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When the [[Token Minority]] can do no wrong. She (this is most often seen with the [[The Smurfette Principle|lone female character]]) will never bumble or make a mistake, even in a show where the majority of the team does. She will be much smarter and have [[Only Sane Man|more common sense]] than average, she has more knowledge and skill than she has any reason to possess given her background, she will ''definitely'' be of [[Closer to Earth|superior moral character]], [[Action Girl|and she can probably kick your ass too]].
 
She may not be the star who actually saves the day (or she often will but will simply not get public credit for it, but since she's [[Purity Sue|so selfless]] she [[Think Nothing of It|doesn't really care]]), but she will never hinder the progress of the team. In fact, this trope is far more blatant if she's in a relatively minor role but is consistently better than the non-minority male lead at damn near everything. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground between this and the [[Faux Action Girl]]; people go to extremes. The sad irony? [[CreatorsCreator's Pet|The creators usually want the audience to be proud of or in awe of this character]]; instead, the character is just ''so'' [[Mary Sue|perfect]] that [[The Scrappy|she's hated by the audience (and sometimes in-universe too) with all the fires of Hell]].
 
Though this trope is more common with racial minorities, women, and sometimes gays and bisexuals, it is sometimes applied to disabled people as well. This often leads to [[Disability Superpower]], [[Handicapped Badass]], [[Idiot Savant]], [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]], and other tropes that, done wrong, will imply that disability actually makes a person superior to non-disabled people. Unlike with other minorities, it has not yet become generally recognized that disabled people can be portrayed just about any way non-disabled ones can be. In an effort to compensate for a history of stigmatizing the disabled by using them as [[Morality Pet|Morality Pets]], objects of pity, or the subjects of miraculous cures, writers will often completely overshoot the mark, going from "inferiority" to "superiority" -- and skipping "equality" altogether.
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This trope can usually be averted simply by adding more than one of the given minority; then they can spread the competence around. Failing that, they can try not making it a big deal that the character is X, and maybe no one will care that they're also depicted as flawed human beings. [[Speculative Fiction]] can manage the latter pretty well by creating a culture where women/"minorities" are in positions of power and no one thinks it's unusual (invoking [[Fantastic Racism]] optional), but sometimes they dip into this trope anyway.
 
The issue of [[Positive Discrimination]] can lead to a case of [[Unpleasable Fanbase]]. On one hand, lack of [[Positive Discrimination]], as stated above, puts the writer in danger of being called racist, sexist, etc. just because they gave the [[Token Minority]] [[What Do You Mean ItsIt's Not Heinous?|something as heinous as a common flaw]]. On the other hand, it puts the discriminatee in danger of becoming the [[CreatorsCreator's Pet]], since he/she will often be seen as a [[Mary Sue]] or [[Marty Stu]] in the eyes of the audience that is blatantly shilled one too many times and it leads to major [[Unfortunate Implications]] that someone from X isn't equal, but superior and can do [[Purity Sue|no wrong]]. Even worse, in [[Real Life]] it tends to set the victim up for a dizzying fall: if they are assumed to be so hypercompetent, then their making even the slightest mistake will be seen as disgrace or, worse, hypocrisy. (To quote [[Bill Cosby]]: "If a white man falls off a chair drunk, it's just a drunk. But if a black man does it, then it's the whole damned Negro race.")
 
If a [[Lady Land]] is a utopian paradise, it's probably running on this trope.
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'''[[No Real Life Examples Please]]'''
{{examples|Examples}}
 
== Advertisement ==
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** Similarly, the number of commercials in which men are portrayed as fools and buffoons when compared to their smarter, [[Closer to Earth|wiser]] female companions is amazingly large. Inevitably, the commercials end with the women blatantly letting the man know just how much of an idiot he's been/is being. Most companies respond with "those commercials tested well" when complaints are made.
*** Even in commercials where there is no conflict, this can occur. A recent shampoo commercial had a guy using his girlfriend's shampoo and, lo, his hair is much improved.
*** See many of the examples on [[Men Buy From Mars, Women Buy From Venus]].
* Played ridiculously straight in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJXwFHAyAf4 this] commercial for some sort of oven cleaning product. From the woman standing in the background with what can only be described as a scowl on her face, to the tagline "So easy...even a man could do it!". It's actually rather disgusting.
