Informed Ability: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

What often deters writers from going through with the above plan is the fact that, well, [[Most Writers Are Writers]]. They're writing a character who's supposed to be a musician, but they don't know the particulars of meters or chords. They have a character who is a military expert, but they don't know how long an infantry division can fight until it needs to be resupplied. They have a character who's a genius, but they haven't a clue what kind of problem only a genius would be able to work through, or how. If they actually attempt to show the ability in action they take a very real risk of the portrayal falling completely flat.

See also [[Faux Action Girl]], where "competent fighter" becomes an '''Informed Ability'''. A [[Necessary Weasel]] in [[Video Games]], where often you'll be playing someone supposedly very competent, but how well they actually perform is up to you, and often they'll go through tutorials teaching them the basics of their supposed area of expertise for the player's sake. Compare [[Character Shilling]] or, in particularly bad examples, [[Creator's Pet]].

 

 

{{examples}}

'''Note:''' If the particulars of a character's skills are intentionally hidden from the audience for dramatic effect, but the skill ''itself'' does come into play, that's [[Take Our Word for It|another trope]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Bleach]]'':

** Retsu Unohana sends minor Soul Reapers running for the hills at her presence, has well-established Soul Reaper badasses Shunsui Kyoraku and Jushiro Ukitake fearing her wrath, and even is established in the series' guidebook as the third-most powerful Soul Reaper captain in Soul Society - and has yet to actually be shown in a fight. While this is mostly due to her friendly, motherly demeanor and her role as Soul Society's head [[White Magician Girl]] the few times that could potentially show off her power are dashed due to the plot.

** 9th Espada, Aaroniero Arruruerie claims to have copied the abilities of ''over 36000 Hollows.'' Before he's killed, we see him use at most three of them.

* Shinra from ''[[They Are My Noble Masters]]'' is supposed to be a world-famous, talented conductor. Yet all we see her do is waving her staff around in a very unprofessional manner and answering stupid questions from her musicians. The music that results from her conducting is also not really noteworthy.

* Yukito from ''[[AIR]]'' supposedly managed to support himself for years by performing tricks with his magic doll, but in the TV series and manga he hardly makes a single yen with his act. He fares a bit better in [[The Movie]], though.

** Hanzou, leader of the Village Hidden in the Rain, also suffers from this. The audience is told of his almost unstoppable power and skills but we never actually see him in combat. This is then mixed with [[The Worf Effect]] when {{spoiler|Hanzou's assassination is used to hype up Pain's own power, emphasized even more by the fact that Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru all lost to Hanzou during the war. Both of these tropes are eventually averted for Pain when he proceeds to kill Jiraiya and blow up Konoha proving that the rumors of his abilities are no exaggeration.}}

** ''Naruto himself'' became a victim of this trope throughout the first half of Shippuden. Practically every mention of him was accompanied by a comment over how strong he is and how much he has improved, yet the only improvement he ever really showed was a bigger rasengan, and the constant need to get bailed out of any dangerous situation by his teammates. Thankfully, [[Took a Level in Badass|he got better as the series went on]].

** Sasuke has actually flirted with this trope from time to time, While he's without a doubt [[The Ace|very skilled]], when you actually take a closer look at his Win/Lose ratio Sasuke doesn't put up the best performances. A good majority of Sasuke's victories have been a result of [[Worf Had the Flu]]; {{spoiler|Naruto specifically held back at the end during their battle at the Valley of the End, he ambushed Orochimaru when he was on a sick bed, Itachi was nearly blind, and Danzo specifically held back to deal with Madara.}}

** Hayate Gekko, the Chunin Examiner was heavily implied to be pretty tough judging by the fact that he's got the job he does. However, he gets offed while listening in on two villains, one of which, the Sand Ninja Jonin was his killer.

* The [[Humongous Mecha|Mobile Suits]] suffer from this in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]''. They generally have a knack for using weapons once or twice (e.g. Exia only uses its wrist vulcans twice in 25 episodes. But blink and you'll miss it!) But [[All There in the Manual|supplementary materials]] make things worse. For example, did you know the GN-007 Arios Gundam in season 2 had a beam shield? According to the official file it does, but it has never been animated. The Model Kits are another offender as well. The [[Compilation Movie|Special Editions]] do add footage of some weapons in use, but these are only glimpses in action packed sequences.

* The Royal Knights from ''[[Digimon Savers|Digimon Data Squad]]''. Not a one of them is remotely tough, always getting taken down within an episode. Even worse, it's continually talked about how powerful they are. In fact, when they join the good guys, they don't even really help, they just kind of take a back seat.

* [[The Ojou|Touka]] in ''[[Saki (manga)|Saki]]'' is supposedly a great Mahjong player. However, every match she's in, she manages to lose horribly. Offscreen she does fine though.

* Konata from ''[[Lucky Star]]'' is said to be a good martial artist, but aside from that [[Street Fighter]] parody, we have yet to see her fight for real.

* Character sketches describes Literature Girl from ''[[Daily Lives of High School Boys]]'' as an otherwise sociable, popular girl in Sanada West High... When not [[Wrong Genre Savvy|trying to]] [[Longing for Fictionland|re-enact]] her [[Romance Novel]]'s [[Meet Cute]] by lounging next to Hidenori—which is nearly the only case when she appears.

* Rando from "[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]" is said to have 99 Techniques, but we only see him use seven.

 

** Parodied in [http://www.the-editing-room.com/ The Editing Room]'s abridged script for ''[[Green Lantern (film)|Green Lantern]]'' when a fellow Green Lantern first explains the ring's power to Hal:

{{quote|'''''CGI Geoffrey Rush:''''' --your ring allows you to conjure up any object you desire. The only limit to a Green Lantern’s power is his imagination.

** [[Big Bad|Gamesmaster]] likely acted as her personal [[Power Limiter]], though considering he had an [[Informed Attribute]] himself in being [[Psychic Powers|a telepath]] that was psychically [[Blessed with Suck|tapped into the thoughts of everyone in the world]] [[Power Incontinence|uncontrollably]], we can only wonder what if he thought of using Siena to 'thin out' the numbers of the world's population.

