Only Sane Man / Western Animation

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Only Sane Men in Western Animation.

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Examples:

• Liquor from 12 oz. Mouse is one of the few characters who reacts to the strange goings-on in the show with any awareness that there's anything weird about it.
• The Amazing World of Gumball: The Wattersons, despite causing much of the craziness of Elmore, could play this role in several episodes:
  • The titular character is usually an Idiot Hero, but Depending on the Writer some episodes have him fill this role, and it became his most seen side starting with the third season.
  • If not Gumball, then Darwin, who, in the second season on, became more willing to call out Gumball on his stupid actions.
  • Anais, the smartest member of the family, would have to delve into this if the situation requires her and her intelligence.
  • Nicole can also serve this role. However, when her temper or competitive streak get the better of her, this aspect goes out the window and Anais fully becomes one.
• The "Chicken Boo" sketches on Animaniacs had only one person realizing that Chicken Boo was actually a giant chicken in a ludicrously flimsy disguise. Nobody would believe them (or misinterpreted the use of 'chicken' as an insult, as in coward), and even when Boo's deception was eventually revealed (by some event unrelated to their efforts), they never got any credit for their insight.
  • The show also had Dr. Scratchensniff, who's powerless to either stop or tolerate the zaniness personified that is the Warner siblings.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force:
  • Happy Time Harry in "The Last One", as he was the only one who noticed the Aqua Teens were in Carl's house.
  • Carl is a downplayed example. He's an unhygienic, sex-crazed, misogynistic, lazy bum; on any other show, he'd be the wacky next-door neighbor, however, considering that he lives next door to a trio of sentient fast food items, he's the sane one by default, in addition to being the Token Human.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Going in line with her status as the Team Mom of the group, Katara is usually the most mature and sensible member of Team Avatar. Aang spends a lot of the series learning how to be a responsible Avatar, and on top of letting his occasional childish tendencies get the better of him, he starts off being rather naive to the situation of the world around him due to having spent a whole century frozen in an iceberg. Although Sokka can be rational and grounded when the situation calls for it, and is pretty competent at devising battle plans, he has a very hammy and over-the-top sense of humour, slips into Cloudcuckoolander territory on more than one occasion, and starts off as a Politically Incorrect Hero with a bit of a superiority complex. And to top it all off, we also have Toph, a rude, violent and boisterous smart-alec, and Zuko, who before his Heel–Face Turn, is constantly losing his temper and complaining about whatever problem comes up against him, on top of constantly trying to hunt down the group. Katara isn't without flaws herself; sometimes she can be hot-tempered and let her Chronic Hero Syndrome get the better of her. Despite this, she consistently does her best to be level-headed and reasonable and keep her friends on the right track. She fulfills this role to great effect in episodes such as "The Desert", where Aang is being grumpy and confrontational over Appa's disappearance, Sokka is stoned on cactus juice and Toph is unable to navigate, and she has to go through the mentally exhausting effort of trying to diffuse such a huge conflict in the team, and "The Runaway", in which she is the only one who realizes that excessive scamming of scammers will come back to bite them eventually. Toph started the whole thing, and Sokka being involved is not horribly surprising, but Aang should have known better.
    • Even more so is Suki, when she is with the group. She's the only of the main and recurring characters who could be considered to be normal, having had a fairly standard life that wasn't disrupted too much by the war, and a tough and assertive, but kind and down-to-earth personality. Given the latter, she takes her normality among the others very gracefully.
    • Even Sokka, despite being the series' main source of comic relief, fulfills this role from time to time, most notably in the episodes, "The Fortuneteller", where after Aunt Wu predicts the village will not be destroyed, he tries in vain to convince the villagers that the volcano could still erupt in spite of this, "The Cave of Two Lovers", in which he acts as the only smart person among a group of new-age retro hippies who are convinced that The Power of Love is the only thing that can get them out of the cave, and "The Chase", where he is the only person on Team Avatar not hold the Conflict Ball and engage in any of the fights engaged in by Aang, Katara and Toph.
    • On the villains' side, Mai is this to her companions, Azula and Ty Lee. While Azula is an overachieving, homicidal maniac and Ty Lee is an incessantly bubbly Cloudcuckoolander (despite being the overall Token Good Teammate of the group), Mai is a calm, quiet, level-headed and snarky Emo Teen who always makes her disapproval of anything too outlandish for her to handle very clear. She lampshades how she's the only sane person on Azula's Team in "The Beach", apologizing for not being "high-sprung and crazy" like them.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Tenzin is this to the council as a whole. They don't seem to realize their decisions and actions are further proving the point the Big Bad is making, and he is even outright ignored. To further it, he also plays the role to Korra and (in a comedic sense) to his family.
    • Mako (and to an extent, President Raiko) is becoming this in the second season. Midway through, he's the only one interested in figuring out who's behind a string of bombings in Republic City beyond making the presumption that it's all Northern Water Tribe, as everyone else is acting according to Varrick's manipulations. Korra's hell bent on getting revenge against the North for both Unalaq's machinations and the above misattributed offenses, Bolin's become wrapped up in new celebrity status, Asami's struggling to keep her company afloat and losing hope because of it, and even Lin Beifong is pulling rank on Mako in favor of two mustache-twirling detectives who don't seem to be doing their jobs. And of course Varrick is pulling everyone's strings in the name of War for Fun and Profit.
