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Anime and Manga
Who knows? Even I don't know. Is what we see a different universe? The far future or the past? It could even be the bottomless anger that I hold within me. My power has surpassed even my understanding...
— Goku Black after using an energy scythe to cleave a hole in reality, Dragon Ball Super
Kaijin: How did you get up here?!
Stronger: Hmph! How should I know!
Stronger: Hmph! How should I know!
The chance of success for this mission was 0%, but I can see theoretical calculations don't mean anything to you people.
— The Kittan Zero's computer, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Comic Books
Robo: This is just... there can't be giant insects. They'd crush themselves.
Jenkins: But do they know that?
Robo: Probably not, no.
Jenkins: But do they know that?
Robo: Probably not, no.
— Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne
Fan Works
Dr. Briefs: Goku, what have you done?! You've blasted off into space! You're incredibly lucky I already set the coordinates for Namek, but you... you... where did you get that muffin?
Goku: Muffin Button.
Dr. Briefs: But... I... never installed a Muffin Button.
Goku: (genuinely confused) Then where did I get this muffin?
Goku: Muffin Button.
Dr. Briefs: But... I... never installed a Muffin Button.
Goku: (genuinely confused) Then where did I get this muffin?
Wait... give me a moment to process this. Are you telling me Conrad LARP'ed his way throughout the Terminus systems and inadvertently created a network for freelance mercenaries?
— Adam Jensen, Mass Effect: Human Revolution
The Titan stopped only to take the new surroundings in, not knowing that simply by stepping out of that gate it had broken the fact of life in the United States that no hostile forces had managed to put boots on the ground in the nation in the past two hundred years.
Film — Live-Action
Kage: Dude, we've been through so much shit...
JB: Deactivated lasers with my dick!
JB: Deactivated lasers with my dick!
Wilberforce: No one of our age has ever taken power.
Pitt the Younger: Which is why we're too young to realize certain things are impossible. So, we will do them anyway.
Pitt the Younger: Which is why we're too young to realize certain things are impossible. So, we will do them anyway.
Never tell me the odds!
— Han Solo, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Rey: Is that possible?
Han Solo: I never ask that question until after I've done it.
Han Solo: I never ask that question until after I've done it.
— Star Wars: The Force Awakens
But I've never flown before in my life, and it shows exactly what you can do, if you're a total psychotic!
— Leonard Zelig, Zelig
Tom: How are you not dead?!
Sonic: I HAVE NO IDEA!
Sonic: I HAVE NO IDEA!
Literature
"Ambassador," Max said, "in the course of my life I have more than once been too ignorant to know that something was impossible before I did it anyway. I see no reason to jeopardize that success."
The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second-best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do; and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot.
Esk, of course, had not been trained, and it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done. A person ignorant of the possibility of failure can be a halfbrick in the path of the bicycle of history.
Only Bloody Stupid Johnson could have invented the 13-inch foot and a triangle with three right angles in it. Only Bloody Stupid Johnson could have twisted common matter through dimensions it was not supposed to enter. And only Bloody Stupid Johnson could have done all this by accident.
— Thud!
Leonard of Quirm: And [I require] the help of, oh, sixty apprentices and journeymen from the Guild of Cunning Artificers. Perhaps there should be a hundred. They will need to work around the clock.
Lord Vetinari: Apprentices? But I can see to it that the finest craftsmen-
Leonard of Quirm: Not craftsmen, my lord. I have no use for people who have learned the limits of the possible.
Lord Vetinari: Apprentices? But I can see to it that the finest craftsmen-
Leonard of Quirm: Not craftsmen, my lord. I have no use for people who have learned the limits of the possible.
The Hedge Wizard: Wait, how are you not wounded? I saw you take hits.
Champion: Witch not so smart. Ghosts no real, can’t hurt.
The Hedge Wizard: Ignorance is not a magical power!
Champion: Witch not so smart. Ghosts no real, can’t hurt.
The Hedge Wizard: Ignorance is not a magical power!
The most dangerous opponent for a master is a novice. Therefore, seek to be a novice in all things
One learns more from defeat than victory. Therefore, fear the general that has never won a battle.
The heart of warfare is deception. Therefore, the general who can deceive even themselves is invincible.
One learns more from defeat than victory. Therefore, fear the general that has never won a battle.
The heart of warfare is deception. Therefore, the general who can deceive even themselves is invincible.
— Isabella the Mad, only general to ever defeat Theodosius the Unconquered in the field, A Practical Guide to Evil
Half the things I've accomplished in my life have been because I was too pissed off to realize that they weren't possible.
