Hawkeye: Uh, Klinger... do you mind a little constructive criticism?
Klinger: No, sir.
Hawkeye: First of all, it's gorgeous. It's easy to go overboard with one of those things, but that's tasteful without being gaudy.
Klinger: Thank you, sir.
Hawkeye: Just one suggestion: You must wear a slip! With the sun behind you, I can see clear through to your shorts.
— M*A*S*H, "Dear Dad Again"
Oddballs, misfits, Cloudcuckoolanders, ne'er-do-wells, and assorted other unusual individuals crop up from time to time in fiction. In many cases, they're The Troublemaker, and can often be The Friend Nobody Likes, or at least be someone who is noted for doing things that are outlandish at best, downright annoying and/or dangerous at worst.
However, sometimes these characters are still much-beloved, even in-universe. While they may be odd or unusual, there are those who either find their antics amusing or, at the very least, harmless. And in some cases, such as when The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right, they can even be helpful. Depending on the setting they could be a Bunny-Ears Lawyer, or the denizens of a Wacky Homeroom. More than a few may show up in a Mildly Military setting, as well.
Sometimes the praise or compliment is for them doing or saying something sensible, which may overlap Actually a Good Idea. Other times, it's their eccentricities that are being complimented.
It is often easy to tell if people love or loathe the oddball character by whether or not they offer them compliments for the things they do from time to time. After all, if someone were truly reviled, it's not likely that their "friends" and family would offer them any sort of compliments or praise.
There are occasions of course where the praise is because they are revealed to be a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, a Bunny-Ears Lawyer who earns respect with their superior skills, or were Obfuscating Stupidity and/or insanity. Compare with Throw the Dog a Bone, The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right, and Dumbass Has a Point. May overlap The Odd-pliment, when the qualities admired are unusual.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: In Chapter 151, once she comes to see that the rest of Rentarou's girlfriends are not as ordinary as she initially assumed, Himeka praises each of them for their abnormalities. While understanding that this trope is in effect, some of the girls are reluctant to accept their eccentricities as praiseworthy.note
- Chihayafuru: Many of the karuta players are seen as oddballs by their peers, but they have their moments where they're recognized for various things.
- Chihaya loves karuta more than anything. But she's also seen as incredibly beautiful, to the point where, if she's sitting silently in a kimono, saying nothing, you would think her a dignified, noble young woman. They also note the illusion is shattered when she starts talking. And when she buckled down to study, Miyauchi-sensei praises her for passing all of her classes.
- Doctor Harada is often compared to a bear by his opponents and is driven to earn the title of meijin. He freely admits he founded his karuta society expressly for that purpose. But he's also a Cool Old Guy, and Chihaya has a Precocious Crush on him, offering him chocolates on Valentine's Day (he turns her down every year, saying he already has a wife).
- Urusei Yatsura: Ataru Moroboshi is an idiot and a lecherous pervert of a Casanova Wannabe, and perhaps the Trope Codifier of a Harem Seeker. He was also chosen by the boys of their class to run for the position of class rep because he was the only one extraordinary enough to stand a chance against Mendou.
- Wasteful Days of High School Girls: All of the girls in the class, as well as their teacher, are eccentric in some way or another. Many of them receive compliments for something in their life, though.
- Although Lily is an open lesbian who has perved on both "Majime" and "Loli", both of them thank her for providing them with helpful tips on fashion, even as she does use it as an excuse to ogle them at the same time.
- Masataka "Waseda" Sawatari is the often Tormented Teacher, having to deal with the antics of "Baka" and "Yamai" regularly. He also has an openly admitted fetish for college girls in business attire. However, he's also shown to be deeply compassionate at heart, as one time he forces "Yamai" to remove her Pointless Band Aids to determine if she's self-harming (she's not). However, he has a side hobby as a Vocaloid-P, producing songs using a Vocaloid program. And Akane "Wota" Kikuchi absolutely loves his songs to the point where when she learns that "Waseda" is the one producing them, she has a crisis of faith, until she decides that she would love his work, no matter who he was. She also tells him as much, and says his determination has inspired her on her desire to be a manga artist. He tells her that he is looking forward to reading her work when she's published.
- School nurse Shikiyon gets "Yamai" to return to class by pandering to her Chuunibyou delusions, and after "Yamai" leaves, says she's a delightfully pure-hearted girl.
Fan Works
- Family Loading... Please Wait: When Agent Stone comes to Green Hills (learning from Doctor Robotnik's will that he'd been left a custom-built house there), he ends up working with the Wachowskis to find the missing Shadow. He reveals during his time spent with them that he's an excellent chef. While the parents are warming up to him (seeing that he really does want to change and earn their trust), Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles state they don't like or trust him... until they taste his food. Then they all want him around all the time.
