The author needs to give a character a new skill in a short amount of time. There will often be a dramatic statement about how you only have x amount of time to become the greatest y in the world. Without even a Hand Wave, the character enters an extremely short training phase, after which he or she emerges an expert — one of the greatest people to ever learn the craft — after only a month or so of work. Especially jarring when it's used to explain away gaining a skill most people take a lifetime to perfect. There's rarely even any hand waving to explain this away, the audience is just supposed to believe that the characters are that damn good.

Often a sign of a Mary Sue or Marty Stu.

Don't have a month, or even a week? Try an Upgrade Artifact, or do some Mega Manning. Want to make it a little bit plausible? Try giving the hero a Training From Hell.

Examples:

Anime

Ranma (and to a lesser extent his Worthy Opponent Ryoga) can practically osmose an entirely new martial art or technique in the span of a week, mastering it so well that they can beat the rival of the week who may have spent a lifetime honing that skill in a Cooking Duel. Handwaved by saying both are masters of "Anything goes" martial arts, a school that focuses on ~~stealing~~ incorporating moves from other martial arts.
In the Naruto universe, anybody with the Sharingan can become an instant expert simply by watching somebody else perform a jutsu or martial arts maneuver; the Sharingan lets the user see in perfect detail every muscular nuance of the technique, allowing the viewer to recreate it at his leisure.
- Of course, it was revealed rather early on that while they may know how to do the technique, their bodies might be physically incapable of doing so.
- Naruto himself gets a sped up training regimen by creating a thousand or so clones of himself, thereby training a thousand times faster. What's even more ridiculous is he does this shortly after returning from three years of training.
Subverted in Robotech. After Falling Into The Cockpit, the young hotshot pilot prodigy proceeds to fall over repeatedly and cause extensive property damage. A crash course by a pilot who's actually qualified in operating robots keeps him from bumping into things, but only after signing up for the army and undergoing combat training does he become competent.
- Similarly in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji Ikari gets browbeaten into the cockpit of Unit-01 and sent against the Monster of the Week... and promptly falls on his face before getting beaten like a red-haired stepchild until the 'mech' takes over.
- Somewhat subverted in Macross Frontier, where the main character gets punched in the face and kicked out of the hangar for wanting to repeat his no-training Falling Into The Cockpit experience when a mission alert goes up.
Ichigo, from Bleach, goes from rank novice to one of the strongest fighters in the universe, able to go toe-to-toe with shinigami captains and take out lieutenants without even using his sword, after two Training From Hell sessions which collectively comprise about ten days.
- It's actually stated that this his ability to learn advanve concepts quickly, is one of his most important skills.
Like with many other tropes, Excel Saga parodies this when Excel's bowling training from Nabeshin is over in a matter of seconds, leaving Excel capable of scoring strikes while simultaneously knocking her opponents' balls out of their alleys. Lampshaded when Nabeshin notes there's nothing more he can teach her, whereupon Excel complains, "That wasn't even five seconds!"
Whenever the protagonist of Fate Stay Night uses projection to replicate a weapon, he will instantly gain all experience of battles the weapon itself has gone through, allowing him to wield it (or, depending on interpretation, for it to wield itself with his body following its lead) with ease as if he were a complete master.
The Melancholy Of Suzumiya Haruhi has both Yuki (she is an artificial human with supernatural powers) and the main character Haruhi (because she's...uhh...a Genki Girl). (Amongst other things. Like a god.)
Both subverted and played straight in Code Geass. All the characters who are said to be exceptional pilots are either career soldiers or rebels with experience from the School of Hard Knocks. Especially noticeable is the main character who, despite using a Humongous Robot as a Mundane Utility annually, is actually one of the worst pilots in the whole series, a fact which the show's creators seem proud of. Made especially ironic in that his late mother was a nigh-legendary pilot back when the Humongous Robots were still new.
- Played straight with the show's female lead, C.C.. One episode says that she's actively avoided learning how to pilot, but when she finally does, she's actually pretty good. May end up being justified in the upcoming second season, as she's the Really Seven Hundred Years Old Mysterious Waif ( with a psychic connection to the hero's afforementioned ace pilot mother) whose past has never fully been elaborated upon.
Averted in the Pokemon anime, played straight in the games. The anime shows Trainers actually practicing new attacks, complete with funny misfires, while in the games, the mon becomes an Instant Expert with a move simply by reaching the right level.
- Let's not forget the TMs and HMs, which are Instant Expert on-a-disk.

Comic Books

Taskmaster, in the Marvel Universe, can instantly learn how to do any physical skill or martial arts maneuver his body is physiologically capable of surviving simply by watching anyone else do it once, either live or via recorded media. Handwaved away by explicitly giving him the superpower of "photographic reflexes", or the ability to instantly learn by watching. His most recent mini-series also gave him the more conventional form of photographic memory in addition to his superpower, further enhancing his rapid learning abilities. He also has Awesomeness By Analysis in that he understands what he learns so thoroughly that he can teach other people how to do it.
Similarly, Prometheus, a supervillain of the DC Universe, has a helmet with some fancy technology where he can just pop in a disc with whatever skill or knowledge he needs. This can range from the blueprints for a space station to the skills of the top thirty martial artists in the world—with which he handily defeated Batman.
- Once. The rematch was far more humiliating... and that was while it still was a hand-to-hand fight, before Prometheus pulled a gun and then Batman triggered the logic bomb he'd hidden in Prometheus' helmet software: he replaces Prometheus's nervous and muscular systems with the physical characteristics of one man: Stephen Hawking. So awesome.

