History Main / SimpleSolutionWontWork

* ''WebAnimation/SpookyMonth'', in "Tender Treats", Bob Velseb, the serial killer from "its spooky month" came back to attack Lila. So Lila tries to do what she did last time, and offer him some candy, to raise his spirit for Spooky Month. Even when, he ate her candy, and did the spooky dance, it still didn't stop his urge to kill her.

** In "The Mask of El Toro Fuerte", one of the new guys accompanying the Dark Hand enforcers suggests that they wait for Jackie to retrieve the talisman on his own and then relieve him of the talisman once he emerges. Finn points out that they don't know what the talisman can do, meaning Jackie could bust out of the temple fifty-feet tall and with laser-eyes; the new guy freaks out at the notion of laser eyes ([HilariousInHindsight ironically, laser-eyes is exactly the power of the pig talisman, which would appear later]]). [[SubvertedTrope But then, it turns out the talisman isn't even in the temple, as somebody took it some time ago]].

** A repeated statement by Uncle is that "magic must defeat magic!" and, sure enough, whenever a magic-empowered enemy appears (which is like 99.9% of the [[BigBad major enemies]]) they are completely immune to everything but magical attacks (or martial arts, or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs magically-empowered martial arts]]) and by the middle part of the series Captain Black and his subordinates don't even bother to do more than [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything tell Team Chan where to go]] and arrest any defeated human goons the chaos leaves behind.

* ''WebAnimation/Spooky Month'', in "Tender Treats", Bob Velseb, the serial killer from "its spooky month" came back to attack Lila. So Lila tries to do what she did last time, and offer him some candy, to raise his spirit for Spooky Month. Even when, he ate her candy, and did the spooky dance, it still didn't stop his urge to kill her.

* ''Fanfic/SpyXSon'': [[TheWarJustBefore Back during the Ostania and Westalis war]], [[Manga/DragonBall Kami]] considered sending the Z-Fighters to end the senseless loss of human life. He refrained from doing so because revealing the god-like strength of Goku and the others would have made them targets of corrupt governments as their new weapons. WordOfGod adds that any government attempts to get control of the Z-Fighters, particularly the more volatile ones like Vegata, [[GoneHorriblyWrong would end badly for said government]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In "The Kidney Stays in the Picture", after a drinking contest, one of Hayley's kidneys dies, and her other one is failing, so she needs a transplant as soon as possible. Francine, her mother, would give her own, but she only has one. She lost the other in a tequila pounding contest with her friend Kelly and Creator/GeorgeWallace, who went on to become the second-most famous black man in a Congo hat. Stan, her father, is willing to give one of his own kidneys, but Francine shoots that idea down: she had a drunken affair with a man during one of her bachelorette parties years ago, so there's a chance Stan isn't Hayley's biological father and therefore won't be compatible. That leaves Steve, Hayley's biological brother, as the only donor. Unfortunately, he ends up getting scared out of it when Roger tells him a frightening story of how the hospital takes people's kidneys out.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In "The Kidney Stays in the Picture", after a drinking contest, one of Hayley's kidneys died, and her other one is failing, so she needs a transplant as soon as possible. Francine, her mother, would give her own, but she only has one. She lost the other in a tequila pounding contest with her friend Kelly and Creator/GeorgeWallace, who went on to become the second-most famous black man in a Congo hat. So Stan, her father, is willing to give one of his own kidneys, but Francine drops that idea down. As she confesses that she had a drunken affair with a man during one of her bachelorette parties years ago, so Stan won't be compatible. Thus leaving Steve, Hayley's biological brother, as the only donor, but he was scared out of it, after Roger told him a frightening story of how the hospital takes people's kidneys out.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Smiling Friends}}'', in "Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?", Pim and Charlie discover the murdered corpse of Salty. [[MundaneSolution Pim immediately calls the police station.]] But unfortunately the officer stops him, explaining that they have "a new force" in charge of murder investigations, and alerts them just now. And suddenly, [[ActuallyIAmHim Charlie gets a call from the boss, telling them of their new job to solve Salty's murder, as their group is in charge of murders now.]]

