Not So Above It All

You gotta get your kicks somehow.

Flash: So yeah, I did go behind your back! I'd do it again! What do you say to that, big guy?
Martian Manhunter: [smiles] I was only going to ask if you wanted to play Brawlin' Bots.
Flash: Dibs on the green one! [dashes off]
Martian Manhunter: [mumbles] I wanted the green one...

— Justice League, "The Ties That Bind"

The Straight Man takes a fall. His usual position is far above the prevailing attitude of his crew, wackiness, pettiness or just general slacker-itis.

In a story where the wackiness level is really high, the straight man is still goofier and wackier than anyone you know, but he has his standards to maintain. Under no circumstances will he allow himself to be pulled down into the general chaos of those around him.

Until he does. You can only fight the tide for so long. As the age-old adage goes: "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link." If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Compare with Not So Stoic, which can also be Played for Laughs, but has potential for seriousness. May be implemented with an ...Or So I Heard. If he somehow brings it on himself, it might overlap with Break the Haughty, but not necessarily so. See Actually Pretty Funny, where someone says/does something so funny that the Straight Man just can't keep a straight face. See also Hypocritical Humor, where often the Straight Man in question had just told someone off for doing something goofy and is now doing it themselves.

See also Only Sane by Comparison, where the character is more openly "wacky", yet still manages to be the one who holds everything together. Could reveal Cracks in the Icy Façade.

Sometimes related to an Idiot Ball moment. Contrast Smart Ball, when their dimmer co-star may have a moment of clarity or tact.

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Example subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Fan Works
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Western Animation

Other examples:

Advertising

• Claude the Cat sometimes makes a joke despite being quite a serious beast usually.
• In this 2009 advertisement for Friendly's, a bunch of sisters on a soccer team are singing the iconic "I Wanna Go To Friendly's" jingle, but as they're nearing the end, their mother finishes off the song, stopping them dead in their tracks out of confusion as she's singing her lungs out. At the end of the commercial, this gets lampshaded by an African-American couple in the car opposite, who look at the mother in disbelief.
• Inverted in one Smokey Bear commercial where the bear is seen performing rap to get his usual message of "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" across. Partway through, he stops, annoyed by it all, drops the rap clothes, puts on his ranger hat and "gives it to them straight".

Asian Animation

• Happy Heroes: Careful S., being The Stoic, usually prefers to not get involved in his more carefree “siblings”’ antics. But, there are certain moments where he lets himself be a bit goofy. Just look at the “Rubix Cube Tournament” episode…

