The Attention Deficit Disciple is found in conjunction with the "Stop Having Fun" Guy, usually as a sidekick or junior partner and generally as the more stupid of the two. Whenever the bulk of the cast is engaged in Wacky Fratboy Hijinks, a musical number, or some other rollicking bit of fun, the "Stop Having Fun" Guy will refuse to join in. However, a zoom-out or change of view will reveal that his companion is cheerfully joining in.
Often leads to a Death Glare and/or Amusing Injuries for the dimwit.
Compare Underling with an F in PR (a villain is trying to be inconspicuous, but their underling gives away their evil plans). For musical numbers, see Actually Quite Catchy. Might overlap with Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Digimon: If a Digimon is friends with a Shoutmon, this is a very common and dangerous problem.
- Zatch Bell!: Folgore's first appearance. Kiyomaro is still analyzing him while he dances, and Gash couldn't help but join the dance.
Comic Books
- Lucky Luke: In "The Bounty Hunter" a group of Cheyenne warriors come into the local saloon, looking for the escaped Elliot Belt. While most of them are searching the place, the young Small Face joins the showgirls in a can-can.
Fan Works
The Reckoners Trilogy
- What Happened In Edmonton: Kokichi is the poster child for not paying attention. The moment their interaction with Phytomagnet stops looking like it’ll be a fight, they wander off.
Films — Animation
- Aladdin (1992, Disney): Iago, the Big Bad Jafar's loyal parrot, finds the Genie singing "Prince Ali" so catchy that he starts to dance to the tune, to Jafar's rising anger—Prince Ali's appearance hampers Jafar's plans of marrying the princess. Iago sheepishly stops on hearing Jafar growling at him.
- Cats Don't Dance: Max, Darla Dimple's otherwise trusty bodyguard, gets swept off by Danny's musical show during the final confrontation because of how good it is. An indignant Darla has to snap him out of it.
- The Emperor's New Groove: Yzma's sidekick is not only a Minion with an F in Evil but also generally easily distracted when one of his hobbies is involved. As a result, when the greasy diner's chef gets overwhelmed by Kronk and Kuzco's constant change of orders, the waitress has no issue cajoling Kronk into becoming the new chef. This distracts Kronk from looking out for Kuzco and Pacha in the restaurant. Just before that, when Kuzco and Pacha convince the restaurant's staff that it's Yzma's birthday to distract her, Kronk gets genuinely excited when they sing her happy birthday, not noticing Yzma's clear displeasure.
- The Great Mouse Detective: During the mouse burlesque show, Basil looks over to see Dawson (who's acting loopy after drinking a drugged beer) dancing with the showgirls.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie climaxes with SpongeBob thwarting Plankton's plan using The Power of Rock. A panicking Plankton tries to call out to Karen for help, only to find her cheerfully crowd-surfing through a mosh pit.
Films — Live-Action
- Aladdin (2019): Princess Jasmine's handmaiden Dalia bobs her head to the tune of "Prince Ali" and points out to Jasmine that this prince must be wealthy for him to bring such a parade. Jasmine, who thinks this is just another braggart royal, rolls her eyes at it. This is in contras to the original animated movie, in which Iago fulfills this role.
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Brick begins joining in with a rival news team in laughing at his friends.
- Enchanted: Robert catches himself bobbing along with Giselle's Crowd Song before realizing what he's doing.
- Hairspray (2007): In the finale, Amber joins the heroes (and her rivals) in their dance because she finds their act catchy. Her mother, the racist Big Bad, is non too pleased about it.
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000): The Grinch is displeased to find his faithful dog Max dancing along with the citizens of Whoville's song.
- The Mask: The protagonist puts on a catchy dance show, with all the cops joining in. The lieutenant in charge tells his subordinate: "You start dancing, I'll blow your brains out.
"
- Muppet Treasure Island: Captain Smollett joins in with "Sailing to Adventure" and then immediately stops when Mr. Arrow (Sam the Eagle), his subordinate, glares at him. It's previously been established that Arrow wants Smollet to be a stern and ruthless captain and hates any evidence that he isn't.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Rocky, as well as all the nameless Transylvanians and Columbia, start dancing along to Eddie singing Hot Patootie much to Frank's dismay/jealousy. Instead of stopping in embarrassment, Rocky gets thrown into the elevator by Frank and watches in horror as he kills Eddie with a pick axe. Columbia and the Transylvanians also dance and sing along to the "that ain't no crime" lines in Sword of Damocles, essentially taking Rocky's side against Frank. (Riff Raff and Magenta do the same, in both songs, but they're not actually loyal to Frank anyway.)
