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This card understates the Chuckster's powers.
"What have you heard? That bad guys would rather confess than be interrogated by him? That his steely gaze can cool a room by five degrees? That he can only be killed by a silver bullet, like a werewolf? They're all true, except for the silver bullet part. Might give him indigestion or heartburn, but I don't think it'd kill him. Any other questions?"
- Tony DiNozzo, NCIS, on Gibbs.
A specific form of Memetic Mutation when the fandom of a series exaggerates a character that is simply badass, and sometimes not at all impressive to preposterously epic god-like levels. Despite the name, it doesn't necessarily have to be a widely known Internet meme, and is sometimes just an in-joke among the fan-base. In some cases, the writers agree.
Often overlaps with Fan Wank. Fear too the Memetic Molester.
In-universe, this can be the result of being Shrouded In Myth, or a God Mode Sue if done poorly.
Compare Febreze Is Better, Memetic Sex God.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Chuck Norris Variants
- Chuck Norris is the most prominent example, thanks to Chuck Norris Facts, and it also applies to those celebrities, both real and fictional, that also have the "Chuck Norris Facts" attached to them:
- Bruce Campbell as evidenced by his own Facts site.
- Bob Ross. Some say that the universe we live in is one of his paintings.
- Tim Tebow
- Samoa Joe (is gonna kill you)
- Vin Diesel. The Chuck Norris Facts were actually based off the Vin Diesel Facts.
- Mr. T
- Barack Obama, though more accurately a Memetic Nice Guy.
- His Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, also has his own site. And every fact on it is true. I'm not kidding. They actually cite their sources!
- And now we have Barack Obama: memetic geek.
- He is Never Gonna Give You Up.
- We can't forget that, as Jon Stewart pointed out, "motherfucker has Miyagi-like reflexes]]".
- Neville Longbottom has a facebook group devoted to him that features a list of this type of joke featuring the legendary badass himself.
- Examples: The Sorting Hat is no longer used at Hogwarts; students are sorted based on how long it takes them to cry in the presence of Neville Longbottom. Chuck Norris' bogart is Neville Longbottom
- Also, Merlin got an Order of Neville, Second Class.
- Truth In Television: French-Canadian lumberjack Joseph Montferrand (1802-1864), known in English as "Big Joe Mufferaw", is a legend in the Ottawa Valley for his strength and skill. (The court house in Gatineau, Quebec, is named after him.) Two verifiable stories are that he knocked out the boxing champion of Canada with one blow in a fight and that one night he single-handedly beat up as many as 150 Irishmen who ambushed him on the Chaudières bridge. Subsequent stories (and a song by Stompin' Tom Connors) attribute such feats as putting out a forest fire between Arnprior and Renfrew while in Smiths' Falls (38 miles away) by spitting at it, and driving a log raft down the rapids-strewn Ottawa River from Mattawa to Ottawa (a distance of over 250 miles) in a single day.
- Vladimir Putin (his KGB background and his habit of saving cameramen from tigers while conveniently armed with a tranquillizer dart make people Putin a good word for him).
- Some believe he fails at this, however, due to the fact that he is trying so hard to make people think he is one - true Memetic Badasses aren't by design.
- Cryptography guru Bruce Schneier
- When Jack Bauer was told he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.
- xkcd creator Randall Munroe, here.
- Daniel Craig, based on his performance as James Bond in Casino Royale.
- Antonin Dolohov
- Mark Motherfucking Musashi is the toku equivalent, apparently◊.
- Charles Bronson, although many of these aren't actually exaggerations. He worked as a coal miner at ten.
- I once saw Colm Wilkinson tear a steel telephone book in half with his bare hands, and then sing at it, reducing it to its component atoms.
- Alton Brown, as shown here.
- ESPN even had an "Interesting Facts About Cliff Lee" segment when the Indians Pitcher got out to a hot start in 2008.
- Hockey player Gary Roberts, thanks to the fannish devotion he received from Pittsburgh Penguins fans in his season and a half with the team.
- A Song Of Ice And Fire: When Randyll Tarly weds a Frey girl, the musicians kill themselves.
- Stephen Colbert doesn't fear the truth, the truth fears Stephen Colbert.
- These, in turn, were originally inspired by the Bill Brasky sketches of Saturday Night Live. Chuck Norris has not, in fact, punched a hole in a cow just to see who was coming up the road. That was Brasky.
- Alan Moore. Although his 'facts' tend to be a little more grounded in fantasy (see also, Neil Gaiman's 'True Things'◊ 'about Alan Moore'◊.
- Many of the original Chuck Norris facts fit well for Cthulhu, but become rather creepy. This is partly because Cthulhu is canonically that badass. Nothing earthly can harm him in any way.
- Also it's revealed in the story In The Mountains Of Madness Cthulhu and it's spawn defeated The Great Old Ones, who both had and used nuclear weapons-making Cthulhu not a Memetic Badass, but a true one. And nukes hadn't even been invented yet when that was written.
- The Norwegian Lars Monsen. Like Chuck Norris is the god of roundhouse kicks, he is a "god" of winter and cold. (Lars Monsen can cross the Milky Way on foot — in the winter)
- When Michael Phelps swims, he doesn't pull himself forward, he pushes the Earth backward.
- Velimir "Bata" Zivojinovic◊ (Yes, that's a beer bottle wrapper), A star of old Yugoslav WWII movies, most prominently Valter brani Sarajevo (Valter defends Sarajevo) which apparently became hilariously popular in China, had a series of similar memmes attached to him, such as:" The bogyman checks under his bed for Chuck Norris. Chuck checks for Bata Zivoinovic."