Comic Books

• One Archie Comic had Mr. Lodge ask some of the kids what they would do if they won the lottery, expecting them to say they'd waste or squander it. However Dilton comes forward and begins listing off some very financially savvy and intelligent things like ensuring the taxes were paid to avoid interest and penalties and putting some away for future education and retirement, increasingly impressing Mr. Lodge with everything he says. And with what's left, he intends to buy a bumper car ride and install it in his basement — cue Face Palm from Mr. Lodge.
• On the rare occasions Batman has displayed a sense of humor, the rest of the League find it unsettling.
• Black Panther is typically depicted as a cold and calculating person who only somewhat lets his guard down around those closest to him, and maintains an attitude of being above silly and naive concepts. This even extended to things like joining the Avengers, which was so he could spy on potential threats to Wakanda... before he reveals the truth: He didn't join the Avengers to spy for Wakanda, he was spying for Wakanda so he could join the Avengers. He genuinely did want to join a heroic team of people.
• Daredevil's frequent tragedies don't leave him much reason to joke and laugh. During a mini-series by Paul Jenkins, Daredevil's criticism of Spider-Man's tendency to make jokes in even the most dire of situations caused the wall-crawler to in turn call him out on his lack of a sense of humor. The final scene of the story was Spider-Man swinging off into the night unaware of the "Kick Me" sign Daredevil had placed on his back.
• Garfield generally maintains an air of, at best, absolute disdain for Jon's antics and is typically utterly repulsed by the, er, "interesting" women who Jon dates. Usually he urges Jon, at least the best he can, to not date these women or expresses relief when they turn Jon down, but even he is genuinely sympathetic that "Gap-Toothed Gretta the Distance Spitting Queen" refused to go out with Jon because he actually thinks she sounds like a fun person to date.
• J'onn J'onzz often played The Stoic and The Comically Serious in Justice League International. While it was a good act, it was just that, and he would occasionally break character.
  Martian Manhunter: I'm going to engage in an ancient Martian meditation technique.
  Captain Atom: What's it called?
  Martian Manhunter: Screaming.
  • And then there's the scene from Issue #3, with Batman making a Star Trek joke to Blue Beetle. Even he finds it unusual for the Dark Knight to say that.
  Blue Beetle: Hey everybody, Batman made a funny! Batman made a funny!
  Batman: Don't push your luck, Beetle.
  Blue Beetle: Sorry, Bats.
• Krypto the Superdog: In the comic book story featuring an intergalactic mailman, Brainy Barker constantly berates the other dog stars for barking at the mere mention of the mailman. In the end, she can't help but bark as well.
• In the 6th and final issue of the Ratchet & Clank comic miniseries, the usually calm and logical Clank decides that the best way to keep President Qwark from causing trouble is to simply duct tape him to a chair. In the end it actually was the right decision, as it not only held Qwark down when the comet shard opened a portal that started sucking everyone and everything into it, but it allowed him to hold onto Clank with his teeth preventing the robot from being sucked in as well.
• In Runaways, the normally quiet and polite Klara utterly pigs out when Molly and Karolina take her to a restaurant. In a later arc, she discovers video games and quickly becomes ruthlessly competitive.
• Scott Pilgrim: As much as Ramona Flowers prides herself on having the moral high ground compared to Scott, it's made clear that she too has skeletons in her closet; in fact, if anything she's done things way worse than Scott ever did. Scott spends a non-romantic night with another girl, one that was an old friend (even before Kim Pine)? She calls him out on it while hanging out with and even kissing an ex of hers. Scott starts dating her while dating another girl and going through with breaking up with her when he realises it’s wrong to pursue Ramona? She gets pissed at him even though she cheated on just about every single ex-boyfriend she had. Scott at least had no idea what an asshole he was until it was spelled out for him, but everything Ramona did before meeting Scott was intentional and for the fun of it.
• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: In New New York, Bart asks the Planet Express crew if he and his family can accompany them to make a delivery to an ice planet. Leela replies that it's up to his mother. Marge, who is known for being a Wet Blanket Wife, is quite interested to go into space when she's shown smirking and saying "Only if we all wear jackets."
• The Internship: River, in being a Foil to Cooper, constantly presents themselves as being cool, kind, outgoing, in control of themselves, and confident. As Volume 3 reveals however, River actually possesses multiple flaws of their own and their own actions can be pretty dubious, to the point where Cooper outright tells them, "You're as messed up as I am!". To elaborate, River is revealed to be a Stepford Smiler who's really a loner and has had issues with being an outcast due to identifying as a transgender individual. They reveal this to be part of why they wanted to get along with Cooper - not just because Fletcher basically demanded that River and Cooper work together, but also because they can empathize with him and want to genuinely connect with him. In terms of dubious actions, they give a cashier a blowjob to waive the costs of buying costumes and equipment for a performance, which...technically makes River a criminal. Later, during (yet another) argument with Cooper, River snaps that he has to trust them if the two are going to get along. They say this despite the fact that, earlier that day, River had A): admitted that they weren't being entirely honest with him earlier and B): openly lied to Cooper by saying that they didn't overhear him and Andy the night before, which confirmed Cooper's sexuality issues.
• The Superman Adventures: while she and Jimmy are covering one of Superman's battles, Lois remarks that the populace is treating it "like a cheap prize fight" only to murmur, "Ooh, good one" with the next punch.
• The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye:
  • Ultra Magnus, a guy whose "smiling" mechanisms actually rusted over, at one point Trolls some people who have just been released from stasis.
    Magnus: Please present to our medical staff for a check-up and the details of your new beast mode.
    Anode: Beast mode?!
    Magnus: Joke. I've been practicing.
  • Cyclonus is a figure from Cybertron's past, who speaks ancient languages, remembers bits of Cybertronian culture that have been nearly forgotten, and tends to pipe up in order to tell old legends or deliver points of his personal philosophy. Except when he heads to Swerve's bar and starts singing "The Power of Love".
  • Megatron is a blunt, grim figure, now with added guilt to add to the grimness...but that doesn't stop him from deciding to head back to Cybertron just to see the look on Starscream's face, or attempting banter with Ultra Magnus (admittedly, it doesn't go too well).
• From The Astonishing X-Men:
  Agent Brand: The Breakworld's psychics...hunted for the X-Man destined to destroy their world and Colossus got the nod. I'm assuming you're as mystified by this as the rest of us, Rasputin.
  Colossus: No. I'm not. I have been planning to destroy the Breakworld since I was a child.
  (everyone gapes at him)
  Colossus: This is why I don't make so many jokes. I never know when is good.