Literature
- The Magic For Idiots: Sadist shapeshifter Maruchi and bumbling wizard Rokuro, whom the former raised, have this dynamic. Maruchi tends to lose his temper whenever Rokuro's scarce brains lead him to blunder through a plan or unwittingly help the enemy.
Live-Action TV
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: TV's Frank is laidback and goofy, so he tends to unwittingly ruin his boss Dr. F's zany schemes due to getting distracted by the heroes. Dr. F is slightly less ineffectual than him, so he gets mad at his subordinate behavior quite frequently.
Professional Wrestling
- WWE Raw: Beth Phoenix sighs at Jillian Hall's "performance" of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" only to give an even more disapproving glare to Katie Lea Burchill, who she noticed was dancing along to it. Katie quickly cut it out.
Theatre
- ISP Presents A Midsummer Night's Dream: During the Oberon-Titania confrontation, one of the queen's fairies goes along with the king's trash talk, before one of her comrades glares at her.
Video Games
- Undertale: Ironically, Sans plays this role to Papyrus in Snowdin. Papyrus is the one acting all serious and focusing on capturing the human, while Sans doesn’t take it seriously at all and cares more about trolling his brother and the Player Character and making lame puns.
Webcomics
- The Order of the Stick: In "The Lawyers Strike Back", the Order is on trial. One of the two lawyers for the prosecution is immediately distracted by the presence of a cat.
Lord Shojo: Mr. Scruffy thought you boys weren't going to make it.
Mr. Jones: You can assure your feline that your court date was never in real jeopardy.
Mr. Rodriguez: Ohmygod!!! You have a kitty!!!
Vaarsuvius: This is a troubling development. I was already concerned about our actual ability to eloquently present our defense before this court of law... But now we must defend ourselves against two highly-skilled legal professionals—
Mr. Rodriguez: Kitty kitty! Hello, kitty kitty! Hello!
Vaarsuvius: —ONE highly-skilled legal professional and one man in a very expensive suit.
Western Animation
- Miraculous Ladybug: Ladybug is the clear leader of Paris superheroes. This huge responsibility turns her hero persona into someone strait-laced and reliable. Chat Noir, by contrast, is as goofy and flirty as they come. This means that she sometimes has a hard time getting him to focus on defeating the Akumatized villain at hand instead of, you know, pestering her for a date. He's otherwise a good hero.
- The Simpsons:
- "Lisa the Vegetarian": Homer responds to Lisa's new vegetarianism with "You don't win friends with salad!", which Bart turns into a conga line. They leave the frame and when they return, Marge has joined in; Lisa admonishes her, and Marge responds "Sorry, it was catchy".
- "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds": Mr. Burns sings a song (to the tune of "Be My Guest") where he details how he plans on skinning the greyhounds he adopted from the Simpsons to make a tuxedo. Lisa is horrified, but Bart is humming along, and again, when Lisa calls him on it, he says "You've gotta admit, it was catchy."
- "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore": Inverted. When the Indian employees and some other characters break out into a Bollywood song and dance, Smithers looks on eagerly until Burns allows him to join in.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Supply Lines", during a dinner with the king of Toydaria, Jar Jar Binks tries to distract Senator Lot Dodd and his retinue for long enough to allow a Republic convoy of relief ships to take off undetected. He does so by staging an impromptu juggling session with the tablewares. When he finishes, the Toydarians at the table applaud him, but Lot Dodd looks at him in disgust. Dodd's aide however, starts to clap along until he catches Dodd's look of disapproval.
- Wizards (2020): In "Wizard Underground", when Skrael creates an ice patch that Steve slips on, he spends some time playing around with making Steve fall in ridiculous ways. Bellroc is not amused that it distracts from his Hannibal Lecture.
Bellroc: Foolish servant. You think you can stop us? We planned for a millennium... gathering ... waiting ...
[Krael cackles gleefully while tossing Steve around.]
Bellroc: Do. You. Mind?
Krael: Sorry, it's just so fun.
Bellroc: ... to undo you. To undo all of you!
