Some characters like to brawl, mock authority and protocol, and will fight eagerly.
This character is just as loud and doesn't like to be ordered around. But contrary to the
Boisterous Bruiser… he doesn't really have much to back it up. He is physically (and maybe emotionally) weak but that doesn't stop him from constantly calling out those who glower at him (or so he thinks). Sure he may pick on people weaker than him, but if he happens to realize his opponent can effectively kick his ass, either he will find a lame excuse, or insist and
get his ass kicked. Or both. Don't expect that to make him think twice the next time, though: the
Boisterous Weakling shows an astounding inability to acknowledge his own impotence. Even if he tries to bite, he has no fangs. "He" because this character is almost
Always Male.
Usually
Played For Laughs. Can overlap with
Fearless Fool,
Miles Gloriosus, or
Small Name Big Ego. Compare
Fake Ultimate Hero and
Feet Of Clay, when the character is
alledged to be strong by other people. Contrast
Gentle Giant. Also contrast the
Smug Super, who will usually have very good reasons to be smug.
An intellectual equivalent would be
Know Nothing Know It All.
Examples:
Anime And Manga:
- Vinland Saga has Ormar, a rebelious punk who only dreams of the battlefield, gets in arguments for nothing and is always takling about the "honour of Nordic warriors". But whenever he has to actually use a sword it's painfully obvious he has no skills whatsoever. When we first see him, he can't even unsheathe his sword properly.
- Haruka in the Mai Hime anime, despite being a totally normal, powerless human and totally overwhelmed by the situation, will not let you forget that she is in command. She doesn't hesitate to face tanks and soldiers and even provoke a HiME while her own body is fading away. In her case, these guts are actually what makes a good part of the fandom like her.
- Mr. Satan in Dragon Ball is actually rather strong for a normal human but inevitably fails to notice that the monsters he taunts and challenges can disintegrate him effortlessly or destroy planets on a whim. He gets better near the end of the series, though.
- Black☆Star is essentially this at the beginning of Soul Eater, constantly boasting (very loudly) about his strength and anouncing his strategies out loud, which then leads to his ass getting kicked.
- The Team Rocket in Pokemon is a trio of this, although Jessie and James use their Pokemons instead of fighting themselves.
Comic Books
Films:
- 'Ol' Cigaret' in Emperor Of The North is always boasting about how he's the toughest hobo riding the rails, but the real veteran 'A-No. 1' has his number right from the start. At the end of the movie he's so fed up with Cigaret's bragging that he just picks him up bodily and throws him off the train into a lake.
- Ike Clanton in Tombstone is a loudmouth who starts several gunfights, but he's always the first to fall or flee despite his bravado. The obnoxious, bullying casino employee at the beginning, played by Billy-Bob Thornton, is another example.
- During the sequence when "Happy" Hogan and the Black Widow infiltrate the villain's hideout in Iron Man 2, Happy turns into this due to a severe case of Overshadowed By Awesome.
- Ash Williams plays this part throughout much of Evil Dead 2 and some of Army Of Darkness, but by the end of each film he's become the catchphrase-tossing, boomstick-toting Bad Ass we all know and love.
- Jack Burton in Big Trouble In Little China, thanks to a healthy dose of Wrong Genre Savvy.
Live Action TV:
- For a while in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, this was Xander's role, thanks largely to his becoming Overshadowed By Awesome but still insisting on joining in the battles.
- An even better Buffy example might be Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, at least before he Took A Level In Badass over on the Spin Off Angel. Even there, it took some time for him to become as formidable as he initially thought he was.
- In Lie To Me, Cal Lightman is thwarted at any bit of assault toward him. He is occasionally battered. He certainly is loud and boisterous, and antagonizes everyone.
Real Life:
- There is a joke about a small animal (told in Russia about a hedgehog) standing and shouting "I am strong! I am strong". A passing bear gives it a kick. The hedgehog flies a few meters, stands up, brushes itself off and shouts "I am light, but strong!"
- In professional wrestling this is thrown around a lot with heel character, while how pathetic they actually are varies, almost all heels are "chickenshit" to some extent and tend to suffer some mild Badass Decay when they make a Face Heel Turn. A very common running concept is for a heel to mouth off and boast at a face how he is going to kick the latter's ass, only to be quickly knocked down or sent running when the face decides they've heard enough. Chris Jericho and The Miz are key modern examples (even if they prove to be more than all talk on occasion).
Video Games:
- Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter likes to boast about how strong he is and invite people to learn martial arts from him, but he's actually hilariously incompetent.
- Sir Prancelott of Scufflewick in Drakensang looks pretty though and always talks about his wondrous deeds.... except that he's the greatest Ted Baxter of Aventuria, his sword skills are useless, he can barely hold his own against a wolf and runs away from some goblins (later claiming that he was taking their attention away from you) and the only time he tries to take on a Linnworm (huge multi-legged reptile) he's knocked unconscious by the beast's breath. In short, he could be easily considered The Scrappy of the game.
- Von Kaiser in both of his appearances in the Punch Out series.
- In Mother 3, the Mole Crickets are an entire species of this, at least until their champion is defeated with ease by the protagonist.
Web Original:
Western Animation:
- One of the reasons Scrappy-Doo is the trope namer for The Scrappy is his habit of picking a fight with vilains obviously stronger than him.
- Eric Cartman talks a big game, but when it comes to actual combat, he usually can't follow through. In one notable example, one mild slap from Kyle sends him crying to his mom.
- Daffy Duck, despite being a self proclaimed "craven little coward" has a tendancy for flapping his big beak about his bravado and smarts and trying to place himself in the role of The Ace, usually literally getting in the face of someone way out of his league.