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| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 6 | ->''"I'm bad, but at least I like it...!"'' |
| 7 | -->-- '''Shiori Ochiai''' about basketball, ''Manga/TheUselessSenpaiAndTheTalentedKouhai'' |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Bob finds himself among the candidates for his dream occupation. This is something he's wanted his entire life and dreams of becoming the best. Once he starts training at said job, it becomes quickly apparent that Bob...has zero talent for the job. |
| 10 | Still, [[{{Determinator}} he keeps working at it]] (possibly undergoing TrainingFromHell)... and [[CantCatchUp it doesn't help]]. (After all, HardWorkHardlyWorks.) And what's more, there will be no AppliedPhlebotinum or MagicFeather to smooth the way toward Bob's goals. He can't do it and that's that. Not to say that Bob is completely worthless. He may have plenty of viable talents; just not the talent for what he desires to be. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Often, this character will find other ways to chase his dreams, and may even find happiness there (a bad pilot may get shunted to the flight crew or MissionControl), but he never really stops [[TragicDream wishing for that which he can't gain]]. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | A common trait of the HeroicWannabe. Is the inverse of BrilliantButLazy and BecauseImGoodAtIt. Contrast the DeafComposer, who definitely ''does'' have talent. Compare and contrast IJustWantToBeSpecial, where the character desires to be something without necessarily being passionate about it. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Compare with DreamCrushingHandicap, where their lack of ability is due to a handicap, and the MinionWithAnFInEvil (if said minion actually wants to be a bad guy). Also compare the MuggleBornOfMages, who lacks the "talents" to follow in their superpowered parent's footsteps. The GiftedlyBad is oblivious to their lack of aptitude. Very much plays into HardWorkHardlyWorks. A subtrope of the TragicDream. Can lead to becoming TheResenter. Sometimes overlaps with Type Two of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream, or with JapaneseSpirit, depending on the work. |
| 17 | ---- |
| 18 | !!Examples: |
| 19 | |
| 20 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 21 | |
| 22 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 23 | * In ''Anime/AngelBeats'', Yui is this in all of her pursuits. She hopes to replace Iwasawa as the guitarist for the band Girls Dead Monster, but can't sing or play nearly as well as Iwasawa, especially when she tries to do both at once. When she tries to do a German suplex, she's only able to succeed after a lot of coaching and with the target's cooperation. She only manages to dribble a soccer ball past five people and score a goal by cheating and receiving help from Otonashi and Angel. Even after hours of hitting balls, she's unable to hit a single home run but decides that spending all that time trying was worthwhile. |
| 24 | * In ''Manga/EdensZero'', Rebecca's GoalInLife is to hit one million subscribers on B-Cube (the FictionalCounterpart of Website/YouTube), but she lacks the talent and know-how to make anything beyond amateurish documentaries of whatever random thing catches her interest, resulting in her channel being largely overlooked or mocked by more successful B-Cubers. [[spoiler:This becomes subverted when a TimeSkip showed that Rebecca did eventually become a successful B-Cuber.]] |
| 25 | * ''Manga/{{Hinamatsuri}}'': Anzu dreams of opening a ramen shop and becoming a famous artist. She is a bad cook and her art is kindergarten level. Her adoptive parents praise her art, which makes her think she is a good artist. |
| 26 | * ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'': [[spoiler:Kaguya struggles when it comes to photography despite her desire to pursue it as a career, even though she's an InstantExpert in just about everything else. However, her cameo apperance in ''Manga/OshiNoKo'' shows that she does eventually improve enough to do it professionally.]] |
| 27 | * ''Manga/KenganAshura'': Tokumichi Tokuno'o is [[BrilliantButLazy the opposite of this trope]] in regards to his "main" job that we see in the series, which is an underground fighter: he's a natural at martial arts, incredibly fit even without much practice, and has excellent fighting sense and brainpower, such that his sole loss is to the WorldsBestWarrior. However, he detests this job, and only does it to have the spare cash for his true life's ambition, which is to become a great novelist. As a novelist, he is, by all accounts, pretty terrible, to the point that even Gaoh Ryuki, who was ''illiterate'' a matter of months prior, was able to lay down some rather harsh critique. It's said that he has, on multiple occasions, declared he's retiring from fighting to publish a great novel... [[StarvingArtist then when it bombs]], he has to [[TenMinuteRetirement hastily un-retire]] to get his money back. |
| 28 | * ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' plays with this trope as the people in question are ''not'' untalented per se: |
| 29 | ** Protagonist Izuku Midoriya wants to be a superhero more than anything. Unfortunately, [[EveryoneIsASuper in a world where 80% of humanity has some sort of superpower or Quirk]], he's among the 20% of who is [[UnSorcerer Quirkless]]. Despite this, he pressed on, studying the skills, powers, and tactics of the many heroes he admires in hopes of finding a way to achieve it. He spends the next ten years of his life enduring bullying and scorn for his dream. When he meets his idol, [[TheParagon All Might]], he has to tell the lad that without a Quirk, it'd be pretty impossible. However, this changes drastically when Izuku, noticing his former friend turned bully is in danger, ''he's'' the one that rushes in to help and none of the others (including a weakened All Might.) This inspired All Might in turn to push his limits and save Izuku and his bully. All Might later confronts Izuku alone, apologizing to him and noting that he ''can'' be a hero. How? All Might reveals his Quirk, One For All, was granted to him and passed down from hero to hero. He chooses Izuku to be his successor as Izuku's willingness to put his life on the line, even without powers, makes him a hero. The entire story is framed from Izuku's standpoint, on how he became the greatest hero. |
| 30 | ** Danjuro Tobita was apparently considered this in his youth, as when he enthusiastically tells his guidance counselor about his desire to be a hero, he's bluntly told that since his grades are poor and he got held back at a sub-par school, he'd be better off dropping out. When his attempt at saving a man from falling goes wrong, he ends up getting expelled. Years later, Tobita meets a former yearmate who'd succeeded at becoming a hero, and no longer remembers who Tobita is. Tobita ends up snapping and only finds an outlet by becoming a villain... the GentlemanThief Gentle Criminal. Ironically enough, [[WhosLaughingNow by the time we see him,]] he's actually a surprisingly dangerous and capable individual, being able to defeat ''five'' pros with ease and giving Izuku a hell of a fight, all with a Quirk that lets him make any surface (including air) bouncy. [[spoiler:And when he's recruited by the heroes to help out in the final battle despite now being a convicted criminal, he succeeds spectacularly in a much larger-scale version of the failed rescue he attempted in his youth.]] |
| 31 | * ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'': |