- Inter Nos: Natsuki's adopted nation of Otomeia sees her as an oddball because of her Elective Mute tendencies and her preference for the written word in a culture that values oral traditions. Many will openly say that she's "funny in the head" (though never in front of the King who took her in). However, there are two things about her which absolutely no one will deny, her striking physical beauty, and her prowess in combat, with one of her subordinates in the Lupine Division saying she can do things with a daos (a sickle with a chain an ball at the handle end) that no one else can do.
- The Ringmaster's Written Reminders: After Caine flies off to hide over something rude Jax said, Gangle follows him. She's able to calm him by saying that she really liked the bee he drew in her sketchbook.
Films — Animation
- Cars 1: Halfway through the movie, Mater claims that he's "the world's best backwards driver", and then proves it by going on a wild backwards joyride all around town, not getting hurt or wrecking once. As soon as Mater returns to where he started, Lightning admits that he's very impressed and calls the performance incredible.
Films — Live-Action
- Motherless Brooklyn: The main character, Lionel "Freakshow" Essrog is a private detective with undiagnosed Tourette Syndrome and OCD. This causes him to have a lot of uncontrolled behaviors that alienate him from other people. His boss, Frank Minna, is one of the few people who sees that he's actually one of the smartest detectives in the city (as he has a photographic memory). His Establishing Character Moment shows him explaining to another of his men why Lionel gets to listen in on a call and the other man doesn't (and then having Lionel prove that he'll remember everything he hears).
- The Princess Bride: When Fezzik the Dumb Muscle thinks to procure four horses so that he, Inigo, Wesley, and Buttercup can escape, Inigo compliments him for doing something right.
Fezzik: Don't worry, I won't let it get to my head.
- Star Wars: A New Hope: Princess Leia manages to combine her compliments with a degree of snark when she sees that the scruffy-looking pilot and his Wookie companion, who aided in her rescue came aboard the Millennium Falcon.
Leia: You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought.
Literature
- Gate: Youji Itami is a self-admitted otaku who only joined the JSDF to be able to financially support his geeky hobbies. However, as his superiors note, he also has a unique penchant for getting himself out of trouble, which is part of how he came to be both a member of Special Forces, as well as having a Ranger badge (both of which irritate no-nonsense subordinate Kuribayashi to no end).
Live-Action TV
- The Golden Girls: Of the titular Girls, Rose is the resident Cloudcuckoolander due to her childhood in St. Olaf. She's not the smartest person, will tell St. Olaf stories on a whim (with said stories often only being marginally related to the topic at hand), has a lot of favorite recipes that are downright odd (such as herring pie), and doesn't always get jokes, phrases, or sarcasm. At the end of the day, though, the others have to admit she's the sweetest and kindest of the four. Sophia says it best:
Sophia: Your heart's in the right place, Rose... But I don't know where the hell your brain is!
- M*A*S*H:
- More than a few members of the 4077th have paid compliments to Klinger and his fashion sense as he tries to use Wholesome Crossdresser as an excuse to get himself booted from the Army on a Section 8 discharge.
Col. Potter: You look lovely in yellow, Klinger.Klinger: [genuinely flattered] Always the gentleman.
- Done twice in "Dear Dad Again" with the second instance being a Meaningful Echo. Klinger is delivering the mail and comes to Hawkeye's tent wearing a white wedding dress. Hawkeye tells him that it's tasteful without being gaudy, though he does offer the constructive criticism that Klinger should wear a slip under it, as with the sun behind him, he could see through it. Later, trying to prove to Trapper that everyone has become desensitized at the camp, Hawkeye attempts to go into the mess tent naked. He does not go as unnoticed as he'd expected, and when he runs into Klinger, Klinger remarks, "Now that's tasteful without being gaudy."
- Dr. Sidney Freedman, knowing that Klinger is bucking for a Section 8, has repeatedly denied him, but admires his dedication. In one episode, Klinger confides in Freedman that he is worried that he might be Becoming the Mask, looking at a beautiful woman and, instead of admiring her, critiques her fashion choices instead. Freedman tells Klinger that fashion consciousness is a tool of his effort to get out of the war, and that his desire to do so may make him the sanest man in the whole camp.
- More than a few members of the 4077th have paid compliments to Klinger and his fashion sense as he tries to use Wholesome Crossdresser as an excuse to get himself booted from the Army on a Section 8 discharge.
