History Main / InvincibleIncompetent

* Rincewind, from ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', is noted for trying to run away from the plot action, yet invariably winning somehow. It's been noted that he has the favour of the Lady, goddess of luck. It's also been noted that she will lose interest if he ever ''acts'' like someone with divine protection.

* [[DisneyMouseAndDuckComics Donald Duck]] as seen in comic books [[DependingOnTheWriter usually]] lands somewhere around this trope when he gets into action adventures. He's basically never a skilled fighter (unless appearing in some alternative version like Superduck[=/=]Paperinik), and otherwise tends to be some mixture of resourceful and dumb. Sometimes the trope will be averted or subverted when someone in a story recognises his crazy ability to survive anything as a real talent. One example of this involved his being hired as a secret agent while the agency also used his weird lateral-thinking brain as a model for their AI, albeit combining it with actual high intelligence.

* ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFourWorldsGreatestHeroes'', "Recap/DoomsWordIsLaw": While Johnny and Ben are often reasonable fighters they are a lot more effective against Dr. Doom by accident in one episode, dodging missiles because they're fighting each other and using a two-pronged attack because they couldn't agree on a plan.

* ''Literature/CiaphasCain'': Has a dark and dramatic take on a protagonist who attempts to run away from the action yet always ends up winning. The difference being that he is actually competent, or he would not have survived very long, let alone lived [[RetiredBadass to retire]] in [[CrapsackWorld the Warhammer]] [[EverythingTryingToKillYou universe]]. However, [[HeroicSelfDeprecation he refuses to admit this]].

->Johnny: "How did Brer Rabbit get away, Uncle Remus?"
->Remus: "Who say he git away?"
->Toby: "Brer Rabbit always gits away."
->Remus: "Don't you be too shure ... ain't i done tol'd you that Brer Rabbit, bein' little and without much strength, he's s'posed to use his head instead o' his foots?"
-->-- SongOfTheSouth

!!Examples:

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) perpetually comes from behind to win. Granted, everyone does this, but Joey never seems to be picked as a favorite to win anything, despite several finals showings.
** Jonouchi's an odd combination of IdiotBall and InformedFlaw. For no explained reason except maybe poverty, his deck is mostly full of [[TheLoad weak cards]]. While his [[XanatosSpeedChess quick-thinking]] and [[GameBreaker few strong cards]] make up for his weaker monsters in life-threatening scenarios, he'd be MUCH more effective if he'd try a more effective deck-type.
* In the ''IrresponsibleCaptainTylor'' nobody can decide if Justy Ueki Tylor is this or he's just that good but prefers to ''[[ObfuscatingStupidity look]]'' like it.
* ''Ju Ingong'' in ''TransferStudentStormBringer'' defeats everyone and becomes JJang of the school without any fighting skills simply through dumb luck, although everyone who witnesses his fights believes him to be using super advanced fighting techniques.
* In the Unova League in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Ash/Satoshi's new rival Cameron has intelligence that makes Ash look smart by comparison, frequently misses important facts and information yet still proves good enough to beat 8 gym leaders to get to the League. [[spoiler:When the two face off, Cameron handicaps himself with 5 Pokemon to Ash's 6 and ends up facing half his team with only Riolu, and still manages to win.]]

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* ''Fanfic/PerfectionIsOverrated'' argues that essentially, the MarySue [[DeconstructedTrope boils down to this]], as they succeed despite going about tasks incompetently, become popular even when their personalities are repulsive, and survive mistakes that should have killed them. The [[ParodySue SUEs]], the main antagonists of the fic who represent MarySue archetypes without the PlotArmor or [[CreatorsPet author favoritism]], end up losing to the [[MaiHime Himes]] because they continue to act as though they're invincible, even when they're not, and it's briefly suggested that their reason for wanting to change the world is because they can't function in it the way it is.

[[folder:Film]]
* Inspector Clouseau of ''ThePinkPanther'' series is a shining example, combined with BatDeduction in that his profoundly stupid and illogical actions often save him and/or destroy his attacker and/or solve the case he's supposed to be working on. Many skilled assassins try to kill him, but Clouseau inevitably survives by some absurd accident, almost always unknowingly killing the assassin(s) in the process. All for the sake of RuleOfFunny, of course.

