The Generic Guy: Difference between revisions

[[File:TedGG.jpg|link=Dilbert (Animationanimation)|right]]

'''Shawn''': ''Nondescript? I've never heard that term used to describe a woman unless she was a [[Suspect Is Hatless|robbery suspect]].''|'''''[[Psych (TV)|Psych]]'''''}}

* Jou (Joe) from ''[[Digimon Adventure (Anime)|Digimon Adventure]]'' ''thought'' he was this character later on in the series, once he realised that he wasn't particularly smart, brave, strong or willful. He wasn't the most popular character, either, probably because he wasn't [[Bishonen|pretty and]] [[Yaoi Fangirl|easily slashable]] never mind that they're all eight to twelve years old, it's the [[Nostalgia Filter]] talking since we were that age back then). In ''[[Digimon Adventure 02 (Anime)|Digimon Adventure 02]]'', having outlived his usefulness, he becomes something of a [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|Brother Chuck]].

* Rivalz from ''[[Code Geass (Anime)|Code Geass]]'' (and Ohgi to an extent). Lampshaded near the end of the series, where Rivalz is disappointed at the fact that most of his close friends have been involved in something interesting while he's still just a student at school.

* Ayumu Nishizawa from ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]''.

* Nami in ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei (Manga)-sensei|Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]]''. Her normalness is her gimmick in a show where everyone has extreme gimmicks.

* Paz and Borma from ''[[Ghost in Thethe Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Anime)|Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex]]'' -- they're not a [[Badass Normal]] like Togusa nor can they maneuver vehicles the way he can, they're not as good at info gathering info as Ishikawa, they can't snipe like Saito or fight like Batou, and they aren't [[Positive Discrimination|awesome at everything like The Major]].

** Paz eventually gets [[A Day in Thethe Limelight]] which allows him to evolve past the generic role, though. We learn that he's the team's resident cold-hearted assassin, as well as an equally cold-hearted ladies man. Oh, and he may or may not be his own robot clone. No one seems to care either way, least of all Paz himself.

* Kurumi Momose from ''[[Pani Poni Dash (Anime)!|Pani Poni Dash]]''

* Ishimaru from ''[[Eyeshield 21 (Manga)|Eyeshield 21]]'', this is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when he manages to score a touchdown due to the other team not noticing his existence.

* Kunikida from the ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' series.

* Rai/Ray of ''[[Beyblade (Anime)|Beyblade]]'', compared to both his former and current teammates, is rather normal in tone, essentially being a middle path between [[Small Name, Big Ego|Tyson]] and [[The Stoic|Kai's]] personality (albeit with the flaws of both diluted heavily).

* Played straight with both Yamazaki and Shinpachi from ''[[Gintama (Manga)|Gintama]]''.

* Tenten of ''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]'' is given very little character development over the years, she's rarely useful in combat, she doesn't have any distinct quirks, and no unique abilities.

* Ranma's school chums Hiroshi and Daisuke from ''[[Ranma ½ (Manga)|Ranma One Half]]''. Little is known about them other than their perverted nature and desire for girlfriends.

* Tadakuni, the viewpoint character in ''[[Daily Lives of High School Boys (Manga)|Daily Lives of High School Boys]]'' is this. His self-description is completely accurate:

** In [[The DCAU]], he's [[The Spock]], and [[Superman (Franchise)|Superman]] is [[The Generic Guy]].

** Conversely, in ''[[The Batman (Animation)|The Batman]]'' he's something of a [[Cowboy Cop]].

** And ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' makes him [[The Munchausen]].

** In ''[[Justice League International (Comic Book)|Justice League International]]'', he's the [[Only Sane Man]]

* In [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]], [[Jack Kirby (Creator)|Jack Kirby]] did several series about various "kid gangs", including the Newsboy Legion and the Boy Commandos. All of them had their own generic guy, usually as [[Standardized Leader]] -- including the Forever People, his team of "space hippies" from [[The Seventies]].

* Young Neil from ''[[Scott Pilgrim (Comic Book)|Scott Pilgrim]]'' doesn't really do anything. He just hangs out with the main characters and [[Only Six Faces|looks a lot like Scott]].

* Andy in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series (Fanfic)|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]''. This is actually a plot point in one episode: he's upset that he hasn't had any exciting experiences like the other guys.