| 32 | ** Waver Velvet in ''Literature/FateZero'' wants to be a great magus, but lacks the [[SuperpowerfulGenetics necessary heredity]]. You see, magical ability (apart from a few freaks) [[OurMagesAreDifferent tends to be something gained over the generations]] and Waver is a nobody. He enters the Grail War as a sort of revenge against a teacher that snubbed his work and mocked him in front of a class. Unfortunately, his paper stating hard work can make up for talent is both obvious and gibberish: Hard work will make you better at something, but with no aptitude from the start hard work can only get you so far, and it certainly won't grow you magical body parts that you weren't born with. Especially since there's nothing stopping those naturally gifted magi from ''also'' working hard. However, it turns out that while he's rather bad at magic himself, he's quite good at educating others and helping them maximize their own potential. Which is something he has no interest in, even though it gives him a solid career and good social standing. |
| 33 | ** [[JerkAss Shinji Matou]] is the latest heir from a long line of mages, but the Matou family magic capacity has been [[GenerationalMagicDecline declining with each generation]] until we reach Shinji, who [[MuggleBornOfMages wasn't born with any magic circuits, and therefore magical ability, at all]]. His wish upon the Holy Grail is to become a capable magus with magic circuits, and his [[TheResenter resentment]] of his [[spoiler:magically potent adopted sister [[StepfordSmiler Sakura]] for being [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor selected heir]] of the [[BodyHorror Matou magecraft]] fuels his horrifically abusive treatment of her]]. |
| 34 | * In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Chopper's first mentor, Dr. Hiriluk was a well-intentioned doctor who genuinely wished to make others better, but was also a quack with no real medical knowledge who made cures that left his patients in even worse shape. After a mistake by Chopper hastened Hiriluk's death, Dr. Kureha told Chopper in no uncertain terms that he needs training, not just passion, and took him under her wing as an apprentice (Which was actually a request by Hiriluk himself before he passed, likewise knowing Chopper needs legitimate training). As a result, Chopper inherited the best of his mentors - Dr. Hiriluk's passion and Dr. Kureha's skill. |
| 35 | * ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' |
| 36 | ** Melvin from the ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/PokemonS1E43TheMarchOfTheExeggutorSquad The March of the Exeggutor Squad]]". He wanted to create a stage show big enough to make it to Las Vegas ("Broadway" in the original[[note]]Which is an even more impossible dream, 99% of Broadway shows are stage plays and musicals[[/note]]). But his show turned out to be boring with a capital "B." He also appeared to be rather dim (it never occurs to him to use his Exeggcute's hypnotic powers as the basis of a show in itself). At episode's end, it looks like he's simply going to try his show again, rather than try something new. |
| 37 | ** Roy, one of the protagonists of ''Anime/PokemonHorizonsTheSeries'', falls into this trope. He is very ambitious and dreams of becoming a great Trainer who can challenge the Pokémon of legend such as Rayquaza, but unlike previous protagonists Ash and Goh, and even unlike his fellow protagonist Liko, Roy distinctly lacks any latent talent as a Trainer. He lacks both Ash and Liko's aptitude for thinking on their feet in battle and observing their surroundings to devise unique strategies, and although his Fuecoco has learned three moves, and he managed to come up with a combo attack between his Fuecoco and Wattrel, his battle strategy is entirely predicated on attacking head-on with no real skill or complex thinking to supplement it. Because of this, he has never won a single battle thus far, with every opponent he has ever faced quickly outsmarting him and ultimately leading to his defeat. His Fuecoco has lost twice to Liko's Sprigatito, even despite having a type advantage and a more varied moveset. |
| 38 | * In ''Manga/TheUselessSenpaiAndTheTalentedKouhai'', the eponymous senpai is this trope, being someone who enjoys basketball, but has no chance of becoming a regular despite being a third-year, resulting in the rest of the team bullying her and sticking her with chores. |
| 39 | * Kawachi's father in ''Manga/YakitateJapan'', who kept trying to become a baker at Pantasia until his death. This is revealed to be the driving force behind Kawachi's own determination. |
| 40 | [[/folder]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[folder:Comedy]] |
| 43 | * Creator/AndyKaufman's "Foreign Man" persona often subverted this trope. With the audience typically (and ideally) unaware this ''was'' a persona, they would watch as a shy, awkward man speaking with a vaguely-European accent attempted to tell jokes and/or do celebrity impressions and prove absolutely hopeless. But a turning point would then come -- he might suddenly burst into sobs ("I don't know if you're laughing at me, or weeth me!") that slowly became more rhythmic and led into a startlingly good performance on conga drums, or his last impression would be "de Music/ElvisPresley" and turn out to be what's often been described as the best Presley impersonation ever performed. Elayne Boosler, in her ''Esquire'' magazine tribute to Kaufman, recalled a performance he did at a seedy disco in TheSeventies that saw the jaded audience love Foreign Man from the get-go because he was so determined to entertain them, making the subversion all the sweeter when it took place. |
| 44 | [[/folder]] |
| 45 | |
| 46 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 47 | * In ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}} and the Normans'', Cacofonix, who is a good instrumentalist but a [[DreadfulMusician unspeakably awful singer]], is told off-the-cuff that his music is really good and he might do better in the city. Cacofonix becomes obsessed with this idea and convinced that he will be a huge pop star there. He steals a horse and tries to ride there, singing for food. When he becomes needed as a HumanWeapon against HornyVikings, Obelix manages to locate him again, solely by following the trail of destruction caused by the pain and outrage of people exposed to his music. In particular, in one inn, his voice caused a brawl so terrible the building was torn to pieces. |
| 48 | * Jonathan Powers, aka the original [[https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Jonathan_Powers_(Earth-616)?so=search Jester]], an archenemy of Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}. He dreamed of being a major Shakespearean actor and trained himself in everything from acrobatics to boxing to swordplay to try and improve his chances. Unfortunately, his fixed belief in his (non-existent) acting talent led him to ignore the one kind of training he actually needed - namely, ''acting lessons''. He was such a bad actor that the only work he could get was as the pie-in-the-face guy for a two-bit comedian, and eventually he became so embittered he decided to take the skills he was actually good at and became a costumed criminal. |
| 49 | * ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'': The girls' manager Kaz enters an American Idol-type contest with all the confidence in the world (story "Superstar Kaz"). Then he starts singing. He is unceremoniously kicked out of the studio, only like ''Idol'' contestant William Hung he becomes a smash hit and goes on tour. His success even relegates Ami and Yumi to opening act status. |
| 50 | * ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'': [[MultipleChoicePast One of several possible origins for The Joker]] shows him as once having been a wannabe stand-up comedian who quit his job at Ace Chemicals to pursue his dream... only to completely bomb. Dialogue between him and his wife hints that while he does have at least some skill at ''writing'' comedy, he has the stage presence and delivery of a dead trout. Desperate to support his pregnant wife, he agrees to serve as the figurehead for the Red Hood Gang, and [[StartOfDarkness things quickly spiral out of control...]] |
