifeAndDeath. He and his colleagues often contribute to HeadInTheSandManagement, refusing to do anything to help the situation. Threat of force, or actual force, may be needed to get by him, which could turn into a KickTheSonOfABitch moment. A benevolent Obstructive Bureaucrat may go and obstruct the villain by actively devising regulations to impede and hinder him, and then, with the same mindless fervor as any other bureaucrat, insist on their [[BotheringByTheBook being followed to the letter]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'':

* The ''Literature/ForgottenRealms'' novel ''Azure Bonds'' shows how Lhaeo does his job, that is, prevents adventurers from bothering Elminster. How the scribe is supposed to intimidate and turn away people who used to take out dragons and worse? ''Riiight''...

* ''Film/DistrictNine'' features a rare Obstructive Bureaucrat ''protagonist'' in the (initially) cowardly and weak-willed Wikus van de Merwe, who is put in charge of the relocation of several thousand fugitive aliens from one slum to another, even worse. He's something of a deconstruction, as he's a very realistic and complex character who shows that behind even the most obstructive of bureaucrats, there's still a human being -- most likely an unhappy one in search of validation.

* Inverted on ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E11Survivors Survivors]]". It was the protagonists, Sinclair and Ivanova specifically, who are obstructing Major Lianna Kemmer's attempts to locate and arrest Garibaldi on suspicion of sabotage.
** Played straight with Garibaldi attempting to retrieve a package from an obstructive mailman who insists Garibaldi pay a hefty fee before he can get his package (it was special ingredients for a birthday dinner).
** The Drazi have a peculiar system of government, in which every five cycles (six Earth years) the entire population, anywhere they are, is randomly divided in two sides, one wearing a green sash and one wearing a purple sash, and they beat each other up until one side gives up, leaving the other in power. However when the "election" on the station starts to include deadly force Ivanova, trying to make them reason, takes the sash of Green Leader... And is informed that now ''she'' is Green Leader, because the system predates first contact and the change in rules to exclude aliens got caught in a committee. For over ''eight hundred years''.

* ''Series/QuatermassII'': During TheInfiltration these oppose the scientist hero's attempts to uncover the truth about the AlienInvasion. Some oppose the hero out of petty authoritarianism, others because they're possessed by aliens, and others interestingly enough help the hero because as experienced bureaucrats they realise that the obstructiveness is happening in a way that doesn't make sense. One of the latter even lampshades this trope.

* Elevated to an art form by Sir Humphrey Appleby in ''Series/YesMinister'' and ''Series/YesPrimeMinister''.

* Greg, [[BeleagueredBureaucrat Pencil Pusher's]] boss in ''FanFic/FlashFog''. Also the unnamed claims adjusters at Caligo's insurance company who insist that they withhold trade secrets related to the fog's composition or lose their industrial espionage coverage.

** ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'': A traditional Obstructive Bureaucrat appears when Susan is searching for the Tooth Fairy. Although he doesn't actually obstruct Susan by demanding forms and procedure, he does obstruct her by incessantly [[{{Wangst}} Wangsting]] about his rather boring life instead of answering her questions. Susan describes him as a very small, very weak bully, who couldn't find anyone smaller or weaker than him to bully and so took to making people's lives just that little bit more difficult.

* This trope [[IncrediblyLamePun occurs]] enough times in ''Series/GavinAndStacey'' that one has to wonder whether the creators have been on the receiving end of this trope in RealLife once too often.

* This trope is the premise of the Austrian show ''MA2412'', with the Obstructive Bureaucrats as protagonists.

** The Franchise/StargateVerse sort of has a revolving door of them. Either, like Woolsey, they see what's going on and become more [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure reasonable]] over the years, or like Kinsey, they get ''worse'' and get into a much more antagonistic role than just being the guy whose turn it is to say "the SGC is costing too much money" this year. Either way, this means it's time to bring in the next and start the cycle again.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' roleplaying game ''TableTopGame/DarkHeresy'', one of the locations described is the "Scrivener's System" of Prol, an entire ''solar system'' filled almost completely with Obstructive Bureaucrats. There is ''literally a civil war brewing'' in the Prol system because they're running out of places to store all the paperwork. All sides making their points in multi-volume treatises is not helping.

* Another Douglas Adams title, ''VideoGame/StarshipTitanic'' contains the sarcastic, deliberately unhelpful DeskBot, Marsinta Drewbish, at the start of the game, as well as in its novelization. [[spoiler: It only lasts until you reset her off-kilter personality settings, though.]]

* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob:'' on [[IncrediblyLamePun Butane]], the planet of [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons,]] Legate [[IncrediblyLamePun Zippobic]] seems to be this, although he views himself as a BeleagueredBureaucrat.

** In ''Sabbat Martyr'', an official objects to Criid's opening an abandoned building to shelter [[ChildrenAreInnocent children]] in the cold. She refuses to evict them.

* In [[Recap/TheGoodPlaceS3E10TheBookOfDougs an episode]] in season 3 of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', [[spoiler:the titular version of heaven is run by [[CelestialBureaucracy the committee]], bureaucrats who never break the rules, even if it's the right thing to do. When it is revealed to them that [[EasyRoadtoHell no one has gotten into the good place in half a millennium]] because of how in modern society most choices lead to more unintended bad outcomes than intended good ones, the most urgent rule-abiding action they can take is form an investigational team which will take 400 years. They are aware this issue is incredibly urgent and that billions of good people will suffer in hell due to their slow actions but [[LawfulStupid choose to remain bound by their rules no matter what]].]]

* Purchase the Democracy perk in [[VideoGame/{{Civilization}} Civilization Revolution]] and your production and culture increase greatly, but at the cost of your Congress vetoing you whenever you try to break peace treaties or refuse peace offers from rival civs. The other civs understand this limitation, and will liberally abuse it by attacking and capturing one of your cities, quickly offering you peace so you can't do anything about it, and repeating the process from there. And Congress never lets you refuse the peace offer or launch a counter-attack to reclaim your city, [[ArtificialStupidity no matter how obvious it is that you're being played.]]

*** Indeed, saving the girl was part of the Character Development -- he had to be ''convinced to do it''. Since from his point of view, if it was her time to die, then it was time. As 'Death', his (official)concern had been making sure it happened 'at the appropriate time' (and didn't take too long to actually happen); as 'Bill Door', well... what's wrong with fighting for those few extra minutes?

** Subverted by a few other government workers, the NBI Director most of all. The novel pointedly goes on to state that he is something of a rarity in the Philippine government, precisely because he is remarkably [[ConsummateProfessional competent and honest]]. In fact it is because of this that the Director found it difficult to get good appointments in a public sector crawling with Obstructive Bureaucrats, [[CorruptBureaucrat Corrupt Bureaucrats]], and [[{{Nepotism}} friends and family of incumbent politicians]].

** In the Literature/CiaphasCain novel ''The Caves of Ice'', there are ''two'' particular {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s, the local heads of the Administratum and Adeptus Mechanicus. Their constant arguing over protocols and procedure affects not only the normal operation of the promethium-mining facility there, but also the efforts of the Valhallan 597th as it works to prepare defenses against an oncoming Ork onslaught. Fortunately, Cain is able to find some lower-level officials in both ranks who not only are on amicable working terms with one another (and the mining population), but also happen to be able to actually get things ''done'' despite their superiors' constant bickering. The "dark" element of this trope comes into play when it is learned that [[spoiler: the mine is built atop a Necron tomb; as later evidence proves, the site was intentionally chosen by the [=AdMech=] to give them easy access to the facility away from prying eyes should a way be found to investigate the tomb and recover its ancient technology.]] Fortunately, Cain and his comrades are able to deal with the "obstructive" part of the problem by imposing martial law and threatening to shoot anyone who gets in their way. The Valhallan 597th also owns some thanks to the Administratum, which still thinks they're two regiments, as such they are given twice as much supplies and recruits than most (also why the men/women ratio is always 50/50)

* A number of German military, German civil service, and Nazi Party officials at the IMT/Nuremberg and other trials post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarII attempted to weasel out of the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity or reduce their sentences by claiming that they had been "JustFollowingOrders"-- rather than exercising initiative, acting for personal gain, or lashing out in hatred. The Nuremberg Defense has been ruled invalid in situations involving genocide or crimes against humanity, though it can still be a valid legal defense for military personnel: unlike in civilian law, the prosecution has to prove that it was unreasonable for the defendant to be ignorant of the fact that the order was illegal. Opening a gate to let a convoy through: reasonable. [[Usefulnotes/TheHolocaust Administering lethal injections to four hundred disabled children]]: unreasonable. It should be noted that genuine fear for not following an order ("shoot them or we shoot you") can be used as a successful defence. Despite some claims to the contrary, this was never a factor at Nuremberg or any of the other post-war trials of German personnel-- who were all volunteers. German citizens could not be coerced into committing war crimes or crimes against humanity, and so were worse than useless to the military and civilian security units tasked with carrying out such tasks: their units encouraged them to apply for transfers to regular military units (which undertook such tasks less frequently) so that more enthusiastic people could take their place. Of course, the Germans did force many non-Germans to kill for them as 'Hiwi' auxiliaries-- but these were tried separately [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre by the NKVD]].

