History Main / LethalJokeCharacter

* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime'' has a few plants that appear seemingly worthless, but are actually very potent:
** The Imp Pear. Any zombie that eats it turns into an Imp, and any imps that eat it die instantly while releasing a [[{{Fartillery}} stunning gas cloud]]. Besides being sort of ridiculous, it appears OvershadowedByAwesome by things like Chili Bean, which outright kills most zombies that eat it (while also causing them to fart), and many zombies don't even eat while instantly killing it. Imp Pear's [[LimitBreak Plant Food power]], however, is insanely powerful -- it turns a number of zombies on the screen into Imps, even those that don't eat such as Gargantuars, and this number starts from 5 but increases to a huge 15 at max level, essentially neutralizing a huge amount of threatening zombies.
** The Pea Vine. Vine Plants have the capability to be planted on top of other Plants (ala Pumpkin), and provide various useful effects or attacks[[note]]Blastberry Vine and Pyre Vine can hit multiple zombies in their lane with explosives and fire respectively, the Explode-O-Vine acts like an instant Cherry Bomb when planted and explodes again on death, Gloom Vine powers shadow plants and hits the 3x3 area around it, Shine Vine produces sun[[/note]]. The Pea Vine appears useless, firing a single Pea Shot like a peashooter and buffs Appease-Mint plants on its tile by 1.5x, which tend to fall out of favor due to the lack of splash/penetrating damage. However, this buff affects itself and increases substantially when it levels up, leading to a hefty damage increase as support. It also stacks with Torchwood's [[IncendiaryExponent fire boost to peas]] -- and thanks to Torchwood being an Appease-Mint plant, it also ''boosts this fire boost''. Placing Pea Vine on a pea and the Torchwood in front of it will apply its buff ''twice'', one from Pea Vine and the other from Torchwood's boosted flames, leading to insane amounts of damage from a single pea. All in all, what appears to be an underpowered plant at first glance becomes one of the most potent damage boosters in the game.

* The latest addition is [=RIP=]peroni. A weirdly-designed bot with a big vertical spinner counterbalanced by a flywheel, asymmetrical design, light armor, and themed as a ''pizza'' (the base painted as a pizza box, the flywheel decorated as a pizza, the driver coming out in a silly chef's outfit). It shocked the entire tournament by [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu scoring a knockout]] over Giant Nut winner End Game and going 3-1 in the qualifiers before having an ugly slugfest and almost ''winning'' over Black Dragon, a bot knows for its MadeOfIron durability.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Steely Dan from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'' has a an incredibly weak [[FightingSpirit stand]] called the Lovers, a microscopic mite-like thing that by his own estimate can't even lift a strand of hair. What it ''can'' do, however, is make its way into the pain center of someone's brain and make them feel orders of magnitude more pain than whatever the victim tries to inflict on Dan. For instance, if his back is scratched, the victim feels like they're being flayed alive, and by all rights too much of a hit will outright kill them from shock. This makes him essentially untouchable as long as his stand is allowed to remain active.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Franchise/MarvelUniverse:
** Franchise/SpiderMan villain The Shocker is often considered to be the archetype of a D-List villain as a powered-up thug with a silly costume and name who's not exactly intimidating. In practice however, Shocker is an experienced criminal who also happens to be a skilled engineer that designs his own equipment and on a good day is very dangerous for street-level heroes to underestimate. He also deliberately avoids punching above his own weight and has lasted as long in his career by staying a street-level D-Lister.
** Squirrel-Girl was famous as a hero whose powers mainly involve controlling squirrels and has a history of defeating A-List supervillains such as Doctor Doom, MODOK and Thanos. Most of this is largely played for laughs in that a lot of her victories are off-screen ones. On-screen, though, she has held up a train. Literally.