    • Between Eska being an abusive psycho and Unalaq shaping up to be some sort of Well-Intentioned Extremist regarding the Water Tribe's spiritual issues, Desna's developing habit of asking questions is putting him on the road to this trope within his family.
    • In Book 4, Tenzin's kids Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo are sent to find Korra. Despite the fact that Jinora is both extremely knowledgeable and the youngest master airbender, and Meelo is the more natural warrior, it is Ikki who takes on this role. Jinora is self-absorbed with her spiritual powers and so doesn't bother investigating through any other means, even when her powers don't give her any leads. Meelo wants to turn this into a grand adventure, throwing away the food and declaring that he will hunt (until Ikki points out that they are vegetarians). He then goes foraging and only finds some bad berries that make him and his lemur ill. Ikki meanwhile manages to actually find Korra's general location. Even though she is captured, she still manages to get more information out of her captors than they get out of her before talking her way into being released. Jinora and Meelo's "rescue" turns out to be pointless.
• In the third season of Beast Wars, Blackarachnia basically decides to aid the Maximals as she's the only Predacon sane enough to realise that Megatron winning would be a bad thing for her. While Megatron's goal is to kill Optimus Prime and thus give the Decepticons a chance to win the Great War, the loss of the Maximals would also erase Blackarachnia as she was a Maximal protoform reprogrammed into a Predacon. Of the other Predacons, Tarantulas and Waspinator are the only members of Megatron's original crew left while the others are basically reprogrammed Maximals, but Dinobot II is fanatically loyal to Megatron and Inferno, Quickstrike and Rampage are basically different kinds of crazy that guarantee they wouldn't be able to acknowledge why Megatron's victory would be bad for them.
• Big City Greens: Unusually, for a cartoon dad, Bill is actually the one who fills this role. When Cricket is a mischievous troublemaker, Tilly is a Cloudcuckoolander, and Alice is a Grumpy Old Woman, Bill is usually the one to keep the family grounded into reality.
• Bob Belcher of Bob's Burgers is (usually) the most mature and sensible member of the Belcher family, objecting to whatever craziness Linda and the kids have planned.
• Bojack Horseman: BoJack Horseman can often find himself in this position. He's seemingly the only person in Hollywoo who realises that Princess Carolyn's boyfriend Vincent Adultman is "very obviously three kids stacked on top of each other under a trench coat", and will frequently be the one pointing out the critical flaws in Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter's latest Zany Scheme.
• Camp Lazlo:
  • Scoutmaster Lumpus used to be one among his chagrins before his Flanderization turned him into an idiotic jerkass of a Psychopathic Manchild.
  • Edward seems to be the only Bean Scout with any common sense.
  • Slinkman is also among the very few normal people on the show, especially in comparison to his boss, and is one of the rare examples of this trope who isn't a Deadpan Snarker, a Butt-Monkey, or both.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Ma-Ti is this in "The Conqueror", thanks to his ring blocking out Zarm's mind control.
• Captain Star's First Officer Scarlett is the one who actually gets the work done between an egotistical captain, a fish obsessed cook and an engineer whose isn't that crazy, in fact, he's perfectly sane. He has nine sane heads on a single body.
• In CatDog, Mervis and Dunglap are more or less the only normal characters in the series.
• Shnitzel from Chowder is usually a good example, though he does have a few lapses into the weird goings-on in the show.
• Chip of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers isn't without his quirks but otherwise is this for the rest of the Rangers: Dale is a lazy slacker and Cloud Cuckoo Lander, Gadget also lives in her own little world much of the time, and suffers from frequent bouts of Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!, Monterey is a Leeroy Jenkins Boisterous Bruiser who can be difficult to keep from striking off on his own. Zipper is about the only other member of the team without a particular foible, but Chip is the one who can consistently keep the whole team working together and on task.
• Tamika Jones from Class of 3000 usually serves this role in the class, as Kam tends to be Not So Above It All. This is best shown in "Tamika and the Beast," where she is the only one to recognize that The Beast is innocent and just a big guy with a major speech impediment.
• Number 5 of Codename: Kids Next Door acknowledged in-universe as being this during the Grand Finale:
  Number 1: Abby, we both know you're the only one on this team with any real common sense. While I'm screaming that we're being invaded by tiny, kid-eating leeches falling from the sky, you're the one telling me it's only snowing.
• Chris from Dan Vs. unless food is involved. "I'd kill for [bacon]" isn't something most sane people say and actually mean after all.
  • Elise is probably a better example, given Chris tends to go along with Dan's schemes. Though she does have her moments of Not So Above It All.
• Danger Mouse: The titular character has to deal with a Cowardly Sidekick (Penfold) and an addled, near-senile superior (Colonel K); DM will either take the initiative and stop their banter or just throw up his arms in defeat. In the reboot, Danger Mouse and Professor Squawkencluck tend to come off as the only two at HQ with a brink of sanity, which is unfortunate since they don't tend to get along with each other.
• Daria can basically be summed as two of these characters (Daria herself, and her best friend Jane) trying to endure a satirical version of a 1990s High School Dramedy. Other characters, particularly Jodie and Tom, can also exemplify this trope on occasion.
• Zilly, the card-carrying coward of Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines, is the only member of the Vulture Squadron who possesses the rationale to know that the squadron's missions will each end in failure.
