http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Cloudcuckoolander

raocow "My mind is a puzzle to many."

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A character with their head in the clouds. They are strangely oblivious to things that everyone else takes for granted. They may have an argument with themselves for fun, make points in an argument with no basis in logic or reality, or tell rambling stories that have nothing to do with the point they're trying to make. They make totally unintentional double entendres, and are great for Getting Crap Past the Radar. Sometimes also called "Space Case" or "Space Cadet", or plain old "Strange", a cuckoo clock chime is used as an indicator of one.

The concept is well known, as in this joke: "A neurotic is a man who builds a castle in the air. A psychotic is the man who lives in it. A psychiatrist is the man who collects the rent."  Jerome Lawrence

Cloudcuckoolanders are very rarely malicious. They are far more likely to be Plucky Comic Relief. Maybe he's one of Those Two Guys or the crazy member of the Comic Trio. They lapse into non sequitur a lot, and while they aren't totally insane, they act it much more than some other crazier characters.

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One mark of a Cloudcuckoolander is when, 90% of the time, you think the character is just plain nuts, but 10% of the time, you suspect that the character is in fact the Only Sane Man on the show. In other words, a Cloudcuckoolander has massive knowledge and understanding of the workings of the universe, but a poor way of communicating that to everyone else. Unfortunately, when they are smart, nobody else is, and when they are not, everybody else is. In any event, they can be oddly endearing.

They often come off as naïve, innocent and Sarcasm-Blind, so when they suddenly come up with snarky quips and witticisms, it may be one of the first indications that they are much more insightful than they seem (or even deliberately pretend) to be.

Another notable mark is that often there is nothing actually wrong with what they do, but it is most assuredly not something a normal person would do. Sit down with a Cloudcuckoolander and try to explain to them that normal people don't wear the clothes of a dead man. They will never understand what your problem is. It's not like the dead guy cares, is it? Likewise they would fail to understand the reason for wearing shoes in a public place (it's warm and cosy, so why not go barefoot?) or using the pronoun "I" when referring to yourself (you use other people's names when speaking about them, so why not use your own name when you speak about yourself?)

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When they are given a specific disorder, it is often Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!, despite the fact that a couple of lesser-known disorders actually fit better: Schizotypal personality disorder, which is essentially schizophrenia-lite characterized in part by acting really weird,note The rest of it consists of mild/sub-psychotic versions of the delusions, paranoia, and hallucinations found in paranoid schizophrenia, as well as the affect disturbances that appear across types, hence "schizophrenia-lite" and thought disorder, which is when normal speech is disrupted and presumed to reflect a similar disruption in thoughts. However, there are a growing number of these characters whose strangeness is a symptom of Hollywood Autism. Oddly enough, quirkiness is a common trait in real-life autistics.

Frequently clips entire stacks of Weirdness Coupons from the paper. Certainly, many of them get away with a good deal no one else would be allowed. And has a weakness for falling into a Wiki Walk.

Though they may overlap with The Ditz, The Fool or the Kindhearted Simpleton, a Cloudcuckoolander, by definition, isn't stupid. They can be highly intelligent and very insightful or even geniuses, it's just the things they sometimes say and do may come off as weird, awkward, over-the-top, illogical, eccentric, etc. And because imagination often runs wild, they tend to be Easily Impressed.

This character is a mainstay of Surreal Humor, Dada Comics, Widget Series, and Word-Salad Humor. Even in a series with a little more structure overall, the Cloudcuckoolander's wacky and bizarre antics will often be used for an easy gag, particularly when paired with a straight foil to drive insane. This is probably why there are so many Web Comics examples. Often this character will also be a Granola Girl or New-Age Retro Hippie.

When their weirdness delves into disturbing territory, they have taken a job as a Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant.

On rare occasion, a Cloudcuckoolander may become Bored with Insanity and become more normal. If this happens, sometimes it sticks, and sometimes a "we want our Cloudcuckoolander back" movement, subsequently getting bored with sanity too, or some other means of inducing insanity will make him or her a Cloudcuckoolander again (since, after all, Status Quo Is God).

Their native land is Cloudcuckooland.

If a Cloudcuckoolander is dangerous, then that is Beware the Silly Ones. If they fight for a random rather than heroic reason, see Classical Antihero or Nominal Hero. Because of the humor value in doing so, they're more likely than most characters to be a Spanner in the Works that stops an seemingly unstoppable plan, leaving viewers wondering if they were aware of what they were doing. For that reason, when it's time for a show to get serious, these characters are likely to be killed or detained so the viewers know they won't be responsible for yet another Deus ex Machina.

The name of the trope comes from the city built on air above the Greek plain in Aristophanes' play The Birds, 414 B.C., whose ruler had quite a large mental gap between the dreamy, wide-eyed, idealistic Utopia that he imagined his city to be and the brutal totalitarian regime that he had actually imposed on it. He also came up with brilliant ideas like keeping people out of his city  a city you could only reach through flight  by building a really, really tall wall around it. (We'll give you a minute to figure out why that wouldn't have worked so well.)note Subversion: Go high enough and there's no air, so, even for a city accessible "through flight", you need air to fly in.

