text:
->''"Your paranoid ramblings weren't completely detached from reality."''
-->-- '''[[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Tails]]''' (to [[CloudCuckoolander Sticks]]), ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom''
Okay, so one of the characters is a little... [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} odd]]. He's a TalkativeLoon who rambles, talks to people and things that aren't there, and rarely pays much attention to what's going on around him. So it's just natural that the other characters ignore everything this guy has to say...
Until, in a strange twist of hindsight, it turns out [[CassandraTruth he was right all along]].
[[VisibleSilence ...]] [[OhCrap Crap.]]
Sometimes the guy's truly the OnlySaneMan whose condition is [[GoMadFromTheRevelation due to the frightening nature of the things he had uncovered]]. Sometimes, he '''is''' mad but still got one thing right (he's usually smart enough to notice that this one is somehow different from his usual delusions), but people who already know him will just [[CryingWolf dismiss this as another lie]]. And occasionally, he's RightForTheWrongReasons (sometimes despite particularly bizarre InsaneTrollLogic).
Compare DumbassHasAPoint, JerkassHasAPoint, NoMereWindmill, ProperlyParanoid, MadOracle, CassandraTruth, CueTheFlyingPigs, TheDogWasTheMastermind and IWarnedYou. Contrast WindmillCrusader. This trope may result in someone else GivingUpOnLogic. When combined with BreakingTheFourthWall, may result in AudienceWhatAudience, and a meta-version of this can overlap with AccidentallyCorrectWriting. If it's the MadnessMantra that was right all along, perhaps you should be a little afraid... And if the whole thing was a joke that happens to match reality, it's JokeAndReceive (doesn't require a CloudCuckoolander).
[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Kamina in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. Yes, he's admired as a leader and a fighter, but '''no one''' pays any heed to Kamina's constant praise of Simon and saying how he is destined for greatness, thinking it's the one thing he says that is absolutely bonkers. Simon [[TookALevelInBadass not only proves that Kamina was right all along]], he goes beyond even his brother's already sky-high expectations and literally becomes ''the greatest human in history''.
* In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', two of the most insane characters actually come the closest to breaking the truth about what actually happened. Rena deduces that the [[spoiler:the men in the white van are after her and want to kill her. She also decrees that the men going to see Chie-sensei and tending to their garden was really suspicious.]] Actually, this turns out to be true, as they are indeed [[spoiler:out to kill the gang. The Yamainu drive around in their van and monitor their victims to take advantage of them.]]
** Next, in Tatarigoroshi-hen, Keiichi takes a ride with Takano and notices Tomitake's bike in the back of the car she is in, he questions her and she says it indeed belongs to him. He asks her where he is, but she turns creepy and he wisely gets away from her. [[spoiler: He had every right to be suspicious of her. She is the BigBad.]]
** The one who got the closest was [[GenkiGirl Shion Sonozaki]] to solving the mystery behind Oyashiro-sama's curse. She correctly deduced that [[spoiler:Tomitake was killed by a drug to make him crazy and scratch out his throat, that Rika was coming to inject her with a drug]], that someone was following Rena and Satoshi, [[spoiler: Hanyuu was following them]], [[spoiler: that someone wanted the bodies of Miyo Takano and Tomitake to be found, and that Takano probably faked her death. She also assumed that when she thinks of the killer, she thinks of nurses and doctors. Takano was a nurse. If she hadn't assumed the Sonozakis were behind it, she would have stopped Takano.]]
* In ''Manga/PandoraHearts'', the hyper, [[AxCrazy Lottie]] says to Jack after he has taken over Oz's body to scare them away, [[spoiler:"You're so full of yourself because people call you a hero and somesuch! You must have been so glad when Glen died."]] Later on, it turns out she was entirely right to suspect [[spoiler: [[EvilAllAlong Jack]]]]. Woo-hoo for Lottie.
* Out of all the characters in ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', Osaka is the only one who appears to be aware that [[SchoolgirlLesbians Kaorin has a thing]] for Sakaki. At one point, she's also discovered to be a ''genius'' at word puzzles.
* In ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', one of the main characters turns out to be a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Mazoku]]. Everyone expresses shock and surprise and various levels of betrayal, except for {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Gourry, who says he knew it all along. [[TooDumbToFool Turns out he thought it was so obvious that it didn't deserve a mention.]]
* During ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', Miyako pretty much flips out over feeling nervous and starts yelling and jumping around. Her assumed reason for Ken's base disappearing is that it flew away. No one really listens to her because she is so hyped up, but it actually turns out that's exactly what it did.
* At some point in the third arc of ''{{LightNovel/Durarara}}'', Walker and Erika casually decide that Simon and Dennis, the owners and staff of the local Russian Sushi restaurant that they regularly eat at, are secretly FormerRegimePersonnel on the run from TheMafiya. The next volume proves them ''completely right''.
* In ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'', that crazy guy chalking random things on the ground? The '''only''' one who truly gets what the hell really happened.
* In ''Anime/TurnAGundam'', Corrin Nander is quite crazy and violent besides. But he's also the only person to recognize just how dangerous the Gundam really is, having apparently survived a Gundam attack long before the series.
* A common event in ''Manga/KatteniKaizo''. For all the times the crap that comes out of [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Kaizo's]] mouth has been true, you'd think the other club members would stop looking at him like a brain damaged idiot. Of course...
* In ''Manga/SaitamaChainsawShoujo'', in a long crazy spiel, Kaoruko Odagiri says [[spoiler: the new transfer student is an alien who has come to Earth to abduct the main character's ex-boyfriend]] but given what else she was saying, [[CassandraTruth why would anyone believe her?]]
* In Manga/{{Bakuman}} the highly eccentric Nizuma is nevertheless often right about manga. When looking over works that Mashiro and Takagi, Fukuda, and Aoki and Nakai plan to submit to the Golden Future Cup, he predicts that two of them are tied for first place, but refuses to say which to avoid upsetting the one in third. He's correct, as [[spoiler:Detective Trap and Kiyoshi Knight- Muto Ashirogi and Fukuda's work, respectively]] are tied for first place in an unprecedented result.
* Free from ''Manga/SoulEater'' may be a rather silly and strange person, but he does make a good point about Lord Death acting as an absolute moral authority when it comes to deciding who's good and who's evil, which may work for your UsefulNotes/{{Jack the Ripper}}s and your [[ManipulativeBitch Medusas]], but less so when it comes to some of the other witches or [[AntiVillain Mifune.]]
* In episode 3 of ''LightNovel/HaiyoreNyarkoSan'', Nyarko wonders if Mahiro's {{Tsundere}} attitude and [[ImprobableWeaponUser skill with forks]] mark him as a descendant of the cursed deity hunter from the "[[Franchise/CthulhuMythos forbidden black book]]". In episode 4 Mahiro's mother returns home and everyone (including Mahiro himself) learns that she's a part-time deity hunter who's also deadly with forks. When this is revealed even Nyarko is shocked, since by her own admission her earlier remark was just an off-the-cuff joke and not meant to be any serious speculation.
** It actually happens semi-regularly in this series, most often with Nyarko trying to identify the ChekhovsGun that will turn out to be the lynchpin of the current crisis. Mahiro almost always dismisses her suggestions because they would make for a really stupid resolution...and he gets really ticked off when she's right. There was even one incident where Nyarko dismissed [[TheLawOfConservationOfDetail her own suggestion]] as being way too contrived, so naturally she was 100% correct.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' there was Princess Rose, a Society of Light member in the second season. She certainly seemed to be rather spacy (even more so in the dub, where she talked like a ValleyGirl). A fan of the fairy tale ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'' all her life, she insisted that she could see the Spirits of the Des Frogs in her cards, much like Judai and Manjyome could, giving them names and calling them "princes". However, Judai wasn't able to see them (although he tried to keep open minded) and Manjyome was downright rude to her about it, calling her insane (You might be able to chalk a lot of that up to [[BrainwashedAndCrazy the fact he was brainwashed at the time]]). However, after Judai finally won the duel, he finally ''was'' able to see one of the Spirits she was speaking of; it seemed they ''did'' exist, though the spirit was a humanoid frog in a suit rather than a handsome prince like Rose thought.
* Tom from ''Manga/HighSchoolNinjaGirlOtonashiSan'' came to Japan so he could become a ninja and learn to breathe fire. Arima and Shimura (the latter of whom is a ninja) repeatedly tell him that breathing fire is impossible. [[spoiler:Then Otonashi-san's father launches a massive fireball in the penultimate chapter...]]
* From ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' we have Might Guy, who says things like his student Rock Lee needs to watch out for his enemy Gaara's gourd, because it's suspicious. Everyone else present rolls their eyes at how [[CaptainObvious obvious]] this advice is and indeed Gaara's abilities are almost entirely related to the sand he keeps in that gourd. However, Gaara only survives Lee's DesperationAttack because of the gourd itself, which he turns into sand to cushion an impact.
[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''I Luv Halloween'': In the midst of a ZombieApocalypse (which none of the cast care about as long as they get their Halloween candy), Finch's psychotic little sister believes that the "Chonklit monkeys" live in everyone's bowels and are responsible for replacing the Halloween candy with their poop. This later proves to be true, as a pair of monkeys pop out of a zombie's stomach and discuss their plans for another poop takeover.
%%* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Rorschach and The Comedian both play this role to an extent.
* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'':
** ''Delirium'' of the Endless is one serious cuckoolander with bipolar tendencies. Nevertheless the members of the Endless family tend to embody not only what their names might suggest (dying, despairing, destroying) but also the opposite (being born, hoping, re-/creating). Delirium claims more than once to know things that even ''Destiny'' - the guy who has everything about the universe written down in his big book of all that was and will be - does not. Is she just boasting? Or is she - due to the Endless' duality - the queen of the cuckoos and secret keeper of true enlightenment combined? Delirium is capable of becoming sane at will, but it causes her great pain to do so. This might suggest that the other half of her dual nature is in fact the sort of [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow merciless, soul-crushing reality]] that makes people [[GoMadFromTheRevelation go crazy]] in the first place.
** From the same series comes Mad Hettie, a minor-league witch whose primary power seems to be wrapped up in her immortality. She's perpetually homeless and crazy as a bedbug to boot. But when she gives you a warning... especially if you're just some guy walking down the street... you'd better freaking listen, because your whole life might depend on it.
* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} is convinced that he's a fictional character in a comic book, but since he's insane other characters dismiss this along with his other delusional ramblings.
* [[ARareSentence The Joker was right]] about [[spoiler: Sofia Gigante Falcone's ObfuscatingDisability]] in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}: ComicBook/DarkVictory''.
* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' generally dismisses Dr. Dinosaur's rants as complete nonsense, which is definitely a reasonable conclusion to make, but nevertheless, in the Savage Sword of Doctor Dinosaur, he is proven right about several things throughout the course of the story, such as [[spoiler: the possibility of time travel, the existence of Hollow Earth, the power of [[GreenRocks CRYSTALS]], and the existence of a giant magma worm.]] Nobody knows ''how'' this is possible, but it's [[InexplicablyAwesome Dr. Dinosaur, who does impossible things daily]].
* Ray Delgado, the main character of ''ComicBook/WelcomeToHoxford'', is a murderous psychopath who's been imprisoned for life. After being transferred to the titular facility, he comes to believe that he's Kronos, Lord of the Titans, and is meant to do battle with the beasts. [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent He's right about the second part]].