— October Daye, Chimes at Midnight
But the controls: ahh. There was something a man could put his heart into. He was attempting a task that an Earthman would have rejected as impossible; an Earthman would have known that the piloting and operation of an interstellar ship was a task so difficult that the best possible technical education combined with extensive experience in the handling of lesser spacecraft would constitute a barely adequate grounding for the additional intensive highly specialized training necessary for the task.
Hugh Hoyland did not know that. So he went ahead and did it anyhow.
Live-Action TV
Dealing with a trained operative is like playing chess with a grandmaster. Dealing with criminals, on the other hand, is like playing checkers with a three-year-old: they like to change the rules.
— Michael Westen, Burn Notice
An amateur is infinitely more dangerous than a professional. If Alexander Graham Bell had been a professional electrician, he would never have invented the telephone - he would have known it was impossible!
— Uncle Martin, My Favorite Martian
Let me guess, you've got a loosely formed idea that shouldn't work on paper but ultimately proves to be reasonably successful?
— Burton Guster, Psych
Some of Joss' music is surprisingly complicated. Maybe it's a Beatles thing. He doesn't know enough to know what he can't do and he's smashing rules.
Newspaper Comics
Wally: Stupidity is like nuclear power: It can be used for good or evil.
Dilbert: And you don't want to get any on you.
Dilbert: And you don't want to get any on you.
— Dilbert
It's amazing what one can accomplish when one doesn't know what one can't do.
— Garfield
Video Games
Vulpes Inculta: That was incredible! How did you do that?note
The Courier: I have no idea whatsoever.
The Courier: I have no idea whatsoever.
Snake: Para-Medic?
Para-Medic: What's up?
Snake: You were right.
Para-Medic: About what?
Snake: I ate a Russian glowcap and it charged up my batteries.
Para-Medic: Huh?!
Snake: What's wrong?
Para-Medic: I, uh... that's... that's great! Um, Snake, can you excuse me for a second?
Snake: Sure.
Para-Medic: Did you just hear that?
Sigint: Yeah. There's no way eating a bioluminescent mushroom would cause your batteries to recharge.
Para-Medic: What do you think it means?
Sigint: Beats me... maybe it's all in his mind.
Para-Medic: You mean like a placebo effect?
Sigint: Why not? You've seen how gullible he is.
Para-Medic: I guess there's no harm done. Should we let him keep believing it?
Sigint: Sounds good to me.
Para-Medic: OK, Snake, I'm back. Yes, the Russian glowcap is a glowing mushroom, so it'll recharge your batteries when you eat it.
Snake: ???
Para-Medic: What's up?
Snake: You were right.
Para-Medic: About what?
Snake: I ate a Russian glowcap and it charged up my batteries.
Para-Medic: Huh?!
Snake: What's wrong?
Para-Medic: I, uh... that's... that's great! Um, Snake, can you excuse me for a second?
Snake: Sure.
Para-Medic: Did you just hear that?
Sigint: Yeah. There's no way eating a bioluminescent mushroom would cause your batteries to recharge.
Para-Medic: What do you think it means?
Sigint: Beats me... maybe it's all in his mind.
Para-Medic: You mean like a placebo effect?
Sigint: Why not? You've seen how gullible he is.
Para-Medic: I guess there's no harm done. Should we let him keep believing it?
Sigint: Sounds good to me.
Para-Medic: OK, Snake, I'm back. Yes, the Russian glowcap is a glowing mushroom, so it'll recharge your batteries when you eat it.
Snake: ???
Visual Novels
Maya: You came all by yourself?
Pearl: Yup! I snuck out of the manor and followed a map.
Phoenix: Don't tell me you walked all the way here...
Pearl: Of course not! ...I ran!
Phoenix: That's... I can't... Oh my... (If it takes two hours by train... Oh man...)
Maya: Pearly... What about the train?
Pearl: Huh? What's a... "tray-in"?
Phoenix: (I give up...)
Pearl: Yup! I snuck out of the manor and followed a map.
Phoenix: Don't tell me you walked all the way here...
Pearl: Of course not! ...I ran!
Phoenix: That's... I can't... Oh my... (If it takes two hours by train... Oh man...)
Maya: Pearly... What about the train?
Pearl: Huh? What's a... "tray-in"?
Phoenix: (I give up...)
Webcomics
Black Belt: You try walking in a straight line without bumping into wave functions of neighboring realities!
Black Mage: We do it all the time. It's called not being so stupid that it warps the universe!
