Accidental Hero: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''TV:''' HIGH SCHOOLER FOILS BANK ROBBERY WITH NOTHING BUT BOW AND ARROW!

* An ''[[Archie]]'' comic had Jughead failing as a security guard until he tripped and fell on a guy who turned out to be a shoplifter.

* Don Martin's Captain Klutz.

* Quite often the [[Incredible Hulk]] isn't actually ''trying'' to do something heroic, but he often does a lot of good with his powers anyway.

* Kevin Kolton from [http://www.evilplan.thewebcomic.com Evil Plan] wasn't trying to do anything heroic with the supervillian's telekinesis chip. He accidentally installed it by {{spoiler|falling asleep in class.}}

 

 

* In ''[[Army of Darkness]]'' Ash both invokes and subverts this trope at different times.

* Played with in the movie ''[[Accidental Hero (film)|Accidental Hero]]'' (also known as simply ''Hero''): the actual person who saves the people from a burning plane is a [[Jerkass]] who has one moment of decency (a plane crashes in front of him and he grudgingly helps the victims get out). The bum who (falsely) takes credit for said rescue is otherwise the kind of person you'd believe to be a hero and uses his reputation to help other people. There's enough gray area between them for the audience to decide which (or both) is the true hero.

* In ''[[Star Wars]] [[The Phantom Menace]]'', Anakin Skywalker gets into Naboo fighter ship to avoid a firefight in a hanger on Naboo. After accidentally activating the autopilot, the ship flies to the scene of the space fight, where Anakin figures out how to turn off the auto pilot. In an effort to escape being blown up by federation fighters he flies the ship into the hanger bay of the enemy federation ship. After several robot droids notice him and start approaching his ship, he fires on them, destroying the droids. Conveniently, several of Anakin's missed shots at the droids hit a power system structure, which happens to be directly behind the droids. Anakin narrowly escapes the erupting federation ship, which is noticed by other Naboo fighters. "There's one of ours out of the hanger." After the federation ship is destroyed by Anakin's bad aim, the battle is over as without the command an control from the federation ship the attacking droids all shut down.

* ''[[A Fistful of Dynamite]]'': Despite Juan Miranda's best efforts to the contrary he is constantly being lauded as a hero of the revolution. An example of this is {{spoiler|freeing political prisoners being held in a former bank whilst only interested in finding money}}.

* In [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s ''[[Modern Times]]'', Chaplin thwarts a prison break by dodging bullets and pummeling the escaping prisoners. But he only does so because earlier he'd unknowingly sprinkled cocaine all over his lunch that another prisoner had hidden in a salt shaker, and was completely high at that point.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Homer Defined" had Homer save the town from nuclear doom by using eeny-meeny-miney to find the right button. He is then lauded as a national hero. He later manages to recreate his blunder, but the townsfolk figure out he had no idea what he was doing, and his "reward" this time is inspiring the term "[[Person as Verb|pulling a Homer]]".

** Similarly, in "Little Big Girl" Bart accidentally puts out a fire when using fire hydrants to propel himself forward along the road... his intention was just a cheap thrill, but the material from said fire hydrants put out a fire that he encountered along the way.

* This is the only reason anyone in ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' accepts the title character as an Inspector. However, he's so clueless that he ''believes'' the hype and never realizes for himself that he's not really the hero. Then again, his bumbling often genuinely ''does'' help save the day, usually in a [[Spanner in the Works]] fashion.

* [[Archie Comics]]: The superhero Bob Phantom created an identity in order to get close to superheroes and learn enough about them for his expose book. In his first appearance, however, he is mistaken for a genuine superhero, and, worse still, ends up helping another hero save the day!

* [[Duck Dodgers]] is this to the Martian Queen (and only the Martian Queen). Whether it's a well-timed teleporter malfunction, or bending over at ''just'' the right moment, whenever he's around her, circumstances conspire to make him look like a [[Badass]].

* In an episode of ''[[Recess]]'', TJ gets a black eye and won't tell anyone how he got it. The other kids convince themselves that he got it performing some heroic feat or other and is just too modest to admit it. After initial protests TJ quickly starts enjoying the hero life, even getting a parade in his honour. When he's asked to tell the tale of how he got his black eye at the parade, however, his conscience finally kicks in and he admits the truth - He was square-dancing, and his partner knocked into him.

* One of the early episodes of ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'' has a [[Cat Up a Tree]] leap into Buster's arms to eat his ice cream, {{spoiler|due to it having fish}}, thus becoming a hero. He lets the hero stuff go to his head and Arthur and friends decide recreate the scenario via robotic cat to prove he is no hero. It succeeds, much to the dissapointment of Buster, but then {{spoiler|saves someone from a falling piano. [[Here We Go Again]]}}.