** Said advert received 663 complaints from men ''and women'' (men claiming it portrayed them as idiots, women claiming it supported out-of-date stereotypes regarding women and the [[Stay in The Kitchen|kitchen]]). Amazingly, they were ''not'' upheld - which sparked backlash from people saying an opposite advert would be shot down immediately. The ''Daily Mail'' had a field day.
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* There was a time in the 1980s when [[Marvel Comics]]' two flagship ensemble teams, the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] and [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]], both had black female leaders. However, there's a reason why Storm caught on with readers and became a very popular character and [[Captain Ersatz|Captain Marvel]] (yes, that [[Nextwave|Captain Marvel]]) did not. Basically, the latter was a girl scout who was as close to being [[The Cape]] without actually wearing one, whereas the former actually had more than one dimension and is an interesting character in her own right.
** In addition to Storm of the X-Men and Monica "Formerly Known as Captain Marvel" Rambeau of [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] and [[Nextwave]], Slingshot naturally gravitated to the leadership role of [[Dynamo 5]], Skyrocket was the field leader of the Power Company, Misty Knight led Heroes for Hire, Vixen briefly gravitated to the leadership role of the [[Justice League]], Jet of the Global Guardians, Vaporlock of Infinity Incorporated, Kid Quantum II of the [[Legion of Super-Heroes]], Amanda Waller of the [[Suicide Squad]] ... basically, if you put a black woman on a superhero team, chances are she'll be running the show eventually. Oh, and Bumblebee ended up leading Titans East on the ''[[Teen Titans (Animation)|Teen Titans]]'' cartoon.
* Although in theory ''[[Simpsons Comics]]'' (like ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'' itself) is non-discriminatory in its negative stereotypes and ''everyone'' was supposed to be a blockhead, the Superior Squad (a superhero team led by Bart Simpson's favorite comic-book character Radioactive Man that fought supervillains between the 1950s and 1990s) mostly adhered to this trope. The team consisted of six men and two women - and guess which two were the most positively portrayed? One of the females, Lure Lass, was a regular [[Mary Sue]], while the other, Weasel Woman, did have ''some'' flaws but was braver and more [[Badass]] than everyone else on the team, including Radioactive Man himself. In contrast, the two most profoundly flawed Superior Squad members were male, as well as the two ostensibly most powerful: Purple Heart (who later changed his name to [[Bourgeois Bohemian|"Bleeding Heart"]], then to [[Darker and Edgier|"Heart of Darkness"]], then to "Bleeding Heart" again, and finally to [[Bloody Hilarious|"Bloody Heart"]]), who was your standard [[Small Name, Big Ego|Ted Baxter]] type, and RM himself, who was well-meaning but very much a [[Windmill Crusader]] and rather stupid.
* Amy in ''[[Sonic the Comic]]'' was made into [[The Lancer]] with [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] due to [[Executive Meddling]]. She had few flaws compared to her very flawed male counterparts, and even Tekno (another thoroughly competent female character). Ironically her intitial persona was surprisingly close to the lovesick [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]] Amy of the later games.
* While Amy herself is a much more abrasive character in the [[Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Book)|American Sonic comics]], it plays this straight with a fair few other characters. Sally and Bunnie are usually more rashional and [[Closer to Earth]] than many male Freedom Fighters, who are often harbored by significant flaws like arrogance or temper issues, meanwhile the female leads' shortcomings are often more minor or down to circumstance than deep personality issues (eg. Bunnie's robotocization, Sally's responsibilities as leader and monarch). Julie Su leans less into this vien, more or less acting as a [[Distaff Counterpart]] to Knuckles, though is still ''slightly'' more rashional than him.
 
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** Circumstances are contrived to make sure her character is the most effective (this last part possibly justified as the [[Game Master]] showing favoritism towards her). She excels against several weak opponents, but her low hit points make her weak against a tougher foe and the group has no real tank due to this.
** To be fair, this has less to do with her being female but more with her filling the role of the newcomer that the resident jerkass thinks he can walk all over. Just as in every movie where an apparent naive newcomer sits down at a poker table with a bunch of cardsharps who think they can scam him out of his money, [[The Magic Poker Equation|they will invariably be the ones who end up losing]], either because of karma or because the newcomer wasn't quite as new at the game as they thought.