Black Mage: We do it all the time. It's called not being so stupid that it warps the universe!
Red Mage: It's simple. The card gave him an idea he's too stupid to know that he can't act on.
Black Mage: What I hate about my life... Part of what I hate about my life is that is it is working.
Black Mage: What I hate about my life... Part of what I hate about my life is that is it is working.
Ran: Mega Man?! You're still alive?! You were at ground zero of a nuclear explosion!
Mega Man: Oh, that. I just regenerated like you're always doing.
Ran: Mega Man, you don't have a regeneration chamber like I do.
Mega Man: Well, it's a little late to tell me that now.
Mega Man: Oh, that. I just regenerated like you're always doing.
Ran: Mega Man, you don't have a regeneration chamber like I do.
Mega Man: Well, it's a little late to tell me that now.
"It is true you are very fierce," conceded his partner, "But my son's fighting beetle is also very fierce. Could his beetle fell a lion?"
"That depends," said Intra, "How skilled is the beetle in Pankrash Circle Fighting?"
"Beetles cannot learn Pankrash Circle Fighting, Lord Intra," said Intra’s attendant, and made a bitter motion.
"Don’t tell the beetle that," said Intra, who was very skilled at smiling. "If you don’t tell him he will learn it anyway and cut the lion in half with a single blow."
"That depends," said Intra, "How skilled is the beetle in Pankrash Circle Fighting?"
"Beetles cannot learn Pankrash Circle Fighting, Lord Intra," said Intra’s attendant, and made a bitter motion.
"Don’t tell the beetle that," said Intra, who was very skilled at smiling. "If you don’t tell him he will learn it anyway and cut the lion in half with a single blow."
— Kill Six Billion Demons, The Song of Maybe
Helen: The console was a rusted mail-sorting machine. I told Dave it was a death ray in need of repair. It couldn't possibly have worked.
Mell: But Dave got killed by it!
Helen: He's got fantastic potential, doesn't he?
Mell: But Dave got killed by it!
Helen: He's got fantastic potential, doesn't he?
— Narbonic
Hmmm. Ok. Well... the bad news is that this is a scroll of Locate Creature - which is a completely useless spell in the current situation. The good news is that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.
— Blackwing invoking this tropenote , The Order of the Stick
I'm sure there will be even more changes before the endgame - things we can't even hope to predict now. And I'm just as sure that we'll get through them all. Not because we're destined, or chosen or fated or any of that clichéd heroic garbage. Nah. We'll get through because we're the ones who are too dumb to know when to quit. And let's face it: If idiocy becomes an asset in this fight, we'll all be unstoppable.
— Roy Greenhilt, The Order of the Stick
Dr. Wily: Ashura? What the? How did you get here?
Ashura: I followed you. I can run really fast, you know.
Dr. Wily: You ran after us!?! But this island is floating in the sky above the ocean!
Ashura: Really? I didn't notice that.
(beat)
Ashura: So anyway...
Ashura: I followed you. I can run really fast, you know.
Dr. Wily: You ran after us!?! But this island is floating in the sky above the ocean!
Ashura: Really? I didn't notice that.
(beat)
Ashura: So anyway...
Carl: It appears that, despite all logic, our boarding party has survived.
Vexxarr: How they pulled this off, I'll never know.
Carl: How about how they managed to find a wheelbarrow, light bulbs and a desklamp on a crab-infested warship.
Vexxarr: Not even curious.
Carl: But... wait... really?
Vexxarr: Sanity means knowing when not to call reality's bluff.
Vexxarr: How they pulled this off, I'll never know.
Carl: How about how they managed to find a wheelbarrow, light bulbs and a desklamp on a crab-infested warship.
Vexxarr: Not even curious.
Carl: But... wait... really?
Vexxarr: Sanity means knowing when not to call reality's bluff.
— Vexxarr
Woman: How did you staple BOTH of your hands?
Man: Baby, never underestimate a nincompoop.
Man: Baby, never underestimate a nincompoop.
Web Original
McNoodlehead, I am caught between loving this for how awesome it is and loving it for how completely ridiculous it is. You fought Angels without knowing you were fighting against the forces of a God, nonchalantly grabbed the prize that many people have never even caught a whiff of, all with the air of a giant Comedy of Errors show.
You bumbled your way into what some people consider winning the game.
Amazing.
