History Main / SanityBall

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': The ball tends to be tossed between Rentarou, Karane, and Kurumi when [[LoveFreak their]] [[Tsundere respective]] [[BigEater quirks]] don't crop up.

* Al and Leona in ''Manga/DominionTankPolice'' tend to trade off the Sanity Ball rather frequently.

* {{Webcomic/Homestuck}}: It's passed around in all the player's groups.

* With the entire cast of ''WebVideo/ScottTheWoz'' being CloudCuckoolanders in a world that runs on surreal humor, the role of OnlySaneMan relative to our Earth sensibilities gets passed around a lot.

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', a good dozen or so characters have passed the Sanity Ball around. Roy usually carries it, but when he was [[DeathIsCheap killed]], Haley and Durkon picked it up for their respective parties. Elan occasionally takes the ball for a bardic GenreSavvy moment. After [[spoiler:Durkon gets vampirized]], [[ChaoticStupid Belkar]] picks up the Sanity Ball, at least with regards to that, but so far only the readers [[spoiler: and Vampire-Durkon]] can see this, and therefore be suitably terrified by it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BeCoolScoobyDoo'', Freddie and Velma toss this ball around [[RuleOfFunny depending on the writer's gags for that episode in question.]]

* Depending on the situation, any given member or combination of members in the Team Rocket trio in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' can act as a straight man to any other ones. Often justified, though, due to each of them having a lack of critical thinking skills but conflicting personalities.

* Jared of Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings is usually the resident CloudCuckooLander but amongst Pokemon Professors he's played as the sane man with such revolutionary ideas as feeding Pokemon more that just Macaroons and correcttly predicting Lyandre is the kind of guy who'd blow up the world with a laser.

* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'': Zack and London never hold it, but Cody, Maddie, Carey, and Mr. Moseby can whenever they need to.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman -- Brief Lives'', Delirium (the AnthropomorphicPersonification of madness) acts generally insane and wacky while her older brother Dream serves as her rational and pragmatic foil. After receiving some distressing news, however, he starts to lose it, and Delirium has to pick up the Sanity Ball, since "one of us has to keep this thing going". Later on when describing the event, she seems unable to remember anything beyond saying "It hurt..."

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'': The Slayers' Sanity Ball is usually tossed back and forth between [[ObfuscatingStupidity Gourry]] and [[DeadpanSnarker Zelgadis]]. The secondary Sanity Ball is usually toted around by [[AffablyEvil Xellos]] (maybe that's what's on the end of his staff?), since he seems to be the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Villain]]. Usually.

* ''Series/{{Community}}'': The ball seemed to lie pretty firmly with Britta early on, but in later episodes it gets passed around mostly between Jeff, Annie, Troy, and Abed. In general, Jeff is the relatively normal one (''heavy'' emphasis on "relatively") who is the most likely to realize that the SeriousBusiness doesn't really matter, [[NotSoAboveItAll but usually gets swept up in the rest of the school's weirdness anyway.]] Annie is the most intelligent and often acts as the group's conscience, but doesn't live up to her own ideals as often as not. Troy is generally the most moral member of the group, but a complete idiot. Abed is GenreSavvy to the point of being a borderline FourthWallObserver, but has an AmbiguousDisorder to the point that one sometimes wonders if he is actually, literally insane.

* ''Series/{{Cheers}}: Sam and Diane go back and forth between who is the sane one in a given situation. At times Diane is the only sane one, reacting to Sam’s over-the-top womanizing and occasional immaturity, but other times, Sam is the rational and calm one reacting to Diane’s incessant pretentiousness.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Twilight Sparkle's relative level-headedness amongst her more outlandish friends usually lands her in the role of the {{Only Sane Ma|n}}re. However, sometimes she can get carried away in her cynicism, and her SuperOCD makes her susceptible to stress-induced [[SanitySlippage mental breakdowns]], at which point the ball is, ironically, shared between her friends (most consistently with Spike and Applejack).

* Some of the characters in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' tend to throw the Sanity Ball back and forth with each other, particularly Grif and Simmons, and also Church and Tucker. The general rule is that Church, Carolina, Wash, Tex, and Lopez will almost always have this, Grif, Simmons, and Tucker pass it around and which of them has it generally depends on [[RuleOfFunny how funny it will be]], and Sarge, Donut, Sister, and Caboose will ''never'' have it.

** Lampshaded in ''Into the Wild Green Yonder'':
-->'''Amy:''' Bender, are you crazy?\\

** However, their mother Nicole definitely grabs onto the ball the longest... unless competition is involved, then someone else has to take the ball. The episode '''The Fridge''' is a good example; she leads the family into competitive madness with Gumball with ball in hand trying to stop them.

* During the early episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' Jellyfishing, [[TheDitz Patrick]] of all people grasps it momentarily when he correctly figures out that Squidward doesn't like them. He lets go of it when Spongebob hand waves this observation away.