*** Its been said they've managed to alienate all the Male gamers (even the eleven year olds) with their [[Jerkass|Jerkassery]], so going outside [[No Womans Land]] is pretty much their last option. Being a newcomer, of course, leaves her less jaded and still [[Functional Genre Savvy]] enough to appreciate the story the GM was working so hard to write. As evidenced by {{spoiler|using a very rare unlimited wish so that a dorky but lovable [[NPC]] could be resurrected and [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap]]. The resident [[Munchkin]] berates her for wasting her potential [[Game Breaker]] on puny [[Character Development]] and says [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]}}. She's also Kas's ex girlfriend, and seems to be pretty good at predicting his behavior.
* Done in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' films with Hermione Granger (much less so in the books). The film version of Ron is rather [[Flanderize|Flanderized]], being much more cowardly and incompetent than he is in the books, with most of his good material being given to Hermione. One major example is in the first film, when the [[Power Trio]] is caught by a man eating plant. Ron panics and is nearly crushed by the plant, while Hermione is the first to figure out how to escape, and subsequently saves Ron. In the book, while it is still Ron being crushed, Hermione is the one who panics and Ron has to yell at her to snap her back to her senses. She is still the one to save him, but if Ron hadn't kept a cool head (while being crushed to death), he might not have survived.
** Averted from the fifth film onwards. Notably when the kids are being restrained by the Death Eaters, Ron struggles against his captor while Hermione just cowers in fear. And Ron is given a few CMOA in the seventh film to balance things out a bit.
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** Also, while Pepper Potts is not portrayed as an [[Action Girl]], the movie still tries to drive home that she's much [[Closer to Earth|more sensible]] than Tony and morally superior as well... even as she spends the entire movie being passive-aggressive and rude. In the second movie, she becomes the company's CEO despite spending most of her career as a secretary.
** James Rhodes is also much more responsible, level-headed, and reasonable than Tony, to the point that he really does seem to be a much better choice for keeping the Iron Man suit. Although in fairness, these three characters being more mature than Tony might have less to do with the fact that they're all minorities, and more with it being a very low bar.
* The early movies starring [[Adam Sandler]] would often show not just Adam's character but practically everyone else to be annoying, bizarre, or just plain unpleasant (due to [[Rule of Funny]], of course). The one exception would be the pretty young woman whom the Sandler character lusts after, who was always about as [[Mary Sue]] as it could get: always did the right thing, never disgraced or embarrassed, and without any but the smallest flaws that could be easily ignored by the story. The implication was that Sandler didn't deserve such a perfect creature and had to spend the entire movie reforming his behavior to be worthy of her. As time went on, the usual Sandler formula began to be subverted. In ''[[Big Daddy]]'', for instance, the girl Sandler is with at the start of the film is even more morally flawed than he is, and [[Break the Haughty|receives her comeuppance in the final scene as most of the movie's characters (both male and female) laugh at her]]. And the remake of ''Mr. Deeds'' [[Inverted Trope|turns the trope completely inside-out]]: the heroine of the story is actually a ''villain'' at the start of it (well, more of a [[Defector From Decadence]]) while Deeds (Sandler) is [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]] personified. The girl ends up having to suffer quite a few indignities (including a brutal [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]) as part of her [[Heel Face Turn]] and to prove to Deeds that ''she's'' worthy of ''him'' - and, just to add insult to injury, also discovers that in ''this'' film, [[Slapstick Knows No Gender]].
** ''[[The Waterboy]]'' subverts this, too: Sandler's love interest is good-hearted, but also somewhat trashy and a petty criminal to boot.
* [[George Lucas]]' ''[[Red Tails]]'' does this with the African-American Tuskegee Airmen, not by making them unusually good but by making their white counterparts incredibly incompetent.
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== Video Games ==
* Coco Bandicoot of the ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' series is significantly more intelligent and [[Closer to Earth]] than her brother ([[Idiot Hero|though that's not much of a challenge]]) and [[Action Girl|not far off in terms of physical power either]]. Interestingly, as more female characters were introduced in later titles, Coco seemed to gain more prominant [[Took a Level In Jerkass|obnoxious]] and [[Took a Level In Dumbass|idiotic]] tendancies (in addition to [[Distressed Damsel|getting kidnapped frequently]]), though still seems somewhat saner than her male comrades.
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Fire Emblem Tellius]]'', [[Fantastic Racism]] between humans and the shapeshifting beast-men races called the Laguz are a major theme. While there are many senselessly evil or stupid human characters, in the first installment of the verse there was not a single evil Laguz. They were either outright heroic, brutally tortured and crazily brainwashed into attacking the heroes, or had a [[Anti -Villain|very good reason]] for opposing the good guys<ref>Yes, this includes Naesala and his ravens, considering that all the piracy and mercenary work they do is for the sake of feeding their people at home.</ref>. It got a bit better in the sequel, with a few Laguz bandits, some Laguz too big on the whole [[Blood Knight]] thing etc., but not exceptionally either.