• Although only sane person is stretching it, Foxxy Love on Drawn Together was once accurately described as "The only one here who's not completely retarded." Spanky Ham also fits this role after getting over his Early-Installment Weirdness; he's often one to give a speech with the reasonable solution to an issue, like saying that old cartoons with racist stereotypes may be offensive, but denying them as part of our culture is dangerous.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • Edd (also known as Double D) is usually much more reasonable and mature than his friends. This is probably the reason why the Kids like him the most out of all 3 of the Eds.
  • Nazz is generally the most mature of the cul-de-sac kids, although she later becomes something of a ditz.
• Major Doctor Ghastly from Evil Con Carne fits the role because she doesn't like it when things get out of hand for her lover reduced to a brain.
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • Wanda is usually the only one aware of how insane everything is, or knowing of how bad everything is going to end up. This fact is often pointed out by Timmy and Cosmo, but they still continue with their antics despite that.
  • During the first season, and whenever fairy culture, rituals and quirks are involved, Timmy often assumes the role of the only sane man. As an outsider, he seems to be the only one to notice how weird that world really is.
  • Mr. Crocker can be seen as this. He seems like a paranoid, obsessed lunatic, sure. And he probably does have some mental issues, but paranoia isn't one of them. He's simply a genius who doesn't have the near-universal Weirdness Censor, and is the only one smart enough to figure out what's going on. And, to be fair, if no one believes fairies exist, and you know they not only do, but can literally make your wishes come true, obsession is a pretty understandable reaction.
• Family Guy:
  • Brian Griffin is often portrayed as the Only Sane Man (especially in the older seasons), although everyone who isn't Peter ends up playing the Only Sane Man once or twice.
  • Lois Griffin sometimes plays this role in the earlier episodes as well, particularly in episodes revolving around Peter and/or his friends.
  • Later seasons show Stewie Griffin in this role as he was the only character that hadn't become more unpleasant.
• Mac in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Even when Frankie joins in on the house's general wackiness, eight-year-old Mac generally remains as the only voice of reason (sans the always serious Mr. Herriman).
• In Frankenstein's Cat, Lottie seems to be the only levelheaded person in the village of Oddsburg.
• Futurama:
  • Hermes often takes this role most notably in Bender's Big Score where he's the only person to realize the crew is being scammed. He's also the most consistent critic of the incompetent Zoidberg.
    • Hermes' role is well exemplified in "The Duh-Vinci Code":
      Professor Farnsworth: We must fly to Rome and exhume the body of Saint James! To the ship!
      Hermes: Didn't we use to be a delivery company?
      Professor Farnsworth: TO THE SHIP!
  • Leela and Fry juggle this role, at least for each other. While Leela is easily the most level-headed person, at least compared to Fry, Bender, and the others, and thus plays this role far more often, she has many moments of Not So Above It All where Fry has to reign her in. Whenever Fry is being reckless or stupid and acting out, Leela will call him out on it and urge, sometimes even order him, to dial it back. However whenever Leela is insulted, her pride is challenged, or she's holding one of her immeasurably strong grudges, Fry will have a moment of Dumbass Has a Point and urge her to take a step back and reconsider.
• In Gargoyles, Dingo is soon established as this for the mercenaries that make up the Pack; where Fox left the group and Wolf, Jackal and Hyena had themselves genetically augmented or turned into cyborgs with Xanatos's support, Dingo opted for the less invasive option of a suit of Power Armor.
• Goof Troop has Peg and PJ both in this role; however, usually not at the same time, as Peg tends to have little screentime in PJ and Max episodes and PJ acts as a Satellite Character in most Pete and Peg episodes. Overall, Peg is more likely to be silly than PJ is, and PJ is more likely to misunderstand a situation than Peg is—despite this, both are usually the voice of reason for the others. Also, the characters are far more likely to listen to Peg than they are to PJ because Peg is far more assertive than her son is. Considering the rest of the cast consists of a Cloud Cuckoolander, an irrational Jerkass, a Fearless Fool, and a Genki Girl...
• Dipper Pines from Gravity Falls is one of the few people in the titular town to actually acknowledge the supernatural occurrences and the citizen's wacky antics.
• While it would be questionable to call anyone on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy "sane", the most rational character on the show is undoubtedly the titular Grim Reaper. That says less about him, and more about everyone else.
• Laney Penn from Grojband is the most mature and sensible member of the eponymous band, always being the first one to point out flaws in Corey's Zany Schemes and holding her bandmates back from their sillier antics.
• Lin Chung of Hero: 108 is always calmer than the rest of the cast.
• The Hollow: Skeet's the only one on his team who is concerned about the growing glitches in the world and was even willing to hear the other team out before his own team overrules him.
• In Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown, Linus calls everyone out for trying to break him of his security blanket habit by pointing out all their eccentricities and challenging them to identify the one person among them who is truly secure. It's Pig-Pen.
• In Invader Zim, siblings Dib and Gaz Membrane are both in this role, as they are the only ones who know that Zim is an alien, no matter how blatant it becomes. Gaz arguably even more so, as while Dib obsesses over Zim's evil plots for world domination, Gaz is all too aware that no matter how dire things become, Zim will inevitably screw himself over with or without Dib's intervention.