Films — Animation

• Tendai of Adventures in Zambezia is seen happily dancing at the end of the movie, despite not showing any sort of actions previously in the movie. His son, Kai, is understandably bewildered.
  Kai: What is he doing?
  Zoe: Let's call it "The Funky Chicken".
• Kirby from The Brave Little Toaster might be a grouch through and through who sucks the fun out of everything at every opportunity with his no-nonsense workaholic loner nature, but he'll dance happily to music like the rest of them so long as none of them are around to see it.
• Frozen: Even before her Character Development, Elsa has a playful moment where she makes Anna dance with the Duke of Wesselton, who is a terrible dancer.
• Kung Fu Panda has at least three of those moments:
  • The Furious Five are trained to not be envious of whoever gets chosen as the Dragon Warrior. They obviously are when Po is chosen.
  • Master Shifu says that the scroll is for the Dragon Warrior only and that he (Shifu) should not read it — but curiosity gets the best of him when Po says that the dragon scroll is blank.
  • Master Oogway is so calm and relaxed and zen that there is no bad news to him — there is no good and bad, there is only news. His comment on hearing that Tai-Lung escaped: "That IS bad news."
    • Subverted when he adds "...If we did not have the Dragon Warrior."
  • In the closing credit sequence, the normally uber-serious Tigress is seen sporting an improvised mustache of noodles, impersonating Master Shifu in the same way Po had done earlier. Shifu, for the record, is laughing uproariously.
• Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge: Raiden is a very stoic and serious character, often explaining how important it is to Earthrealm's survival that they win the Mortal Kombat tournament. Throughout the beginning of the tournament Johnny Cage is convinced it is all just a movie and everyone else is an actor like him. When Liu Kang asks Raiden if they should just tell Johnny the truth, Raiden says no since Johnny is on a journey of self-discovery... but also admits that he finds his ignorance of the situation amusing.
• Ting Ting of Mulan II is the eldest and most mature of her sisters, and tries to keep the others in control of themselves. As seen in "Like Other Girls" however, she can be just as silly and childish as they can, and hates rules just as much as they do. She later reveals to Ling that she acts so stoic because she hates how she snorts uncontrollably when she laughs, following up by sticking chopsticks up her nose and wriggling them around in protest to his belief that she had no sense of humor.
• The Friends on the Other Side in The Princess and the Frog apparently can't resist backing up someone else's music or making their own when doing their soul-collecting business.
• In Turning Red, at one point Mei's mother Ming visits the school with dumplings, and Mei and her friends have to very quickly re-organize the classroom to eliminate evidence of panda-hustling. When Ming opens the classroom door and finds nothing suspicious, she puts the dumplings down as the security guard shows up to escort her away. However, the security guard eats one of the dumplings as he's leaving.
• Kanga, usually the Team Mom and Only Sane Woman of the Hundred Acre Wood, takes part in the other animals' Too Dumb to Live antics a lot more in the 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie. Most noticeable during the Backson song, where she not only buys into Owl's story of the supposed monster as easily as everyone else but even adds her own superstitions to the number, such as the monster waking up babies and stealing her youth.
• Zootopia:
  • Contrary to his gruff no-nonsense exterior, Chief Bogo is a closet fan of Gazelle and is seen using her popular smartphone app to make himself one of her back-up dancers. Bogo is also seen dancing with fellow Gazelle fan Clawhauser during the Dance Party Ending.
  • A major part of Judy's Character Development is her realizing that like everybody else, she has her own hidden prejudices against other species and is susceptible to the same trap of ignorance and small-mindedness. She admits this to Nick during her tearful apology.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Cabin in the Woods the entire staff are betting on what monster the teens will summon. Lin seems like the Only Sane Man as she tries to explain everyone's actions to the new guy. When Hadley comes over with the pot, Lin sheepishly drops her bet in there.
• Captain Marvel (2019) has Nick Fury, previously a stoic and scary figure of authority... cooing over Goose, a cute cat. Well, cat-like alien.
• In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mike spends most of the movie looking bored or surly. When the Wonka Television machine causes him to float in the air, however, he does some silly karate and dance moves, then smiles and waves at the others.
  • To a lesser extent, when Veruca approaches the squirrels — everyone else looks worried while his posture is more "ooh, this should be entertaining."
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
  • In Rodrick Rules, Frank is the one to record Susan's goofy dancing, and asks Greg to keep it between them that the crowd is cheering for her and not Rodrick's music.
  • Also in Rodrick Rules, Patty rats out Greg for (accidentally) passing her a note reading "How do you get your hair to smell so beautiful". When Greg gets punished, Patty does take time to sniff one of her braids, curious to see if Greg is actually right.
• Subverted in Django Unchained: Dr. Schultz does most emphatically not approve of slavery, but initially seems to be more offended by it on an intellectual level, i.e. "How can you people be so stupid that you think basing your entire economy on slave labour is a good idea?". However, it quickly becomes apparent that he sees slaves as people, and his facade cracks at inopportune moments.
• Doctor in the House (1954):
  • While Sir Lancelot does not approve of how Simon, Tony, Grimsdyke, and Taffy behaved after the rugby match, he still pays their fines for them so they won't be thrown out of St. Swithin's.
  • Back in his student days, the bitter old Dean got a nurse to ride naked on a large white cart horse.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Xenk is an extremely seriously-minded paladin, contrasting amusingly with the much more conversational main characters, but still cracks a smug little grin while Trolling Edgin in the Underdark.
• In The Edge, Robert Green criticizes Charles Morse for lacking a sense of humour — this being while they're fighting for survival in the wilderness. When Morse finally cracks a joke, it takes Green by surprise.
  Robert Green: You know, this is a lot different from snorting coke off of models' underwear.
  [long beat]
  Charles Morse: In what way?
• Abner from Ernest Rides Again is devoted entirely to finding Goliath, a gigantic cannon that contains the crown jewels, purely to prove his theory that such a thing exists. He takes his job immensely seriously, very much unlike the cavalier Ernest, but when Ernest suggests that he could pocket a few of the crown jewels to buy a pair of "his and her Humvees" for him and his wife?
  Abner: (Shrugs) I always wanted a Humvee...
• In Iron Man, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a dedicated, hard-working, highly professional soldier, who basically looks after Tony Stark for the US military. On his private plane, Tony orders drinks, despite Rhodey's objections. Rhodey insists "We're not drinking." Smash cut to Rhodey drunkenly telling Tony about how much he appreciates his fellow soldiers, while Tony is distracted by his flight attendant pole-dancers.
• Just One of the Guys: Linda finds Buddy's advances annoying, but when he asks if it would make a difference if he was hung like a bear, she admits that it might. Buddy then admits that he isn't, and that was a desperate shot in the dark.
• In The Martian, NASA head Teddy Sanders and several other NASA officials are summoned for a secret meeting which is code-named "Elrond" after the Council of Elrond. Sanders at one point deadpans, "If we are going to have a secret project called 'Elrond', then I want my code name to be 'Glorfindel'." Bonus points when you realize that since Glorfindel was never in the films, Teddy must have read the books and not just watched the movies.
• In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Masters of the Mystic Arts aren't nearly as "professional" as their lofty station and behavior would have you believe. Such as even their most remote locales having WIFI (They're not savages, after all), them taking part in prize fighting and drunken parties, and their willingness to use brainwashing spells to make everyone forget the "full moon party incident" at Kamar-Taj.
• A meta example occurs in the Marx Brothers movie Monkey Business, as it's one of the few movies where Zeppo Marx gleefully goes along with his brothers' antics and even gets in a few zingers of his own.
• While Colonel Matthews from No Kidding takes his job on the council just as seriously as Mrs. Spicer does, he isn't against sharing a laugh with Cook during his inspection of Chartham House and finds it highly amusing when Angus calls Mrs. Spicer an "interfering old trollop".
• Nurse Betty: Wesley chides Charlie for Loving a Shadow and being unprofessional, but he gets increasingly invested in the Show Within a Show that Betty watches and Has a minor Villainous Breakdown upon learning that the character he has a crush on is a lesbian.
• Nick (Breckin Meyer) from Rat Race initially doesn't want to be a part of the race because he thinks it's a scam and is very calm and dignified. Then he finds out that every plane in the airport is grounded and a helicopter pilot has just offered him a ride. Suddenly he becomes just as insane and crazy to get the money like everybody else.
• Sleepers: Young Shakes keeps to himself a nun's clacker (what they use to indicate to their students when to stand and when to sit) he found in the hallway. While in Mass, he uses it to wreak havoc. Father Bobby immediately figures out what's going on, gets in the pew behind Shakes, and quietly but firmly asks Shakes to give him the clacker, which he does. Father Bobby then uses the clacker, to Shakes' astonishment.
  Father Bobby: Nuns are such easy targets.
• In Super Troopers, Captain John O'Hagan doesn't approve of most of his state troopers' pranks and general attempts at goofing off, but he does seem good-natured and fondly remembers his days as a patrol cop. Near the end, though, when their station is about to be shut down, he gets wasted along with his men and goes on a rampage.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), while Leonardo is a pretty serious character, he often finds himself going along with his brothers' antics. The elevator scene is a good example.