| 51 | * In ''ComicBook/UntoldTalesOfSpiderMan'', Peter Parker had to deal with an unwanted fangirl in the form of [[https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Sally_Avril_(Earth-616) Sally Avril/Bluebird]], who was inspired by Spider-Man to try and become a costumed heroine herself. Unfortunately, not only did she not have the right motivation (she was little more than an adrenaline junkie instead of wanting to fight crime for the good of others), but she also had no superpowers, and wasn't even a capable enough combatant to be a BadassNormal; she was a slightly above-average athletic teenager with a smart friend who wasn't intelligent enough to be a GadgeteerGenius making her gear. As a result, her equipment was almost useless, her combat skills laughable, and Peter let her get her ass kicked by a villain just so she'd understand how outclassed she was. To be fair, this did make her give up the mask... only to die in a car crash while trying to emulate Peter's other job of taking photos of superhero fights, just so she could keep getting the same rush. |
| 52 | * ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'': One side character always dreamed of being an astronaut, so he joined the armed forces as a clerk and manipulated the paperwork to put his name on the list for selection. He was then immediately caught and thrown out (being around two heads shorter than all the other candidates) and in revenge spent years blasting out the southwestern desert to make a "FUCK YOU" visible from space. |
| 53 | [[/folder]] |
| 54 | |
| 55 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 56 | * ''{{ComicStrip/Foxtrot}}'': |
| 57 | ** Peter sucks at both baseball and football (the only people worse are Jason and Marcus, who are nerdy and ten years old), but this doesn't stop him from trying out every year (while he usually ends up on the team, it's only to showcase how bad he is, and in one case only made it because half the team got thrown off after getting caught cheating on tests). [[NegativeContinuity Except one year where he didn't try out]] for the football team and comes across the list of rejected players... |
| 58 | --->'''Peter:''' MY NAME IS ''PRE-PRINTED'' ON THESE?!\ |
| 59 | '''Steve:''' Looks like you were cut from girls' gymnastics, too.\ |
| 60 | '''Peter:''' How could they cut me from varsity football when I didn't even try out? [[YouAnsweredYourOwnQuestion Was I THAT bad last year?! Was I THAT awful?! Am I such a pariah that they want to be SURE I'm not on the squad?!]] |
| 61 | ** In one arc, he becomes the assistant football coach instead. He's so bad at it that the coach puts him near the opposing team's goal so the team has a target for their venting (it's won them the last three games). |
| 62 | ** Roger is even worse, as any hobbies he takes up will end in an EpicFail. This is best shown in his love of golf and chess where loses every time (in one strip before he'd even set up the board due to Jason stating every move Roger would make). |
| 63 | --->'''Roger:''' Methinks my chess game has gotten a little too predictable. |
| 64 | ** Initially subverted with Roger and chess, at least when his opponent was his wife Andy who he frequently beat. Later on Roger's competence at chess takes a nosedive and he's so terrible he can't win against anyone, not that it stops him from thinking he's great at chess still. |
| 65 | * In the Gilchrist-run of ''ComicStrip/{{Nancy}}'', Sluggo had some aspirations of becoming a professional athlete (usually for baseball, but also sometimes for football). However, Sluggo tended to be more focused on practicing stuff like his "[sports] hero autograph" or "poses for sports trading cards" than he was on practicing any of the actual physical aspects. |
| 66 | * ''{{ComicStrip/Peanuts}}'': Charlie Brown loves baseball, and there's nothing he'd rather be doing than playing the game. He's also terrible at it, usually losing double figures to nothing. Probably the only reason he's still a team manager is that nobody else on the team ''cares'' enough to try and have him removed. |
| 67 | ** In one sequence, Peppermint Patty asks Charlie Brown to help ''her'' baseball team...selling popcorn at their game. He agrees to do it but spends most of the game [[PutMeInCoach asking her for a chance to pitch]]. Peppermint Patty, who knows exactly how bad Charlie Brown is at baseball (or so she thought), rejects him every time. That is, until the very end of the game when her team is so far ahead - they have a fifty to nothing lead, and it's the last of the ninth, two outs - that she decides it's impossible for them to lose anyway, so she lets him pitch just this one time. The first thing Charlie Brown does is to throw a wild pitch that knocks Patty unconscious. Then he somehow causes her team to lose fifty-one to fifty. Infuriated, Patty demands to know [[HowIsThatEvenPossible how this is even possible]], but Charlie Brown [[RiddleForTheAges can't (or won't) explain]], and spends some time hiding from her. |
| 68 | [[/folder]] |
| 69 | |
| 70 | [[folder:Fanfiction]] |
| 71 | * In the ''[[Fanfic/AfterTheJungleSeries After the Jungle]]''-series by [[Creator/Flowerprincess11 Flower princess11]], Olga Sherman (née Pataki) and Summer Mitchell (the mean girl from the episode "Summer Love") prove to be this when it comes to acting--and Olga's husband Patrick proves to be this when it comes to becoming a rock star. To go into greater detail: |
| 72 | ** Olga -- Sometime when her "baby sister" was in middle school, Olga decided to try pursuing a career as a theater actress, even quitting her job as a teacher and moving all the way to New York City to audition for Broadway. And at some point during this time, Olga met Patrick Sherman, an aspiring musician who she ended up marrying after only six of months dating. Unfortunately, Patrick fails to make it big as a musician while Olga fails to make it big as an actress[[note]]The few roles that Olga is able to get are in (very) off-Broadway style productions[[/note]]. They eventually move back to Olga's old hometown of Hillwood and found other jobs to support themselves and their fraternal twin children, Logan and Lisa--while Olga went back to working as a schoolteacher[[note]]She eventually became a 5th-grade teacher at P.S. 118[[/note]], Patrick has trouble holding down a job and is often switching employment, leaving Olga as the sole breadwinner for their family at times (which she's shown to resent). However, even by the time Olga's well into her 40s[[note]]And at this point in her life: the twins are 12-year-old middle schoolers and Helga's got two kids who're students at P.S. 118 (one's in 4th-grade while the other's a Kindergartener) with her third child being a year old[[/note]], she still has (as Helga puts it) "delusions" of becoming an actress. |
| 73 | ** Summer -- After graduating high school, she moved out to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career as an actress (albeit for movies and TV-shows instead of theater). Unfortunately, Summer got rejected from most places and (as revealed in "A Trip to the Beach") all her acting career really amounted to be is a series of a lame commercials and being the female lead in some low-budget horror movie that has long since faded into obscurity. But unlike Olga, Summer has clearly given any hope of becoming an actress. |
| 74 | * ''Fanfic/DannyPhantomStranded'': In "Fanfic/DannyPhantomStaged", Dash Baxter arrogantly believed he would get the lead male role of Lysander in Lancer's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," but completely screws up his audition; he can't fully pronounce a single line and doesn't even know what "thou" means. Lancer only gives Dash the role of Nick Bottom in the hopes of making him improve since he'd be forced to actually learn more about the play if he wants extra credit. But even then, Dash failed to do that part in the play, so he had to miss the big game and write a five-page essay on the play and the study of the character he was playing, which he had to write in Mr. Lancer's office to make sure that he doesn't cheat by having someone else write the paper. |
