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{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Str8GOl-iYA&ab_channel=VintageTVCommercials This old commercial] for Dominos Pizza. The Noid is "a wicked wizard", who of course, ends up zapping himself with his magic.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Chacha from the manga and anime ''[[Akazukin Chacha]]''.
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* Koyomi of ''[[Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou]]'' knows ''one'' spell. She can turn a spell into a falling washpan. ''Any'' spell, belonging to anybody. A cantrip, a fireball, a nuke, a [[MacGuffin]].... Yeah, once the implications are realized, the other mages see her usefulness, although she doesn't quite realize what a [[Game Breaker]] she has.
* In ''[[The Slayers]]'', the abundantly competent white-magic user Shilfiel tries her hand at black magic to balance out her repetoire and be more useful in combat. She's so woefully incompetent at this (her spell creates a {{spoiler|magic carrot}}) that Zelgadis later asks her to cast the spell for him, relying on her inability to make it harmful, since he wants to use it to snap a teammate out of their trance.
** Subverted in the second season, when {{spoiler|she uses the Dragon Slave against Phibrizzo, and later says she learned it to be more like Lina so she could travel with Gourry}} proving that she has no inherent weakness in offensive magic, is just
* Urd from ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' is explicitly stated as being more powerful than Belldandy, yet ranked lower because she has little control over it.
** And Lind is a very powerful, very skilled goddess ... except in one area. Don't ask her to use her magic to '''repair''' anything: the results struck [[Even Evil Has Standards|even Hell's CEO Hild with horror]].
* England from ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]''.
* In the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', Mana, a young sorceress whose ''ka'' eventually became Dark Magician Girl. She even admits to Yugi that "she's only half a magician, because only half my spells actually work!" Granted, she is at the time only an apprentice, her mentor Mahad being far more powerful.
* Shera and Rem from ''[[How
* Megumin of ''[[Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!]]'' can cast one spell, a powerful explosion, and can only do that '''once''' per day (early on even that [[Cast From Hit Points|knocks her out]]).
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* [[Donald Duck]] in the early issues of ''[[Wizards of Mickey]]'', which gets him in trouble with someone he owed money too and tried to get out of the deal by turning spoons into gold. But it turns out his magic does work, but is slow acting.
==
* Mickey Mouse in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of ''[[Fantasia]]''. As the Apprentice, he uses the Sorcerer's magic hat to cast a spell on a broom, bringing it to life and having it fill a cistern with water, but quickly discovers he can't turn the spell off, and the Sorcerer's house starts to flood...
* From the film ''[[Krull]]'': Ergo the Magnificent, whose transformation spells always affect himself regardless of who he aims them at. Good thing he has a spell to turn someone into a ''tiger''...
* Mr. Magorium's magic went all wonky {{spoiler|near the end of his life}} in the film version of ''[[Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium]]''
== [[Literature]] ==
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* Questor Thews, from the ''[[Magic Kingdom of Landover]]'' novels.
* Neville Longbottom from the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' novels. Until [[Took a Level in Badass|the fifth book]]. It doesn't help that he's been using {{spoiler|his father's wand}} for most of the series instead of a wand better suited to him.
** Ronald Weasley is rendered fairly inept for much of ''[[Harry Potter and
** A similar thing happens to Harry in ''The Deathly Hallows''.
** Gilderoy Lockhart may count: [[Crippling Overspecialization|The only thing he seems to be good at]] is memory charms, though it's never revealed whether he's naturally inept at everything else or if he just decided at some point that he could get by on that and his natural charisma alone. (And he very nearly did, [[Scooby Doo|if it hadn't been for]] [[You Meddling Kids|those meddling kids]].)
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* In ''[[The Magicians]],'' the Physical magician Josh is unable to get his magic to work consistently, but when it does work, it's very powerful: for example, when casting a spell to dispell a magical light, he ends up going over the top and producing a ''black hole.''
* In ''[[King's Quest: The Floating Castle]]'', the spells of Alexander's apprentice wizard sidekick Cyril actually ''do'' in fact do what they're intended to. His ineptness instead comes from the fact that he's an inherently powerful wizard who hasn't yet developed control, so his spells all do what they're intended to so overwhelmingly that they [[Gone Horribly Right|go horribly right]].
* When Harry Dresden of ''[[The Dresden Files
** The White Council tries to accomodate this trope by teaching young [[Person of Mass Destruction|wizards]] [[Kill It with Fire|fire magic]] as far away from civilization as possible.
** Harry tried to fly once. In some combination of this and not knowing how to fly to begin with, it didn't go so well.
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* Marnie Stonebrook from ''[[True Blood]]'' doesn't have a clue on her spells. But, whenever she gets possessed by the ghost of the witch, Antonia Gavilán, she becomes one of the most powerful villains in the show.
== [[Music]] ==
* The protagonists of "[https://echoschildren.bandcamp.com/track/oops Oops]" by Echo's Children. Considering that the chorus is —
{{quote|''Oops, oops, extravagant curses,''
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''Magic is tricky and apt to go wrong.''}}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The ''[[Dungeons & Dragons|AD&D]]'' 2nd edition ''Tome of Magic'' introduces the Wild Mage. Although able to master "wild magic" spells otherwise forbidden to other wizards, the level of power of their magic is variable, and they run the risk of causing a "wild surge"—a totally random effect—with every casting.
