History Main / BecomingTheBoast

Bob brags about some skill he possess, or [[BadassBoast some impressive feat he pulled off]] [[NoodleIncident in the past]]. In fact, Bob brags quite a lot about this. Alice may roll her eyes at the time, but she remembers. Because, [[TheLawOfConservationOfDetail inevitably]], Bob and Alice will find themselves in a situation where success (and possibly survival) [[ChekhovsSkill utterly depends]] on that skill Bob has been bragging about. At which point Bob will confess, with great embarrassment, that [[MilesGloriosus his original claims were very overstated, if not completely fabricated]]. However, while Bob's first instinct is to turn tail and run, that is simply not an option: by the time Bob is exposed, Alice's plan is completely past the PointOfNoReturn. Since Bob is the ClosestThingWeGot, he has no choice but to attempt to live up to the original boasts.

* Before the start of ''VideoGame/MediEvil'', [[FakeUltimateHero Dan boasts about being a great hero, and is remembered as one, but really isn't,]] by the end, however, he's truly become the hero he claimed to be. [[IronButtmonkey Being undead]] helped with that.

* Before the start of 'VideoGame/MediEvil'', [[FakeUltimateHero Dan boasts about being a great hero, and is remembered as one, but really isn't,]] by the end, however, he's truly become the hero he claimed to be. [[IronButtmonkey Being undead]] helped with that.
* Captain Qwark of the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' series. Throughout the series he boasts about how amazing and heroic he is, but always fails to live up to it (he's even a villain in the first game). In the third game however, he fakes his death, but when Ratchet and Clank find him, Clank tells him that there's still a chance for him 'to be the hero he always wanted to be'. Cue his entrance during the final boss battle in which he helps you fight Dr Nefarious.
** He's also helped out in ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime Crack in Time]]'', despite maintaining his pathetic qualities.

* Subverted in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''. Gilderoy Lockhart's an amazing fighter of dark-forces- werewolves, hags, vampires, he's fought them all and managed to write about them. Except in reality he's an inept fool; pretty much everyone realises this and their suggestions about BecomingTheBoast are mostly out pleasure to see him squirm. [[spoiler: Eventually, Harry and Ron genuinely force him to help face the Basilisk, since he's the closest thing they've got. Instead, Lockhart subverts the trope, attempting to memory-wipe them and abandoning Ginny to die.]]

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', the Miller's Daughter, Cora, lies to her king (who is nearly bankrupt) that she can spin straw into gold. The bluff backfires on her, as the king promptly orders for her to be locked in a tower and to transform a roomful of straw. Luckily for Cora, though, {{Rumplestilskin}} ''does'' know how to spin straw into gold, and he's willing to do it for her. Being rather GenreSavvy, Cora demands that he teach her how as well.

** An early episode of has a Bajoran, Li Nalas, who is famed as being a great resistance leader, who later admits he is nothing of the sort. It's something of an inversion in this case, in that his reputation was not his own doing (he was, in fact very uncomfortable with it), but actually spread by other Bajoran freedom fighters who needed a hero to inspire them. He ''did'' actually kill an infamous villain, but it was mostly a lucky accident (he stumbled upon the guy bathing in a lake, shot him in his underwear when he saw him running to his phaser, and only found who he was after someone else came across them). After that, as his legend grew, he got credit for almost every successful campaign by the resistance despite never having actually been in charge or heavily involved in carrying them out. [[HeroicSacrifice But when the time comes, he shows that he can be every bit the legend that people already believe.]] Even after proving himself, Li Nalas shows that he still considers himself unworthy. His LastWords are "Off the hook," reflecting his relief that he'll no longer have to live up to a reputation he doesn't think he deserves.