* Abigail Chase ([[Diane Kruger]]) in ''[[National Treasure (Film)|National Treasure]],'' until she's kissed by [[Nicolas Cage]], when she promptly transforms into the [[Shallow Love Interest]]. True, she is very smart, but that's not notable in a movie where pretty much everyone but the [[Mooks]] is [[The Smart Guy]] in some way.

** She is also the one to save Ben from the FBI, willing to make a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]] and thought she had the upper hand, not knowing Ian went the extra mile to nab Patrick.

* The Bowery Boys consisted of the smart leader (Leo Gorcey), the dumb follower (Huntz Hall) and a bunch of generic guys like David Gorcey who were just there to flesh out the gang. This trope was recycled when the Bowery Boys were recycled for animated cartoons as the Anthill Mob (in ''[[Wacky Races (Animation)|Wacky Races]]'' and ''[[The Perils of Penelope Pitstop (Animation)|The Perils of Penelope Pitstop]]''). "Boss" was Leo Gorcey, "Dingaling" was Huntz Hall, and the rest of the Anthill Mob were just the generic guys.

* Arguably [[The Other Darrin|Felix Leiter]] from the ''[[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]]'' films, though it depends on the film in question and on who's playing him at the time.

* In the ''[[Xanth (Literature)|Xanth]]'' book ''Man from Mundania'', Grey.

* [[Older Than Steam]]: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from ''[[Hamlet (Theatre)|Hamlet]]'' are this. Lampshaded in ''[[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Theatre)|Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead]]'' by the fact that nobody seems to know which is which, not even the characters themselves.

* Deconstructed in [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]]'s novel ''Curtain''. Norton is a completely average guy, lacking enough characterization to be important to the plot, let alone the killer. {{spoiler|Turns out [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|he is aware of this]], and uses this "ability" to [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulate people into commiting murders, without being noticed or remembered by anyone.]]}}

* Ken Cosgrove in ''[[Mad Men (TV)|Mad Men]]''.

* Penny Robinson in ''[[Lost in Space (TV)|Lost in Space]]''.

* Lieutenant Ford in ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]]'', for the entirety of the first season. In the second, he was given [[Token Development]]... just in time to be replaced by a more "interesting" character.

* Pete from ''[[Smallville (TV)|Smallville]]'', who seemed to be there to complete the [[Power Trio]] with Clark and Chloe - which was superfluous because the writers regularly shifted the spotlight to more interesting characters ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|and]] [[Creator's Pet|Lana]]). The writers attempted to make him more interesting by having him find out that Clark is an alien, but this did nothing to salvage his complete lack of personality; in the end, they gave in and [[Put Onon a Bus|put him on a bus]] for good.

* John from the first season of ''[[Taxi (TV)|Taxi]]'', who was so generic that he was written out after the first season (and replaced with [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Jim).

* Simon of ''[[The Inbetweeners (TV)|The Inbetweeners]]'' - he's the [[Straight Man]] to the [[Casanova Wannabe]], [[The Ditz]] and the [[Nerd]], but as the nerd is the narrator and central character, Simon can look a little zero-dimensional.

* Astrid in ''[[Fringe (TV)|Fringe]]''. She does tend to stand out for [[Only Sane Man|not being crazy.]]

* Jack Hunter on ''[[Boy Meets World (TV)|Boy Meets World]]''. Came to the show late, when the cast dynamics were pretty much already set up, and other than the fact that his character was richer than everyone else, they didn't establish much personality for him. He was there basically to react to the humorous things Eric would do.

* Andy Travis of ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati (TV)|WKRP in Cincinnati]].'' He was originally the point-of-view character, being the new guy to the station, but ended up as the guy no one remembers. Bailey Quarters probably falls into this category too for anyone who doesn't think she's hot.

* Brendan Lambert in ''[[Step By Step (TV)|Step Byby Step]]''. So generic, that he does not show up in the final season- and the plot is not affected at all!!!

* Jonathan Levinson in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' is this for the longest time. He tries to break free of it and by season six he does when he joins Warren and Andrew in the Trio, where even though he's not the leader of it he become a major player in the plot.

