Basic Trope: The Only Sane Man/Only Sane Woman keeps an eye on the resident Cloudcuckoolander.
- Straight: Alice hangs around with the strange Bob and keeps him out of trouble.
- Exaggerated: Bob is completely and utterly insane, it's a wonder he's not been locked up in an asylum rather than allowing Alice to keep him in check.
- Downplayed: Bob comes from another place or culture. Alice helps explain things to him.
- Justified:
- Alice is a relative or close childhood friend of Bob, which is why she puts up with and tries to help him.
- Alice was hired to take care of Bob.
- Alice puts up with Bob because she's secretly in love with him.
- Bob is a Bunny-Ears Lawyer and overall valuable employee. Alice is his boss, and reins him when necessary.
- Inverted:
- Bob has been tasked with keeping Manipulative Bitch Alice isolated from everyone else to keep her from causing any harm.
- Alice follows Bob around so she can encourage his strangeness.
- Subverted: Bob is perfectly capable of looking after himself (and isn't really that crazy), Alice is just a bit of a busybody or wants an excuse to hang around with him without admitting she wants to.
- Double Subverted: Alice is still very helpful in keeping Bob's life in order.
- Parodied: Alice insists on helping Bob no matter how much he protests (quite accurately) that he's fine as is.
- Zig Zagged:
- Sometimes Alice keeps an eye on Bob, other times she just accepts the inevitable.
- Alice actually has her own share of strangeness, but that's how she's able to help out Bob. Sometimes it just takes one to know one.
- Averted: Bob never comes close to suffering any consequences for his shenanigans.
- Enforced: Bob is initially written as a loner, however executives decide it's too implausible that he could look after himself and Alice is written in.
- Lampshaded: "Don't worry guys, Alice'll clean that up"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Bob avoids appearing too sane because he's worried his friend Alice might move on if he can survive on his own.
- Defied: Alice retreats to safety whenever Bob starts any of his Zany Schemes.
- Discussed: "Ah, there's Alice and Bob. I've got no idea why she sticks by him, but I doubt he'd last long without her."
- Conversed: "Are you one of those people who keeps their crazy friend in check?"
- Deconstructed: Alice is essentially Bob's full time carer; he's completely dependent on her.
- Reconstructed: Alice managed to teach him how to get by on his own long ago. They just hang around with each other because they're close friends as a result, Alice corrects Bob out of habit and Bob doesn't mind this for the same reason.
- Played for Laughs: Alice is forever suffering in her efforts to prevent things getting too out of hand.
- Played for Drama: Bob often comes close to getting them both killed and this puts a strain on their friendship.
OK, let's all relax and head back to Cloudcuckoolander's Minder.