  • Originally, both of the Tallests were shown to be somewhat moronic, but Red's Divergent Character Evolution was sending him in this direction, best evidenced in "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars".
• Jimmy Two-Shoes:
  • When he isn't being the Idiot Hero, the titular character plays this role in Season 1 episodes, usually when it comes to either Lucius' tyranny or Beezy and Heloise tearing at each others' throats.
  • In Season 2, this role is given to Heloise and Lucius (usually depending on the joke) instead, as Jimmy takes some serious levels in dumbass.
• Dukey from Johnny Test is the only one aware of the bad side effects of Susan and Mary's experiments (besides Hugh) and he knows when a fun time can get dangerous.
• Kaeloo: Although she's a Shrinking Violet who barely says a word, Eugly the rabbit is the only sane person in the cast. Mr. Cat and Olaf both think they fit this role, but they clearly don't as Mr. Cat is an Ax-Crazy psychopath who's merely Surrounded by Idiots, and Olaf is a Mad Scientist who wishes to Take Over the World.
  • If Eugly is absent, the role may be shifted to Quack Quack, Kaeloo, or even Mr. Cat, Depending on the Writer.
• Kim Possible has Shego. Any episode featuring Doctor Drakken will have her standing off to the side making running commentary on the absurdity of his plan, or how it will inevitably fail because of one major overlooked factor. It is also implied in the episode 'Go Team Go' that this was the reason for her leaving the team of superhero siblings and going bad.
• King of the Hill:
  • Hank Hill is a shining example. In his version of the Rashomon, he sees everyone — including himself — as children, and in a hallucination caused by varnish fumes, he imagines the rest of the world as helpless rodents on a Whack-a-Mole board while he was the only one who didn't want to get shot to the surface and risk being whacked.
  • Boomhauer also plays this role too. While he certainly does pick up the Idiot Ball on several occasions, he's easily the most rational of Hank's friends. Heck, Hank barely has to babysit him at all, he even complained once about not being in hot water with Boomhauer since it would be less taxing than Bill and Dale. Possibly Justifiable in his case in the episode "A-Firefighting We Will Go", Boomhauer's recap of the events show Hank, Bill and Dale talking in Boomhauer's signature speech pattern, and Boomhauer talking like a normal person without his signature fast-paced and somewhat incoherent speech pattern.
    Dale: Yeah, man, I tell you what, that dang ol' detector, man, talk 'bout government take away freedom of smoke, man. Talkin' 'bout yo, man.
    Hank: Yeah, man, I tell you what, man, dang ol' boy ain't right, man, talkin' 'bout kicking 'dem dang 'ol ass, man.
    Boomhauer: For God's sakes, Hank, act like an adult, man. And keep it down, guys, will you? I am trying to get through an article on vintage Camaros, and I've been on the same dang page for twenty minutes.
    Bill: Dang ol' pretty pretty pizza, man, I tell you what.
• Les Sisters: Sammie. She spends most of her time hanging out with Wendy, who tends to overreact to things and come up with stupid ideas to get things she wants, Marine, who is Wendy's annoying little sister, and Maxence, a rare male example of a Dumb Blonde.
• The Looney Tunes Show:
  • Bugs Bunny, of all people, spends time in this role in some episodes. Mind you, when you spend most of your time with a) Daffy and b) Lola, it's hard to avoid this characterisation.
  • Porky Pig sometimes falls into this role though his Extreme Doormat personality often gets in the way, especially when he's with Daffy.
• Of the pets in Littlest Pet Shop (2012), Russell Ferguson is often this. Although not as sane as Blythe, he usually keeps the pets of LPS on track, and can get rather uptight and strict at times. However, he is just as much of a Cloudcuckoolander as the other pets, and when he's in his less intelligent moments, the role usually goes either to another one of the pets, or Blythe when she isn't busy in school or fashion-designing.
• The Loud House:
  • Every so often, Lori has to be this to keep her younger siblings in check. She, like Lincoln and Lisa, often is one of a few not goofing off. Lori does appear to be the most sane and mature Loud sibling overall, (since she's also the oldest), but she can be a bit bratty at times.
  • Lincoln Loud is this on a regular basis; as the show's voice of reason, he seems to be the character with the most common sense, aside from Lori and Lisa (well, usually). This is especially noticeable in "Project Loud House" and "Heavy Meddle."
  • Lisa, aside from her intelligence, can also be cool-headed and rational. Lisa tends to be the most adult-like of the Loud siblings, sometimes even more than Lori, courtesy of being a Child Prodigy who's already graduated college. Despite being the genius in the family, she still has a tendency to indulge in childish fun like food fights.
  • Rita is clearly the saner half of the marriage, as she's more grounded to reality and less afraid to lay down blunt discipline, while Lynn Sr. is a Manchild and a bit too quirky to be taken seriously.
• The Mask:
  • Stanley Ipkiss is this as most people there are either jerks, idiots or both.
  • The Mask can also be this as well at times despite being genuinely insane as he is the only one who tends to stop the real criminals while the police are obsessed with arresting and taking him in like Kellaway or an idiot like Doyle.
  • The Mask and Eve are also the only ones among the mask personas to be doing a job of protecting everyone else in Edge City and the rest of the world while Masked Dr Neuman is psychotic, Masked Pretorius along with Masked Chet and Fish Dude the alter ego of Fish Guy are evil and Masked Peggy Brandt tends to spend her time checking on her appearance along with making herself to be the star of the story.