*** When Superman finds out that Vandal Savage has a time machine, he asks the latter why he never used it to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong stop his past self from destroying the world]]. Vandal explains that he can't travel to a point in the past when he existed, and given that he's an immortal [[TimeAbyss who's been around since the Stone Age]], it's pretty much useless to him. Fortunately, since Superman was flung to the future during that time, ''he's'' able to go.

* The ''Advertising/TrixRabbit'' will never eat Trix[[note]]except for the ads where RealLife kids in the audience voted to let him eat and the judges allowed it "[[ThrowTheDogABone just this once]]" and a live-action ad where the Rabbit did got Trix, but [[BaitAndSwitch he did not "got milk" for them]][[/note]] no matter how many tricks he tries, because kids will always take it away from him while saying "silly rabbit! Trix are for kids!". Purchasing the cereal at the store with his own money is out of the question as well -- the Rabbit did that in one ad and the kids took it away all the same.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** While fandom holds that Inquisitors will cheerfully request Exterminatus (the complete and utter destruction of a planet's life and biosphere, and often infrastructure as well) at the first sign of heresy or lacking faith (e.g. someone coughing in church or saying "[[HoldYourHippogriffs Emperor-damnit]]"), and those kinds of lunatics likely do exist, Exterminatus is a far more complicated process than someone signing off and saying "oh well, plenty more planets". It requires the Inquisitor to make the call that taking the planet back from Chaos/orks/the Tyranids is impossible (not "impossible without the loss of billions of lives and materiel over decades", flat-out impossible), a Space Marine fleet to get to the planet (often an active warzone) via warp travel (and HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace), and then launch the barrage from orbit, costing the Imperium a world that is usually an important source of materials/weapons/people. Then the Inquisition still checks if the call was justified. And in some cases (such as virus-bombing a planet attacked by Nurglites) it "just gave them ideas".
** The AscendedFanfic short story "[[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free! Rocks Are Not Free!]]" is a detailed analysis of why the Inquisition does not use [[ColonyDrop giant asteroids]] instead of giant bombs to [[EarthShatteringKaboom Exterminatus]] planets. In short, getting an asteroid to crash into a given planet takes considerably more fuel, money, labor, and, most importantly, time than OrbitalBombardment does.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The short story "[[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free! Rocks Are Not Free!]]" is a detailed analysis of why the Inquisition does not use [[ColonyDrop giant asteroids]] instead of giant bombs to [[EarthShatteringKaboom Exterminatus]] planets. In short, getting an asteroid to crash into a given planet takes considerably more fuel, money, labor, and, most importantly, time than OrbitalBombardment does.

** In the AscendedFanfic "[[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free! Rocks Are Not Free!]]", a starship captain figuring he'd just drop an asteroid on the planet (admittedly a time-honored tactic, among orks) is sent to remedial/punitive accounting because it ended up costing almost three times as much as a standard orbital bombardment since the asteroid itself has to travel through realspace for several weeks before being in range to do anything.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "Magical Mystery Cure" when Spike proposes they use [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 the Memory Spell]] to make their friends realize they swapped each others cutie marks and jobs, Twilight states it won't work as "It's not their memories, Spike. It's their true selves that have been altered!" How that's different is unclear, but Twilight states it means [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E6TheCutiePox Zecora's Cutie Pox cure]] for fake cutie marks won't work either.

** When Molly asks Loki, who's trapped in the form of a teenager, why he doesn't use his [[VoluntaryShapeshifter shapeshifting power]] to turn into an adult, Loki explains that it requires concentration to work, and if he did try, he'd wake up the next day with a splitting headache.

** Professor Flitwick warns the other teachers against trying to blast open the door to the Chamber of Secrets, as they are underground and an explosion could cause the ceiling to collapse onto everyone. Professor McGonagall also rules out Apparition, knowing that there will surely be safeguards that will result in unpleasant consequences for anyone attempting such an obvious method.