[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In ''FanFic/OhGodNotAgain'', [[spoiler: Luna is the only person to figure out Harry and Sirius time-traveled. It seemed obvious to her]]. Harry himself who comes off like this to others, as most things he says are bat-shit insane yet are almost always accurate not matter how over the top they are (he knows what's going to happen because he's [[TimeTravel from the future]]).
* In ''Fanfic/{{Anthropology}}'', the human-obsessed Lyra goes to to absurd lengths to try to prove that humans exist. She hasn't yet proven it in [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic her world]], yet.
* In [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Ardashir Ardashir]]'s WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic / Literature/SilverJohn {{Crossover}} "''Fanfic/MyLittleBalladeer''" (available [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/27032/my-little-balladeer here]]), Lyra (once again) is not only right that humans are real, but gets to encounter ''two'' of them. Too bad the one she teams up with is [[spoiler:an EvilSorceror plotting to conquer Equestria, rather than the WanderingMinstrel hero who has been summoned to stop him]].
* In ''Fanfic/AllYouNeedIsLove'' Naomi Misora's paranoid conjectures turn out to be accurate more often than not.
* ''FanFic/MegaManRecut'' has this. In "The Strange Island Of Dr Wily", Dust Man makes a ridiculous rant about the Bermuda Triangle and how the island Wily is going to is haunted. Considering all the weird stuff that starts happening shortly after Wily and the Robot Masters arrive, he had a pretty good point.
* After rustlers storm [[DeterminedHomesteader Grace Glossy's]] farm and steal half of her livestock in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/OldWest'', Sheriff Rango believes them to be the same mercenaries who have been harassing the town of Mud lately and whom he has [[RecruitingTheCriminal hired Rattlesnake Jake]] to keep away. He adds to Jake's duties protection over Grace, her son and their home despite the reluctance of both parties. Grace thinks the sheriff has too many screws loose to not consider it to be a coincidence, but Rango turns out to be right.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Intercom}}'', the protagonist is picked on for thinking her emotions are little people inside her head. Sounds silly, right? Well, this is an ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' fan fiction, so...
* Harry Potter is convinced he's the hero of a fairy tale in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7597067/1/Storybook-Hero Storybook Hero]]''. The gods watching proclaim him insane, though one points out he's also ''right''.
* In a meta example, the author of notorious ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' correctly predicted in an author's note [[spoiler:that Harry is the last Horcrux and will have to die to defeat Voldemort in the last book.]] She's not the only person who guessed this one, but given Tara's extremely questionable grasp of the canon and tendency towards bizarre "plot" elements, this is actually rather impressive.
* In the ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' episode "A Library with No Twilight", Rarity claims that she's [[WeaksauceWeakness allergic to water]]. The only evidence she cites is [[InsaneTrollLogic the fact that she gets a cold every time she stands in the rain for an hour]]. At the end of the episode, she actually does get a nasty rash on her face. "I ''told'' you I was allergic!"
* In ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'', Tristan mistakes a reference to ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' (since they're a bunch of teenagers on an island) to one for "[[Film/LordOfTheRings that movie with the evil ring and the hobbits]]", and is immediately lambasted for thinking those would be on the island. The episode promptly notes that both are on the island: the Millennium Ring, which is an evil ring, and Yugi, who is really short.
[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* In ''Anime/PonyoOnTheCliffByTheSea'', Toki, one of the residents of the nursing home, says to Sosuke that when human-faced fish come out of the ocean, it causes a tsunami. Sosuke sees this as senile rambling -- but of course, [[ApocalypseHow she's entirely right]].
* ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'': When Dory attempts to communicate with a whale in his own language, she appears to just [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb9ePR_3lZQ make a fool of herself]]. Turns out he caught every word and gives her and Marlin a lift to Sydney. Which eventually leads to this priceless moment when Marlin wishes to express his gratitude to the whale:
-->'''Marlin:''' THAAAANKKK YOOOUUUUU SIRRRRRRR!\\
'''Dory:''' ''[impressed]'' Wow. Wish ''I'' could speak whale.
* ''Disney/{{Moana}}'': Gramma Tala [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] her cloudcuckoolander status when she refers to herself as "the crazy village lady". She's the only person who supports Moana's sailing the ocean, and she's the one that tells Moana what she can do to save their people (her son / Moana's father on the other hand angrily throws away the "Heart" stone that will [[spoiler: eventually help save them.) Moana's goes on the mission her grandmother encouraged her to go on - sailing across the ocean, returning the Heart stone to the BigBad who then transforms back into the BigGood it was before, finding new islands and sources of food, and when she returns back to her people, reminding them that they are voyagers at heart]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'': Nobody listened to 6. "GO BACK TO THE SOURCE!"
%%* Grandpa Simpson in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie''--"Twisted tail...a thousand eyes...trapped forever... EEEPA! EEEPA!"
%%** Lampshaded later on: "My god, the crazy old man in church was right!" By himself.
[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Miss Brooks' wacky landlady, Mrs. Davis, often gives good advice. [[spoiler: In TheMovie GrandFinale she plays a critical role in Miss Brooks' finally marrying Mr. Boynton and living HappilyEverAfter.]]
* In ''Film/TheHappening'', the plants really ''were'' the culprit, just as the somewhat eccentric character claims in the beginning.
%%* Mrs. Bickerman from ''Film/LakePlacid''.
* In ''Film/PacificRim'', Hermann claims that the rate of the kaiju attacks is increasing exponentially, and will continue to do so until kaiju are attacking every hour. His prediction sounds like a completely ludicrous extrapolation, but it turns out to be completely accurate, right down to his final prediction that eventually [[spoiler:multiple kaiju will attack at once]].
* In [[TheFilmOfTheBook the film version]] of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', one of Luna Lovegood's weird magical creatures turns out to be real.
* In the film version of ''Film/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', insanely paranoid Aunt Josephine turns out to be ProperlyParanoid when every single ridiculous-sounding thing she worried about becomes an obstacle for the heroes.
%%* ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou?'' Blind Seer: "You will see a... a cooow... on the roof of a... cotton house, ha." Yeah right, a cow.
* ''Film/TheBigLebowski'', true to form, features a complicated example. After learning of the disappearance of the titular Big Lebowski's wife, head-in-the-clouds stoner the Dude casually suggests to his friends that she probably kidnapped herself. Walter, the PTSD stricken (or so he likes to believe) Vietnam veteran latches onto this theory and stubbornly maintains it as if the Dude was speaking the iron-clad truth even when the evidence (including a toe in the mail) begins to pile up suggesting otherwise, much to the Dude's horror. [[spoiler: Turns out that technically she didn't actually kidnap herself (she just left for a weekend and didn't tell anyone) but the Nihilists, who were friends of hers, knew this and ''were'' faking the whole thing to try and bluff money out of the Big Lebowski. So the Dude was kind-of right originally and Walter was kind-of right to keep believing it.]]
* In ''Film/LandOfTheLost'', Will suspects the alien is lying to them based on his policy of "never trust anyone wearing a tunic". The others dismiss his concerns, but later we find out that not only was he an imprisoned criminal but part of his punishment was to wear a tunic as a symbol of his distrust.
%%* Justin in ''The Great New Wonderful''. Although in his case, it would probably be more fitting to replace [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} "Cuckoolander"]] with [[TheDitz "outright dumbass"]].
* In ''Film/ScannersIITheNewOrder'', when Peter Drak informs David Kellum of Commander Forrester's bad intentions, David dismisses it with "[[YoureInsane You're crazy!]]". Drak points out that while that may be true, it doesn't mean that he's wrong.
* In ''Film/{{RED}}'', Marvin Boggs (Series/JohnMalkovich) is more than a little paranoid. Over the course of the movie, he thinks a helicopter is following them, that the CIA is tracing a phone call made on a pay phone, and that a woman at the airport is actually an assassin who is following them. None of the other characters believe him, but as it turns out, he's 100% correct, every time.
* In the horror film ''Film/MothersDay'', the eponymous character is the matriarch of a sadistic band of psychopaths, who is terrified of an imaginary monster named "Queenie". Little is made of this, until the main characters appear to have escaped danger...
* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'':
** At first it seems like the guard at the French castle has no idea what the Holy Grail even is, [[spoiler: yet his claim that "we've already got one" turns out to be the truth.]]
** Sir Bedevere's InsaneTrollLogic about identifying witches by comparing their weight to a duck proves, at least in the instance shown, to be correct. The accused does indeed weigh the same as a duck, and admits "'Twas a fair cop" before being dragged away to be burned. Except it turns out the scales are clearly unbalanced, as seen after the mob carries the witch away. It's part of the joke.
* Russell Casse from ''Film/IndependenceDay'':
-->'''Reporter:''' [[spoiler:Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C.]] have been left in ruins.\\
'''Russel Casse:''' Good God! I've been sayin' it. I've been sayin' it for ten damn years. Ain't I been sayin' it, Miguel? Yeah, I've been sayin' it.
* ''Film/DarkCity'' provides one of the most shocking examples: everyone believes Detective Eddie Walenski has been driven mad by the stress of his job, the horror of the serial killer case he'd been working on, and other pressures. Walenski, on the other hand, keeps saying that there is no case, his wife is not his wife, that things keep changing on a nightly basis, that everyone's past has been erased, and the only way out of the trap they're all in is to kill oneself. He is, of course, utterly and completely correct.
* In the film ''Film/ConspiracyTheory'', Creator/MelGibson's character prints a newsletter called "[[TitleDrop Conspiracy Theory]]", filled with conspiracy theories about anything and everything under the sun. Everyone, possibly even including himself, thinks he's just another crackpot with an axe to grind. Then the assassins start chasing him.
* In ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'', Marty is TheStoner, always talking about the "[[ProperlyParanoid puppeteers]]" and how he isn't going to be controlled by them. It turns out [[spoiler: the characters ''are'' being manipulated, and it goes ''way'' deeper than even Marty guessed.]]
* This exchange from ''Film/AHardDaysNight'':
-->'''[[Music/RingoStarr Ringo]]:''' Any of you lock a man in the cupboard?\\
'''[[Music/JohnLennon John]] and [[Music/PaulMcCartney Paul]]:''' A man? Don't be soft.\\
'''Ringo:''' Well, ''somebody'' did. ''[leaves]''\\
'''[[Music/GeorgeHarrison George]]:''' ''[looks in cupboard, closes door, comes back]'' He's right, y'know.\\
'''John:''' [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight There you go]].
* In ''Film/GhostbustersII'', Venkman interviews 'fake' psychics on a little-watched cable show - but one of his two guests actually turns out to be ''a real psychic'', and correctly predicts the events surrounding [[BigBad Vigo]] and [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt his plans for the world]].
%%* ''Film/RosemarysBaby'': This happens to Rosemary. It turns out [[spoiler:her neighbors were indeed part of a satanic cult that, with the help of her own husband, impregnated her with the son of Satan during a creepy ritual and were forcing her to stay on a disgusting diet to ensure that her hellspawn would be born strong and healthy]].
* Mose Harper in ''Film/TheSearchers'' is looked on by everyone as a crazy old coot and is actually shown to be wrong on a couple of occasions at the beginning of the movie (about Ethan Edwards having gone to California and about the cattle-rustlers), but later on, on two occasions, he supplies crucial information about the whereabouts of Chief Scar and his camp.
* In ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'', Joe Brodys obsession with his wife's death has left him more than a little nutty, but he was still right about the cover up.
%%* In ''Film/CatPeople'', Oliver and Alice belatedly realize this about Irena's stories about the cat curse.
