History Main / BoisterousWeakling

Can overlap with FearlessFool, MilesGloriosus, SmallNameBigEgo, DirtyCoward, or SuperLoser. Commonly found BullyingADragon. They may also be a KidSamurai or YoungGun who knows how to talk themselves up just enough to get themselves into serious trouble, or, at the opposite end of the age range, a PerilousOldFool who either hasn't realised how badly the years have caught up with them or has a severely overinflated opinion of how capable they used to be in the first place. Compare FakeUltimateHero and FeetOfClay, when the character is ''alleged'' to be strong by other people. Contrast GentleGiant, CowardlyLion, and TheSoCalledCoward. Also contrast the SmugSuper, who will usually have very good reasons to be smug, as well as the AwesomeEgo.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Eric Cartman has consistently proven himself to be a bully that's all talk. He can talk a big game, but when it comes to actual combat, he can't follow through.
** After realizing that he'll miss Christmas from trying to help Kyle, Cartman challenges Kyle to a fistfight. One mild slap from Kyle sends Cartman into InelegantBlubbering, crying to his mom.

** Cartman got his ass thoroughly kicked by Wendy after spending an episode saying offensive things about breast cancer survivors. When Wendy stood up to him about it, Cartman [[MilesGloriosus tried to back down]], but Wendy wouldn't have it.
** When Cartman's girlfriend Heidi broke up with him, he threatened to kill himself if she left him. Heidi [[ScrewYourUltimatum told Cartman to go ahead]], since she was done being responsible for his happiness, and she knows that Cartman doesn't have the guts to do it. Sure enough, when Heidi walks away, Cartman can't bring himself to actually do anything. He then threatens Heidi, but she's already gone.

* ''Manga/VinlandSaga'''s second arc introduces Olmar, son of Ketil, a rebellious punk who dreams of making his living by the sword, gets into arguments for nothing, and is always talking about the "honor of Nordic warriors". But whenever he has to actually use a sword, it's painfully obvious he has no skills whatsoever. When we first see him, he can't even ''draw his sword'' properly and balks at the prospect of actually harming someone with it. [[spoiler:After he actually ''kills'' someone by accident, Olmar is horrified and stops trying to be a warrior entirely.]]
* Haruka in ''Anime/MyHime'', despite being a totally normal, powerless human and totally overwhelmed by the situation, will not let you forget that ''she'' is in command. She doesn't hesitate to face ''tanks and soldiers'' and even provoke a [=HiME=] [[spoiler:[[DyingMomentOfAwesome while her own body is fading away]].]] In her case, these guts are actually what makes a good part of the fandom like her.

* Black☆Star is essentially this at the beginning of ''Manga/SoulEater'', constantly boasting about his strength and announcing his strategies out loud, which then leads to his ass getting kicked.
* Team Rocket in ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' is a trio of this, although Jessie and James use their Pokemon instead of doing the actual fighting themselves. This ends up getting zigzagged starting with the ''Advanced Generation'' series, where they both show themselves to be competent in pursuits that don't involve stealing other people's Pokémon, with James taking part in Pokémon sports competitions and doing well (including winning the Pokémon Orienteering competition) and Jessie winning quite a few contests in Sinnoh under her Jessilina alias (including one that James won for her because she was sick).
* The titular character of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' was this as a child and at the very beginning of the series. As soon as he learns the [[SelfDuplication Shadow Clone Technique]] though, he takes levels in badass for breakfast.
* In ''Manga/DailyLivesOfHighSchoolBoys'', Sanada North's StudentCouncilPresident starts a fight against Sanada East's counterpart Ringo only to get [[CurbStompBattle his ass kicked]] without landing a single punch.
%%* Impmon from ''Anime/DigimonTamers''.