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
* There's another InUniverse example in Mouse from the titular video game of ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle''. He's the PluckyComicRelief sidekick with three weaknesses -- cake, speed, and strength -- while the others have one or none, and his only skills being Zoology and Weapons Valet. However, it turns out that Zoology is actually ''ridiculously broken'' if played right, as it makes one TheBeastmaster in a jungle environment full of dangerous creatures like jaguars, black mambas, and elephants.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/ArifuretaFromCommonplaceToWorldsStrongest'': Hajime Nagumo's high school class is transported to an RPGMechanicsVerse, Tortus, where they all have defined character classes. Most of the class get things like Swordsman, Priestess, etc., but not Hajime, or their teacher Aiko-''sensei''.
** Hajime gets the class Synergist, which basically makes him a glorified blacksmith able to change the physical form of earth and stones with the spell "Transmute". He turns it into a combatant class via hefty amounts of NotTheIntendedUse: he first transmutes the ground into pitfall traps to immobilize monsters so he can kill them, then graduates to immobilizing a boss-level monster by making it sink its feet and head into the ground. After falling into the depths of the Great Orcus Labyrinth, he starts crafting {{Hand Cannon}}s, ultimately turning him into a OneManArmy.
** Aiko gets the class Farmer, which includes a "Fermentation" power. [[spoiler:She uses this to produce methane, which she makes into a fuel-air bomb while battling the [[PathOfInspiration Holy Church]] that brought them to Tortus to begin with.]]
* InUniverse version in ''Literature/{{Epic}}'', which is about a society wherein pretty much all dispute settlement is done through the titular [=MMORPG=]. After the main character's latest character dies, he creates Cindella (from Sinbad the Sailor and Cinderella), a swashbuckler (very rare class choice), with all her points in the Beauty stat (usually dismissed as useless). It then turns out that the Swashbuckler has a ''lot'' of useful skills, and a high Beauty stat means that {{Non Player Character}}s give her preferential treatment, such as a jeweler giving her a powerful item that he didn't mean to sell.
[[/folder]]

* There are several examples in baseball.
** The knuckleball. A pitch so odd that anyone who looks to use it pretty much has to dedicate themselves to perfecting it, and it can take years to get it right. Most pitchers try to get batters out with blazing speed (typically 90+ mph at the highest levels), pinpoint control, and/or pitches that break so much batters can't even foul them off. The knuckleball ignores all these: it is thrown with a speed somewhere between 50 mph and 70 mph with little to no spin. The end result is a ball which wobbles in flight, going in random directions which ''nobody'' can truly predict. So, in short: no speed and no control. If it ''doesn't'' move, it's a batting practice pitch that will shortly wind up leaving the park. When it does move, it makes the opposing team look like rank amateurs as they flail wildly at the slow-moving ball. Knuckleballers also tend to have more precise daily regimens because the pitch's mechanics are so unusual: they have to manicure their nails much more precisely than other pitchers and even a hangnail can force them to miss a start; on the other hand, since the ball isn't thrown with any real force knuckleball pitchers can wind up with lengthy careers.
** Sidearm pitchers: The arm motion is completely different from standard throws -- meaning that anyone attempting to use it is going into an area that most coaches are ill-prepared to handle. Because of the pitch going left-to-right (or right-to-left, depending on the throwing arm) rather than up-to-down, an error which would, in normal pitches, merely ground the ball can instead fling it into the stands. And since it looks different to a normal pitch, it can be considered... not laughable, but a novelty. Once conquered, though, a sidearm throw becomes a natural curve ball -- even before any type of spin is put onto it. Combine that with batters unaccustomed to the form, and novelty becomes challenge.
** Submarine pitchers: Sidearm pitching not funny enough? Try rotating your body another 90°. Submariners risk scraping their knuckles on the ground; they sacrifice quite a bit of velocity compared to sidearmers -- never mind conventional pitchers -- but everything beneficial that applies to sidearmers, applies to submariners, too, just more so.

* US Navy blimps in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Generally, nobody would be afraid of a giant motorized balloon, but when it was put into convoy escort, it quickly became the bane of U-boats. Unlike conventional aircraft, it could dawdle along with the ships for days at a time, providing critical aerial surveillance that only got better with the introduction of air-to-surface radar sets. Blimps could [[SummonBiggerFish direct destroyers and frigates]] to the site of a possible contact, or [[NotSoHarmless attack on their own]] with machine guns and depth charges.

KuruniApr 25th 2023 at 8:34:46 PM

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* ''VideoGame/ArcTheLad'' gives us Poco, the first sidekick of the hero, who happens to be a cowardly klutz who ended in the army drum corps. Once correctly leveled, he starts DualWielding [[ImprobableWeaponUser cymbals]], shooting laser beams from his drum and can do a DoppelgangerSpin where an orchestra of Pocos bring destruction throught very loud sounds.

* In the Wii game, ''VideoGame/LittleKingsStory'', you have a simple [[JobSystem jobs system]] at your disposal, and can change the abilities and attributes of your villagers. To train a class, one must first pay to acquire a building where you can upgrade a villager, and then an additional fee for eacfirsh citizen converted. One such job is the "Gourmet Chef" class, which costs a tidy sum. However, once you have one, you learn he/she is near [[JokeCharacter completely useless]]! They have mediocre stats, and can hardly do any work at all. However, you soon learn they can one-hit kill [[DemonicSpiders giant chickens]], a very common and strong enemy. This turns them into a ChefOfIron. While this may seem situational, you will thank your lucky stars when you enter a kingdom populated almost entirely of them.

