Lord Cutler Beckett: You're mad! note Jack is attempting to escape from Lord Beckett's ship by blasting its mast down with a cannon and riding its rigging back to the Black Pearl.
Note: This trope has been subjected to some misuse. Please read this article before listing it on a work's YMMV page.
Someone who is
Crazy Awesome is someone who's completely nuts, in an amusing way, and is effective at what (s)he does
because of that craziness. In real life (s)he'd get fired from whatever job (s)he has/would have, or even arrested—at the very least, the things (s)he does just plain wouldn't
work. But somehow, as his/her every action is generally protected by the
Rule Of Cool, (s)he manages to be both effective and a character that the audience likes or even loves.
What separates this character from being a plain old
Cloud Cuckoolander,
Bunny-Ears Lawyer and the like is that it is
because of his/her
extravagant madness that the Crazy Awesome can both
function in the work and have such appeal.
For example: let's say
The Chosen One's best friend, Ed Smith, wears a traffic cone on his head. Said traffic cone is spray painted metallic purple and has a grinning chimpanzee's face painted on the front. And Ed
insists that you call it Sheldon. Yet despite this, Ed is very loyal to
The Chosen One and can hold his own against the army of
Mooks. So far, he seems like your average
Bunny-Ears Lawyer, right? The traffic cone is an eccentric trait if there ever was one, but it's not necessarily why he's liked by the audience. Now suppose about ten episodes into the series, the
Big Bad decides to drop a bomb on the Hero's
city, and only Ed can do something to stop it. If Ed were to catch the bomb in his hand then kick it back to the Big Bad's jet, thus destroying them both, he's still not Crazy Awesome, he's a
Badass Bunny-Ears Lawyer.
If, instead, Ed pushes an inconspicuous button on the underside of Sheldon's base, and a jack-in-the-box chicken head springs out of the top and shoots
Frickin' Laser Beams out of its eyes that disintegrate both the bomb
and the jet in the space of five seconds,
then Ed Smith (and Sheldon) has become
Crazy Awesome.
In other words, it is
because of Ed's quirkiness that he is an effective cast member. He would not be as effective (or, indeed, the same character) without the eccentricities. There can't be one without the other.
On average, every other action the
Crazy Awesome does is
cool, awesome, and/or
funny,
over-the-top, or a combination thereof. The
Heroic Comedic Sociopath is
Axe Crazy Awesome. A
Large Ham is a verbal Crazy Awesome. As previously mentioned, a character that can "work" without the quirks (
but still wouldn't be the same) is a
Bunny-Ears Lawyer. If (s)he's just crazy, (s)he's a
Cloudcuckoolander. If his/her crazy awesomeness prevents him/her from being killed or arrested when anyone else would be, (s)he's just benefited from a
Lunatic Loophole. May be a
Lethal Joke Character. Expect lots of
Insane Troll Logic to be behind their plans and antics. Compare
Power Born of Madness,
Eccentric Mentor, and
The Wonka. Compare and contrast
Creepy Awesome.
Examples