* ''Manga/BlackLagoon''.
** The Neo-Nazis that Revy and Dutch face, so much so that they go down [[CurbStompBattle without shooting a single bullet]].
** Chaka brags about having a bodycount when in reality, he's at the bottom of the food chain. When he actually fights, he ends up on the receiving end of a humiliating CurbStompBattle that ends in his death.
* Pretty much every student attending Shirokin in ''Manga/{{Gokusen}}''. If someone even so much as looks at them funny, they quickly pick a fight and, nine times out of ten, get their asses handed to them and/or have to be rescued by [[BadassTeacher Kumiko]].
* Kuroda in ''Manga/AngelDensetsu'' is a shining example of people who only pick on people weaker than them. {{Irony}} bites because he ''is'' strong, big, and tough but too stupid and cowardly to capitalize on his advantages.
* ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'':
** Alisa of Saunders is hot-tempered and arrogant, but an ineffective tank commander, especially when she is panicking. Her tank isn't necessarily weak, since it's strong enough that [[TheAllegedCar the Type 89 most likely could not have penetrated its armor]], but she doesn't put it to very good use.
** Mizushima's twitter describes the bandaged teddy bear in Miho's room as this type of character. It's nicely demonstrated in ''Der Film'', which shows him getting beaten up by the other animals when he challenges them to a fight, and even with ThePowerOfFriendship, he can only throw a single ineffective punch that misses.
--->The name is "Bokorare-Guma series". He likes to fight and has a loose temper, but is weak. He gets bashed up all the time, so you can see why he wears bandages in so many different places.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'': Patrick Colasour, who brags about being undefeated in over 2000 simulation matches ''even as his mecha is being sliced apart''. Throughout the series, he talks big and acts like an ace pilot, but always gets shot down with little fanfare. His miraculous survival of all the times he's been shot down earns him the disparaging nickname of "The Immortal Colasour", but he misses the point and thinks it's genuine praise. In a subversion, he actually does grow more competent as the series goes on, and by the end is a respectably skilled pilot, though still nowhere near AcePilot status.
* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', Elfman was this early on in the series. In spite of his preaching the value of manliness, he could only manage partial transformations, which only amounted to punching someone a bit harder, and his guildmates saw him as something of a joke. He largely overcomes this when he masters Full-Body Take Over and [[CurbStompBattle defeats Monsieur Sol]].
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** D-Roy, one of Grimmjow's Fracciones. His fellows note with annoyance that D-Roy talks a big game to opponents but he had to beg to be allowed to come along on the Karakura expedition. While D-Roy nearly kills Chad (who was recovering from his fight with Yammy at the time), Rukia, an unseated Soul Reaper who's on par with a seated officer, almost effortlessly defeats him. All of Grimmjow's other Fracciones besides Nakeem are only defeated with the help of Bankai, as well as releasing the limiter, and in Nakeem's case, Rangiku (a lieutenant) was losing badly before her limiter was released.
** Hiyori also counts, since she's easily the most aggressive of the Visoreds, but is always getting [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] whenever she tries to fight anybody and tends to require Shinji or the others to bail her out.
** Tatsufusa Enjoji. He's the third seat of Squad 8, making him the third strongest member, and hammily challenges Chad to a fight when Chad passes by his territory. Despite that, he can only fight by wildly flailing his sword, and Chad defeats him in one punch. In stark contrast to him, his boss Shunsui Kyoraku is an unassuming fellow who turns out to be one of the strongest captains and easily defeats Chad.
* ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'' has Maria Amabuki, the daughter of Saki's old motorcycle gang leader Reiko Amabuki (nee Kirishima). Maria wants to inherit leadership of her mother's gang and feels that her mother has lost her nerve, but despite talking a big game, doesn't have the toughness to back it up. When Maria's gang of herself and two friends who merely seem to be along for the ride attracts the attention of the tougher leader of a much larger gang, Saki and Reiko become extremely concerned.
* The protagonist of ''[[Manga/KenganAshura Kengan Omega]]'', Koga Narushima, is hardly a bad martial artist early on: he's definitely good enough to win a street fight or take on the master of a local dojo. However, he ''thinks'' he's one of the greatest fighters in the world, and an absolute master of combat who could take on just about anything. Whenever he takes on an actual professional fighter, he invariably mocks them as an inferior, then gets his ass kicked. He finally gets his wake-up call when he fights Jose Kanasaki, a wrestler who decides to simply stand still and NoSell every single attack Koga throws at him.
* ''Manga/Brave10'' and its sequel ''Brave 10 Spiral'' has Yuri Kamanosuke: While he's indeed a supernaturally skilled BloodKnight with [[BlowYouAway wind-based powers]], he has the tendency to eagerly jump into fights screaming about how he's going to kill everyone... and usually failing to keep his promise against strong opponents and getting defeated himself. [[spoiler: To the point that when Saizo, his main target, inflicts him a truly one-sided CurbStompBattle, Kamanosuke [[AchillesInHisTent briefly leaves the Braves.]]]]
* ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'': Jeffrey is thoroughly convinced that he is an awesome warrior and constantly bragging about himself. He uses excessive {{Flynning}} and can't hit anyone even if they are standing still, gets exhausted after a few sword swings, and often trips and knocks himself out or gets knocked out with one hit.
* ''Manga/{{Rurouni Kenshin}}'' uses this trope a lot with its {{Mook}} characters to contrast with the titular protagonist and his allies. The protagonist Kenshin is a smaller man than most of his opponents but is a nearly unrivaled {{Master Swordsman}}. Gohei Hiruma in particular fits this trope, while Gohei is a big and burly man strong enough to defeat Kaoru and Yahiko, he is no match for Kenshin or his {{Lancer}} Sanosuke and later becomes somewhat of a joke later in the series.