* Kirk and Leslie from ''[[Newhart (TV)|Newhart]]''. Kirk was the owner of the Minuteman Café next door to the Stratford. He was a chronic liar. After a while (one episode) this got old, and Kirk just stood around. Even worse was Leslie, the hotel's maid, whose backstory was that she was a fabulously wealthy world-class skier who took the job at the Stratford to see what a normal life would be like. So one could only assume she'd be a [[Rich Bitch]], or at least spoiled enough that she wouldn't be able to perform well as a maid, right? Wrong. She's wholesome, nice, down-to-earth, and painfully bland. Leslie stayed until the end of Season 1, after which she was replaced by her cousin, a [[Spoiled Brat]] who actually seems out of place working in a hotel. Kirk stayed until the end of Season 2. For this season, the show relied completely on Bob Newhart and Tom Poston's characters. It's a wonder the show even got renewed for a second season.

* Seriously, does ''anyone'' remember Franklin from ''[[Peanuts (Comic Strip)|Peanuts]]'' ''doing'' anything? Besides being a [[Token Minority|Token Black]].

* ''[[Dilbert (Comic Strip)|Dilbert]]'' features a dark haired, personality-free character that Scott Adams refers to in books as "Ted the Generic Guy". If someone is going to be fired, it's usually him. Ditto if someone's going to be killed. It may not even be the same Ted every time. Adams has admitted that he came into being just because he can't draw many types of characters, so he just draws Ted whenever he needs someone generic. As you can see, the above screenshot from [[Dilbert (Animationanimation)|the TV series]] is a profile of Ted which [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] all this.

* [[Punny Name|Jenn Erica]] of ''[[Ink Pen (Comic Strip)|Ink Pen]]'' is a walking [[Lampshade Hanging]] of this trope.

* Ford Prefect in ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Radioradio series)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' series. At the start, you've got perplexed everyman Arthur Dent, and his wacky friend Ford... but then Zaphod, who's far wackier than Ford, gets introduced, as well as a whole galaxy of incredibly weird creatures and sights; this leaves Ford neither particularly normal nor particularly wacky. At least Ford continues somewhat in his role of "Galaxy [[The Smart Guy|Smart Guy]]", guiding and educating Arthur on the ways of the Galaxy. Though in the third book and beyond he becomes somewhat of a [[Shell Shocked Senior]].

* Kurando in ''[[Shadow Hearts (Video Game)|Shadow Hearts: Covenant]]''. An above-average physical fighter whose only gimmick is that he can turn into a demon... but you have Yuri, who is stronger, can transform into more demon forms, is a much greater [[Badass]], and is the main character. Kurando is a quiet, [[Bishonen]] samurai in a party with a [[Large Ham]] pro wrestler, an old man with a puppet that can cast devastating magical spells, a [[Big Badass Wolf]], and ''Princess Anastasia Romanova''.

* Zack in ''[[Mega Man Star Force (Video Game)|Mega Man Star Force]] 2'' notes that he doesn't get grades as good as Luna's (despite being [[The Smart Guy]] in personality and group role), he isn't as strong like Bud, and he isn't brave like Geo.

* ''[[Mother 3 (Video Game)|Mother 3]]'' practically goes out of its way to describe playable character Duster as having no defining or interesting personality traits.

* Jacob Taylor of ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' comes off as this. While he was intended to be a well-adjusted individual in a dysfunctional group, he instead comes off as someone who by himself is not particularly interesting in a cast of different personalities. While he does have a romance, it instead comes off as unintentionally hilarious at best.

* Rochelle from ''[[Left 4 Dead 2 (Video Game)|Left 4 Dead 2]]'' was perceived as this for a while due to her seemingly bland personality. However, she's seemed to have mostly averted this post-Sacrifice.

* Kooper from ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|Paper Mario]]'' is the most normal of Mario's partners. He's really the only one that doesn't have a personality quirk.

* Nida from ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'', so much so that when Headmaster Cid speaks to him during the [[See D]] graduation ceremony he tells him to "do your best even if you don't stand out" and he's not even given so much as a name until much later {{spoiler|when he's taught how to operate the now mobile Balamb Garden becoming it's chief navigational officer}}.

* While ''[[Corpse Party (Visual Novel)|Corpse Party]]'''s other main characters are having their [[Establishing Character Moment|Establishing Character Moments]] in the classroom, Sakutaro Morishige is just sort of there to establish his existence and the fact that he's Mayu's [[Like Brother and Sister|friend]]. His comes later. {{spoiler|And hoo boy, [[Nightmare Fetishist|does it come]].}}

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance (Webcomic)|Sluggy Freelance]]'' uses Sasha to [[Playing Withwith a Trope|play with this trope]]. In many other series she ''would'' be [[The Generic Guy|The Generic Girl]], but ''Sluggy Freelance'' is a [[Planet Eris]] series populated mostly by [[Cloudcuckoolander|Cloud Cuckoo Landers]], [[Sociopathic Hero|Sociopathic Heroes]], and [[Tsundere|Tsunderes]]. The fact that Sasha can live in [[The Verse|the Sluggyverse]] and remain so calm and unaffected by everything going on makes her one of the ''weirder'' character in the series. [[Ensemble Darkhorse|And the fans seem to love her for it.]]