| 75 | * ''Fanfic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse:'' Thrash Metail wants to be the greatest musician in Equestria, but his actual initial work was mediocre at best, and rather than try and improve, or work on it, he uses an evil guitar to brainwash ponies into liking his music. Which, even with the evil guitar, is still awful. |
| 76 | * In ''Fanfic/WhereTalentGoesToDie'', protagonist Kaori Miura had once hoped to become an author like her idol, Sae Edogawa, but was told to give up on it and focus on her studies since she didn't have the talent necessary. Edogawa also had a friend who wanted to be an author just like her, but after being told one too many times that she wasn't quite good enough, [[CantTakeCriticism her friend snapped]] and the two parted on bad terms. |
| 77 | [[/folder]] |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[folder:Film — Animated]] |
| 80 | * In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'', Mike Wazowski's dream is to become a scarer and despite being very well-read on the subject is stated to lack natural talent (i.e. children find him more funny/cute than scary). While he is unable to be a scarer and his and Sully's antics get them in trouble, the two never lose sight of their goals. By the time of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'', they've gone from mail clerks in the business to being the best scaring team through Mike's brains and Sully's talent and fear. [[spoiler:Furthermore, he helps discover that laughter is ten times more powerful than screams and is able to apply his wit and appearance in making kids laugh]]. |
| 81 | * Linguini of ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' wants to be a great chef, even more so when he discovers [[spoiler:he's Auguste Gusteau's son]]. Unfortunately for him, he's a total LethalChef. While discovering he's a bad chef (especially without Remy), he turns out to be an ace maitre d'hôtel. |
| 82 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Robots}}'': Rodney's father has a lifelong dream to play trumpet in a band. In the end, he gets to live out his dream, and he's not good at it. In his defense, he did claim he hadn't played in ''twenty years'' so he's bound to be pretty rusty (no pun intended.) |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Film — Live-Action]] |
| 86 | * The monk Kirill in ''Film/AndreiRublev'' aspires to be a great icon painter but lacks artistic ability. When this is pointed out to him, he flies into a rage, curses his fellow monks, and leaves the monastery in a fit. |
| 87 | * Norther Wislow in ''Film/BigFish'' is regarded as the local poet laureate in the town of Spectre, but the best he can come up with after years of writing is "Roses are red, violets are blue, Spectre is great!" |
| 88 | * In ''Film/CitizenKane'', Susan Alexander, second wife of Charles Foster Kane, gets put out on a huge opera debut by her husband. While her voice may be pleasant for something singing in the shower, she is not cut out for opera in any way[[note]]Specifically she has a lower vocal range but [[VocalRangeExceeded is cast out of her depth in a soprano part]][[/note]]. Her vocal teacher loudly proclaims she is unteachable and more or less [[FacePalm facepalms]] every time she sings. [[SmallNameBigEgo Kane]] won't listen to Susan, the instructor, or every newspaper critic in America and insists that she keep going on stage. Creator/OrsonWelles later regretted this part of the film, as people assumed she was based on screen actress and William Randolph Hearst's paramour Creator/MarionDavies, who Welles (and many others) felt was actually a fairly talented actress and a nice person. Marion Davies was well-suited to romantic comedies -- unfortunately, Hearst saw her as the second coming of Mary Pickford and kept putting her in lavish, sentimental dramas that didn't take advantage of her talents. |
| 89 | * In ''Film/TheDisasterArtist'', Creator/TommyWiseau is portrayed as this. |
| 90 | * Creator/EdWood--his [[Film/EdWood big-screen]] and RealLife versions--wanted to be a movie director whose films would be remembered long after his death and be considered great art. [[SoBadItsGood Well, two out of three ain't bad.]] |
| 91 | ** ''Film/{{Birdemic}}'' director James Nguyen is one angora sweater away from following in Wood's exact footsteps. |
| 92 | * The film ''Film/FlorenceFosterJenkins'' explores the true story of the titular socialite who was known for her aspiration to be an opera singer and her terribly atrocious singing voice. |
| 93 | * Arthur Fleck in ''Film/{{Joker}}'' aspires to be a stand-up comedian, but his one performance at a local comedy club is absolutely terrible - people laugh at ''him'', not at his ''material''. Lampshaded by his mother, who asks, "Don't you have to be funny to be a comedian?" |
| 94 | * Rupert Pupkin in ''Film/TheKingOfComedy'', whose ambitions far outstrip his abilities. |
| 95 | * The minor side character of "Danger" Dillard in ''Film/MillionDollarBaby'' is a somewhat mentally challenged (one of his habits is frequently proclaiming that he's going to challenge Thomas Hearns for the welterweight title, despite the fact that Hearns last held the welterweight title in 1981 and the film is set in the 2000s), hanger-on at the boxing gym, who shows virtually no boxing talent but is endearingly earnest in his desire to become a fighter. |
| 96 | [[/folder]] |
| 97 | |
| 98 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 99 | * ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': |
| 100 | ** Saten Ruiko, like many others in Academy City, came to the city with the hopes of becoming an [[PsychicPowers esper]] through the city's power development programme. However, [[HardWorkHardlyWorks even after years of hard work]] she remains a Level 0 (an esper with [[RealityWarper reality warping]] capabilities too insignificant to be of note), and she feels that she is TheLoad, unable to assist her friends in any significant way. Along with many other Level 0's, [[IJustWantToBeSpecial her desire to become an esper]] and to be useful to her friends is what drives her to use the "[[MugglePower Level Upper]]". |
| 101 | --->'''Saten''': I was so tired of not having any power. And finally it didn't matter anymore what lengths I had to go to to get it. |
| 102 | ** Skill Out are gangs of [[JapaneseDelinquent delinquent]] Level 0's who were never able to develop [[PsychicPowers esper abilities]] and therefore became [[TheResenter Resenters]] to those who were able to do so. They regularly attack other espers, whom they feel are oppressing them, though espers who are innocent and even other Level 0s regularly fall target as well. |
| 103 | ** Index mentions that [[FunctionalMagic magic]] was developed in the distant past by those who wanted to defy this trope and [[IJustWantToBeSpecial have powers like those who naturally had them]], such as Gemstones (espers who've had their abilities from birth) and Saints (those naturally closer in nature to God). |
| 104 | * Angel in the ''Literature/CharlieParkerSeries'', a thief with enormous technical skills, but lacking the attention to detail to be a good thief. One particularly memorable flashback shows him walking into a room full of valuable - and portable - works of art and attempting to steal the television. However, his lockpicking skills make him useful to the NYPD, which winds up saving his life and earning him a lifelong friend. |
| 105 | * Killashandra Ree, the protagonist of the ''Literature/CrystalSinger'' series. The series starts off with Killashandra washing out of her performing arts school. Rather, Killashandra quitting in a huff. She was a strong singer with perfect pitch. But she had a flaw in the upper vocal ranges that made her unsuitable for the diva roles she had her heart set on. Rather than settle for lesser roles or choral work, [[IJustWantToBeSpecial she quits music altogether]]. A decision spurred on by the fact that her teachers knew about the flaw nearly all along, but didn't tell her until after her final exams. |
| 106 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': |