As with JokeCharacter, this is a {{Game Trope|s}}. For non-game examples, see ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman, CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass or BewareTheSillyOnes.

** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Norin%20the%20Wary Norin the Wary]] is a joke cowardly character; his "ability" is that he runs away any time any player casts a spell or attacks, which translates to never accomplishing anything on his own. So naturally, someone eventually managed to go undefeated in a Modern tournament using [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/6569297 a deck]] where nearly every other creature comboed with him in some way.

----
!!Non-gaming examples:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Steely Dan from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'' has a an incredibly weak [[FightingSpirit stand]] called the Lovers, a microscopic mite-like thing that by his own estimate can't even lift a strand of hair. What it ''can'' do, however, is make its way into the pain center of someone's brain and make them feel orders of magnitude more pain than whatever the victim tries to inflict on Dan. For instance, if his back is scratched, the victim feels like they're being flayed alive, and by all rights too much of a hit will outright kill them from shock. This makes him essentially untouchable as long as his stand is allowed to remain active.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Franchise/MarvelUniverse:
** Franchise/SpiderMan villain The Shocker is often considered to be the archetype of a D-List villain as a powered-up thug with a silly costume and name who's not exactly intimidating. In practice however, Shocker is an experienced criminal who also happens to be a skilled engineer that designs his own equipment and on a good day is very dangerous for street-level heroes to underestimate. He also deliberately avoids punching above his own weight and has lasted as long in his career by staying a street-level D-Lister.
** Squirrel-Girl was famous as a hero whose powers mainly involve controlling squirrels and has a history of defeating A-List supervillains such as Doctor Doom, MODOK and Thanos. Most of this is largely played for laughs in that a lot of her victories are off-screen ones. On-screen, though, she has held up a train. Literally.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
* There's another InUniverse example in Mouse from the titular video game of ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle''. He's the PluckyComicRelief sidekick with three weaknesses -- cake, speed, and strength -- while the others have one or none, and his only skills being Zoology and Weapons Valet. However, it turns out that Zoology is actually ''ridiculously broken'' if played right, as it makes one TheBeastmaster in a jungle environment full of dangerous creatures like jaguars, black mambas, and elephants.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/ArifuretaFromCommonplaceToWorldsStrongest'': Hajime Nagumo's high school class is transported to an RPGMechanicsVerse, Tortus, where they all have defined character classes. Most of the class get things like Swordsman, Priestess, etc., but not Hajime, or their teacher Aiko-''sensei''.
** Hajime gets the class Synergist, which basically makes him a glorified blacksmith able to change the physical form of earth and stones with the spell "Transmute". He turns it into a combatant class via hefty amounts of NotTheIntendedUse: he first transmutes the ground into pitfall traps to immobilize monsters so he can kill them, then graduates to immobilizing a boss-level monster by making it sink its feet and head into the ground. After falling into the depths of the Great Orcus Labyrinth, he starts crafting {{Hand Cannon}}s, ultimately turning him into a OneManArmy.
** Aiko gets the class Farmer, which includes a "Fermentation" power. [[spoiler:She uses this to produce methane, which she makes into a fuel-air bomb while battling the [[PathOfInspiration Holy Church]] that brought them to Tortus to begin with.]]
* InUniverse version in ''Literature/{{Epic}}'', which is about a society wherein pretty much all dispute settlement is done through the titular [=MMORPG=]. After the main character's latest character dies, he creates Cindella (from Sinbad the Sailor and Cinderella), a swashbuckler (very rare class choice), with all her points in the Beauty stat (usually dismissed as useless). It then turns out that the Swashbuckler has a ''lot'' of useful skills, and a high Beauty stat means that {{Non Player Character}}s give her preferential treatment, such as a jeweler giving her a powerful item that he didn't mean to sell.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* "Chicken" George Boswell from the first All-Star season of ''Series/BigBrotherUS''. He was the only houseguest to come from the inaugural season, which had a completely different format much closer to [[Series/BigBrotherUK the British version]], and the other competitors wrote him off as a total non-factor. Then in week 3, he was nominated for eviction, and this seemed to awaken a new competitive fire in him... culminating in the week's veto competition, where he agreed to eat nothing but slop ''for the rest of the game'' to get himself off the block. That turned out to be 40 days in all, as George was evicted in 5th place.
* ''Series/BattleBots'':
** Huggy Bear is pretty slow, has difficulty turning, and it cannot inflict any direct damage. What it DOES have going for it, however, is that it's one of the flattest bots in the middleweight division, meaning enemy attacks go either right over it or just barely graze it, and it has a unique tool, a sliding bar that travels across the middle of its H-shaped frame. True to its name, this bar is meant to trap opponents by hugging them, and once caught, it is very difficult to escape from, during which Huggy Bear will carry its opponent to a [[DropTheHammer Pulverizer hammer]] or [[SpectacularSpinning the Killsaws]] on the stage and stack up damage while the opponent cannot do anything. It is also very hard to flank: Its operator will bring it to the center of the arena, then have it sit there always facing the opponent waiting for them to approach, allowing it to overcome faster, more maneuverable opponents like Sabotage.
