Bumbling Sidekick



"Baldrick: I've been in your service since I was two and a half, my lord.

Blackadder: Well, that must be why I'm so utterly sick of the sight of you."

- Blackadder, "Bells"

An annoying, incompetent sidekick for another character -- usually an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist -- who barely tolerates him. The only talent a Bumbling Sidekick has is the ability to tolerate any amount of abuse -- and he needs it, given how often his "friends" are yelling at him and throwing him face-first into walls.

Some Bumbling Sidekicks are delusional and think they are appreciated, which is why they put up with the abuse they get. Others are just too desperate for friendship and/or money to leave.

They tend to have extreme luck -- either they're the resident Butt Monkey, or they reap all the benefits of other characters' hard work, which makes everyone resent them even more.

This trope is Older Than Steam, possibly originating in Italian Commedia Dell'Arte plays.

Often overlaps with Minion With an F In Evil or Cowardly Sidekick. Contrast Hypercompetent Sidekick.

Anime & Manga

 * Sasuke Sarugakure, Ninja servant to the Kunōs in the Ranma One Half anime, alternates between this and Straight Man for the Kunōs, depending on just how insane his masters are this week.
 * In Excel Saga all the girls Il Palazzo employs are flawed to some extent, but Excel is the one that is most likely going to mess up whatever new plan he has for taking over Fukuoka City. She is also completely delusional with regards to how much Il Palazzo cares about her.
 * Jaken, to Sesshomaru, from Inuyasha.
 * Digimon Adventure 02: Ken's Digimon partner, Wormmon, during Ken's time as the Big Bad.
 * In Death Note, Misa could be seen as Light's Bumbling Sidekick, though she has moments of startling competence.
 * The World God Only Knows
 * By the third or fourth capture, Keima has acknowledged that his partner Elsie is basically completely useless. He points out that partners these days are supposed to be intelligent and capable, so she's all happy that she has Keima in that case... which gets her yelled at for thinking she's the main character.
 * Ryou, Nora's partner is on the same level, if not worse than Elsie.

Comic Books

 * Donald Duck frequently falls into this role when Uncle Scrooge is around, Depending On the Writer. Donald is not stupid, just blinded by his own ego at times.
 * X-Men villain Toad was played this role for Magneto for a very long time. He didn't start to grow balls until the '90s, and even then, he was still the Butt Monkey until The Movie came out where -- thanks to additional ranine abilities like a "nasty tongue" and spitting goo -- he became quite an effective villain, which carried over into the comics.
 * Ukko in Slaine.
 * Teen Titans: Bette Kane, a former member of the Teen Titans, and prior to some retconning the original Batgirl, has been portrayed as this for many years. Recently, she decided to come out of retirement while in college, only to end up being kidnapped and held hostage by a serial killer a mere issue after her initial decision.
 * From Lucky Luke, Averell Dalton for his brother Joe.
 * Generally speaking, if a Golden Age superhero didn't have a Kid Sidekick, he'd be saddled with one of these guys for "comic relief":
 * The Flash had Winky, Blinky, and Noddy, aka "The Three Dimwits" (a more precise term would be "The Three Ripoffs of Larry, Moe, and Curly.)"
 * The Green Lantern had Doiby Dickles, who could be succinctly described as "Insane Simpleton With a Wrench".
 * Even The Spectre had "Percival Popp, the Super Cop," a dorky amateur detective (but not an actual police officer) who followed him around.
 * Plastic Man was already pretty funny in his own right, but he still got Woozy Winks, a fat, bumbling sidekick with a personality based on Lou Costello.

Fan Works

 * Dragonball Z Abridged turns Nappa into this sort of character, and he quickly became an Ensemble Darkhorse.

Films -- Animation

 * Kronk, from The Emperors New Groove.

Films -- Live-Action

 * Otis, Lex Luthor's henchman in the 1978 Superman film.
 * Dibbs, Carrigan Crittenden's henchman in the 1995 film Casper.
 * Annoying comic relief Bumbling Sidekicks were a staple of Masked Luchador films starring El Santo and other wrestlers. Just taking a look at one of them, Perico (from Santo En El Tesoro De Dracula), on this page's Image Links, should give you the general idea.

Literature

 * As a teenager, Peter Pettigrew was the Bumbling Sidekick to the other Marauders in Harry Potter.
 * Stolen from Gypsies has two, both probably inspired by Baldrick from Black Adder. The protagonist/narrator has his servant Antonio, and in the story-within-a-story he's writing, there's the character Short Clog. Since the characters in the story-within-a-story reflect the narrator's life, it's likely Short Clog reflects Antonio, although the two are somewhat different- Antonio is a bit of a Hypercompetent Sidekick, whereas Short Clog is a straight up Bumbling Sidekick, being a dullard with bad hygiene.
 * Parodied in the Doctor Who Virgin Missing Adventures novel Managra, where the Bumbling Sidekick to the resident dashing hero is in fact a lot smarter than he lets on -- and, indeed, a lot smarter than his boss in many ways -- but pretends to be a dimwit because it pays better.