 
 
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** AJ starts off as Timmy and Chester's [[Black Best Friend]] who happens to be a [[Straight Man]] to Timmy. Now he's an [[Insufferable Genius]] who (very rarely though) rubs his brain power in Timmy's face.
* With ''[[Danny Phantom (Animation)|Danny Phantom]]'', Butch Hartman was able to do it all over again with Danny's parents. In the early episodes, though goofy, Jack was portrayed as a visionary ghost-hunter whose over-enthusiasm often got in the way of common sense, while Maddie was soft-spoken and more of his assistant. By halfway into the first season, it completely flipped: Maddie became the bold action-oriented commanding ghost hunter, while Jack could barely even point a rifle in the right direction.
** To be fair, though, Jack's positive side was that he was clearly the more enthusiastic of the two, and had a lot more invested in the job. While he's not great on the field, it seems that many of the ghost-catching inventions were in fact his creation, and when the chips were down, [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|Jack was very capable.]]
** [[Positive Discrimination]] was also regularly expressed by Sam, constantly the voice of reason to the perpetually [[Idiot Ball]]-holding Danny and Tucker, and Jazz, the perfect student in contrast to her [[Book Dumb]] little brother.
** Danny eventually averts this for the most part come Season Three through [[Character Development]]. If anything, his only [[Book Dumb]] moments occur as an excuse to give Sam a reason to nag, an act that is all but pointless by that point.
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** Well, Susie ''is'' the oldest kid (barely older than Angelica). Also, Angelica's parents are also successful, and Phil & Lil's parents apparently run their own business. Only Stu, Didi, and Chazz are the "average" ones.
** Susie was a late addition to the original cast who quickly was utilized as a counter/foil to Angelica and to play a good 'big sister' role for the younger babies. It could be argued that since the intent was to add a an older character that the babies could look up to anyways she would have had the same positive traits no matter what race she was given. She may very well be an example of an intentionally good character who just happened to also be black for diversity sake.
** It's worth noting that this is somewhat in contrast to Suzie's debut role in "Meet The Carmichaels", where she is introduced as [[Bratty Half Pint|fickle crybaby]]. [[What the Hell, Hero?|"Tricycle Thief"]] also greatly subverts her [[Canon Sue]] role.
** It's also worth noting that ''[[All Grown Up]]'' subverts this even more by giving Susie realistic flaws. In the first episode she is easily conned by a woman into giving her $1000 thinking it's for a record deal, in another she completely buckles under pressure when she has to juggle an audition and a spot on her language team, she's shown to resent how the others look on her as perfect as well as sometimes acting rudely towards Angelica.
** In the first movie, the black female rookie park ranger is much more competent than the experienced white male park ranger.
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* Sandy Cheeks of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' played this to such extremes early on she almost comes off as a [[Parody Sue|parody]] of the trope. Compared to the more flawed males cast, Sandy was much [[Closer to Earth]] and often acted as the [[Canon Sue|unfallable voice of reason]] as well as being extremely talented in both intellectual and brawn levels, suggested to be [[God Mode Sue|both the strongest and smartest member of Bikini Bottom]]. Following the second season, Sandy was arguably swayed from this trope, being granted her [[Cloudcuckoolander|own]] [[Large Ham|set]] [[Ted Baxter|of]] [[Jerk Jock|flaws]] and often having her overboard positive aspects parodied or Lampshaded. However this came to be played straight again in later post-movie episodes, where the rest of the cast were Flanderized to extreme levels and Sandy arguably ending up the only main character not to have her [[Jerkass|callous]] or [[Too Dumb to Live|idiotic]] traits exagerrated.
* Subverted in ''[[Tuff Puppy (Animation)|Tuff Puppy]]'', which has [[Action Girl]] Kitty Katswell as [[The Chew Toy]].
* Though she does have her flaws, Piper of ''[[Storm Hawks (Animation)|Storm Hawks]]'' is the most competent member of the [[Five -Man Band]]...of course she's also the token female, [[Ambiguously Brown]]...[[Les Yay|may or may not be a lesbian,]] [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|or at least bisexual.]]
