Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Difference between revisions

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Highschool of the Dead]]'', Kohta Hirano at first seems like a typical fat, otaku nerd, but once the zombie apocalypse happens, he's quite deadly with firearms. In fact, his knowledge of how to use guns helps save people several times through the series.

* Keaton Taichi Hiiraga from ''[[Master Keaton]]''. At first glance he appears to be a bumbling part time lecturer with a keen interest in archeology. But he is actually an extremely competent ex-soldier with vast networks of important people (he is friends with a British prince!). When the situation calls he can even turns random items into deadly weapons or survival kit a la [[MacGyver]].

* [[Deadpool]] sometimes slips into this, [[Depending on the Writer]]. His [[Cloudcuckoolander]] tendencies and ability to both shake off bodily harm and make a joke of it tend to obscure the fact that he is an immortal, unstoppable, superhuman killing-machine with a penchant for inventively torturing and/or brutally slaughtering anyone who manages to get on his bad side.

 

* Takato and {{spoiler|Terriermon}} from Daneel Rush's ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]''.

* Wheatley in the ''[[Portal 2]]'' fic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6953776/1/Test_Of_Humanity Test Of Humanity]''. He's normally a dim-witted [[Gentle Giant]]. But, push him too far, and he won't hesitate to punch you in the eye. {{spoiler|[[GLaDOS]]}} found this out the hard way.

** Also the above is very possible. Old mills have a tendency to explode when too much dust is in the air and something sparks it. Though it's really hard to get the fuel-air ratio right, especially while your father and his friend are fending off a dozen Youma.

 

* ''[[The Incredibles]]'': Jack-Jack (not a moron, but a baby) demonstrates a startling array of powers (which, by most reckonings, are probably more [[Badass]] than those of the rest of the cast) when threatened by the [[Big Bad]], Syndrome.

** Or the babysitter. In the fairly amusing short packaged with the DVD of ''[[The Incredibles]]'', ''Jack Jack Attack'', Jack-Jack reduces the babysitter to a [[Badly-Battered Babysitter|stress-overloaded wreck]] by spontaneously generating anti-gravity powers, teleportation, the ability to shoot [[Eye Beams]], and Human-Torch-esque flame powers. Since the whole ''The Incredibles'' seems to be a [[Homage]] to [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|The Fantastic Four]], he might be a sly reference to the fifth Fantastic: [[Goo-Goo Godlike|Franklin]]. The writers, for their part, note that the reason they gave him so many powers he flips through like he's channel surfing is because he's a baby: he hasn't defined himself yet. What this means for the world of ''[[The Incredibles]]'' as far as power development goes...

* Po from ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]''. While not totally inept, he's a bumbler and a daydreamer. After some focus and hardcore training, however, he not only managed to take down the [[Big Bad]], but {{spoiler|his idols are so impressed, they kneel before him}}.

* ''[[Cars 2]]'': Mater, oh excuse me Sir Tow Mater. He spends most of the movie being his lovable bumbling self. Then he finds out Lightning McQueen is in trouble, lesson when dealing with Mater, NEVER threaten his friends, just ask {{spoiler|the three or four bad guys he took BY HIMSELF.}}

 

== Film -- Live Action ==

* Sergeant Gerry Boyle from ''[[The Guard]]''.

* Adam Sandler's eponymous hero in "The Water Boy" looks like the poster child for the trope.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** {{spoiler|From what we hear about Harry's mother, she was just as dangerous as her son and father.}}

* From the ''[[Discworld]]'' series:

** A constant example given are the wizards; Seen one way, they are rather large, simple minded men who like big dinners and tend to argue with each other, with a tendency to regard the end of the world as a minor curiosity. In another light, they are an elite group of men who are given quite a bit of leeway in return for consistently and conscientiously refraining from causing the laws of causality and physics to metaphorically do handstands and jump through hoops. It's not difficult at all to refrain from turning people into small amphibians when you can't, but it's much much harder when you know exactly how easy it is. On top of that, the natural number of wizards is one, and the arguments they have are harmless ways of expressing that, rather than, as it was in the past, all out thaumonuclear war. There are places on the Disc where the wizards weren't quite so harmless and simple minded; grass may never grow there again and you're lucky to leave one the same shape as you went in.

* Lennie from ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'' may be a mentally impaired [[Gentle Giant]], but that doesn't mean you can just push him around. Curley finds out the hard way.

* Lieutenant Panga in ''[[Someone Else's War|Someone Elses War]]''.