* An early episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has a Bajoran, Li Nalas, who is famed as being a great resistance leader, who later admits he is nothing of the sort. It's something of an inversion in this case, in that his reputation was not his own doing (he was, in fact very uncomfortable with it), but actually spread by other Bajoran freedom fighters who needed a hero to inspire them. He ''did'' actually kill an infamous villain, but it was mostly a lucky accident (he stumbled upon the guy bathing in a lake, shot him in his underwear when he saw him running to his phaser, and only found who he was after someone else came across them). After that, as his legend grew, he got credit for almost every successful campaign by the resistance despite never having actually been in charge or heavily involved in carrying them out. [[HeroicSacrifice But when the time comes, he shows that he can be every bit the legend that people already believe.]]
** Even after proving himself, Li Nalas shows that he still considers himself unworthy. His LastWords are "Off the hook," reflecting his relief that he'll no longer have to live up to a reputation he doesn't think he deserves.

** Faintly justified; some flight simulator games, notably Microsoft's Flight Simulator, are accurate enough to be used in training real pilots.
** In fact, as ''Series/MythBusters'' showed, landings can be somewhat automated on modern commercial planes assuming there is no damage to systems or especially bad conditions. Further, a flight controller was able to talk Jaime and Adam through their simulated plane landings... and ''then'' showed an easier way it could be accomplished.

[[Folder:Other]]

* In ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/237978/how-trixie-somehow-saved-hearths-warming How Trixie (Somehow) Saves Hearth's Warming]]'', Trixie is MistakenForBadass by Vixen due to her typical boasting and dragged into [[SavingChristmas saving Heart's Warming]] from [[BigBad a villain named Leidr]] who's buried the North Pole in a blizzard. Trixie soon has to actually live up to her boasting when she has to fight and Amarok and [[Theater/TheNutcracker the Rat King]]. [[spoiler:While she and Vixen get [[BalefulPolymorph turned into wooden toys]] by the Rat King, Trixie ultimately [[LetsGetDangerous gets properly motivated enough]] to start a prison break and ultimately defeat the Rat King through trickery and quick thinking.]]

* In an episode of ''{{Seinfeld}}'', George claimed to be a Marine Biologist to impress a woman. Later, he and that woman were walking along a beach when they came upon a crowd gathered around a beached whale who is having trouble breathing. George removes a golf ball from the whale's blow hole and saves its life.
* Played with in ''{{Scrubs}}''. Elliott insists that her brief endocrinology fellowship has made her an expert on the subject, when in reality she's just very good at hiding textbook pages all over the hospital. When Dr. Cox tries to expose her by scheduling her to give a lecture about endocrinology, she panics until JD makes her realize that all her obsessive efforts to hide the fact that she was faking it has led to her becoming a genuine expert on the subject.
* In ''OnceUponATime'', the Miller's Daughter, Cora, lies to her king (who is nearly bankrupt) that she can spin straw into gold. The bluff backfires on her, as the king promptly orders for her to be locked in a tower and to transform a roomful of straw. Luckily for Cora, though, {{Rumplestilskin}} ''does'' know how to spin straw into gold, and he's willing to do it for her. Being rather GenreSavvy, Cora demands that he teach her how as well.

* Captain Qwark of the ''RatchetAndClank'' series. Throughout the series he boasts about how amazing and heroic he is, but always fails to live up to it (he's even a villain in the first game). In the third game however, he fakes his death, but when Ratchet and Clank find him, Clank tells him that there's still a chance for him 'to be the hero he always wanted to be'. Cue his entrance during the final boss battle in which he helps you fight Dr Nefarious.
** He's also helped out in the more recent ''Crack in Time'', despite maintaining his pathetic qualities.

!Examples

* In ''[[EyeshieldTwentyOne Eyeshield 21]]'', Hiruma likes to brag that he has a kicker on his team who can score a field goal at 60 yards, over half the field away from the goalpost, calling it the 60 Yard Magnum. [[spoiler: Musashi, the kicker, repeatedly refutes the point, saying it's just an intimidation factor (later he says he's never made one from further than 55 yards...which is still an impressively long kick). Then it comes down to the last second in the Christmas Bowl, with Deimon trailing 42 points to 44 and possession on the 50 yard line (for those who don't know, that puts them 60 yards from the goal post because of the 10 yard long end zone).]] What follows is [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome one of the most beautiful and kick ass scenes in the entire series]].