** Wrecks is the absolute slowest bot in the ABC revival, only able to slowly hobble its way along and takes a minute to just move a few feet. It was [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] in every tournament match it was in -- then the 2016 rumble consisting of the previous year's returning bots took place, where Wrecks's giant flywheel sawblade demonstrated its absurd power, defeating 3rd seed Witch Doctor [[OneHitKill in one hit]]. It was curb-stomped by Bite Force later, but this one event was so unexpected to everyone (perhaps except to the people who built and operate Wrecks) that it elicited gasps and screams from the audience.
** A series filled with buzz-saws, crushing hammers, and the occasional ''flamethrower'', has the bot known as DUCK! Compared to other bots, DUCK! is bland and silly. A box on wheels with a duck theme and a tiny wedge. But as several of the more lethal bots found out, DUCK! was just as lethal as he was silly. Especially due to his [[StoneWall utter invincibility]]. This came into play big-time against reigning champ Tombstone. Who was brought within 2 seconds of a count-out by the bot.
** When you see Chomp out in the [=BattleBox=], wildly swinging its [[DropTheHammer pointed hammer]] around and tipping itself on its side again and again, losing most of its matches, you may think it's a bunch of useless garbage. Said "useless garbage," however, defeated the reigning champion Bite Force, doing so by pecking into a tiny hole, with ludicrous precision, that broke Bite Force's weapon and messed with its movement. So far, Chomp remains the only robot to have won against Bite Force.
* ''Series/RobotWars'':
** Diotoir was covered in flammable fur that caught fire in every fight, couldn't self-right when [[FlippingHelpless flipped]], wielded an almost useless weapon, and had a big cheesy grin on the face of the robot. Yet somehow, it has won multiple awards, competitions and fights against powerful robots (especially an infamous fight where it went [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeie5cYFeis toe-to-toe]] with a future championship-winning robot ''and won''). All it needed was excellent driving, [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass one of the strongest pushing capabilities in the entire competition underneath its joke exterior]] and creative use of its weapon to make a lot of progress.
** In the revived series, Nuts 2. In Series 8 and 9, it was easily just a JokeCharacter (its most famous moment being ending up on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle courtesy of [[TheDreaded Carbide]] in Series 8), but its upgrades in Series 10 made it [[TookALevelInBadass much more powerful,]] almost turning it into a full-body spinner that kept landing crippling blows, including ''disabling Carbide's weapon outright!'' Nuts 2 is a member of a type of robot known as a "sit-and-spin" or "thwackbot," which was fairly common through the 2000s but had long since gone extinct in Nuts 2's weight class[[note]]100 kilograms (220 pounds)[[/note]] due to the presence of robots with faster-moving, harder-hitting spinning weapons. To date, Nuts 2 remains the only successful thwackbot in its weight class and now also competes in ''[=BattleBots=]'' to continue to play this trope in the United States.
* Jinkx Monsoon from Season 5 of ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace''. For the first several episodes, she was written off by the other contestants as a corny comedy queen with an old-timey gimmick, and she kind of faded to the background... until the celebrity impersonation episode in which her hilarious performance as [[Film/GreyGardens Little Edie Beale]] earned Jinkx her first win of the season. [[OhCrap That's when the other queens realized]] that Jinkx was a threat after all. Sure enough, she not only won the season, but became a fan favorite due to being [[EnsembleDarkhorse the underdog]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* From ''Wrestling/{{AEW}}'', "Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy's whole gimmick is based on this: Cassidy's a small, skinny guy who's so apathetic that he barely puts any effort into anything -- he constantly keeps his hands in his pockets even during a match and "attacks" his opponents by lightly tapping their shins with his foot -- but when [[LetsGetDangerous he decides to take things seriously,]] he reveals himself to be a very skilled and versatile wrestler who can give the company's best wrestlers a real challenge, often to their shock.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* In ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' there have been numerous fights where a character ''might'' look and seem lame on the outside, but on the inside, they have incredible feats that make them into this. These people are usually the winners:
** In "[[Anime/DragonBallZ Hercule Satan]] vs. [[Franchise/StreetFighter Dan Hibiki]], we have [[spoiler:Hercule Satan. Despite living in a world of aliens, gods and using their own life force as energy attacks, Hercule is unremarkable. However, he's one of the strongest non-ki-using humans on the planet, capable of ripping phone books apart, pulling three buses and punching a hole into one of them. As well, he's a legit World Champion. Compared to the likes of Perfect Cell and Kid Buu, he's nothing; compared to Dan Hibiki, whose attacks are pathetic and his one canonical win was done out of pity, he's a monster.]]
** Characters who use ToonPhysics are also prone to being this, such as [[spoiler:[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Pinkie Pie]], Franchise/{{Popeye}}, ComicBook/TheMask and WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants.]] This so-called "Toon Force", as it is referred to in-series, essentially allows them to have both RealityWarper powers and an incredible HealingFactor that can surpass even the mightiest and normal versions of these. Of note is [[spoiler:[=SpongeBob=]]], who Wiz notes that his strength seems to fluctuate between episodes, going from being unable to lift a glass of lemonade to being able to rotate the world by turning a screw.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Video]]
* In ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'', Creator/SamRiegel has a tendancy to play these kind of characters.