| 107 | ** The TropeCodifier is Rincewind. Rincewind does have many actual skills (he's something of an {{Omniglot}}, for starters; he can scream for mercy in nineteen languages, and just scream in another forty-four) and he seems to be a reasonably competent librarian (a job one would think would be ideal for someone as [[DirtyCoward risk-averse]] as Rincewind), but he dreams of being a real wizard. Unfortunately for him, he is [[ThisLoserIsYou "a natural wizard in the same way fish are natural mountaineers."]] He does have most of the traits of a wizard, including ones that are, well, magical (like seeing the Eighth Colour). The only ones he doesn't seem to have are the ability to ''do'' magic, and knowledge of when he is to die (and even ''Death'' doesn't know when Rincewind is to die, so that might not be a failure on his wizardiness per se). Usually wizards (and witches) learn when they're going to die a week or so in advance (barring accidents). But Rincewind ''assumes'' he's going to die on a daily basis, so the actual ''knowledge'' probably wouldn't register as anything different. |
| 108 | ** Rincewind's allies in ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'' are ''all'' striving for a career they have no talent for, whether in the form of nebbishy Nijel trying to learn to be a BarbarianHero from a book he bought from [[HonestJohnsDealership Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler]], the Seriph of Al Khali failing constantly to produce decent poetry, or Conina, whose planned career as a hairdresser was derailed because she's Cohen the Barbarian's daughter and [[InTheBlood inherited reflexes like a snake on hot tin, sinews you could moor a boat with and - most inconveniently - a constant sense, while holding sharp objects near other people's heads, that she should be killing and/or robbing them]]. |
| 109 | ** Christine in ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'' is made an opera star because she looks good and her father is giving the Opera House a lot of money. Unfortunately, she can't actually ''sing''. She doesn't have the self-awareness to realise this, though, and in order to get decent performances, the decision-makers opt to have Agnes perform the lines and have Christine essentially lip-sync them. |
| 110 | ** Bergholt Stuttley "Bloody Stupid" Johnson, the world's most GiftedlyBad inventor, who threw himself into everything from architecture to engineering with a lack of skill so overwhelming that he managed to produce works of the wrong kind of genius. One book comments that if you wanted a small surface-to-air missile, you would ask Johnson to design an ornamental fountain. |
| 111 | * ''Literature/TheFamiliarOfZero'': Louise [[OverlyLongName Francoise Le Blanc de La Valiere]] "[[MaliciousMisnaming the Zero]]" and everyone else initially thought she was this. Louise desperately desires to become a powerful mage worthy of [[TheMagocracy the noble Valliere family]] and [[TheAce her mother]], but every spell she casts blows up in her face, and she was only saved from expulsion when she summons an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent as her familiar. Eventually subverted when [[spoiler:she is revealed to be a user of a powerful and lost type of magic]], and her success rate with some of the more mundane spells goes up later on. |
| 112 | * ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has ButtMonkey Neville Longbottom appear to be one for the first half of the series, only for the second half to let him show his true potential. When it comes to actually casting spells, he's just not very good at the majority of magic, mainly due to being too poor to afford a proper wand and using a hand-me-down that was incompatible with him. However, the skilled-in-other-areas aspect applies to Neville as well, as he's a herbology prodigy and a major {{Determinator}}. In the end, most of his victories turn out to be [[PillarsOfMoralCharacter moral]] or [[CombatPragmatist physical]], making him one of the few people to bring fists to a magic fight and still win. Additionally, it is shown that he has amazing talent in Defense Against the Dark Arts; during the fifth book, when Bellatrix Lestrange and several death eaters are on the loose, he wants to learn defensive spells and Harry obliges not just him but whomever wants to learn, and when the Expelliarmus spell came up only the BrainyBrunette Hermione Granger mastered the spell faster than Neville did. |
| 113 | * ''Literature/TheRithmatist'': Protagonist Joel wants to be a Rithmatist (someone with the power to animate chalk drawings) more than anything. And he is actually quite good at drawing the various lines of Rithmatics. However, he completely lacks the actual supernatural power. |
| 114 | * In ''Literature/RuneSoldierLouie'', the eponymous character is a mage in training, who longs for adventure. The problem is, he sucks at spellcasting because [[BookDumb he doesn't keep up with his studies]], preferring to solve his problems [[GoodOldFisticuffs with his fists]] instead. Except he's not very good at that either, since he hasn't had any formal training and usually [[LeeroyJenkins just rushes in without thinking]], which is what creates the friction between him and [[StopHavingFunGuys Jeanie.]] |
| 115 | * Subverted with Jemidon in ''[[Literature/MagicByTheNumbers Secret of the Sixth Magic]]'', who fails at the five established kinds of magic...because, as it turns out, he's a natural at ''meta''magic, and while he can't actually cast spells or craft magic items, he can manipulate the laws everyone ''else'' uses to do those things, making him a hard counter to the villain, who can do the same thing. |
| 116 | * Phil Baldwin in ''Son of Interflux'' by Creator/GordonKorman. He has "potential" for everything, but that potential never amounts to much. |
| 117 | * ''Literature/WhileMyPrettyOneSleeps'': [[spoiler:Sal]] is revealed to have a case of this. He aspired to become a great fashion designer, but while he's not terrible at design, he's never been able to rise above mediocrity. He was regarded as an average student at design school, he struggled to gain any sort of success for decades, Neeve thinks that most of his recent designs are decent but nothing special, and even he admits that he's never been able to surpass his bold and innovative Pacific Reef look in seventeen years... [[spoiler:and it turns out he didn't even create it: Neeve's mother Renata did, and she didn't even have a formal education in design. Sal tells Neeve that when Renata showed him her portfolio, he recognised its brilliance and knew Renata had TheGift for fashion, which he simply lacked]]. |
| 118 | [[/folder]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 121 | * ''Series/{{Ahsoka}}'': The relationship at the core of the show is [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Ahsoka Tano]] choosing to take [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels Sabine Wren]] on as a Jedi Padawan, despite the fact that Sabine has never shown any aptitude for or sensitivity to the Force. Professor Huyang, a droid who has served the Jedi Order for [[TimeAbyss well over a thousand years]], [[BrutalHonesty bluntly]] tells Sabine that she has less aptitude for the Force than ''any'' Jedi he's known in his time. Ahsoka doesn't disagree about Sabine's lack of Force talent, but insists that while talent plays a role, training and discipline make the real difference in being able to use the Force. It's uncertain which of the two is correct so far. |
| 122 | * ''Film/BatesMotel1987'' has Alex West, a longtime friend of the now-deceased Norman Bates, inherit the titular motel on the condition that he restore it to being a working motel. Unfortunately, no matter how much he may want to genuinely honor Norman's wishes, Alex has absolutely no clue on how to run a motel, and only some BondVillainStupidity on the part of the MorallyBankruptBanker he took out a loan from stops him from being foreclosed on after ''one night''. |
