>>>A moment when a normally competent character suddenly becomes incompetent — knowingly or otherwise — which fuels an episode, a plot line, or any number of smaller threads.
Coined by Hank Azaria on Herman's Head: Azaria would ask the writing staff, "Who's carrying the idiot ball this week?" This is generally not a compliment<<<

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotBall

Can you think of any good specific examples of this? Remember, characters created to mess up or misunderstand, like say Gilligan, aren’t included here.

There's a Jeffersons episode where George is opening a new store behind Louise's back because she's demanded he stop spending all his time on work. Louise takes it into her mind that he's sneaking around having an affair, and she gets madder and madder.

There's a Jeffersons episode where George is opening a new store behind Louise's back because she's demanded he stop spending all his time on work. Louise takes it into her mind that he's sneaking around having an affair, and she gets madder and madder.

That's the episode that led to the opening credits clip where Louise socks George in the gut with a pillow, knocking him backward over the bed, when she finds out he ISN'T having an affair.