* Richard Gale, a short, skinny bully who decided he was tough enough to [[BullyingADragon start punching Casey Heynes, a bigger kid,]] with impunity. Then Casey, thereafter known as ''Zangief Kid'', suplexed him into the pavement with a lack of effort bordering on laziness. Half the reason the video went viral was because of this trope (the other half goes to BullyHunter, probably).

This character is just as loud and doesn't like to be ordered around. But despite acting with the confidence of a BoisterousBruiser, he doesn't really have much to back it up. He is physically (and maybe emotionally) weak but that doesn't stop him from constantly calling out those who glower at him (or so he thinks). Sure he may pick on people weaker than him, but if he happens to realize his opponent can effectively kick his ass, either he will find a lame excuse to get out of it, or he'll stubbornly refuse to back down and ''get'' his ass kicked just for the sake of form. Don't expect that to make him think twice the next time, though: the Boisterous Weakling shows an astounding inability to acknowledge his own impotence. Even if he tries to bite, he has no fangs. Every once in a while, you'll encounter ones who do ''not'' back down as long as they have an unfair advantage, usually in the form of weapons or a group of buddies whom they can set loose on their target. That, or they really do believe their own hype, and suffer the consequences - in stories with sufficiently lethal stakes, this is a common way for a character to end up being TooDumbToLive.

* Naoe Kanetsugu the '''[[CatchPhrase INVINCIBLE]]''' from ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara''. He's the games' official [[TheChewToy Chew Toy]] JokeCharacter who is about as endurable as your average {{mook|s}} (and is in fact a retextured generic officer), but that doesn't stop his boasting.

* Chechen forces under Kadyrov fighting on the Russian side of the Russian invasion of Ukraine talked big promising to RapePillageAndBurn, but faced a CurbStompBattle within hours of entering the country. They proceeded to post Tiktok and many other social media posts talking big about being 'super soldiers' and badasses who are fighting right near Kyiv... and then analysis found all these social media posts were coming from neighboring peaceful Belarus. And that's besides all their BlingOfWar equipment not having a speck of dirt on it. They have the EmbarrassingNickname of the ''Tiktok army'' because of this.

[[quoteright:333:[[Webcomic/RustyAndCo https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tinybruiser.PNG]]]]

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': [[ZigZaggingTrope Zigzagged]] by Ross. He’s the tallest cast member, apparently fairly strong and quite scary when angry, but he’s also shown to be quite cowardly and the others find the idea of him in any kind of fight ridiculous and scoff at his professed karate prowess. Chandler bursts out laughing when Ross tries to give him an IfYouEverHurtHer speech before his wedding to Monica (who also laughs at the idea of Ross beating up the fairly wimpy Chandler), and he is easily overpowered by Phoebe and Rachel.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, at least before he TookALevelInBadass in the SpinOff ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Even there, it took some time for him to become as formidable as he initially thought he was.

* Harry from ''Film/HomeAlone''. His partner Marv ''wishes'' he could be this, but he's not that threatening even on a superficial level.
* A perfect example of this trope is Wimp Lo from ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist''. He constantly taunts the actual hero, getting beaten up easily and unable to do even the simplest combat move. According to Master Yang, Wimp Lo is "an idiot who was trained wrong on purpose, as a joke". He thinks getting kicked in the face is "face to foot style", as an example. And then there's "[[GroinAttack my-nuts-to-your-fist style]]"...
* "Ol' Cigaret" in ''Film/EmperorOfTheNorth'' is always boasting about how he's the toughest hobo riding the rails, but the real veteran 'A-No. 1' has his number right from the start. At the end of the movie, he's so fed up with Cigaret's bragging that he just picks him up and throws him off the train into a lake.
* Ike Clanton in ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'' is a loudmouth who starts several gunfights, but he's always the first to fall [[MilesGloriosus or flee]] despite his bravado. The obnoxious, bullying casino employee at the beginning, played by [[TheCameo Billy-Bob Thornton]], is another example.
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** When "Happy" Hogan and the Black Widow infiltrate Ivan Vanko's hideout in ''Film/IronMan2'', Happy comes off as this in comparison to the more skilled Natasha; he wins his fistfight with a single Mook, but she easily takes down the other dozen or so in the meantime. Though to be fair to Happy, it's more an example of OvershadowedByAwesome, as he ''is'' a competent boxer in his own right.
** Corvus Glaive in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' and ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', Although he likes to humiliate his opponents, the reality is that he is the weakest member of his group, to the point that normal humans like Okoye and Black Widow can beat him with relative ease.

