History Main / TheMillstone

* ''{{ComicStrip/Foxtrot}}'': Peter Fox is very bad at sports despite his continually trying out for them (if he's on the team, it's only to show how bad he is). It leads to an unpleasant discovery [[NegativeContinuity one year]] where he didn't.

* Flik in ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' is this to the ant colony at first, being so accident prone that the rest of the colony don't respect him nor do they want to hear about his inventions. He gets better after some character development, as well as showing true bravery by standing up to the grasshopper army.

* The Minions in ''WesternAnimation/{{Minions}}'' want nothing more than to serve the biggest baddest badass there is. Unfortunately, they aren't very ''good'' at it. They're klutzy and accident-prone even on good days, and on ''bad'' days they're a hazard to life and limb. In the first part depicting their past, the Minions accidentally sent a T-rex into a volcano, got a caveman eaten by a bear, crushed a pharaoh and his subjects with a pyramid, exposed a vampire to sunlight during an ill-planned surprise party, and accidentally shot Napoleon with a cannon. That last one forced the Minions to flee and hide for centuries. They have somewhat better luck in modern times -- Scarlet's working relationship with them only falls apart because she mistakenly thought they were traitors (though accidentally dropping a chandelier on her head was the final nail in the coffin), and Gru has (somehow) survived working with them [[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe1 through]] [[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2 three]] [[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3 movies]].

* Tales ''abound'' of the one player in a roleplay group (usually referred to as "that guy") who thinks random actions like "kill the quest-giving NPC" or "betray the party at every turn" are funny. Like the saga of [[http://bad-rpers-suck.livejournal.com/tag/commander%20dumbass%20saga Commander Dumbass]].
* Gavin Free of ''Creator/AchievementHunter'' can undoubtedly claim this title. While his screwups most of the time only hurt himself, numerous times in team games, his stupidity has cost his team big in too many examples to really list. As such, what's known as his biggest screwup is one of the last few Cops and Crooks videos from their GTA 4 Let's Plays, which actually ended with him getting kicked out of Team Lads for several Let's Plays afterwards after he 1. Actually ''got out'' of the escape helicopter and tried to shoot Michael because he thought he'd get more money (leaving Michael to fly off and leave him to be killed by the opposing teams and also causing his team to lose due to them having more deaths), 2. Was too busy fooling around with the escape boat that he didn't pay attention to where he was going and let the other team win because he ''drove the boat onto the beach'', causing them to lose because the getaway vehicle was now unusable, and 3. the last straw being when he drove the car off of a ramp that took them into an enclosed space where there wasn't any space to drive, allowing the other team to simply roll up and hose them with bullets.
** Jack undoubtedly filled this role for Team Gents during the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C05UMkZkH5k Madden 25 Superbowl Special]]. As Quarterback for the Denver Broncos, Jack threw ''seven'' interceptions [[note]]Actually eight, but one was called due to penalty. And then later he switched controllers with Ryan, who threw three more.[[/note]], ensuring that the Broncos never get an offensive play and becoming Team Lads' greatest weapon. Even Gavin, returning from last year as the Lads' Quarterback and retaining his weak grasp of the controls and ''weaker'' grasp of American Football in general, outperformed him.
* ''WebVideo/EpicNPCMan'':
** In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwxkz0dePQw Healing Light is just a bit too bright - Holy Nova]]", Rowan gets stuck with an overzealous healer who can only use Holy Nova, which is too bright a spell and blinds Rowan when used. Even though Rowan specifically requests that Adam not use it until he's at least at half health, Adam begins spamming it as soon as Rowan charges towards the Bandit King. Rowan is so blinded he can't move from the spot while the Bandit King pelts him with arrows, leaving him to scream at Adam to just stop healing him in frustration. Though confused, Adam agrees to stop... only to keep spamming Holy Nova as soon as Rowan tries to fight again.
** In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NbwizzxQ_s Annoying bright spells in games - Magic]]", Rowan has the misfortune of being stuck with not one, but ''three'' such healers, who cannot get it in their arrogant heads that the Tank might want to be able to ''see'' where he's going while they use their [[VerbalTic mmmmagic]]. As soon as Rowan charges at the enemy, all three mages start spamming extremely bright spells, leaving poor Rowan to unknowingly hack at a tree. Against all odds, the party manages to win the encounter.
** In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QCQV7lsDp0 Toxic typers in games]]", Ben spends the entire boss fight calling everyone a noob and demanding that he be healed even though he's not the Tank, he wastes his time doing nothing but typing insults on his keyboard, he acts like he's carrying the entire team when in fact he's not doing any damage, and he has the audacity of complaining that no one in the team is doing their job properly when he's the only one not doing anything at all. When told to just [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim shut up and attack the boss already]], Ben refuses because it would be pointless since "they've basically lost already". And to top it all off, he ragequits [[NeverMyFault like it's not his fault the boss fight went FUBAR]].
* The famous ''WebVideo/LeeroyJenkinsVideo'' plays this trope for laughs, but actually subverts this on further inspection: in this video, the ''entire party'' -- or at least the leader -- is a Millstone. The overly complicated plan made ''no sense at all'' and was not appropriate whatsoever for this encounter. Leeroy did nothing but speed up their demise. He even followed one major part of the plan exactly[[note]]Use the ability Divine Intervention on the mages to protect them as they cast their area spells[[/note]], but it didn't work because the leader of the group apparently ''[[ReadTheFreakingManual did not even read]]'' the description for the ability he asked for[[note]]It plainly says the protected player ''cannot attack'' while under the effect[[/note]].