- An early form of this trope can be found in the tall tales told about giant mythological lumberjack Paul Bunyan, who, among other mighty feats, was said to have dug the Grand Canyon by dragging his ax behind him, and single-handedly cutting down the Sahara Forest.
- Chris Capao...
- Georg Prime from Suikoden II and V frequently has old Chuck Norris jokes attached to his name.
- At a press conference in Iraq, someone threw a shoe (yes, a shoe) at George W Bush. He dodged it and a meme has since developed that he can defeat anyone as long as they are wearing shoes.
- For the record, Chuck Norris wears boots, so Bush can not defeat him.
- Reginald VelJohnson (Carl Winslow from Family Matters) doesn't take cream or sugar for his coffee; he takes Chuck Norris's tears.
- HE can make Chuck Norris cry.
- Dick Cheney can pixellate things just by touching them. And if he brushes by a plant, three days later that plant will die.
- Give Chuck Todd a slide rule and enough black coffee and he'll figure out how to bail out Wall Street for $9.95.
- When Joy of Painting was announced for Nintendo DS, the Game FA Qs board about it spawned a thread about him in this light, except more of an extreme nice guy.
- John Smeaton, Glasgow airport baggage handler, who, when the airport was attacked by Muslim terrorists, kicked one of them in the groin so hard that he sprained his own foot. Even better, he didn't allow the fact that the man was, at the time, ON FIRE slow him down. When asked by TV news if he had a message for the terrorists, he said "This is Glasgow; we'll set aboot ye."
- Apparently there are ways around the law that "ninjas can't get you when you're on fire".
- Adam Hills used this to sum up why Scotland in general should never be a terrorist target: "How tough do you have to be to watch a car plough into the side of a building, on fire, a guy gets out in flames and runs across the terminal - and you go "Fuckin' watch this!"
- All these examples and no one's mentioned Bear Grylls? He's even considered Chuck Norris's successor in some circles.
- Oh hell no. Les Shroud > Bear Grylls forever. Shroud does his stuff BY HIMSELF.
- Photographer Ken Rockwell once designed a zoom lens. You know of it as the Hubble Space Telescope. (Also, he doesn't use a flash ever since the Nagasaki incident.)
Close Chuck Norris Variants
Live Action TV
- Before the proliferation of Chuck Norris facts, there were the "Mr. T vs ______" websites. To quote from a defunct Web site describing the phenomenon:
The Mr. T Vs character is an extremely simplified version of a complicated, and in fact deeply weird individual. It has some resemblance to the persona Mr. T has tried over the years, with varying degrees of success, to project to the public. The Mr. T of Mr. T Vs has more traits in common with the B.A. Baracus character Mr. T played on The A-Team. He is afraid of flying. He drinks milk. He works at youth centers. He doesn't (usually) swear. He can make tanks out of toasters. He speaks ungrammatically. He has little tolerance for crazy fools. However the Mr. T Vs persona has exaggerated, in fact super-human, abilities. To be specific, he can "throw helluva far" and, unaffected by most weapons, is "helluva tough". Also he is almost always hostile towards his A-Team compatriots in the rare times they appear in the strips. And he speaks even more ungrammatically than the B.A. character. Of course, that could be due to the authors' personal disregard for the English language and/or inability to spell.
- Fans! had the team fight this version of Mr. T. He was completely unstoppable, even after being teleported into the sun, and they only won after he called them "kids", and one member pointed out that the real Mr. T would never beat up kids.
- CSI's Gil Grissom.
- The original Green Power Ranger was the best Ranger ever. No exceptions.
- Oh you did not just go there.
- This has led to parts of the fandom converting to the Church of Oliver. "And the Lord said, 'Aww, man!'"
- In the same place, the green Silverhawk was the best- he could travel in time goddamn(batman).
- Watchers of Heroes have often made jokes about how Mr. Muggles is one true mastermind behind it all.
- Of course it makes sense Kirk had the know-how to create gunpower, put together a bazooka, and use it to kill the Gorn. That's why he's the goddamn Captain.
- The champion stood, the rest saw their better: Mr. Rogers in a bloodstained sweater.
- Bill Nye can count to infinity. Twice. Bill Nye can recite the last two thousand digits of pi. Bill Nye can win a game of Connect Four in three moves.
- Supernatural's Dean Winchester once visited the Virgin Islands. Now they're just the Islands.
- "And now we need to find out how fast it goes around our track, so it's time to hand it over to our tame racing driver. Some say he roams the woods at night, foraging for wolves, and that he appears on high denomination notes in Sweden. All we know is he's called 'The Stig.'"
- An in-universe example: Gibbs. Abby is fairly certain he could take Godzilla in a fight.
- According to her, he would also defeat Mothra and all the Terminators at the same time. The only fight she thinks would actually be a fight would be Gibbs vs. Gibbs. She's not sure whether it's a clone or Evil Twin.
- Dr. Gregory House can cure anything. Ever. He can even cure The Cure.
- This troper would argue that House's power is actually that he can diagnose anything. Whether he can cure it is still restricted by the capabilities of modern medicine.
- Kids, remember: it's never Lupus! ... except that one time.
- Bill Adama's glare can melt through the hull of a Cylon basestar.
- All hail Dalek Fred, the Dalek that just shoots the Doctor dead on the spot, without even a warning "Exterminate".
- Richard Alpert from Lost. Most cite his "beginning in badassery" to the episode "La Fleur," where Richard simply walks into the DHARMA Barracks compound, holding a torch, which he then slams into the ground and sits on a bench as if he owns the place. Not to mention the sonic death fence that surrounds the Barracks, which apparently doesn't harm him. Because he's Richard Alpert.