| 123 | * ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Penny spends most of the series run as an aspiring actress while working as a waitress as a day job. Problem is, while she's certainly pretty and her acting is shown to be...okay, that's not even close to being enough, and it's been shown several times that she's just one among thousands with the same description. As such, her "career" never amounts to more than a hemorrhoid commercial and a topless shower scene in a low-budget horror movie. She eventually gives up acting and becomes a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company to much greater success, but she admits that the only thing she actually likes about the job is the high pay. |
| 124 | * ''{{Series/Friends}}'' has an episode where Monica's boyfriend Pete decides he wants to compete in the UFC - specifically to become ''champion''. He's in a full-body cast by the end of the episode. |
| 125 | * Barry Goldberg from ''Series/TheGoldbergs'' has far more confidence than skill. He thinks of himself as a great athlete and a martial arts master, but is actually an uncoordinated [[TheKlutz klutz]]. He has aspirations of being a rapper, but [[PissTakeRap his rhyming skills are adequate at best]], and he can't freestyle to save his life. About the only thing going for him is that, whenever he does apply himself, [[{{Determinator}} he goes at it with everything he's got and won't let anyone stop him.]] In the end, he finally succeeds at medicine and eventually becomes a doctor. |
| 126 | * Pretty much everyone in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', but Dee is probably the most serial offender in terms of her desire to be a big star while never showing an inkling of the talent. One ImagineSpot had her going into witness protection and so flawlessly playing the part of a butler that she got to play herself in a TV series about her own witness protection period, and she spun that into being the star of an action film that grossed 900 million in presales alone. In reality, her biggest casting call was when she was an extra, playing a dead body - and she ''still'' managed to ruin multiple takes and got fired due to overacting and being ThePrimaDonna. |
| 127 | * ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'' has Miranda dreaming of becoming an actress. Unfortunately she's terrible and completely ruins the school play she's in. She later discovers a talent for singing instead. |
| 128 | ** Inverted for Lizzie, as she has able to become a skilled gymnast, but she hates gymnastics. She once won a gymnastics competition, and never took it again. |
| 129 | * ''Series/TheMuppetShow'': While most of the Muppets are pretty bad at their jobs - the Swedish Chef isn't much of a cook, Kermit can't make his show a success, Sam the Eagle's attempts to make the show [[StrawmanPolitical "moral" and "cultural"]] are doomed from the start, etc - the most prominent example is Fozzie Bear, aspiring comedian, whose routines have been known to bomb so badly that even the ChirpingCrickets won't dignify them with a response. Most of the actual ''humour'' with Fozzie comes from [[SoUnfunnyItsFunny how bad he is at comedy]]. But he keeps trying. |
| 130 | * Cookie from ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' really wants to be on the cheer squad. It... doesn't work out, to say the least. |
| 131 | * ''Series/RedDwarf'': Arnold Judas Rimmer is desperate to become an Officer in the Space Corps, and yet failed his Astronavigation exam thirteen times. All in an attempt to [[WellDoneSonGuy win his father's approval]]. The novel describes it best: |
| 132 | -->If Rimmer hadn't been such a dedicated anal-retentive, he would have realised something. He wasn't cut out to be an officer. Wasn't cut ''out'' for it. He'd realise he wasn't the slightest bit interested in Astronavigation, or Quantum Mechanics, or any of the things you had to be interested in to be an officer. |
| 133 | ** The novel then reveals that Rimmer's true talent lies in art and cartography. |
| 134 | ** Later on, he also aspires to be a great general or leader, crippled in this desire by being a DirtyCoward of an [[ArmchairMilitary Armchair General]]. |
| 135 | ** Even his AlternateUniverse version, who has had everything go right? Is a test pilot instead. And promptly goes on a one-way trip the second he gets involved with Astronavigation and Quantum Mechanics. |
| 136 | * ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' - Sabrina, Harvey, and Valerie enter a Battle of the Bands competition without having any knowledge of how to sing or play instruments. As a result, Sabrina uses magic to make them sound better. |
| 137 | * ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': |
| 138 | ** Doug is an incredibly incompetent doctor, but ends up causing so many deaths he is able to start a new career as a pathologist in the morgue identifying the cause of death of corpses that have other pathologists stumped... mostly by having inadvertently replicated said death somehow at some point in his medical career. |
| 139 | ** The intern J.D. nicknames "Cabbage" is even worse, because unlike Doug, Cabbage has no medical skill whatsoever ''and'' no alternate job to fall back on, since he constantly makes basic mistakes like reading an x-ray backwards. The end result is that J.D. has to fire him from the hospital, and just as a final kick in the teeth, [[spoiler:he accidentally contaminates a patient [[HopeSpot while she's getting ready to leave the hospital]] on his way out, and the infection ends up killing her]]. |
| 140 | * ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': Joxer ([[WhiteSheep who comes from a long line of warlords and mercenaries]]) wanted two things: To be a great heroic warrior and Gabrielle's heart. [[ButtMonkey He never got either.]] |
| 141 | [[/folder]] |
| 142 | |
| 143 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 144 | * The Smile.dk song "Hollywood" is about a talentless would-be actress who dreams of being a Hollywood superstar. |
| 145 | * Music/HarryChapin song ''Six-String Orchestra'', where the protagonist, despite training hard, is unable to become any good as a guitarist. |
| 146 | [[/folder]] |
| 147 | |
| 148 | [[folder:Professional Wrestling]] |
| 149 | * Wrestling/JillianHall was very determined to make it as a singer and would take any opportunity to let loose with a song. But she was absolutely terrible, and would frequently get slapped or disrespected by the celebrity guest hosts she tried to impress. She did however get an EP 'A Jingle With Jillian' that got into the Top 50 albums on [=iTunes=]! |
| 150 | [[/folder]] |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 153 | * ''Radio/BleakExpectations'': Harry Biscuit wishes to become the world's greatest inventor, partly because of jealousy at his father inventing the biscuit, and his best friend inventing the bin. Unfortunately, Harry's inventions are nigh-universally awful, a fact Harry even acknowledges. The only times he ever manages to make anything successful is when he's either deliberately trying to make something awful, or has turned evil. |
| 154 | * ''Radio/OldHarrysGame'': The one-off character Chantelle is desperate to be a winner on ''Britain's Got Talent'', despite the fact her singing is ear-gougingly awful. She's so determined she fails to notice she died, and is in Hell, and even then she's still convinced she can make it as a star. Satan decides to use her as a torture implement by letting her sing. |
| 155 | [[/folder]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 158 | * ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has a few examples: |
| 159 | ** The [[PrestigiousPlayerTitle planeswalker]] Chandra Nalaar is the daughter of two renowned artificers on her home plane of [[SteamPunk Kaladesh]]. Chandra didn't have the patience for it. She eventually finds her talent in [[PlayingWithFire pyromancy]]. |
| 160 | ** The planeswalker Tibalt hails from the plane of [[GothicHorror Innistrad]], where he wanted to become a skabaren, a MadScientist specializing in [[FrankensteinsMonster stitching together zombies out of body parts]]. His failure in this field caused him to shift his focus to the pain of living beings. |