Music

• John Entwistle was generally seen as the Straight Man of The Who, due to his status as The Quiet One and his tendency to stand perfectly still on stage while his bandmates ran around smashing things. But he was also known for participating in many of the crazy stunts Keith Moon came up with, admitting years after Moon's death that he'd helped him blow up a hell of a lot of hotel toilets by standing behind and holding the matches. (This may be more of a case of how Entwistle was perceived by the audience than anything else; those who knew him well generally considered him to have a pretty out-there personality.) His death was even more rock and roll than Moon's; Entwistle died of a cocaine-induced heart attack after spending the night with a groupie.
• This trope in and of itself seems to be a main theme of "Down in It" by Nine Inch Nails, if the refrain ("I was up above it/Now I'm down in it") is any indication.
• In /v/ The Musical's Bing Bing, the narrator is watching his neighbor play Super Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch while on an airplane and getting increasingly frustrated while holding the neighbor and game in contempt, to the point where he wanted to throttle the guy. Then the neighbor offers the narrator a chance to play, and the narrator immediately starts enjoying himself.
• Charlie Watts is considered The Straight Man of The Rolling Stones, not being involved with drugs and hedonistic behavior anywhere near as much as the others and having been married to the same woman for over 50 years. However, one anecdote stands out. One night, a drunk Mick Jagger woke Watts with a phone call to his hotel room, screaming "Where's my drummer?! Where's my drummer?!" Watts got up, showered, shaved, put on some clothes, went down to Jagger's hotel room, punched him in the face and yelled "Don't you EVER call me your drummer! You're my fucking singer!"

Podcasts

• In The Hidden Almanac, Reverend Mord is usually the stoic to Pastor Drom's ebullient ditz. In one episode, Mord is insistent that he didn't feed the baby chicks Drom kept in his office more than once. Or twice. A day.

Pro Wrestling

• At TLC 2013 Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox scolded a few of the wrestlers for playing with WWE action figures backstage. Vickie then noticed that the Brodus Clay figure was "kind of cute" — and she and Maddox decided to join in.
• Any wrestler in the WWE who tries to convince themselves that they are the Only Sane Man is ultimately this in the end. The insanity of the company is contagious to the point that wacky hijinks is often times the norm for a standard broadcast.

Puppet Shows

• Boober from Fraggle Rock is this. He does not like fun and games and would rather spend most of his time doing laundry. He may, however, sometimes participate in his friends' fun activities.
• Between the Lions: While Barnaby B. Busterfield III is generally annoyed by the library's antics, one episode reveals that even he loves Fuzzy Wuzzy, and later meets him at the end.
• Harvey P. Dull in The Furchester Hotel just wants to avoid whatever nonsense the monsters are up to and read his book. Except in "Monster Monster Day" (where he dresses up as Monster Monster), "Mooga Monster Tale" (where he's a huge fan of visiting author Ms Taylor Penworth) and "Cheer Up, Cheerleaders" (where he reveals that he's a former cheerleader himself).
• Dinosaurs: Robbie Sinclair is a brooding, socially conscious dino who chides the others for their backwards views. But he's still a teenager. Case in point, when his baby brother becomes King of the Dinosaurs, Robbie refuses to play along with it... until he's told that being royalty would make him really popular with girls.