** His Campaign 1 character, Scanlan Shorthalt, was created when Sam asked Creator/LiamOBrien what the lamest D&D character was, and he replied "probably a Gnome Bard." Enter Scanlan, a [[Lol69 69-year-old]] musician with a backstory based on Music/{{Eminem}}, who hits on AnythingThatMoves, sings song parodies and acts as the group's comic relief. Being a 5th Edition Bard, however, [[ConfusionFu gives him a large variety of spells and skill proficiencies]] (up to and including ''Wish''), which is best illustrated at two points.
*** First, the "Scanbo" incident, where through creative use of spells (including Polymorphing into a triceratops) and items, Scanlan takes on a mansion full of guards and their boss ''single-handedly''. This became the basis of an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfVoxMachina'' animated series.
*** Secondly, Scanlan is instrumental to avoiding a TotalPartyKill on multiple occasions against the final BigBad Vecna, a PhysicalGod, all because of the humble Counterspell. From preventing Vecna Counterspelling their escape attempt in their first encounter to shutting down high-level spells in the FinalBoss battle, Vox Machina could not have won the day without Scanlan.
--->[Vecna attempts a 7th level Banishment]
--->'''Scanlan:''' Oooooh, but I Counterspelled it at 8th level! That's why I moved closer motherfucker!
** His Campaign 2 character is Nott the Brave, a Goblin Rogue. Sam wanted to subvert the usual Rogue stereotype by making Nott nervous and neurotic, with a phobia of water and a tendancy to get very drunk. As a Rogue though, Nott's damage output is among the highest in the party once she gets sneak attacks going, which is often due to her small size. (And Fury of the Small boosts her damage further) She's also a GadgeteerGenius thanks to [[spoiler: being married to an alchemist]], allowing her to make improvided acid and explosives. [[spoiler: Even when restored to her true form as the Halfling Veth Brenatto, she retains her personality and usefulness.]]
** His Campaign 3 character is the most unconventional of the lot (which says something), an [[RobotBuddy Automaton Cleric]] literally named Fresh Cut Grass (F.C.G or "Letters" for short). F.C.G is also a WideEyedIdealist who acts like a therapist, [[ViolationOfCommonSense even in battle or towards people hostile to the party.]] However, F.C.G is a very effective healer, fights with a SwissArmyAppendage that includes a chainsaw, harpoon and flamethrower, and their homebrewed Empathy Domain gives them a variety of useful abilities, from absorbing damage for allies to ''limited mind-reading''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* There are several examples in baseball.
** The knuckleball. A pitch so odd that anyone who looks to use it pretty much has to dedicate themselves to perfecting it, and it can take years to get it right. Most pitchers try to get batters out with blazing speed (typically 90+ mph at the highest levels), pinpoint control, and/or pitches that break so much batters can't even foul them off. The knuckleball ignores all these: it is thrown with a speed somewhere between 50 mph and 70 mph with little to no spin. The end result is a ball which wobbles in flight, going in random directions which ''nobody'' can truly predict. So, in short: no speed and no control. If it ''doesn't'' move, it's a batting practice pitch that will shortly wind up leaving the park. When it does move, it makes the opposing team look like rank amateurs as they flail wildly at the slow-moving ball. Knuckleballers also tend to have more precise daily regimens because the pitch's mechanics are so unusual: they have to manicure their nails much more precisely than other pitchers and even a hangnail can force them to miss a start; on the other hand, since the ball isn't thrown with any real force knuckleball pitchers can wind up with lengthy careers.
** Sidearm pitchers: The arm motion is completely different from standard throws -- meaning that anyone attempting to use it is going into an area that most coaches are ill-prepared to handle. Because of the pitch going left-to-right (or right-to-left, depending on the throwing arm) rather than up-to-down, an error which would, in normal pitches, merely ground the ball can instead fling it into the stands. And since it looks different to a normal pitch, it can be considered... not laughable, but a novelty. Once conquered, though, a sidearm throw becomes a natural curve ball -- even before any type of spin is put onto it. Combine that with batters unaccustomed to the form, and novelty becomes challenge.
** Submarine pitchers: Sidearm pitching not funny enough? Try rotating your body another 90°. Submariners risk scraping their knuckles on the ground; they sacrifice quite a bit of velocity compared to sidearmers -- never mind conventional pitchers -- but everything beneficial that applies to sidearmers, applies to submariners, too, just more so.
* In the world of fighting the embodiment of this trope was Eric "Butterbean" Esch, an overweight, short armed boxer with a very unrefined style, very little footwork and the proven capability to [[OneHitKill knock out pretty much anyone if he landed a single good punch]], Esch went on to make a prolific career out of knocking out opponents that looked much more fit than him.
* US Navy blimps in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Generally, nobody would be afraid of a giant motorized balloon, but when it was put into convoy escort, it quickly became the bane of U-boats. Unlike conventional aircraft, it could dawdle along with the ships for days at a time, providing critical aerial surveillance that only got better with the introduction of air-to-surface radar sets. Blimps could [[SummonBiggerFish direct destroyers and frigates]] to the site of a possible contact, or [[NotSoHarmless attack on their own]] with machine guns and depth charges.
* In LARP communities there is in nearly any group the "Skinny Fast Kid". Usually aged about 16 to 25, very slight build and looks like anybody would roll over them. And indeed normally anybody could take them out, [[FragileSpeedster if only they could catch them]]. There is one famous story about a Russian LARP group who had a rule: players with no armour have 1 HP, each piece of armour that gives real life protection confers +1 HP, and so historically accurate plate armour gives a lot of HP. One team had to run a message to an allied camp a few kilometers away through enemy territory, on a hot summer's day. Enter the Skinny Fast Kid who decides to take no weapons and wear only a pair of swimming trunks. Nobody managed to catch him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

