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3%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
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10->''"It's like they did a show about Robin Hood, but Little John was the one who was really good at archery and took down the Sheriff of Nottingham, and also he used to bang Maid Marian."''
11-->-- '''Chris Sims''' and '''David Uzumeri''' [[http://comicsalliance.com/recap-smallville-episode-6-11-justice/ on]] ''Series/{{Smallville}}''[='s=] Green Arrow
12
13The underling who's [[ConservationOfCompetence much smarter, more efficient and more industrious]] than their (usually [[PointyHairedBoss totally incompetent]]) boss, and is the one actually responsible for anything that gets done in the workplace. Despite the fact that they work their butt off for little pay and no credit, this person is generally pretty happy with the way things are. If they or the incompetent boss aren't the lead character, they'll often use their skills and position in order to help the lead character out. If their incompetent boss is the BigBad, they're the [[TheDragon right]] [[DragonInChief hand]] and act in the opposite manner to TheStarscream even though they may have plenty of motivation to be one. They are often known for appearing right before they are called, always with whatever they were going to be asked to bring.
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15The greatest danger to the Hyper-Competent Sidekick is having a boss who is ''too'' [[TooDumbToLive stupid]]. Witness the relationship between Blackadder and Prince George in the third series of [[Series/{{Blackadder}} that show]]. The Prince is easily manipulated, but his sheer idiocy is forever landing himself and his butler into incredibly dangerous or difficult situations.
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17When the Hyper-Competent Sidekick wields more actual ''power'' than their boss, it's an AlmightyJanitor. If TheDragon is a Hyper-Competent Sidekick who is more of a threat than the actual BigBad and has little, if any respect for the boss, then he's the DragonInChief.
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19When the boss is competent in his own right and/or when the sidekick actually ''enjoys'' being the underling, it's a ChessmasterSidekick.
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21Frequently the OnlySaneMan. See also TheAllegedBoss, TheReliableOne and TheJeeves. Contrast BumblingSidekick. Often the need to be hyper-competent is because the boss is a CluelessBoss.
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23This trope often walks hand in hand with TheCreon, to explain why the character doesn't move up in the organization. Another reason they might not be the boss is because they are BrilliantButLazy.
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25A character that would rather not be in this position is the BeleagueredAssistant (though there's probably some overlap).
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27-----
28!!Example sub-pages:
29[[index]]
30* HyperCompetentSidekick/AnimeAndManga
31* HyperCompetentSidekick/ComicBooks
32* HyperCompetentSidekick/FanWorks
33* [[HyperCompetentSidekick/LiveActionFilms Films — Live-Action]]
34* HyperCompetentSidekick/{{Literature}}
35* HyperCompetentSidekick/LiveActionTV
36* HyperCompetentSidekick/TabletopGames
37* HyperCompetentSidekick/VideoGames
38* {{HyperCompetentSidekick/Webcomics}}
39* HyperCompetentSidekick/WesternAnimation
40* HyperCompetentSidekick/RealLife
41[[/index]]
42
43!!Other examples
44
45[[foldercontrol]]
46
47[[folder:Advertising]]
48* The 2017 ''Advertising/UFOKamenYakisoban'' commercials ostensibly star new hero Sauce, but all he does is get beat up and captured. His partner, the Legend, can turn into a motorcycle, a tank, and take on the Demon King via the power of judo throws.
49[[/folder]]
50
51[[folder:Comic Strips]]
52* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'': [[BollywoodNerd Asok the intern]] is not only one of the best engineers in the office, he also possesses amazing mental powers, including pyrokinesis and shapeshifting. Despite his prowess, he is paid the least, works in an eighth-sized cubicle, and is rarely allowed to leave.
53[[/folder]]
54
55[[folder:Films — Animation]]
56* Notably, this was the ''original'' plan for Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', where the EvilVizier Jafar would have been a bumbling fool with his competent parrot sidekick Iago providing the real brains of the operation. Then they switched roles and ''look out.''
57* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Igor}}'', the titular Igor is this to his idiotic master Doctor Glickenstein. However, due to abiding by [[TheIgor stereotypes]], Glickenstein [[IDontPayYouToThink refuses to listen to his advice]] and ends up blowing himself up early on in the movie.
58* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'': Maximus is the horse of the Captain of the Guard, and is far more competent and effective than the entire royal guard put together. Near the start of the movie, Flynn takes out the royal guard soldiers chasing after him and hijacks the captain's horse, [[EstablishingCharacterMoment only for the horse to not be as subservient as he expected and put up a good chase]] before Flynn manages to hide. At a dam, Flynn uses a frying pan to knock out the captain and three royal guard soldiers before Maximus picks up a shortsword with ''his teeth'' and manages to trade several blows before knocking the frying pan out of Flynn's hands.
59[[/folder]]
60
61[[folder:Music]]
62* The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin secretary]] in Charming Disaster's "Secretary" is this to the unnamed businessman, who has an alcohol problem and is having issues with work -- he would literally be unable to function without her help. This is not necessarily a good thing, as though he's falling in love with her he's still not sure a) that she's entirely human, or b) whether she has an ulterior motive.
63[[/folder]]
64
65[[folder:Podcasts]]
66* Amy from season 3 of ''Podcast/WithinTheWires''. Without her, bureaucrat Michael Whitton (our narrator, nominally the protagonist) would get literally nothing done. (Not that it stops him from sending her scathing memos for not being formal enough in front of visiting bigwigs for his taste.)
67* Georgie from ''Podcast/WoodenOvercoats''. She's great at... well, everything, and it's pretty clear that without her, Antigone and Rudyard (mostly Rudyard) would run Funn Funerals into the ground. When she has a TenMinuteRetirement, Antigone and Rudyard both beg her to reconsider specifically because of this -- Rudyard directs the funerals and Antigone handles the corpses, but Georgie keeps everything running like a well-oiled machine, as well as handles any physical labor that needs to be done. During her stint as the Mayor's secretary, she proves to be great at that, too.
68[[/folder]]
69
70[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
71* In RealLife, Wrestling/PreciousPaulEllering personally booked Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors' matches, scheduled their flights, set up hotel reservations, and kept track of expenses. Since he had been a wrestler before this, and is a member of UsefulNotes/{{MENSA}}, he absolutely qualifies for GeniusBruiser.
72* This ended up being the case during Wrestling/JinderMahal’s run with the WWE Title. Almost every match he won was because of his two henchmen, Sunil and Samir Singh, who would continually distract or interfere and allow their boss time to recover. Somewhat averted as Jinder would ultimately lose his title even after they helped him during a match with Wrestling/AJStyles.
73[[/folder]]
74
75[[folder:Theatre]]
76* OlderThanFeudalism: The whole wise servant/dumb master dynamic is probably one of the most popular staples of ancient Roman/Greek comedy theater. See ''Theatre/AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToTheForum'' for a modern take on the old Roman cliche.
77* The ''zanni'' or servants of CommediaDellArte took up the role with the same plot: a clever servant arranges that his foolish young master and the master's foolish love can marry.
78* Boracio to Don John in ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing''.
79* In ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance'' Frederic seems to be this to the Pirate King, since he's the one who points out that their willingness to accept anyone's claim of being an orphan renders them incompetent as pirates. After Frederic leaves Ruth seems to take over this role taking the lead in the to plan to get Frederic to come back.
80[[/folder]]
81
82[[folder:Web Animation ]]
83* Yorks the goat-slug in ''WebAnimation/BrokenQuest'' is this to BigBad Sid. A prime example in episode 3, when Yorks thinks a plan to set the heroes against centaurs and get them killed was a failure. It was a complete success as far as Sid was concerned, however, because his only real objective was to see if he could get the heroes to [[spoiler:kill their own horses to substitute their hooves for the centaur hooves they were tasked to get]].
84-->'''Yorks:''' Wait. You set up a fake boat business. Had me run it for a week, ''in disguise,'' to lead them to a sacred centaur hunting grounds all to... ''(calming breath)'' trick them into killing useless horses ''they already hated.''\
85'''Sid:''' Holy crap! It sounds even more gi-nees when you say it. Magic mirror, fat lady taking a bath.\
86'''Yorks:''' But we ''[[NiceJobFixingItVillain helped them]]'' across the river! They're moving faster now on foot! what was the point of any of this?!\
87'''Sid:''' ''[no longer paying attention to Yorks]'' Oh yes, that's nice.