Film

The enslaved humans from Battlefield Earth. Despite never having worked with any technology at all, they quickly become expert pilots, due to a "teaching machine" which beams information straight into the user's brain.
- In the dreaded movie, only Marty "Goodboy" Stu uses the machine.
Lampooned mercilessly in the "We Need A Montage" sequenced of the film Team America: World Police, where the protagonist Gary goes from being a talented actor to a talented actor capable of performing at Special Forces levels with any or all weapons and his bare hands... in about ten minutes of real time. But hey, he had a really cool montage sequence, complete with 80s-style power ballad, so why not?
- This was not even the first time Parker and Stone used this gag. The exact same song was previously used to accompany a montage of Stan learning to ski in the South Park episode "Asspen".
Lampshaded a bit in The Matrix, where all humans spend most of their lives plugged into a computer network through which they receive simulated experiences anyway — through the magic of Applied Phlebotinum, it's a trivial matter to have a full training regimen for anything from martial arts to piloting written directly into your brain in a matter of seconds. Whether this carries over to the real world is up in the air.
Many characters in various Star Wars media. This is usually justified by explaining that the reason they're so good is due to their Force-sensitivity. One example that comes to mind is 9 year old Anakin Skywalker winning his freedom in a podrace despite having never won before (or even reached the finish line before) and that's not even taking into account the fact that humans normally can't even SURVIVE podraces.
Madison from the movie Splash was able to learn English in a single afternoon simply by watching TV. Granted, she's a mermaid with magical powers, but this does seem a bit of a Handwave.
The protagonists of Zombie Apocalypse movies seem to become Instant Expert at any weapon they pick up. But that may just be adapting as a survival mechanism.
- In the case of the Russo movies, sometimes the Zombie Infectee has this same trait while they still have their humanity and intelligence.
In the film Meteor Man, anyone with meteor powers can temporarily absorb all the information in a book just by touching it. Apparently, they can also apply it, considering that at one point the protagonist acquires martial arts skills from touching a book on the subject.
The Last Samurai has this aspect in spades, though it's not apparent until you think about it a little. Tom Cruise's character, Nathan Algren, is built up as a quick study at linguistics in particular and war generally. However, in the course of one winter — a miserable three months — that he stays with a villageful of samurai, he picks up fluent Japanese and manages to master both the katana and unarmed combat. The level of his mastery — again, after only three months — is such that he's able to fight to a draw a samurai who's been practicing the art for a lifetime ... and later, tops it off by taking on six toughs unarmed and comes out of it with two swords and not one drop of his own blood spilled. Not exactly Instant Expert, but about as "realistic" as Hollywood gets.
- Algren is established as an experienced cavalry officer, though, and he's pretty handy with his saber from what we see in the first major battle against the rebels. This Troper can buy that he already had most of the skills, he just needed training in the particular handling of a katana. And it's also made clear that he's recovering from being a self-loathing alcoholic, so it's more like climbing back to his previous (unseen, but implied) level of Badass.

Literature

Eragon in The Inheritance Trilogy goes from never having used a sword before to being one of the greatest swordsmen who ever lived (or maybe not, considering how many times he's gotten his butt whooped by supposedly lesser swordmen), after a month of practice. He similarly goes from totally illiterate to being fully literate in a month.
Memoirs Of A Geisha revolves around this trope.
- Except for the part where we see the protagonist and everyone else undergoing a lifetime of training from childhood onwards, perhaps?
Lord Hong of Interesting Times regularly masters in a matter of weeks disciplines that require other human beings a lifetime of study. Everyone else's problem is that they just don't focus.
Subverted in Vernor Vinge's novel Rainbows End, where JITT (Just-in-Time Training) allows anyone to become an Instant Expert in anything, but with the added complication of "JITT-stick", which essentially turns the character into a semi-permanent idiot savant in the area they received JITT in. JITT-stick plays a significant role in the novel's conclusion.
Kellhus from Second Apocalypse does this a lot, but it is justified by him being a super-intelligent result of a breeding program. That's why he can do things like become fluent in a foreign language in a matter of days.
In the second Sword Of Truth book, the protagonist learns the "dance with death" using the titular blade. The sword apparently stores all the sword fighting skills of anyone who's ever wielded it, and Richard is able to download the knowledge into himself, to the point where he can slaughter garrisons of trained soldiers even without the magic blade.
- Subverted somewhat in his role as a War Wizard, in that he never really learns how to control it.
  - How did you do that new and incredible thing? I just felt it inside of me.
Becoming an instant expert in more or less anything that takes their fancy is one of the advantages of the transhuman Luculenti in John Meaney's To Hold Infinity. Many taught themselves to paint or dance at the level of the masters of those arts on Earth... as hobbies, taking them perhaps a month or two of practise alongside their normal day jobs.