- The television forum on Game FA Qs has taken this meme a step further by actually developing a fake episode called "Wrestling With Angels," which is a four hour long episode in which Richard does everything from sword duel with Jacob over a volcano to having a threesome with Kate and Juliet. There even exists a Youtube video in which the chateau fight scene from The Matrix Reloaded is edited to feature Richard fighting off various Lost characters.
- Juliet Burke now has her own website all about her awesomeness.
- In Slayers the main character, Lina Inverse, often finds that her reputation as a violent, cruel, infinitely powerful sorceress has preceded her: often just the rumor that she's in town can reduce entire populations into terrified, quivering wrecks. Of course, when she's banking on her reputation producing that effect, no one has heard of her.
- More precisely, no one has heard of the "Beautiful Genius Sorceress, Lina Inverse". Everybody has heard of "Lina Inverse, Dragon Spooker and the Enemy Of All Who Live".
- From Bleach we have Aizen's truly gigantic couch, which has been theorized to be The
Man Couch Behind The Man Behind The Man and the strongest character in the series. To a lesser degree, this applies to the rest of Aizen's furniture, as well, all of which is over the top.
- There is also Yammy, Espada #10 who had been propelled to Godlike levels of power long before he was revealed to be in actuality, Espada #0.
- The servant Archer from Fate/Stay Night had such a badass final fight, it spawned the creation of the word/concept of GAR. (Note: this one is actually true.)
- Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam is stated to make anything three times faster (from a statement that Char's custom red Zaku was three times faster than a normal Zaku). This is also expanded to just mention the word "three times" in some way, like Char Aznable is three times as badass as Chuck Norris.
- Additionally, it became a common meme that everything painted red in Gundam is three times faster that its counterparts. Gundam 00 recently lampshaded it with Trans-Am system which, when activated, actually paints an otherwise traditionally colored Gundam red and makes it exactly three times faster than before. Yes, Gundams in the 00-verse run on Ork technology.
- The Zudah showed what would happen if you tried to make a suit go three times faster without a red coat of paint. It explodes.
- Points must be given to Major Duvall for going out in style, as well as completing his objective as he does so, comparable to Norris Packard's own awesome death.
- Master Asia could solo the Gundam universe.
- Bright Noa: slapping wimps and turning them into MEN OF DESTINY since UC 0060.
- Don't forget this man is responsible for making Shinji Ikari a Badass, and has killed the Angels! This man is Madeof Win, dammit! He's also proven himself to be so awesome a battle commander, forces from over 50 different mecha anime have been willing to concede to his authority. Again, this guy is Madeof Win!
- Ali Al Saachez of Gundam 00 is quite popular, and egregiously so. Some fans adore seeing him for not what he is, but what they have turned him into, and it has affected some people's views on the plot. (Usually positive) A particular trait is his abnormally high survival rate and "high score" on main character kill counts, both on and off screen. After all, "Prince Ali, mighty is he!"
- Ramba Ral actually got a shoutout within the Gundam SEED universe! I think that definitely qualifies.
- Lacus Clyne will take over the universe with a smile, her songs, and her army of Haros! She does. As the leaderess of the PLANTs, that is.
- There is a joke among Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fans that anyone who puts on Kamina's orange sunglasses will suddenly become incredibly manly.
- When Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is formed, Simon's regular glasses transform into Kamina's glasses for a moment, but Simon realized he couldn't quite pull it off, so he transformed them even further.
- Of course, most statements about Kamina himself can not be exaggerations, because the universe he lives is run by the Rule Of Cool, and the Humongous Mecha are powered by Hot Blood.
- Most people who cite Kamina as being the ultimate badass seem to forget that the show makes it clear that from the beginning, he could not accomplish anything without Simon's help, and that by the end Simon had far surpassed him. Even his ghost admits that.
- Ironic subversion: Lord Genome is as powerful as many Memetic Badasses have been made out to be (I mean for Chrissake, he's stronger than his own mech). While he maintains a cult following thanks to his rugged good looks and shirtlessness, he rarely sees the same treatment other characters do.
- Keep in mind that Lord Genome wound up spending half the series as a head in a jar, Futurama-style. It's hard to think of someone as a badass when they do something like that.
- In a similar vein to Kamina's sunglasses, it's agreed that adding Go Nagai's trademark fiery sideburns and eyebrows to a character will make them more manly and/or Hot Blooded. Observe [1]◊. This has even become a part of the industry itself, with tribute characters such as Gai Daigoji and Meito Anisawa sporting a pair of impressive 'chops.
- Exodia from Yu-Gi-Oh, noted as the only being capable of frightening Anonymous.
- Rex Godwin from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds is quickly headed in this direction on the online game Duel Monsters Unlimited following the first twenty seconds of this vid.
- Jack Atlas from the same series gets a lot of this, too, to the point where it is said he demands his name be written JACK ATLAS.
- Makoto from School Days is dubbed Man-koto and jokingly worshiped on a certain image board for attracting and banging pretty much anything female in the cast without hesitation or mercy. If you count the games, this includes the mothers, sisters, and several threesomes. He doesn't get away with this in the end and is hardly an admirable character, but that's why this is Memetic Badass.
- Fanon commonly elevates Gendo Ikari from The Chessmaster to literally omniscient, because, hell, he might as well be.
- Naruto: Due in large part to him starting a chain of events that ultimately caused Sasuke to defect from Konoha by letting it slip that Itachi came by, thus bringing the story to where it is now, Aoba Yamashiro has been hailed as a Bad Ass Spanner In The Works or Chess Master by the fans. Recently, his legend grew when he showed up again with a team of reinforcements after two major villains succeeded in killing a major secondary character. The villains were ordered to retreat shortly thereafter, but that didn't stop the fans from claiming that they had, in reality, ran in terror at the sight of Aoba and his Murder of Crows no Jutsu.
