The Jeeves



""When you name your baby Jeeves...you've pretty much set up his career for life. You don't see many Hit Men, for example, named Jeeves. "Pardon me sir, but I must wack you now.""

- Jerry Seinfeld

The Jeeves is the perfect English butler, valet, or manservant. Always well-dressed, unfailingly polite, devoted to his employer... and usually much smarter or more level-headed than his employer, too. Usually can manipulate him so subtly that he does not even have to speak With Due Respect to achieve his ends.

The canonical example is Jeeves himself, from the Jeeves and Wooster short stories and novels of PG Wodehouse and the Jeeves and Wooster TV series based on them. The original Jeeves, just for the record, is a valet, not a butler.

A somewhat common subversion, which began while Wodehouse was still writing, is to have the butler as a brutish thug (and possibly a Battle Butler). Both the original and the subversion are examples of an actually useful kind of valet taken to the logical extreme. After all, if an aristocrat is in fact foolish and incompetent, then a competent valet is an urgent necessity if they are to survive everyday life. Conversely, an aristocrat may find it useful to have a brutish thug on retainer to deal with certain... inconvenient problems.

Note that The Jeeves, even if a valet, is not prone to the No Hero to His Valet plot, generally having a clear view of his master's faults and virtues, though he may, on occasion, allow his view of the former to jaundice his view of the latter.

Usually a Hypercompetent Sidekick. Complete opposite of the Bumbling Sidekick.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

 * The central premise of Black Butler
 * Genji and especially Gohda from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni fall into this trope.
 * Pagan, the Darlian's butler from Gundam Wing.
 * Tokita, the Itoshiki-family butler in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. He's ultra-competent and seems more sensible than his employers, although since this is a World Gone Mad, he has his own quirks.
 * In Wild Rose, Mikhail's butler Bernt is utterly unflappable and appears like a phantom the moment Kiri slacks off in his work.

Comic Books

 * Alfred Pennyworth from Batman. And yes, given the title used for a military officer's personal assistant, that makes him Batman's batman. He's also a Battle Butler in several incarnations, with British military and/or espionage training.
 * Jarvis from The Avengers also fits this trope.
 * These two aren't necessarily smarter or more level-headed than their employers, though. (Jarvis' employer is Tony Stark, btw.)
 * Though in the case of Alfred, he's certainly more level-headed than Batman, and keeps Batman from either giving up, or going too far into Knight Templar territory. While he isn't more intelligent or deductive than Batman (though he has his moments), he's certainly wiser than he is.
 * Jarvis is considerably more level-headed than Tony Stark - which one of them, after all, is the alcoholic?
 * Cadbury, the butler of Richie Rich.
 * From Archie Comics, the Lodge family butler, Smithers.
 * Nestor, the butler of Marlinspike Hall in the Tintin series.

Film
"What gift do you think a good servant has that separates them from the others? It's the gift of anticipation. And I'm a good servant. I'm better than good. I'm the best. I'm the perfect servant. I know when they'll be hungry and the food is ready. I know when they'll be tired and the bed is turned down. I know it before they know it themselves."
 * Hobson, Arthur's valet from Arthur.
 * Martin from the 1998 version of The Parent Trap.
 * Leonard's butler in Leonard Part Six.
 * The Admirable Crichton (Title and description of Jeeves-like hero).
 * Wadsworth in Clue.
 * Bates from Top Hat for Horace.
 * Bensonmum in Murder By Death, memorably acted by Alec Guinness.
 * That's Jamessir Bensonmum, to be precise.
 * Jeens in Dark and Stormy Night.
 * from Gosford Park turns this to unusual ends.