* ''CiaphasCain'': Has a dark and dramatic take on a protagonist who attempts to run away from the action yet always ends up winning. The difference being that he is actually competent, or he would not have survived very long, let alone lived [[RetiredBadass to retire]] in [[CrapsackWorld the Warhammer]] [[EverythingTryingToKillYou universe]]. However, [[HeroicSelfDeprecation he refuses to admit this]].
* Craig Shaw Gardner's "[[Literature/TheWanderingsOfWuntvor Ballad of Wuntvor]]," satirizes the concept. Within the work he refers to the trope as the "Eternal Apprentice".

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'': Ziggy the Green Ranger is several leagues behind the other Rangers in fighting skills - and not just the ones on his own team, but just about every other Ranger, period - but he manages to bumble his way through fights, providing support for his teammates rather than drag them down.

[[folder: Mulitiple Media]]
* In ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'', Sparadrap, one of the worse players, tends to be this on and off. The only situation consistently having it happen is his "fights" against [[PlayerKilling Dark Avenger]], to the extent of becoming a RunningGag.

[[folder: Professional Wrestling ]]
* Wrestling/MikeyWhipwreck was the epitome of this trope in Wrestling/{{ECW}}. Despite going for months on end without managing to land a single offensive move, Mikey somehow managed to wrack up an impressive winning streak due to coincidental outside interference or just sheer dumb luck. This culminated with him winning the ECW Television Title ''and'' successfully defending it for a while, despite his numerous attempts to vacate the title.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* ''ScoobyDoo'' has this trope in two flavors:
## Shaggy and Scooby always seem to end up finding the weekly monster despite their cowardice, laziness, and complete lack of investigative skills.
## Despite the inevitable failure of Fred's convoluted traps to catch the monster, the monster usually ends up trapped by the end of the episode anyway.
** The later shows and movies, though still often playing on this trope, gave the gang a bit more of a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass cred, displaying more acts of genuine competance and bravado.
* Rufus and Amberley from ''TheDreamstone'' were bumbling kids somewhat a cut below BadassNormal, however since they're the foes were [[HarmlessVillain the Urpneys]] and most of their allies were immortal {{Invincible Hero}}es, they usually didn't have to achieve much to win the day.
* ''InspectorGadget'': Gadget thwarts Doctor Claw again and again, almost solely on the strengths of his {{Hyper Competent Sidekick}}s or [[TheFool well timed]] [[SpannerInTheWorks slapstick bumbling]]. On the ''very'' rare occasions [[SanityBall he gets a clue what's going on]] however, he is shown to be [[LetsGetDangerous surprisingly competent]].
** Parodied in an episode of ''RobotChicken'' where Dr. Claw's finally put two and two together and turns Gadget into TheTerminator to kill Penny.
* ''JonnyQuest'': Jonny is pretty powerless through the show's whole run, and is constantly being plucked from danger by his father and Race.
* ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFourWorldsGreatestHeroes'', "Recap/DoomsWordIsLaw": While Johnny and Ben are often reasonable fighters they are a lot more effective against Dr. Doom by accident in one episode, dodging missiles because they're fighting each other and using a two pronged attack because they couldn't agree on a plan.
* Coop of MegasXLR somehow manages to win completely impossible situations out of sheer luck.

* Rufus and Amberley from ''TheDreamstone'', outside a few early episodes, rarely showed any true individual strengths or competence, yet defeated the Urpneys time and time again, due to dumb luck, a stronger ally intervening or the Urpneys basically defeating themselves for them. This is an unusual variation, since the Urpneys themselves are incredibly pitiful {{Harmless Villain}}s and usually something of {{Villain Protagonist}}s, however the Noops rely so little on their own skills to win against them that the former actually come off as more competent than them the odd time their lucky streak ends.
** They become more capable in the Third and Fourth Season, even if they are still rather reliant on the Urpneys' stupidity or harmlessness to win.

* ''CiaphasCain'': Has a dark and dramatic take on a protagonist who attempts to run away from the action yet always ends up winning.
** The difference being that he is actually competent, or he would not have survived very long.