* ''[[Justice League of America]]'': ex-hero-turned-villain Triumph had numerous ones but unlike most examples, it wasn't for a lack of trying; he was quoting [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]] in practically every panel he appeared in. His powers revolved around complete manipulation of the electromagnetic spectrum and among his stated-but-never-seen powers: generating a microwave pulse, perceiving radio/satellite signals and being able to kill [[Superman]] by sucking the solar energy from his body . He also claimed to have other powers the heroes "didn't even have names for" so his list of informed abilities was potentially endless.

** It also doesn't help that she's a poor substitute for [[One More Day|Spider-Man's wife who the publisher supposedly hates.]]

** Fridge Brilliance: it is notably easier to hit your opponent if you're willing to let yourself get hit in return, like a stop-hit in fencing. When your superpower is the ability to not die however badly wounded you get, it actually makes sense for you to design your martial arts style around all-out offense and no concern to defense.

** Also, its not really an ''informed'' ability if they actually show it on-panel often enough to establish its not a fluke, and Wolverine regularly gets the occasional issue—or at least he used to in the 80s and 90s—devoted to showing that he is indeed a legitimate ninja master and classically trained martial artist. He just usually doesn't bother using it because with his superpowers and cyborg implants, unless he's facing some specific martial arts challenge that can shut down his normal berserker rush its much easier to just charge straight in and cut his opponent in half.

 

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Star Wars]]'':

** Obi-Wan notes, "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise," yet throughout the rest of the series, stormtroopers [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|hardly ever hit what they're aiming at.]]

* The main character of ''[[I Know Who Killed Me]]'' is supposed to be a great writer and piano player. ''Supposed'' to be.

* The Riddler's "Box" invention from ''[[Batman Forever]]'' allegedly makes him smarter, until by the climax he's a supergenius. Actually, all he does as the film progresses is keep acting like [[Jim Carrey]], only more so. In fact, he seemed like a fairly competent scientist in the beginning. The smarter he gets, the dumber he seems to act, though this is somewhat explained by fact that the box also drives him insane.

* Rocco in ''[[The Boondock Saints]]'' is nicknamed "The Funny Man" by his fellow mobsters. He only tells one joke in the whole movie, and only when ordered by a patronizing Mob boss. He seems to have earned the nickname from mobsters who like to laugh ''at'' him.

* In ''[[Stranger Than Fiction]]'', [[Emma Thompson]]'s character is supposed to be a great writer, yet the few examples of her writing we're given aren't exactly stunning prose.

* Goes both ways in ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'' ([[The Movie]]):

** Workers in the opera house are seen stuffing cotton into their ears while Carlotta is singing. Her singing is actually legit, and only employs some contrived scoops to make her sound bad. This is a case of [[Informed Flaw]]. Maybe they just really hate her for being the [[Evil Diva]].

*** Where's [[Marni Nixon]] when you really need her?

* Deckard in ''[[Blade Runner]]'' is, or was, supposed to be one of the best Bladerunners in the business; however, he spends most of the film getting beaten black and blue by the NEXUS 6 replicants. He ends up {{spoiler|shooting one in the back while she was fleeing, has to be saved by his love interest when at the mercy of another, barely manages to shoot the other female replicant while getting his head kicked in, and simply lucks out when the final replicant drops dead.}} This is somewhat justified when you consider that the job seems to be a mix of INS agent and high-tech polygraph operator. Deckard does prove himself to be a good detective and is able to truthfully identify the most advanced replicants on the market. Also, Deckard has never been up against NEXUS 6 replicants before, which are top of the line and led by [[Super Soldier]] Roy Batty. The only other Bladerunner we see in action fares much worse than Deckard.

* In ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]'', Tuco nicknames [[Clint Eastwood]]'s [[Man With No Name]] "Blondie", and interrogates other characters as to his whereabouts by asking for a 'tall blond man'. Angel Eyes goes so far as to gush over Blondie's beautiful blond hair, calling him a 'blond-haired angel'. His hair is light brown. This is particularly bizarre because the part was almost certainly written for Eastwood. The reason is a failed [[Woolseyism]] - the original Italian script had Tuco nickname the [[Man With No Name]] "Biondo", which ''technically'' means "blond" but can be used to mean someone with fair colouring. The novelization, more closely based on the Italian script, refers to the character as 'Whitey'.

* Played with in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'', to the point of several characters lampshading it. Jack Sparrow is touted to be the best pirate ever, yet he is mutinied after being captain for a year, in the first movie is captured twice and saved twice (first by Will, then Elizabeth), gets knocked out from behind twice, and his [[Plan]] almost fails. In the second movie another one fails after Norrington discovers his [[Bait and Switch]] and pulls a switch of his own, setting into place the events of the third movie, where everything finally seems to go his way. The characters themselves can't seem to figure out if he's a bumbling quirk or an unlucky [[Magnificent Bastard]] whose [[plan]]s/[[Indy Ploy]]s keep getting [[Spanner in the Works|spanned]]. (One character at least calls him the worst pirate he's ever heard of.)

* It's hard to imagine that [[Fred Astaire]]'s dancing could be an Informed Ability. But in ''[[Shall We Dance]],'' Astaire's character is supposed to be a successful ''ballet'' dancer. A convincing ballet dancer, Astaire is not.

* According to [[All There in the Manual|supplementary materials]] for ''[[Blade]]'', the pureblood vampires have all kinds of abilities like sorcery, the ability to turn into fireballs, etc. None of them are ever seen in the actual film, even when it would have been pretty helpful in stopping Frost from killing them. Frost himself became La Magra yet never displayed either the aforementioned powers [[All Your Powers Combined|he took from the purebloods]] or the [[One-Winged Angel]] form of La Magra (they filmed it but test audiences balked at seeing Stephen Dorff turn into a giant blood fog).

* ''[[The Quick and the Dead]]'': Lampshaded by the [[Gene Hackman]] character in his duel with Lance Henriksen's Ace Hanlon, who was previously played up as a sureshot trickshot artist, but whom Hackman exposes as a fraud. By shooting him. It is also revealed that Hackman had previously killed a man that Ace falsely laid claim to.

* Parodied in ''[[Mystery Team]]''. Jason is a Master of Disguise, Duncan is a "Boy Genius", and Charlie is apparently the strongest kid in town. Not only do they fail to demonstrate any proficiency in these areas, it's proven time and time again that they are actually completely inadequate. They even get called out on it early on. As one example, Jason "[[Paper-Thin Disguise|disguises]]" himself as his own father by putting on a mustache and speaking in a low voice. His guidance counselor says that he's not fooled, and Jason acts like the counselor is a [[Worthy Opponent]] for having figured it out.