• Charles Offdensen from Metalocalypse. We actually see him go through the three stages in the background; by the time season two ends, he's learned to roll with it. Season three sees him realize that he's not the Only Sane Man. He's just the Only Sane Man on his side of the conflict.
• Tommy Anybody from Mr. Bogus invariably falls into this role, when having to deal with the wacky antics of Bogus (and occasionally Brattus).
• Adam Lyon from My Gym Partner's a Monkey — being the token human in a school full of animals (anthropomorphic ones at that, but still stupid, jerkish ones) — is the sane one by default, and serves as the voice of reason for his entire school.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Of the Mane Six, Twilight Sparkle usually plays this role, often being bewildered by her friends' antics, and patiently offering impartial observations and sound advice (that is only sometimes followed). But that doesn't make her immune to occasionally being tossed the Idiot Ball or suffering Sanity Slippage; at which point, Spike or Applejack will take the role. That said, circumstances occasionally allow any of the Mane Six (even Pinkie Pie) to hold this position.
  • Of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Sweetie Belle is often quick to criticize the more dangerous and ridiculous plans the group comes up with, and also suggests to "tell an adult" as a course of action when a problem gets too difficult for the CMC to solve.
  • Of the pets, Owlowiscious is easily the smartest and sanest. In "Just for Sidekicks" he's the one who helps Spike keep the other pets in line, and in "Inspiration Manifestation" he tries, in vain, to warn him against using the Tome of Eldritch Lore.
• Ned's Newt: Ned often acts like this, being bewildered at how crazy the people around him seem sometimes.
• The Patrick Star Show: Squidina often plays this role to Patrick, helping him stay on task and keep his show afloat in regards to audience and budget. This even extends to outside the family; in "Klopnodian Heritage Festival", Squidina is the only one who doesn't like the Klopnodian flag; a stained tablecloth that has to be raised while it's already balled-up. During her big show at the end, rather than raising it, she drapes the "flag" over a table and puts some flowers and dishes on it.
  Squidina: (exasperated) It's a tablecloth!
• Opal in Pearlie as the titular fairy is too dumb to notice when something's wrong.
• Private is the most down-to-earth and rational of The Penguins of Madagascar despite his naive, nice guy attitude. Generally speaking, it's him, Maurice, Marlene (except when she's outside the zoo grounds or talking about Spanish guitars), and maybe the chimps who are the most reasonable of the cast.
  • The Sanity Ball can be passed around, however. Rico once, actually. In "The Hidden" he keeps Kowalski and Skipper focused on the task at hand (finding their friends). Skipper, in any episode where the penguins encounter anything that terrifies them like in Snakehaed! or in any situation where he dope slaps all three of them at once. Kowalski, almost never. Though he thinks he is. Julien, no way. Mort, uhh... No...
• Perfect Hair Forever: Catman is the only character fully aware that he's in a bizarre anime parody world and he wants nothing to do with it. He may be a man in a cat suit that occasionally acts like a cat, but as the only self-aware character, he ends up being the sane one still.
• Tommy Cadle from Pet Alien seems to be the only character with his head on straight, often trying to rein in the aliens' antics and teach them about human culture. He also appears to be the only person on Earth who knows the aliens are actually, well, aliens.
• Several characters from Phineas and Ferb fall into this trope, but, at some point, most characters get swept up in the show's general inanity. Despite being, well, a platypus, Perry plays the straight man to Doofenshmirtz.
  • Conversely, Doofenshmirtz fits this to Rodney due to the latter's plot of creating eternal winter.
  • Stacy fits this trope when paired up with Candace.
  • While Jeremy is in on the show's zaniness, there have been times when one can see the Flat "What" expression on his face. Case in point:
    Phineas: So if we just find mom, we'll find both Candaces!
    Jeremy: Uh... tell them I said hi...?
• The Powerpuff Girls has a few contenders for the trope:
  • Many of Townsville's inhabitants usually have very little common sense or are mean-spirited and malicious. In the midst of it all is Miss Bellum, who is much more competent and intelligent than most of them, including the childish and dim-witted Mayor.
  • Professor Utonium also qualifies for similar reasons. He's not only a very good and capable father towards the girls, but he actually has enough level-headedness to come up with a practical solution to something.
  • Among the girls themselves, Blossom is normally the most reasonable and sensible one, having her hands full trying to keep the happy-go-lucky Bubbles and the violent Buttercup in order. It's a trait that the other two look up to her for due to her status as the leader and her high intelligence. However, there are still times when even she cannot escape doing some questionable things.
• In Ready Jet Go!, Sean and/or Sydney usually have this role. Sean has this role when the other kids are jumping to logically impossible conclusions and deliberately making mistakes, and Sydney is this when the kids are making dumb decisions and Sean is being Out of Character.
• YAY-OK from Rocket Monkeys typically falls into this area, as he's the only halfway competent or intelligent member of the crew. He doesn't seem terribly frustrated by Gus and Wally's stupidity, though.
• Rocket Power: Among the foursome, Sam is the only levelheaded one, as he's often around Otto, who's a competitive jerk, Reggie, who often overreacts whenever she feels someone is downplaying her gender, and Twister, who's just a moron.
• Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life seemed to start out this way, a hapless bystander trying to use logic to navigate a thoroughly insane environment and oftentimes failing. Strangely, he seemed to lose this as the series also took a turn away from being as surreal as it once was.
• In Sealab 2021, Doctor Quentin Q. Quinn is the Only Sane Man. At least in the beginning of each episode. Often the sheer insanity of everyone else becomes contagious or he would get fed up with the insanity and blow up Sealab.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
  • This could be Bow's job description. If he wasn't the friendliest man alive, he'd probably go nuts trying to ensure some degree of sanity prevails despite the eccentricities of Adora and Glimmer. Most obvious in "The Beacon", where he's the only one who points out that blindly trusting that Adora is going to figure out how to use her sword to heal at this exact moment is probably not a good plan.
  • On the villainous side, this role generally falls to Lonnie, most prominently in "Roll With It", where she has to keep a fortress running despite its commander, Scorpia, being almost unable to frame a coherent sentence that doesn't include the word "Catra".
• In Sheep in the Big City, Private Public, the right-hand man of General Specific serves this role. He tends to be the only one to point out or question obvious flaws in a plan, or remind General Specific of what his main mission is when he gets distracted from it.
• The Simpsons:
  • The episode "Homer's Enemy" featured the character Frank Grimes, who is the only one of Homer's co-workers who recognizes his pathological boobery. He tries to point it out to everyone, but to no avail. He eventually works himself up over it so much that he has a nervous breakdown, during which he accidentally electrocutes himself. After some fans complained his treatment seemed a little mean-spirited, DVD commentary explained Frank was mainly a device to show a normal person couldn't function in the show's universe.
  • Lisa Simpson also often finds herself thrust into the role of only sane girl. Quite often, when her family (or occasionally, the entire town) is caught up in some insane course of action, she's the one who points out how absurd things have become. Her comments are usually ignored.
  • If Lisa ends up caught in the craziness — for example with the Movementarians — expect Marge Simpson to take over instead. In fact, the straight man role is usually traded between Lisa and Marge, with the latter holding it more frequently in early episodes and almost always when it comes to anything Homer does. However, there are times Marge's Wide-Eyed Idealist and Moral Guardian qualities make her just as hopelessly crazy as the rest of Springfield.
  • There are even times that only the Simpson family really know what's wrong, and have the guts to do something about it, putting the whole family in this role.
  • Lou is the only sane man in the police force in Springfield, and frequently points out Chief Wiggum's incompetence or stupidity.
  • Other characters to have this role on a semi-regular basis include the more conventionally competent characters such as Apu (and his brother Sanjay is this to him when he has gone a bit too far with his work), Dr. Hibbert, Superintendent Chalmers, Sarah Wiggum (within the Wiggum family — "Clancy, use the remote") and Waylon Smithers.
  • Word of God states that Chalmers and Grimes were written as the only people who could function outside of Springfield. Chalmers just takes a different track from it to Grimes, choosing to not be bothered by all the insanity around him. This is perhaps most famously shown in the "steamed hams" scene, where Chalmers accepts Skinner's Blatant Lies at face value: he knows that Skinner is lying, but he's pretty sure actually pressing those lies would just lead to him getting wrapped up in something stupid. At worst, Chalmers is a little too obsessed with making Skinner's life hell and being incapable of making Springfield Elementary halfway decent, but even then it's all framed as him knowing the school is beyond redemption due to Springfield's wackiness and thus continues to refuse asking too many questions while having a bit of fun when he can.
  • Ray Patterson (Springfield's Sanitation Commissioner) from "Trash of the Titans" is the only one who realizes how ludicrous Homer's promises are, pointing out that 24/7 trash pickup is impossible and tells Homer that he will crash and burn. After getting his position back, he points out that the people of Springfield are just as responsible for the mess Homer made because they were the ones who voted him in as the new Sanitation Commissioner in the first place.
• Panda of Skunk Fu! knows what's best for Skunk (seeing that he's his master).
• Louise in Slacker Cats is the voice of reason throughout the show but Buckley does zig-zag between being this and one of the many crazy people/cats throughout the show.
• Sofia the First: Sofia is this in "The Enchanted Feast", as she is the only one who doesn't open up to Sascha the Sorceress, knowing she seemed "familiar" and became Properly Paranoid about her behavior. She turns out to be all too right, as Sascha is Miss Nettle in disguise, who is out to steal her Amulet.
• South Park:
  • Stan Marsh. Kyle has the appearance of being sane as well, but unlike Stan, is unable to understand just how moronic the actions of all the insane people around are. Among the adults is/was Chef and, on occasion, Jesus.
  • Wendy is definitely this amongst the girls (and more often among the entire school, whenever Stan and Kyle aren't filling this role).
  • In the "Pandemic" episodes, Craig took on this role, as he spends the episode calling out the main boys as being jerks that constantly get themselves and others into ridiculous situations, entirely in deadpan delivery.
    Craig: You guys took my birthday money, got me arrested and sent to Miami with no way home except to take down the country of Peru, and I'm being a dick?
    Cartman: There's no talking to this guy.
  • Kyle Broflovski's tendency to have quite a temper to the extent of being damn near bipolar excludes him from this on a regular basis, but there are instances where he plays this straight. The episode concerning the economy and the absurdity of aestheticism is a crowning example. Even "You're Getting Old" has him playing this to Stan of all people.