 

* ''[[iCarly]]'': Gibby. If you are a friend, but betray his trust, or someone who dares kidnaps his friends, he won't think twice about beating the fudge out of you.

** T-Bo, a background character who runs the Goovy Smoothy and is normally seen just putting random items on sticks to sell and being wierd, reveals himself to be one in ''iStill Psycho'' when he helps [[Mama Bear|Mrs. Benson]] [[Big Damn Heroes|rescue the iCarly gang]] from [[Ax Crazy|Nora]] and her equally insane family. Not only does he kick down the basement door so Carly can rescue Spenser, he singlehandedly takes down Nora's father.

* Hiro of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is a [[Wrong Genre Savvy]] [[Otaku]] who spends most of each season suffering from severe [[Plot Induced Stupidity]]. But when he gets his act together and wades into the fight, he will ''own'' you. He has basically singlehandedly defeated [[Arch Enemy|Sylar]] (a couple of times), two seasonal [[Big Bad]]s, and an entire government black ops ''agency''. The only villain on the show who was ever any match for him was Arthur Petrelli, who had his same power ([[All Your Powers Combined|among many others]]).

* Walter Sherman of ''[[The Finder]]'' seems a harmless, goofy man who's just two steps short of an institution. It's not until he's strung out from a bad Find and faced with three bad guys that we're reminded he was an Iraq veteran. He does so by killing two of them with their own guns before snapping the last one's neck.

 

== [[Music]] ==

** This is especially evident in Gackt's later "Platinum Box" DVDs. No matter how hard he tries to remain serious and stoic, his bandmates will always reduce him to hysterics with their shenanigans, shattering his well-practiced persona.

 

* In an early ''[[Bloom County]]'' strip, Opus serves as the bouncer at a New Years Eve party. Seems pretty stupid, until he drags a particularly large, menacing looking guy down under the bar, then asks for some rope.

** And if you are a mime, do not taunt Opus or he will beat you down. With a salami!

* Satchel from ''[[Get Fuzzy]]''. The guy has about half the IQ of a rock, but as Bucky is often reminded, pushing Satchel too far is a very bad idea.

 

* WWE worker Festus has this as his entire gimmick. Most of the time, he was little short of catatonic, staring blankly into space with his tongue hanging out as his tag team partner Jesse dragged him around. However, when the ring bell rang, he would wake up and destroy all of his opponents, and would not let up until the bell sounded the end of the match.

** Unfortunately for Festus, several of his opponents (notably [[The Miz]] and [[John Morrison]]) have shown themselves to be fairly [[Genre Savvy]] in using this against him.

* The Autistic Psychic Savant class in Palladium's ''Beyond The Supernatural'' game pretty much has to be this trope. Most of the time, they can barely communicate, but in the presence of supernatural evil they prove to be smarter and more powerful than anyone else.

* Jerry-R-Igg, one of the characters in the ''[[Paranoia]]'' Second Edition sample adventure, is a total coward, constantly freaking out at the slightest thing...while anyone's looking. Truth is, all of that's a front. As soon as he's sure nobody can report it back to the Computer, he becomes Captain X-Cess, standout in Deth Leopard and lover of [[Stuff Blowing Up]] (one of his possessions is a set of explosives disguised as snack food).

 

== [[Theater]] ==

* Leaf Coneybear from ''The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee'' is an airhead until he is asked to spell a word, at which point he turns into a scary blinking robot and gives the right answer.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Travis Touchdown, the main character of the ''[[No More Heroes]]'' series, is a very skilled swordsman, [[Made of Iron]], can move at superhuman speeds and transform into a ''tiger'', owns a [[Humongous Mecha]] the size of a large building and could probably cut an average human to pieces in the blink of an eye...if he's not too busy pleasuring himself to Moe Anime, playing video games, or clumsily hitting on his female opponents..

* The Vortigaunts in the ''[[Half Life]]'' series are an entire species of this trope. In ''Half-Life'' and its expansions they're a relatively weak mid-level enemy slaughtered by the dozens and used as manual labourers by the more powerful members of the Nihilanth's army. By ''Half-Life 2'' they are freed from their enforced servitude [[Heel Face Turn|and join Earth's]] [[La Résistance]] against the Combine, providing Gordon with cryptic statements and the occasional charge for his [[Powered Armor|HEV suit]]. At the beginning of ''Episode One'' however they render the nigh-unstoppable GMan ''[[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|completely powerless]]'', saving Gordon and Alyx in the process, and when three of them are faced with an army of [[Big Creepy-Crawlies|Antlions]] in ''Episode Two'' they proceed to ''slaughter every last one'', then use what is essentially Antlion feces to {{spoiler|raise Alyx from the dead}}. Given that they were at the time also hunting and presumably killing the horrifically powerful Combine Advisors, hopefully they will return for the expected battle/s with them in ''Episode Three''.