* Kanga of Disney's ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'' adaptations is presented as being [[Closer to Earth|much more logical and mature]] than [[Cloudcuckooland|the rest of the Hundred Acre Wood]] for the most part, albeit largely due to taking on a [[Team Mom]] role. The majority of Disney's attempts to bring in other female additions are similarly far less zany and have less distinct personality flaws than the male leads. This is interestingly subverted in the original novels, where Kanga is more equally idiot-prone as the rest of the cast while the unofficial sequel ''Return To The Hundred Acre Wood'' introduces Lottie the otter, who is actually one of the more obnoxious and scatter brained characters.
** [[Winnie the Pooh (Film)|The 2011 movie]] returns Kanga to her original book portrayal.
** This is why Kanga is often left [[Out of Focus]]. Since many of the plots are set off by [[Poor Communication Kills|some kind of misunderstanding]] [[Idiot Plot|or other matter that anyone with common sense could settle immediately]], she's left out of the adventure outside acts of unindividual bumbling from the whole cast.
* June is the only main girl in the wraparound shorts on ''[[Ka Blam! (Animation)|Ka Blam]]''. She's also (at least from season two onwards) the most competent of evryone.
* Villain example; [[Dark Action Girl|Jinx]] is the only female member of [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|the HIVE Five]] on ''[[Teen Titans (Animation)|Teen Titans]]'', and is also the only one of them to both largely escape [[Villain Decay]] {{spoiler|and get to do a [[Heel Face Turn]]}}.
* In one episode of ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'', the boys are forced to attend the Museum of Tolerance. One display shows a stereotyped young Asian with a calculator, to show that even ''positive'' stereotypes -- such as the stereotype that all Asians are good at math -- can have an overall negative effect on the stereotyped group in question.
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** Keep in mind that this is not seen as a good thing, and that ultimately, Azula's badass qualities were less admirable considering that she's a troubled sociopath. Arguably, the trope is played straighter with Azula's sidekicks, Mai and Ty Lee, who were almost as threatening as Azula, but nowhere near as psychotic, and portrayed in a far more positive light.
* Penny of ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'', the most down to earth character on the show and several times more competant than her Uncle Gadget and the entire police department combined, it is not rare for her to save the day almost single handedly while the latter completely screw things up (keeping in mind she is a ten year old girl). Granted Brain is near equally skilled, if far more blundering and neurotic in execution. Other female characters such as bumbling MAD agents appear but are rare.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' more or less completely averts this. While this is to be expected since the large majority of the cast are female, the show also goes to great lengths to show similarly varying degrees of competence and morality with their few male characters. Spike in particular, while rarely the main hero, trades the [[Idiot Ball]] and [[Sanity Ball]] rather equally with Twilight Sparkle with both showing a similar dependance on each other (this is keeping in mind Twilight is one of the saner female characters).
* In the eighties cartoon ''[[Bionic Six]]'', the family started out with three children, two of their own (a boy and a girl) and an adopted child who was black. The male son was a jock, and [[Butt Monkey|go-to guy for saying or doing anything stupid]]. The adopted black son was not only just as big of a school hero jock as the white son, but was a ''supergenius'' on top of that.
 
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** Actually kind of [[Averted Trope|Averted]] on the original team, as Toa Onua, a male, was very wise and never argued with the others, unlike Gali who frequently argued with [[Hot Blooded|Tahu]] and [[Ineffectual Loner|Kopaka]].
* Across all forms of fiction, it is very common to treat bigotry as something only white men do. White women are usually, at worst, an [[Innocent Bigot]] (unless, of course, they're a standin for a [[Strawman Character|female political figure]]), but are generally presented as too intelligent and empathetic to be prejudiced. If a non-white character is ever portrayed as bigoted, it will almost always be a "humorous subversion" or even treated as justified, as they will only hate white people. Ethnic characters being prejudiced against other non-white ethnicities is almost completely unheard of in fiction, as they are usually portrayed as above such things or knowing better. Many works even have two different minorities ''teaming up against common racism'', even though in [[Real Life]] that either usually didn't happen or was subverted. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), for example, has included white members from its very earliest days.
* There's also a common [[Double Standard]] in the real world of excusing members of minority groups for sexist or homophobic (or yes, sometimes even racist) beliefs or attitudes, with the justification that any criticism of this behavior would be [[Culture Justifies Anything|"disrespectful to their culture."]] During the age of European imperialism, this dilemma came up a ''lot''. One famous case study focused on the controversy surrounding female genital mutilation among the Kikuyu tribe of Kenya (then known as British East Africa). The British colonizers were caught on the prongs of a [[MortonsMorton's Fork]]: if they condemned the practice, they faced the [[Mighty Whitey]] accusation; but if they tolerated and/or defended the practice, they would be attacked by feminist groups.