  • When he was around, Chef was usually one of the very few adults with any kind of common sense.
  • President Bush, ironically enough, especially when compared to his cabinet and the press. "A Ladder to Heaven" contains a particularly infamous example. That same episode briefly showed Mr. Garrison in this role. When finding out the boys are literally making a ladder to Heaven, he says, "That's fucking stupid!"
  • Leaning into the "most reliable" part of the trope, Kenny is generally portrayed as the only one of the male fourth-graders that has showcased routine self-respect (ironically) and an actual lack of hypocrisy throughout the series. This is arguably lampshaded by Butters (of all people) in "Going Native" where, after chewing out most of the others kids for their quirks, claims that Kenny is the only one with "any sense of dignity."
    • In most of the "superhero" episodes, Mysterion (Kenny) is by far the most effective. Or, more accurately, he's the only one who is effective at all.
  • Apparently, Father Maxi is the only Catholic priest who doesn't rape boys.
  • Mr. Garrison (and to a lesser extent Clyde) in "Lice Capades". In the same episode, Travis Mayfield is this for the lice on Clyde's head.
  • Mr. Garrison Senior, who is the only person in the show to repeatedly refuse Garrison Junior's advances. Granted, they're father and son, but the moral dilemma in question that comes from the latter just being his usual self is wanting his father to molest him. Since the rest of his family is angry with him for this perceived "abuse", he eventually just formulates a plan for Kenny G to keep his son distracted; which, to his credit, actually works, so he seems to have an unusual amount of tact for a South Park resident as well.
  • In the Season 1 episode "Tom's Rhinoplasty", substitute teacher Ms. Ellen takes on this role. She seems to be the only staff member of South Park Elementary to actually act like an educator, and to actually treat the children like children. She shows concern at the lack of educational value in Mr. Garrison's curriculum, expresses alarm at the children's bizarre behaviors, and points out the inappropriateness of Chef's sexual dialogue within the school environment.
• In Spliced, Patricia the platypus is not only the only creature on Keepaway Island who possesses any kind of common sense, but also the only non-mutant. It's kinda saying something about the show when a platypus — one of nature's freakiest animals — is the most normal character.
• In SpongeBob SquarePants, Squidward Tentacles and Sandy Cheeks are more or less the only creatures in Bikini Bottom with sense. SpongeBob SquarePants also tends to be this whenever Patrick Star is the stupid one.
• Squirrel Boy:
  • Robert Johnson, Andy's father, seems to be the one of the very few people on this show with any rationality.
  • Andy himself is a rare child example, for he's usually the voice of reason to his idiotic pet/best friend Rodney. However, on very often occasions, he suffers from Ping Pong Naïveté and as such can go from this to holding the Idiot Ball very quickly, with such examples being the episodes "The Big Haggle Hassle", "Endangered Species Twist", "Harried Treasure", and "Freaky Furday".
  • Sludgy Dave from the episode "Ice Cream Anti-Social" is actually helpful to the younger characters and strives to solve his customers' problems. He's also one of the few examples of this trope who isn't a Deadpan Snarker or a Butt-Monkey.
• Steven Universe:
  • The titular character eventually grows into this role, having to serve as a mediator or advice giver when things get too emotional among the Crystal Gems. This gets lampshaded in the Season 4 episode "The New Crystal Gems", where his best friend Connie is pushed into the role during his absence and remarks in a short "The Reason You Suck" Speech how ridiculous it is that a child like her is more emotionally mature than aliens that are thousands of years old.
  • Garnet, being the most together and level-headed Gem, she often has to rein in the others.
  • Garnet normally takes this role when they're all together as a team, as Pearl is usually Not So Above It All, but when only with Amethyst and Steven, she tends to come off as one.
• Otto from Time Squad tends to be the voice of reason between the destructive and idiotic Buck, and overly tempermental Larry 3000. This is further illustrated in "A Thrilla at Atilla's", where Otto is the only one who is able to tell the story right, without exaggerating the other characters' actions.
• Titan Maximum deconstructs the idea of the Only Sane Man with Gibbs. Being the only competent member of the former Titan Maximum team eventually drove him into hating everyone else on the team and performing a Face–Heel Turn on the first episode. The fact that he's the Only Sane Man makes him a very effective villain, albeit an incredible Smug Snake.
• Total Drama:
  • Gwen is one of the most normal contestants, and qualifies as this for most of Total Drama Island. Lampshaded in "The Very Last Episode, Really!", where she complains in a confessional about how she was one of only a handful of sane people on the show.
  • Noah is more of a classic example, especially when you compare the rest of his team in World Tour (excluding Alejandro, who gets this whenever Noah's having fun).
  • Trent stands out in Island as the most normal and down-to-earth contestant in the season, having no real eccentricities compared to everyone else's intentionally over-the-top personalities. Action tried to subvert this by making him more neurotic and obsessive, but negative reception to the resulting derailment of his Nice Guy personality led to it being quickly reverted.
  • Bridgette, like Trent, is one of the first season's most sensible and mature contestants (Gwen even describes her as one of the few sane people on the island). This is probably best demonstrated in "Brunch of Disgustingness", where she does her best to play The Heart of her team and mediate the conflict between Heather & Lindsay and Gwen & Leshawna. While she did succumb to Flanderization during her time as a competitor in the later seasons, she still demonstrates herself to be the voice of reason and morality as an Aftermath co-host to Geoff during his Acquired Situational Narcissism and later to Blaineley.
