Sometimes it's absolutely valid to say "guys. This is a clue your +4 wis character would pick up on. You're just stupid yourself".

At least in our group it is

The worst is when they ignore your subtle clues so you slap them with a huge neon sign, and they decide it's too obvious and start chasing down a dead end.

DM: "You enter a room. There are three dead bodies lined up along the wall, each with a mysterious sigal etched into their foreheads. Also, you see a clown."

Player 1: "I sense motive on the clown."

Player 2: "I talk to the clown."

Player 3: "Omg, my parents were killed by clowns. I wrote the DM 300 pages of fiction about it. I draw my sword and prepare to fight!"

DM: "Damn, why aren't these players interested in my clues?"

Rule of threes. Every clue should be presented to the party three different times, in three different (increasingly aggressive and hard to dismiss) ways. Maybe the first is a note in a locked chest. The second is a note on the dead body of a relevant NPC. And the third is a note on an enemy courier who is very obviously trying to get it to the BBEG. That last one is important, because it gives the party a chance to murder-hobo, while still providing them with the clue.

If, after three times, they still haven’t gotten it? The BBEG gets the message, and {bad thing} happens in the background, (which probably makes their eventual assault on the BBEG’s lair harder.)

My group consists of veterans to newcomers (it’s always such an honour).

Me: ok guys so you’re all captured by the local law enforcement/gestapo and escorted to the city gates towards the prison district.

Most players: oh no what do we do? Let’s carefully plan something.

New player once the doors unlock: * starts graciously doing acrobatics all over the place killing guards and even kissing a guard while she stabs him in the neck.

Like goddamnit guys, the clue was gestapo guards taking you away. The new one gets it!!!!

This is when you make one of the WIS casters make an Insight check to realize the obvious clue is actually a clue.

"You get the strong sense that this bit of information is relevant to your current quest."

Is it hand holding? Sure, but we do it for the same reason we get our puzzles and riddles out of children's books: sometimes the obvious answer is the hardest to spot.

Missing the bottom pane: going and standing in the corner looking at the picture, then spending 15-60 minutes debating the relevance of this object

I got involved in a war of succession, and when I came to the throne room, there was a portal to somewhere else. The DM was trying to get me to go in, but there's no way I'm wandering into a portal that goes who knows where.

Turns out, the uncle made a portal to the niece's hideout to kill her. So when he came back, I killed him and took the crown. What kind of idiot doesn't ward their hideout?

YOURE EATING THE DOG!!!

There will always be clues...

@The_Picard_Maneuver Well, yeah^^ I don't even waste time constructing in-depth scenes with clues when I'm a GM/DM. I just give the players an "Education" or "Common Sense" skill and have them roll on that or Int or Wis. I also spend a good portion of game time making sure they haven't attributed the points I gave them in their "Education" or "Common Sense" skill to a combat skill. The nearly always do & nearly always say "but I thought..."

“Look, I’m fine with playing the societal collapse campaign. I have notes on mass embalming *smack* all laid out. Are you two?”