Live Action TV

In Heroes there was Charlie (and now Sylar through power theft) who could not only remember everything she read but could also properly apply it as well.
- In Season 2 there's also Monica who is able to replicate any physical activity she sees, from playing a piano to professional wrestling moves, provided that it is within her body's physical capabilities. This power is definitely much more useful on an athletic young woman barely out of her teens rather than a one-armed overweight old man with arthritis.
Lana Lang in Smalville learned Kung Fu in three days...

Video Games

In Deus Ex, the player is allowed to train JC's various skills by using skill points gained at various points in the game. However, all that is needed to gain/upgrade a skill is the appropriate amount of skill points, and they can be learned at any time with immediate effect.
- At least some justification in that JC already took extensive training in those skills at the UNATCO academy. And that in normal gameplay, he's practicing those skills all the time.
Celes from Final Fantasy VI is somehow able to not only pick up the ability to learn opera, but is also able to memorize an entire musical score in the space of an afternoon. She does it well enough to be a convincing facsimile of the famous opera singer she resembles, to boot. But damned if singing her Leitmotif isn't nifty.
- While the actual requirements vary from game to game, a Blue Mage only needs to either see or be hit by a spell to learn it completely.
Dante from Devil May Cry seems to be able to use a new type of weapon just by picking it up, as well as gaining new moves just by paying for them. Some cases, however, can be partially Justified as an extension of normal abilities, like the bat-conjuring electric guitar/scythe Nevan, and the move-acquisition is handwaved by the existence of the Time God, who grants "the power of the ancient magic clans".
An explicit power of Mega Man, Bass, X, and sometimes Protoman, in their games. Falls under Powers As Programs.
- All Navis in the Battle Network series, in which powers really are programs.
Link displays this to the degree that fans argue that it might be a side-effect of the Triforce of Courage. No matter how odd a new item is, he instantly aquires the knowledge how to use them when he picks them up, despite the fact that he usually starts living a fairly normal live. It's more believable in Twilight Princess, where he had Epona for a while and had a mentor teaching him a thing or two. Then again, the game also had some of the weirdest items in the series such as the Spinner (an apparently magical cog that can be used to ride on rails).
In many MMORPGs, learning a new spell or ability is usually just a matter of shelling out the appropriate amount of cash. World Of Warcraft averts it with weapon skills, which need to be trained to be effective (although any effect from equipping a weapon other than being able to whack things with it are instantly available when you learn the skill. Depending on the item, this can vary from improving spells to being able to open a portal to a specific location).
- In City Of Heroes, you gain entirely new powers at regular intervals without any need for training.
In Knights Of The Old Republic, the main character picks up Jedi proficiency with a lightsaber and Force powers in a matter of weeks, where most Jedi apprentices take years.
- In this case, almost entirely justified. The main character actually was a Jedi for years, then had his memories wiped as part of a brainwashing program. So the training really only had to reconnect the main character with their former powers.
Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist from MIT, came to work one day, and the place swarmed with aliens. Ever since he picked up a crowbar, he started kicking unfathomable amounts of ass, including use of every weapon he ever finds without even the slightest hint of natural inaccuracy. This is the guy who can hold and use a rocket launcher with both hands while climbing a ladder.

Web Original

Played straight with annoying regularity in Survival Of The Fittest. Many characters pick up their weapons and seem to immediately know everything about it, despite there being absolutely no (or only a tenuous) reason for their knowledge. Although instructions are provided this still does not fully justify this trope's presence. On the other hand, there are, admittedly, some characters who would have the knowhow due to prior experiences.
Parodied and played straight in this strip from The Order Of The Stick.

Western Animation

Kim Possible. Nuff said.
Katara from Avatar The Last Airbender masters the art of Waterbending without explanation in three weeks, an act that normally takes a lifetime. On a lesser note, Aang as well, but he's supposed to.
- Sokka also inexplicably learns to use the sword in a matter of a days. Not even Training From Hell would be able to give normal people any passable sword skills in that manner of time — and Sokka seems to spend just as much time doing calligraphy and feng shui as actual sword practice during said days.
  - Averted in that his master actually said that Sokka isn't all that good with the sword. What factored into what impressed Piandao were skills that Sokka was already shown to have, and the sword increased his survivability a bit.
- They had been training their skills casually since before they met Aang.
In Danny Phantom, Danny masters his ice power to a tee through extensive training in the same episode when he first received them.
Toyed with in Megas XLR. The main character, Coop, is (usually) an expert at piloting his enormous mecha, Megas. However, this is only because he had specifically modified it to control just like the video games he'd been playing his whole life. When Kiva (an experienced pilot who was designated to pilot Megas before Coop modified it) attempted to pilot it, she could barely get it to go in the right direction.

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