- For a time on GameFAQs, a running joke on the Naruto boards claimed that the strongest person in the manga was Iruka Umino. The man who did little more than get hit in the spine with a giant shuriken. Ironically, this is one of the reasons fans cite as him being near immortal, as well as claiming that he possess the Rinnegan and can dual-wield two BF Zabuza swords, which are memetically mutated into insanely powerful weapons of mass destruction which "cannot be beat" (based on an ad for a toy of one which accomplished the feet of tearing rice paper)
- Einstein's original theory of relativity said: If Might Guy kicks you, your relatives will feel it.
- It is all part of Shikamaru's plan. ALL of it.
- And then there's GARuto...
- Speed Racer: Inspector Detector is a demon on foot. And he's insane.
- Fictional example: Much of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex is about Laughing Man imitators. His already godlike hacking abilities are exaggerated by the media and greedy corporations.
- Takamachi Nanoha in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: mostly justified, though her tendency to shoot first (because magic damage can't kill people) extended by fans into outright battle lust to befriend people through maximum firepower rather than a last resort.
- Sir Jeremiah Gottwald is THE ULTIMATE SYMBOL OF CHIVALRY AND LOYALTY.
- Suzaku Kururugi. In-show, he does boast some pretty impressive Charles Atlas Superpower, but the fandom has raised him to the point where his "Spinzaku" alter-ego can throw down in Vacuum Hurricane Kick with Chuck Norris and at least draw.
- Kyoshiro Tohdoh has also become one among certain segments of the English-speaking fandom, credited with such abilities as shooting lasers out of his eyes and consuming human souls through eye contact.
- The fact that Tohdoh's English voice actor is Steve Blum (considered the English equivalent of Norio Wakamoto on this very wiki for a reason) may be a contributing factor.
- Clovis la Britannia and Rivalz Cardemonde have both qualified, thanks to a plethora of So Bad Its Good Fanfictions that were spawned on a certain image board. Some of the sheer badassitude attributed to Clovis in certain fanfics has to be read to be believed. Clovis remained extremely popular among certain fans throughout the series run, despite having bit in within three episodes. His popularity may have contributed to him being mentioned and referenced throughout the first series and into R2.
- Although possibly a localized example, Mr. Popo from Dragon Ball Z became this on the Game FA Qs board devoted to the series. The origin of this is a filler scene where he manages to catch the punches of Super Saiyans Trunks and Goten, despite being far, far less powerful than them. So many topics were made asking how he could do this, that eventually the posters just ran with it.
- This may have been encouraged by Dragon Ball Abridged, whose version of Mr. Popo is... massively over-the-top, prone to random acts of cruelty, and hilarious.
- Enjoy the climb back up, BITCH!
- Don't forget one random farmer who tried to fight Raditz with a shotgun and promptly gets blown up. For some reasons, this character became known as "Farmer With A Shotgun" and generates rumor that he is hellishly powerful, even more powerful than Goku, that he could even beat up Cell or Majin Buu for good.
- "Should I return home, my report will be, ‘I have met the greatest man in the multiverse and his name is Keiichi Morisato, and we should be humbled to know his name.’ That is all that needs to be said."
- "ALL HAIL PRUSSIA! PRAISE HIM! ON YOUR KNEES!"
- Inspector Lunge can and would handcuff himself to Cuthulu.
- SON FRIGGIN GOKU
- GARY MOTHERFUCKING OAK
- ... was here, Ash is a loser.
- FUCK YEAH SEAKING
- Thanks to his infamous and vastly parodied catchphrase, Kenshiro regularly wanders into meme battles from out of nowhere. Which, ironically, is how every single non-essential story in the HnK universe starts out. One particular example had him challenge and utterly destroy a near-hundred person band of marauding raiders who had recently ravaged a small township he had passed through. He simply stood in the way of the only exit from the cavern, and stated any who made it past would be granted amnesty and live past this day. Yeah, no surprises what happens next.
- THIS PRACTICE OF BADASSERY HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN THROUGH THE ARMSTRONG FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS!!!
- Neville Longbottom uses Nagini's blood as soy sauce.
- Molly Weasley can kick your ass and still have time to bake a pie.
Bitch.
- Levels of Victor Cachat worship on Honorverse page make him one of the TV Tropes-specific examples.
- When Baba Yaga crossed over from Russian fairy tales into Western fiction she went from an old witch frequently bested by little boys and flocks of swans to the most powerful magician in the world, able to stand up to gods themselves.
- Vimes is considered this in-universe. People will line up to almost certain death instead of risking him using sarcasm on them. Also see the quote on Heroic Willpower about him.
- That's nothing. When he was sent away as a diplomat in The Fifth Elephant, leaving the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in absolute chaos with an incompetent leader. Despite this, the crime rate of the city decreased. Why? Because Vimes won't be away forever. And when he returns, he will not be happy. "And when Commander Vimes is unhappy, he tends to spread it around with a big shovel."
Real Life
- Depending on which you like more, Garry Kasparov or Bobby Fischer.
- Vishwanathan Anand PWNS them both...
- Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux) is a Memetic Geek/Nerd Badass. No, seriously.
- The Internet has concluded some time ago that David Bowie's crotch (officially titled "The Area") has replaced Azathoth as the Center of The Universe, and encompasses all of reality. It is also the primary source of Bowie's mindblowing powers of awesome.
- At fan conventions, there's often a man on the staff known as a "troubleshooter". This job amounts to running around the entire convention all weekend, attending to every single crazy problem that pops up. Those that do this often become Memetic Badasses in their local area/city/state/etc, and rightfully so.