** The first ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' gives us the Gouf, a slow, somewhat plodding fighter with a short sword and a weak machine gun... that has armor for days and uses its [[WhipItGood Heat Rod]] to stun and beat down entire crowds of mobile suits.

** Exeggcute from Plasma Freeze also deserves mention. It has very low 30 HP and one attack that does 20 damage for two energy, and the Exeggutor it's supposed to evolve into isn't too impressive, either. Except its ability "Propagation" lets you return it from the discard pile to your hand. This opens the door to a myriad of combos that involve cards and abilities requiring you to discard resources in order to work, which when combined with Battle Compressor can give you free uses of cards like Ultra Ball. Because of this, it's tough to find an Expanded deck that doesn't have a copy or two, just because of how useful it is.

** [[Franchise/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]] is quite possibly the most overly complicated, useless character in the hands of the wrong person. As his power stacks with his "legal defense", players have to switch between three[[note]](two standard, one unlocked with evidence)[[/note]] [[StanceSystem attack modes]] while collecting relevant evidence to build a case; additionally, there are five different evidence pieces which all carry different special moves if used as attacks. Despite all these complications, however, collecting three pieces of evidence and landing a clean hit with an "[[BigWordShout OBJECTION!]]" allows him to access [[SuperMode Turnabout Mode]], which has an exponential damage boost, allows super move variants, and unlocks the use of Ace Attorney, the most damaging move in the whole game, which cannot miss. Phoenix Wright's damage and speed boost when [[ComebackMechanic activating X-Factor]] is staggeringly high when he is the last man on his team, and if Ace Attorney is used while in X-Factor, he can knock out any character even if they have a full HP bar. One bad move and Phoenix Wright can turn the entire game around, kind of like what he does in the cases of his own series, actually.