* ''[[Shortpacked (Webcomic)|Shortpacked]]'''s [http://www.shortpacked.com/cast/attachment/ken11a/ cast page] [[Lampshade|lampshades]] the fact that Ken's defining traits are pretty much "[[Dogged Nice Guy]]" and "happens to be Asian."

* In ''[[Survival of the Fittest (Roleplay)|Survival of the Fittest]]'' version 3, this is pretty much the defining trait of Alice Jones from the beginning. There was literally very little to have her stand out from the rest of the student body base. She wasn't particularly notable in personality, interests, or skills, which was pretty much the point of the character.

* Sam from ''[[The Strangerhood (Machinima)|The Strangerhood]]'' is an excellent example of this trope, especially considering how wacky the rest of the cast is.

* Fred Jones from ''[[Scooby -Doo (Animationanimation)|Scooby Doo]]'' was ''intended'' to be the leader, despite Scooby being the headliner and Shaggy and Scooby being the ultimate [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]]. Unfortunately for Freddy, his leadership was a ''quiet'' [[Informed Ability]].

** Some incarnations of Freddy make his out to be a neurotic blusterer (live-action movies) or a [[Small Name, Big Ego]] who's always wrong about any evidence (''[[A Pup Named Scooby Doo (Animation)|A Pup Named Scooby Doo]]''). Probably because his sense of "leadership" was "taking" Daphne (and sometimes Velma too) somewhere until Scooby and Shaggy accidentally stumble onto something important or until Velma makes a plan that the gang can use to catch the villain. This is lampshaded in many, many places. On the other hand, it worked, so maybe he was just very [[Genre Savvy]].

*** And, of course, because the trope name was easily confused with [[A Nightmare Onon Elm Street (Film)|the]] ''[[A Nightmare Onon Elm Street (Film)|other]]'' [[A Nightmare Onon Elm Street (Film)|Freddy]]

* Tim of ''[[The Magic School Bus (Literature)|The Magic School Bus]]'', who had no distinctive personality traits at all, despite being surrounded by a classroom full of loud, quirky characters. He may have been intended as the [[Only Sane Man]], but because he was so uninteresting, he basically became a [[Living Prop]], and the other characters [[Sanity Ball|took turns as the Only Sane Man]] instead. Tim ''was'' the only black male in the cast, but he was [[Five-Token Band|far from the only minority]], and all of the others had just as many foibles as the white kids.

* Along with being annoying and [[The Load|largely useless]], this is a major reason that the kids in ''[[Transformers (Franchise)|Transformers]]'' are generally [[The Scrappy|hated so much]]. They're generally dull and lacking in personality, ironically making them less human than ''the robots''.

** That is not to say the Transformers themselves can't be generics, an not only because there are [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], some of whom barely get a line or two of written character. This was, in fact, one of the main complaints about ''[[Transformers Energon (Anime)|Transformers Energon]]'': about 70% of the characters could be described as being either good or evil.

* Mack from ''[[Daria (Animation)|Daria]]''. While his girlfriend Jodie got development in Season 2, Mack didn't do much of anything beyond the incredibly annoyed [[Straight Man]] to [[The Ditz|Kevin]].

* [[Token Minority|Token Black]] of ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]''.

* For its second season, ABC decided to retool ''[[The Real Ghostbusters (Animation)|The Real Ghostbusters]]'' as a [[Saturday Morning Cartoon]]. [[Executive Meddling]] by a team called Q5 decided that the character of Ray Stantz was just a generic guy, and thus served no purpose and should be dropped. Thankfully, the producers of the show knew better.

* Django Brown of ''[[Phineas and Ferb (Animation)|Phineas and Ferb]]'' didn't have any real extreme qualities like the rest of the gang, and quickly faded into being just a background character.

* Arthur from ''[[Arthur (Animationanimation)|Arthur]]'' appears to follow this trope as the character has no outstanding personality, his normal/genericness occasionally lampshaded and made fun of. The character does however seem to be a generic character in a cast otherwise consisting of non-generic characters.