* In [[https://notalwaysright.com/riding-you-the-wrong-way/ this]] ''Website/NotAlwaysFriendly'' story, a member of a high school basketball game, who suffered an injury which caused them to be unable to play in the championship games, decides to go to the games with their father out of loyalty to the team. The father, being a GoodSamaritan, decides to drive a woman and her young son to the games too. She then takes an agonizingly long time to get moving since she had talked with a friend for a long time, ''hadn't packed her bags'', and didn't even know what her brother's address was, despite the fact that was where she was supposed to stay. It turns out she had pulled the same stunt with the rest of the basketball team and they had refused to carpool with her afterwards.
* Vitaly from ''Fight of the Living Dead''. He's responsible for nearly all the deaths in some way. [[DirtyCoward First he gets Brittany killed when he panics and pushes her to the zombies to escape]]. Then he makes too much noise during a mission which attracts the zombies attention and gets Shannah killed. [[AllForNothing It turns out Vitaly grabbed the wrong item, making the whole mission (and Shannah's death) pointless]]. Fousey is killed when they have to do the mission a second time, which could've been avoided if Vitaly hadn't been stupid enough to grab the wrong item. Finally, Vitaly himself gets killed whilst trying to retrieve an item that he forgot to take with him whilst abandoning their hideout(he was the only one in a position to grab it, but he began to panic and ran instead). [[KarmicDeath His death is caused when he foolishly wastes his ammo on just one zombie whilst forgetting to shoot the brain and then wastes time bragging and didn't check if the zombie was dead.]]

* Flik in ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' is this to the ant colony at first, more interested in doing things in a BrilliantButLazy way, so much so that he never pulls his own weight. He gets better after some character development, as well as showing true bravery by standing up to the grasshopper army.

The trope name comes from the phrase "millstone around my neck". For those not versed in agriculture, a millstone is a large stone disc (often two or three feet in diameter and weighing several hundred pounds) used by mills to render things well pulverized, such as grinding grain into flour. Imagine carrying one of those around your neck -- you'd be hard-pressed to do much of anything. The expression originates from [[Literature/TheBible Matthew 18:6]] ("...whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea"), which in turn may be a reference to a form of capital punishment practiced at the time.

** In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QCQV7lsDp0 Toxic typers in games]]", Ben spends the entire boss fight calling everyone a noob and demanding that he be healed even though he's not the Tank, he wastes his time doing nothing but typing insults on his keyboard, he acts like he's carrying the entire team when in fact he's not doing any damage, and he has the audacity of complaining that no one in the team is doing their job properly when he's the only one not doing anything at all. When told to just [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim shut up and attack the boss already]], Ben refuses because it would be pointless since "they've basically lost already". And to top it all off, he has the audacity to ragequit [[NeverMyFault like it's not his fault the boss fight went FUBAR]].