* The aptly nicknamed Crazy Ralph in the first two ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' films repeatedly warns people about "Camp Blood" to no avail, and [[spoiler:eventually gets killed by Jason.]] He gets a couple of "successors" in later films.
* ''Film/DrStrangelove'' - General "Buck" Turgidson comes off like an unhinged paranoid goofball, but darned if he isn't right about the Russian ambassador spying in the War Room.
* In ''Pod'', Ed and Layla's brother Martin is implied to be a paranoid schizophrenic, who suddenly calls Ed one day telling him that he found something that killed the dog he had with him in his remote Maine cabin. Ed, a licensed therapist, doesn't believe that there's any actual threat, and assumes that it is Martin's mental illness flaring up again. This despite the fact that Martin claims he captured the creature that killed the dog and locked it in the basement--and Layla can hear something moving around downstairs. [[spoiler:Turns out Ed should have believed Martin, as there totally is a monster, and it kills Ed.]]
* ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'': WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck believes that Damien Drake is a super-spy whose secret identity is an actor who plays a super-spy. DJ believes it to be nonsense, but later finds it out to be true.
* In ''Film/TheBigShort,'' Michael Burry earns skepticism, derision, and rebellion from his mentor and his investors for shorting the housing market, but he refuses all attempts to pull out and is eventually proven correct when the bubble bursts.
-->Dear Lawrence,\\
Your profits totaling $489 million from Scion Capital have been deposited into your account.\\
You're welcome.
* Dr. Jackson's theory that the pyramids were [[AncientAliens landing pads for alien spacecraft]] got him all but laughed out of academia. That was when he found himself confronted by the USAF and learned for the existence of the ''{{Film/Stargate}}''.
%%* ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'' is the TropeCodifier. Yossarian finally figures out what Orr was telling him in the end.
* Luna Lovegood from ''Literature/HarryPotter'' is a font of wisdom despite being a complete {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.
** She's a Ravenclaw for a reason, and her answers to the Ravenclaw Tower's questions in Deathly Hallows were pretty smart. She takes after her father Xenophilius, who is just as strange, but 100% correct about [[TitleDrop The Deathly Hallows]].
** Some of the stories from ''The Quibbler'' have a grain of truth to them. For example, Sirius may not be Stubby Boardman, but it ''does'' get right that he was an innocent man falsely imprisoned.
** For the first four books, Hagrid's status as the FluffyTamer and AdmiringTheAbomination, usually the MonsterOfTheWeek is regarded with bemusement and dread by Ron, Harry and Hermione, but even Hermione, highly friendly and compassionate, has a nervous breakdown when he returns to Hogwarts with his Giant Half-brother who he's trying to teach English, not caring that it could possibly endanger every student at Hogwarts. Everyone expects this to be Hagrid's greatest folly but it turns out that Hagrid's crude attempts at teaching his brother English and civilizing him actually work.
** Also from ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Sybill Trelawney is an amiable lunatic who everyone thinks is a complete fraud... until she issues two True Prophecies that affect the plot of the entire series. She actually predicts a lot of minor stuff, but she seems so much of a fraud that nobody seems to take her words for any merit; probably because she has the habit of hopelessly misinterpreting the actual omens she sees. It's heavily implied that she ''has'' the gift, passed down from previous generations, but just can't ''control'' it, making her most genuine prophecies in a trance-like state that she doesn't remember afterward.
*** In book 3 Trelawney predicts that Harry will DIE. [[spoiler: ...And she is absolutely right - she's just four books early.]] Moreover, every prediction she makes in the opening fusillade of her first class does, eventually, come true in some capacity.
*** It can't help that one of the few times she's right even she doesn't believe it: in HBP when she's reading cards and draws the Knave of Spades'' "a dark young man, possibly troubled, one who dislikes the questioner" '' just as she's standing next to Harry's hiding spot, only to decide that [[FacePalm couldn't possibly be right]]. She might actually have some talent [[spoiler:aside from the two Voldemort related prophecies she doesn't remember]] but is simply unable to differentiate it from her desperate guessing since [[YouWereTryingTooHard she wants it so much]].
*** Another one she gets right is the tarot card of the "Lightning Struck Tower"- a card which figuratively means great calamity and/or change. And ''then'' [[spoiler: there's the chapter by the tarot card's name, where a green bolt of "lightning" hits Dumbledore at the top of a tower and kills him.]] Yeah, that certainly changed things, and not for the better.
*** And in ''The Prisoner of Azkaban'', one minor gag comes about when Harry and Ron are eating lunch with a few of the professors, and Professor [=McGonagall=] tries to offer Trelawney a seat at the table; Trelawney refuses to sit down, since that would bring the number of people at the table up to ''thirteen'', meaning that the first to get up would be the first to die. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to her, there already ''were'' thirteen people at the table, since Scabbers (actually Peter Pettigrew) was in Ron's pocket. Dumbledore is the first to get up from the table, and he is indeed the first of the characters in that scene to be [[KilledOffForReal killed off]], dying at the end of ''The Half-Blood Prince'']].
* In the new Literature/{{Foundation}} trilogy novel ''Literature/FoundationInChaos'', one of the characters references a lunatic fringe group which committed suicide when told by creatures inhabiting the defense platforms of the impending end of Trantor. When you read the earlier novel, you find the creatures indeed said this and they were right -- the Galatic Empire is collapsing and Trantor lies in ruins in later Foundation novels.
* Played with in Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy: Ford Prefect appears to be a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} to the humans he interacts with - he spends a considerable amount of his life drunk, he tends to insult astrophysicists when he is, and he often lapses into distracted moods wherein he stares at the sky and claims he is looking for green flying saucers. However, when he flippantly informs everyone at a local bar that [[spoiler: the world is about to end]], he's absolutely right. Somewhat averted in that Ford Prefect is not what he seems - he's simply an alien trapped on Earth and desperate for a ride off the planet, so he has advanced technology and actually knows more about what's going on than anybody else around him.
* In ''Literature/AFireUponTheDeep'' by Creator/VernorVinge, there's a galaxy-spanning Website/{{Usenet}}-like network where various aliens discuss the book's crisis, from a number of different perspectives. One particular alien, "Twirlip of the Mists", is talking through several layers of auto-translation software on an extremely low-bandwidth connection, so most of what it says sounds rather bizarre. It's pretty much all exactly right, though, including such apparent nonsense as "hexapodia is the key insight".
* Despite often engendering befuddlement and bewilderment in many he comes into contact with, Literature/{{Psmith}} almost never lets anything ruffle him, since almost any obstacle that comes his way he can eventually overcome. Even his most outlandish schemes seem to end as he intended.
* ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'': Zeghorz from ''Will of the Empress'' seems crazy to start with, but it turns out that he actually hears and sees things on the wind, making all of his babbling completely true.
* Donny [=DaCosta=] from ''Literature/{{Troubleshooters}}'' might be crazy and spot aliens all over the neighborhood, but when one of them turns out to be a terrorist...
%%* The prisoner Numbers from ''Literature/{{Airman}}'' only babbles apparently incoherent numbers, which are crucial for the plot development.
* In ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Catching Fire]]'', it turns out that Wiress's mumbling of "Tick tock" isn't just insane talk. She's actually figured out the configuration and theme of the arena and is trying to tell the other contestants. Katniss figures this out later on. "Tick tock, tick tock, the arena's a clock."
* In ''Literature/TheFaerieWarsChronicles'', Alan Fogarty is a crazy old man who believes that faeries inhabit his garden, that LittleGreenMen in flying saucers are [[AlienAbduction kidnapping people]] all the time, and that the FBI is after him. The hero of the story humors him... until he discovers a fairy in Fogarty's garden. Later, it's revealed that demons from a Hell Dimension (who look oddly similar to the zeitgeist little green man) ''do'' in fact kidnap people regularly from their stereotypical flying saucer airships. Also that he used to be a bank robber, so his paranoia about the FBI is at least somewhat justified.
%%* ''LightNovel/TheLongingOfShiinaRyo'': When Shin-tsu tells you he played cards with Santa, you better believe him.
* Robbie, [[DarknessVisible William Marsh's]] loony younger brother, gives Lewis vital clues as to what the hell is happening in London. However, it takes some time for Lewis to realise, since Robbie has wrapped what happened to him into a deranged fantasy.
--> Robbie: 'They sounded like angels speaking in my head. They spoke about the tide. Oceans singing black songs and requiems for fallen God and empires. The dark tide shall rise, rise through the houses of the dead.'
%%* Creator/GKChesterton loved this trope, employing it in such works as ''Manalive'' and ''Napoleon of Notting Hill''
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Lysa Tully is crazy ten times over, but her warning to Catelyn about the Lannisters' treachery doesn't seem to be far off, [[spoiler: only [[SubvertedTrope she lied.]] The murder of her husband, which was what supposedly tipped her off to the Lannisters, was perpetrated by ''her.'']]
** Once upon a time, Princess Shireen had a terrifying and creepy friend named Patchface who nonsensically blathered on about what he knows of the goings on under the sea. [[MadOracle Most of said blatherings are really, really accurate prophecies.]]
%%* ''Literature/LordPeterWimsey'' runs on this trope and ObfuscatingStupidity.
* In Creator/JanetEvanovich's "Seven Up", bounty hunter heroine Literature/StephaniePlum is initially skeptical toward Mooner's worries about his friend Dougie (and a roast from the freezer) disappearing, and later doubts his claim that his assailant was an elderly lady, since Mooner is notorious as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and a {{stoner}}, who's lately taken to running around costumed as a superhero. Of course, it turns out he was actually telling the truth.
* In ''Literature/TheTrueMeaningOfSmekday'', Gratuity's mother Lucy insists that aliens are trying to talk to her through a mole in her neck. She [[AlienAbduction disappears]] shortly before the AlienInvasion by the Boov. Later on, Gratuity finds out that the Boov were talking to her through the mole on her neck, and abducted her to teach them English.
* He's not crazy, per se, but in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Iron Fist]]'', during a tactical planning session, Face Loran comes up with three wild theories about how events are unfolding (and also a farcical plan to sabotage Warlord Zsinj by [[ZanyScheme impersonating a comedy troupe to get close to him]]) -- namely, that the Empire is building a new [[CoolStarship Super Star Destroyer]], that Zsinj plans to steal it, and that [[spoiler: [[BigBad Ysanne Isard]] [[FakingTheDead is still alive]]. He's right on all three counts. Later in the book, Wedge makes another deduction that Zsinj has given TheMole in his organization false data implying he intends to attack the Republic capital, Coruscant, for valid reasons -- but he is ''also'' able to name Zsinj's true target: [[spoiler: Kuat, the [[PlanetOfHats shipyard planet]] [[IKnewIt building the Super Star Destroyer Zsinj intends to steal]]]].
* Played with in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. In the short story ''Aftermath'', the POV is from Murphy. In it, she reveals that anyone who is not in the most detailed version of the know sees Harry as a [[AmbiguousDisorder possibly autistic]] {{Cloudcuckoolander}} [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve who believes in "magic".]] Yet that same man goes on to routinely provide valuable help to the police, dispel any mystery and [[BeyondTheImpossible basically accomplish the impossible]] even if he won't quite say what's going on.