- Michael Phelps is heading in this direction, as a side effect of winning eight gold medals at one Olympics and becoming the winningest Olympian of all time.
- Norio Wakamoto. Adding him into any production practically guarantees its success, as well as making any character he plays instantly awesome/badass who will chew the scenery up. Even a freaking cat.
- How could anyone overlook Akio Otsuka, merely the voice actor for the Japanese Metal Gear Solid series? And Black Jack? Does Batou ring any bells? Or Anavel GAAAAAAATOOOOOOOO? Not to mention dozens of dubbed movies. Look, it'd be easier just to list the voice roles he hasn't done.
- And this troper pushes for Nobuyuki Hiyama. Link? Joe Higashi?? Viral?? GUY?!? Damned if he doesn't deserve respect.
- Theodore Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson said of him, "Death had to take him in his sleep, for if he was awake there'd have been a fight," and he meant it in all seriousness.
- Simo Häyhä is generally considered the greatest killing machine in the history of the human race. The scary part is that this is entirely justified. He's estimated to have killed over an average of 7 Russian soldiers every day until he was shot in the face by a high-powered rifle in the last week of the war. Simo Häyhä survived because he's Simo Häyhä. The reason Finland lost in their second war with Russia? Häyhä didn't fight in it.
- Also, his retirement consisted of killing moose. Yes. That was after his face had been ripped apart by a sniper's bullet.
- An EXPLODING sniper bullet, as stated by some sources.
- He also put the fear of winter into the Russians. Those same guys who put the fear of winter into everybody else.
- Also on the WW 2 front, Otto Skorzeny, due less to his real life accomplishments, standard military Badass Normal though they may be, and more to embellishments using comic book and movie portrayals as being equally historically accurate, on Norris-y themed history threads. The scars certainly didn't hurt the manliness factor none. On the strategic side, Manstein and Patton also receive this treatment, while Russians are depicted as wishing to be this, but also fearing Stalin's reputed paranoia and deciding costly Pyhrric victory and near-failure is a better option than being assassinated for appearing more competent than the Iron Man of Russia. Strangely, America's chief badass Audie Murphy gets little recognition in these sorts of contests, likely due to the fact he had nothing to promote, and felt no moral obligation to uphold his achievements like Lindburgh, preferring to fade away once the requisite movie was over and done with.
- Samuel L. MOTHERFUCKING Jackson.
- "'If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight.' Sun Tzu said that, and I'd say he knows a little bit more about fighting than you do, pal, because he invented it!"
- Then again, the man saying that isn't exactly known for accuracy... "And then he perfected it so that no living man could best him in the ring of honor! Then he used used his fightmoney to buy two of every animal on Earth, and then he herded them onto a boat, and then he beat the crap out of every single one! And from that on, whenever there's a bunch of animals together in one place IT'S CALLED A TZU!
- In A World .... where movie studios .... spend hundreds of millions on special effects .... but forty-five cents on a script .... one man .... must generate hype .... and keep the viewers coming back .... He was.... Don LaFontaine .
- Duct tape. Yeah, duct tape. What can it not do?! If duct tape didn't exist, the world would have fallen apart already. It has a light side, and a dark side, and it binds the universe together.
- Don't forget duct tape's greatest advocate: Red Green. It's the handyman's secret weapon.
- Let us not forget the yang to duct tape's yin: WD-40. As a good friend of this troper says: "All things can be fixed with either duct tape or WD-40; if it moves and it shouldn't, duct tape; if it doesn't move and it should, WD-40."
- Yoshiyuki Tomino. For a Real Life person to be chosen as illustration of Kill Em All trope... is really something.
- Should World War 3 happen, and the world be engulfed in nuclear fire, only two living things would remain in the aftermath: cockroaches, and Keith Richards.
- Then again, he survived the meteors, the Ice Age, the Black Death...
- No Cher or Joan "I Can't Feel My Face!" Rivers?
- Unlike Optimus Prime below, Jesus never blasted Roman soldiers with an ion rifle or demonstrated an ability to turn into an awesome truck... but he totally ''could'' have if he wanted to.
- James Lipton
- The NPH
- Indians are the very incarnations of awesomeness...
- A normal, everyday pilot and aviation safety expert is so cool under pressure, he lands an Airbus A320 with 155 passengers aboard in the Hudson River in such a manner that emergency teams were able to save every single person on the plane. This troper is very disappointed in the Internet for not yet coming up with a list of Chuck Norris-esque facts for Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III. He's receiving plenty of attention in national media, though, and has plenty of Facebook fan clubs. It's only a matter of time.
- The Internet bows its head in shame; nothing we can ever make up will be as awesome as what he already did.
- Oscar Wilde, at least on Uncyclopedia.
- Uncyclopedia also reports that Steve Ballmer wants to FUCKING KILL nearly everything. He is now the leading cause of death in the United States.
- By all accounts, Charles Lindbergh suffered through the 1920s version of this after his 1927 solo flight from New York to Paris. Facing cheering crowds and nosy reporters wherever he went, Lindbergh became more and more withdrawn, despite using his fame to promote commercial aviation.
- US Congressman and Frontiersman David "Davey" Crockett in his own time as well as today. Famed for doing any number of things, including catching, killing and skinning a bear at the age of three.
- Ernest Hemmingway is the greatest explorer that ever lived.