* ''[[OnePiece One Piece]]'': While not exactly an example of this trope ''per se'', [[CowardlyLion Usopp's]] statement and actions after the timeskip during one of the climactic battles shows his boasts [[TookALevelInBadass now hold a lot more water.]]

-->'''Ginger:''' Fowler, you have to fly it. You always talk about "back in your day." Well, ''today'' is your day.
-->'''Bunty:''' You can do it, you old sausage.
-->'''Fowler:''' ''(beat, then salutes)'' Wing Commander T.l.Fowler, reporting for duty.
* The title character of ''{{Rango}}'' finds himself boasting big about having killed several men with a single bullet and, after accidentally accomplishing the feat, being made sheriff, at which point he has to do it for real.

** The station itself does this over a three-year period. In the pilot episode, Kira uses thoron fields and duranium shadows to try to convince a Cardassian attack force that DS9 has 5000 photon torpedoes and integrated phaser banks, when all it has are six photons and an almost-phaser. Three years later, Sisko warns a Klingon attack force that DS9 has 5000 torpedoes ready to fire, but they assume that he's using the same trick that Kira did. This time, however, it's no bluff, as the ensuing MacrossMissileMassacre demonstrates.

* ''CiaphasCain'' is constantly on the receiving end of this because of his (partly accidental) status of a FakeUltimateHero. The best example probably being in the first novel, when his friend assumed he'd want to sneak into an enemy camp for fun (although he is quite competent he's also an admitted DirtyCoward).

* In ''MemphisBelle'' bombardier Val has not exactly gone out of his way to deny that he is almost qualified as a doctor, even if he never specifically claims so. When Danny is wounded during the mission and the others look to Val to save him, he finally fesses up, admitting he only took two weeks of medical school before enlisting. TheCaptain, Dennis, gives him a speech about how he's the [[ClosestThingWeGot closest thing they got]], and he goes off to save Danny's life...
* In ''SnakesOnAPlane'', Troy claims to be able to fly a plane, and have logged hundreds of flight hours. And then it turns out that actually, [[IKnowMortalKombat he was talking about a PS2 game]], but he manages to land the plane anyway.

* ''MysteryMen'': Mr. Furious supposedly has the superpower of rage-induced super-strength, but, when called on it near the end of the film, he reveals it's all an act. However, when rescuing the LoveInterest from the clutches of the BigBad, he becomes genuinely furious, genuinely gains rage-induced super-strength, and starts kicking ass.

* In ''OnceUponATime'', the Miller's Daughter, Cora, lies to her king (who is nearly bankrupt) that she can spin straw into gold. The bluff backfires on her, as the king promptly orders for her to be locked in a tower and to transform a roomful of straw. Luckily for Cora, though, {{Rumplestiltskin}} ''does'' know how to spin straw into gold, and he's willing to do it for her. Being rather GenreSavvy, Cora demands that he teach her how as well.

-->'''Usopp:''' It's true... I've deteriorated. I used to lie a lot more. Now...''now I can actually do these things!''

* An early episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has a Bajoran, Li Nalas, who is famed as being a great resistance leader, who later admits he is nothing of the sort. It's something of an inversion in this case, in that his reputation was not his own doing (he was, in fact very uncomfortable with it), but actually spread by other Bajoran freedom fighters who needed a hero to inspire them. He ''did'' actually kill an infamous villain, but it was mostly a lucky accident (he stumbled upon the guy bathing in a lake, shot him in his underwear when he saw him running to his phaser, and only found who he was after someone else came across them). After that, as his legend grew, he got credit for almost every successful campaign by the resistance despite never having actually been in charge or heavily involved in carrying them out. [[HeroicSacrifice But when the time comes he shows that he can be every bit the legend that people already believe.]]

** In fact, as Mythbusters showed,landings can be somewhat automated on modern commercial planes assuming there is no damage to systems or especially bad conditions. A flight controller was able to talk Jaime through a plane landing and then showed an easier way it could be accomplished.