Theatre

• In some productions of La Traviata, Giorgio Germont's behavior towards Violetta in the second act is anything but platonic, while at the same time he is explaining that she's got to break up with Alfredo since Elite Man–Courtesan Romance is too improper in everyone's eyes.
• Malvolio from William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night self-importantly disapproves of and interferes with the romantic and/or drunken antics of those around him. But when some of them cook up a Zany Scheme to entrap him, he is all too easily persuaded that his noble and wealthy employer, Lady Olivia, secretly loves him and wants to see him in cross-gartered yellow stockings. The Humiliation Conga duly ensues.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • Miles Edgeworth. Badass prosecutor. Brilliant logician. Huge Steel Samurai fanboy.
  • Phoenix is usually the Only Sane Man for the rest of the loony cast, but he has his moments, like obsessively scrubbing the toilet for no apparent reason. He gets more in the fourth game, partly because you can't be CloudCuckooLand's best attorney for three years and then fall from grace without letting a little of the madness get to you, and partly because by then Apollo is around to play Straight Man for him. In fact, it could be said that Phoenix, Edgeworth, and Apollo consistently toss around a single Sanity Ball between them, at least until it's time to get dangerous.
  • In The Great Ace Attorney, your level-headed and reliable assistant Susato is the player character for the first case of the second game. She spends most of the trial flopping about like a dying fish. It's understandable when you consider it's her only trial as lead defense attorney, she knows she'll be in serious trouble if she gets caught (women aren't allowed to be lawyers in the time period, and she's disguised as a man to do it), and her best friend is being accused of murder.
• Danganronpa: Each protagonist of the main games are straightforward in their investigations. But whenever they hear of a fanservice event occurring, they completely go out of character just to gain a peek at the girls. Hajime in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair lampshades his sudden change just to peep on Mahiru and Hiyoko in the shower.
  Hajime: Huh? Was my characterization always this way? It feels like... I lost sight of myself.
• The Fruit of Grisaia: While protagonist Yuuji usually sticks to his more stoic demeanor, from time to time he still gets caught up in his classmates antics, or even his own wacky attempts to amuse himself.
• Yuri from Doki Doki Literature Club! is typically portrayed as very shy, but she is not above having some fun or cracking a joke every now and then. She laughs after witnessing the player character catch Sayori attempting to mooch off of him, and also when Sayori gave Natsuki a hug so she could take a bite from a cookie that Natsuki was saving for herself. In Act 3, Monika recalls that Natsuki and Yuri, of all people, might have made fun of her for her tendency to say "Okay, everyone". That Natsuki would do it is understandable, but that Yuri would do this comes off as surprising. The side stories in the Updated Re-release also give us this gem:
  Sayori: (to Natsuki) I always judge people so hard!
  Monika: No you don't, Sayori.
  Yuri: (deadpan, from the back of the room) Yes she does.
• Katawa Shoujo has a mild example. Hisao wonders how lonely you'd have to be to come up with a game that involves stepping on the right tiles on the floor. In the very next line, he finds himself stepping only on the darker tiles.
  • The same game gives us the example of Lilly Satou, a polite, proper ojousama who normally acts like everyone's mother. Having been born blind, she holds an intellectual interest in the concept of color. One time, she asks Hisao what his favorite color is and what things are it. When he responds that it's green, and almost immediately mentions army uniforms, she quietly laughs that boys are always thinking about such things... When asked what her favorite color is, she replies that it's white. Why? Because that's the color of vanilla ice cream, her favorite flavor. In fact, a lot of Lilly's route seems dedicated to showing that even the prim and proper her can act silly sometimes, such her famous insistence that she is isn't horny (having just finished having sex), she has a healthy adolescent sex drive.
• In Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Miyu Inamoto, vice-captain of the track team, initially seems like one of the more prim and proper characters, especially when contrasted with her girlfriend Matsuri Amishima. Miyu, who is a serious and disciplined individual as well as a good planner, sets rules for Matsuri to follow (e.g. no public displays of affection) so Miyu's parents won't learn about her going out with Matsuri, and is frustrated when the impulsive and free-spirited Matsuri does not follow them. However, Miyu is a rather eager top in her sex scene and trolls Matsuri by bringing up an underclassman who made a Love Confession to her(since she was tired of Matsuri doing the same thing to her all the time). More seriously, Miyu brings their friend and underclassman Hina into an argument, resulting in the two having a competition over who can give Hina a better date at the School Festival.
• Riki, the protagonist of Little Busters!, usually plays the part of the sweet Straight Man bemused by the idiosyncrasies of the people around him. Every now and then, though, he proves he can be just as bad as them, such as in the various Play With Masato commands, which invariably involve Riki yelling 'Muscles! Muscles!' over and over and taking part in some weird muscle-themed activity.
• In Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair, Raiko Shinpuku, the protagonist, is serious to the point of being borderline humorless and often acts as the Only Sane Man of the group. Despite this, Raiko plays along with her friend Rie's prank despite realizing that Rie staged the blackout, simply because she feels the need to "come out on top," like how Mika wants to scare Raiko or Hiro wants to scare Raiko so he can beat Mika. Raiko lampshades this by noting that even though she fancies herself as being more mature than the others, she can still be rather childish.
• In Yo-Jin-Bo, Blood Knight Ittosai grimly resists the wacky antics of the other five bodyguards, insisting he's only on board to kill people. After a dip in a hot spring, however, when Sayori reties Jin's loose belt for him and all the other guys suddenly need help with theirs as well, Ittosai can be heard quietly complaining that he can't get his belt to come loose. Later in the game he reluctantly begins setting the other guys up with straight lines, because — as he explains when Mon-Mon compliments him on it — splitting up the party means they're running out of designated straight-men and someone has to do it.