* In ''[[Good Will Hunting]]'', Will is said to be a mathematical genius by almost every character in the film who learns about it - his teacher, his psychiatrist, his friends...everyone. Yet, there is little to no evidence of his skills in action, and every time we see an example of Will's work, it's either been completed beforehand (with the teachers just seeing the end result) or mentioned in passing. Justifiable in that general audiences likely wouldn't understand the equations anyway, so they were kept to a minimum.

* [[Quentin Tarantino]] apparently enjoys this when it comes to his [[Badass]] characters:

** In ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'', Vincent and Jules are professional hitmen and considered valuable to Wallace's orgnaization. Vincent makes many stupid mistakes, such as [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face|killing Marvin by accident]] and {{spoiler|leaving his gun on the kitchen counter while he goes to the bathroom}}. Jules is only shown to kill a couple of unarmed opponents and both hitmen get lucky when a target pops out of a bathroom and unloads a full clip at near point-blank-range and manages not to hit them.

** ''[[Inglorious Basterds]]'' features a select group of soldier who go behind enemy lines to [[Nazi Hunter|kill Nazis]]. Apparently they are good enough to confound [[Adolf Hitler]] himself but the closest thing we see is the aftermath of a battle. There is a shootout toward the end in which they follow the plan of a civilian double agent, {{spoiler|which basically gets the remaining Basterds killed or captured. The captured Basterds live and the plan to kill Hitler succeeds due to the actions of the [[Big Bad]] and Shoshana.}}

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[The Windup Girl]]'' by Paulo Bacigalupi, Doctor Chan informs the reader that Hok Seng is good and kind, yet throughout the book he is two-faced, lying, cheating, thieving, swindling, bigoted, manipulative, exploitative and generally psychopathic.

* Thufir Hawat, from ''[[Dune]]'', alleged Master of Assassins, fails repeatedly to thwart assassination attempts: 1: ({{spoiler|Duke Leto Atreides' father}}) 2: ({{spoiler|the assassination of Duke Leto's first born son because of a Harkonnen spy he allowed to sneak inside Caladan}}), 3: ({{spoiler|not being able to stop Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from killing Duke Leto at the first Dune book}}), 4: ({{spoiler|Rabban's hunter-seeker and its controller infiltrating Paul's room after having more than adequate opportunity to sweep the palace.}}). He also fails to goad Feyd into assassinating and supplanting good ole Uncle Vladimir. However, it is insinuated that Thufier is past his prime.

*** Not to mention they are "informed" as having ''believed him'' when he told them early Judaism included sex rituals.

* One of [[Magnus]]'s powers includes "supernatural cunning", which he never demonstrates. He demonstrates knowledge, yes, but he is two thousand years old. In fact he walks into an ambush obliviously. Likewise, a scanner reveals that Iscarius Alchemy has [[You Fail the IQ Test|an I.Q. of 666]], and yet never demonstrates it.

*** Also, in regard to the {{spoiler|[[Soul Jar]]}}, they are a branch of magic so obscure (and deliberately kept so; among the few magic books that even mention them, they don't go beyond mentioning the name) that he had to go to great lengths to even find out what they are. He probably saw the protections he placed around them as secondary, since odds were small anyone even knew they ''existed''. Dumbledore himself had to go to great lengths to even confirm his theory that Voldemort had created them.

**** Unless Voldemort believed that Dumbledore had never bothered to speak to Professor Slughorn—who he originally got the knowledge of Horcrux creation from in the first place—at any time in the past fifty years<ref>Which would be an entirely absurd assumption given that Slughorn was a co-worker of Dumbledore's for decades.</ref> he had no reason for assuming that his opponents were ignorant of the existence of horcruxes. Sure, that knowledge wasn't in ''general'' circulation, but Voldemort's problem ain't what the general public might know, its what Dumbledore might know.

*** However, Dumbledore then proves an adroit enough politician and lawyer that even ''after'' being kicked out of office he can still entirely derail Harry's railroaded underage magic trial, in fifteen minutes flat, with one surprise witness and no prepared script. In light of that performance the mind boggles at what he could have done from the bench... if he'd ever exerted himself.

* In ''[[Maximum Ride]]'', Fang is supposed to be silent and expressionless. He's described as a "brick wall" multiple times. However, he is no less talkative than the other characters, and expresses emotion normally most of the time. In the few cases he doesn't, the narrator doesn't fail to point it out.

** Bella is also incapable of remembering even the smallest piece of information. For example, when Jacob tells her in ''New Moon'' that the vampires are dangerous and she should stay away from them, Bella goes into instant denial that vampires exist. She somehow fails to remember that ''Jacob'' was the one who told her the Quileute legend of "the Cold Ones" in the previous book.

** Bella is said to be more mature than people her own age several times by several different people. Her mother even says that she was born middle-aged. This is the same girl who cries at the drop of a hat, is so hormonally-driven that she practically jumps her boyfriend more than once (and after he's already told her that he wants to wait), wanders off alone in a place she doesn't know well when it's getting dark, is so attached to her boyfriend-of-less-than-a-year that she completely shuts down when he leaves her, routinely lies to her parents even when she doesn't have a good reason, spends an ungodly amount of time complaining about ''everything'', plans a long car trip with a boy she barely knows who has treated her like crap since the day she met him (and lies to her father about it so if Edward tried anything he wouldn't know), ''stomps her foot like a two-year-old'' when arguing with Jacob, etc.

** To an extent, the Volturi. The characters go on about how ruthless they are and that they have no tolerance for lawbreakers. However, every time the Cullens do something that breaks the law, the Volturi always go very easy on them.

** Jessica and her group, with the exception of Angela, are described quite differently than what they are. Bella says they're shallow, annoying, clingy, and rude. Not once can Jessica or Lauren, the biggest offenders, can be seen as this, unless you count ''Midnight Sun'', in which the personalities don't suit their previous counterparts.

* Thrawn in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] is a good example of ''why'' this happens. He's supposed to be a brilliant tactician, but most of those writing him aren't tactical experts, so they must either leave his abilities vague, show him outwitting the protagonist [[You Are Too Late|in nontactical ways]], or give his opponents an [[Idiot Ball]].