** Professor Flitwick warns the other teachers against trying to blast open the door to the Chamber of Secrets, as they are underground, and an explosion could cause the ceiling to collapse onto everyone. Professor [=McGonagall=] also rules out Apparition, knowing that there will surely be safeguards that will result in unpleasant consequences for anyone attempting such an obvious method.
** In Harry's fourth year, he suddenly finds himself the target of various murder attempts, courtesy of Karkaroff. Thomas and Veronica realize that while pulling Harry out of Hogwarts would protect him from further attempts, they can't risk the Ministry learning anything about Harry and where he lives, especially with people like Umbridge gaining influence.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'': The Pillar Men need a perfectly cut Red Stone of Aja in order to complete the Stone Mask and remove their weakness to sunlight. At the start of the story, it's in the hands of Lisa Lisa, one of the heroes. When it's questioned why Lisa Lisa doesn't just destroy the Stone or damage it so that it can't be used, she explains that there's a prophecy that the Stone would be needed to defeat the Pillar Men, not to mention that its ability to channel sunlight, and Hamon by extension, makes it an ideal weapon against the Pillar Men. [[spoiler:In the end, Kars does get the stone and uses it become an UltimateLifeform, even gaining the ability to use Hamon himself, but Joseph uses the stone to block a Hamon attack from Kars, which ends up triggering the volano they're on to errupt and banish Kars into space.]]

** The idea of using the Rabbit Miraculous to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong prevent a young Master Fu from accidently destroying the Order of Guardians and kickstarting the entire plot]] is floated, but Alix vetoes it on the grounds that it wouldn't change the past, just create an alternate timeline.

* ''Fanfic/ProfessorArc'' gives us an example of the "only works for the person proposing the simple solution" type: when the rumors of Jaune Arc's [[MistakenForBadass very alleged]] prowess as a Hunter reach Salem, she decides that she's okay with putting her plans on pause for a few decades and wait for Jaune to grow old and die. This plan is perfectly okay for her, who is immortal, but all of her followers lack the same advantage and thus they decide they need to do something about Jaune ASAP.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/40263372 Train Detective Yohane]]'': The premise is that for [[Anime/LoveLiveSunshine Yoshiko's ]] birthday, Dia organizes a murder mystery with Yoshiko as the detective and the other members of Aquors playing the cast. However, Yoshiko manages to figure out who the "killer" is [[TheTell thanks to Dia's habit of scratching her beauty mark whenever she lies]]. Though since Dia worked hard to prepare the mystery, Yoshiko can't just declare her deductions based on an uncontrollable habit, so she still needs to find the evidence that Dia left out and point them to the killer.
* The premise of ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/26832964/chapters/70355505#workskin wasting beats of this heart of mine]]'' is that [[VideoGame/{{Hades}} Zagreus]] reincarnates as a mortal to [[spoiler:find Persephone]], a mission that would be much easier if reincarnation didn't wipe his memories (and battle experience). According to Hypnos, remembering is simple: drink from the spring of Mnemosyne. However, Zagreus might not walk away untraumatized, especially since he died over and over as a god.

* '' Film/{{Convoy}}'': Early in the film, the police are quite eager to just shoot Rubber Duck's truck and stop his race to Mexico dead in its tracks. Until Rubber Duck points out that [[NitroExpress the gasoline trailer his truck is carrying is full and it may go off if they hit the truck wrong]]. The possibility of excessive collateral damage stops them for the moment. When they finally set up a blockade and start shooting, it's when Rubber Duck's truck is about to pass a narrow bridge over the Rio Grande and the damage will be minimal. [[spoiler:The truck explodes from the gunfire, [[NeverFoundTheBody guaranteeing]] that Rubber Duck successfully [[FakingTheDead faked his death]].]]

* In an [[AdaptationalExplanation adaptation specific]] version of this, ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' answers the question "Why doesn't Harry use Parseltongue to make the basilisk not kill him?" by having Tom Riddle explain that it'll only answer to a descendant of it's original master, Salazar Slytherin.

* ''Film/HomeSweetHomeAlone'': Max thinks aloud for a moment about why he doesn't just call the police to come deal with the thieves who are trying to break in: if the cops find out that he was abandoned by his parents (even if it was an accident), the cops [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome will surely arrest them for apparent child endangerment]] alongside the thieves (this is a pretty notable case because in the other films in the series, the cops finding out the kid is all alone is only met with angry stares to the parents at worst).