Live-Action TV

 * Blackadder
 * "Sod-off" Baldrick is a classic example. In the first season, he was a Hypercompetent Sidekick, but a Retool between seasons transformed him into the clumsy, clingy idiot who put up with a beating an episode. By the time of the fourth TV series, Blackadder Goes Forth, Private S. Baldrick's stupidity borders on insanity.
 * Also Lord Percy Percy from the second season.
 * Manuel, Fawlty Towers.
 * Dougal McGuire, Father Ted.
 * TV's Frank, from Mystery Science Theater 3000.
 * Bubble from Absolutely Fabulous.
 * Neil from The Young Ones.
 * Manny of Black Books.
 * Much from Robin Hood (2006).
 * Dwight from The Office (US version), albeit only when he is accompanying his boss, Michael Scott.
 * In the UK comedy series The New Statesman, Piers Fletcher-Dervish is Alan B'Stard's long-and-brutally-suffering sidekick. Not really under any illusion that Alan likes him, but too terrified to end the relationship.
 * Ted from Scrubs. J.D. fits this trope when he's around Dr. Cox.
 * Star Trek Voyager: Lonzak, the incompetent henchman of Dr Chaotica in the Captain Proton holoprogram.
 * Heroes: Sylar gains one in the form of the teenager Luke in Volume 4. Luke forces Sylar to not kill him by saying that he knows where Sylar's father is. However, Luke himself is a bit of an ass and really gets on Sylar's nerves. Once Sylar finally figures out where his father is, he ditches Luke and never looks back.
 * Merlin's interaction with Arthur often comes off as this in Merlin, even though sometimes he's pretending.

Theater

 * Older Than Steam: Arlecchino, from Italian Commedia Dell'Arte plays, often served this role.
 * In Moliere's Don Juan, Juan's servant Sgnanarelle is pretty much this, a bumbling Dirty Coward who isn't treated very well by his master.

Video Games

 * Poor little Pete from Bully kissed Gary's ass for God-knows-how-long until Jimmy saved him.
 * Elliot from Jagged Alliance 2 fits this like a glove. His boss, the very bitchy and hot-tempered Queen Deidranna enjoys killing the messenger. In this case, it's always Elliot, and it always involves her slapping the s*** out of him, and in one instance, shooting him from point-blank with a pistol... only to have him get up and insist that he clean the mess himself. He is incredibly devoted to her, regardless of the abuse he takes, and actually would survive until the end of the game if your mercs don't find him and put him out of his misery.
 * Tales of the Abyss
 * Mieu a.k.a. "Thing". He's a typical cutesy animal like you'd find in many a fantasy anime, complete with an annoying squeaky voice and Spoon Speak. What makes him a Bumbling Sidekick is his undying faith in his master, who gives him the aforementioned nickname, bashes him into a soldier's helmet to knock the soldier out, and every other time he speaks, he either kicks it around or tells it to shut up, or (usually) both.
 * One of the members of the Quirky Miniboss Squad is also this. Yes, it's Dist, who attempts to make it very clear that he really does hate that duplicitous snake whom he once counted among his friends Jade, but fails miserably because of his stalkeristic actions. The entire party pretty much just treats him like a joke.

Web Comics

 * Fighter from Eight Bit Theater is, at times, Black Mage's Bumbling Sidekick.
 * The Order of the Stick
 * Elan is often portrayed as Roy's Bumbling Sidekick. In the Origin of the PCs Prequel, he definitely is toward his Paladin partner.
 * On the villains' side, Thog is this for Nale in the Linear Guild.

Web Original

 * Greasy of the Whateley Universe, the deviser who's the sidekick of annoying horndog Peeper around the Whateley campus.

Western Animation

 * Dr. Zoidberg, Futurama.
 * Helga Phugly from The Oblongs -- a rare female example.
 * GIR, Invader Zim. Zim acts this way towards the Tallests, though he's clearly the protagonist.
 * Hesh from Sealab 2021 is considerably ruder and more self-assertive, but he still fits the pattern.
 * Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force acts like a small child, complete with imaginary friends. This lets him be the perfect Bumbling Sidekick -- he's clingy, gullible, stubborn, useless in an emergency, and has no attention span. He also has the wild sidekick luck -- his fortunes vary from being sold for cash to becoming the god of Christmas. The golf videogame lampshades this with comments like "What a rotten friend you are!" when describing the pickups allowing you to use him as a golf ball or as a distraction for the enemy to target.
 * Pinky from Pinky and The Brain is not desperate, nor does he ever quite demonstrate the delusion that he is appreciated. Rather, he is simply too scatterbrained and cheerfully oblivious to notice that such a thing as contempt exists, much less that the Brain harbors so endless a supply of it for him. Deep down, the Brain really does care for Pinky as much as Pinky, who considers the Brain his best friend in all the world, cares for the Brain.
 * Both Ed and Edd from Ed, Edd n Eddy take more than their fair share of abuse from Eddy (although in Edd's case its not stupidity that's the problem but instead being overly moral and verbose). Both however are likely to get Eddy into an unpleasant situation, usually by accident.
 * Stimpy from The Ren and Stimpy Show.
 * Harley Quinn from Batman the Animated Series was this to The Joker. Admittedly, the Joker generally seemed to view her as his favorite henchman. Given that the Joker's favorite person is Batman, however, she still gets treated pretty badly.