Web Animation

• Camp Camp:
  • Max is a very cynical boy who often disregards others for caring and acts like he hates everything. But when Gwen finds his lost Teddy Bear, Mr. Honey Nuts, he immediately gets excited and refuses to leave her alone, until she gives it back to him.
  • David is usually the living embodiment of friendliness and optimism, and does his best to be a good role model to the campers, despite their Troubling Unchild Like Behavior and Max often antagonizing him for trying, but even he has a couple moments of weakness: even he can't stand trying to be nice to Jeremy and eventually lets an insult slip and in another episode, beats up his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, after just giving big speech about moving on, which said boyfriend commended him for no less.
  • While exploring a supposedly haunted island house, Nikki being...Nikki...is initially excited at the prospect of running into potentially dangerous horrors on the island, in spite of Neil's and Jasper's protests...until they find what appears to be a torture chamber, at which point she's reduced to a scared little girl, that can only say she doesn't want to be there on repeat.
  • From the same episode, Max, the leader of the main trio, insists that he isn't scared of anything and for the most part backs this up, proving to be even braver than Nikki. But in the end, he finally finds something that even he screams in terror at: walking in on an orgy, involving the camp's creepy elderly quartermaster and some other old people.
• DSBT InsaniT: As often as Snake tries to control Bear, Duck, and Balloon, he usually finds himself getting into mischief with them anyway.
• Helluva Boss:
  • Moxxie is usually presented as I.M.P's Only Sane Employee who tries to keep an air of professionalism about him. The key word here is "tries"; His bouts of clumsiness and his moral compass sometimes getting the better of him notwithstanding, he's repeatedly shown to be a man who, ultimately, wears his heart on his sleeve and easily gets wrapped up in his own emotions, and the episode "Unhappy Campers" in particular shows that he can act just as childish and selfish as his CloudCuckoolander boss under certain circumstances.
  • Moxxie's Foil, Striker, is presented as a cool-headed pro and Genius Bruiser... Who is also such a massive Narcissist that he turns out to keep a statue of himself with a raging boner in his hideaway.
• In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device:
  • Kitten, though he doesn't want to admit it, secretly wants to engage in the same male Stripperific tendencies as his brother Custodes.
  • The Emperor, for all his "being of logic and reason" attitude, sees people who don't engage in melee combat as disgraceful.
  • While Magnus maintains an air of studied indifference and sanity around him, he high-fives the Emperor when the latter turns the Astronomicon into a giant middle finger for a moment.
• Red vs. Blue: Sanity Slippage is common in Blood Gulch, and in everyone who associates with it.
  • Doc was originally introduced to lampshade how absolutely bizarre the Reds and Blues were. Then his Granola Guy tendencies got the better of him.
  • Agent Washington has a ... tumultuous relationship with this trope. He begins as a Straight Man to the Blood Gulch Crew, but the insanity of hanging out with them eventually pushes him too far. But when we see him in his Freelancer days, and he's the Butt-Monkey of his team, being constantly attacked by vehicles, somewhat gullible, and best known for the time when Carolina had to grapple his codpiece to save him. Eventually, he mostly settles into his role as the Only Sane Man, with several slip-ups that show that he really does fit into the team. For example, he contributed to the crash that left the Reds and Blues stranded in Chorus by pulling an Are These Wires Important?
  • Agent Carolina herself does this too. She begins as a cold, revenge-driven Anti-Hero who outright admits that she thinks of the Reds and Blues as cannon fodder. Then Season 15 rolls around, and she's relaxed enough to join a band just to troll the others with her terrible singing voice, taking lessons from Grif in being lazy, and emphasizes Washington growing a beard as the most important thing happening during the 10-month Time Skip (which also included dinosaurs fighting robots and Donut burning down a water park).
  • The Chorus Trilogy introduces Felix, a mercenary for the New Republic and one of its more skilled and pragmatic members, at least compared to the lieutenants (and Palomo). Then Tucker decides to have his team 'capture' Felix to prove they're ready for a rescue mission.
    Felix: Fine.
    Tucker: Good!
    Felix: Great!
    (Beat)
    Tucker: Sooo, are you just gonna stand there, or what?
    Felix: No, I was sticking my tongue out at you! But — I-I guess I'm wearing a helmet, so — shut up.
• RWBY: Weiss begins the series as a Spoiled Brat Alpha Bitch who's used to getting what she wants and disdains anyone she considers beneath her. However, after Professor Port lectures her about her terrible attitude and says she needs to be a better team player, she changes into a Defrosting Ice Queen and starts getting these moments. The first comes in that very same episode: earlier the other members of Team RWBY decided to set up bunk beds in their dorm; the night after getting lectured, Weiss apologizes to Ruby for her earlier rudeness and shyly admits that she always wanted a bunk bed when she was little. The descent continues from there, with moments like her high-fiving Ruby while defending their uniforms having "combat skirts", delivering a Large Ham Evil Overlord speech while playing a tabletop game, balancing on chairs for extra drama when trying to cheer up teammates, and suffering a massive case of Cuteness Proximity when she meets Zwei, Yang and Ruby's pet corgi.
  Weiss: Are you telling me that this mangy, drooling mutt is going to wiv with us for-weva!? Oh, yes, he is! Yes, he is! Ooohhh, he's adorable!
• Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation has a minor Running Gag against anime, mocking a lot of the more mainstream shounen-skewing stuff as insipid and exclusively full of banal arguments over which female character is the best "waifu". His Extra Punctuation on "Why I Like Persona in Spite of it Being A JRPG" explains how the likes of Persona 4 and 5 successfully managed to win him over (a combination of compelling writing and excellent balance/interplay of gameplay and story), but he still takes an aside at the end to address the tired question he's expected to receive on "Who is your favorite Persona waifu?"
  Yahtzee: Oh for fuck's sake. See, this sort of shit is a debasement of cultural discourse. Here I am trying to be academic about this, trying to pull a game's threads apart to to get to the bottom of its appeal on a thematic and conceptual level, but all anyone wants to talk about is which character we think our character would most like to snog. It's Chie.

