History Main / DependingUponTheUndependable

** ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': After the native Gungans and the humans of Theed ally themselves to retake Naboo from the Trade Federation, Boss Nass makes Jar-Jar Binks a Bombad General, despite being ostracized and driven away from his home for being such a clumsy, clueless klutz. While he seems to take to the role fairly well at first[[labelnote:*]]"Steady... steady!"[[/labelnote]], when the battle is loose he doesn't command the Gungan Army at all, and frequently gets himself into accidents that would be considered disasters were it not for the fact that they conveniently kill droids with no Gungan casualties.

In RealLife, any person with a bit of common sense would know better than to keep hiring or promoting the bungling doofus which is why the RuleOfFunny is often used to explain this trope. However, the hiring person may have ulterior motives behind the decision [[PromotedToScapegoat such as trying to deliberately undermine a project by putting an incompetent boob in charge.]] Other times, factors like {{Nepotism}} may make firing or not hiring the nitwit again out of the question so the character will be KickedUpstairs and given the job where he or she can do the least amount of damage (which, unfortunately, can still be a lot). Also, sometimes the klutz will get the job simply because he or she's the only one available and the other people are actually far worse. (Plus, the character may work cheap.)

* [[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook That Mitchell and Webb Sound]]:'' The Boy Who Cried Wolf example is mocked when the boy's uncle is taken to court, and tries claiming the aesop of "don't tell a lie." The prosecution points out all the suspicious holes in the story, and retorts that this is ''not'' the moral of the story, rather it is "if you have reason to believe there is a vicious predator at loose, do not chose as your sole watchman someone you have resolutely chosen to ignore."

** DumbJock Stretch Snodgrass's ineptness drives the plot of a few episodes. "The Auction" and "Madison Mascot" (each a SoundToScreenAdaptation) hinge on Snodgrass mixing up a couple of vital messages.

** Walter Denton is sometimes to blame. In "Writing Magazine Articles", Denton is tasked to pretend to be Mr. Conklin's imaginary idiot son and Miss Brooks' imaginary quiz kid son. Walter mixes it up.

* Marcy's standard assessment of Al's screwups in ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' whenever someone trusts him to do just about anything, [[HypocriticalHumor including Marcy herself]] on occasion.
--> '''Marcy''': "If you give a chimp a gun and it shoots someone, you don't blame the chimp!"
** Peg fits this even more. She can't even be trusted with the most basic task that involves going out of her way to help anyone such as making food or picking up Al from work, yet it takes them till season 9 to finally wise up.

** While searching for a replacement for Michael, Dwight winds up temporarily holding the position and true to character, goes on an insane power trip, much to the dismay of his coworkers. However, despite being an utter tyrant, he does boost productivity significantly.

* On some early ''Series/SesameStreet'' episodes, Mr. Hooper made some dubious choices in who he allowed to mind his store. Such as Oscar the Grouch (who emptied out a garbage can or two and "decorated" the store with its contents), and Cookie Monster (who ate ''everything'' in the store, edible and otherwise, except for one loaded cookie jar that he promised not to touch).

* ''Series/UnhappilyEverAfter'': Tiffany asks Ryan to take her painting to the basement to wrap it up. Once in the basement, Ryan [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall]] and asks the audience "How can she not know what's going to happen?" Sure enough, he destroys it.

** DumbJock Stretch Snodgrass's ineptness drives the plot of a few episodes. "The Auction" and "Elephant Mascot" hinge on Snodgrass mixing up a couple of vital messages. In "Board of Education Day", where he is tasked to repair a torn speech of Mr. Conklin's praising the Board of Education. Instead, Stretch puts together a hodgepodge that accidentally incorporates part of his biology theme on monkeys.
** Walter Denton is sometimes to blame. In "Writing Magazine Articles", Denton is tasked to pretend to be Mr. Conklin's imaginary idiot son and Miss Brooks' imaginary quiz kid son. Walter mixes it up.

->''Who is more foolish? The Fool, or the fool who follows him?''

* In ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM'', Antoine is sent into missions more than any Freedom Fighter outside Sonic and Sally, despite the fact he is a brainless DirtyCoward that often only screws up plans.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Pat No Pay", Mr. Krabs continuously has Patrick perform jobs around the Krusty Krab to pay off his bill. Despite screwing everything up so far, the episode ends with Mr. Krabs having Patrick throw trash away. He then throws a sack of money into the trash machine, and the Krusty Krab explodes.

** Stretch's brother [[SuspiciouslySimiliarSubstitute Bones]] is at fault in "Marinated Hearing (a SoundToScreenAdaptation of "Board of Education Day", where he is tasked to repair a torn speech of Mr. Conklin's praising the Board of Education. Instead, Bones puts together a hodgepodge that accidentally incorporates part of his biology theme on monkeys.

** DumbJock Stretch Snodgrass's propensity for ineptness drives the plot of a few episodes. "The Auction" and "Madison Mascot" (both SoundToScreenAdaptations) hinges on Snodgrass mixing up a couple of vital messages.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]

* Inverted in ''Film/TheMummyReturns'': When Rick and Ardeth Bey are taking Alex to the Ahm Shere oasis, Evy and Jonathan remain on the high ground to provide cover fire. Jonathan, who up to this point was the franchise's ComicRelief finally shows his competence in something:

* Pretty much the premise of ''Series/TheOffice'' is that the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin is managed by the wildly unprofessional Michael Scott. He routinely engages in inappropriate behavior, makes offensive jokes, and constantly annoys his employees with his antics. It's implied he was promoted only for being an amazing salesman, with no actual regard for his qualifications.

** Played with in "Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?". Sarah giving Ed money to buy her and Jimmy fudge certainly wasn't the smartest task to do, and there was nothing stopping her and Jimmy for walking to the candy store themselves. But Ed really was willing to do the favor and even refused to allow Eddy to hold on to it, and the only reason he foolishly purchased the jawbreakers instead was because Eddy kept on goading him to do it.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'': [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Jude]] is often entrusted with important tasks by the rest of the gang. Just one example is when Jonesy asked him to refrigerate some meat for him and just as Jude was about to plug in the refrigerator [[DistractedByTheSexy he got sidetracked by his girlfriend Starr showing up]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM'', Antoine is sent into missions more than any Freedom Fighter outside Sonic and Sally, despite the fact he is a brainless DirtyCoward that often only screws up plans.

* {{Lampshaded}} in one episode of WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}: when Leela chews Fry and Bender over their last screw-up, they reply that by now she should know better than to ask them to do anything, and they go as far as saying that they're very disappointed in her.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' episode "[[Recap/BobsBurgerS5E5BestBurger Best Burger]]", Bob tasks his [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny easily distracted]] son Gene with getting the black garlic he needs for a burger cook-off. When Gene inevitably forgets to bring some, Linda suggests that Bob subconsciously ''wanted'' Gene to screw up so that it wouldn't be his fault if he ended up losing.
-->'''Gene:''' I'm sorry I screwed up today! I'm sorry I screw up all the time!\\
'''Bob:''' No, Gene. You didn't screw up. I screwed up by trusting you. Wait, {{that came out wrong}}.

!!Examples:

* Comedy sidekick Frank Honey in ''VideoGame/LegoCityUndercover'' is assigned to pick up a new prison van for a show but even after Chase McCain helps him out when the Triad attack, Frank ends up plowing it right into the stage. Notably, the Mayor gets on the Chief's case for assigning a known incompetent to the task in the first place.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland'', Leshawna puts [[BigEater Owen]] in charge of guarding a plate of ribs while everyone was out. Next thing you know, he eats the entire tray.