* The Orks as a race in ''Literature/TheSovereignStone'' Trilogy. They're massively into reading omens before making any remotely significant decision, causing most members of other races to dismiss them as superstitious {{Cloudcuckoolander}}s. That said, Ork characters accurately predict events in the trilogy using aforesaid omens with a striking degree of accuracy, and in the third book, when the protagonists try to fool the Ork leader with a fake omen into helping them, she sees through it ''immediately'', and is in fact mildly offended that they seem to think she "can't tell the difference between an omen sent by the gods and an omen sent by an elf."[[note]]she still helps them, though, because the Orks have a stake in this conflict too[[/note]]
* In ''Literature/GoodOmens,'' a tabloid has printed such stories as Jesus' face being seen in a Big Mac, [[ElvisLives Elvis working in an American burger joint]], [[ElvisHasLeftThePlanet Elvis having been abducted by aliens]], Elvis' music curing cancer, and werewolves being the [[ChildOfRape Children of Rape]] between a woman and Bigfoot. A footnote comments that "Remarkably, one of these stories is indeed true." Several hints throughout the rest of the novel imply it's [[spoiler:Elvis working at the burger joint]].
* The [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Sherlock Holmes]] parody "The Case of the Mental Detective" in "Soft Pawn", a chess fun book by William R. Hartston. All clues in the case of the hated chess master [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial (not related to Bobby Fischer)]] killed by eleven knives in the back point to...eh, a typewriter thrown from a giraffe unicycle by an Irish sailor with a cold called [[ItMakesSenseInContext Keffeagh Q. Bacdabb]]?!? ("Bacdabb?" "Actually Mac Nabb, but he's got a cold.") But, being Sherlock Holmes, he's of course right. ("You got me, it's only fair I turn myself in.", as Bacdabb confesses.)
* In ''Literature/VampireAcademy'', Alice the supposedly crazy feeder is the first to note the sighting of ghosts as a sign that the protective wards around the Academy are failing. She is right. [[spoiler:At least 50 Strigoi break through the weakened wards]].
* In ''Literature/TheJungleBook'' story "The King's Ankus", White Hood is an elderly cobra who has apparently gone senile. He guards the treasure room of an abandoned city and rants about how he is a loyal guard to the king, ignoring Kaa and Mowgli trying to tell him that the city has been abandoned for several years. When Mowgli manages to steal an ankus from the treasure room, White Hood rants that the artifact will only bring death. Mowgli later learns that he is right when he discovers men are so consumed by greed that they are willing to kill each other for the artifact. Mowgli is forced to track it down and return it to White Hood to prevent more deaths.
* Atlas is an ArtificialIntelligence computer in the series ''Literature/{{Relativity}}.'' It often comes across as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} simply because it doesn't understand the subtleties of human nature... or, sometimes, the real world.[[note]]Once, when asked to produce a list of possible ways a city could be destroyed, put both ZombieApocalypse and Franchise/{{Godzilla}} on the list.[[/note]] However, in the story "Those Who Wander," it actually guessed the villains' motives perfectly. ([[spoiler: Milking venom from Brazilian Wandering Spiders to create a cure for erectile dysfunction.]])
* Creator/IraTabankin is rather fond of writing unhinged-sounding survivalists building bunkers over the objections of their family and community, only to be proven right.
** ''Literature/TheShelter'' Jay Tolson spends millions in lottery winnings buying a farm with a fortified castle for a house, and a bunker beneath it.
** ''Literature/WeKnewTheyWereComing'' has Troy, and other survivalists, being discreetly backed by the government to prepare for disaster without ever explaining what for.
** ''Literature/ByTheLightOfTheMoon'': Jeff goes through this twice, once when stockpiling supplies and building a shelter, and again when trying to warn his community of preppers that nuclear (well, meteor) winter will render their homes uninhabitable.
* In the ''Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures'' novel ''Alien Bodies'', UNISYC (the ruthless future version of UNIT) is represented at the auction by Colonel Kortez, who insists on describing nearly everything as "not what it seems". His subordinate officer has privately concluded he has a form of paranoia called Displacer Syndrome, the Doctor thinks he's "rather confused", but ''every single one of the things he mentions'' turns out to not, in fact, be what it seems.
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Miss Brooks's wacky landlady, Mrs. Davis, often gives good advice. [[spoiler: In TheMovie GrandFinale she plays a critical role in Miss Brooks' finally marrying Mr. Boynton and living HappilyEverAfter.]]
* The Log Lady from ''Series/TwinPeaks'' issued dire warnings that turned out to be completely accurate.
* River from ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', although in her case, she's messed up because she was kidnapped by the government and tortured in order to refine her latent psychic powers. A specific and very clear example:
-->'''River:''' They weren't cows inside. They were waiting to be, but they forgot. Now they see sky, and they remember what they are.\\
'''Mal:''' Is it bad that what she said made perfect sense to me?
* The entire gang from ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' struggle to remember the security guard's name, only certain that it begins with the letter E. "Edgar?" "Elliot"? "Edward"? Resident Cuckoolander Creed interjects that his name is Hank, and Creed, of course, is correct.
* Spencer from ''Series/BurnNotice''. He's schizophrenic and sees messages encoded in beams of light, but he's also smart enough to see the pattern between the actions of his boss and the deaths of American spies. On the other hand, the conclusion he draws from this is that his boss is a space alien...
* The Hybrids in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. They're prophets, but most of them, most of the time, are so cryptic and vague that except for one instance no one has any idea what they mean (the phrase "harbinger of death" kind of stands out). But in hindsight, everything they said was accurate or at least relevant.
* Bridge in ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'' is weird, but usually on the ball. There's his initial warnings about A-Squad in the beginning; or his complete avoidance of Dru in "Idol", which were brushed off at the time. Guess which characters had a FaceHeelTurn later. Plus his dreams in "Idol" and "Robotpalooza;" considered nuts and irrelevant at the time, later proven thematically relevant and literally accurate, respectively.
* When Bridge reappeared in ''Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'', he explained how he became the Red Ranger since we last saw him. As weird as it sounds, viewers who watched ''SPD'' will know it's entirely accurate:
-->'''Bridge:''' Well, [[ToMakeALongStoryShort long story short]], our mentor, who's uh, well, who's [[PettingZooPeople a dog]], got promoted to head of SPD which used to be run by [[PettingZooPeople a bird]], but he retired and went down to Miami and then Sky got promoted and then I got promoted, and that's why I'm the Red Ranger! [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble Or rather, will be]].\\
'''Dax:''' [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike Makes sense to me!]]
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Spike retained some of himself even when he went crazy after getting his soul back and getting {{Mind Screw}}ed by the BigBad of season 7, so much so that, in the episode "Same Time, Same Place", he's the only one to figure out that Willow can't see or interact with the rest of the Scoobies and vice-versa. Of course that was only because he was interacting with them at the same time, and noticed they couldn't see or interact with each other.
** Drusilla babbles insanely, thinks she can see the stars right through her ceiling, and worries about her dolly Miss Edith. All of her ramblings turn out to be psychic predictions, meaning she's a MadOracle. This trope is slightly [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] when we find out she started out perfectly sane and psychic, and was tortured into insanity. She's always been right, but she hasn't always been a Cuckoolander.
** In ''Earshot'', Xander falls between this and DumbassHasAPoint when he jokes that the person Buffy telepathically overheard planning mass murder was probably [[spoiler: the lunch lady and her terrible cafeteria food.]] He eventually discovers he's right while sneaking into the kitchen to steal jello.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** G'Kar definitely had his cuckoolander moments... and almost everyone ignored his warnings about the return of certain {{eldritch abomination}}s until it was nearly too late. The ones who didn't ignore him were already planning for it and feigned ignorance while letting his world burn to maintain the ruse.
%%** Nobody ever listens to poor Zathras, although they probably should've.
%%** Garibaldi tells a war story about this trope in "The Long Night". The person he tells the story ''to'', a guy named Amis, also fits the trope--and the ''reason'' Amis is crazy is because of his experience with the MonsterOfTheWeek.
* Tyler from ''Series/MyHero'', a TalkativeLoon and ConspiracyTheorist who is nonetheless the only person to [[ClarkKenting recognise George Sunday as Thermoman]].
* A ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' episode shows Jim to have an ability to predict things. Alex, rational thinker that he is, dismisses it, but Louie, who considers Jim a total bum, believes that's his one talent, and warns Alex to heed an ominous premonition where he'll be mistaken for a woman and will dance the can-can in a green sweater.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** One of the Doctor's defining character traits. He is definitely a mad man with a box... [[CrazyAwesome and he knows exactly what he's doing]]. Lampshaded by River Song:
--->'''Octavian:''' ''[about The Doctor]'' You trust this man?\\
'''River Song:''' I absolutely trust him.\\
'''Octavian:''' He's not some kind of madman, then?\\
'''River Song:''' ''[beat]'' I absolutely trust him.
** Dalek Caan flies unprotected into the Time Vortex to bring back Davros. He emerges from this experience completely insane, but with the gift of prophesy. The Supreme Dalek prefers to ignore his ravings, but Davros knows he speaks the truth. Sure enough, he predicts that one of the Doctor's companions will soon die, and Donna essentially does because the Doctor must wipe her mind. It also turns out that some of the episode's events happened because Caan was [[ThePlan manipulating them to destroy the Daleks]]. An alternate interpretation is that rather than Donna (who though she loses her memory doesn't actually die), the one Caan was refering to was Davros himself. As the Dalek mothership explodes around them, the Doctor ushers all of his companions into the TARDIS to escape, including extending an invitation to Davros, offering to save him. Davros refuses, and stays to go down with the ship, and it is at this moment that Caan laughs maniacally and repeats the prophecy that "one will still die". The Doctor's invitation to Davros could be seen as promoting Davros to companion, albeit briefly, and thus Davros' death fulfils the prophecy.
* This is almost a RunningGag on ''Series/TheXFiles''. No matter what crazy theory Mulder comes up with to explain aspects of a case or what logical theory Scully comes up with, Mulder is often right.
* An episode of the ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' has Sheldon crazily demand that Penny get rid of a chair she found on the street and paid a homeless man to carry up the stairs because he's convinced it must be filthy. He gets Amy to talk to her, but she confesses to Penny that even she thinks he's paranoid. Then they realize there's [[TheUnreveal something]] in the chair. As they run screaming out of the apartment and down the stairs, they agree not to tell Sheldon he was right.
* In ''Series/TilDeath'', where white guy Eddie sticks up for his BlackBestFriend Kenny when he claims he's been racially discriminated against, but Eddie is soon convinced Kenny is just overreacting when he hears the other side and the remainder of the episode is about him trying to convince his friend he's [[EverythingIsRacist oversensitive]]. In the tag, however, it's revealed that it was racism after all.
* An early episode of ''Series/{{Lost}}'' involves Claire freaking out because she thinks someone's trying to abduct her and hurt her unborn baby. She's had a bunch of weird nightmares she's convinced are true, despite not being plausible even by ''Lost'' standards, and Jack thinks this is just another delusion. Turns out, there are other people on the island and one has been abducting her for medical tests.
* In the episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' "Coerced", a schizophrenic man rants ([[NotSoFastBucko after]] the judge decides to institutionalize him for treatment) that someone was murdered in his last home. The detectives realise that since he was medicated at the time it might be true and investigate. [[spoiler: It turns out that [[MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot home killed a woman in the room next to his through negligence and withheld his medication]]] so no one would believe him (making them responsible for the man's actions when they [[RevealingCoverup dumped him on the street]]).]]
* Zora from ''Series/SonnyWithAChance'' reacts to [[EnfantTerrible Dakota]] by turning around, widening her eyes and hissing in as demonic a voice she can muster. "Eeevilll". She turns out to be right.
* The title character of ''{{Series/Merlin 2008}}'', constantly. A bit of a subversion in that he's not really a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, but since nearly everyone else believes he is, this happens nearly OnceAnEpisode. Arthur eventually catches on to this and starts consulting Merlin on everything.