 * Delbert Grady of The Shining, albeit briefly

Literature

 * Jeeves from the Jeeves and Wooster series of short stories and novels by PG Wodehouse, later adapted into the popular Jeeves and Wooster TV series. The Trope Namer, of course.
 * Mention should also be made of Sebastian Beach, the butler supreme of Blandings Castle.
 * Subverted with Voules, Reggie Pepper's manservant. Reggie Pepper was a scatterbrained aristocrat who was later Expied into Bertie Wooster, and Voules at first appears to be a cool, calm forerunner of Jeeves...until he turns out to be an angry, drunken Jerkass who betrays his master. Characterization Marches On, what?
 * Also subverted with Brinkley who Bertie hires when Jeeves is temporarily working for someone else. Brinkley is an incompetant, violently alcoholic Communist who ends up setting the house that Bertie is staying in at the time on fire.
 * Also, Jeeves the eponymous robotic Battle Butler for Clan Korval in the Liaden Universe, who it turns out actually adopted his name and manner specifically from certain ancient novels.
 * Henry from Isaac Asimov's Black Widowers stories: these are puzzle-mysteries in which a group of men discuss a mystery or conundrum over dinner and fail to solve it; the solution is always offered by their humble and devoted waiter Henry.
 * Lord Peter Wimsey's valet Bunter is not, in fact, smarter than his amateur-detective employer, but he does have a number of useful skills that his boss doesn't -- like knowing how to develop a photograph.
 * The meaningfully-named Jock Strapp of the Charlie Mortdecai series is written as the subversion type, and is actually described as the anti-Jeeves. He's crude Dumb Muscle and completely loyal to his cunning employer, the titular Villain Protagonist (or anti-hero on a good day).
 * Butler, the Battle Butler of the Artemis Fowl series has some resemblance to the subversion, but is well-spoken enough to resemble The Jeeves.
 * Vimes' butler Willikins in the Discworld books encompasses both this trope and its subversion: normally, he is the perfect Jeeves (minus the subtle manipulation of a wayward master), but in his childhood or when the situation demands, he was and becomes a thug.
 * Indeed, in Jingo he switches from one to the other in mid-sentence. "Let 'em 'ave it right up the... oh, is that you, Sir Samuel?"
 * In Thud, he keeps acting like the perfect Jeeves even after personally eliminating half of a commando squad attacking the Vimes home, and then hosing down their invasion tunnel with a flame-thrower.
 * Also in the same book, Willikins admits to having been a street gang member (in a gang even Vimes, a gang kid and possibly the Disc's dirtiest fighter, describes as a tough, mean lot) in his youth, favoring a cap-brim lined with sharpened penny coins. We also see him assisting the watch as a volunteer reservist later. Vimes marvels at the difference in Willikins' working-class background and his current highbrow butler status.
 * In Snuff,
 * The Igors are pretty much this for the Mad Scientist type. Although they are willing to work for non-mad scientist types.
 * Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day is a Deconstruction of this,
 * In Robert Asprin's Phules Company books we have Beeker, the batman of Willard J. Phule. Whilst his insanely rich employer is busy inspiring his Ragtag Bunch of Misfits troops (and he does -- no Upperclass Twit here), he's the one who frequently has to pull his arse out of the line of fire.
 * Sam Weller of The Pickwick Papers, while somewhat less polished than most, is certainly far more level-headed than Pickwick himself.
 * Lugg in the Albert Campion mysteries is a good example of the subversion.
 * Because he apparently hated butlers (going so far as to say they had their own circle of hell, where kitchen-maids and journalists could watch their torments from Heaven), Hilaire Belloc wrote a different kind of subversion in The Emerald of Catherine the Great. The butler acts like The Jeeves around his master (except his schemes don't work), but is thuggish to the other servants. He even switches between posh dialect and Cockney, depending on whether there are toffs around or not.
 * Poul Anderson's Technic History has the valet of Dominic Flandry, Chives, who is a clear Shout Out to Jeeves. Even if he is not human.
 * Miss Feng in Charles Stross's short story "Trunk And Disorderly", which is a pastiche of the Jeeves novels relocated to an indeterminate future.
 * Ruggles Of Red Gap which was also made into a play and a movie.
 * Konstantin Bothari from the Vorkosigan Saga fits as one of the tropes' subversions. He plays batman to Aral Vorkosigan in the Barrayaran army, and later young Miles Vorkosigan after his release from service, but his primary qualities are his loyalty to the Vorkosigans and his martial abilities as a body guard. Later Miles acquires the suave and Jeeves-like Armsman Pym, who more closely embodies the original trope. Both Bothari and Pym are examples of the Battle Butler.
 * From The Kingdoms of Evil, Mr. Skree
 * In Death: Summerset, a butler who is naturally British. However, he doesn't seem interested in manipulating his employer Roarke very much.
 * Mr. Butler from the Phryne Fisher novels. He keeps Phryne's eccentric household running like clockwork and is never put out by any request, no matter how odd.

Live Action TV

 * Massively defied by Edmund Blackadder in Black Adder the Third, who constantly manipulates his self-confessed "thick as a whale omelette" employer for his own ends. Interestingly, his employer is portrayed by Hugh Laurie, who also played Wooster.
 * Geoffrey from the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
 * And his spiritual ancestor, Benson DuBois of Soap.
 * Frasier hires one of these in one episode of the show named for him, although he only plays up the British Stuffiness when on the clock, and is happy to discuss Man Utd with Daphne in the kitchen.
 * Niles from The Nanny
 * There is Frick from the mini-series Merlin. He is the polite and well-mannered servant to Queen Mab who horribly mistreats him. He often tries to serve as the voice of reason only to be ignored and is often the one to actually carry out her plots.
 * He defines his role and the trope perfectly when Merlin meets him at the end saying: "There will always be a need for the perfect gentleman's gentleman, and I was and always will be one of the best."
 * In an episode of Even Stevens Louis hires Chives, an English butler, for a week.
 * Kryten of Red Dwarf is named after the Admirable Crichton, although he's The Woobie as much as The Jeeves.
 * Hudson from Upstairs Downstairs, who often puts duty and rectitude before compassion or flexibility, or even his own selfish needs. In one story, he panics when he is seen by Sir Richard at a restaurant entertaining relatives from Australia because he thinks he is aping his betters and thus deserves to be sacked. He is quite shocked when Bellamy doesn't get rid of him, though Bellamy's brother makes him squirm quite a bit.
 * Carson from Downton Abbey. Only World War One can stop him from running the house perfectly

