General Failure/Playing With

Basic Trope: An incompetent military commander of the highest order.

Straight: Gen. Millhouse of Company D is best known for never winning a battle due to his inability to keep his secret plans secret.
Exaggerated: Gen. Millhouse of Company D is best known for never winning a battle because he refuses to keep a clock; thus, he's either too early or too late to spring a surprise attack on his enemy.
Justified: His placement on Company D is part of a Plan of some kind.
Inverted:
- Gen. Millhouse is actually the brightest general on the whole army.
- Surrounded by Idiots
Subverted: Gen. Millhouse is just a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass...
Double Subverted: with more emphasis on moron.
Parodied:
- Gen. Millhouse gets high on a daily basis, frequently plots improbable strategies and plays Russian Roulette because he thinks it's a fun game.
- (At security monitor) "I keep clicking on the tank, but it won't answer! I think the game's broken, man!"
Deconstructed: Gen. Millhouse's stupidity gets his men and everyone around him into deep trouble, and he's called out for his idiocy before he's stripped of command...
Reconstructed: ...But that was actually part of The Plan to win the war in the first place...
Zig Zagged: Gen. Millhouse is a mad man one day, a bright one the next.
Averted: Gen. Millhouse is the brightest man on Company D, period.
Enforced: "Let's show them all what not to do in a war! Make one general a total dunce!"
Lampshaded: "I wonder how somebody that incompetent became an officer."
Invoked: "Don't assign Millhouse to lead this operation! That idiot might as well be working for the enemy!" Guess what they're gonna do.
Defied: Gen. Millhouse is stripped of his command once it's apparent how stupid he is.
Discussed: "What planet is that Gen. Millhouse from?!"
Conversed: "How did the supposedly-invincible Company D end up with such an idiot commanding officer?"

Back to General Failure