** Also in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], the [[General Failure|ruefully incapable]] [[Jedi Academy Trilogy|Admiral Daala]] applies. Immediately after being spoon fed her [[Freudian Excuse|elaborate background story]] as Grand Moff Tarkin's ingenious secret protegé kept down by [[Stay in the Kitchen|sexism]], she arbitrarily loses ''three quarters'' of her fleet in a series of glorious defeats before even really starting her campaign. Sucks to be a villain in a universe where ''everybody'' has [[Contractual Immortality]], it seems. Karen Traviss does a decent job of making her more effective in the ''[[Legacy of the Force]]'' series - although she gets herself ''unanimously elected as the leader of the free galaxy'' - but add her previous incompetence to her doing ''nothing'' for about thirty years and the net effect makes it even worse. Ultimately, the novel [[Death Star]] had [[Internal Retcon|her suffer some minor brain damage in a Rebel attack]] as a means to explain what happened to her vaunted military capability.

* In ''Hereticus'', part of the ''[[Eisenhorn]]'' series, {{spoiler|Glaw's daemonhost is supposed to be more powerful than Cherubael because of being less bound, but Cherubael kicks its ass anyway, later making some comment about being quite nasty.}}

** Possibly justified in that power does not equal intelligence - and Cherubael is very ''very'' clever. He might well have {{spoiler|outsmarted Glaw's daemonhost}}. After all {{spoiler|his track record in [[The Plan]] department is pretty impressive, what with engineering the events of the first two books as a way to free himself from Quixos}}.

** Noted by George Eliot in "[[Silly Novels by Lady Novelists]]," where she says, "In her recorded conversations [the typical [[Mary Sue]]] is [[Patrick Stewart Speech|amazingly eloquent]], and [[Take Our Word for It|in her unrecorded conversations, amazingly witty]]"—the implication being that the writers of these books can do [[Author Filibuster]]s but not jokes.

* ''[[The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo]]'': Author Stieg Larsson repeatedly says that the hero Mikael Blomkvist is a wildly talented journalist and exceptional writer; the not-so-easily-impressed Lisbeth Salander is certainly taken with his prose, even before meeting him. This is generally a harmless case through most of the book, as Blomkvist shows real skill with public records and investigative techniques. However, the little bit of his prose we actually see is...not ''bad,'' exactly, but it's hardly very good.

** Then again, consider [[wikipedia:Adam Worth|Moriarty's inspiration]]. If one assumes that Holmes was indulging in a bit of hyperbole about "most of the crimes [he] ever solved," one may still assume he was a deeply dangerous man behind the really heinous ones.

** There's also the fact that Watson states many times that the cases he publishes are only the ones that he thinks best illustrate Holmes' remarkable skill as a detective. He also names many cases that are never described, only tantalizingly hinted at. Many of them sound high-profile and more likely the kind of thing Moriarty would have a hand in.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "[[Queen of the Black Coast]]", we are told that Belit and [[Conan the Barbarian]] form a [[Brains and Brawn]]—but all the brain we see from Belit is deciding to go somewhere, and Conan does most of the thinking that is done.

* This is a large premise of ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]''. Though the scarecrow has no brain and the tin man has no heart, neither character behaves in a way that reflects this, with the scarecrow actually being quite intelligent and the tin man quite kind. When they finally "receive" these skills later in the book, the remedies are obvious placebos.

* ''The Voice of Freedom'', prequel novel to the video game ''[[Home Front]]'', presents a particularly blatant example of this trope. Ben, the novel's protagonist, is described throughout the novel as a smart reporter whose talents were wasted on celebrities and pop culture before the US was invaded by an implausibly reunified Korea, and then as an inspiring public speaker after the invasion, using his rousing patriotic speeches to raise morale among Americans and infuriate the Koreans. The problem is that he is a terrible writer (coincidentally, so are the novel's two co-authors) and his "rousing speeches" on the radio are vacuous crap. Seriously, one of them ends with him shouting "Hell yeah!" repeatedly. Um... yeah...

* The [[Dorothy Parker]] quote above comes from her review of a largely forgotten novel called ''Debonair'' by G. B. Stern. The title "debonair" supposedly refers to the "charming" lead character, whose debonair charm seems to consist solely of speaking in a cutesy accent. As Parker continues:

* Ivy, protagonist of ''[[The Magicians And Mrs Quent]]'', is repeatedly said to be "quite intelligent", but she asks a lot of stupid questions, is slow on the uptake, and never does anything especially smart.

* While the eponymous character of ''[[Septimus Heap]]'' is supposed to have amazing '''Magykal''' abilities, they do not quite show up anywhere.

* The Career tributes were trained since birth to compete in [[The Hunger Games (novel)|The Hunger Games]]. Despite this, none of them know how to treat wasp stings. They also form risky alliances with people they don't have anything to gain from, use weapons they're not competent with, and decide that flushing Katniss out of a tree with fire is not as good an idea as [[Too Dumb to Live|just sitting under it and waiting until she drops a wasp nest on them]].

** Fridge Brilliance: the people training the career tributes have a vested interest in ''not'' producing students with the skills to be truly effective guerrilla warriors and tacticians, given that the existence of such people is a potential threat to a totalitarian state. The career tributes are being trained to beat up on dumb kids who are inferior to them in physical conditioning and weapons training. This training fails them when they run up against a ''smart'' kid who is able to keep up.

* In ''[[Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip]]'', writers Matt Albie and Danny Tripp are brought in by TV exec Jordan McDeere to save the supposedly-tanking [[Show Within a Show]] of the same name. Their first sketch after coming back on the air with new material (in the episode following the pilot) is a boring and monotonous parody of ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'' - and the sketches don't get any better from there. This is despite the fact that Matt and Danny are frequently referred to as brilliant and visionary by everyone around them. It doesn't help matters that, of the few times we get to hear about "Peripheral Vision Man" (which, judging from the pilot, was a cartoon animated in the style of Robert Smigel's ''[[TV Funhouse]]''), it's more amusing to hear than anything featured in the so-called "superior" sketches.

* In ''[[Hex]]'', it is repeatedly stated that the ghost Thelma will pass through anything living that she touches and thus can't get physical with Cassie outside of dreams. This is never actually shown at any point in the series, nor do they spend any time talking about the fact that she can handle inanimate objects (as she frequently does) without breaking the rules. An Informed Inability.