* In ''LightNovel/ChivalryOfAFailedKnight'' Ikki's family put pressure on Hagun Academy to keep him from graduating. This resulted in new rules that require students to have a certain ranking in order to take classes, keeping Ikki from getting units and passing his first year. Luckily, Kurono Shinguuji became director and fired the obstructive staff. Turns out to be the real reason they were trying to stop Ikki was they want Ikki to fail as an example. They don't want other F-Ranked to try to succeed as unlike Ikki, they will fail causing unrest in the mage-knight system.

See also TheBarnum.

* In ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'', Jim Keats is initially made out to be this.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', one particularly vicious and procedure-oriented Imperial captain hears one of her subordinates protesting that one of the traitorous rebels being sent to the block for execution is not on the list of Stormcloak rebels sentenced to death. She promptly shouts him down, since the prisoner is in that cart, so that prisoner is going to the block, and nothing is stopping this execution [[spoiler: save for the dragon-god showing up a few minutes later]]. Said prisoner is ''you'', the player-character. It is entirely possible after you escape [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge to join up with the Stormcloaks and proceed to utterly destroy the entire Imperial presence in Skyrim out of raw fury at your near-experience with a Viking crewcut]]... [[DisproportionateRetribution because one jerk didn't double-check the list]].
** In fact, should you favor the Stormcloaks during your escape[[note]]By following Ralof, the same Stormcloak official who you shared the cart ride with at the first minutes of the game, inside the fort.[[/note]], the player can get retribution against said Captain, who's one of the enemy [=NPCs=] spawned inside said fort, right at the doors. No such chance is given if the player follows Hadvar, the Imperial officer, instead. This, of course, shifted ''many'' players in favor of the Stormcloaks.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13545968/1/Wilhuff-Tarkin-Hero-of-the-Rebellion Wilhuff Tarkin, Hero of the Rebellion]]'', some of the issues of the [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]]'s military are blamed on "efficiency experts" that at the end of the Clone Wars ordered the removal of equipment they found useless without really understanding how it worked and Palpatine letting them to reroute the funds to his various superweapon projects. The two examples we're given are the Imperial Star Destroyer having been designed with dual use torpedo launchers[=/=]flak guns only to have them removed (thus making them [[PointDefenseless criminally vulnerable to fighter attacks]] and reducing their anti-ship firepower on top of that), and the line infantry squads losing their [[MoreDakka light repeating blasters]], with the "experts" resisting their reintroduction after Imperial ground forces suffered grievous losses, but it's so bad that Tarkin is genuinely surprised when it turns out the one he's being forced to work with ''actually knows his job''.

* Alien X of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' obstructs ''itself.'' The most powerful being in the universe, capable of [[RealityWarper altering reality]]... and its two halves are still in a meeting deciding whether or not they should save the dinosaurs.

** ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': The Galactic Federation of Free Alliances military starts having supply issues due to obstructive bureaucrats. Jacen Solo solves the problem by sending a requisition officer who had inflicted faulty turbolaser equipment on the military to inspect the equipment of a front line unit having a lot of trouble with misfires due to the faulty equipment.

* ''VideoGame/WestOfLoathing''’s Ghoostwood is a literal GhostTown populated by nothing but these. You'll need to fill out a good dozen "different" (functionally-identical) forms to complete all the quests involving this area. And that's if you don't screw anything up and have to do it again...

* ''Literature/TheBible'': In the Book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon complains of the suffering caused by corrupt magistrates. Ecclesiastes is OlderThanFeudalism.

** The biggest thing keeping the Nazis from coming ''anywhere near'' to getting an A-bomb was, right after encouraging their Jewish physicists (i.e. ''most of their physicists'') to emigrate, infighting. Of the five nuclear programmes, the most advanced was headed by ''the Post Office''.
* Erich Honecker, the longest-ruling and most well known leader of East Germany, was quite possibly the most conservative of all East Bloc leaders, and his country was notorious for its all-pervading, soul-crushing bureaucracy. He even [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R0518-182,_Erich_Honecker.jpg/220px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R0518-182,_Erich_Honecker.jpg looked the part]].

