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Stupid Scientist
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Scientists are human beings, too. And human beings are often wrong. The problem comes when a character that is mentioned to be a respected, intelligent individual (or sometimes an Absentminded Professor) is called on to state or decides to make a comment on how unlikely it is that an impending and usually bad event will occur. They usually dismiss any possibility of disaster by stating extremely low odds that it will happen, and laugh off holders of an opposing viewpoint as "crazy" or "minsinformed" even if they may in fact be a respected colleague and not just an eccentric, insane or paranoid person who also happens to be right. Point is, nobody can sway him once he's publicly declared that there is, without a doubt, no life on Mars. If they do notice anything wrong, they will likely dismiss it as Within Parameters. Because the character is held in high regard, everyone listens to them and stops panicking, just in time for the disaster to happen anyway. The character who initially stated these odds often gets involved in the thick of it, quickly changing their mind. This individual may or may not survive. As for their earlier statement, it becomes Hilarious in Hindsight, and they may or may not be called out for it. If they die in the ensuing cataclysm, it may be as the result of a Death by Irony or Too Dumb to Live. In this role they often function as a Red Shirt or a demonstration that Anyone Can Die. If they survive, they sometimes play the role of the Idiot Hero or Ditzy Genius, or rarely The Professor. The character is usually depicted as naive at worst, and is usually genuinely intelligent but out of his or her league. A Stupid Scientist is almost never outright evil. The Stupid Scientist can be seen as related to Tempting Fate and they usually demonstrate some form of Genre Blindness. They can also be contrasted with The Cassandra, in that both herald the event, but the difference is that the Stupid Scientist denies the disaster and is widely believed while the Cassandra says that it will happen and is completely ignored. The opposite trope is an Ignored Expert, a scientist who tries to warn everyone of danger but is disbelieved. More sensible or recurring Stupid Scientists can be promoted to Agent Scully. An Einstein Sue will often be faced with one of these, so they can show them up. Examples |
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In When Worlds Collide, several astronomers insist that Dr. Hendron's end of the world predictions are unfounded. While it's later mentioned that they now believe him, they still think his escape plan is impossible. | |
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In Star Trek: Enterprise, T'Pol, and for that matter, the entire Vulcan Science Directorate. The official declaration by the Vulcans is that time travel is impossible. Even after a mission which involved time travel in Season 2, T'Pol still says that she doesn't believe in it. She does get better and finally comes to understand that time travel is real. And in fairness, Vulcans of this time have strayed from Surak's teachings and are living under a military dictatorship. | |
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The quoted example is from The War of the Worlds (1898) by H. G. Wells. Ogilvy, a "well-known astronomer", says that to the narrator at the beginning of the book, right when Martian cylinders are heading to Earth. Nice. To be fair, however, Ogilvy is trying to be rational, and at that point in the story he may be more accurately described personality-wise as an Agent Scully. The irony is also somewhat undercut by the beings that invade not being very manlike. "Not very manlike" is not the same thing as being non-existent, unintelligent or friendly... |
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Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn: Subverted. Dr. Mobius is briefly mentioned in the intro during a talk show as being expected to refute claims that Tiberium is dangerous. He is fascinated with its mutagenic properties, putting enthusiasm and almost gleeful fascination into its research, ignoring even basic rules of safety. However, when later he learns of the disastrous effect Tiberium had on plants and animals, he changes his approach entirely, warning that it was potentially the greatest threat to humanity ever. He then dedicates himself to finding a cure for Tiberium-affected humans. | |
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Green Lantern: Hector Hammond in his post-Infinite Crisis origin; Despite supposedly specializing in "theoretical future science" and "alternative fuel sources", it never ocurred to him that Abin Sur's ship was powered by something other than liquid fuel. When he opened the fuel chamber, believing it to be empty (and therefore harmless), he was exposed to the radiation of the meteor within. | |
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The scientist in Mars Attacks! stated that since the martians are advanced technologically then they should be peaceful. He kept this up until they kidnapped him, cut off his head, and kept it alive for the lulz. They also kidnapped his vacuous girlfriend and her pet Chihuahua, and switched their heads for the same reason. | |
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The Doctor from The Stupiders, who not only didn't notice the extreme side effects of his work on the population of Earth, but suggested he should "fix" any so-called issues by creating more of what caused the problem to begin with! | |
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In the third part of Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver visits the flying island of Laputa, inhabited by a race of scientific geniuses. Although Laputa itself is a marvelous accomplishment most of the scientists' schemes and plans are hopelessly impractical due to logically following poorly examined premises with a complete lack of common sense. They are also in the habit of regularly predicting the extinction of life on Earth due to e.g. a cometary impact, only to blithely ignore when it doesn't happen. | |
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Tangled: The Series: "Great Expotations" introduces Doctor St. Croix, a self-proclaimed scientist and Know-Nothing Know-It-All who judges the invention expo. He values style over substance, choosing Fernando Pizazzo's floating, magnetic ball because it looks neat despite not having any real practical purpose, and he dismisses Varian's invention (which creates a new element) out of hand. He then proceeds to mess with Varian's invention and dismisses Varian's attempts to warn him of the inherent dangers, claiming that he knows what he's doing. His tampering with Varian's invention almost destroys the entire kingdom (and leads to him getting injured). | |
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In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode that riffed Crash of the Moons, the scientist forgets about the "atmosphere chain" linking the "Gypsy Moons" Poseta and Nagato. The space station they're waiting on will pass through the atmosphere chain, but isn't built to withstand the pressure. | |
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In The Birds, the main characters meet an ornithologist who is in complete denial over the title creatures flocking together to attack humans. One bird attack later, she is also keeping one eye on the sky. | |
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Warhammer 40,000: The overwhelming majority of the Adeptus Mechanicus tends to show this kind of behavior, notably in regards to the Necrons. They will happily position major facilities over tomb-worlds and attempt to wake up sleeping Necrons which they see as agents of the Machine God, without ever thinking of what happens when a sentient lifeform is detected by the Necrons... | |
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Jurassic Park, where there are repeated claims from park higher-ups that the dinosaurs will not escape and devour everyone. Guess what happens. On paper, it was supposed to be perfect; Hammond spared no expense, after all. Except for one: |
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The Dorkly article "These Eight Characters are Definitely Going to Die" includes in the list, "The Scientist". | |
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Henry Danger: This is part of Captain Man's origin story; Ray Manchester's father was a very irresponsible scientist who let his eight-year-old son ride his skateboard in the lab. When Ray accidentally got into his father's new invention, the "molecular densitizer", his father pulled the wrong switch trying to free him, resulting in Ray gaining Super-Toughness. | |
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The "great Dr. Lanyon, who lives in Cavendish Square, that citadel of medicine", was one of the oldest friends of Dr. Jekyll, but for the last ten years he has seen little of him, due to Jekyll's '"unscientific balderdash". Jekyll is very disappointed by Lanyon, because Lanyon calls his theories "scientific heresies" and considers Lanyon "an excellent fellow... but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant, blatant pedant". Consider that Dr. Jekyll has three doctorates, he is a FRS (Fellow of the Real Society) note FRS has been described by The Guardian newspaper as the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar. and a famous doctor, in other words, Dr. Jekyll is a respected colleague and not just an eccentric, insane or paranoid person who also happens to be right. In chapter nine, Dr. Lanyon pays the ultimate price for this error when he witnesses Mr. Hyde mix up the transformation potion right before his eyes and take it to return to being Dr. Jekyll, but not before indulging a moment to mock Lanyon for his own mockery of Jekyll's work. The shock of this eventually kills him. | |
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