** In short, Monk may be a poor artist but he's an incredible draftsman and illustrator.

* In ''[[The Office]]'', Dwight Shrute is hailed as their number one salesman and apparently has the numbers to back it up. While we occasionally see flashes of a polished hard-sell, he usually comes across as abrasive and threatening when on screen, quickly driving away his potential customers. This is especially obvious in the episode where he quits and goes to work for Staples. He immediately breaks records by selling two printers in his first day (off screen), but when we see him, he's chasing off a customer by insulting her printer paper choice. In contrast Michael, likewise touted as an excellent salesman, has been repeatedly shown winning over customers on-screen.

* Josh in ''[[The West Wing]]'' is supposed to be a political savant. He certainly comes off as absurdly ''smart'', if thoroughly arrogant. But in terms of actually playing politics and running campaigns, he screws up. Frequently. His crowning moment as a political operative is taking Jimmy Smits and making him president, but that's more a result of Smits' character taking steps that fly in the face of Josh's advice.

* The [[Musical Episode]] of ''[[That's So Raven]]'' has everyone act as though Raven put on the best musical performance of anyone. While Raven is a good singer, Annelise Van Der Pol is a Broadway powerhouse whose voice outshines the entire cast without any electronic enhancement, yet her talent isn't even acknowledged.

* Adric in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is supposed to be a genius, but of all the TARDIS crew travelling at the time, it is inevitably [[Creator's Pet|Adric]] who will somehow screw up the Doctor's latest plan to defeat the bad guy by doing something stupid, or will be gullible enough to be suckered into helping the villain's evil plan regardless of how [[Card-Carrying Villain|transparently evil it is]]. For a supposedly smart person, the character doesn't come across as being particularly smart; and what makes it worse is that Adric is insufferably arrogant about skills that he is rarely demonstrated to actually possess.

* Violet on ''[[Saved by the Bell]]'' is a really amazing singer, so much so that the Glee Club ''[[Rule of Funny|never mentioned before or since]]'' manages to finish in third in a singing contest by having her sing solo. But the audience can hear that her amazing singing amounts to being able to carry a tune.

** Violet was chosen because they went through all the girls and Violet was the only decent singer so she was chosen as the soloist.

* In ''[[Angel]]'' with the character of Drogyn. A mystical, thousand-year-old immortal warrior who Angel says could kill Spike. He proceeds to never do anything but get his ass handed to him over and over, and then die. This is probably because because he was created last minute as a replacement for Giles when Anthony Stewart Head couldn't make it for filming. The only time he got into anything resembling a fight on-screen was with [[The Juggernaut|Hamilton]]. He did get badly wounded in an off-screen battle with a mook, but that mook did apparently outclass Spike.

* One ''[[CSI]]'' episode had murders taking place at a comedy club, whose native-son star attracted huge crowds even though he was a [[Jerkass]]. The few moments of him actually performing were... disappointing.

** Which was of course one of the reasons he was murdered by a fellow comic who was so infuriated by him and jealous. When the crowd fails to respond to his own act he mockingly apes the terrible act of the dead guy (which includes randomly spitting water at them) and they lap it up. If he hadn't been led away at that point there probably would have been a massacre.

* In ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' episode "Falling Star", the heroine's music is supposed to have such amazing influence that if she lives and succeeds as a pop star, the future will become a Utopia. The heroine is played (and presumably, her music composed) by Sheena Easton.

* Alan Shore from ''[[The Practice]]'' and ''[[Boston Legal]]'' is introduced as one of the best anti-trust lawyers in Massachusetts, and references to that being his real area of expertise are frequently made. Over the years, he is seen practicing criminal law, tort law, administrative law, constitutional law, procedural law, evidence law and many others. He is never actually seen practicing anti-trust law. Paradoxically, he is introduced as having little-to-no criminal law experience, yet ends up spending most of his time representing criminal defendants.

* Neatly averted in a third-season episode of ''[[Married... with Children]]'' where Kelly is forced to join the school tap-dancing class, gets some extra coaching from neighbor Steve, and finally does an erotic dance with her would-be boyfriend. As Christina Applegate, David Garrison, and the actor who played the boyfriend were all trained dancers themselves, it wasn't much of a stretch for their characters to do it.

** Played straight (most of the time) with Jefferson's CIA past. Despite various hints that he was an agent, he's never shown to live up to it. Except in one episode, where he {{spoiler|meets with [[Fidel Castro]].}}

** It becomes even less impressive when you realise she's the [[Replacement Scrappy]] of a character who once successfully disguised the outlaws' weapons as musical instruments in order to sneak them into the castle.

* Rory Gilmore of ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' fame is repeatedly described as a brilliant writing prodigy who can make the most mundane story come to life with scintillating prose and profound insight. In the rare instances her articles and speeches are actually read aloud they never rise at all above what any high school student could do.

** Also, she's constantly referred to as a great success story, having accomplished so much. But all she ever does is get things handed to her. Her grandparents paid for her expensive private school. Then her grandparents paid for Yale, until such a time as her father started paying for Yale instead. Also, she started dating a really rich guy and got to live in a penthouse apartment instead of staying in a dorm. Throughout the entire run of the series, other than being a reasonably good student, Rory doesn't accomplish or earn anything (though, in all fairness, just getting into those expensive schools, which obviously require the character to be intelligent, and her long-shown wit in conversation, contribute to this merely being an understated ability, rather than an Informed one).

* Brian, the marketing genius of ''[[Queer as Folk]]'', is really more of a one trick pony; No matter if he's selling booze, a steakhouse or a mayor candidate, he works the sex angle, and ''only'' the sex angle.

* Jane from ''[[Coupling]]'' is "the one with the breasts." Now the actress Gina Bellman is a very attractive woman but she is not ''exceptionally'' buxom. Although it is partly in comparison to the other two female members of the cast, however.

* ''[[Sonny With a Chance]]'' inverts this. The [[Show Within a Show]] That's so Random's informed ability is that it sucks and no-one watches it. Not even the main character's mother.

** Their opponent show Mackenzie Falls plays it straight. In-universe the actors and show is far more popular than So Random, even though it's basically just a lot of melodrama. Both cases justified by [[Rule of Funny]].

** He did show impeccable taste in choosing a Nina Simone record to play for Sarah in "Chuck Versus the Honeymooners".

* Dan Humphrey of ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' is constantly praised for his fantastic talent as a writer, but we are virtually never treated to any examples. In one episode, a story of his is glimpsed briefly, and it's [[So Bad It's Good|comically bad]] - no doubt because it was written by the props team.