For various variants and overlapping tropes see:

If written badly or subjected to Flanderization, a character who was supposed to be merely weird may become The Ditz or a full-time Talkative Loon.

See also Cloudcuckoolander's Minder for the person who  with or against their will  often accompanies the Cloudcuckoolander(s) and tries to prevent things from getting out of hand. This is usually an impossible task. See also Cuckoolander Commentator, when the Cloudcuckoolander is put in charge of commentary for an event. Also, if Only One Finds It Fun, expect the one to be a Cloudcuckoolander.

Lastly, when dealing with Cloudcuckoolanders, always remember that sometimes their ramblings aren't just ramblings. That's The Cuckoolander Was Right.

For more examples of this trope, both real and fictional, check out a thematic category on The Other Wiki.

Examples Subpages:

Other Examples:

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Arts

The Englishman Mister "Pief" (Peeve?) from a story by Wilhelm Busch who walks around while always looking through a telescope.

Asian Animation

Dreamkix features DeSanctis, a chicken who's the team's second striker with a bad short term memory problem. Thus, he's prone to forgetting his teammates, forgetting that he's part of a team, staring into space, and getting into arguments with his own reflection.

Audio Plays

Exit Tunes Presents ACTORS has Itto Takatenjin, the swim club's only first-year member - no one really knows if his love for swimming is directly proportional to his skill yet, but what they do know is that he tends to get distracted by flying butterflies, and will chase after them more often than not.

Comedy

Music

"My World" by Avril Lavigne is about her living in her own world. Can't help if I space in a daze

My eyes tune out the other way

I may switch off and go in a daydream

Emilie Autumn's "How Strange" says, "I'm not living in an ordinary world."

"Imaginary" by Evanescence is a rather depressive version. The narrator builds her own world in her head, her "sleeping refuge," to escape the horror of reality. In my field of paper flowers

And candy clouds of lullaby (paper flowers)

I lie inside myself for hours

And watch my purple sky fly over me (paper flowers)

"Prezes" by Grupa Operacyjna has the titular character who tends to very weird things, like selling one dollar at a bureau de change or messaging the police with his pizza order.

Two of Gym Class Heroes' albums, The Papercut Chronicles and The Papercut Chronicles II, have a... rather strange electronic voice doing opening and closing narrations, which mostly consist of it rambling monotonously about whatever seems to cross its mind, much of which doesn't make any sense. Hey, have you ever wondered if a seahorse could win in a game of backgammon against an invisible wizard. I think the invisible wizard would win because the seahorse does not have hands. Hey, have you ever seen an invisible wizard. Probably not. Because it's invisible. Hey, remember that time when we were on that spaceship and there were talking dinosaurs and then one of the dinosaurs said, I cannot talk, and I said, You just did, and the dinosaur didn't say anything else because he couldn't talk. Hey, are you listening to me. Remember that stick of broccoli that used to play the banjo at the annual platypus convention. He owes me money. Hey, I'm cool. Hey, goodnight.

"Sharada" by Skye Sweetnam is about a girl who acts out-of-the-norm and constantly has her head in the clouds: And when they'd told her she's delirious

She didn't care

She's just oblivious

She likes to make everyone curious

One day she's gonna be famous

Vocaloid: Many of the voicebanks have characters attached to them. However most of the time they have no canon personality at all. Yet, looking at Nico Nico Concerts, it seems this trope is often given to Gakupo. He's often seen appearing at random moments on stage, portraying questionable behavior, such as putting on weird costumes (alternatively: wearing no clothes at all), forgetting the dance routine, or trying to hug one of the girls mid-concert. He's also the most likely one to break the fourth wall, if it were to happen at all. The fact that for the longest time this guy was best known for his troll songs, didn't help in bettering his image. Hell, to this day his best known songs is arguably Dancing Samurai. It is hard to describe what's going on in that video clip, but it includes horse masks, naked people, SM whips and kiddie pools, so believe me when I tell you it's weird.

Myths & Religion

The Bible: John 8:1-11 has an interesting story about when Jesus saved a women from being stoned to death. When a group of pharisees along with a crowd of people brought an adulteress to Jesus, telling him the woman should be stoned for committing the sin of adultery and demanded Jesus answer on what they should do to her, he responded by drawing a line in the sand. Confused, the pharisees demanded an answer for Jesuss response, which he responded by saying that anyone who had never sinned could step up to the line in the sand, and begin stoning the woman to death. The pharisees realized Jesus had caught them in their own trap which was designed to discredit Jesus. If he had allowed the crowd to stone the woman, it would look like Jesus had ordered the womans death, and thus make him look like a villain to his followers. But if he refused, he would deny Jewish law, thus inciting the wrath of the Jewish people nearby. However, by giving Jesus the power to decide the womans fate, they allowed him to add his own conditions to the case, thus exposing a loophole the pharisees unwittingly gave him. Now anyone who tried to stone the woman would be declaring themselves sinless, which was also against Jewish law, causing the mob to disperse in humiliation and sparing the life of the woman. The story is treated by Christians and non-Christians alike to this day as one of the oldest written cases of Take a Third Option, and thus a subversion of this trope, something which would end up being a defining feature of Jesuss life when dealing with the pharisees who plotted his downfall time and time again.

