History Main / LethalJokeCharacter

** If you're fielding an ''Urbanmech'', your opponents are going to laugh at you. It's puny, weakly armored and armed with an AC-10, which while formidiable, is still often outclassed by other 'Mechs. And worst of all, it's slow. 9 times out of 10, that is. Because that 10th time, you're probably using it in an urban environment where speed is not an issue, and it can duck under cover and snipe. And own most other 'mechs on the field not willing to punch through buildings to get it. Against its fellow light-mechs, it is also rather well-armored, and its main gun, an Autocannon/10, has fairly long reach that out-ranges most of the small weaponry a light mech might typically carry, and is guaranteed to breach armor in a single shot against most anything not already better-armored than it. It also received a variant equipped with ultra-long-range artillery missiles. Impressive and powerful, sure. Turns out that specific build can also pack ''nuclear warheads.''

** 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. Thanks in part to a rulings snarl[[labelnote:*]]Propagation is supposed to operate on a hard once-per-turn-per-card to limit its effectiveness, but your hand is hidden information, so any Exeggcute being played from the hand is treated as new with its ability available for use. This happens even if you, the referee, or even your opponent know you only have one copy in your decklist, or even if you recurse Exeggcute more times than a legal playset.[[/labelnote]]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.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Piss Wizard and Kanye West from ''WebVideo/SBIRust'' are both characters defined by a single bit that are also just as capable as being deadly.
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** In the sequel she has more health (though still the lowest) and gains a defensive dodge that also serves to create a charge for her strongest attack, making her a powerful, if somewhat slow moving, glass cannon.

* 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:Web Video]]
* In ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'', Creator/SamRiegel has a tendency to play these types 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 anyone, 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''.
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** 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.

** Colin's gimmick is simple: all his units are [[DiscountCard 20% cheaper]], but have 10% less firepower. You'd think that would just encourage flooding the enemy with weak cannon fodder... until you realise his units aren't any worse ''defensively'', making Colin's lines incredibly hard to break through. And low firepower doesn't matter when you can get Medium Tanks and Bombers when your opponent is struggling to get out regular Tanks. Colin gets even better due to his Normal CO Power, Gold Rush. It's cheap and easily spammable and [[MoneyMultiplier multiplies his cash on hand by 1.5]], making all the above advantages even better.

** Patty Fleur from the non-Xbox 360 versions of ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia''. On top of using [[FightingClown silly attacks]] like [[FryingPanOfDoom a frying pan]], dishes, and mahjong tiles, her moveset is extremely luck-dependant, to the point that most of her artes change completely depending on which randomly-selected fighting style she is given. A lot of her Artes have a small but random chance of screwing the party over. She can also use magic, but her Brainiac form (the one that specialized in magic) makes her choose randomly between attack and support magic (although she can learn a skill that lets you choose between the two), making her unreliable on that front (imagine needing healing, but instead getting an attack spell or stat boost). A lot of this makes her seem unreliable, but once she learns the right skills she can spam top-tier spells with a much shorter cast time and smaller TP cost (even several levels before your dedicated mages start learning these spells), and (randomly) do things like restoring the entire party's HP and TP, [[TimeStandsStill freezing time for the enemies]], emptying all enemies' FS gauges, or activating [[SuperMode Over Limit]] for the entire party for free.

* India's unique unit in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} IV'', where others get Samurai or Keshiks or Navy [=SEALs=], is the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin uncreatively-named]] Fast Worker, a replacement for the standard worker unit with an extra point of movement. This sounds pathetic at first glance; it's boosting a noncombat unit and it's not even boosting the thing that unit is supposed to be good at. But then you realize this means India's workers can now traverse difficult terrain without wasting their turns, form up into stacks more quickly, outrun non-cavalry enemy units, and move and start building on the same turn. And since it replaces the worker, it never goes obsolete, meaning it stays useful for the whole game. Sure, it's not a military unit, but [[ActualPacifist you're playing as Gandhi]] (or [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Ashoka]]); what did you expect?

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/SlamDunk'': An InUniverse example happens during the Shohoku vs. Kainan match in the Kanagawa finals, when Kainan's coach Takato brings in [[GeekPhysiques the small and nerdy-looking]] Yoshinori Miyamasu, and assigns him to mark Hanamichi Sakuragi. Yoshinori's unimposing presence distracts opponents from his basketball skills, especially [[LongRangeFighter his reliable three point shooting]], the accuracy of which is comparable to Jin's and Mitsui's. Takato correctly deduces that Sakuragi will not take Yoshinori seriously enough to properly mark him, enabling Yoshinori to be effective.
[[/folder]]

** Someone made a version of Mario called "NES Mario." NES Mario is just like what you think: the version of Mario from ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros Mario 1]]'', and he's tiny at that. He can only attack by jumping on enemies and he dies in two hits (if you don't press the button to turn into Super Mario again at the expense of some of the lifebar, a merciful addition). However, there's something that makes him lethal: Fighting game characters flinch when hit, Mario does not. If you get a window of opportunity, you can just keep on stomping your foe and finish them off in less than a minute. Ironically, he can't survive his own stage, and you have to wait a long time after he dies for the game to progress!