- Gackt; he does not feel the fiyah. The fiyah feels Gackt. No, seriously. This is a man who has, at most 10% body fat, although its usually closer to 7%. He runs on two to three hours of sleep a night, trains several hours a day, and can pull his legs apart more than 180 degrees. Has a dojo in his house, has played the most badass warlord ever (Uesugi Kenshin), is the inspiration for countless anime and manga characters, and his image or name is found in at least six games. He is actually a vampire, who can walk around in the daytime because the Sun is scared shitless of him.
- Gackt vs Demon Kogure. Will the universe survive to see the winner, or will it be Superboy Prime all over again?
- Velociraptors were small, probably somewhat intelligent carnivorous dinosaurs from Mongolia that would seem unremarkable compared to their larger cousins. However, largely due to Jurassic Park labeling its oversized, hyperintelligent killing machines "Velociraptor" due to a naming mistake (and the Ruleof Cool) and to a lesser extent, a running gag in xkcd, has firmly established them on the same level as the Zombie Apocalypse in terms of things to be feared.
- Of course, there's also the fact that when your garden-variety fascist enforcer can't find a T-rex to ride, they'll default to these bad boys, as opposed to heroic characters who favour large jungle cats. (He-Man, the Norsemen with Japanese samurai voices in Thundercats, Siegfried and Roy, to name a few)
- In academic circles, Slavoj Zizek. He lives on a giant whiteboard in the centre of time and space.
- Dan Green's voice.
- For that matter, George Zimmer's 50-pack-a-day voice and confident look inspired a whole series of paragraphs written in the first person (usually in all caps) mostly emphasizing his... uh... virility. Every single one of them, like his ads, end in the phrase "I guarantee it."
- Oddly enough, the General Motors EMD F40PH◊ locomotive has reached this status by force of being posted by furry bashers as a "furry killer". Case in point: a supersonic F40PH◊.
- Morgan Freeman has reached the status of Memetic Father Figure via his soothing voice and tendancy to play God. The latter has also sparked people simply referring to him as God.
Comic Books
- Batman has famously said to be able to beat anyone with enough "Prep Time."
- With the possible exception of Doctor Doom, depending on the fan.
- And he can breathe in space.
- Sadly, many fans aren't joking when they say this.
- In the Marvel vs. DC Crisis Crossover, Batman said that if he fought Captain America, the fight would go either way. Therefore Batman's badassitude equals Captain America's.
- Except that Cap has never been known as "Captain Goddamn America" (except maybe in Ultimate Marvel).
- Wolverine is the best at what he does. And what he does isn't very nice.
- And what he does...is so terribly pretty!
- Only by having power over adamantium (Magneto) can you really stop Wolverine for a long while, which reminds him why he hangs out with the X-Men at all... it's to gain even more badass aura without having to every kill villain once the villain's stamina runs out and Wolverine's regeneration doesn't!
- Captain America is on this page for roughly the same reasons as Batman. Despite being only a normal human superhero in peak condition, the Cap has gone on to defeat villains and heroes alike whose strength, speed, and powers greatly exceed his own. He's able to battle toe-to-toe with the Hulk and in the Ultimates comic, he defeated an enormous Giant Man with his bare hands(just to name a few examples). Captain America's feats, much like Batman's, can either be seen as the very peak of badass and cool, or over-the-top bad writing that borders on God Moding and writer bias.
- During the Nineties, there was a period where Cap was missing and presumed dead, and a bystander asked the other Avengers what was so great about Cap. Hercules replied that in Olympus, they consider Zeus to be the paragon of wisdom, Hermes for speed, but they measure courage... by Captain America.
- Karate Kid is the Memetic Badass of the thirtieth century.
- Sgt. Frank Rock is more badass than Batman. Seriously, there was voting and everything.
- Squirrel Girl. That is all.
- Pick a comic character, pick any comic character, even some cosmic super teams, against Squirrel Girl, and Squirrel Girl will be the accepted winner. Unicron and Galactus versus Squirrel Girl? Squirrel Girl.
- Squirrel Girl versus Squirrel Girl? Universe implodes. And then Squirrel Girl wins.
- On some debate forums May Parker and Ma Kent are sometimes referred to as the most powerful beings in their respective universes on the argument that their power has never shown an upper limit. This is usually brought up when someone Fails Logic Forever during a a debate.
- The Midnighter is a literal version of this. His superpower is that he doesn't lose fights. ever. Seriously, Midnighter wins every fight, whether he's actually in it or not.
- Give Paco an opponent and a stick to beat them with and he will fuck their shit up. Anyone, ever.
- Rorschach once ate an entire seven-layer cake all by himself, then killed the stripper inside for being a whore. Add many more to that effect, usually involving breaking some specific number fingers and killing dogs.
- Alfred is generally considered the only being capable of pwning Batman in-universe, as his Servile Snarker and Team Mom.
Western Animation
- An example from this can be seen in the South Park movie, where the kids say that professional ice-skater Brian Boitano won a gold medal while blind-folded, fought a grizzly bear with fire-breath, traveled into the year 3010 to save the earth from the evil Robot King, and built the pyramids while beating up Kublai Khan.
- In case of life imitating art, Brian Boitano actually does skate to "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" on occasion.
- Avatar fandom gets this with two characters. Toph, who is not blind, but merely incapable of seeing anyone less awesome than she is, and Iroh, who was not pulling himself up while training in prison, he was pushing the Fire Nation down.
- Three characters, if you include the incredible paragon of manliness that is Wang Fire. Don't you even dare suggest that he is the bearded alter ego of Sokka.
- Which is acknowledged in a mini-comic about Sokka infiltrating the Fire Nation military using that name. It ended with him pretending to be killed while taking out a waterbender and earthbender, and being remembered as a hero.
- Sokka himself often has fans exaggerate his intelligence from "competent strategist and inventor" to "rivals Ozymandias."