* ''[[Full House]]'' pulls an inversion similar to the ''Friends'' example above. Jesse, who is genuinely horrible on ice expresses apprehension to Danny who himself says he feels like he'll probably be rusty too. Then Danny skates expertly out into the rink and performs a triple lutz landing backwards with his leg extended like a figure skater. He's just as rusty as he feared.

* [[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr|Pete Hutter]] has a nasty reputation. It's repeatedly said that "no one touches Pete's piece", in tones of horror that suggest what ''does'' happen to someone who touches Pete's gun. In practice, lots of people (or at least, Brisco, repeatedly) touch Pete's piece, and all Pete does about it is sit there, gibbering in shock that someone was mad enough to touch his piece.

* ''[[Survivor]]''. In Nicaragua, Season 21, Brenda and Sash are frequently referred to as being dangerous strategic masterminds who need to be watched. This is despite neither of them doing anything remotely strategic the entire season. In fact, Brenda fails to do anything to save herself when it is clear that she may go home, since she "doesn't want to be seen as scrambling." This may have been emphasized in editing to compensate for the season's lack of strong strategists, even as the viewing public was clamoring for more strategists in the vein of Russell Hantz.

* ''[[Big Brother]]'' US: Rachel is apparently very good at the game; yet she somehow has to rely on a [[Executive Meddling|blatantly contrived twist]] the second she started to fall behind. She also apparently is likable, yet almost all the time, the editors love to show her constantly crying and having to be calmed down by Brendon.

* ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'': George is described several times as a genius and claims to have an IQ in the 150s. We never see him exhibit any high level of intelligence or knowledge. The smartest thing we see him do is teach basic English to ESL students. He mentions his ability to speak a number of languages, but never does so on camera. He admits to not knowing any Hebrew and can't remember all six words of the ''Shema'' prayer.

* All the ADA's who came after Alex Cabot on [[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]] had to endure a bit of time in the [[Replacement Scrappy]] box because of how popular she was with fans, but Kim Greylek's contribution to the show was pretty much nothing but Informed Ability, to the point that she ''introduced herself'' as "The Crusader" and although we never saw it, she was also a highly aggressive and competent lawyer from big important D.C. and taking cases in little ol' Manhattan to further her political aspirations (that we're told she has). Fans of the show didn't tolerate her very well, and she didn't even last a whole season.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* In ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'':

** Liz's parents and friends are constantly telling her how successful, smart, funny, and great Anthony is. However, he only got his job through connections, never says anything witty, and isn't even shown at the astronomy club, his only social outlet.

* Charlie Brown in ''[[Peanuts]]'' claims that everyone hates him and he has no friends, even though Schroeder and Linus are clearly his friends, and although Lucy insults him, she also hangs around with him an awful lot. Also, all the neighborhood kids let him be manager and captain of the baseball team. Of course, this makes more sense when you know that the creator Charles M. Schulz, even when he had a wife, five children, and millions of fans, still complained of being anxious and lonely.

* ''[[Dennis the Menace US]]'', despite being regarded as such by his parents and neighbors, is hardly ever shown misbehaving at all anymore, no doubt due to parents complaining about him being a "bad example" or the fear thereof. But he was a real terror in the early days.

** [[The Simpsons (animation)|Bart Simpson]] was created specifically because Matt Groening remembered how disappointed he was with [[Dennis the Menace US]], and wanted to create one whose trouble making wasn't an Informed Ability.

* [[Dilbert]] is supposed to be a brilliant engineer, thus explaining his constant frustration with his idiot-run workplace. While [[Characterization Marches On|early strips did show him as a fairly talented (albeit eccentric) inventor]], this has been gradually phased out as the comic focused entirely on office humor, giving readers little evidence of his over-qualifications.

** Alice is an even stronger example. While Dilbert can lay claim to getting one or two strips per year where he's working on a specific project, Alice has 14 patents and was the highest paid engineer at the workplace but all she ever does on-panel is use her Fist of Death on hapless co-workers.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

** Similarly, although maybe a little more methodical is [[Randy Orton]], who although would be a little unnerving to actually have to deal with, his "psychological torture" of his opponents usually extends as far as extending submissions, moving slowly, hitting them, and giving a few evil-looking stares. Has an evil air, but not exactly a super villain.

* Subverted with Hulk Hogan. Commentators often talk about how exceptional he is despite most of his technical performances being average. He actually was an, at a minimum, better than average technical wrestler, which is more obvious if you see his performances when he was less well known. As he became more popular, he dialed down the technical aspect of his performances to minimize the chance of injury. Effectively, the audience was being informed of his technical abilities, which virtually none of them would ever see, despite the fact he was, at least to some extent, a better wrestler than his performances indicated. Maybe not as exceptional as the commentators would have you believe, but good enough that he didn't as completely rely on mic skills as many of his critics would indicate.

 

== Religion ==

* King Solomon. God grants him the gift of boundless wisdom in a dream that was only witnessed by [[Unreliable Narrator|Solomon himself]]. The text gives exactly [[Judgment of Solomon|one specific demonstration]] of this wisdom. He also allegedly wrote three deeply philosophical books of the Bible, but one has reason to suspect some ghost-writing from translators and scribes: the aforementioned books contain loanwords from other languages that according to many historians weren't known to the Israelites until centuries later. The Queen of Sheba also found his wisdom appealing enough to make a very lucrative business deal with him, but the text doesn't recount what exactly he told her. Moreover, in his old age he turned his back on God and imported some idols to worship (despite having personally conversed with God more than once), this being one of the gravest sins in the eyes of the ancient Hebrews and a sure way to lose divine favor.

** Any wisdom he may have had also failed to rub off on His son and successor Rehoboam, whose listening to bad advice from his peers convinced him not to alleviate the high taxes his father had levied on the Israelites, and to threaten them with even harsher treatment instead. Only after ten tribes revolted and seceded, permanently splitting the kingdom, did he start paying closer attention to the God he was supposed to serve and being an effective ruler, and by then the damage was done. Eventually, both kingdoms went corrupt and God sent the Assyrians and Babylonians to destroy and enslave them.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** In ''[[GURPS]]'' it's possible to take the advantage "Common Sense" to avoid this. The description says that if you do something outrageously stupid (like having your charismatic rogue urinate in the King's face) the GM has to mention it and let you decide on a different course of action.