* The ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed: Underground 2'' Toyota [=AE86=]. This car looks hilariously outdated, being a box-shaped mid-'80s car in a game about flashy modern ricers, and it is one of the starter cars alongside the unimpressive Peugeot 206 and Ford Focus. Oh, and it is also ''by far'' the best car in the game, beating Skylines and Supras left and right thanks to its very accurate handling. [[Manga/InitialD Still laughing?]]
** This car is often amazingly good also in other ''NFS'' games. In ''Carbon'', it is considered a BONUS alongide concept cars, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLtimsED6lA and its handling makes the skilled player even able to stay behind a Murciélago in canyon races]]. In ''[=ProStreet=]'' this car is able to beat even the Drift King (and it is a tier one, the weakest of the game), and if fully tuned with Stage 4 parts (very much time consuming since they can be only won) can win in each game mode except the most difficult drag races. In ''Need for Speed 2015'', it can conquer whatever drift race you just couldn't win no matter what on a different car.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Appointer_of_the_Red_Lotus Appointer of the Red Lotus]] was basically an attempt to make a "balanced" version of banned-for-decades card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Forceful_Sentry The Forceful Sentry]], and spent most of its history as a punchline. Sure, you get to look at the opponent's hand, but so do they, and though it does banish a card of your choice, that card only stays gone until the end of the opponent's turn. In the slower formats of the time, this was essentially giving up one of your cards permanently along a quarter of your starting Life Points just to get rid of one opponent's card for a single turn. However, as the game got faster, Appointer went through a kind of inverse PowerCreep--duels getting shorter meant that Appointer worked incredibly well as a counter to individual "board breaker" cards like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Ruler_No_More Dark Ruler No More]]. In a situation where you would want to use Dark Ruler No More but you can't, there typically won't ''be'' a next turn for the banished card to return to, and that's before accounting for the added info that comes from seeing the opposing hand. Due to this, Appointer was ultimately banned in the TCG.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mind_Control Mind Control]] is probably the closest counterpart to Lion's Eye Diamond. It was a "balanced" (read: useless) version of the incredibly strong [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Change_of_Heart Change of Heart]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Brain_Control Brain Control]]: it let you steal an opponent's monster for a turn, but since you couldn't attack with it or Tribute it (the things you want to do with a stolen card), this was pretty meaningless. But then Synchro Summon was added to the game, which let you use the stolen monster in a way that didn't count as Tributing -- steal an opponent's card, play a Tuner, and Tune them. Your opponent lost a card, you got material for a strong card. Mind Control is now limited to one.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rescue_Cat Rescue Cat]] might be the most famous example. When it was created, most players dismissed it as a ComMon with horrendous stats and a third-rate effect, utterly ignored even in Beast decks and only considered notable for its absurdly cute looks. Come Synchro Monsters and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/X-Saber_Airbellum X-Saber Airbellum]] in particular, and Rescue Cat jumped from cutesy ComMon to GameBreaker overnight. Its effect? Tribute it to summon two low-level Beasts, which are destroyed at the end of the turn. That's an instant Level 6 Synchro (and later, Rank 3 Xyz), right off the bat, just by itself, on a monster weak enough to be searched by dozens of effects. It's even [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rescue_Hamster spawned a]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rescue_Ferret series of]] RidiculouslyCuteCritter monsters with similar effects, one of which ([[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Rescue_Rabbit Rescue Rabbit]]) had its own tournament-winning deck and remains a staple in Normal Monster-focused decks.

The designers, looking for balance, have sneaked in one obscure, impossible-to-master, but incredibly rewarding technique for this character, and using it, you'll win every time... if you can get it down. But doing so requires skill, practice, and the ability to see the potential in the seemingly-useless. It's a sort of ObfuscatingStupidity applied to the game mechanics. Whether the character is actually considered ''good'' in the game's competitive scene can vary, as these characters are typically defined by a single powerful gimmick--sometimes, that gimmick [[CripplingOverspecialization is the only string to the character's bow, meaning [[SkillGateCharacters they can struggle against a player who knows how to beat it]], while other times, it ties together an otherwise unimpressive skillset and turns the character into a very real powerhouse.

The designers, looking for balance, have sneaked in one obscure, impossible-to-master, but incredibly rewarding technique for this character, and using it, you'll win every time... if you can get it down. But doing so requires skill, practice, and the ability to see the potential in the seemingly-useless. It's a sort of ObfuscatingStupidity applied to the game mechanics.

** Mog the moogle. His Dances are under-whelming for the most part, and you lose control of him. You don't want to rely on Dance, anyway, because there's a good chance it just won't work in areas that have "special" terrain, like the final dungeon. But the only weapons he has are [[BladeOnAStick spears]], which are decent but not great. Mog's hidden strength lies is his ability to tank. He has the best natural defense stat in the game. Mog is so versatile, he can be a good tank or a mage, but there are plenty of other characters who are good with magic; power him up into a fighter, and he can be surprisingly OP with the right equipment. When equipped with the Snow Muffler, his Defense is {{cap}}ped at 255, causing all physical attacks to fail when he's in the back row. Couple that with the Paladin Shield (earned by wearing the worthless Cursed Shield into 255 battles or something like that), a Ribbon, and a pair of Marvel Shoes, and it is possible to make him immune to virtually all attacks. You can also find a charm for Mog which [[EncounterRepellant eliminates random encounters]] when he's equipped with it.

* 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.

* In ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'', Creator/SamRiegel has a tendancy to play these kind of characters.

--->[Vecna attempts a 7th level Banishment]
--->'''Scanlan:''' Oooooh, but I Counterspelled it at 8th level! That's why I moved closer motherfucker!

[[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]]

* In ''VideoGame/SuperPuzzleFighterIITurbo]]'', Dan has the worst attack and defense stats of any fighter, and his gem pattern is nothing but red blocks. However, in the hands of a skilled player, it's possible to build up a huge combo which buries the enemy in gems, at which point Dan taunts them to death.

* In ''[[VideoGame/SuperGemFighter Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo]]'', Dan has the worst attack and defense stats of any fighter, and his gem pattern is nothing but red blocks. However, in the hands of a skilled player, it's possible to build up a huge combo which buries the enemy in gems, at which point Dan taunts them to death.