* Dick Gumshoe in ''[[Ace Attorney]]''. He barely passes as a detective (and then he got Flanderised) and despite his woobiesh qualities, he deserves most of the punishment he gets for his screw ups. But when someone he cares about is in danger, like Edgeworth, Maggey or Maya, he gains a drastic burst in competence. {{spoiler|In 3-3, he's a surprisingly accurate source of information for Phoenix, gives the more important pieces of evidence to him and stands up to [[Yakuza|Tigre]] without even blinking, saving Wright and Maya from a possibly gruesome conclusion. All for his crush, Maggey.}}

** Gumshoe has fought of members of both a Yakuza crime boss and a group of Mafia thugs, showing up the next day completely uninjured.

* Wheatley from ''Portal 2''. The "moron" is intentional as he's "the product of the greatest minds of a generation working together with the express purpose of building the dumbest moron who ever lived." This, however, precludes the fact that he was the person who woke Chell in the first place, willingly performed a series of personal efforts that he had been told would kill him, came up with the plan to {{spoiler|sabotage [[GLaDOS]]'s turret production and neurotoxin production}}, sprung a well-played trap, and demonstrated an incredible amount of foresight when it came time for the final battle. {{spoiler|In the last case, [[Cutscene Power to the Max]] is the only reason Chell survives; without that, Wheatley would have succeed where [[GLaDOS]] failed}}.

 

** He's such a crouching moron, that while he's fighitng the [[Big Bad]], his own teamates assume he has run and hid.

** Also [https://web.archive.org/web/20120220063506/http://www.pvponline.com/2011/10/26/swing-and-a-prayer/ more recently], he's shown catching a war hammer in one hand.

* Zac of ''[[What the Fu (webcomic)|What the Fu]]'' obscurity may have a [[Idiot Hero|"negligible amount of clues"]], but he's a pretty competent fighter.

* Denver in ''[[Exiern]]'', usually a bumbling nerd, in fact he is a bumbling, lovable, nerd. Hurt someone he likes and he'll [http://www.exiern.com/?p=976 smash open giant solid oak doors] with his bare hands, or [http://www.exiern.com/?p=1422 rewrite the laws of magic] with a gesture.

** Though recently the creators seem to be pushing the idea that Grymm and the Masked T-Square aren't even the same person despite multiple past pages existing as proof.

* [[The Ditz|Donald]] from ''[[Dark Legacy Comics]]'' is shown to be [[Too Dumb to Live]] and is completely useless at fighting (and pretty much everything). However during a Raid Boss the group had been stuck at for three months, Nyte whispered something that caused Donald to lose it and slice his head off in a single strike.

{{quote|'''Jared:''' I didn't know... I didn't know he was a laser fish.}}

 

* Subverted with {{spoiler|Arthur Williams}} in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', who shoves aside his shyness and fear, charging an armed player in order to save a hostage, and gets shot in the face for his trouble. Paul Smith, also from ''Survival of the Fittest'' is usually a [[Chivalrous Pervert]], pretty goofy and laid back—very much a comic relief character. However, from time to time, he almost seems to "switch on" and become one hell of a lot more dangerous. And try ''lethally'' dangerous.

* Essentially the entire core cast of ''[[Mega 64]]'', but special mention should go to Sean and Horatio. Do ''not'' make them mad.

* Linkara from ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' is a nerd who reviews comic books for a living. He also has the power to manifest, invent, or contact any fictional person or thing. His standard weapon is his magic gun, but he's also found often using his [[Power Rangers]] Morpher, a ''[[Star Trek]]'' phaser, the giant robot death machine Neutro, a Pokéball [[Silent Hill|with Pyramid Head in it]], and several other things. He has used this to defeat Vyse, a [[Multiversal Conqueror]], amongst other enemies.

* Paul of ''[[Loading Ready Run]]''. Ridiculously techy, he can make anything from time machines to nerf rocket launchers from the junk in his garage.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:More Than Meets the Eye]]

[[Category:Stock Characters]]

[[Category:You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry]]