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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Lord Cutler Beckett:''' You're mad!
'''Captain Jack Sparrow:''' Thank goodness for that, because if I wasn't, [[Genre Savvy|this would probably never work]].|''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]''}}
Someone who is
▲=== '''Note:''' This [[Trope]] has been subjected to some misuse. Please read this article before listing it on a work's YMMV page. ===
▲Someone who is [[Crazy Awesome]] is someone who's completely nuts, in an amusing way, and is effective at what (s)he does ''because of'' that craziness. In real life (s)he'd get fired from whatever job (s)he has/would have, or even arrested—at the very least, the things (s)he does just plain wouldn't ''work''. But somehow, as his/her every action is generally protected by the [[Rule of Cool]], (s)he manages to be both effective and a character that the audience likes or even loves.
For your convenience, we have provided a handy chart for easily differentiating between this trope, [[Cloudcuckoolander]], and [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]].
{| class="wikitable"
!
![[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]
![[Cloudcuckoolander]]
|-
|Bizarre personality and behavior are ultimately inoffensive to others or society at large.
|'''Yes''' (merely off-putting).
|'''Yes''' (generally [[Played for Laughs]]).
|'''No''' (expect them to be dangerous).
|-
|Manages to be competent at whatever it is they do for a living.
|'''Yes''' (in spite of their craziness).
|'''No''' (they tend to be too weird to hold down a job).
|'''Yes''' (and they manage this ''by'' being crazy).
|-
|Inherent craziness synergizes with the effectiveness of their role in the story.
|'''No''' (it can hinder their job competence).
|'''Yes''' (their role is to be as weird as possible).
|'''Yes''' (their craziness lets them do amazing things).
|}
For example: let's say [[The Chosen One]]'s best friend, Ed Smith, wears a traffic cone on his head. Said traffic cone is spray painted metallic purple and has a grinning chimpanzee's face painted on the front. And Ed ''insists'' that you call it Sheldon. Yet despite this, Ed is very loyal to [[The Chosen One]] and can hold his own against the army of [[Mooks]]. So far, he seems like your average [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]], right? The traffic cone is an eccentric trait if there ever was one, but it's not necessarily why he's liked by the audience. Now suppose about ten episodes into the series, the [[Big Bad]] decides to drop a bomb on the Hero's [[Doomed Hometown|city]], and only Ed can do something to stop it. If Ed were to catch the bomb in his hand then kick it back to the Big Bad's jet, thus destroying them both, he's still not Crazy Awesome, he's a [[Badass]] [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]].
If, instead, Ed pushes an inconspicuous button on the underside of Sheldon's base, and a jack-in-the-box chicken head springs out of the top and shoots [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] out of its eyes that disintegrate both the bomb ''and'' the jet in the space of five seconds, ''then'' Ed Smith (and Sheldon) has become
In other words, it is ''because'' of Ed's quirkiness that he is an effective cast member. He would not be as effective (or, indeed, the same character) without the eccentricities. There can't be one without the other.
On average, every other action the
{{examples on subpages}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Absurdity Ascendant]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
[[Category:Power At a Price]]
[[Category:Stock Characters]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
▲[[Category:YMMV Trope]]
▲[[Category:index]]
▲[[Category:Crazy Awesome]]
[[Category:The Utterly and Completely Definitive Guide to Cool]]
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