###Most random encounters can be trivialized by performing a Dance, most of which incapcitate them. Sleep/Stop works on most enemies, while Silence is preferable for spellslingers. And although it's only available in late Chapter 5, Magical Masque makes her completely impervious to magic attacks for the duration of the Dance. She also has her Sing abilities, with Matador's Song increasing your party's Evasion chances by 100%! It should be used against any brawny opponent. Situational? Yes, but these abilities are insanely broken when called for.
###The effect wears off after a round, but you can cast Slow on her. Every other job (or "[[InsistentTerminology Dressphere]]") would be at a major loss if they had to deal with that. You can also install your Songstress on the Highroad Winds Garment Grid so she'll [[ActionInitiative act immediately at the start of battle]]. Equip her with an accessory which causes Slow and she'll clean house. You can also have three Songstresses in the party at once. So have a team setup consist of two Songstresses and one dedicated attacker, and you can start a new Dance with another girl before the first Dance has finished.

** Squirrel-Girl was famous as a hero whose powers mainly involve controlling squirrels and has a history of defeating A-List supervillains such as Doctor Doom, MODOK and Thanos. Most of this is largely played for laughs in that a lot of her victories are off-screen ones.

** Like the skill Null Sleep, Cielo is also designed for the second playthough BonusBoss, one of the hardest in JRPG history. Cielo's increased risk of getting hit by ailments plus invulnerability while asleep makes him the most likely to survive the otherwise unavoidable Gaea Rage, on top of the benefits of having no elemental weaknesses & dodging physical attacks.

*** The Great Jagras is the WarmUpBoss so new players will likely kill it multiple times while getting used to the game. A later update to the game added the ''Greatest'' Jagras, a massively upscaled Great Jagras that pukes up valuable decorations. While amusing to look at, said Jagras has as much health as an ''[[BonusBoss Arch-Tempered Elder Dragon]],'' its attacks have a proportionately enormous hitbox, and it deals enough damage to one-shot a High Rank hunter with some attacks.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': The twins, the game's ultimate BonusBoss, use super-powered versions of low-level {{Mook}} Personas, such as Bugs, Agathion, and SeriesMascot the Jack Bros.

** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', we have TheChosenOne, Colette. She appears to be a frail girl, that, well, needs protecting -- barely capable of holding her own in a fight. With only mediocre stats, low speed, an odd fighting style and [[ArtificialStupidity bad AI]], one would think she's not worth keeping in the party -- even her magic is bad (a simple, low damage light spell, a status buff that takes forever to cast, an AwesomeButImpractical spell that kills ''her'', and lastly a flashy spell [[ATeamFiring that hardly hits anything]]) so why is she called a GameBreaker? She gets the game's strongest Physical Special Attacks -- including one that only uses 14 TP, deals massive (x4.6) damage (and it's Lightning Elemental -- a LOT of the game's enemies are weak to it...), another that can do x10 damage -- and that stacks with another hidden ability: Her seemingly weak Pow Hammer attack can become Toss Hammer, a poisoning attack that NOTHING IN THE GAME (not even [[ThatOneBoss That One]] BonusBoss) is resistant to, and anything afflicted by it drops its HP down to 1 in a minute ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNhMevZ7-0k this in action]]). She also has an easy to use [[LimitBreak Hi-Ougi]]. In the hands of any skilled player she's a force to be reckoned with and NOT someone to be underestimated. Even in the hands of an unskilled player, combining her Hammer Rain with Lloyd's level 2 Sword Rain arts in an Unison Attack provides the devastating Stardust Rain combination, which can connect for 100+ hits on its own against a sufficiently large opponent.

** Lillith in the PS2 version of ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'' fights with a frying pan and ladle. She's also a LightningBruiser who can easily stunlock enemies with with her Manbo and [[ChefOfIron Seared Steak]] attacks.

** It manages to include a joke boss. In a tournament filled with shapeshifters who can turn into man-tigers or wherewolves, his basic beast form is... a [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins penguin]]? Not a human-sized penguin, or a superfast penguin, or one who hits supernaturally hard. It's about two-feet tall and squeaks. It attacks with wingslaps. His normal human form is a bit [[{{Bishonen}} bishie]], too, and not particularly strong with abrupt combos. Except a two foot tall penguin coincidentally happens to be far too short for most attacks, even many special powers It can't be grabbed, and thus is very easy to turtle with. It can be hard to predict, and will interrupt enemy combos with its wussy slaps. In some cases, you can force enemies to turn around while continuing their combo, leaving them open. His Hyper Beast Mode is a short-lived, human-sized phoenix with a one-hit kill. And it's ''still'' a downgrade from the penguin!