| 161 | [[/folder]] |
| 162 | |
| 163 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 164 | * [[TheDitz Kitty]] from ''Theatre/TheDrowsyChaperone'' desperately wants to be a glamorous showgirl, but completely lacks the talent to do so. |
| 165 | * In "Beauty School Dropout" from ''{{Film/Grease}}'', Frenchy's guardian angel appears to tell her that her dream of becoming a beautician will never work out, because of both her lack of ambition and talent, and that she should finish high school and pursue a more modest career. As he puts it, "You've got the dream but not the drive." |
| 166 | * Creator/SteveMartin's ''Picasso At the Lapin Agile'' features, in addition to [[HistoricalDomainCharacter notable real figures]] such as Creator/PabloPicasso, UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, and even a time-travelling Music/ElvisPresley, the eccentric Charles Dabernow-Schmendiman. Dabernow-Schmendiman is convinced that he will change the world with a revolutionary new building material...that is brittle, inflexible, and made from equal parts radium, asbestos, and [[{{Squick}} kitten paws]]. Due to building codes, this material is also unable to be used anywhere other than San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Krakatoa. However, for Dabernow-Schmendiman this is an absolute success, and given the appearance later in the play of a fangirl of his, [[DumbassHasAPoint he may well be onto something]]. Or just a con man. |
| 167 | [[/folder]] |
| 168 | |
| 169 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 170 | * Detective Dick Gumshoe from the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series is all heart and no deductive skills. That being said, he's not all that bad at fighting and has a wasted talent at engineering. |
| 171 | * ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': |
| 172 | ** Olga Marie Animusphere is a top-class Magus and the heir of the prestigious Chaldea Security Organization. Unfortunately, she has zero ability to become a Master and summon her own Servant, to her great dismay. It's strongly implied her [[{{Jerkass}} treatment]] of the protagonist is due to jealousy over this since the protagonist is a nobody who was recruited into Chaldea who nonetheless has the potential to be the Master that she lacks. |
| 173 | ** Kadoc Zemlupus, the first Crypter fought, is basically the EvilCounterpart of the protagonist in that he has little talent as a mage but has great compatibility as a Master. He's set to be one of those who will save the world, only for the Chaldea bombing that sends him into a coma to happen. He slept with a dream to be a hero, only to wake up with the knowledge that the world has already been saved. Out of jealousy, he fights against the protagonist to prove that he's capable, only to be defeated because his opponent, while practically having the same strengths and weaknesses, is vastly more experienced and charismatic to cover said weaknesses. And that's not even going into the WordOfGod that claims should the Crypters go into the same journey as the protagonist, Kadoc would not survive long. |
| 174 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. Sekka's father Shinto claims she has no future as a swordsmith and to give up while she's ahead, something that makes her desperate to please him and prove herself. But Brithael notes that she clearly has talent despite not being at the level of a master smith, calling Shinto's treatment of her unfair and criticizing him for tearing her down. Brithael then opts to create a set of custom tools for her to allow her to talents to blossom in full. [[spoiler:While she still has a ways to go by the end of the quests, Shinto is impressed when she puts the needs of the clients ahead of trying to impress him, finally convincing him that she has what it takes to become a true Hingan swordsmith.]] |
| 175 | * Inverted with the protagonist of ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}''. He does not initially want to tutor the title character, but he ends up teaching her very effectively. |
| 176 | * Ango Natsume from ''VideoGame/Persona5Strikers'' turns out to be this. Having long entered into writing competitions with no success, he eventually attracted the attention of some crooked editors who knew full well he was no good as a writer but wanted to profit off his being the grandson of a famous writer. Even though he overheard his editors talking about exploiting him, [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism the success went to his head and he became the Monarch of Vanity]]. |
| 177 | * Glass Joe in ''VideoGame/PunchOut'', especially in the Wii version where he's lost more bouts than everyone else due to his medical condition, and yet he insists on fighting and enters every bout with undeserved confidence, and will react with utter joy when he wins for once in Title Defense. |
| 178 | [[/folder]] |
| 179 | |
| 180 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 181 | * Giovanni Potage in ''WebAnimation/EpithetErased'' wants to be ''the greatest supervillain in the world!'' And, to be fair, he has many traits that would make a good supervillain. He's a [[LargeHam born showman]], has a surprising amount of [[SwissArmySuperpower creativity and flexibility]] in using his Epithet powers, and is good at leading, inspiring and supporting his "minions". Unfortunately, he ''also'' has the criminal-planning skills of a concussed groundhog, while lacking any malicious bone in his body, and his Epithet being "Soup" means that his primary weapon, while not ineffective, is also literally hurling an orb of tomato basil soup and insisting that it's a "lavacid grenade". |
| 182 | [[/folder]] |
| 183 | |
| 184 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 185 | * Regina Darkblood from ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'': She's an utter failure as [[BlueAndOrangeMorality a traditional rampaging demon]]. (Her aunt, Kria Soulstealer, spells out why [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_2044.php here]]). She also lacks the self-awareness and (because she doesn't actually ''want'' to rampage) motivation to work on her shortcomings. But it turns out she has a knowledge of fashion and architectural history and lore (anything involving styles, really) that she's practically an urban anthropologist. Which she considers fun, but useless, no matter how legitimately impressed people are by her knowledge. Much like Rimmer in the Live-Action TV section, she thinks she has to because of familial expectations and fear of being disowned if she doesn't.[[note]]Sadly, from what we've seen of her parents - both [[ItsAllAboutMe narcissistic]] {{jerkass}}es - she's probably right in her fears[[/note]] |
| 186 | * ''Webcomic/NineteenNinetySomething'': Amber, Cynthia and Kristen followed Lindsay and Craig to the University of Minnesota, half to stay together as a group and half so they could continue to cheerlead. When they were all summarily rejected from cheerleader tryouts, they were all despondent, as they all thought cheerleading would be their focus at college (Lindsay had already moved away from cheerleading, focusing on Political Science). Each girl swiftly rallied: Amber joined Lindsay in Poli-Sci, Kristen discovered she was a basketball prodigy and walked on with the ladies' team and Cynthia (who had been keeping a passion for cooking a secret) took the path of Culinary Arts. |
| 187 | * Brisbane Adams in ''Webcomic/YouSayItFirst's'' predecessor comic, ''Unlike Minerva''. Brisbane wanted all his life to be a part of a real-life Vaudeville-style theater. And he didn't let things like not being able to sing, dance, act, tell jokes or do magic tricks stop him. Over the course of YSIF, Brisbane showed skills as a general MrFixIt and as a problem solver in his role as an executive assistant. |
| 188 | [[/folder]] |
| 189 | |