* Occasionally, a contestant on ''Series/{{QI}}'' will quip a completely bizarre answer to a question for laughs... only to be awarded points. They're usually just as surprised by this. Examples include when Jack Dee blurted out that the original geishas were all men, and when Johnny Vegas correctly joked that the purpose of corn flakes was to prevent masturbation.
* Carrie Mathison in ''Series/{{Homeland}}'' is bipolar, although she controls it with medication; this, incidentally, is not played for laughs ''at all''. She is nevertheless the only one who figures out that Brody is working for Abu Nazir, and figures out what Nazir's plot is. It's during a manic phase that she figures out a timeline of Nazir's activities that is the key to deciphering the larger plot.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'':
** [[MetaGuy Abed's]] vast knowledge of television is generally accurate given that he's in, well, a television show, and every once in a while he falls into this trope. In the third season, while in therapy, he occasionally comments that the dean's been replaced by a "doppeldeaner". Which is a statement that the audience knows full well to be true, although the characters take some convincing.
** If it's even possible, there's a kind of inversion in the first season. Shirley adamantly believes that the accuracy of Abed's films mean that he can predict the future. When confronted with this, Abed denies any prophetic abilities, a belief he starts to doubt when his films continue to come true regardless of the absurdity.
* In a way, Sarah from ''Series/HouseOfAnubis''. While she isn't really a cuckoolander, many people do believe she is crazy including the main characters themselves, but everything she says is usually a clue to the mystery in some way. This is because she grew up with the mystery herself, as her parents were the ones who hid the treasure and the two main villains turned on her for the truth. [[spoiler:She also happened to be the original [[ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne Chosen One.]]]]
%%* ''Series/SesameStreet'' has Sherlock Hemlock, who always comes up with zany explanations of the "crime scene" (but was right at least once).
* ''[[Series/KamenRiderW Kamen Rider Double]]'' has [[HardboiledDetective Shotaro Hidari]], [[SharingABody half of]] [[FusionDance the eponymous hero]]. Unlike [[PsychicPowers Philip]], Double's other half, Shotaro has no superpowers as a normal human. One of his cases required him to find his client's cat. Reasoning that the best way to find somebody is to think like they do, Shotaro decided to wander around pretending to be a cat (meowing, batting at invisible string, etc) until he found the real one. ''He succeeded''.
%%* In ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', resident cuckoolander Harry Solomon is very often the OnlySaneMan (by comparison with the other aliens) and is often proved right.
* In ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'', one of Carrie's many grievances with her Cuckoolander father Arthur Spooner is that he blew what would have been her college fund on acquiring the rights to the life story of singer LouRawls. Arthur is adamant, in the late 1990's, that this money was not wasted and the tale will one day be told. Carrie is skeptical. Come 2009 and what happens... biographies and a motion picture on the life of Lou Rawls are released. Carrie may yet see her college fund...
* The ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' episode '13.1' had Hugo Miller, who the agents need to tell them the code to stop an AI he invented. He thinks Pete is Ulysses S Grant and wants to be paid in bicycles, when they agree to this he draws them a picture of a cat. It turns out his cat's name was Albert and that's the code to shut off the computer.
* The ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum'' episode "I Am Anne Frank" features a deranged Briarcliff patient who claims to be Anne Frank, insisting that she was wrongly reported as dead at Auschwitz, but kept her identity secret so that she could serve as a symbol of the innocents slaughtered by Hitler. As soon as she sees Dr. Arden, she goes berserk and claims that he was one of the Nazi doctors who [[PlayingWithSyringes experimented on Jewish prisoners in the camps]]. [[spoiler: It turns out that she's lying about being Anne Frank -- but she's 100% right about Dr. Arden's Nazi past]].
* In ''Series/SleepyHollow'', Agent Reynolds suffers a supernatural insect bite that causes rage and extreme paranoia. Once he recovers, Abby is relieved that he doesn't remember anything from when he was under the bite's influence because his paranoia led him to correctly believe that Abby is hiding Ichabod's true identity and Jenny and Joe's connection to the Nevins case.
* Early in Season 2 of ''Series/{{Galavant}}'', [[TheDitz Ditzy]] ManChild Richard does an offscreen trade and swaps a huge, famous gem for a dragon... or so he's told. He's actually traded the gem for a type of reptile known as a [[ExactWords bearded dragon]]. Throughout the season Richard continues to insist that Tad Cooper, as he named the creature, truly is a dragon, and gives it multiple attempts to do things like breathe fire, only for it to act like a normal lizard. The stinger at the very end of the shows that Tad Cooper really is a dragon, and shows Richard proudly feeding the grown dragon sheep.
* ''Series/{{Accused}}'': Possibly the case with paranoid schizophrenic Stephen at the end of "Stephen's Story", [[spoiler: where it appears that his stepmother really ''was'' poisoning his father and brother.]] However, it's left ambiguous whether this is another of his delusions or not.
* In ''Series/KenanAndKel'', there's an episode which the main characters find a map in the Rigby's basement that shows a hidden room with a word written on it. Kenan reads it "safe", but Kel thinks it is "sofa", which Kenan soon discards, as nobody would have a reason to hide a sofa. In the end of the episode, Kenan, Kel and Chris break the wall to the hidden room and... there's really a sofa inside it.
* The music video to Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "Foil" has him rant off the typical government/alien conspiracy theories while wearing an aluminum foil hat at a cooking show. The director appears to be annoyed that he's ruining the show... until he calls two guys in black suits and sunglasses to sedate and take Weird Al away. The director then takes off his [[LatexPerfection human face]], revealing himself to be a [[TheReptilians reptilian]].
[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', the Malkavian clan are like this, as they were all insane in one way or another, but tended to have a hidden insight that was frequently ignored by the more sane clans due to their weirdness.
* A perfect example of this is the beggar woman in ''Theatre/SweeneyTodd''. She has the greatest awareness of the characters' secrets in the musical but people disregard her because she seems crazy. Tragic when you find out why she seems to know so much.
* Rosencrantz of ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead''. The general rule is that Guildenstern is the smarter of the two but talks in circles, while Rosencrantz is a bit dim but usually hits the nail on the head (even if he doesn't know it himself).
* Their predecessors, Vladimir and Estragon from ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'', have a similar dynamic, with Vladimir as the misguided intellectual and Estragon as the understanding fool.
* ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical'', and this is quite the spoiler: [[spoiler:Draco insists that Hogwarts is a terrible school and he's going to get transferred to Pigfarts, which appears to be him making up completely random nonsense for attention: Pigfarts is on Mars, is run by a lion named Rumbleroar, which is suspiciously similar to Dumbledore's name, and of course no one else has ever heard of it. When it's suggested Draco go to Pigfarts and leave the heroes alone, this prompts Draco to flip out and berate Harry for not having a spaceship. But then, near the end of the play, Rumbleroar actually appears to Dumbledore and flies him off to Mars, and in ''A Very Potter Sequel'', it turns out that Luna is familiar with Pigfarts as well.]]
[[folder: Toys]]
* In ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}},'' [[AxCrazy Vezon]] has this passage, as he and a RagtagBandOfMisfits move down a tunnel:
--> Vezon: "I hear something too."
--> Roodaka: "Shut up."
--> Vezon: "And I see something as well. But since you aren't interested..."
--> Roodaka: "We're not."
--> Vezon: "Personally, I always find my comments and observations most interesting. You haven't truly lived until you have seen the world through the eyes of madness. Why, half the time I don't know if what I see is what's really there, or what I wish was there...or what I pray, I beg, I plead is not."
** (Other characters, all thoroughly irritated, discuss killing him to shut him up)
--> Vezon: "But, since you seem to have no interest, well, then, I won't tell you that the floor is moving. You can find out on your own."
** Cue trap being sprung.
[[folder:Video Games]]
* One of the major premises behind the ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' series, most notably in the first and the third games, is that every paranoid conspiracy theory you've heard is right.
** The closest example to the spirit of the trope is possibly [[spoiler:Gunther's ridiculous claims that the vending machine maintenance man is plotting against him]]. Which ''Invisible War'' confirms to be ''true''.
** ''VideoGame/TheNamelessMod'' [[DiscussedTrope discusses]] this premise in the fan fiction shop, and has this [[spoiler: from a hobo you encounter in Forum City, who mentions that he saw aliens abduct Deus Diablo.]]
* Shegor in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' says her turtle, [[NotSoImaginaryFriend Mr. Pokeylope]], "always tells me what to do." Right when you assume she's projecting on the poor little thing, [[spoiler: the turtle starts talking. [[VocalDissonance In a deep, sexy voice]], it outlines a plan you must follow to advance further in the game]].
* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'':
** Rosa the Thin-Blood will frequently descend into long and nonsensical speeches about such things as "[[GhostShip The Crimson Ship]]" or "[[KnowledgeBroker The Voice In The Darkness]], [[{{Catchphrase}} Boss]]." And, of course, as the game slowly progresses, Rosa's prophesies start to come true. It is implied that she is a Malkavian Thin-Blood. Because she is a Thin-Blood, she manages to stave off madness much of the time and remain mostly sane. Because she is a Malkavian, during the times when she ''does'' descend into madness what she says usually means more than it might seem at first glance.
** A Malkavian protagonist will have quite a few moments like this, too, often ''casually'' dropping atomic-bomb scale foreshadowing and revelations into dialog. It looks like a Malkavian PC is just a TalkativeLoon, but almost everything he says has a hidden or double meaning. Emphasis on almost, granted...
** In both cases, however, neither of the characters actually ''understand'' what they are talking about: They merely see glimpses of things without the necessary context to comprehend it. An example is when the Malkavian encounters Ming Xiao [[TheNicknamer and refers to her as "The Mistress of Mirrors"]], which angers her. She is a shapeshifter (thus 'reflecting' others), but the Malkavian doesn't know that.
** One of [[ShowWithinAShow The Deb of Night's]] regular listeners is Gomez, a loony ConspiracyTheorist that rambles utter nonsense about traffic lights with cameras monitored by TheIlluminati and the like. However, in his final call to the show, he not only mentions the secret vampire society but goes on to pretty much ''summarize the entire plot of the game''.
* ''VideoGame/StarControl'': Virtually everything the Pkunk say sounds like lunatic ramblings. Ignore them when they tell you where they got their information ... but don't ignore the information itself.
** The Utwig are a race whose entire religion revolves around the Ultron, a device they bought from the [[SnakeOilSalesman Druuge]]. The Utwig claims it gives them magical powers and guidance, while every other race think it's a useless piece of junk and the Utwig were ripped off. However, all of the advice the Ultron supposedly gives them turns out to be important, including giving the Druuge useless artifacts as payment for the Ultron instead of the Precursor Bomb they were trying to obtain, and (when you repair it in a bid to gain their alliance) attacking only the Kohr-Ah [[spoiler: and subsequently delaying their victory in the Doctrinal War]]. Having Commander Hayes examine the repaired Ultron reveals that it's actually a Precursor device which only affects certain races, so perhaps the Utwig were onto something when they bought it.
* Early in Bioware's ''Videogame/MassEffect1'' we get Manuel, a quack on Eden Prime that raves incomprehensibly about an end of the world scenario and is treated as insane by his companion. WAY later on in the game the team learns that his doomsday rants are more accurate than you originally thought. The accuracy of his rambling has lead [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation some fans to theorize]] that Manuel might have ''also'' glimpsed the Prothean beacon's message and his mind was destroyed, as Liara suggested might happen to someone who, unlike Shepard, lacked the extraordinary willpower to handle it.
