The Jeeves: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
m clean up, replaced: [[DuckTales → [[DuckTales (1987) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) standardized sections |
||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
[[File:char jeeves.gif|link=Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|frame| [[Zany Scheme]]s abound, but [[Stephen Fry]] barely [[Fascinating Eyebrow|lifts an eyebrow]].]]
{{quote|''"When you name your baby Jeeves...you've pretty much set up his career for life. You don't see many Hit Men, for example, named Jeeves. "Pardon me sir, but I must wack you now."''|'''[[Jerry Seinfeld]]'''}}
'''The Jeeves''' is the perfect English butler, valet, or manservant. Always well-dressed, unfailingly polite, devoted to his employer... and usually much smarter or more level-headed than [[Upper Class Twit|his employer]], too. Usually can manipulate him so subtly that he does not even have to speak [[With Due Respect]] to achieve his ends.
The canonical example is Jeeves himself, from the [[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Jeeves and Wooster]] short stories and novels of [[P. G. Wodehouse]] and the ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' TV series based on them. The original Jeeves, just for the record, is a valet, [[You Keep Using That Word|not a butler]].
A somewhat common subversion, which began while Wodehouse was still writing, is to have the butler as a brutish thug (and possibly a [[Battle Butler]]). Both the original and the subversion are examples of an actually useful type of valet taken to the logical extreme. After all, if an [[Blue Blood|aristocrat]] is in fact foolish and incompetent, then [[Conservation of Competence|a competent valet is an urgent necessity]] if they are to survive everyday life. Conversely, an aristocrat may find it useful to have a brutish thug on retainer to deal with certain... inconvenient problems.
Note that
Usually a [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]]. Complete opposite of the [[Bumbling Sidekick]].
Line 18 ⟶ 16:
----
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* The central premise of ''[[Black Butler]]''
* [[Old Retainer|Genji]] and especially [[Supreme Chef|Gohda]] from ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' fall into this trope.
Line 61 ⟶ 59:
* Butler, the [[Battle Butler]] of the ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' series has some resemblance to the subversion, but is well-spoken enough to resemble The Jeeves.
* Vimes' butler Willikins in the ''[[Discworld]]'' books encompasses both this trope and its subversion: normally, he is the perfect Jeeves (minus the subtle manipulation of a wayward master), but in his childhood or when the situation demands, he was and becomes a thug.
** Indeed, in ''[[
** In ''[[
*** Also in the same book, Willikins admits to having been a street gang member (in a gang even Vimes, a gang kid and possibly the Disc's dirtiest fighter, describes as a tough, mean lot) in his youth, favoring a cap-brim lined with sharpened penny coins. We also see him assisting the watch as a volunteer reservist later. Vimes marvels at the difference in Willikins' working-class background and his current highbrow butler status.
** In ''[[
** The Igors are pretty much this for the [[Mad Scientist]] type. Although they are willing to work for non-mad scientist types.
* Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguro's ''[[The Remains of the Day]]'' is a [[Deconstruction]] of this, {{spoiler|what with all the realising that his life has been meaningless and the Nazis and everything.}}
Line 72 ⟶ 70:
* Because he apparently hated butlers (going so far as to say they had their own circle of hell, [[Laser-Guided Karma|where kitchen-maids and journalists could watch their torments from Heaven]]), [[Hilaire Belloc]] wrote a different kind of subversion in ''The Emerald of Catherine the Great''. The butler acts like The Jeeves around his master (except his schemes don't work), but is thuggish to the other servants. He even switches between [[British Accents|posh dialect and Cockney]], depending on whether there are toffs around or not.
* [[Poul Anderson]]'s [[Technic History]] has the valet of Dominic Flandry, Chives, who is a clear [[Shout-Out]] to Jeeves. Even if he is not human.
* Miss Feng in [[Charles Stross]]'s short story "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131020105557/http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0701/Trunk.shtml Trunk And Disorderly]", which is a pastiche of the ''Jeeves'' novels relocated to an indeterminate future.
* ''[[Ruggles Of Red Gap]]'' which was also made into a play and a movie.
* Konstantin Bothari from the ''[[Vorkosigan Saga]]'' fits as one of the tropes' subversions. He plays batman to Aral Vorkosigan in the Barrayaran army, and later young Miles Vorkosigan after his release from service, but his primary qualities are his loyalty to the Vorkosigans and his martial abilities as a body guard. Later Miles acquires the suave and Jeeves-like Armsman Pym, who more closely embodies the original trope. Both Bothari and Pym are examples of the [[Battle Butler]].