** Franchise/StarWarsLegends: The Galactic Federation of Free Alliances military starts having supply issues due to obstructive bureaucrats. Jacen Solo solves the problem by sending a requisition officer who had inflicted faulty turbolaser equipment on the military to inspect the equipment of a front line unit having a lot of trouble with misfires due to the faulty equipment.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'':
** ''[[Literature/StarWarsAhsoka Ahsoka]]'' has an Imperial broker named Jenneth Pilar, who sends the Empire to out-of-the-way moon Raada so it can grow a plant used in nutritional supplements that renders the soil barren for years afterward, without any concern for the inhabitants that will be stuck there after the Empire is gone. He ends up having to flee Imperial service after things go pear-shaped.

* The "Mystery of Magic" in ''FanFic/MyImmortal''. They were most likely ''supposed'' to be serious, but [[TrollFic given how it's written...]]
* Henry Peter Gyrich ''again'' in ''FanFic/OriginStory''. He becomes obsessed with acquiring the eventual Superwoman as the government's attack dog, and authorizes several missions in a vain effort to capture or cow her. Fed up with Gyrich after several people nearly die in his attempts, Superwoman locates him in Washington, grabs him, [[spoiler:[[WhyDontYaJustShootHim and bodily hurls him into space]].]]

* In the ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' fanfic ''FanFic/StepByStep'', the admirals will not let Kirk leave the bridge until the mission is complete, even though he's so sick with the flu that sitting up and staying awake is a struggle.

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': "Vogons are one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy. Not evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious, and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. '''On no account should you allow a Vogon to read poetry at you.'''"
** [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The movie]] plays it up when the ''[[CoolShip Heart of Gold]]'' makes a HyperspeedEscape from the Vogon armada. Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz turns to a subordinate and asks if the criminals they're pursuing filled out the proper paperwork to do this. The subordinate is shocked to find out that they did not. Later on, Arthur, Ford, and Zaphod fill out the release form for Trillian, who is about to be executed, only to be told that, since Zaphod is the President of the Galaxy, he has to submit a ''Presidential'' Release Form. Jeltz, who is all too eager to execute Trillian is instantly pacified when he receives the release form and orders her freed. Also, when the heroes are escaping, Jeltz is about to order pursuit, when a factory whistle is heard, and Jeltz tells everyone to take an hour for lunch.

* Inverted on ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode [[{{Recap/BabylonFiveS01E11Survivors}} Survivors]]. It was the protagonists, Sinclair and Ivanova specifically, who are obstructing Major Lianna Kemmer's attempts to locate and arrest Garibaldi on suspicion of sabotage.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''FanFic/MegaManReawakened'', General Yancey imposes a strict time limit on Project Gamma's completion, and he threatens to have the whole thing scrapped if it isn't done in time.
* ''FanFic/KyoshiRising''; the magistrate's assistant Kyoshi meets early in her journey, who ignoring Kyoshi's attempts to help the town with a giant spirit monster even after she reveals she's [[TheChosenOne the Avatar]]. The dockmaster in Taizhou has the temperament of an Obstructive Bureaucrat, but is more of a BeleagueredBureaucrat.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Holepunch, a Targetmaster from ''{{Transformers}}'', is an ''actively malicious'' Obstructive Bureaucrat. In fact, making people wait in lines and having them come back later and such is basically all the fun he ''ever'' has. And he's an [[TokenEvilTeammate Autobot!]] The MirrorUniverse version of him inverts this as a peppy motivational speaker skilled at keeping morale high.

* Taylor Mali wrote a poem called [[https://youtu.be/2qXgPfMGG8E "I'll Fight You For The Library"]], a series of four letters that details his 5th/6th grade English teacher Dr. Joseph D'Angelo finding out his reservation for the school library for class research had been unilaterally canceled by Dr. Richard Blackstone, Dean of Instruction for an administrative meeting -- [[{{Irony}} on facility utilization, no less]] -- and the library was the only place in the school large enough to hold it. Dr. D'Angelo barely hides his anger in his third letter, addressed to the Dean with a [[ADickInName "Dear Dick,"]] and ending with the threat of resigning in protest if his class isn't given back their reserved library time. The final letter addressed to the school district superintendent [[spoiler:details Dr. D'Angelo's gratitude to her for persuading Dr. Blackstone to hold his meeting elsewhere.]]