At its best, one of the things Doctor Who has always been extraordinary at is making new mistakes. This is true on a very fundamental creative level, where even from the very beginning of the program you are forced to say things like, "well in their defense, resolving two weeks of sci-fi experimental theater with 'oh, bother, the switch was stuck' is not something I’ve ever seen done before," up through the days of "racism and giant rats, huh" and "holy fuck that coat" and at last to things like "wait, they lied to their brother and told him he was a robot?" This is terribly important, because if you don’t make new mistakes you’ll never discover that obvious mistakes like evil robot salt shakers, hiring a construction worker dressed in a ludicrous scarf as your lead actor, a giant fascist Bertie Bassett, or a searing deconstruction of the normative rape/revenge plots that dominate sci-fi media in the early 21st century that argues for a focus on women’s narrative and experiences are, in fact, brilliant and important ideas that the world would be a poorer place without.
"I love that I can beat this board through sheer incompetence!"
— GrayStillPlays Popular Girls, "i became popular for all the wrong reasons
"
"Weakness: Doesn't know what the hell he's doing. This is also his Strength.
Web Video
Suzaku: Apparently, if you score negative on an IQ test, you can get a free pass out of anything!
Lelouche: You did so bad, you owe points?
Lelouche: You did so bad, you owe points?
King K. Rool: General Klump! Have you finished coming up with a game plan, yet? Hmm?
Klump: Well, uh, this idea of yours is rather ass-backwards, so we built a robot to make a plan for us instead!
King K. Rool: You couldn't figure out a plan to cut a monkey's hair, and yet you were able to design and create a robot with an uncanny resemblance...to the sasquatchnote .
Klump: Uh...well, when you put it like that, I uh...
Klump: Well, uh, this idea of yours is rather ass-backwards, so we built a robot to make a plan for us instead!
King K. Rool: You couldn't figure out a plan to cut a monkey's hair, and yet you were able to design and create a robot with an uncanny resemblance...to the sasquatchnote .
Klump: Uh...well, when you put it like that, I uh...
Western Animation
Ha! I was only pretending to be a genius.
— Johnny Concussion, American Dad!
I know this defies the law of gravity, but you see, I never studied law.
— Bugs Bunny, "High-Diving Hare" (but to be perfectly honest, it would have easily fit into the end of any episode)
I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible!
— Daffy Duck riding an invisible bicycle in "Porky Pig & Daffy"
Fry: Bender! You can't bend a wooden door!
Bender: You know that, and I know that, but this door looks pretty stupid.
Bender: You know that, and I know that, but this door looks pretty stupid.
— Futurama
Are you kidding me? You do one awesome thing, and you can't even remember how you did it?!
— Donatello, after Michelangelo's goofy attempts to make retro-mutagen actually work, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
Melvinborg: You're being ridiculous! George and Harold can't subvert your scholastic supremacy!
Melvin: Wrong! George and Harold have a history of accidentally succeeding! And always at my expense!
Melvinborg: Sweet pumpkin pie! You're right! Nobody has a history like failing upwards like those two!
Melvin: Wrong! George and Harold have a history of accidentally succeeding! And always at my expense!
Melvinborg: Sweet pumpkin pie! You're right! Nobody has a history like failing upwards like those two!
—The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, "The Dastardly Deeds of the Devious Diddlysaurus"
Real Life
Mr. Turner's influence reaches beyond the horror set: Last year the Museum of Arts and Design showed Tales From the Quadead Zone as part of its VHS retrospective. Jake Yuzna, curator of the show, said Mr. Turner stood apart from other amateur filmmakers because his films "failed in a way that made them more original and fantastic."
— The New York Times, "Chester Novell Turner and 'Black Devil Doll' Are Back."
"Anything is possible when you're too naïve to realize you're screwed.
— Walt Williams, Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games
They did not know it was impossible, so they did it.
Huw Wheldon: You got away with enormous technical advances, didn't you?
Orson Welles: Simply by not knowing that they were impossible.
Orson Welles: Simply by not knowing that they were impossible.
—From a BBC discussion on Citizen Kane
When you talk to Chileans about the crash, they always say: "The first day in that place I would go mad, because I will never be able to leave." Because they see the mountain range every day. That was the great difference: we didn't know what snow was, the cold, the avalanches, the altitude sickness, the mountain range. That is, we didn't know that "I will never get out". Our ignorance was, surprisingly, our best ally, because it prevented us from going mad, lessened the desperation, chaos and hysteria, and allowed us to believe, irrationally, that it was possible. Ignorance maximizes audacity and, key factor, prevents the prophecy from coming true: those you take for your limits make the frontier in the end.
— Pancho Delgado, survivor of the 1972 Andes plane disaster
