Playing With / Only Sane Man

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Basic Trope: The one character who perceives the world to be insane.

• Straight: Brad Gunther's friends are an ADHD-afflicted school girl, a nerd dealing in haphazard experiments, a muscle-bound twit, and a loud, boisterous teenage beauty queen. All the while, he's the only one who seems to notice their antics are a little off-kilter.
• Exaggerated:
  • The school-girl is a Funny Foreigner extraterrestrial from the Andromeda Galaxy, the nerd's trying to bring back the dead For Science!, the twit races cars on foot on a daily basis, and the beauty queen Speaks Fluent Animal. All the while, The Medic Brad's the only one who notices that they're off-kilter.
  • Most of the cast are filled to the brim with nutjobs, well, except for Brad, the only one noticing that the antics and actions of the people around him (friends and family included) are a bit abnormal.
• Downplayed:
  • Brad is part of a duo, serving as the Straight Man to a Wise Guy.
  • Brad is a Ridiculously Average Guy in a group of Cloudcuckoolanders.
  • Only Sane by Comparison: Brad put in any other situation he'd be the weird guy, but with how the rest of the cast acts, he's the only sane man by default.
  • The friend group as a whole act as down to earth and/or mature people but Brad is the only one that hasn't succumbed to a Not So Above It All moment while the rest have done a few immature and/or crazy moments.
  • Brad, while usually the most "normal" guy in the group, still has his own baggage and issues that surface from time to time, it's just that he usually manages to handle them better than the others.
• Justified:
  • His friends are trying to put on The Masquerade, and don't want him to blow it.
  • They weren't always this nuts; they became close friends when they were more normal, and Brad refused to leave them just because they started acting a bit weird.
  • Occasionally Brad finds his friends a little weird, but he's so afraid of being alone that it doesn't really matter to him.
• Inverted:
  • Everyone but Brad notices how off-kilter his friends are.
  • Alternatively: Brad is the only insane man.
• Subverted:
  • Brad's really insane...
  • Brad caves in and joins the madness of his friends.
  • Brad eventually gets his friends to see reason.
  • Brad takes a level in dumbass and becomes just as, if not, even MORE, dumb as everyone else.
• Double Subverted:
  • ...But he's on to something.
  • But he only did so to keep from going crazy continuing to argue.
  • Or so he thought. He soon realizes they're still crazy, just in a different way.
• Parodied:
  • Everyone but Brad has genuine psychiatric disorders; the ADHD schoolgirl is also an autistic cloudcackoolander who communicates through vague references, the nerd behaves like a shell-shocked Vietnam veteran (complete with references to being in 'nam, despite obviously being far too young for that), the musclebound twit speaks to the voices in his head, and the beauty queen is under the impression that the demons going around stabbing everyone "just need a hug". Brad only stays with them because he's in school to become a psychiatrist and thinks it's good practice.
  • Alternatively, Brad acts as the Only Sane Man to his split personalities, Bob and Ted.
  • Brad has a Berserk Button of his friends' eccentricities going too far. A histrionic Berserk Button. It makes him just as belligerently eccentric as they do, just from a different direction.
• Zig Zagged:
  • Brad is the Only Sane Man when the team is fighting crime, keeping his cool while his buddies panic. However, Laura (being the Token Female) is the Only Sane Woman when Ms. Fanservice walks past, sending all the guys, including Brad, into a frenzy. And when the group goes to see The Only Sane Men in concert, the baton is passed to Joe, as he's the only one in the gang who isn't hopelessly obsessed with the band.
  • Brad tries to serve as the Voice of Reason when it comes to more extremes matters, but has his Not So Above It All moments. However, whether his friends know it or not, he does display some of their antics whenever they're not around and out of touch with reality moments. But compared to them, he is more down-to-earth with reality.
• Averted:
  • Everyone is portrayed to be relatively normal. Or at least two people.
  • Alternatively: Everyone is completely crazy.
• Lampshaded:
  • "It's like I'm the only normal person around here!"
  • "Please. If I wasn't around, who'd point out how dumb you were acting?"
• Invoked: Brad tries to find some insane friends. So he can laugh at their wacky antics and make snarky remarks about them.
• Exploited:
  • Brad uses his insane friends to make himself look better by comparison.
  • A clever, calculating villain capitalises on it as they claim to sympathise with what Brad has gone through, and use their sophisticated, calm and rational personality to get on his good graces so they can then pull off a gambit that deals a severe blow to the heroes' side, and possibly have Brad join their side as well.
• Defied:
  • Brad finally gives up, lets loose all of his inhibitions and becomes just as bizarre as everybody else.
  • "Fuck this! I'm not hanging out with you weirdos anymore!"
• Discussed: "Brad, why on earth do you hang out with those weirdos?"
• Conversed: "Is it me or is Brad the only normal person there?"
• Deconstructed:
  • The antics of Brad's friends bring him to a breaking point, and thus drive him to insanity.
  • Brad begins to believe that they're all idiots and lunatics, and starts to wonder if he should change group.
  • Brad mostly has begun to isolate himself from the others because he can´t stand them anymore.
  • Brad is actually an Evil Overlord, but literally no one else knows it.
  • The attributes that let Brad perceive how insane the world around him is, are the same attributes that make him a cruel and manipulative nihilist who will happily commit any atrocity upon the messed up reality he despises as absurd.
  • Brad looks like the only morally decent person with a lick of sense. But he's not, he acts like he's the normal one. But he's really a Manipulative Bastard who only hangs out with them to exploit their unusual weaknesses for his own personal gain.
  • Brad considers himself the Only Sane Man because he makes no attempt to understand his friends, and rarely even interacts with them aside from insulting their hobbies and rolling his eyes at them sarcastically. They soon stop hanging out with him.
  • Brad thinks he's the Only Sane Man but he's actually a Cloud Cuckoo Lander with potential Split Personality Disorder.
  • Because he seems like the most reliable/capable one, other people go to Brad for comfort when their issues are bogging them down. Despite his best efforts, he simply can't deal with everyone's issues on top of his own, and starts showing signs of burnout.
  • Brad has a knack of keeping his head on his shoulders and staying on the path, not because he is "sane", but because he suffered a very traumatic incident that made "inefficient idiots" a trauma (and thus berserk) button.
  • Being the "Only Sane Man" is a deeply stressful and infuriating experience to be in, especially when it's a situation that Bob has neither the appropriate knowledge nor experience to be in. Unlike his allies, Bob's too old to be protected from the worst aspects of the job, but still too young to be independent. Bob has enough insight to accurately know a person's true moral character and enough foresight to predict a horrible outcome, only to be ignored by employers or blamed by his colleagues for the forewarned outcome. Bob is fully aware of the fact that he's out of his depth and not suited for the situation. Not only that, but Bob develops a savior complex because he starts to believe that he's the only one who cares about other people and cares about doing the job well. Anyone competent either left due to stress, gave up on trying to "save" the situation, or was forced to leave for one reason or another. The remaining few were self-centered cowards, manchildren, and morons.
• Reconstructed:
  • A new guy joins the gang and takes Brad's place as the Only Sane Man.
  • After some navel contemplation and angst, Brad realizes just how important his group is, as strange as they are.
  • Brad's friends realize what they're getting themselves into and start to appreciate Brad more.
• Untwisted: Brad seems like the weird one of the group, except everyone dismisses Brad as crazy for not overlooking several serious issues.
• Played For Laughs: The phrase "I’m the only sane man" becomes a meme used to mock gratuitously edgy emos.
• Played For Drama: As a result of having no sane friends, Brad becomes totally depressed and isolates himself.