# Dumbest. Episode. Ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [May 3, 2023, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501 "2023-05-03T15:05:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/61 "2023-05-04T19:15:45Z")
Anytime a long running show decides to do an episode about an established character that’s supposed to “completely change the way you see the character” by explaining a particular character tic or gimmick they have. For example the cartoon Hey Arnold had an episode about Eugene, the resident klutz followed constantly by bad luck and is constantly getting injured in hilarious ways. Well for some reason they devoted an entire episode to explaining that Eugene actually wasn’t unlucky, it was the main character Arnold who was unlucky but somehow Arnold’s unluckyness only affected Eugene and when Eugene leaves the city for a few days suddenly Arnold becomes the unlucky one for once. Completely forgetting how in the previous 5 seasons Eugene routinely would get injured when Arnold was nowhere near him, even when Eugene was on an opposite continent from him. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/62 "2023-05-04T19:47:31Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Anytime a long running show decides to do an episode about an established character that’s supposed to “completely change the way you see the character” by explaining a particular character tic or gimmick they have. I liked the episode of _The Drew Carey Show_ where Drew finds out that every misfortune in his life has been orchestrated by three disgruntled strangers against whom he had accidentally committed minor offenses. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/63 "2023-05-04T20:00:24Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > I liked the episode of _The Drew Carey Show_ where Drew finds out that every misfortune in his life has been orchestrated by three disgruntled strangers against whom he had accidentally committed minor offenses. “I showed up to work drunk and you put it on my permanent record.” “Yeah… you showed up to work drunk.” “And you put it on my permanent record.” “Are you drunk now?” ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/64 "2023-05-04T20:04:05Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Anytime a long running show decides to do an episode about an established character that’s supposed to “completely change the way you see the character” by explaining a particular character tic or gimmick they have. There was a cringy All in the Family wherein Lionel calls out Meathead on his phony social awareness, or something. It wasn’t particularly dumb, just generally uncomfortable. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/65 "2023-05-04T21:12:26Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > _ **The Principal and the Pauper** _. > > /thread It was decreed that everything will be just like it was before all that happened, and no one will ever mention it again… Under penalty of torture! ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/66 "2023-05-04T22:30:04Z")
Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/67 "2023-05-05T00:10:04Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > _Conception and pregnancy when properly planned and controlled by technicians of the highly advanced Vulcan school of medicine can be brought to full term._ (P. 299) > > In other words, Spock was something of a test-tube baby. As I recall it also had something to do with an ancient Vulcan custom called “Poon Taung” ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/68 "2023-05-05T00:41:29Z")
Another Doctor Who episode: Our moon is actually a space whale egg. When it hatches, the space whale lays another egg and replaces the moon with an exact duplicate. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/69 "2023-05-05T01:40:27Z")
IIRC, there was a TNG episode that established that humans and a bunch of other races had been genetically manipulated by an extinct civilization to make them compatible, which is why human-Klingon and human-Betazoid and human-Romulan hybrids are all also possible. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/70 "2023-05-05T01:45:39Z")
That again goes back to TOS. The possibility of an ancient civilization planting humanoids throughout the Galaxy was discussed in “Return to Tomorrow” (second season) and “The Paradise Syndrome” (third season). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/71 "2023-05-05T01:56:28Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > > [@terentii](#): > > > > I don’t think it was ever explained how the “accelerant” got into their water—a failed medical experiment, maybe. > > Polluted water was the in-universe “explanation” of the acceleration. That’s right, I remember now. It was mentioned in the “distress call” the Scalosians used to lure the _Enterprise_ to their planet. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/72 "2023-05-05T02:13:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Even worse was a _Twilight Zone_ “I Shot an Arrow into the Air,” where a rocket crashed shortly after takeoff and the big twist at the end was that they had crashed onto Earth. > > Where else could they have been? There was no mention of being traveling for any length of time. The gravity is the same as Earth, the air is breathable, the sky is blue. Yet no one even considers the possibility. After opening a hatch or a porthole: _“Good. There’s oxygen on this planet.”_ That was used in _ **Flesh Gordon** _ (admittedly a farce), _ **World Without End** _, and probably a lot of other such movies. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/73 "2023-05-05T02:28:46Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Probably the stupidest episode of BtVS was “Beer Bad.” That the episode was written by people who should know better makes it all the worse. I liked that episode. “With beer, all men are equal.” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/74 "2023-05-05T12:10:57Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > > Even worse was a _Twilight Zone_ “I Shot an Arrow into the Air,” where a rocket crashed shortly after takeoff and the big twist at the end was that they had crashed onto Earth. > > > > Where else could they have been? There was no mention of being traveling for any length of time. The gravity is the same as Earth, the air is breathable, the sky is blue. Yet no one even considers the possibility. > > After opening a hatch or a porthole: > > _“Good. There’s oxygen on this planet.”_ > > That was used in _ **Flesh Gordon** _ (admittedly a farce), _ **World Without End** _, and probably a lot of other such movies. It also doesn’t help that the title gives the twist away. It’s from the poem: “I shot an arrow into the air. _It fell to Earth_ I know not where.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/75 "2023-05-05T14:15:11Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It also doesn’t help that the title gives the twist away. It’s from the poem: > > “I shot an arrow into the air. > _It fell to Earth_ I know not where.” I guess they never watched Rocky and Bullwinkle: [https://youtu.be/Sfj744oqB0g](https://youtu.be/Sfj744oqB0g) “Your ‘feathered shaft.’” Huh-huh! Huh-huh! 🤭 ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/76 "2023-05-05T14:31:15Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Another Doctor Who episode: Our moon is actually a space whale egg. When it hatches, the space whale lays another egg and replaces the moon with an exact duplicate. Maybe my least favorite _Doctor Who_ episode. The Moffat years had a lot of low points, and that episode is like thre of them. I also enjoyed it in the moment, but “The Weding of River Song” is the most insane and stupid concept: all of history is happening at once, hence Churchill is still PM, dinosaurs roam London, and the clocks never move. Yet somehow people are aware of causality and can hold conversations. Not a thing in that episode holds up. Even RTD could mess that up (though I am glad he’s coming back). The last season of _Torchwood_ is based around A Big What-If Idea: “okay, nobody on Earth can die. What happens next?” So much ptential and they whiffed it terribly. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/77 "2023-05-05T16:18:31Z")
Granted, there’s lot of Doctor Who content that has no basis in scientific fact, and devoted fans overlook it because of the story and characters. The Doctor can punch a few buttons on a cell phone and make it capable of calling across light years and forward and back in time. That’s the equivalent of me taking an abacus and turning it to a supercomputer by shifting a few beads. That stuff is nonsense, but fun. As long as the impossible is confined to a single gadget, that’s fine. The TARDIS is a gadget that contains infinite space, sure why not? But having a story where there’s a race of dogmen that are supposed to protect Earth suddenly appear, interlock all their ships around the planet, and then have them all simultaneously taken over by the Sontari without anybody detecting a massive invasion force, is too much. It’s like the writers had a contest to outdo the most outrageous suspension of disbelief to get laughs. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/78 "2023-05-05T16:25:25Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > Even RTD could mess that up (though I am glad he’s coming back). The last season of _Torchwood_ is based around A Big What-If Idea: “okay, nobody on Earth can die. What happens next?” So much ptential and they whiffed it terribly. As I remember, that last season of Torchwood also had the advantage of a lavish budget, because of a co-production deal with the American Starz cable network. But the story itself didn’t work as well as it could have. On the other hand, the third season, the Children of Earth series, was I thought really effective. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501/79 "2023-05-05T18:04:31Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > But having a story where there’s a race of dogmen that are supposed to protect Earth suddenly appear, interlock all their ships around the planet, and then have them all simultaneously taken over by the Sontari without anybody detecting a massive invasion force, is too much. It’s like the writers had a contest to outdo the most outrageous suspension of disbelief to get laughs. I know the timeline is always being rewritten, but the whole notion of the protective dogmen is crazy because, why haven’t we heard of them before, in all the instances in which human lives are threatened? That’s the peril of retroactive continuity shuffling: whenever I watch one of the Pertwee era UNIT stories, I can’t help but think, “While this ragtage group of commandos is chasing bubble wrap around London, the Torchwood crew are offscreen saving Cardiff from something or other. Wonder (ironically) why they’re never brought up?” But Chibnell took it way beyond plausibility. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-episode-ever/983501.md?page=3)