** Some ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' rulebooks will discuss this as well - a ''character'' may have fantastic intelligence, wisdom, or charisma, but the ''player'' will have nothing of the sort. This is inevitable when playing a wizard or cleric, whose intelligence or wisdom is very likely to reach officially ''superhuman'' levels. In that case, it's acceptable to just stick with ability checks in lieu of roleplaying. Or a DM can do what many D&D CRPGs do, nudging a mentally-endowed character appropriately toward correct solutions and insights, or warning them away from stupendous mistakes.

** [[Fridge Logic]]: The characters and adventures in the books are all based on an actual campaign the writers played. The stats therefore are probably the results of random rolls, and the way they're presented in the books is probably more consistent with how the Players played their PCs, rather than their actual stats.

*** [[Word of God]], according to an afterword in one book, is that Raistlin's poor health came about because the guy playing the character spoke in a rasping voice when he was speaking as Raistlin.

* Some ''[[Ravenloft]]'' Modules by their very nature cause [[The Hunter|Rudolph Van Richten]] to fall under this trope, considering a good number of the Quests involves the man getting tricked by any number of evil entities far more often than the 'Land's Premier Expert on Undead and Other Evil Horrors' really should be. It takes a skilled GM to not turn Van Richten into an unintentional [[Miles Gloriosus]].

** Later justified in that he is {{spoiler|under a Vistani curse which keeps him alive as everyone he loves dies}} for most of his life. He disappears shortly after {{spoiler|the curse is broken.}}

== Theatre ==

* In Sondheim's ''[[Sunday in The Park With George]]'', Act II George is supposed to be an innovative artist (or "inventor-sculptor" as he thinks of himself), but all we see of his artwork is a stage prop that breaks down when he tries to activate it. But the point of Act II George is that he's worried his art is beginning to grow stale, as shown in his conversation with the art critic and the song "Lesson #8."

** Though it is mentioned in-story that the {{spoiler|bad grades}} weren't necessarily due to her intelligence or lack thereof; she mentions having to {{spoiler|work three jobs just to pay for her books and other expenses, which can definitely conflict with getting schoolwork done}}. Of course, why she didn't go to the dean or other avenues that could help her before the situation came to a head calls her grasp of common sense into question.

 

== Video Games ==

** They were ''finally'' shown doing plumbing in ''[[Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]''. Granted, {{spoiler|they were forced to do it as part of a [[Plan]] by Cackletta to unlock the Beanstar from its cage}}

** The basis of the original ''[[Mario Bros.]].'' game indicates that they were engaged in plumbing when the monsters are shown coming out of the pipes that they have to get rid of.

** He also supposedly can talk, but you would never [[Silent Protagonist|guess that from playing the games]].

** He apparently picked up some mechanical knowledge at least, picking up any weapon and figuring out the controls quickly, even alien ones like the overwatch pulse rifle, successfully subverting [[Unusable Enemy Equipment]].

** In ''3'', Tora constantly mentions "strategy" and "thinking several moves ahead" and is even introduced in the N1 as a "master strategist". His navi, KingMan is one of the cheapest bosses in the entire series, its "strategy" consisting of staying in back row while a bunch of autonomous chess pieces continually harass the player.

*** Although, you could argue on the basis that he had thought of that being an effective method when designing the navi, seeing as his is one of the only ones to put the navi in the back row and have objects do all the fighting. From a practical standpoint it is very effective in a netbattle.

* [[Alan Wake]] from [[Alan Wake]] is supposedly an excellent horror writer who's been having some problems with writer's block lately (read: 2 years). All of the pages that you collect don't sound like they're written by a best selling author. His narrating doesn't really help, either.

** This may also count as [[Fridge Brilliance]]: {{spoiler|His writing is bad because he's writing under stress and not inspiration; the pages you find show he's still trying to work through his block.}}

** Granted, Cyrus in Diamond/Pearl explains legendary Pokémon lose part of their powers when they are trapped in a Poké Ball the first time, and that's why he gives you a Master Ball free of charge and leaves to steal Dialga/Palkia's powers by himself.

** Ghost-type attacks in Generation I were supposed to be super-effective against Psychic-type Pokémon but possibly due to a programming oversight, Ghost-type moves cannot hit Psychics, leaving a major hole in the [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] formula and resulting in the Psychic type becoming a major [[Game Breaker]] until later generations fixed it. By sheer coincidence, the same is true of the anime's first season; Ash brings a Haunter to fight Sabrina's Kadabra because Ghost hurts Psychic. But the Haunter in question never uses any Ghost attacks, instead using humor to make Kadabra laugh.

* Averted in ''[[Boktai]]''. Master Otenko is the representation of The Sun, and a guardian of the Solar System... but he makes it clear to Django in the first game that he can't fight. Indeed, Otenko does get his leafy stem handed to him on a regular basis.

* In ''[[Soul Series|Soul Calibur IV]]'', Angol Fear, the "King of Terror" is said to weigh 1.44 tons, and be 14800 years old. Given that, you would think that she would be super strong, unjugglable, and more of a threat than all of the fighters in the game considering the knowledge she should have amassed. The character is Seong Mina. Not Shin Seong Mina or Seong Mina with a speed boost or a health boost or extra combos or power armor or juggle resistance or any discernible advantage whatsoever. It's just Seong Mina. Actually a little worse, because her weapon is slightly shorter than Seong Mina's, meaning that in a scant few cases, she doesn't have the range that Mina has.

** Last but certainly not least. In the Twilight Highland quests, you witness an epic display of his monumental incompetence from the get-go: In his usual impatience, he orders his goblin engineers to build a fleet of zeppelins to protect his supply carriers from the Black Dragonflight with little time or resource to actually complete them. When the ships are deployed, they can't even stay in flight, and one of them actually crashes. And then Garrosh spots an Alliance navy fleet and immediately orders his attacking ship to make a beeline for them, which would leave all the remaining supply and transport ship completely undefended, a Goblin Captain even questions who'd be stupid enough to do this, but gets punched by one of Garrosh's loyalists for protesting - who remarks that a "Winner" would do so. The Horde fleet attacks and defeats the alliance, however this leaves the carriers completely helpless, as expected the Twilight Dragonflight shows up shortly after and takes out just about every single carrier. Leaving Garrosh, the player, and a few survivors to be washed on shore after.