 
 
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* Unless they're the protagonists, Jewish characters in many stories (where most of the characters are ''not'' Jewish and [[Informed Judaism|the one character's Jewishness is made explicit]]) will often be arrogant and obnoxious, talking down to Gentile characters with a "know-it-all" attitude. Almost any character portrayed by Jon Lovitz will come off this way. A well-known example is his portrayal of Artie Ziff, Marge Simpson's creepy former boyfriend on ''[[The Simpsons]]'' who acted snooty toward Homer back in high school. Marge once asked Artie if he knew why everyone disliked him, and his answer was "Anti-Semitism?" Marge then had to inform Artie that he was so hated because he was an insensitive [[Jerkass]].
* Asians (the Chinese in particular) are also often depicted [[Asian Rudeness|acting superciliously - sometimes even cruelly - toward other characters]], especially if the topic in question is something that Asians are "naturally" better at (martial arts, philosophy, etc.). This trend has inspired the ''[[Cracked]]'' website to identify a common negative stereotype: "The Wise Old Asian Asshole." Pai Mei in the ''[[Kill Bill]]'' movies probably took this character type about as far as it could go - so far, in fact, that Pai Mei's extreme sadism drove one of his victims to murder him in revenge.
* ''[[The Man Show]]'', as its name suggests, takes a [["Just Joking" Justification|(jokingly)]] male-supremacist attitude toward the world, even going so far in the very first episode to [[Refuge in Audacity|start up a petition to repeal women's suffrage]]. Somewhat softened in that most of the male characters - including the two hosts themselves - are hardly paragons of virtue, and also in that the treatment of the pretty girls on the show was generally with the relatively harmless "sex object" stereotype (although occasionally the gags would get crueller than that). One spoof episode even had the hosts get in touch with their "feminine" sides: while continuing to wear male clothing, they acted much less raucous and talked in gentle tones and [[Cute Kitten|cuddled some kittens]] in the finale. (However, recent radio-show remarks by Adam Carolla suggest that his chauvinistic attitude on the show may not have been just an act.)
* The 2000 stoner comedy ''[[Dude Where's My Car]]?'' has two white, Anglo-Saxon (though admittedly drug-addled) young men as its protagonists, and many of the butts of the movie's jokes are women, ethnic minorities, or other generally exotic or eccentric characters. There's the [[Sassy Black Woman|sassy black female cop]] who is mean to our heroes when they get arrested, as well as the obnoxious, screeching, [[You No Take Candle|barely articulate]] Asian immigrant who works the drive-thru speaker at the "Chinese Fooood" restaurant. The one French character in the movie is a [[French Jerk|sadistic pervert]]. Blonde beauty Christie Boner is an [[Brainless Beauty|idiotic slut]], while the protagonists' twin girlfriends are harpy-like and generally bitchy. On the other hand, Christie's boyfriend and his gang of (mostly) white bullies who torment our heroes certainly fall under the [[Jerk Jock]] stereotype.
* Melvin Udall ([[Jack Nicholson]]) in ''[[As Good As It Gets]]'' is a lonely romance novelist afflicted with a serious case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (which, granted, isn't a "traditional" disability but still can - and often does - wreak quite a bit of havoc with its victims' daily lives). In a more trite or inoffensive film he'd come off as [[The Woobie]] due to this trope. But director James L. Brooks turns him into more of a [[Jerkass Woobie]] whose extreme shortage of social skills has made him unbearably rude and misanthropic. (He's been prescribed pills for his disorder, but never takes them because he's too ashamed to.) Much of the movie is concerned with Melvin slowly becoming friendlier and more sensitive, especially to a gay neighbor whom he had mocked earlier in the film. Especially shocking is a scene in which Melvin, irritated that his daily breakfast at the diner just down the street from his apartment is not going as planned, offhandedly mocks a waitress for being [[Hollywood Pudgy|"fat."]] The restaurant owner immediately flies into a rage and [[Break the Haughty|forces Melvin to leave the building]], prompting ''everyone'' else in the diner to [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|burst into wild applause]] - a humiliating punishment that would ''never'' be administered to any disabled character suffering from any ailment more serious than OCD, unless said character blatantly crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]].
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