* Team Rocket in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' is a trio of this, although Jessie and James use their Pokemon instead of doing the actual fighting themselves. This ends up getting zigzagged starting with the ''Advanced Generation'' series, where they both show themselves to be competent in pursuits that don't involve stealing other people's Pokémon, with James taking part in Pokémon sports competitions and doing well (including winning the Pokémon Orienteering competition) and Jessie winning quite a few contests in Sinnoh under her Jessilina alias (including one that James won for her because she was sick).

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'': Jeffrey is thoroughly convinced that he is an awesome warrior and constantly bragging about himself. He uses excessive {{Flynning}} and can't hit anyone even if they are standing still, gets exhausted after a few sword swings, and often trips and knocks himself out or gets knocked out with one hit.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': There is a struggle within a PrivateMilitaryContractor company named Drankam between the grizzled veterans on one side, and these on the other. ArmchairMilitary bureaucrats keep on pushing praise and rewards onto these younger hunters, while the older members and non-members see them [[PaperTiger as a paper tigers.]] Reina and Togami get some BreakTheHaughty experiences and each become a HumbleHero. Many others, however, die in droves under Katsuya’s command as a RedShirtArmy. Katsuya seems to be the main exception while still prideful. [[spoiler:In truth, Katsuya is the biggest PaperTiger of them all, and Akira is able to kill him despite severe handicaps. Katsuya had unconscious MoreThanMindControl making people think he was strong.]]

** He does finally get the message as of the end of the Kid Buu arc, as in ''[[AlternateUniverse G]][[Anime/DragonBallGT T]]'' and in ''[[Anime/DragonBallSuper Super]]'', he's much more humble around the heroes, especially Goku. Even goes as far in Super as to give Goku all the reward money he got for "defeating Buu" because he knows Goku was much more deserving of it.

** First we have [[TheBully Draco Malfoy]]. He talks big game but has been unable to defeat Harry at anything, he is usually humiliated at Quidditch, and the one time they faced off in a duel, Harry nearly kills him. And even when bullying people like Neville he ends up humiliated when the shy boy fights back and that was before Neville TookALevelInBadass.
** [[FakeUltimateHero Gilderoy Lockhart]] he is constantly boasting his achievements, but he is clearly incompetent and it is later revealed that he stole all of his achivements from actual heroes.

* North Korea, with all the trash-talking they give to the United States. They've repeatedly been caught ''photoshopping images of their military'' to look stronger and, in one case, [[http://gizmodo.com/north-korea-used-camo-paint-to-disguise-civilian-planes-1446302179 painting civilian aircraft to pass as military planes]].

** Of the Axis powers, UsefulNotes/FascistItaly under the leadership ''Il Duce'' UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini is considered a laughable joke despite its aspirations to rebuild the Roman Empire. Italy's lackluster industrial capability meant that the nation couldn't produce modern equipment[[note]]Throughout the war, Italy relied on crude tankettes whose welds and rivets would break apart if hit by even ''rifles''.[[/note]] and failed to take advantage of its own natural resources.[[note]]While Italy had mammoth stores of raw Aluminum, Germany produced ''three'' times as much in refined Aluminum.[[/note]] Even when having clear advantages in battles, Italian forces suffered embarrassing losses like the Battle of Bardia in which they lost to Commonwealth force despite outnumbering them 3 to 1. In most of Italy's campaigns in North Africa and the Balkans, they only succeeded because of German military assistance. Even worse is that the Italian leadership was aware of such shortcomings with Mussolini privately confiding to Hitler in 1939 that his nation couldn't wage war until ''1942''. While the other Axis powers made embarrassing mistakes that ultimately costed them the war, Germany and Japan were at least able to achieve some major wins over the Allies like capturing Paris and conquering Singapore. In contrast, Italy never had the moments of triumph that would earn respect from their allies and foes.