** A Dr. Manuel Cayce appears in the second game during the Firewalker missions, where Shepard investigates a series of planets in the Hammerhead. These planets detail a Dr. Manuel's search for evidence of Reaper invasion including text documents showing his growing paranoia over whether his associate had become indoctrinated (Dr. Manuel decides to make sure and kills him) and leads the player to a huge floating Prothean sphere artifact that shrinks down to the size of a bowling ball when touched. Shephard then [[MisappliedPhlebotinum uses it as a centerpiece.]] While never stated outright if he is the same doctor in game (though apparently confirmation at one point in development [[DummiedOut did exist]], it's the same voice actor portraying him and he mentions not letting another Eden Prime take place.
** One Volus billionaire claimed that he had a vision of "machine devils" and went to great expense trying to excavate a world where he believed tombs of a special race capable of defeating them were buried. While the second part never panned out, his claims were noted as being not so outlandish in the third game.
* In ''[[VideoGame/BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal Throne of Bhaal]]'', the mad general Gromnir basically tells you Amelissan's evil plot early on, but nobody takes him seriously because they assume he's just raving. [[ProperlyParanoid (He is, but being paranoid doesn't mean they aren't really after you.)]]
* Roadkill in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal 2'' where he was called crazy for believing that the whole thing was AllJustADream but in the end of the story Calypso believed him, granted his wish, and he woke up. [[SchrodingersButterfly Or did he?]]
* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'', in the first [[GameWithinAGame vid-comic]], [[MilesGloriosus Captain Qwark]] mentions fighting [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot robotic pirate ghosts]], to the dismay of the vid-comic narrator. Come ''Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty'' some years later, and what do you, as Ratchet, fight? That's right: robotic pirate ghosts.
* The old bag-lady you meet near the beginning of ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' seems to be just another crazy old tramp, ranting about the importance of changing light-bulbs and whatnot... but considering the nature of the game, it should come as no surprise that she knows EXACTLY what's going on, and EXACTLY how to fight it. In fact, she's the ONLY one who knows, due to being [[RippleEffectProofMemory excluded from a bout of reality-alteration]] that made everybody else in the world forget. With her true title as 'The Lady of The Light' revealed, she ends up playing a huge role in the last half of the game. She's still a tad crazy, though.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' gives us No-Bark Noonan, Novac's local ConspiracyTheorist and crazy old man who has taken a few too many radscorpion stings to the head. Much of what he says is nonsense, but there's always a glimmer of truth in there, and the information you can dig out of his ramblings will help you complete several quests in town. After completing the quest "Come Fly with Me", No-Bark can be heard being interviewed on Radio New Vegas, where he gives a perfectly accurate recap of the events of the quest, but because it sounds just as crazy as everything else he says, it's dismissed. Also, there's the fact that the "interview" was actually just him yelling at a teddy bear, and one of RNV's microphones just happened to record it by accident.
-->'''No-Bark:''' It's ghouls, I tell ya! Religious ghouls in rockets, lookin' for a land to call their home!
%%* In ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'', Flonne is an [[TheDitz air-headed]] angel who [[LoveFreak lectures the party on love.]] In the best ending, she is completely correct.
* Rena of ''VideoGame/ShiraOkaSecondChances'' does seem to be a bit of a loon with her constant talks about spirits and ghosts but she really does have these powers and that her magic potions really work.
* In ''Videogame/JablessAdventure'', Squiddy mentions meeting [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses the Princess]]. Jables replies that he didn't know there was a princess [[MediumAwareness in this game]]. Squiddy admits that neither did he. Nevertheless, after you defeat the final boss, the princess shows up out of nowhere for you to rescue.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', a certain broken turret you can save from "redemption" known as the oracle turret spouts some rather cryptic lines like "Don't make lemonade!" and "Her name is Caroline". [[spoiler: All of it foreshadows events in the latter half of the game.]]
* In several ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games, the book [[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Chance%27s_Folly Chance's Folly]] tells the story of a thief known by the nickname "[[RedBaron Chance]]" who overheard someone mention a tomb containing great riches and decided to obtain them. To assist her she enlisted Ulstyr Moresby, a hulking Breton known for being a great warrior and for being totally bonkers, figuring that an insane man wouldn't particularly care if he didn't get an equal share of the loot. When asked to come along, Ulstyr nods and starts rattling off random phrases which seem like nonsense, but Chance becomes nervous when they eventually start coming true, wondering if the tales about the insane communing with Sheogorath, the [[MadGod Daedric Prince of Madness]] were actually true, and if he was feeding Ulstyr information. [[spoiler:He was]].
** "Chitin": [[spoiler:The next day, Ulstyr showed up wearing chitin armour. During the trip there was a downpour of rain that soaked Chance while Ulstyr stayed perfectly dry in his waterproof chitin]].
** "Hot steel": [[spoiler:Ulstyr carried a sword enchanted with fire damage, which was particularly effective against the Frost Atronachs guarding the tomb]].
** While exploring the tomb, Ulstyr added "drain ring" and "Mother Chance" to his vocabulary. [[spoiler:This came as quite a shock to Chance as she used her real name and not her nickname when introducing herself, and did indeed wear a ring capable of draining other people's vitality which she kept hidden under her glove]].
** "Fifty-three": [[spoiler:When they finally reached the treasure chamber, there were fifty-three sacks of gold]].
** "Walls beyond doors": [[spoiler:When Chance entered the treasure chamber, the door slammed shut behind her. From inside it looked indistinguishable from the wall, and could not be opened]].
** "Two months and back": [[spoiler:Ulstyr left and returned to the tomb after two months, when Chance would be long dead]].
** "Prop a rock": [[spoiler:Ulstyr used a rock to prop open the door so that it wouldn't slam shut on him as well, and took all the gold for himself]].
* In ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'', many of the conspiracy theories that Steven Heck rambles on about actually happened in RealLife ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_Kitty Operation Acoustic Kitty]]), [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement could be argued to have actually happened]] (his theory about the collusion between the Federal Reserve and private banks to screw over the American people), or can be revealed to have actually happened in the game (his theory about the government screwing with commodity prices in order to manipulate people's minds; if you ask Mina to dig up intel on [[spoiler:Parker]], she will send you an email noting that that was the subject of his doctoral dissertation).
* The sequel to ''VideoGame/NelsonTethersPuzzleAgent'' introduces a woman called Korka who lives in the town and also suspects something strange is going on. However, after she reveals that she suspects that everything is about a bigfoot that lives in the area, Nelson promptly leaves and calls her crazy in his audiolog. Guess what creature ends up helping him destroy the [[spoiler:lunacy ray]]?
* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/AlphaPrime'', the utterly drunk Freddie (and later, the eccentric Paolo) keeps insisting that this prospector's urban legend "Glomar" is a real creature who is the source of [[GreenRocks hubbardium]]. While not quite ''literal'', by the end, it's undeniable that [[spoiler:Glomar is definitely some kind of real, extraterrestrial force that creates hubbardium out of the rocks surrounding its heart, among other things]].
* Agent Francis York Morgan from ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition''. Some of the things he says to his imaginary friend Zach [[spoiler: who is really the player]] as well as some of the things he envisions when [[spoiler: staring into his coffee]] are often foreshadowing of future events Oracle-style. Likewise, his unorthodox procedures often yield hidden evidence, contrary to the expectations of those around him. A lot of his words and actions are dismissed by the sheriff in particular, at least early on. Of course, while York is definitely odd, he is arguably normal in-verse considering how strange most of the residents of Greenvale are.
* Dan Hibiki and Rufus are both notorious in ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' for having somewhat tenuous grips on sanity and Rufus, in particular, is prone to spouting off random gibberish. At the same time, though, they're both the ''only'' members of the Street Fighting crew to call E. Honda out on the fact that, despite what he believes, the fighting style he uses is ''not'' traditional sumo wrestling, and so he is undermining his own arguments that sumo should be respected as a legitimate fighting style.
* Insane characters in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'' can, as part of a random even chain, pass laws against violence that greatly resemble our own modern conceptions of human rights. Unfortunately, the effort really ''is'' quite insane, given that DeliberateValuesDissonance is a key part of the game and the rulers' neighbors and vassals will [[VirtueIsWeakness treat this as a sign of exploitable weakness]].
[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' uses this as its primary plot element. Protagonist and self-proclaimed MadScientist Kyouma Hououin (birth name: Okabe Rintarou) sees conspiracy in everything, blaming even minor, everyday inconveniences on the shadowy machinations of the world-spanning Organization, but since he's pretty much harmless, those around him just let it slide. So when he starts raving that [[FictionalCounterpart SERN]] has been researching TimeTravel with the ultimate goal of enslaving humanity, and that his microwave is the only thing that can stop them...
* ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'':
** Anghel Higure is a bird who's... not quite right in the head. Just for starters, he's convinced that he's a FallenAngel and the heroine is his reincarnated love Edel Blau, regularly [[DynamicEntry crashes through glass windows]] and loudly proclaims that he can sense demon spores that must be eradicated at once, and [[LargeHam treats even the most pedestrian decisions as life-and-death matters]]. However, in the Bad Boys Love route, it turns out that at least one part of his ramblings actually has validity to it: [[spoiler:the "demon spores" he keeps on ranting about and senses the most strongly in the infirmary were most likely the Charon virus Doctor Shuu was preparing to infect Ryouta with in the same infirmary, which indicates that he can actually sense diseases/viruses that no one else can]].
** There's a scene where Anghel can talk to Nageki Fujishiro, who is baffled. Partly because Anghel is... being Anghel, but also because he's talking about things [[spoiler: from before [[GhostAmnesia Nageki's death]] five years ago]] that he should have no way of knowing. It goes far beyond this, in fact: After you've completed Bad Boy's Love, going back to the regular routes and listening to Anghel again will leave you with [[http://lexlee20.tumblr.com/post/23616979639/omg-himnesia the mind-blasting realization]] that everything he says, which once came off as complete nonsense, describes the events of that plot ''perfectly,'' leaving you with the impression that perhaps Anghel is the [[OnlySaneMan only sane bird]] at St. Pigeonation's.
[[folder:Web Animation]]
* One chapter of ''WebAnimation/BrokenSaints'' features eccentric egg farmer Masayuki, who tells a silly story to Kamimura (one of our heroes), and is hardly seen again. As it turns out, the moral of that story is the central message of the whole series.
* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':
** A lot of the seemingly crazy things Caboose says actually turn out to be right (at least to some degree) in the long run. For example, in the first season he thinks that Church is "a gay robot", and six years later [[spoiler:comes the big [[TheReveal Reveal]] that Church was in fact an A.I. rather than a human.]] After a time travel episode, he also notes that "Time... line? Time isn't made out of lines. It is made out of circles. That is why clocks are round." which actually fits with the eventual series theme of events going in circles.
** In season 8, Doc, Agent Washington, and the Meta are heading to Sidewinder to track down Church. Wash stops the jeep, and notes that there might be a trap waiting, one set up by a freelancer. Doc suggests that Wash noticing the trap might be part of the trap, but Wash assures him that he's overthinking things. Then it turns out that they stopped the jeep in the center of a circle of proximity mines. Doc manages to say, "Told you so" just before the kaboom.
[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0556.html Fight, fight, fight, fight the urge to say "I told you so."]] Elan's good for this thanks to his [[GenreSavvy encyclopedic knowledge of bardic tradition]] ([[TheDitz and little else]]).