| 190 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 191 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'''s version of Basil Karlo could have been a world-famous actor...except for the fact that he didn't have the slightest bit of talent. The only work he could get was in cheesy low-rent horror movies, and he turned out to be far more effective at {{supervillain}}y as [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Clayface]] than he ever was as a legitimate actor. |
| 192 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'': When the Brown family briefly relocated to Hollywood so Cleveland could follow his dream of being MLB-scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers[[note]]This trope doesn't apply to Cleveland, as he does just fine at the job--the only "problem" for Cleveland is that the job itself isn't anything like what he imagined it to be[[/note]], Cleveland befriends Gina, a wannabe actress who fits this trope to a T. Gina's incredibly gifted at backstage work (everything from directing to scriptwriting to set design) and even helps Cleveland with the episode's scheme[[note]]To convince Donna and the kids to move back to Stoolbend, Virginia[[/note]], but point-blank refuses to accept anything other than onscreen-stardom, even though her acting abilities are...''mediocre'' at best. |
| 193 | -->'''Gina''': I just ''really'' want to be a star!\ |
| 194 | '''Cleveland''': Your dreams won't come true. |
| 195 | * ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian'': |
| 196 | ** Dave's an inversion--he's got the strength and the skills to be a barbarian (and can be a proper barbarian when given the motivation), but he has no interest in being one. When Fang claims that Dave wanted to be a barbarian when he was younger, he explains that the only reason for that was because he mistakenly thought that a barbarian was a librarian who also cut hair. |
| 197 | ** Fang, Dave's younger sister, plays this trope straight (most of the time at least)--she's got the passion and determination to be a barbarian, but is generally too small/weak/scrawny to actually become one. |
| 198 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': [[Characters/FamilyGuyBrianGriffin Brian Griffin]] has ultimately become this in the [[UnCanceled post-cancellation]] episodes (particularly the later ones), wishing desperately to be seen as an intellectual and a talented writer -- but so far, the closest he's ever come to any actual "success" (where he was actually trying to be genuinely artistic) are ''Faster Than the Speed of Love'' (his novel)[[note]]It was universally panned by literary critics and didn't even sell a single copy[[/note]], ''A Passing Fancy'' (his play)[[note]]It was a hit in Quahog but was panned by theater critics and was widely mocked by writers with '''actual''' talent[[/note]], and his run as a staff writer on the InUniverse Creator/DisneyChannel-series ''Parent Boppers''[[note]]It was a very short run and he only got the job because his estranged son Dylan was the lead actor on the show -- Brian was ultimately fired because he kept trying to add subjects that were just too grim and/or "adult" for a kids' show[[/note]]. Most of Brian's work also tends to contain a lot of plagiarism, and even that's typically done ''very'' poorly. Ironically, Brian's characterization in the pre-cancellation episodes (and, to a lesser extent, the early post-cancellation episodes) was pretty much the exact opposite of how he is nowadays -- in those episodes, Brian was a genuinely sophisticated intellectual, an avid reader, ''and'' a talented singer (to name just a few things). But he never had any writing aspirations (at least not to the same extent as he does in the post-cancellation episodes). |
| 199 | * Nigel Planter, the Franchise/HarryPotter {{Expy}} in ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', is explicitly mentioned to have practically no magic talent whatsoever despite ''supposedly'' being the orphan of two famous wizards, to the point of being the worst student in the magic school he is enrolled in. It is later discovered that this because his parents were not wizards at all: They were the owners of a famous peanut company (it's in the name) and Lord Moldy Butt (*'''''[[RunningGag CRASH!]]'''''*) was actually an estate broker trying to track him down and pass on his inheritance. |
| 200 | * ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats'': Alexandra's greatest dreams are to win Alan's heart and to replace Josie as the leader of the band. Unfortunately, Alan's heart belongs to Josie and she has no talent in singing or playing instruments. A few episodes show that she is a good dancer, but she is not content with being a backup dancer and still wants to be the leader. |
| 201 | * In ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', one of [[Characters/KingOfTheHillDaleGribble Dale Gribble's]] dreams is to learn basket weaving and has the opportunity to on a "vocation vacation". He's absolutely horrible at it, which causes him a lot of angst. Things get worse when Hank's handiness and attention to detail put him top of the class, driving Dale into a [[GreenEyedMonster jealous rage.]] |
| 202 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' - [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessCelestia Princess Celestia's]] fillyhood dream was to be in plays. When Twilight is putting on a play dramatising the first time Celestia raised the sun, she casts the princess to play herself. It turns out that she has approximately zero talent on the stage, despite all the classes she takes to make up for it. |
| 203 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 204 | ** [[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerSimpson Homer Simpson]] embraces this trope in one episode where he realizes he's officially passed the halfway point of the average male lifespan and becomes despondent that he hasn't accomplished anything with his life (directly ignoring, and in one case disregarding, all the things he HAS accomplished over the course of the show, such as his tour with The Smashing Pumpkins, his Grammy win, and his journey into space). After Lisa inspires him to idolize UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison, Homer becomes obsessed with creating just as many inventions as he did, but his "career" is a dismal flop, as his best work ends up being a makeup shotgun (which is used to literally blast women in the face with makeup), a loud, obnoxious "Everything Is Okay" alarm, an electric hammer, and a combination recliner/toilet. |
| 205 | ** In another episode, Lisa meets a boy named Lucas who is determined to be a competitive eater. He puts a lot of thought on his persona but can't master the part of actually eating food quickly. |
| 206 | ** Cecil, Sideshow Bob's brother, who auditioned to be Krusty's sidekick, but was quickly rejected by Krusty; Cecil's performance was very stilted and awkward, he had zero charisma even for a sidekick, and as Krusty points out, the "pie in the face gag" Cecil prepared for is only funny if the victim has dignity, and Cecil was a random dork in clown paint. Bob ends up winning the role specifically because he didn't want it, was dressed in a business suit, and the pie knocked his hat off, exposing his goofy hair. |
| 207 | * [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsSquidwardTentacles Squidward Tentacles]] in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' fashions himself as a great artist and musician. But his art is unremarkable and are merely [[ShrineToSelf images of himself]]. And his music is dreadful and sounds like a dying animal. |
| 208 | * The Pulverizer in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' wants to be a ninja like the turtles, but he is terrible at it, and can't make a simple move right. He decides to let himself get doused in mutagen hoping to be mutant like the turtles; instead, he becomes a shapeless blob monster. |
| 209 | [[/folder]] |
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