** Of the Axis powers, UsefulNotes/FascistItaly under the leadership ''Il Duce'' UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini is considered a laughable joke for all its bombast. While Mussolini talked a big game about rebuilding the Roman empire, he couldn't back up his aspirations. Italy's lackluster industrial capability meant that the nation couldn't produce modern equipment.[[note]]Throughout the war, Italy relied on crude tankettes whose welds and rivets would break apart if hit by even ''rifles''.[[/note]] and failed to take advantage of its own natural resources.[[note]]While Italy had mammoth stores of raw Aluminum, Germany produced ''three'' times as much in refined Aluminum.[[/note]] Even when having the upper hand in certain battles, Italian forces suffered numerous setbacks like the Battle of Bardia in which they lost to Commonwealth force despite holding a 3:1 numerical advantage. In most of Italy's campaigns in North Africa and the Balkans, they only succeeded because of German military assistance. Even worse is that the Italian leadership was aware of such shortcomings with Mussolini privately confiding to Hitler in 1939 that his nation couldn't wage war until ''1942''. While the other Axis powers made embarrassing mistakes that ultimately costed them the war, Germany and Japan were at least able to achieve some major wins over the Allies like capturing Paris and conquering Singapore. In contrast, Italy never had the moments of triumph that would earn respect from their friends and foes.

** [[FakeUltimateHero Gilderoy Lockhart]] he is constantly boasting his achivements, but he is clearly incompetent and it is later revealed that he stole all of his achivements from actual heros.

** Of the Axis powers, UsefulNotes/FascistItaly under the leadership ''Il Duce'' UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini is the biggest example of this trope. While Mussolini talked a big game about rebuilding the Roman empire, Italy couldn't back up his aspirations. Italy's lackluster industrial capability meant that the nation couldn't produce modern equipment.[[note]]Throughout the war, Italy relied on crude tanks whose welds and rivets would break apart if hit by even small arms fire and non-penetrating hits.[/note]] and failed to take advantage of its own natural resources[[note]]While Italy had mammoth stores of raw Aluminum, Germany produced ''three'' times as much in refined Aluminum.[[/note]] Even when they had the upper hand in certain battles, the Italian military suffered numerous setbacks like the Battle of Bardia in which Italian forces lost the battle to the British and Australians despite holding a 3:1 numerical advantage. In most of Italy's campaigns, they only succeeded because of German military assistance. Even worse is that the Italian leadership was aware of such shortcomings with Mussolini privately confiding to Hitler in 1939 that his nation couldn't wage war until ''1942''. While the other Axis powers made embarrassing mistakes that ultimately costed them the war, Germany and Japan were at least able to achieve some major wins over the Allies like during the Battle of France and Conquest of Singapore. In contrast, Italy never had the moments of triumph that would earn respect from their friends and foes.

* Normally, getting angry turns the scrawny geek Dr. Banner into the [[HulkingOut savage brute]] called The ComicBook/IncredibleHulk. When he becomes the GeniusBruiser Professor Hulk, getting too angry changes him into a savage ''Banner''. He has all of the Hulk's usual aggression, but he's back to being a scrawny geek.

* In her very first appearance, Trixie from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' proclaims to be a great magician and lies about having defeated the giant bear called Ursa Major. Later, when she actually has to face Ursa Major, she doesn't stand a chance. To make things even more painful for her, at the end of the episode it is revealed that [[spoiler:the bear she tried to fight wasn't even Ursa Major, but Ursa Minor, which is several times smaller and weaker]].\\\

In "No Second Prances", after constantly boasting about being better than Twilight and getting an ego boost from kicking her out of Ponyville in "Magic Duel", Twilight ruining the friendship between Starlight and Trixie (which the latter only formed for personal gain) is enough for Trixie to sob, pathetically deny there's anything wrong, and slam her wagon door like a teenager throwing a temper tantrum. Notably, she's grown out of this after several occasions where it's bitten her in the butt. While still boastful and unrealistic about her actual skills, she is ''very'' quick to deny she has any talent in magic or fighting (though she still loves to antagonize those who do).

** Hiyori also counts, since she's easily the most aggressive of the Vizard but is always getting [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] whenever she tries to fight anybody and tends to require Shinji or the others to bail her out.

* Chechen forces under Kadyrov fighting on the Russian side of the Russian invasion of Ukraine talked big promising to RapePillageAndBurn, but faced a CurbStompBattle within hours of entering the country. They proceeded to post Tiktok and many other social media posts talking big about being 'super soldiers' and badasses who are fighting right near Kyiv... and then analysis found all these social media posts were coming from neigboring peaceful Belarus. And that's besides all their BlingOfWar equipment not having a speck of dirt on it. They have the EmbarrassingNickname of the ''Tiktok army'' because of this.

** First we have [[TheBully Draco Malfoy]]. He talks big game but has been unable to defeat Harry at anything, he is usually humiliated at Quidditch, and the one time they faced off in a duel, Harry nearly kills him. And even when bullying people like Neville he ends up humiliated when the shy boy fights back and that was before Neville TookALevelInBadAss.