- The X-Files: Part of Scully's Character Development (starting in the first episode) is her realizing that Agent Fox "Spooky" Mulder is a far more capable researcher/investigator than the rest of the FBI gives him credit for. Even if his theories and collected conspiracy theories annoy her, she's always the first to defend him against other agents, even ending a friendship with another agent when he wouldn't stop trying to ruin Mulder's investigation.
Rides
- Journey into Imagination: As the embodiment of imagination, virtually EVERYTHING he does is textbook Cloudcuckoolander behavior: he makes a train appear when Dr. Channing says he "lost his train of thought", hijacks an eye chart (turning it into a movie screen so he can play the lyrics for his song), turns into a skunk to demonstrate how imagination can be affected by smell, turns his own house upside down, and makes himself explode to emphasize how "Imagination is a blast!" For most of the ride, Doctor Nigel Channing refuses to let Figment take part in the tour of the Imagination Institute, seeing him as a disruption. However, when he sees that Figment really is doing a better job teaching about imagination than the tour is, he apologizes for his behavior and decides to listen to what Figment has to say.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: In "The Great Egg Heist", Jimmy and his friends are recruited by Peggy Tsu to steal a jade egg from the Retroville Museum, swapping it with a fake, and bringing it back to her. In the end, the whole thing turns out to be a scheme by a disguised Professor Calamitous to power his latest device with which he intends to destroy them. However, because Carl got confused as to which egg was which when swapping them, the kids accidentally gave Calamitous the fake egg, which causes the machine to malfunction and blow Calamitous sky-high. Jimmy then congratulates Carl for his ineptitude.
Carl: I was trying to tell you before, Jimmy. I think I got mixed up and left the real jade egg back at the museum.Jimmy: And the replica egg caused a meltdown. Carl, your stroke of stupidity has saved us all!
- DuckTales (2017): While Donald Duck (as usual) is usually the show's Butt-Monkey with goofy/boring interests, he gets various moments where he does something so impressive that his family has to point it out. A key example is in the season one finale, where one of Gyro Gearloose's inventions allows him to talk normally for the first time ever. Without his odd voice, he basically becomes an action hero who can take on an army of shadow demons on his own.
- Futurama: Philip J. Fry is a self-proclaimed idiot and a Fish out of Temporal Water (courtesy of spending a thousand years as a Human Popsicle). His stupidity and childishness (especially in the first few seasons) often caused trouble that earned him the ire/insults of his coworkers. However, any time he does something selfless or heroic, his coworkers (especially Bender and Leela) make sure he knows how much they truly love him (platonically in Bender's case, and eventually romantic in Leela's).
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Pinkie Pie is noted as a Cloudcuckoo Lander and a fourth-wall breaker. But when Discord is trying to plan a tea-party for Fluttershy in "Discordant Harmony", Pinkie gently tells him that he's overthinking it, that he knows the things Fluttershy likes, and that he should just relax and be himself. He remarks that there's a reason she's the preeminent party planner in Ponyville.
- Tangled: The Series:
- Varian's inventions and alchemical experiments have caused many issues for those around him (especially the people of Old Corona). This has left an otherwise kind and quirky boy insecure of how others (especially his father) see him. However, Rapunzel, Eugene, and Cassandra make sure the kid knows that they do see his inventions as impressive. Later in the series, after his Face–Heel Turn and Heel–Face Turn, Rapunzel entrusts him with several important tasks, honestly saying she believes he's the only scientist capable of doing what she needs him to.
- When Atilla, one of the Snuggly Duckling's resident thugs, gets to live his dream of opening a bakery, people don't want to come because of how scary he looks. However, Monty, the resident candy store owner, tries one of his cupcakes and admits he's a really talented baker. Later, when Attila reveals that he just wanted to make cupcakes and not run a business, Monty takes him on as a partner, selling his cupcakes at the candy shop.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): Michelangelo is the Hamato Clan's resident Cloudcuckoolander. While they love him and he does contribute on missions, his ideas are more often than not wacky or focused on the wrong thing. But when he does have a good idea (such as befriending Leatherhead instead of just getting rid of him), at least one family member makes sure to compliment him on it.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: In "Reef Grief!" (which is set on the Great Barrier Reef), the culprit of the week is revealed to be an inventor who wanted to create an underwater highway connecting Australia to New Guinea. He tried to go about this plan by organizing a sandcastle-building world championship, kidnapping the competitors, hypnotizing them via a mystic amulet, and then forcing them to work on his highway project for free. Velma admits that while the plot to put his plan into fruition was ridiculous, the idea itself isn't bad.
Velma: Ingenious. Insane, but ingenious.