- From a single screenshot from "The Invasion", featuring Katara with an oddly disquieting look on her face where she seems to be staring directly at the camera, there has arisen "Creepy Katara". Apparently, it is impossible to look at her for very long without being creeped out. And she is everywhere. (Not surprisingly, she's also about two turns from Memetic Molester.)
- Gaston from Beauty And The Beast. Because no one fights like Gaston, and no one hunts like Gaston, etc.
- In a spitting match nobody spits like Gaston!
- He's especially good at expectorating.
- My what a guy that Gaston!
- Lampshaded in a House Of Mouse episode where they have a Running Gag of him butting in on other characters' conversations to say "No one [does what you're talking about] like Gaston!" (Actually, I think that episode might have been the inspiration for Gaston's meme.)
- Dr. Robotnik and his Pingas (it's OVER NINE THOUSAAAND!)
- Jenny Jones from Batman The Brave And The Bold, a girl that once callously told Red Tornado he had no feelings. This was escalated by /co/ from being a complete brat to a Creepy Child that says horrible and nihilistic personal insults to a Nigh Invulnerable Ultimate Evil which survived, among other things, being raped by Pedobear, being shot at by Kung Fu Jesus, a blast by Darkseid's Omega Sanction (which missed her because she was too small of a target), the Falcon Punch, The Power Of Love, and assault by the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, having her lines of death cut, the efforts of the entire Green Lantern core, and even a Chaos Dunk. This is because she is the daughter of the Anti-Spiral. Somewhat subverted in that, while she has completely Immortality, she never really does anything to anyone except make very cruel insults while smiling.
- Samuel L Jackson and any character played by him. Mace Windu getting killed by the Sith proved that Star Wars was pure fantasy, because nobody could kill Samuel L. Jackson in any realistic situation.
Mace Windu: "I have HAD IT with these motherfucking SITH on this motherfucking PLANET."
- Yoda. Greater Jedi than Mace Windu he is. Greater Jedi than all others combined, times Mace Windu squared, he is. Muppet he is. Boo-yah.
- Boba Fett went out like a punk on screen, taken out by a blind man and a pole. But he looked so gosh-damn mysterious in his cool body armour that fans assumed that he must in all essences be the Galaxy Far, Far Away's version of Batman. And so, in the Expanded Universe, that is indeed what he became. As of now, he is in his
eighties seventies and dying of recovering from a terminal illness, but still manages to beat the stuffing out of anyone who gets in his way. Parodied heavily in Robot Chicken's Star Wars specials, in which he's more of a Ted Baxter.
- The version of Van Helsing of the self-titled movie — at least in Tycho's book.
- Captain Nascimento from the Brazilian movie Tropa de Elite (a.k.a. The Elite Squad). When Bruce Banner gets mad, he becomes The Hulk. When Hulk gets mad, he becomes Capt. Nascimento.
- All of this may be true, but nobody fucks with the Jesus.
- Tony Stark can build anything - in a cave! With a box of scraps!
- The Bank Manager in the opening scene of The Dark Knight didn't grab a shotgun and start blowing away the Joker's gang away while screaming threats because he was a secret mafioso; he did it because William Fichtner is just that badass
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO YOU'RE STEALING FROM?! YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE *DEAD*!!"
- Oh, and that thing the Joker put in his mouth that turned out not to do anything? It was actually a bomb, and the Joker meant to kill him, but it chose not to explode for fear of Fichtner's inevitable wrath.
- Fledgling example: Captain Christopher Pike of Star Trek.
- Don't forget Captain Robau. The shields on the Kelvin don't keep enemy phasers out. They keep Captain Robau in.
- Bonecrusher hates this page and everyone on it. The only reason he hasn't ground the servers to dust and killed everyone who's ever edited the page is because it provides a handy list of people he needs to kill, and Bonecrusher hates to be unprepared.
- Lampshaded in Braveheart:
William Wallace: "Sons of Scotland! I am William Wallace."
Young Soldier: "William Wallace is seven feet tall! "
William Wallace: "Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds. And if HE were here, he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from his arse." [Scottish army laughs]
Video Games
- Nintendo's very hardware is virtually indestructible, as it is made of Nintendium, which is harder than diamond.
- The X-Box and Playstation 3 are so large, they are visible from orbit and warp gravity around their frames.
- F-Zero's Captain Falcon, amongst Nintendo fans. To be more specific, his Falcon Punch is said to match Chuck Norris' roundhouse kick, thanks to a YouTube video of a clip from the anime adaptation F-Zero: Falcon Densetsu that makes it look like it creates an explosion that can be seen from outside the galaxy.
- Arguably justified in the first Super Smash Bros., since Captain Falcon was one of if not the most dominating characters in the game, and in the right hands could be absolutely devastating against any other character, or even multiple characters at once. So much so that he was greatly de-powered in the sequels, reducing him to merely a formidable opponent.
- Not quite; Falcon was strong but community consensus is that Pikachu, Kirby, and Ness are more effective. However, Falcon's memetic badassery is known to rub off on the players that use him. In particular, Isai has filled that role in the Melee scene.
- Wolf O'Donnell can't let you do that! He's sexy too, that everyone's gay for him!
- According to a disturbing number of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney fans, Damon Gant can and will rape anything. Others prefer to think of him as a more traditional Memetic Badass. That, and his stare will ravage your soul.
- The same sort of popularity has been applied to Manfred von Karma, Edgeworth's Control Freak mentor. Do not let him get within a foot of a taser.
- At the other end of the spectrum, a group of members from the Court Records forum has elevated Klavier Gavin to the status of a rock/sex god, complete with commandments. Said commandments (numbering 55 as of this edit) include paying to see Klavier shower and losing one's virginity simply by looking at him.