** They become more capable in the Third Season, even if they are still rather reliant on the Urpneys' stupidity or harmlessness to win.

* Woozy Winks, sidekick to the DC superhero PlasticMan, was a literal version of this. As part of his origin story he once saved a powerful wizard from drowning. As thanks, the wizard put a spell of protection on him, the result of which was that [[BornLucky he would magically avoid/survive absolutely anything that could ever hurt him]]. [[PianoDrop Falling piano]]? He'll stumble out of the way so that it hits just an inch behind him. Shoot at him? He'll bend down to pick up a penny just in time to avoid it. At the same time, he was so incompetent and dimwitted that he couldn't really take advantage of this, with it being entirely likely he never realized he had this power to begin with.

* WesternAnimation/FantasticFourWorldsGreatestHeroes: While Johnny and Ben are often reasonable fighters they are a lot more effective against Dr. Doom by accident in one episode, dodging missiles because they're fighting each other and using a two pronged attack because they couldn't agree on a plan.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Harry may be the highest-functioning version of this possible, given his constant victories despite rarely being noted as exceptionally gifted at any type of magic outside of Defense Against the Dark Arts and flying, and fully half the time defeating the villain either by accident or through the actions of another.
** Harry himself is perfectly aware of this. He resists Ron and Hermione's attempts to get him to teach them in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' because of this trope.
*** It should be noted that despite that he's actually a good teacher; most of the DA gets strong marks in their Defense Against the Dark Arts end-of-year-exams, as opposed to the failure they would have otherwise gotten under Umbridge. Also, Defense Against the Dark Arts essentially is magic combat, so it makes sense that if he's acing that subject he'd be a decent fighter; he's also frequently noted as brave, determined and quick-thinking, all qualities that would help you think on your feet to win a fight.

* Mikey Whipwreck was the epitome of this trope in ''{{ECW}}''. Despite going for months on end without managing to land a single offensive move, Mikey somehow managed to wrack up an impressive winning streak due to coincidental outside interference or just sheer dumb luck. This culminated with him winning the ECW Television Title ''and'' successfully defending it for a while, despite his numerous attempts to vacate the title.

* ''HarryPotter'': Harry may be the highest-functioning version of this possible, given his constant victories despite rarely being noted as exceptionally gifted at any type of magic outside of Defense Against the Dark Arts and flying, and fully half the time defeating the villain either by accident or through the actions of another.
** Harry himself is perfectly aware of this. He resists Ron and Hermione's attempts to get him to teach them in ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' because of this trope.

* In the Unova League in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Ash/Satoshi's new rival Cameron has intelligence that makes him look smart when next to each other, frequently misses important facts and information yet still proves good enough to beat 8 gym leaders to get to the League. [[spoiler:When the two face off he handicaps himself with 5 to his 6, and ends up facing half his team with only Riolu he still pulls off the win.]]
** (Could someone edit the above to be more coherent, please? I have no idea who half the "he"s in that are referring to.)

* In the Unava League in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Ash/Satoshi's new rival Cameron has intelligence that makes him look smart when next to each other, frequently misses important facts and information yet still proves good enough to beat 8 gym leaders to get to the League. [[spoiler:When the two face off he handicaps himself with 5 to his 6, and ends up facing half his team with only Riolu he still pulls off the win.]]

* Craig Shaw Garnder's "[[TheWanderingsOfWuntvor Ballad of Wuntvor]]," satirizes the concept. Within the work he refers to the trope as the "Eternal Apprentice".

* ''Ju Ingong'' in ''TransferStudentStormBringer'' defeats everyone and becomes JJang of the school without any fighting skills simply through dumb luck, although everyone who witnesses his fights believes him to be using super advanced fighting techniques

* FantasticFourWorldsGreatestHeroes: While Johnny and Ben are often reasonable fighters they are a lot more effective against Dr. Doom by accident in one episode, dodging missiles because they're fighting each other and using a two pronged attack because they couldn't agree on a plan.

* Rincewind, from ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', is noted for trying to run away from the plot action, yet invariably winning somehow.

* ''YuGiOh'': Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) perpetually comes from behind to win. Granted, everyone does this, but Joey never seems to be picked as a favorite to win anything, despite several finals showings.