  • Zoey is definitely the most normal of the Revenge of the Island contestants, although she does snap for a brief period towards the end of the season.
  • In the Pahkitew Island season:
    • Dave (who is even labelled as "The Normal Guy") and Sky share this role for their team, and to a lesser extent the whole season. Their approaches are quite different though; whereas Dave is annoyed by the others' eccentricities and constantly gripes about them, Sky tries to be optimistic and understanding towards the others. As a result, Dave ends up going off the deep end as the season progresses, while Sky retains her sanity.
    • Jasmine plays this role for her team in the same season. She's the only one who isn't evil or incompetent, and unlike the others, she actually recognizes how horrible Amy is to Sammy and tries to do something about it.
• Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race:
  • Amidst the hostilities, quirks, and rocky relationship troubles that the other teams of contestants experience amongst themselves, Dwayne Jr. of the Father & Son team is mostly just a friendly and down-to-earth kid who keeps to himself and tries to stay out of trouble.
  • Sanders of the Police Cadets is definitely one of the more level-headed contestants, especially when compared to her partner MacArthur.
• Total DramaRama: Courtney fills this role in the series, being the most sensible and responsible of the children, as well as usually being the first one to object to any of the others' Zany Schemes.
• Transformers: Prime actually has this in one of its human characters, Jack Darby. Unlike almost every other human in the Transformers universe, he knows that getting yourself involved in the front lines of an alien robot war is more dangerous than awesome. In fact, he tried to avoid all contact with the Autobots at first before some convincing. The other human who demonstrates this common sense is, unsurprisingly, Jack's mother, who at one point insists on taking Raf home when exposure to Energon nearly kills him.
  • The villains have Soundwave, who doesn't share the sociopathy or megalomania of most of the other Decepticons and is far and away Megatron's most loyal and competent henchman. Be warned: This trope does not in any way make him less dangerous than the others. At all.
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015): Bumblebee is caught between Lawful Stupid Strongarm, fast-talking Fixit, reckless Sideswipe and bloodthirsty Grimlock. Being team leader in a Transformers series is often a thankless job.
• While Kitty from T.U.F.F. Puppy has the occasional tendency to act as goofy as everyone else, she is the most level-headed character when compared to Dudley, or anyone else on the show for that matter.
• Uncle Grandpa:
  • Mr. Gus, who seems to be the only person to notice all the strange things around him, along with the lack of common sense of the titular character.
  • Belly Bag tends to play this role when Mr. Gus isn't there. He usually tries to rein in Uncle Grandpa's and Pizza Steve's inanities, although he's more likely to get caught up in it than Mr. Gus.
• Unikitty!: Richard is the only one of the cast who isn't a complete cloudcuckoolander.
• Bob the Tomato, in the VeggieTales cartoons — in the opening and closing sequences where he plays himself, he consistently provides a voice of reason on the show. During the actual episodes, he is almost invariably cast in the role of a character who is competent and sensible, unlike most of the others.
• The Venture Bros. has Doctor Venture, who often tries to be the Only Sane Man, but the intense neuroses and trauma of being a boy adventurer keep him from succeeding, resulting in a very broken man. Usually, the role ends up being filled by one-shot bad guys that question the Venture Team's logic. You know you have problems when a flamboyant super-villain is judging you.
  • Brock fills this role quite often as well, in spite of murdering multiple people on an almost daily basis. He's generally the sanest, most level-headed and most competent member of Team Venture, so it's not hard for him to slide into the role and see just how absurd his life and the lives of those around him are.
    Dr. Venture: (as a party being thrown by his brother sits on the brink of collapsing into madness) Huh. When you're not the one in the middle of it all, it's actually pretty obvious.
    Brock: Welcome to my world.
  • On the villains' side, Dr. Girlfriend is likely the closest thing to a competent one (at least compared to the Monarch and anyone else affiliated with him).
  • Dean Venture may also be growing into this role, as he's developed some sense of what normality is like and would rather like to give it a shot. This does contrast against his brother Hank who loves the life (and does help Dean accept it all with a more positive attitude). Whether Dean will succeed is another thing, since it's implied Rusty tried to be normal, but gave up on it a long time ago (it's implied one reason for his bitterness is that while the world has forgotten him for the most part, he still has to deal with supervillains.)
• On the Animated Adaptation of Wayside, Todd is repainted as the only one using real world logic while everyone else is using bizarre logic of the school.
• In X-Men: The Animated Series, the largest of the sentinels (robots designed to capture people) is called Master Mold. He/It starts trying to take over the world. When reminded by his creator that his mission was to protect humans from mutants, Master Mold says, "That is not logical. Mutants are humans. Therefore, humans must be protected from themselves." Not a bad realization for a robot antagonist that Professor X called "the embodiment of human hatred" that was created by another antagonist.
• Young Justice (2010) gives us Virgil Hawkins, a member of the Runaways. In contrast to all the other teenagers, who were runaways kidnapped after they fled broken and/or abusive homes, Virgil comes from a relatively normal home and has a very healthy and loving relationship with his father (he was mistaken for a runaway while he was waiting for his sister to pick him up). Because of this, Virgil is orders of magnitude more well-adjusted than the other teenagers in the group.

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