Comedic Hero

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Tons of gadgets, milligrams of brain.

The Comedic Hero is a less-than-competent protagonist who nevertheless succeeds despite his best efforts. He might have dumb luck on his side, or a Hypercompetent Sidekick might be watching his back with or without his knowledge.

The Fool is a specific variant of this character type. Might be a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass. For the superhero version, see Super Zeroes. For a goof who is more competent than people would like to admit see Let's Get Dangerous

Examples of Comedic Hero include:

Anime

• Milfeulle Sakuraba of Galaxy Angel, a ditz of epic proportions, actually survives by the most improbable luck in the universe.
• The title character from Bobobobo Bobobo, Bobobo.
  • Not so much because of luck, but because his brand of insanity is perfect for dealing with the insanity around him.
• The Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Maybe.

Comic Books

• Numerous from the Golden and Silver Ages of comics, including but not limited to:
  • The original Red Tornado, a hefty housewife who crossdresses as a superhero with a cooking pot over her head and beats up gangsters.
  • Johnny Thunder, a hopeless twit who has an all-powerful genie at his command and doesn't even know it.
  • Super-Hip, aka Tadwaller Jutefruce, Bob Hope's nerdy nephew who turns into a super-powered mod crooner whenever he gets angry. His battle-cry? "Bleck to Lawrence Welk!"
  • Angel and the Ape: She's a private eye with brains and beauty to spare. He's a comic-book artist who happens to be a talking gorilla. They Fight Crime!
  • Stanley and His Monster, a little boy who pals around with a demon who was kicked out of Hell for being too darn nice.
• Zayne Carrick, main character of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (no, not that one, I'm talking about the comic series) started out as this, a walking catastrophe who couldn't even hold onto one lowlife criminal once captured (my apologies to Gryph). However, after the first story-arc, he settled into a more heroic mold, and his proneness to accidental carnage degenerated to an Informed Attribute.
  • He also becomes smarter (he outsmarts and derails the plans of a mad scientist, a corrupt corporate executive, and a deranged Sith wannabe), and when he fights his former teachers he actually does fairly well (when he fights Raana Tey they're pretty evenly matched for most of the fight).
• Bananaman of The Dandy

Film

• Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther films.
• Bullshot (1983). Bullshot Crummond, a spoof of British hero Bulldog Drummond.

Literature

• Bertie Wooster, Jeeves and Wooster. Hilariously incompetent, "mentally negligible", and the epitome of the Upper Class Twit--but so ridiculously nice that you can't help but root for him.

Live Action TV

• Maxwell Smart, Get Smart
• Chespirito's El Chapulin Colorado
• The Greatest American Hero
• NBC's Captain Nice, and CBS's Mr. Terrific, two very short-run (half season) series which tried to ride the "camp superhero" wave started by the Adam West Batman series.

Western Animation

• Mr. Magoo
• Homer Simpson, The Simpsons
• Inspector Gadget
• Bullwinkle, Rocky and Bullwinkle
• Peter Griffin from Family Guy.
• George of the Jungle
• The Tick (animation)
• Daffy Duck, primarily in certain Chuck Jones cartoons: "Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century," "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," "Robin Hood Daffy," etc.
• Coop of Megas XLR
• Fry of Futurama
• Ron Stoppable from Kim Possible,

Video Games

• Dirk the Daring of Dragon's Lair