* [[ConspiracyTheorist Malcolm]] of ''Webcomic/SamAndFuzzy'' was [[HearingVoices receiving visions]] that were [[spoiler: [[HowMuchDidYouHear accidentally being received]] from [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Sin's]] [[SinisterSurveillance surveillance devices]] [[ElectronicTelepathy through]] [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext his]] [[AnimeHair hair.]]]]
* ''Yahtzee Takes On the World'': World leaders consult a magic eight-ball to make decisions. When a main character asks a ball about Yahtzee's odd behavior, it answers "He's the [[EvilCounterpart Anti-Yahtzee]], dumbass."
* In ''Webcomic/{{Megatokyo}}'', Largo is treated as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} by most of the class, but Tokyo IS a WorldOfWeirdness, and personal relationships DO lead to more trouble than would be expected. Early on, he was telling Piro and Erika about his encounter with a horde of zombies, and nobody took him seriously, including most of the audience, who recognize that Largo is way too obsessed with video games, and when he says he was being chased by zombies, it was probably just a crowd of goths or fanboys he had managed to upset. Years later (or a week in webcomic time), the zombies return, and it's explicitly shown that they're flesh-eating monsters from another dimension. [[WeirdnessCensor Piro and Erika still don't believe him]].
* Done in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', by Lieutenant Shore "Pi" Pibald (who is "every bit as irrational as his namesake"), who correctly guessed the true nature of Credomar.
** Later he correctly identified why a rampaging [[spoiler: Gav-clone turned super soldier]] was killing all his victims with head injuries; [[spoiler: If Balt Binion came back with a different personality after his head was regenerated, it's likely that all the transmogrified Gavs will come back with a similarly hostile personality.]]
** Schlock also throws around really wild guesses, [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2007-05-24 some]] of which hit [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2006-04-05 precisely]].
* Something like this happens in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' during the ''Boys' Night Out'' arc. Early on, a vampire hunter is introduced, and even though one of the oldest recurring characters really is a [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire vampire]], this hunter is initially portrayed as being humorously and/or dangerously out of touch with reality, to the point that you might expect him to kill innocent people, and the fact that vampires do exist seems to be a mere coincidence. Fast-forward to the end of the arc, where this crazy hunter has been overpowered and kidnapped by legitimately evil vampires, and he reveals himself to be a CrazyPrepared unkillable badass.
* In one chapter of ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', two guys are in a graveyard at night, roleplaying ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. By sheer coincidence, zombies burst out of the ground at the exact moment one of them casts a spell to raise the dead. Incredulous, he cries out "[[ComicBook/ChickTracts Jack Chick]] was right!" as they flee.
* In ''Webcomic/MonsterOfTheWeek'' [[GenkiGuy Mulder]] is ''always'' right with his "it's paranormal!" theories. Scully lampshades it the first time it happens, and by the fifth she's just bored to death with it.
* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' Jack stops eating in an attempt to avoid Court staff, on the belief that they track people through their food. Jones later confirms that this is how they usually do it.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Blip}}'', [[http://blip.rampagenetwork.com/829/ K becomes concerned]] over a flash of light outside the airplane window, fearing that it's from an alien spacecraft. [[http://blip.rampagenetwork.com/831/ Two pages later]], we see that the plane nearly did collide with a UFO.
* [[CreepyDoll Blair]] from ''Webcomic/EerieCuties'': the little pervert [[http://www.eeriecuties.com/d/20100125.html proposed]] what by coincidence was a good idea in the given situation.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'', no one believes Kiel'ndia when she suggests [[spoiler:that her friend Naal'suul might not have been completely taken over after releasing her demonic seed and that she might still retain some of her old personality]] but a few chapters later it's proven that she was exactly right. She's also the only character in the story who [[MediumAwareness actually realizes she's in a comic]], which everyone else dismisses as more crazy talk.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Vinigortonio}}'' Jose constantly speculates that things that obviously exist are illusions much to Vinicius and Igor's annoyance. [[spoiler:And he turns out to be right about the bomb in the third comic.]]
* ''Webcomic/YetAnotherFantasyGamerComic'' has this with Lewie in the strip named [[http://yafgc.net/comic/2126-what-did-that-bonehead-say/ "What Did That Bonehead Say?"]].
-->'''Maula Bloodhand:''' By the gods... ''Lewie'' is right.
* In ''Dave & Vyacheslav'', Dave the necromancer happens to encounter the ridiculous [[http://www.bjorn-comic.com/dandv/strip24.htm Church of Jesus Christ, Astronaut]], which holds that Jesus "[[http://www.bjorn-comic.com/dandv/strip25.htm stands astride a satellite, gazing down upon us with unblinking eyes, twenty-four hours a day]]." As it turns out, however, due to a botched resurrection attempt by a group of necromancers in the year 1000, [[http://www.bjorn-comic.com/dandv/strip50.htm Jesus is now a zombie on the moon]].
* The crazy ConspiracyTheorist in [[http://spacetrawler.com/2010/06/28/spacetrawler-53/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'' strip is definitely right about four of her crazy ideas. She shows up again in [[http://spacetrawler.com/2012/03/11/spacetrawler-212/ a later strip]] and is once again dead on target.
* In ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'', the utterly idiotic and insane King Steve is devastating the environment by ordering his subjects to drill the earth for mana despite such a thing being impossible. In the penultimate strip, a newspaper reports the discovery of a "mana vein".
* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': In the Denmark segment of the JustBeforeTheEnd prologue, an established ConspiracyTheorist points out a few odd things about the PatientZero group for the Rash, such as the fact that nothing is known about them a week after their arrival, and suspects that there is an ApocalypticGagOrder about the disease's seriousness in place. In the Finland segment that happens a couple of days later, an official newscast announces that the Rash is actually deadly on top of its already-known fast-spreading nature, which means that the Danish ConspiracyTheorist's theory was actually spot-on.
[[folder:Web Original]]
* In one of the endings to the ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Silent Hill: Dying Inside'' review, Linkara is transported into the {{Cloudcuckooland}} that is Phantasmagoria. When he speaks to Pollo, Pollo responds with "His soul is blue. His heart is steel." [[spoiler:It's a reference to Mechakara and a clue to his identity -- specifically, that he's actually an alternate universe Pollo]].
* In ''Roleplay/WeAreOurAvatars'', Kari points out that, technically, it was Arcie's fault for letting the other Legendaries in the Pokémon world grow up to be so dysfunctional. Arcie agrees.
* According to [[http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/season-of-chaos Season of Chaos]] from ''Wiki/TheWanderersLibrary'', Emperor Joshua Norton wasn't crazy, just from a different universe where he actually was emperor.
* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', Glaistig Uaine is a psychotic mass murderer who thinks she's a faerie Queen, and makes a number of bizarre claims that no one takes seriously, though they humor her because she's incredibly dangerous. Pretty much everything she says turns out to be foreshadowing, though [[spoiler:it's actually caused by ''aliens'', not faeries.]]
* On ''WebVideo/SteamTrain''[='s=] playthroughs of several Creator/{{Sierra}} games, Ross often comes up with the proper solutions to puzzles completely out of the blue. While this might not seem to fit this trope at first, Sierra games tended to use {{Moon Logic Puzzle}}s so often that [[FanNickname gamers coined the term]] "Sierra Logic" to describe it (the prime example being ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV'', where a [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Yeti]] is defeated with a PieInTheFace).
* Creator/GavinFree of Creator/AchievementHunter tends to be this with rest of the group blowing him off due to his nature.
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''[=G2G=]: Got to Go'', Maggie's new age spiritualist friend Rainbow is most often right when people ignore her ramblings of universal imbalance and the like.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': While in the middle of a drug-fueled MushroomSamba, Roger refused to let go of a big bag of cat food, afraid that he was becoming immune to gravity. At the end of the episode, he drops the bag and floats off.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': After a field trip to an art museum, Binky is convinced that an abstract painting isn't being displayed properly. Everyone dismisses him, but at the end of the episode, after a bit of research, Binky shows everyone some old footage of the artist unveiling the piece - and proves the museum has been hanging it upside-down.
* Kiina from ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' strongly believed in life on other planets, and wanted to leave her CrapsackWorld DesertPunk planet and visit them. Naturally, everyone thought she was nuts until Mata Nui showed up.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** In the "Imaginationland" three-parter, Creator/MelGibson, over the course of a masochistic rant, suggests to government agents that they look over the individuals in a terrorist video, looking for someone who 'doesn't fit,' which turns out to be the hint they needed. Different from most of these cases because the agents instantly recognize it as such. "Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but [[BunnyEarsLawyer the son of a bitch knows story structure!]]"
** In "Reverse Cowgirl" [[spoiler:Butters admits he thought the correct way to sit on the toilet was to sit inward so you can rest your reading material on the top and reach the handle without having to look down. Near the end John Harrington's ghost confirms that this is how he intended it to be used]].
** In "Douche and Turd" the [[AnimalWrongsGroup PETA]] leader was a batshit crazy zoophiliac, but he still gave Stan a sound (well, as sound as it gets in [[CrapsackWorld South Park]]) advice to accept having to choose between between a giant douche and a turd sandwich for a school mascot, because douches and turds are the only kinds of people that succeed in politics and become nominees, and it will always be the only choice he ever gets, so he might as well get used to it. This particularly stands out as he was the only authority figure who didn't act in outrage to Stan's apathy to voting (compared to the adults of South Park, who compared to their awareness of PETA being insane, had Stan ''banished'' from the town).
** Cartman becomes the Cloudcuckoolander in "Die Hippie Die" when he warns the town of an oncoming hippie music festival and is imprisoning hippies in his basement, leading to him being thrown in jail - until the festival begins consuming the town and everyone has to turn to Cartman to get rid of all the hippies.
** In "Volcano", Cartman tells a story about Scuzzlebutt, a monster with a stalk of celery for an arm and Patrick Duffy for a leg, and who weaves wicker baskets at night. The other boys ridicule his stupid monster story right up until Scuzzlebutt appears in the end.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StrokerAndHoop'', Stroker is hired by a very rich man with a tinfoil hat claiming that Creator/RonHoward was psychically talking to him. He wanted Stroker to investigate. Stroker accepts the money, and walks off. Then Ron Howard starts contacting ''Stroker'' with his psychic powers, which Stroker blocks out with a hot dog wrapper.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "Bart's Comet", when Springfield was threatened by a comet, the only one not panicking is Homer. He's convinced it will burn up in the atmosphere and be "no bigger than a Chihuahua's head." At the end of the episode, that's exactly what happens (it even lands next to a Chihuahua for comparison).
--->'''Bart:''' But what's really amazing, is that this is exactly what Dad said would happen.\\
'''Lisa:''' Yeah, Dad was right...\\
'''Homer:''' I know kids, I'm scared too!" ''[family hugs, terrified]''
** In "Brother's Little Helper", Bart, when his ADD medicine caused him to become paranoid. He became convinced that Major League Baseball was using a satellite to spy on the populace, and stole a tank to shoot it down. Mark [=McGwire=], fresh off of his pursuit of the home run record, immediately showed up to distract everybody's attention.
** In "Homerazzi", when the family put their valuables in a fire-proof safe, we see Bart's Krusty doll falling on Lisa's Malibu Stacy convertible turning its headlights on lighting Homer's cologne bottle causing it to boil and explode. When they see the safe smoking, Homer guesses exactly everything we've seen, but Lisa denies it as ridiculous...until the safe explodes.
