Line #44 Main/ActionHeroBabysitter


1	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452266899092104700
2	%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
3	%%
4	[[quoteright:299:[[Film/ThePacifier https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_pacifier_2.png]]]]
5
6	->''"You burp the baby, you shoot the gun, you change the diaper, a title pun. You drive the carpool, you fight away, you tuck them in, and you save the day."''
7	-->-- '''Brett and Ellen''' (about ''Film/ThePacifier''), ''Series/TheRottenTomatoesShow''
8
9	A typecast actor known for their macho action roles is cast in a movie where they play a tough guy ActionHero or macho guy type put in a position of responsibility for children. Sometimes this takes the form of a BadassAndChildDuo. This usually results in a FishOutOfWater situation that is PlayedForLaughs as the macho manly man struggles to deal with new and unfamiliar problems that most family men would consider par for the course, such as dealing with a PottyEmergency, trying to cook meals, balancing work and family, and putting up with a MouthyKid. The macho man is forced to learn new skills, though he often finds creative ways to apply his action hero skills to a more domestic situation. Usually the children are bad or mischievous, and usually the "Action Hero" begins the movie "hating children" and gradually grows to love them over the course of the film.
10
11	To qualify as this trope, the casting is as important as the plot. A primary factor in this trope is to see the actor in an unusual (for them) and often humorous situation. The specific details of the character are often less important than just the fact that they are a badass or ActionHero, because that is what the actor invariably plays. This is similar to PlayingAgainstType, but instead of having the actor play someone unlike what they normally play, they play their regular character type but in an unusual situation. However, while the bulk of the movie will focus on domestic hijinks, there will often be at least a few action scenes, especially at the conclusion of the movie. Sometimes pops up in ChildCareAndBabysittingStories.
12
13	See also ADayInHerApron.
14
15	----
16	!!Examples:
17
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
21	* The premise behind ''Manga/{{Beelzebub}}''. So far there are four of them.
22	* ''Manga/OnePiece'': In one filler episode Zoro is forced to take care of some babies after being forcibly adopted into a family that takes in kids with no home.
23	* ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}'': What Sanzo thinks he's become in the Burial arc before he visits the three aspects and realizes Goku isn't just some little kid who was stuck in a cave.
24	* In ''Literature/ShonenOnmyouji'', Gurren, the most feared of Abe no Seimeis 12 familiars, is shown to have taken care of Masahiro when he was a child.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Fan Works]]
28	* Creator/{{Vathara}}'s ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2698347/1/Walk-Through-the-Valley Walk Through the Valley]]'' has in Hiko one of the few serious examples and perhaps the only scientist among them. In addition to killing psi-actives who saw through Kenshin's mental camouflage, he cared for him during his transformation into a LittleBitBeastly kiryuu alterant, which entailed an iatrogenic coma.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
32	* This trend started with Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger going undercover in a kindergarten in ''Film/KindergartenCop''.
33	* T-800 from ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', also played by Arnold, has to protect the pre-teen John Connor.
34	** Also the T-800 from ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'', which was sent back to 1973 to protect young Sarah Connor and was nicknamed "Pops".
35	* ''Film/TheGamePlan'' [[Creator/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] as a football player unexpectedly having to raise a ballerina daughter.
36	** Creator/DwayneJohnson's ''Film/TheToothFairy'' also has an element of this.
37	* ''Film/TheCowboys'' with Creator/JohnWayne has elements of this as his character is forced to learn how to deal with children he must use on a cattle drive ([[spoiler:but also somewhat subverts this trope when John Wayne's character is killed and the kids learn to kill in order to avenge his death and recover the stolen cattle]]).
38	* ''Film/MrNanny'', with Wrestling/HulkHogan as a former [[AdamWesting pro wrestler]] taking a job as a nanny/bodyguard to a couple of bratty kids.
39	* Pictured above: In ''Film/ThePacifier'', Creator/VinDiesel plays a Navy SEAL tasked with babysitting the children of a dead scientist. Including ''two'' babies.
40	* Creator/JackieChan in ''Film/TheSpyNextDoor''. Unusually for the trope, Jackie already has a child-friendly NiceGuy image.
41	* Wrestling/JohnCena in ''Film/PlayingWithFire2019''. He's the rugged and manly firefighter, they're the three kids that have to stay in the fire station until their parents are found.
42	* Creator/DaveBautista in ''Film/MySpy'' is technically a subversion since he's already had a (partly) comedic role in MCU movies like ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014''.
43	* ''Film/TwinSitters'' is a two-for-one deal. The twin Paul brothers (aka Barbarian Brothers) act as babysitters for some bratty kids. Hilarity ensues.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Literature]]
47	* ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'': One of the baby sitters charges has been established from his first appearance as someone who hates all girls, including his own mother and sisters. But when the sitters decide to baby sit a bunch of kids together, they are stunned when the boy is very gentle and playful with the babies.
48	* ''Literature/TheHuskyAndHisWhiteCatShizunErhaHeTaDeBaiMaoShizun'': Chu Wanning has a qi deviation that causes him to physically revert in to age six. The sect superiors entrust his child self to his love interest Mo Ran. Chu Wanning has not mentally reversed though and still has his badass skills and ChronicHeroSyndrome. Mo Ran ends up dragged into all sorts of shenanigans.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
52	* ''Series/TheRottenTomatoesShow'' has a song called [[http://current.com/shows/the-rotten-tomatoes-show/91966423_action-hero-babysitter.htm "Action Hero Babysitter".]]
53	* In an episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', the macho Bulldog Briscoe proves himself to be a remarkably good, sensitive, babysitter to Alice Doyle. It isn't completely a cynical ploy to win her mother over: he really does seem to bond with Alice and take pleasure in doing so.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder: Video Games]]
57	* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'': In the first part, Finn was introduced as the disciple of Duke Quan. In the second part and in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'', he is the caretaker of Quan's son Leif and Lady Lachesis's daughter Nanna [[spoiler: who, depending on the player's actions, can ''actually'' be Finn's biological daughter]]. Oifey and Shanan, who were respectively the NonActionGuy and TagalongKid in the first part of ''Geneaology'', have also become this by the time the second part begins.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder: Webcomics]]
61	* ''Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'': Commander Badass is an in-universe example, being a former SuperSoldier and (mostly) AmicablyDivorced father of two young children. He's probably better at looking after them (and being a ParentalSubstitute to Jared the intern) than he was at being an action hero, but it's implied by some flashback panels that this was a long learning process.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder: Web Original]]
65	* ''Blog/HowToHero'' mentions babysitters who are secretly superheroes. The Guide advises them to stay with the children they're supposed to be watching and fighting crime some other time.
66	[[/folder]]
67

Context Main / ActionHeroBabysitter