I recently stumbled on the notion of an idiot plot on Facebook — a cultural category I had surely encountered before but must have forgotten about. In any case, I now had Wikipedia’s explanation, along with a notable example, the plot of the Astaire / Rogers musical comedy film Top Hat.
But … despite some evident absurdity, I find the film enormously enjoyable, and in fact it’s by far the most successful of the Astaire / Rogers movies. Musical films are clearly not bound by constraints of rationality or fidelity to fact — indeed, the narrative objects of culture are in general unconstrained by such considerations: consider the plots of most operas and American Western movies, both set in times and places that never existed and often don’t make sense: consider, specifically, Manon Lescaut and The Magic Flute; or Red River and Stagecoach. Masterpieces of their genres, truly wonderful, but preposterous and inaccurate in many ways. We don’t care. All this stuff happens in fictive worlds that are imaginative creations with their own conventions (not unlike the fictive worlds of science fantasy).
Now: background about idiot plots. And then an appreciation of Top Hat.
Idiot plots. From Wikipedia:
In literary criticism, an idiot plot is one which is “kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot” [Knight, In Search of Wonder], and where the story would quickly end, or possibly not even happen, if this were not the case. It is a narrative where its conflict comes from characters not recognizing, or not being told, key information that would resolve the conflict, often because of plot contrivance. The only thing that prevents the conflict’s resolution is the character’s constant avoidance or obliviousness of it throughout the plot, even if it was already obvious to the viewer, so the characters are all “idiots” in that they are too obtuse to simply resolve the conflict immediately.
History: Science fiction writer and critic Damon Knight, in his 1956 collection In Search of Wonder, says that the term may have originated with author James Blish. Knight went on to coin the term second-order idiot plot as a narrative “in which not merely the principals, but everybody in the whole society has to be a grade-A idiot, or the story couldn’t happen”. The term was later popularized by film critic Roger Ebert.
Example: Roger Ebert described the 1935 film Top Hat as an idiot plot, depending as it does on “a misunderstanding that is all but impossible”, relying on the fact that Ginger Rogers’ character has somehow never met her best friend’s husband, and is able to mistake a complete stranger (played by Fred Astaire) for him, and for that misunderstanding to continue without being questioned. Ebert noted that the situation “could be cleared up at any moment by one line of sensible dialogue”, yet the writers deliberately avoid doing so to keep the plot in motion.
Top Hat. From Wikipedia:
Rogers and Astaire in Top Hat (Wikipedia photo)Top Hat is a 1935 American musical comedy film, in which Fred Astaire plays an American tap dancer named Jerry Travers, who arrives in London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton). He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) to win her affection. The film also features Eric Blore as Hardwick’s valet Bates, Erik Rhodes as Alberto Beddini, a fashion designer and rival for Dale’s affections, and Helen Broderick as Hardwick’s long-suffering wife Madge.
The film was directed by Mark Sandrich, and was written by Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor, with songs by Irving Berlin. “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails” and “Cheek to Cheek” have become American song classics. It has been nostalgically referred to — particularly its “Cheek to Cheek” segment — in cinema, including films as diverse as The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), The Green Mile (1999), and The Boss Baby (2017).
Astaire and Rogers made nine films together at RKO Pictures; the others include The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), and Carefree (1938). Top Hat was the most successful picture of Astaire and Rogers’ partnership (and Astaire’s second most successful picture after Easter Parade) … Top Hat remains, to this day, the partnership’s best-known work.
… [but] On the film’s release, the script was panned by many critics, who alleged it was merely a rewrite of The Gay Divorcee.
From my 9/3/24 posting “Done with style”:
I’m a great fan of The Gay Divorcee, for many reasons, but its dance centerpiece is a huge production number introducing The Continental as a new dance craze. A great pleasure to watch, as the pair seem to be dancing effortlessly, sometimes apparently in the air — an effect that owes as much to Rogers as to Astaire (though he was of course the choreographer).
March 10, 2026 at 4:38 am |
Comments on Facebook about this posting:
— Gadi Niram: Of course the (still eminently watchable) sitcom “Three’s Company” was 8 years of idiot plots.
— AZ > GN: Some sort of monument of idiot plots.
— Mike Pope: Isn’t it arguable that at least some of Shakespeare’s comedies are essentially idiot plots?
— AZ > MP: In a word: yes. And we don’t care. And then we get Gilbert & Sullivan, who made idiot plots a conspicuous art form. Part of the pleasure of G&S is the astounding absurdity of the plot lines. (The oddity of “The Sorcerer” is that it has genuine human tragedy and sacrifice at its heart, amidst the dancing to the mustard and cress sandwiches.)
— MP > AZ: It just occurred to me that “The Importance of Being Earnest” is another excellent idiot plot