Webcomics

• Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: Bruce is at first nonplussed at his kids fighting each other over a cookie. But when it lands onto his coffee cup, he's more than willing to leap into action to defend it.
• From The Dreamland Chronicles: Nicole, as well as determined to explain any and all supernatural elements with science, is very much stoic and reasonable. Then she starts spending time with the two main characters and gradually loosens up a little. The first instance would be when she starts giggling about the Sickeningly Sweet name she had for her pretend horse when she was a kid.
• Goblins: Minmax accuses Big Ears of enjoying seeing him land painfully when he cut him down from the ceiling. Big Ears denies it, and when he's accused of lying, he claims that paladins never lie, or they lose all their paladin levels. Moments later, he admits to Thaco that he was lying and that he did enjoy Minmax getting hurt.
• Maxima of Grrl Power is a bright gold statuesque superhero with a no-nonsense military attitude...but she admits to having been a nerd as a kid, and can keep up with geek girl Sydney when it comes to comic book trivia.
• Jones in Gunnerkrigg Court is usually an Emotionless Girl coupled with literally centuries to cultivate indifference. But some of her more "human" traits come out in "The Stone".
  Antimony: Jones, are you able to smile?
  Jones: I can mimic the facial movements for a smile, but I tend to avoid it, as it often leaves the onlooker somewhat unnerved.
  Antimony: May I see?
  Jones: If you wish.
  [later]
  Kat: You okay?
• Homestuck has Rose Lalonde. Wear the scarf. Be the Rider.
  • Also Spades Slick, notorious gang leader.
  • And the Authority Regulator.
• Jupiter-Men: Despite his insistence on training and being ready for everything, Binny shows that Nathan's fridge is stocked with a ton of soda and junk food, implying that he either likes it or can't be bothered to cook when he doesn't have to. Nathan also has video games in his living room, implying that he does play when he needs to relax, something that the others tease him for. Then there's how much he enjoys kicking the asses of the other Jupiter-Men in a training exercise after getting fed up with their refusal to respect him, especially when he has Arrio pinned and beaten.
• The Last Days of FOXHOUND: When delving into Revolver Ocelot's mind, the group sees a notoriously bizarre scene from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater where Ocelot meows like a cat to summon reinforcements. Psycho Mantis, an Ax-Crazy mass murderer who loathes Ocelot and would gladly murder him given the chance, not only finds this just as funny as everyone else but rewinds the memory so they can all watch it repeatedly.
• This is basically all over the place in Paranatural. At one point, a member of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council attempts to make an offer Max can't refuse, only to be refused. Most of the page consists of the council member being intimidating and ominous and threatening, and then this happens.
  Max: Sorry, dude. Han Solo and Darth Vader don't team up.
  Serge: That would be sick though.
• Invoked in PvP: when the gang discovers that Jade is a Former Teen Rebel, Francis considers that this brings her down to their level and everyone immediately starts chanting "One of us! One of us!" (which is exactly what Jade feared would happen).
• Happens over and over in Shortpacked! — anyone who is introduced as a Straight Man will eventually be revealed to be insane in some way. Ethan and Leslie managed to keep up the illusion of being the Only Sane Man for a good long time but their neuroses gradually overwhelmed their personalities and pushed them away from this role. Jacob was introduced to be their replacement in that capacity but was revealed to have an addictive personality in short order. As a rule, Ethan's Love Interests tend to occupy this role, but Thad got written out, and Drew became as obsessively against Ethan's toy collection as Ethan was with maintaining it. By the end of the strip the Only Sane Man was Historic Jesus.
• Zoe is usually the Straight Man in Sluggy Freelance, but, at least when it comes to sorting through a love triangle, she can get pretty crazy herself. The reason she became the Stormbreaker (and thus targetted by various demons, at least one of whom has used a cult to try to do Zoe in) was because she feared she was "boring", and thus leapt at a chance to participate in one of the guys' more than usually harebrained schemes. She's exceptionally gung-ho about going back in time to save beer... at least until they end up in the wrong time period without a way back.
• In Welcome to the pharmacy!, when Elena’s second day at the pharmacy gets off to a boring start with next to no customers, she tries to get away from Jean-Luc & Jessica gawking at her old social media posts, and notices that Matt, who always acts serious and dignified, is doing his work while reading a goofy internet article about wether pandas and red pandas are related. Shortly after that, we see in a flashback/explanation from Jessica about how he is from Mauritius^note an African island country, and is very knowledgeable about his homeland, the computer he is looking at has another goofy article, this time about wether a rhino or a hippo would win a fight against each other.

