History Main / OnlySaneByComparison

* ''Literature/KonoSuba'': Kazuma Satou is a self-serving hedonist with a habit of commuting various acts of sexual harassment. Despite this, his snarky and savvy attitude to the wacky world he inhabits makes him look sane in comparison to his party members, the equally hedonistic but idiotic and bratty Aqua, the rambunctious braggart Megumin who can only do one spell a day (which also completely saps her of her energy) and does so because of ego, and the perverted crusader Darkness, who struggles to not give into her masochist fantasies. On occasion, however, it's Darkness who occupies this role due to being born into nobility while the others lack proper manners to put it lightly.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': The homunculi are AxCrazy psychos with a myriad of individual issues. Gluttony is stupid and eats people, Sloth is similarly dim-witted, Envy is an AttentionWhore, Pride is immensely cruel and Lust likes killing people. Greed, however, cares for his property (friends) and [[spoiler:is the only homunculus not part of a giant conspiracy to destroy Amestris]]. Wrath [[spoiler:is evil, unlike Greed, but also highly intelligent and able to keep his cool, never hinting at his true allegiance or indulging his rage during his entire career as the Führer]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Played with. Of the Homeworld Elite rulers [[Characters/StevenUniversePinkDiamond Pink Diamond]] is initially viewed by the cast as being an insane, galactic tyrant just like her fellow Diamonds, but is eventually [[spoiler:revealed to be the alter-ego of Steven's mom, [[Characters/StevenUniverseRoseQuartz Rose Quartz]], who liberated Earth and fought against the Diamonds after she witnessed the destruction their actions were causing to other planets]]. However, it's later revealed that despite all that, she still did a lot of terrible things, such as [[spoiler:tricking Spinel into staying alone for six thousand years, leaving Steven to deal with her problems, and causing Pink Pearl enough psychological stress that her eye is permanently cracked]]. In the end, everyone is left with a lot of complicated feelings towards her and her deeds, and accept she wasn't always the [[spoiler:infallible hero they thought she was]].

** The titular critic often finds himself playing the snarky straight guy to more off-the-wall characters, such as Chester A. Bum, Hyper Fangirl, [[AdamWesting the insane personas of his coworkers]], or the parody characters who often appear into his house. Of course, Critic himself has always had a HairTriggerTemper and serious mental instability, so he's nowhere near sane himself. On the flip side, some episodes have Malcolm and Rachel or Tamara play the straight man to Critic's childish insanity, while still throwing hints that, despite reacting more calmly to movies, they're also quite emotionally disturbed and can get violent at times. A few episodes give up on the charade and present them as equally accepting of each other's insanity.

* Owen Underhill from ''Literature/{{Dreamcatcher}}'' is a ReluctantPsycho SociopathicSoldier who takes sexual pleasure in violence and death, but he's the only one to question the insanity going on around him, which include [[ChestBurster alien monsters bursting]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext out of people's butts]], [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext a guy taking a psychic phone call on a gun]], and his unhinged superior [[GeneralRipper Kurtz]]'s moronically bloodthirsty orders.

* ''Film/TheBigLebowski'': The Dude is an incredibly lazy, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} somewhat eccentric]], stubborn, and [[TheStoner almost perpetually stoned]] [[TheSlacker slacker]], but he's the only character in the film who is even close to lucid enough to comprehend the world around him, and he generally spends his time having to play the voice of reason to the various lunatics and idiots that surround him.

** In the Fifteen arc, Chuuya is a BloodKnight whose goal is to murder the Port Mafia members, but he still has morals and a sense of right and wrong. In comparison, Dazai is much less sane; while he isn't as overtly unstable, he's extremely ruthless and sociopathic. He giggles as he repeatedly shoots a corpse after delivering a MercyKill, and manipulates events to force Chuuya into joining the mafia by turning the boy's friends against him while also using them as hostages-- all for the sake of humiliating Chuuya.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': [[EvilTeacher Denzel Crocker]] is a sadistic petty man prone to shouting spasms, who even ignoring his obsession with fairies is clearly insane. And yet he is the only member of the cast to actually notice and react to the clearly impossible events that occur. Likewise, just about everything he says about fairies proves to be true.

* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': Dib and Gaz are the only humans who recognize Zim is an alien because everybody else in town is too idiotic to see through his PaperThinDisguise. Dib already has a reputation as an obsessive ConspiracyTheorist willing to hurt himself and others just to prove the supernatural exists, so everybody assumes he's just crazy when he insists Zim is an alien. Gaz, on the other hand, doesn't obsess over Zim like her brother, but she's an EnfantTerrible with serious anger issues who stalks and threatens the life of a boy over a video game console.

* ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'': Dina Saruyama is implied to have undiagnosed autism, has NoSocialSkills, and is more interested in dinosaurs than people. She even once kidnapped herself (long story) because she wanted to be able to follow social cues. However, she also had a comparatively angst-free childhood, is a rare character who's able to stay in a stable relationship, and ends up playing the OnlySaneMan to multiple more troubled characters, most notably Joyce, who is not really adapted to the real world because she came from a really fundamentalist and conservative community, Becky, Dina's girlfriend who had the same problem as Joyce in addition to having an AbusiveParent who believes CureYourGays is possible, and Amber (Dina's roommate), who has a lot of issues.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': Waspinator is an eccentric, [[TheFatalist fatalistic]], [[TheDitz scatterbrained]] MinionWithAnFInEvil ButtMonkey. He isn't considerably more "sane" than the other Preadcons per se, but he is considerably less evil, less trachorous, has the smallest ego coupled with the fewest delusions of grandeur, and in general is more of a relatable character, especially compared to [[BigBad Megatron]], a megalomaniacal DiabolicalMastermind who plans to risk destroying reality itself for his mad plans; Tarantulas, a [[TheStarscream treacherous]], sociopathic MadScientist who frequently murders animals ForTheEvulz; Blackarachnia, Tarantulas' equally treacherous partner-in-crime and the resident WildCard who [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays pretty much everyone]], [[spoiler:though she does end up joining the good guys in the end]]; Inferno, a psychotic {{Pyromaniac}} who thinks he's an ant and is fanatically loyal to Megatron; Scorponok, a YesMan GeniusDitz; Terrorsaur, an incompetent SmugSnake with [[AmbitionIsEvil too much ambition for his own good]]; Quickstrike, a dense, short tempered BloodKnight; and [[FrankensteinsMonster Rampage]], a NighInvulnerable, [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] SerialKiller.

* In Creator/TomSka's video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLE-K1CJ-Ts The Blame Game]]", Tom plays a masked madman who plans to kidnap and murder the people responsible for him being bullied as a child. None of the people he kidnaps seem to care about being kidnapped and threatened -- they just cheerfully blame their actions on someone else and then join in on threatening the next person to be kidnapped. Tom ends up being the only one who notices how bizarre the situation is getting, and the only one who's confused as to how all these people are [[OffscreenTeleportation popping out of nowhere]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': Waspinator is an eccentric, [[TheFatalist fatalistic]], [[TheDitz scatterbrained]] MinionWithAnFInEvil ButtMonkey. He isn't considerably more "sane" than the other Preadcons per se, but he is considerably less evil, less trachorous, and in general more of a relatable character, especially compared to [[BigBad Megatron]], a megalomaniacal DiabolicalMastermind who plans to risk destroying reality itself for his mad plans; Tarantulas, a [[TheStarscream treacherous]], sociopathic MadScientist who frequently murders animals ForTheEvulz; Blackarachnia, Tarantulas' equally treacherous partner-in-crime and the resident WildCard who [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays pretty much everyone]], [[spoiler:though she does end up joining the good guys in the end]]; Inferno, a psychotic {{Pyromaniac}} who thinks he's an ant and is fanatically loyal to Megatron; Scorponok, a YesMan GeniusDitz; Terrorsaur, an incompetent SmugSnake with [[AmbitionIsEvil too much ambition for his own good]]; Quickstrike, a dense, short tempered BloodKnight; and [[FrankensteinsMonster Rampage]], a NighInvulnerable, [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] SerialKiller.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': Waspinator is an eccentric, [[TheFatalist fatalistic]], [[TheDitz scatterbrained]] MinionWithAnFInEvil ButtMonkey; despite all this he usually has to play the OnlySaneMan to the rest of the Predacons, who consist of [[BigBad Megatron]], a megalomaniacal DiabolicalMastermind who plans to risk destroying reality itself for his mad plans; Tarantulas, a [[TheStarscream treacherous]], sociopathic MadScientist who frequently murders animals ForTheEvulz; Blackarachnia, Tarantulas' equally treacherous partner-in-crime and the resident WildCard who [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays pretty much everyone]]; Inferno, a psychotic {{Pyromaniac}} who thinks he's an ant and is fanatically loyal to Megatron; Scorponok, a YesMan GeniusDitz; Terrorsaur, an incompetent SmugSnake with [[AmbitionIsEvil too much ambition for his own good]]; Quickstrike, a dense, short tempered BloodKnight; and [[FrankensteinsMonster Rampage]], a NighInvulnerable, [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] SerialKiller.

** Sandy Cheeks is a downplayed case of this since she is legitimately talented, virtuous, and intelligent, often making her the undisputed voice of reason among the main group as a result of their aforementioned vices and stupid qualities. However, Sandy also has her own eccentricities such as a violent SeriousBusiness temperament and a ''very'' competitive streak. "Sandy, Spongebob and the Worm" lampshaded that her being the most competent civilian of the hapless Bikini Bottom doesn't necessarily make her infallible.

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'': DependingOnTheWriter at least, Coco Bandicoot is a hot-headed GenkiGirl BunglingInventor who has a tendency to [[DidntThinkThisThrough not think her steps fully through]]. However being the little sister of Crash Bandicoot, an animalistic and extremely clumsy CloudCuckooLander, as well as often paired up with Crunch, a hyper enthusiastic [[DumbMuscle macho lunkhead]], she tends to still often take the role of the StraightMan, at least when [[BigGood Aku Aku]] is not around. Combined with all the zany and bizarre foes they regularly face, Coco still often manages to come off as the most normal character of the series.