Theater

 * Speed definitely comes off this way in Two Gentlemen of Verona; he's a cheerful Servile Snarker with an unbelievably quick wit, as likely to rib his master for being in love as he is to help him put his gloves on.
 * Tranio in The Taming of the Shrew--a Gentleman and A Scholar who's willing to do literally anything to help his master out. (And, incidentally, to help himself to some of his master's power.) Lucentio never does a thing without consulting him.
 * Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat: In the song "Go, Go, Go, Joseph", the Pharaoh's butler is referred to as "the Jeeves of his time".
 * The Admirable Critchton appeared before even Jeeves. Though he plays Hypercompetent Sidekick to an entire family of Upper Class Twits (and single-handedly saves the day when they end up on a Deserted Island), he still believes that it's wrong for the upper and lower classes to mingle too much and maintains that, as a mere servant, he should know his place.

Video Games

 * In Laura Bow: The Colonel's Bequest, there is a butler named Jeeves.
 * In World of Warcraft, engineers can craft a device that requests the presence of Jeeves, the perfect gentleman robot butler, who will attend to your needs for 10 min. Jeeves allows players to repair their armor and weapons, sell unwanted items, buy reagents for spells and grants bank access to skilled engineers. Truly a gaming gentleman's gentleman.
 * The Jeeves robot, however, has the look of a clockwork gnome and lacks the British stuffiness of a true Jeeves. A closer approximation to The Jeeves in-game is the raid boss Moroes inside Karazhan. He's in charge of the grand dining hall, and is unflaggingly polite to you even when he's trying to kill you. Even when you kill him, he maintains his stuffy cool, saying only "How terribly clumsy of me."
 * Lawrence is one of these to Dr. Nefarious in the Ratchet and Clank series.
 * In Fallout 3, when you get a house (either in Megaton or Tenpenny Tower), you are given a robotic butler to help explain the house's functions, give you fresh water, and tell you jokes. Both possible butlers speak with a british accent and have remarkable manners.
 * In Pokemon Platinum (and Pokemon Heartgold and Soulsilver), Darach is this to Caitlin. Just look at him His title is Castle Valet, and he battles you in place of Caitlin, who is implied to have tantrums when she loses. Darach is polite and proper, and he also says En garde! Caitlin is also a powerful Psychic who can't control her powers, so you can see why she doesn't battle..

Web Comics

 * After he won the lottery, Robbie of Pv P hired a butler named Butler who plays this to the hilt and can solve any problem the other characters have if they ask him to.
 * ... And apparently.
 * In No Rest for The Wicked, Perrault effectively runs his master's life. Until he decides he's bored; and even then setting guidelines for continued success while he's gone.
 * In Girl Genius, Gilgamesh Wulfenbach's assistant Wooster is a of this trope, considering that
 * Considering the man's name, it's not much of a surprise.
 * Despite being  and a university friend rather than someone hired as a professional manservant, he does seem to be good at his   job. And given who his employer was, having a batman with non-traditional talents probably came in handy.

Web Original
"Caleb: You throw like a girl, Tucksworth.
 * Mr. Deeds of SCP-662.
 * In the Show Within a Show Caleb Rentpayer from the Homestar Runner cartoons, Caleb is a young slacker who somehow came into a lot of money. From the brief snippets of the show we've heard, his hapless butler Tuxworth seems to be half Jeeves, half Butt Monkey.

Tuxworth: Caleb, that suitcase was heavy!"

Websites

 * Ask Jeeves. Back by popular demand.

Western Animation

 * In Gargoyles, Xanatos' secretary/butler/manservant/majordomo/whatever Owen Burnett (who chose this life over... Nah, that would be telling).
 * And Preston Vogel, whom Owen modeled his personality on.
 * Duckworth from Duck Tales.
 * One of Gromit's many household roles in Wallace and Gromit. Usually the cause of his misfortune.
 * One episode of The Fairly Odd Parents had Timmy getting a butler named Jensen. There didn't seem to be a problem with him seeing Cosmo and Wanda.
 * An episode of Danny Phantom had Danny getting rich and getting a butler named Hopkins.
 * An episode of Jimmy Two-Shoes had Beezy getting a butler who literally lived his life for him.
 * Archer has a butler named Woodhouse (get it?) who is definitely more down-to-earth than his employer. Unusually, in contrast to the norm wherein The Jeeves is the one "really in charge", Archer treats Woodhouse like shit (although we frequently get hints that the valet has his own little ways of getting revenge).