Line 79 ⟶ 77:
* Mr. Butler from the [[Phryne Fisher]] novels. He keeps Phryne's eccentric household running like clockwork and is never put out by any request, no matter how odd.
== [[Live
* Massively defied by Edmund Blackadder in ''[[Blackadder]] the Third'', who constantly manipulates his self-confessed "thick as a whale omelette" employer for his own ends. Interestingly, his employer is portrayed by [[Hugh Laurie]], who also played Wooster.
* Geoffrey from the sitcom ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]].''
Line 92 ⟶ 90:
* Carson from ''[[Downton Abbey]]''. Only [[World War I]] can stop him from running the house perfectly
==
* Speed definitely comes off this way in ''[[Two Gentlemen of Verona]]''; he's a cheerful [[Servile Snarker]] with an unbelievably quick wit, as likely to rib his master for being in love as he is to help him put his gloves on.
* Tranio in ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]''—a [[Gentleman and a Scholar]] who's willing to do [[Puss in Boots|literally anything to help his master out]]. (And, incidentally, to help himself to some of his master's power.) Lucentio never does a thing without consulting him.
Line 102 ⟶ 100:
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', engineers can craft a device that requests the presence of Jeeves, the perfect gentleman robot butler, who will attend to your needs for 10 min. Jeeves allows players to repair their armor and weapons, sell unwanted items, buy reagents for spells and grants bank access to skilled engineers. Truly a gaming gentleman's gentleman.
** The Jeeves robot, however, has the look of a clockwork gnome and lacks the British stuffiness of a true Jeeves. A closer approximation to The Jeeves in-game is the raid boss Moroes inside Karazhan. He's in charge of the grand dining hall, and is unflaggingly polite to you even when he's trying to kill you. Even when you kill him, he maintains his stuffy cool, saying only "How terribly clumsy of me."
* Lawrence is one of these to Dr. Nefarious in the ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' series. He tends to troll his boss a lot with [[Stealth Insult]]s.
* In [[Fallout 3]], when you get a house (either in Megaton or Tenpenny Tower), you are given a robotic butler to help explain the house's functions, give you fresh water, and tell you jokes. Both possible butlers speak with a british accent and have remarkable manners.
* In [[Pokémon
== [[Web Comics]] ==
Line 112 ⟶ 110:
* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', Gilgamesh Wulfenbach's assistant Wooster is a {{spoiler|complete aversion}} of this trope, considering that {{spoiler|he works for British Intelligence. Gil knows about this.}}
** Considering [[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|the man's name]], it's not much of a surprise.
** Despite being
== [[Web Original]] ==
*
* In the [[Show Within a Show]] ''Caleb Rentpayer'' from the [[Homestar Runner]] cartoons, Caleb is a young slacker who somehow came into a lot of money. From the brief snippets of the show we've heard, his hapless butler Tuxworth seems to be half Jeeves, half [[Butt Monkey]].
{{quote|'''Caleb:''' You throw like a girl, Tucksworth.
'''Tuxworth:''' Caleb, that suitcase was ''heavy!'' }}
* [http://uk.ask.com/ Ask Jeeves]. Back by popular demand.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[Gargoyles]]'', Xanatos's secretary/butler/manservant/majordomo/whatever Owen Burnett (who chose this life over... Nah, that would be telling).
** And Preston Vogel, whom Owen modeled his personality {{spoiler|and current form}} on.
* Duckworth from ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]''.
Line 131 ⟶ 127:
* An episode of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' had Danny getting rich and getting a butler named Hopkins.
* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' had Beezy getting a butler who literally ''lived his life for him''.
* [[Archer]] has a butler named [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Woodhouse]] ([[P. G. Wodehouse|get it?]]), who is definitely more down-to-earth than his employer. Unusually, in contrast to the norm wherein The Jeeves is the one "really in charge", Archer treats Woodhouse like shit (although we frequently get hints that the valet has his own little ways of getting revenge).
* In ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'', the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Delightful Children from Down the Lane]] had a butler like this named Jenkins. Sadly, [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character| he was not used much]], only appearing when they needed him to do something they could not due to being children, such as drive a car.
* From the ''Super Chicken'' segment of ''[[George of the Jungle]]'', the criminal genius The Noodle has a butler and accomplice named Beastly, who despite his name, was a straight example of this Trope.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Servant Tropes]]
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
Line 139 ⟶ 138:
[[Category:An Index of Ladies and Gentlemen]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeeves, The}}
▲[[Category:The Jeeves]]
| |||