*** Even better, when you talk to one of the other survivors, apparently Garrosh, in an attempt to save face, claims ''[[Blatant Lies|the alliance attacked them unprovoked.]]''

** The 7th Legion, basically Stormwind's ultimate, elite soldiers. When fighting them, Undercity basically says that they're in serious trouble, that every major battle the Alliance has ever fought has had the 7th Legion behind the scenes secretly winning it for them, they even wiped out two Forsaken camps full of elites. When you fight them, the majority of them are level 13 and 14 non-elites, and their "terrifying" leader, Pietro Zaren is a level 15 non-elite who is only slightly harder to kill than the rest of them. While the 7th Legion was in Northrend, and ''were'' tough there, none of their stronger soldiers are present in Gilneas at all. They're also [[Too Dumb to Live]], as they wiped out two entire Forsaken outposts, except for the leader of one of them. Considering the type of work they were doing, leaving a witness who could tell what happened basically negates your work—as the witness tells the player what happened and sends the player to wipe them ''all'' out.

** We're informed, in the tie-in novel ''[[The Shattering Prelude to Cataclysm]]'', that Aggra is an exemplary shaman in her own right. As far as she's actually written, however? She's Thrall's [[Shallow Love Interest]] {{spoiler|and [[Babies Ever After|eventual]] [[Birth-Death Juxtaposition|babymama]]}}, but little else.

* Gemel from ''[[Tony TH]]'' is supposed to be very powerful, but always gets [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb-Stomped]] whenever he appears. This is actually justified though, for two reasons: A) while Gemel has a lot of power, [[Glass Cannon|he really can't take a hit]], and B) he always fights alone against groups of good guys. The end result is that the heroes spend the entire battle blindsiding him whenever he tries to make an attack, making it less of a battle and more of a game of tennis with Gemel as the ball. During the few times he fights one-on-one or as part of a group, he actually lives up to his reputation.

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Susan's magical powers, which are seen exactly once and then aren't visible for many arcs. Then Susan explains that Nanase's powers are of a different order than hers ("Awakened" vs. "Dreaming") without going into detail—until ''much'' later, when Susan explained her magical abilities [[Subverted Trope|with a big]] [[Flash Back]]. {{spoiler|And she is properly "Awakened."}}

 

== Web Original ==

** That sounds less like an Informed Ability and more like Jumping Wildly To Conclusions. Wouldn't be the first time it's happened in the series.

* Laura, as in "[[Legolas By Laura|legolas by]]", has apparently "got a power and she can distoy us all the bad guys". She never actually uses this power, even when she's imprisoned and tortured by the orcs, or during the big important final battle, and what the power is supposed to be or do is never actually described.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Inverted in ''[[Metalocalypse]]''; Toki Wartooth, Dethklok's rhythm guitarist and almost-literal second-fiddle to Skwisgaar Skwigelf, has an entire episode devoted to his inability to play the guitar. However, the only time we actually hear him play during the episode, he's upstaging Skwisgaar during a concert and doing a good enough job of it to threaten his confidence. The rest of the time, he's not as good as Skwisgaar and there is considerable distance between them in terms of skill, but he's still the world's second-fastest guitarist.

** [[Word of God|Brendon Small]] has said that Skwisgaar is supposed to represent the Yngwie Malmsteen-esque, blazing fast lead guitarist with perfect Baroque-inspired technique, while Toki is supposed to be the [[Iron Maiden]]-like, play-by-feel, sloppier blues-based player.

* Professor Dementor from ''[[Kim Possible]]'' is said to be such a great villain that compared to him Dr. Drakken is even more of a joke. (Though at least Dementor invents his own doomsday devices.) But in the end he's foiled just as easily as Drakken, sometimes even more easily.

** It's also possible that since Kim hasn't confronted Dementor nearly as often as she confronts Drakken, he can just ''claim'' he's a greater villain. Drakken can't, because Kim knows him much too well.

* ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' characters have tons of these since most characters don't get much screen time but their character bios reveal many abilities that the fans have yet to see in action, for example:

** Ezekiel is apparently rather intelligent, since his bio mentions him speaking eight languages and winning the National Spelling Bee.

* Also played for laughs in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode, "Lisa's Wedding" where we meet Lisa's first love (or at least, first fiancée), in which Hibbert comments of Maggie, "She's quite a hellion but she does have an incredible voice." The closest thing she ever got to saying anything on screen was when Marge interrupted her when she spoke with her mouth full. (Or for that matter, immediately after Hibbert's quote, where said fiancée cuts her off when she's asked to sing.)

** "Will that girl ever shut up?"

* ''[[Winx Club]]'', 4Kids dub: In one of the S1 episodes, Musa talks to two background students Ortensia and Priscilla about having to work together to save Alfea, letting drop that Ortensia has the best counterspell skills and that no one can fly as fast as Priscilla. Which would be nice for the final battle, except that, well, they're ''background'' characters. (In the original version, she's only discusses how everyone has a part, without any abilities being mentioned.)

* ''[[South Park]]'':

** One or two episodes have kids mention Stan's mom having [[Hot Mom|large breasts]]. The way she's animated, she actually looks ''completely'' flat-chested most of the time.

* An inversion on ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', Squidward is said to be horrible at playing the clarinet but he's halfway decent sometimes and even quite good at it.

* Col. Stinkmeaner on ''[[The Boondocks]]'' is an inversion: he's a blind man who can drive a car perfectly parallel to the road, detect objects in front of him (even while in the car), [[Curb Stomp Battle|beat up Granddad]] and experiences no inconvenience as a result of his blindness, which Huey attributed to him having the [[Disability Superpower]] of [[Blind Seer|radar-vision]]. Then he's revealed to not have any such ability; he just got lucky during his fight with Granddad {{spoiler|who beats him in a rematch, accidentally killing him.}} and no credible explanation is given for how he could drive regularly without attracting any police attention. Unfortunately, he [[Like a Badass Out of Hell|learns Kung-Fu in Hell]] and it turns out he hung out with a [[Badass Crew]] of [[Evil Old Folks]].

* Played for laughs on ''[[Adventure Time]]'' when Marceline's dad, the local [[Eldritch Abomination]], states that the Ice King's pet penguin Gunter is the most evil creature he's ever encountered. Gunter is, of course, just a normal penguin, and it's even been implied that the Ice King can't tell his penguins apart and just calls whichever one's closest to him Gunter.