** Eiscue is a relatively recent attempt by Game Freak at making a defensive Ice-type work, a type that has only found success in GlassCannon builds, but this time, this little [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins penguin]] pulls this off via Ice Face, an ice cube head that surrounds its real head and can absorb any physical attack, no matter how strong it is. Even [[LimitBreak Max Moves]]. On top of this, when Eiscue's ice head shatters, [[ShedArmorGainSpeed its base Speed stat jumps to 130]] — giving it a perfect opportunity to finish off the opponent. The result is a Pokémon not found in a lot of teams, but one that has wreaked havoc on opponents when one ''does'' appear due to its surprising versatility, from wasting Dynamax turns to safely setting up Belly Drum, which quadruples Eiscue's Attack stat. Incidentally, Eiscue can also qualify as a FightingClown due to that ice cube head looking as ridiculous as it sounds.

** don't worry these pizzas are in good hands, which is also used in ''VideoGame/{{VHFSMACVUSMRRM}}'' is an edit of Marvel vs Capcom 2 Spider-Man, based on the memetic izza delivery minigame from the Playstation 2 game. At first glance is a joke character what with his slowed down speech, overriding the music to play "Funiculi Funicula" and a lot of his movements causing damage to himself. The "lethal" part comes that he's still extremely fast and can easily stream combos. If you know what you're doing, you can easily cause a lot of damage before you actually hurt yourself.

** The ''Tales'' fangame, ''A.C.S.'', gives you the Kakashi Scarecrow (the training dummy from ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. Its one attack shaves off about a quarter of the opponent's health bar... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZgkX3FtgY Much]] HilarityEnsues.

* Milla Basset is ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'''s analogue to Sonic's Cream the Rabbit -- a character who has popped up multiple times on this page -- she's young, timid, is still learning her powers, and can fly by flapping her ears real hard. She has half the HP of the other playable characters, she has a slow, clumsy ChargeAttack with short range and a [[BarrierWarrior barrier]] during when she can't move, and she's the only character without a speed boost move of some sort. At least, not directly. By combining her charge attack with her barrier, she can create a bigger, more damaging attack, the downside being that if she uses it in the air, the recoil thrusts her back. It turns out that Milla can use this move facing ''away'' from the direction she should go for an instant burst of momentum via RecoilBoost that, when used repeatedly and in the hands of an expert, allows her to run as fast as the game can handle ''and'' maintain that speed while flying, skipping portions of every stage and setting speed records.

* Birthday in ''[[VideoGame/MahouDaisakusen Dimahoo]]'' is a seriously lackluster character, wheter it's her slow as molasses speed, lackluster main shot with an odd spread that doesn't hit anything most of the time, and a slow to use and short-ranged ChargeAttack. Her type on the character selection screen is "[[DoubleMeaning Bad"]]. She, however, has by far the best SmartBomb attack in the game, so powerful it one-hit-killsmost of the game's bosses, which if nothing else makes her an appealing option for survival-minded players.

* Team Rose from the fighting mode of ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes''. They're rated as the worst team, and in the actual game they're all much slower than their counterparts and less efficient overall, but are very hard to deal with in the fighting mode so much so that the Team Chaotix boss fight with them is actually one of the game's more difficult bosses. This is because Big (power character), by far the tallest of the characters, gives them a huge height advantage over the other teams while in flight formation, making them very hard to reach and able to hit you with long ranged attacks while you struggle to hit their flight character at all. Cream's solo attack is also a guaranteed hit unlike the other fly characters' and can be a huge pain to deal with. Amy's spinning hammer attack is the only speed character move that can break through or match a power character's attacks, and unlike other speed characters she can launch a tornado attack from a distance. It is actually entirely possible, with quick enough reactions, to jump, throw a tornado, and hit the entire team of your opponent, sending them spiraling off the edge in literal seconds. Big also tends to overpower the other power characters when they're directly engaging, blowing them much further back than they blow him. In standard gameplay, Team Rose is also basically the game's easy mode, having the shortest levels and the fewest obstacles.

** The same is true of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'': the Skeleton soul is almost useless, as the thrown bone only does respectable damage at the beginning of the game, but every once in a while, that huge bone comes out and all your problems are solved.