Web Original

• Zhang Zhao may be the dignified elder statesman of Wu in Farce of the Three Kingdoms, but the narrator has photographic evidence of him getting completely wasted at the office New Years' party.
• Survival Tips for S.H.I.E.L.D. Recruits: While deeply concerned with curtailing dangerous hijinks, S.H.I.E.L.D. has nothing against harmless fun.
  Tip #531: Planning the most efficient shopping sprees is not the intended use for your tactical training sessions, but doing so is not actively discouraged. There may, in fact, be unofficial contests involved.
• Most of the staff in the Whateley Universe are, as teachers, required to act in a responsible, professional manner. Lady Astarte, for example, is the respectable school administrator, unflappable...until she marches out on a stage and snaps in front of everybody, screaming at them that there will be no more shoulder angels. And Elyzia Grimes, who was the equivalent of Morticia Addams amongst the staff, finally got tired of it all and beat Caitlin Bardue sbout the head and neck.

Web Videos

• TT and Momo from Cream Heroes. TT is The Stoic most of the time and punches any cat who dares enter her personal space. She also pounces on toy fish and chews toy feathers like a rambunctious kitten. Likewise Momo is a proud cat given the persona of the refined chairman of Momo Corp. He also cannot help but chase toys around the floor, fight with other cats and has even played a couple of pranks on Claire.
  • Chuchu has also shown signs of this, especially after having her nostrils widened. In one video, she sits looking quiet and innocent while Claire reveals she sometimes like to gnaw on cables.
• Critical Role: Lucien, the Arc Villain of the final arc of campaign 2, tries to present himself as an unflappable, all-knowing leader who is always two steps ahead on everything. Challenging that image is something he's very allergic to, demonstrated most clearly when he childishly snaps at Beau for pointing out that his attempt to navigate through a snowstorm got them lost.
• Dad: In "Dad Bod — Official Music Video", the normally serious and stoic Cheryl gets in on some of the dancing with Dad, and is shown laughing and having a good time with him.
• Lewis Brindley and Hannah Rutherford appeared to be the only sane individuals in the Yogscast, in no small part due to the actions of Simon Lane. However, as the Yogscast has expanded, more sane members have joined and both Lewis and Hannah have started behaving weirdly. Lewis in particular has developed a shorter temper and started goofing around more.
• Internet Historian:
  • It happens at the end of his video The Downfall of Tony The Tiger, where he talks about when furries were dogpiling [sic] onto Tony The Tiger's Twitter in order to sexually harass the character. After poking fun at it and talking about the media coverage that blew it way out of proportion, he finishes the video off by posting a sexually inappropriate comment on Tony's twitter.
  • And combined with Actually Pretty Funny, it also happens in The Walking Divided | He Will Not Divide Us when he talks about the fourth time internet trolls had set out to ruin Shia LaBeouf's titular anti-Trump campaign by messing with his flag. This time, with the flag locked inside a private residence where they couldn't easily steal or vandalize it this time, they instead just sent a bunch of pizzas to the house. Internet Historian has this to say about it:
    Historian: Alright. They did this, let me just say, they did this, and they shouldn't have, 'cause it's... c'mon, it's not funny. I mean, it's a little bit funny, but it's... it's not right. You're animals! Animals do that kind of thing! Don't do that! Thank you.
• John Wolfe is unique among horror-focused Lets Players in that he tends to have subdued reactions to scares, favoring reacting to such things with sardonicism, sarcasm, and dry calm humor as opposed to the Large Ham overreactions that many others play up. It takes a lot to rattle him, but that said, he does occasionally get rattled with games like Five Nights at Freddy's, Resident Evil 2, and (much to his regret for how bad a game it was) Tall Poppy managing to get outbursts out of him to rival the likes of Markiplier.
• The Nostalgia Chick:
  • Although she's not really like that any more, back when was the Only Sane Woman on the site, she reviewed She-Ra: Princess of Power and asked how gay could it possibly be. She's dissuaded of this notion about five minutes in.
  • Reviewing the X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon, she declares that she's only interested in an intellectual, academic analysis. Her Mad Scientist "friend" jabs her with a Truth Serum which brings out the squeeing fangirl within.
• When the folks at OneyPlays sit down to play Five Nights at Freddy's, they kick it off by taking a jab at other Lets Players like Markiplier who have infamously over-the-top reactions to the scares in these games. They claim they are going to "do their best to stand out from other lets players who have already done this", then scream just at the camera being opened and begin overreacting to the nth degree by howling in fear and screaming things like "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!" for a solid 30 seconds while nothing is happening. By the end of the video however, they are genuinely terrified and reacting to scares every bit as much as "all the other lets players".

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