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Break the Scientist
- 146 statements
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So, we all know that every time you show dinosaurs and cave-people together in the same era a palaeontologist cries. Probably not literally, of course. You'd have to be fairly unstable to be brought to tears just because some TV show took some artistic liberties. After all, it's just a show... However, if a scientist or other expert saw this kind of defiance of the laws of the universe taking place right in front of them, it's likely that they would be a bit shaken up. All those years of careful study and research suddenly proven wrong... NOOOOOOOOOO! This trope occurs when the expert in question is a character in the work who becomes upset that their reality is blatantly defying the laws of nature, physics, etc. This may manifest as actual crying, Unstoppable Rage, or even a nervous breakdown. Often Played for Laughs as a form of Lampshade Hanging- the author is demonstrating that, yes, they know perfectly well that it doesn't make sense, and are giving the viewer a gentle reminder not to take it too seriously. If the professor is already aware of the existence of other magic, aliens, etc, then his disbelief is Flat Earth Atheism or Arbitrary Skepticism if he'll believe in some paranormal/supernatural stuff, though not others. Often happens to the Agent Scully. Compare This Cannot Be!, another trope about characters being confounded after seeing something that proves them wrong. Contrast Admiring the Abomination, when the Professor is pleased rather than alarmed at a sudden scary turn of events because it's proved him right. Examples |
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Hunter: The Vigil has Null Mysteriis, an academic organization devoted to the scientific study of supernatural creatures and phenomena, believing that things like vampires, werewolves, and mages all have rational, scientific explanations. Problem is, they live in the World of Darkness. Depending on the GM, either they're correct, and science simply hasn't advanced to the point where study of the supernatural is possible, or they have it all wrong, and the supernatural completely defies all attempts at explanation. Understandably, this tends to drive more than a few Null M. scientists insane. | |
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In The Three-Body Problem, several scientists commit suicide when the data collected by particle accelerators appear to be completely inconsistent, due to Trisolaris' sophons. | |
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The Simpsons: Homer has this reaction after Lisa (somehow) makes a Perpetual Motion Machine in "The PTA Disbands". The scene ends with Homer calling Lisa to him and angrily shouting "In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" The curator for the Jebediah Springfield museum from "Lisa the Iconoclast" was so dismayed upon finding evidence that Jebediah was actually a vicious pirate that he stole and hid the evidence to stop others from knowing the truth. Lisa Simpson when the family goes to Africa and see a rhinoceros hatch from an egg in "Simpson Safari". |
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The Infinite Summation Honeybee Professor in Problem Sleuth gets upset whenever the characters abuse the properties of windows in order to generate matter or discharge energy — although that's partly because if it's done badly, it results in infinitely massive or infinitely dense objects and nasty things happen. | |
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In Shinji and Warhammer40k, Ritsuko suffers a serious blow to her sanity after repeatedly witnessing Shinji playing Reality Warper with his AT-field wizardry and psyker abilities without finding ANY scientific explanation for it. She learned to cope via ranting and publishing scientific papers on the latest proof-by-Evangelion that physics don't work; the hate-mail keeps her going. | |
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This is actually a plot point quite often in Fringe. In a season 3 episode, Walter is confused and upset when the densest element (Osmium) is used by another scientist (who stumbled upon it and has no idea why it's doing this either) to make people float in the sky. Yes, it makes no sense. As it turns out, this lapse in the laws of physics is a sign that our universe is about to collide with another one and destroy them both. | |
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"An Insult to Science" from Vampirella #57 features a professor whose profession is unmasking false mediums. He stumbles directly into a ghost story. He takes the insult with astonishing dignity. | |
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"Rocket-bye Baby" has a professor giving a lecture in which he refutes the existence of UFOs and Little Green Men. Just as he's laughing at the very idea, a Flying Saucer with a baby green Martian flies in and hovers before his face for a few moments, causing the laughter to turn into tears. | |
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In The Weaver Option, Dragon occasionally longs for a nice corner in which she would sob over sanity's demise. It mainly happens right after she witnesses various sorcerous phaenomena or the Orks' utterly absurd constructs. | |
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In The Last Continent, Ponder Stibbons has some difficulty adjusting to the idea that the deserted island he and the rest of Unseen University's senior faculty are trapped on is actively supplying them with the means to live. Further, he's pretty disillusioned to learn that evolution isn't a wonderfully elegant self-driving force, but is driven by an inept god like everything else on the Disc. However, what really pushes him beyond the breaking point is learning that said god doesn't regard humans as the pinnacle of evolution for their sapience, but instead assigns that role to cockroaches for their durability. | |
