Certainly, many of them get away with a good deal no one else would be allowed. 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 cozy, 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?)įrequently clips entire stacks of Weirdness Coupons from the paper. They will never understand what your problem is. Sit down with a Cloudcuckoolander and try to explain to them that normal people don't wear the clothes of a dead man. 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.Īnother 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. In any event, they can be oddly endearing. Unfortunately, when they are smart, nobody else is, and when they are not, everybody else is.
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. 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. They also talk like they're nuts as well by a speech pattern. They lapse into non sequitur a lot, and while they aren't totally insane, they act it much more than some other crazier characters. Maybe he's one of Those Two Guys or the crazy member of the Comic Trio. They are far more likely to be the Plucky Comic Relief because of how much of a goofball they are. A psychiatrist is the man who collects the rent." - Jerome LawrenceĬloudcuckoolanders are rarely malicious. The concept is well known, as in this joke: "A neurotic is a man who builds a castle in the air. Sometimes also called "Space Case" or "Space Cadet", or plain old "Strange", a cuckoo clock chime is used as an indicator of one. They make totally unintentional double entendres, and are great for Getting Crap Past the Radar. 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 are very cheerful and strangely oblivious to things that everyone else takes for granted. A character with their head in the clouds.