* ''Film/{{Matilda}}'': After Matilda has endured half of her first day in school seeing the outrageous tortures that Agatha Trunchbull (the school's DeanBitterman and extreme SadistTeacher) unleashes on the children, she asks the other students in her classroom why the heck has nobody told their parents about Trunchbull's brutality and gotten them to call the police, and she's told back that none of their parents have believed them ''[[RefugeInAudacity because]]'' of how outrageous said tortures are (admittedly, probably telling someone about the school having an iron maiden (which Trunchbull affectionately calls "the Chokey") and how Trunchbull [[DisproportionateRetribution showed her rage at a girl having pigtails]] by grabbing her by said pigtails and using her as a HumanHammerThrow would be a tall tale in other circumstances). [[Literature/{{Matilda}} The book]] also makes mention that Trunchbull has managed to intimidate the parents who have believed their children into looking the other way. The result is that Matilda needs to fix things herself using her PsychicPowers.

* ''Film/SniperTheWhiteRaven:'' The star Russian sniper Seryi has been tracked down to an abandoned chemical factory, and the Ukrainian command propose a relatively complex operation involving sniping Seryi's support team and sending in a lone commando to finish him off. One of the Ukrainian soldiers asks "Why not just call in an artillery strike?" The answer is that the factory has a lot of stored chlorine gas, and releasing it would be an ecological disaster.

** In the climax of the Majin Buu arc, in which Vegeta's plan to revive Majin Buu's victims involves the convoluted wish to revive every good person that died since Babidi arrived on Earth, Goku asks why not simply wish to bring back everyone killed by Majin Buu. Vegeta explains that that wording would cause the dragon to bring back the likes of Babidi and Dabura... while also exempting the people ''he'' had massacred during the time he was under Babidi's influence.

* ''Film/Goosebumps2015'': After R.L. Stine explains how [[RealityWritingBook the magic that created the monsters works]], the very first thing Zach asks is why the hell doesn't Stine just write down "and all the monsters were captured and never bothered anybody ever again, The End" right now. Stine explains that the writing magic needs a complete and plausibly-written story to work, and that takes time. The second thing, and that Stine leaves unsaid until the climax, is that [[spoiler:his daughter is one of those "monsters" and he needs to think of an ending when she is not dragged into the book with them. At the climax, with no time, she accepts to be absorbed too as a HeroicSacrifice. Stine [[DisneyDeath manages to solve that later]] when he is not pressed by monsters trying to kill everybody.]]

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'', after catching a pair of field mice that turn out to be his parents, Brain decides he wants to communicate with them, and so hooked them up to devices that gave them sentience. Unfortunately, they end up being irritating and grating (acting a bit like Brain) and end up driving him crazy. When Pinky asks him why he doesn't just unplug the speech devices, Brain mentions he had tried but his father threatened to cut off his allowance.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'', after catching a pair of field mice that turn out to be his parents, Brain decides he wants to communicate with them, and so hooked them up to devices that gave them sentience. Unfortunately, they end up being irritating and grating (acting a bit like Brain) and end up driving him crazy. When Pinky asks him why he just doesn't unplug the speech devices, Brain mentions he had tried but his father threatened to cut off his allowance.

* ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'': When Misaka learns that the first major villain was putting a bunch of kids in comas in order to save another set of kids from their comas, she asks why they didn't ask Academy City for help first. It turns out they did, but [[TownWithADarkSecret Academy City]] stonewalled her every time. [[spoiler: Sure enough, the next time she tries to save the children using more humane methods, the attempt gets hijacked by the grandaughter of the guy who put them in comas in the first place.]]

* One episode sees Johnny get a new video game, [[NintendoHard only to get stuck on the first boss]]. Johnny's first idea is to look online for walkthroughs and guides, only for the search to come up with nothing, with Dukey noting that because the game is so new, no one's had a chance to finish it, let alone post anything about it.

*** When Superman finds out that Vandal Savage has a time machine, he asks the latter why he never used it to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong stop his past self from destroying the world]]. Vandal explains that he can't travel to a point in the past when he existed. Fortunately, since Superman was flung to the future during that time, ''he's'' able to go.