** Marge briefly becomes paranoid in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Marge", thinking that Becky is planning to kill her and steal Homer, but every accusation she makes is debunked and everyone thinks she's crazy. At the end, however, when she finally concedes she was wrong and apologizes to Becky, Becky confesses and says she ''had'' planning to kill her, at least originally. (According to her, she had a lot of trouble buying a shovel and decided to scrap the whole idea.)
** "Lisa's Rival" features a subplot where Homer starts obsessively guarding a pile of sugar from "thieves." Marge tries to tell him that he's being paranoid... at which Homer promptly discovers a British man hiding inside the sugar pile, who explains that he stole the sugar for his tea, "when you let your guard down for that split second, and I'd do it again."
* In ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunksMeetTheWolfman'', Alvin makes various crazy claims about people in the neighborhood being monsters that get him in trouble. He has never been right, which his brothers ridicule him for, and Simon uses them as evidence that his claims their new neighbor is a werewolf are wrong. Then Theodore is bitten and turns into a werewolf, and it's eventually revealed that their new neighbor ''is'' the one who bit him.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** In "Swarm of the Century", only Pinkie Pie recognizes the adorable bug Fluttershy found in the forest as a troublesome (and rapidly multiplying) Parasprite, but her attempts to gather up the needed equipment to get rid of the swarm is seen by her friends as her [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} being her random self]]. The fact that she says "I need this instrument" without explaining ''why'' she needs it, only strengthens this perception, and they gripe that she isn't helping them round up and dispose of the bugs. That changes when she manages to [[MagicalFlutist lead the swarm out of Ponyville.]]
** Used in "Over a Barrel", where Pinkie attempts to settle things between a western town of ponies in Appleloosa and a tribe of buffalo. Unfortunately, she does so via a ridiculous song and dance number that irritates the two groups even though her message is the best solution for the both of them.
** And in "Feeling Pinkie Keen", she turns out to be right about her "Pinkie Sense", a series of nervous tics and twitches that she claims to allow her to predict the future.
** In the ''Equestria Girls'' spinoff, Pinkie Pie's human counterpart blurts out silly theories like Twilight being psychic or ''really'' ridiculous ones like her being a pony princess from a magical dimension that has come to this one to find a special item. Twilight herself is amazed that she guessed that second one correctly.
* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' when Dib tries to escape the school nurse who declares martial law during a lice outbreak and rambles about a giant queen louse being responsible. She's right.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/KidNotorious'' starts with an AlmostDeadGuy ranting about a [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi conspiracy]] to wipe out all the Jews in Hollywood. Everyone else remembers last week, when he thought Creator/BillCosby wanted to drain his blood, but Evans does some digging, and, well, you can guess.
%%* Dave the skunk from ''WesternAnimation/ScaredySquirrel'' is this trope at times, especially in the robot hammock episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'':
** In "The Great Parent Mystery", there's a running gag where Dog explains several ridiculous theories detailing how he and Cat became separated from their parents, ranging from them being abducted by mole people to getting amnesia and consequentially believing they were country western singers. When they finally [[spoiler: find their adoptive parents, these wacky theories turn out to be true]].
** In "Meat Dog's Friends", it is revealed that Dog believes meat comes from meat trees planted by a man named Johnny Meatseed. Cat attempts to set Dog straight by showing him a video of animals being led into a slaughterhouse, which results in [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Dog becoming horrified that he had been eating food made from sentient creatures]] and eventually trying to eat his own brother after considering vegetables and rocks his friends on the basis that brothers are not friends. Fortunately, Johnny Meatseed turns out to be real and plants meat trees for Dog so he doesn't have to eat Cat or feel guilty about eating meat.
* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperheroes'' has a variant--[[MechanicalLifeforms Brainiac-5]] is malfunctioning and as a result, babbling incoherently. During his rants, however, he starts to reveal information about {{Superman}} that he himself doesn't know yet. Of course, neither Clark nor Timber Wolf understand what he means.
-->'''Brainy:''' Superman, GreenRocks [[KryptoniteFactor kill]] [[LastOfHisKind the Last Son]]! There's red, blue, gold, purple, did you know that?
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
** Crocker's theories are spot on, and he's the only person outside of other kids with fairies to recognize it. He usually manages to correctly predict what Timmy has wished for, even if he went from a completely absurd starting point to reach that conclusion, and some of his anti-fairy gear ''actually works'', somehow.
** In "Crocker of Gold", Cosmo is spouting a lot of crazy leprechaun facts that Timmy and Wanda don't believe... until real leprechauns appear and confirm them.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011'' Thundera's {{Catfolk}} RebelPrince Lion-O suffers from a longstanding reputation as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} due to a stubborn, romantic belief in mythical "[[LostTechnology technology]]," and a very public instance of [[ZombieAdvocate Zombie Advocacy]] where he defended and pardoned some enemy LizardFolk scavengers. When a Lizard army invades with a SuperWeaponSurprise of laser rifles and {{Walking Tank}}s to destroy Lion-O's [[MedievalStasis medieval kingdom]], even he can't bring himself to gloat. He gets to feel a little pride, however, when a Lizard he pardoned shows up [[AndroclesLion to repay him]], [[spoiler: slipping the key to Lion-O's prison cell [[JailBake in some soup.]]]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/FishHooks'' episode "Just One of the Fish" [[spoiler:Milo was the only one who knew Hank the Boy wasn't [[SweetPollyOliver Bea disguised as a boy]].]]
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'':
** Dale Gribble once correctly deduced that Chuck Mangione was secretly living inside the Arlen Mega-Lo-Mart. The audience gets to see what led him to believe the pest was a person instead of a rat, but how he figured out that it was Chuck specifically is anyone's guess. It seems like just another one of his ridiculous conspiracy theories for most of the episode, until Chuck reveals himself to Dale.
** In "Old Glory", when Bobby is getting low grades, Peggy assumes the teacher is getting revenge on her for taking her coveted parking space at the school. We may think this is Peggy being a KnowNothingKnowItAll as usual until the end when it turns out to be true.
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': Ed's popculture grab-bag brain rarely predicts vital info, but is ''[[UpToEleven regularly correct]]'' in its wonky perception of reality. [[RealityWarper Thusfar he's been able to fly, insert himself into TV broadcasts, teleport and self-multiply]].
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
** In "Headhunters", [[CrazyHomelessPeople Old Man McGucket]] asks Mabel if [[spoiler:the Mystery Shack's wax figures are alive]], to which she replies SureLetsGoWithThat. Guess what we find out later in the episode.
** In "Irrational Treasure", [[GenkiGirl Mabel]] is helping [[SeekerArchetype Dipper]] uncover a historical conspiracy, in order to prove that she's not "silly" like [[AlphaBitch Pacifica]] said. However, throughout their quest she keeps unconsciously doing goofy things (like folding a map they find into a paper hat) which help them solve the clues. Ultimately, it's revealed that the person who laid the clues [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike was just as big]] of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.
* The trope is a plot point in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' where [[FatIdiot Peter]] hears from a random guy in a chicken suit that the world is going to end on midnight during New Year's Eve. Naturally, Peter's family refuses to believe him, but after he shoves them into the basement and they survive doomsday, Peter spends the rest of the episode telling everyone he was right about the world ending.
* [[ConspiracyTheorist Matt Bluestone]] of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''. He's convinced there are gargoyles that patrol the city at night, and that the Illuminati exist, control even the President, and are part of an AncientConspiracy that stretches back to the Middle Ages. If this were a more reality-based show, he'd be nuts, but in [[FantasyKitchenSink this show]], everything he believes is true. Not only that, but he eventually becomes the gargoyles' FriendOnTheForce and actually ''joins'' the Illuminati.
* Botch suspects ''WesternAnimation/TheHairBearBunch'' is using a variety show in their cave as a ruse for them to escape (episode "Closed Circuit TV"), but Peevly, watching on his closed circuit monitor, is entertained by the proceedings. Turns out Botch was right--the bears are seen parachuting over the wall for a night on the town.
* {{Zigzagged}} on ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' -- first, [[ConspiracyTheorist Ronaldo]] has [[TheReptilians a ridiculously incorrect theory]] about the events in Beach City, only to learn that most of them were caused by the Crystal Gems--something which he and the rest of the town are FantasticallyIndifferent toward. However, then he twists them around into a conspiracy theory by declaring that "[[{{Shapeshifting}} polymorphic]] [[SiliconBasedLife sentient rocks]]" are trying to hollow out the Earth, under the command of the "Diamond Authority." As the series progresses, we find out that while the Crystal Gems are good guys, Ronaldo's theories are true for [[GalacticConqueror the rest of their species]]. Even the term "Diamond Authority" turns out to be accurate. Indeed, it's something of a RunningGag that pretty much anything Ronaldo says about Gems will turn out to be true in some manner.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DanVs,'' whatever ridiculous thing that [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Dan]] says wronged him this week--the Wolf-Man, George Washington's ghost, etc.--will turn out to be real, and a good portion of his other weird theories ("the dentist [[spoiler:is a supervillain]]," etc.) will be correct too. Heck, in "Elise's Parents" he was actually ''trying'' to lie but still turned out to be partly right.
%%* From time to time, Ron Stoppable from ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' is right about his "so-called" paranoid delusions.
%%* Used constantly in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo''. The most ridiculous explanation given will "always" be the right one.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Stumpy turns out to be completely right about [[spoiler: Smileyland's sheep being aliens in Episode 98.]]
[[folder:Real Life]]
* Happens fairly often in mathematics and science. Quantum mechanics is surely Cloud Cuckoo Land material, and it's been proven correct at every test. Relativity is similar, if a LITTLE easier to understand.
** Dr. Michio Kaku famously said "It is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. In fact, some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it is that it is unquestionably correct."
** Niels Bohr: "If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet."
** Also Niels Bohr: "We are all agreed that [quantum theory] is crazy. What divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct."
* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's 1848 prose poem "Eureka," where, falling into dementia and having professed skepticism about mathematics as a tool of scientific discovery, he uses his own "ratiocination" (read: free association with elements of proto-logic) to decide that the universe had arisen from a singularity, that there were celestial objects so dense that light cannot escape, that many of what were then thought to be nebulae were in fact galaxies as large as the Milky Way itself, that the solar system was at the edge of the Milky Way rather than the center, and that Newtonian gravity was a special case of a broader property of matter. Of course, there are also many, many errors, but it's still pretty impressive.
%%Don't add subjective things about society here, that have not been vindicated yet, or are YMMV. Science examples can go here, but everything else will just attract {{natter}}.%%
* This [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20682_5-crazy-people-who-were-right-all-along.html Cracked]] article had 5 cases of people who had 'insane' theories that was proven to be true.
* Charles Manson, the infamous head of the Manson Family and all-around crazy megalomaniac, vacillates between being all of the above and accurately pinpointing issues in world affairs decades before they happen when asked for his commentary, as seen, for example, [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ttyK6alKaYo in his discussion on wealthy elites.]]
* People often make fun of conspiracy theorists who think the government is watching everyone, but revelations from leaked files about global surveillance programs show those conspiracy theorists are more right than many would like.
* Website/{{Snopes}} spends its time debunking UrbanLegends, which for the most part you'd be a fool to believe. But a small but non-negligible percentage of the stories they've researched actually turn out to be ''true''. A prime example is [[http://www.snopes.com/medical/asylum/fbipizza.asp this story of FBI agents trying to order pizza in an insane asylum]] sounds like a joke, but to their astonishment it was confirmed by the FBI. As the site's authors observe:
--> " no matter how bizarre, far-fetched, or incredible a story may seem at first glance, it should never be entirely discounted without at least some effort being made to verify it."