** The class also appears in ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldur's Gate 2]]'', this time with a set list of results, but an incredibly variable one. They can [[Gender Bender|change a random target's gender]], [[Drop the Cow|summon a cow right above their target's head]], [[Magic Misfire|accidentally target themselves with the spell]] . . . At least in this case you get the benefit of [[Save Scumming]].
** Wild Mages aren't actually inept (Unless that's how you play one). Just ''crazy''. Consider their signature spell: Nahal's Reckless Dweomer; a spell that the mage casts in order to attempt to shape it into any other spell he knows without having the spell memorized. Wild Surges can be extremely deadly if you're lucky; casting Magic Missile has an equal chance of making your opponent (and everything in ten feet of it) explode messily as it does the chance of summoning harmless squirrels.
== [[Theater]] ==
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** In [[Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime]], standing still while an Imp tries to attack you will cause his magic to explode in his face. Running will cause him to chase you, trip, and ''explode'', damaging everything in the area around it, meaning you, other enemies, and itself. This is all they can do.
* Jowan from [[Dragon Age|Dragon Age: Origins]]. Between the generally inherent power of Mages and his dabbling in [[Blood Magic]] he ''should'' be very, ''very'' powerful. Alas, he's much weaker than almost every other Mage in the game, and only turned to [[Blood Magic]] out of desperation.
* [[Dub Name Change|Katt]]/[[Fan Translation|Linn]] in ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'' learns several very powerful spells ''very'' early (getting the most powerful fire spell at level 11 when the dedicated offensive caster learns it at level 55), but doesn't actually have the AP to cast any of them for most of the game and even end game she can only cast these spells twice at most before needing her AP refilled.
* Perhaps inadvertently, the player character is one in ''[[The Elder Scrolls: Arena]]'' if a non-caster class is selected ([[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards|not advised]]). They can ''learn'' all the spells they want to, but have a max value of ''zero'' spell points. This means it's possible to cast spells, but only if they cost zero points which (unlike later installments) is possible thanks to spells getting cheaper to cast per level {{spoiler|or exploiting cost overflow}}, so late game (level 13+ in a game levels rarely get much above 20) a few ''very'' small spells are accessible. Surprisingly, many of these 0 cost spells are actually very useful for a character with no other casting thanks to the wide variety of utility effects offered and the potency of spell scaling.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* In ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'', [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/6/15/ Jim Darkmagic], at least in his comic appearance. In the actual podcasts where he made his debut, Jim tends to be about as competent as the rest of the party, somewhat surprising considering that his player, Mike Krahulik, has never played ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' before in his life.
* Fumblemore in [[Yogscast Minecraft Series|"Shadow of Israphel"]]. His main specialty is [[Stuff Blowing Up|blowing things up]]. And [[Magic Misfire|not always on purpose]].
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* Madame Razz from ''[[She-Ra: Princess of Power|She Ra Princess of Power]]''. She actually very powerful, but is so ditzy and absent-minded that she tends to mispronounce words. Fortunately, her mistakes still beat up bad guys. For example, when she tries to conjure a wall to stall the bad guys, she says, "ball", and the conjured ball bounces and smacks the bad guys around.
* [[Merlin]]'s apprentice Fuddie from ''[[Filmation's Ghostbusters]]''. He can grant Jake one wish every full moon, but he ''never'' gets it right, possibly being hard of hearing. For example, the first time Jake told Fuddie to make him "invincible" and Fuddie instead made him invisible. Fortunately, Jake usually manages to improvise.
* Zigzagged with Twilight Sparkle from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]''. While she does eventually master Alicorn magic (which has been stated to be ''very'' hard to learn and ''very'' dangerous if used wrong) when she makes mistakes, she ''really'' makes mistakes. She accidentally turned her own parents into plants during her entrance exam (maybe it was funny to the viewer, [[Fridge Horror| but when you see this from ''her'' point of view]]), in "Bats" she turns Fluttershy into a vampire (the ending even suggesting Fluttershy may ''not'' be fully cured) and in the episode "Lesson Zero", her Want It, Need It spell [[Idle Hands| (cast with the intent to ''create'' a Friendship problem because there were no other problems for her to handle)]] turns a stuffed animal into a [[Clingy MacGuffin]] that ''everyone'' who sees it wants to have, unleashes a [[Hate Plague]] of jealousy due to fighting over it that infects half of Ponyville. Seriously, Twilight, [[Evil Is Not a Toy|Magic Is Not a Toy]].
* Sadira from the ''[[Aladdin (1992 Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' series. Initially a lower-class thief like Aladdin was, she is first a [[Hopeless Suitor]] towards him, and by complete accident, finds a hidden cache of spellbooks and magical items. Though she gains the potential to become an incrediby powerful sorcerer (able to summon elemental beings, open portals to other dimensions and alter reality), her obsession with Aladdin causes her to misuse them and create disasters that require help from the protagonists to undo. It says a ''lot'' when a demon that you yourself summoned has to point out your faults with [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] routine.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
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