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In the Anime/Addventure thread "Switching Places/Eva", Ritsuko has this reaction to Ranma and his habit (which most of the rest of the cast has picked up) of calling the Angels "kaiju". | |
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xkcd #298 shows a scientist understandably shocked when Black Hat shoots lightning from his hands and hovers in the air, all while explaining that science doesn't actually work. | |
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This is what happens in Funny Business when a group of computer scientists learn of Jeanette's godlike powers. Tom is so shaken up by this that he goes on a lengthy rant about how useless his profession is if there exists a being who can ignore the laws of physics at will. It's not exactly "crying in the corner", but the effect is the same. | |
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Journey to the Center of the Earth pits geologist Otto Lidenbrock (who clings to a Hollow Earth theory) against our narrator, Otto's nephew Axel (who knows that Science Has Marched On and that the Earth is heated from the inside, and thus that the journey makes absolutely no sense and will inevitably end in heat suffocation), who is forced to change his mind. | |
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This angers Homer of all people in The Simpsons when Professor Frink uses his latest device to grant Homer increased intelligence. He rails on the impossibility of dinosaurs co-existing and fighting humans while watching a B-Movie, much to Bart's surprise. | |
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Transformers: Prime: In the Grand Finale movie "Predacons Rising", when Unicron-possessing-Megatron reanimates Predacon bones as Terrorcons, Shockwave — the Decepticons' Mad Scientist, who always thinks with logic — is absolutely horrified due to how illogical their mere existence is. | |
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In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Harry takes the revelation of the existence of magic in stride, because once he realises that magic follows certain rules, he realises that he can apply the scientific method to reconcile it with the known laws of physics. Nevertheless, he has a mild freak-out when contemplating the Shapeshifter Baggage of Professor McGonagall turning into a cat. | |
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In Dawn Comes on the Sunset Sea, CAN researchers are not coping well with Westerosi society evoluting in a quasi-identical way to Earth. One is outright drinking onscreen while several others suffer nervous breakdowns. | |
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A benign version would be Ellie and Alan's miniature freakout the first time they see a dinosaur in Jurassic Park (1993). They're more broken by the sense of awe than anything else, and a few minutes later Alan is observing the movement patterns to confirm one of his theories. | |
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TV Tropes: On this very wiki, we have the articles Somewhere, a Mammalogist Is Crying, Somewhere, a Herpetologist Is Crying, Somewhere, an Equestrian Is Crying and Somewhere, an Entomologist Is Crying. | |
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El Goonish Shive: A professor who starts crying whenever the laws of physics are violated hard enough. Whether he's actually present or not! There's also a high school physics teacher named "Mr. Bleuel" who gets rather peeved when he spots one of his students floating down the hallway out of habit. |
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In Welcome to Night Vale, poor, perfect Carlos seems to be a victim of this. | |
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Doctor Who: In "The Husbands of River Song", the Doctor pretends to be utterly shattered by how (his own) TARDIS's Bigger on the Inside nature defies all laws of physics. Mentioned here for how much he hams it up. | |
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Ghostbusters (1984): A slight inversion with the library ghost. Egon is rendered totally speechless when his theories and body of research are confirmed and he sees his first ghost. Even Ray is flummoxed by their success. Played straight when they see the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and realize that Gozer is more powerful than anything their theories had predicted was possible. |
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In Challenge of the Super Friends: The End, Lex Luthor repeatedly underestimates the Benefactor's claims of ruling an entire universe, reasoning that the distances would be just too great. Apparently, such claims are true. | |
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One of the planet travel guides in Tyrian reads "Many a scientist comes here after retirement to watch all their fundamental mathematical theorems fall apart as they watch the landmasses floating in apparent defiance to their life's work." | |
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Reed Richards of Fantastic Four does this all of the time, which is itself an incredible source of Fridge Logic, given that he can stretch and bend like he's made out of goddamn Silly Putty. More specifically, he can deal with comic book super-science — magic continues to confound him. | |
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