88* The third ''WebAnimation/DrBees'' short has the titular hero recruiting a new "Bee Boy"... namely, Omnipotron, an {{Expy}} of [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Doctor Manhattan]] who appears to be a nigh-all-powerful RealityWarper and casually talks about fighting crime by recreating the universe so that crime does not exist. Dr. Bees, meanwhile, has the power of owning lots of bees. Naturally, he takes the lead in all crimefighting endeavors.
89* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Team JNPR is led by Jaune Arc, who begins as a incompetent bumbler ([[TookALevelInBadass he gets better later]]). His teammates, [[LadyOfWar Pyrrha Nikos]], [[ShockAndAwe Nora Valkyrie]] and [[TheStoic Lie Ren]] are all shown to be extremely competent fighters.
90** Neo is a villainous example. She is a dangerous combatant and extremely skilled at executing whatever task is given to her, and is a far deadlier combatant than her boss Roman. Expect her to succeed where her employers do not, and she always delivers no matter how difficult the job. In Atlas, [[spoiler:when Cinder failed to get the Winter Maiden's power, Neo curb-stomped JNR and took the Relic of Knowledge]]. Volume 8 starts to deconstruct this, as Neo grows resentful of Cinder taking credit for her achievements while failing at her own objectives, leading her to [[spoiler:take the Relic of Knowledge to try and force Cinder to give her what she wants. Unfortunately, she picked the exactly wrong time for it, as Cinder just had her ShesBack moment and easily manipulated Neo into doing her job for her yet again before tossing her into an abyss.]]
91[[/folder]]
92
93[[folder:Web Original]]
94* Most of the major warlords have these in ''Fanfic/FarceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' (though the story being what it is, that's not a high bar). Dian Wei is this to Cao Cao at first, and also the Xuns and Guo Jia. Liu Bei has Zhuge Liang, and Sun Quan has Zhou Yu.
95* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'':
96** Greasy, sidekick to Peeper at [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]], though with Peeper the bar is exceptionally low.
97** [[UnreliableNarrator Mephisto]] claims that this was common for the CaptainPatriotic / KidSidekick pairings that popped up all over the place during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, mainly because [[spoiler:the "superheroes" were usually the result of SuperSoldier experiments performed by [[MadScientist "eccentric" but patriotic researchers]] under the control of the military. The "kid" sidekicks were actually their handlers, and older than they appeared, as the whole purpose of setting these "flag heroes" loose on criminals and saboteurs was to see if the test subjects could handle the stress of combat and covert ops without going berserk.]][[note]]This is a direct reference to the way Creator/MarvelComics retconned the relationship between ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and Bucky Barnes.[[/note]]
98[[/folder]]
99
100[[folder:Web Videos]]
101* "Commander" Jeremy Wickstrom in ''WebVideo/ChadVader''. Although he is a little off as well.
102* In [[LetsPlay/TheOnlineWarrior Max and Matt's]] Bro-Ops LetsPlay of ''VideoGame/{{Guacamelee}}'', Max plays as [[TheHero Juan]], Matt plays as [[TheLancer Tostada]]. Matt is much more competent.
103%%
104%%* The alternative scenes to Sage's ''Film/SpeedRacer'' review had The Other Guy shout at Critic that because Critic has kidnapping issues, he has to be the one to sort it out and provide bribes to the police.
105%% Unsourced example, no hint of what show it's from.
106%%
107* ''WebVideo/OutsideXbox'' has a much-beloved intern for their GTA Online heists called Nerascus, who has a habit of waiting for the rest of the team at the dropoff point, having fulfilled his end of the heist long before the rest of the crew. He also has ''incredible'' taste in vehicle livery.
108* WebVideo/{{Phelous}} and WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob gained this role in ''WebVideo/{{Kickassia}}''. [[BeleagueredAssistant They're not too]] [[TheStarscream happy about it]].
109[[/folder]]

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