History Main / CompetencePorn

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Fanfiction]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Video ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''Series/MadMen'': Don, and to a lesser extent the other creatives at Sterling Cooper, is an appealing character despite his [[YourCheatingHeart many]] [[TheAlcoholic major]] [[{{Narcissist}} flaws]] because he's so damn good at his job.

* ''Series/MadMen'': Don, and to a lesser extent the other creatives at Sterling Cooper, is an appealing character despite his [[YourCheatingHeart many]] [[TheAlcoholic major]] [[TheNarcissist flaws]] because he's so damn good at his job.

* ''Film/Apollo13''. You already know how it ends. And you probably already know the gist of how three astronauts and their thousands of support staff on the ground cooperated get a crippled spacecraft back to Earth. What the movie gives you is the chance to watch how they do it.

* ''Film/Apollo13''. You already know how it ends. And you probably already know the gist of how three astronauts and their thousands of support staff on the ground cooperated to get a crippled spacecraft back to Earth. What the movie gives you is the chance to watch how they do it.

* ''Literature/TheMartian'' and its film version are basically nothing but this--it's two hours of teams of scientists and engineers trying to bring Mark Watney home from Mars after he's stranded there by a freak storm.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': [[MadScientist Rick Sanchez]], in spite of being a massive sociopath, is entertaining for his CrazyAwesome inventions and adventures.

* ''Series/TheWestWing'' is all about very talented and idealistic political operatives coping with the crisis of the week.

* The ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bko5GgK5v8 Astartes]]'' videos are a ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' fan series that basically shows a bunch of no-nonsense Space Marines deal with the remnants of a uprising without any fuss or drama, exactly as they would normally.

* ''Film/Apollo13''. You already know how it ends. And you probably already know the gist of how three astronauts and their thousands of support staff on the ground cooperated to get a crippled spacecraft back to Earth. What the movie gives you is the chance to _watch_ how they do it.

* Many of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games set in modern times, such as the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' trilogy and later [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019 2019 remake]] usually place the player in the role of military elite, allowing them to fight alongside other competent and professional soldiers armed with high-tech equipment and reams of long-distance support.

* ''Manga/{{Jormungand}}'': Many of the show's [[CurbStomp curbstomps]] are because Koko's team of bodyguards are mainly composed of ex-military, and thus accomplish their job with a precision and professionalism many of their enemies lack. Koko herself is a shrewd strategist and businesswoman who regularly proves she a braver and better player in the arms-dealing business than her self-styled rivals.

* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' are generally exceptions in that Marvel Comics as a rule tend to be more neurotic than DC but Reed Richards is generally considered the most competent and effective leader and scientist in the entire universe and the Four's adventures generally are all about their adventures and inventing and exploring somehow always saving the day.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': A hyper competent team that catches the bad guys by using their own thinking against them.

* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': This trope was the major appeal of the original television series. The Impossible Missions Force (IMF) are an elite team of agents who are tasked with achieving some sort of goal that the government has deemed pretty much "impossible". They use a number of high-tech gadgets, deception, disguises, and other methods to achieve their end goal. Some episodes have the villains figure out the plan or reveal some countermeasure to it, but this always either plays into the IMF's hands or is quickly adjusted for and countered.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': The Man in the Suit can take down decades old organizations with hundreds of members with minimal help from his support team. [[spoiler:If anything, part of the reason the next-to-last season felt incredibly dreary is because Samaritan went past "proper escalation" and straight into InvincibleVillain territory and the final season had the heroes struggling to catch up.]]

* {{Speedrun}}s in general. There's something very cathartic about watching a talented player completely break a difficult game, whether through incredible reflexes (in a realtime run) or an emulator and frame-by-frame analysis (in a tool-assisted run).

Common genres include [[TheCaper Capers]], {{Medical Drama}}s, the more idealistic [[GovernmentProcedural Government]] and {{Law Procedural}}s, and [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness harder]] sci-fi. GuileHero and TricksterArchetype characters from mythology and legend are antecedents.

[[AC: Comic Books]]

[[AC:{{Film}} - Live Action]]
* In UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, Creator/HowardHawks was credited with making movies about professionals who approach their work with confidence, spirit, fun, and resourcefulness. Movies like ''Film/OnlyAngelsHaveWings, Film/HisGirlFriday, Film/ToHaveAndHaveNot, Film/RioBravo'' all had hypercompetent professionals and team-mates banter with each other as the plot focused on how they approached a job.
* ''Film/OceansEleven'' and its sequels each have a team of [[GentlemanThief Gentleman Thieves]] working together to pull off TheHeist. The thrill was seeing how these crooks manipulate and worm their way and use the UnspokenPlanGuarantee to their advantage to pull the rug under the feet of both their mark and the audience, generating suspense and thrill, as opposed to earlier heist films, [[spoiler:in a perfectly executed heist]].

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* ''Literature/TheMartian'' and its film version are basically nothing but this--it's two hours of teams of scientists and engineers trying to bring Mark Watney home from Mars after he's stranded there by a freak storm.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/BurnNotice'': Watching Michael Weston out badass every criminal and spy he comes up against is entertaining. Adding to the fun are the voiceovers which nonchalantly explain why he's doing things a particular way.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* ''TabletopGame/BladesInTheDark'' explicitly instructs players to play out their characters as daring, bold, ambitious, and ready to take big chances to live a bigger life, while literally telling the GameMaster, "Don't make the [=PCs=] look incompetent", and instead to explain their failures with overwhelming odds stacked against them.

[[AC:WebVideo]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* The earlier seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' - every 'buster got a chance to come up with the plan or have the insight to capture the episode's ghost. This faded as SeasonalRot and {{Flanderization}} set in, though there were still flashes of this in specific episodes.

* ''Film/OceansEleven'' and its sequels each have a team of [[GentlemanThief Gentleman Thieves]] working together to pull off TheHeist. The thrill was seeing how these GenreSavvy crooks manipulate and worm their way and use the UnspokenPlanGuarantee to their advantage to pull the rug under the feet of both their mark and the audience, generating suspense and thrill, as opposed to earlier heist films, [[spoiler:in a perfectly executed heist]].

* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': Definitely part of the appeal of Leslie Knope, both in-universe and for fans. And in a literal sense of the trope, there are definitely times when she and Ben get ''turned on'' by the other's excellence at their mundane government jobs.
** As the series goes on, more and more of the supporting ensemble also develop into these kind of extremely talented people who it is a pleasure to watch excel in work they care about.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''

* ''FIlm/OceansEleven'' and its sequels each have a team of [[GentlemanThief Gentleman Thieves]] working together to pull off TheHeist. The thrill was seeing how these GenreSavvy crooks manipulate and worm their way and use the UnspokenPlanGuarantee to their advantage to pull the rug under the feet of both their mark and the audience, generating suspense and thrill, as opposed to earlier heist films, [[spoiler:in a perfectly executed heist]].

* ''FIlm/OceansEleven'' and its sequels each have a team of [[GentlemanThief Gentleman Thieves]] working together to pull off TheHeist.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': [[MadScientist Rick Sanchez]], in spite of being a massive sociopath, is entertaining for his CrazyAwesome inventions and adventures.

* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': Definitely part of the appeal of Leslie Knope, both in-universe and for fans. As the series goes on, more and more of the supporting ensemble also develop into these kind of extremely talented people who it is a pleasure to watch excel in work they care about.