Basic Trope: The Only Sane Man is The Chew Toy.
- Straight: Bob warns Alice not to go sailing since a hurricane is coming. Alice and their friends ignore his advice and make fun of him for his concern.
- Exaggerated: Bob warns Alice not to go sailing since a hurricane is coming. Alice and their friends publicly humiliate him and the entire town joins in.
- Downplayed: Bob warns Alice not to go sailing since a hurricane is coming. Alice and their friends make a small joke about how he worries too much.
- Justified: Alice and the others believe that The Complainer Is Always Wrong, and want Bob to know it.
- Inverted:
- Bob's words and opinions are given far more weight than anyone else in Alice's group of friends.
- A cloudcuckoolander with ridiculously good luck.
- Subverted:
- Alice initially ignores Bob's warnings, but decides later not to go sailing after all and thanks him for his advice.
- Bob isn't usually given respect, but Alice thanks him for his opinion and promises she will take it into consideration.
- Alice goes sailing, and she gets shipwrecked and severely injured by the hurricane. After that, she decides to start listening to Bob.
- Double Subverted: ...only to turn and make fun of him for actually thinking she'd listen to him.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Bob's opinions are given the same respect as everyone else.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "I gave you guys a warning about the hurricane and this is how you treat me?"
- Invoked: Bob is cursed that no one will follow his advice.
- Exploited:
- The fact that no one ever cares about what Bob says makes him a very good person to confide in, which is why he still has "friends."
- An enemy of Alice's group of friends uses their completely horrible treatment of Bob as their key argument to get him to defect.
- Defied: Bob leaves Alice's group of friends at the first sign they don't respect him.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Bob develops deep self-worth issues over time due to no one caring about what he has to say, becomes convinced that he is unnecessary within his group of friends, and eventually stops speaking altogether, believing nothing he says has any value or effect on the world.
- Alice and the rest of Bob's friends ignore his warning by saying he's just paranoid, but when they go sailing, an actual hurricane shows up, and while they did come out of the hurricane alive, they didn't come out unscathed, getting injured in the process or being traumatized by the experience.
- Everyone ends up completely blindsided when Bob makes a Face–Heel Turn and ends up being frighteningly effective as a villain because of nobody taking him seriously, along with the competence afforded to him by his Only Sane Man status.
- Reconstructed: Bob can never convince his friends to stay out of danger, but he still mitigates the damage done. They are grateful for this, and the friendship is very strong.
- Played For Laughs: Butt-Monkey
- Played For Drama: The Woobie, Cosmic Plaything
Back to No-Respect Guy
