"wait! I can explain!"

No waiting or explaining ensues

Often, but not always, yes. If the misunderstanding is reasonable and they had ample opportunity for an explanation but didn't, then yes, it's an idiot plot.

If they legitimately didn't have an opportunity to explain, or the explanation, while true, was completely unbelievable, that's not an idiot plot IMO.

Only if 3rd parties who witnessed the context of such misunderstanding re-enforce the stupid. Otherwise that's just your average contrived romance drama.

I feel like there are so many plots that stem from simple miscommunications or a lack of communication between two charatcers which would easily resolve the whole situation.

That's similar to the one where the couple breaks up over a misunderstanding and all it takes is one of them explaining in like 10s. But instead someone storms off while the other pleas, and deep down you're like, "That motherfucker so wanted it to end anyway."

But then we deal with post-break up scenes and you realise they're just idiots that still haven't even thought to clear up the misunderstanding via a single text, call, or friend. It could all be resolved, laughed about, and fucking again like that afternoon.

I think idiot plot is supposed to be so stupid that it's essentially not possible to happen irl

The example you outlined could happen in real life if one person completely blocks the other or something

Would be an idiot plot if everyone involved is fully able to communicate to the other parties, everyone has plenty of information, and they decide to go through with whatever stupid shit they think they need to do, that would be completely unavoidable and anyone with half a brain would understand that they don't need to do what they think they need to do.

Like a movie where there's a killer on the loose and nobody thinks of even trying to call the police. No "oh there's no signal here", just straight up nobody even tries.

Seinfeld is also like that. The best ones are where all their individual idiocy ends up making a spectacular fireball of stupidity.

Though I hope Earth gets a better finale.

No, they're not just idiots, and not just "bad people" like in Seinfeld, but powerfully stupid and actively hateful. I just can't stomach that show.

I recently watched a miniseries called A Teacher, in which a highschool teacher has an affair with her student and there are actual consequences. With all the people in the epstein files that are escaping justice, it was kind of cathartic to watch a sexual predator be punished for her actions

I remember the first season or two that it was out, it was too stressful for me to watch. At that point I had simply never seen any fiction with that level of consistent, nonstop manic trainwreck quality and it was overwhelming at first. Loved it after I acclimated, of course.

I immediately thought of the Cohen brothers

Yeah, I don't think I've seen another TV show jump the shark so quickly. Still, it's kinda on brand if you read the series it was based on.

"Steve went on a spacewalk without a tether cable!"

"Smoking indoors near flammable chemicals again, Steve?"

The current state of affairs in the US.

Brazil nearly suffered the same consequence, thankfully bozonazi is jailed now. Too bad a lot of the supporters are still out and about, including his sons

I earned my Reddit permaban because I said that in most countries throughout history, on the evening of a failed coup like Jan 6, the entire staff of the White House would have been dragged out onto the lawn of the White House and publicly executed.

It's crazy to me how many gay and liberal folks worked on Frasier and Kelsey Grammer is a huge Trump supporter.

I always wondered why they brought all those clothes on a "three hour tour."

Honestly, I think the skipper was a proto-Epstein, and had cooked up a scheme with that Sociopathic Oligarch Thurston Howell III to kidnap the hot Ginger, and the adorable MaryAnn, to be their sex slaves on his private island.

They are motorcycle guys and were looking for jet skis, the motorcycle of the ocean.

I remember watching SoA, because people said it was good. It was alright i guess, from the three or so episodes i've seen. I read somewhere that the ending was mind-blowingly bad, so i peeped on YouTube and i had to laugh so god damn hard and i knew i could never again take this show seriously and stopped watching

and this lead to a season full of atrocious irish accents

I have no idea how I made it through that entire series. I don't even remember anything about the ending, other than relief. Right from the beginning I was constantly telling my wife "these are the stupidest criminals ever".

I mean a whole lot of horror movies would end in 5-15 minutes if the victims weren't idiots who decide to explore the obviously dangerous "thing".

Romcoms are notorious for it as so many plots come down to a refusal to stop and communicate

I always go back to Prometheus when talking about the "Idiot Ball" because it’s the gold standard. You’ve got these world-class scientists sent on a trillion-dollar mission who don't even know what they’re doing there until they wake up from cryo, and then they immediately act like children playing in a backyard.

The second the sensors say the air is "breathable," they’re ripping their helmets off like they’ve never heard of a space-virus or a spore. It’s insane. Then you’ve got the biologist, a literal professional, seeing a hissing, alien "space-cobra" in a clear threater posture and his first instinct is to try and pet it like a stray cat.

And don't even get me started on the guy who literally mapped the cave with high-tech drones being the one who gets hopelessly lost in it. Or the "Prometheus School of Running Away from Things" where you run in a perfectly straight line under a falling, circular ship instead of just... stepping to the left? It’s like the script needed the plot to happen so badly that it just stripped every character of their survival instincts and professional training.

Compare that to competency porn shows, like the Martian, where they FEEL like the best of the best

Not a movie, but death note.

If the dude didn't take the obvious bait every episode there's no way of catching him.

Think Burn After Reading

Definitely the badly written movies. Where the whole plot would have changed if they just communicated.

They obviously wouldn’t do that if they knew they were in a horror movie, though.

Didn't the secretary of health in the US have worms in his brain. You could easily make a modern DnD setting where the US is slowly being taken over by mindflayers who influence the gullible masses and the rest of the world has to deal with the fallout from this.

One can be an extremely intelligent idiot.

Also Arrested Development

LUCY!!! YOU GOT SOME SPLAININS TO DOOOOO!!!!!

WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!