This trope dates back as far as Brother Juniper, a 13th-century friar and one of Saint Francis of Assisi's companions. According to legend , Brother Juniper was once caring for a sick man and learned that the sick man had a craving for pig's feet. So Brother Juniper found a herd of pigs, cut a foot off of one of them, and carried it back to the sick man. When the pigs' owner confronted Brother Juniper about the incident, the friar couldn't understand why anyone would object to such a charitable act. He patiently explained his reason for cutting off the pig's foot, although this only seemed to make the pig owner angrier. Finally, he hugged the pig owner, who had a change of heart and donated all his pigs to the friars. Upon receiving the donation, St. Francis praised Brother Juniper, saying, "Would to God, my brethren, that I had a forest of such Junipers!"

, Brother Juniper was once caring for a sick man and learned that the sick man had a craving for pig's feet. So Brother Juniper found a herd of pigs, cut a foot off of one of them, and carried it back to the sick man. When the pigs' owner confronted Brother Juniper about the incident, the friar couldn't understand why anyone would object to such a charitable act. He patiently explained his reason for cutting off the pig's foot, although this only seemed to make the pig owner angrier. Finally, he hugged the pig owner, who had a change of heart and donated all his pigs to the friars. Upon receiving the donation, St. Francis praised Brother Juniper, saying, "Would to God, my brethren, that I had a forest of such Junipers!" Zen calls for its followers to be this. "What is Buddha?" "Three pounds of flax."

Podcasts

Roc from the Firefly game of Cool Kids Table is a little odd, such as when he spends most of his time changing his wardrobe to different ridiculous outfits, hanging his hat on the head of one of Todd's mercenaries to keep it out of the way, and wearing two pairs of sunglasses at once. Sid from Sequinox has a habit of going off on strange and often creepy tangents, and jumping to precisely the wrong conclusion when presented with any situation. She did roll in dirt and fake blood for her werewolf halloween costume, and demanded to hide in a doghouse to transform despite the team already being hidden from public eye.



Pro Wrestling

Puppet Shows

Most of the Muppet characters on Sesame Street would qualify. Yes, even Straight Man Bert, who has an unusual obsession with bottle caps and paper clips. Being a Nerd doesn't mean you're sane. Sometime around 1988-92 was Ruby, a furry yellow monster who would often do things like wear a blindfold to see what it would be like to be blind or pretending she's a kangaroo after having her hair done up in a ponytail. She really makes Big Bird look sane.

Most of The Muppet Show cast would qualify, but Gonzo is the Poster Boy for this trope. Very much so. The word "Muppet", as used in Ireland, means what "Cloudcuckoolander" does here. It can be used as an insult, or a term of endearment, or both at once.

The entire cast of the highly surreal Norwegian puppet show ReparatÃ¸rene Kommer (The Repairmen are Coming), later renamed Pompel & Pilt after the two main characters. If Cloud Cuckooland is an actual land, this show takes place in it. Pompel & Pilt is Norwegian television's most beloved terrifying children's series.

Radio

The Goon Show has several, perhaps the entire cast at times. E ccl es is the most obvious through: Eccles: Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up, Eccles!! Shut up, Eccles!! Oh, that's me! The SCRIPT. Characters like Grytpype Thynne and Moriarty exemplify the latter. Other Goons such as Bluebottle are more like a Chew Toy. Ned Seagoon and Henery Crun are full-bore Cloudcuckoolanders too. Bluebottle and Minnie Bannister aren't quite full Cloudcuckoolanders, but are fairly close (and don't try to say Bluebottle is sane, he was found at one point singing a map.) He also pronounces all his stage directions (All of them. Including "Thinks." And "Unthinks.")

Private-Eye Harlow Doyle from Adventures in Odyssey. If anything, he's worse than his spiritual predecessor, the bumbling Officer David Harley, who hadn't gone over well. As a member of the main cast, Wooton Bassett seems to be required to spend a little more time on Earth, but he still has his moments. Oh, does he have his moments.

Mister Phillips in The Navy Lark, his navigation manual is "Sinbad the Sailor's Big Book of the Sea''.

Tenor Boy Dennis Day on The Jack Benny Program. Jack: Dennis, I didn't know you had relatives in New York.

Dennis: No, my family lives in Jersey. I had to drive under the Hudson River to visit them, and gee was it damp! Boy, did I get wet!

Jack: Was there a leak in the tunnel?

Dennis: Ohhhhh, tunnel!

Lonesome Cowboy Dave, whenever he gets free rein on the Church of the SubGenius Hour Of Slack. His influence tends to rub off on Wei R. Doe.

Tabletop Games

Theatre

Toys