- More recently, there has been a push towards Luke Atmey getting this treatment. To wit, he is able to stop Manfred von Karma's soul-devouring gaze by hurling his Ace Detective badge directly into the prosecutor's face.
- Under no circumstances should anyone entertain the notion of pursuing Lu Bu.
- Blue Steel, an otherwise minor NPC hero character in City Of Heroes, has been used for so many offscreen Deus Ex Machina conclusions to superhero capture in villainous story arcs that he has gained a game-specific list of Chuck Norris-esque alleged accomplishments. It is even lampshaded by another NPC.
- He is also one of the very few NPC heroes that you are never given the chance to fight in the game, so there is no telling just how tough he really is.
- But with the new Shield Defence powerset added in the last update, we might get to see him in action (read: kick his ass) after all!
- Star Wars fans have, in addition to Mace Windu as played by the aforementioned Samuel L Jackson, Kyle Katarn. There was No Endor Holocaust because Katarn said so. The shockwaves from the explosion of the second Death Star knew to not screw with him.
- A joke idle animation showing him shaving with his saber elevated Kyle Katarn's beard to it's own, independent status as the toughest material in existence.
- TV Tropes's own Grand Unifying Guesses page makes Altaïr of Assassins Creed into the biggest Kill-Stealer in history.
- World Of Warcraft: High Overlord Saurfang, an NPC on the Horde side, characterized by his glowing equipment, ridiculously high critical attacks, and Badass Boast, is a target of this, to the extent that a massive list of Saurfang "Facts" exists. This Troper's favorite example: "Area-effect target caps were implemented after Saurfang used Cleave on Stormwind and it shattered Draenor."
- Amusingly, Word Of God apparently approved of this, and Saurfang is now a bona-fide Bad Ass as exhibited by his actions in Northrend.
- Also, Hogger.
- At the same time the Saurfang fad was really hitting its stride, the Alliance attempted to elevate Bolvar Fordragon to a similar memetic position. It never quite caught on.
- The Devilsaurs of Un'goro Crater also count, as any players who have suffered through their stealth Ninja attacks while leveling in that zone can attest. Seriously, a 50-foot tall dinosaur should not be able to sneak up on you like that!
- This can be used for all huge zone patrolling nasties in World of Warcraft. Everyone i know in that game has been ganked at least once by a Fel Reaver while in Hellfire Penisula.
- Yes, but in Hellfire Peninsula, the Horde and Alliance resistance could tell that the Fel Reaver coming by the extremely loud footsteps, and managed to fight it with relatively few casualties. The very next day, a Devilsaur stealthed through the Dark portal, and wiped out every Ally and Horde in the region.
- Your failure to mention Anduin Lothar from Warcraft one and two makes me angry.
- Sanger Zonvolt and Elzam von Branstein/Ratsel Feinschmecker of the Super Robot Wars games. The latter is for much the same reason as Char Aznable, with the added bonus of his theme song overwriting all others. The former may have a bit more truth to the claims, due to nearly destroying an impenetrable base from the outside while fighting himself from an alternate universe in some sort of Chuck Norris joke Gone Horribly Wrong.
- A Word Of God-approved version of this is Master Chief in Halo. In the original games, Master Chief was relatively slow and weak (at least compared to FPS heroes like the Doom guy, who can run at 60mph while carrying a metric ton of equipment and can soak up hundreds of bullet hits before dying), with only his regenerating energy shield allowing the player to make it through a level long after the standard allied Mooks have all perished. In the novels based on the Halo universe, Master Chief and all his fellow SPARTANs have been drastically upgraded to Space Marine level Super Soldiers who see in bullet-time, can punch out Powered Armor while naked, can run at vehicular highway speeds, can flip armored jeeps over with their hands, and can soak bucketloads of small-arms fire without much concern.
- His Memetic Badassness has carried over to fansites as well, as eh kills aleins and doesn't afraid of anything.
- If you want to go strictly by game mechanics, then his standard allied Mooks have energy shields too. And flip tanks without touching them.
- And some of that power increase is formalized into Halo 3, where Master Chief is now superhumanly athletic — able to outrun or outjump the friendly NPCs by quite a wide margin — and is strong enough to tear turrets from their moorings and carry them around with him.
- Sgt. Johnson has more or less the same amount Memetic Badass as the chief. Same could be argued for the other Spartans Fred, and Linda. But this is controversial for some lame reason.
- Admiral Dane from Metroid Prime 3. Impressive, since he shares a universe with a woman that has (to date) blown up three planets, one which was a sentient parasite, and caused the near extinction of at least two major-threat species.
- Samus Aran needs no fandom to exaggerate her badassery. She is the intergalactic Queen of Badass.
- Besides, Dane's too manly to wear a helmet or filtration system while landing on the Space Pirate Homeworld to order Samus around. Note that no pirates have the balls to even try to snipe him during the briefing.
- That, and he does so on a planet ravaged by rain so acidic that even Samus has to use a special widget to survive. What does he use as an umbrella? His own personal flagship.
- Segata Sanshiro, the "mascot" for the Sega Saturn, though he was portrayed this way in the ads even before the Internet got to them. Really, how else can you describe a man who threw one person into another, causing both to explode?! The fact that he's played by Rider-1's actor just adds to the badassery.
- It took a nuke aimed at SEGA HQ to get him off the planet. He wasn't affected by the vacuum of space, and the explosion tossed him to another galaxy where he's too busy introducing the natives to the Saturn to come back to Earth.
- He resurfaced briefly in 2008 in person, advertising the Rambo game of the fourth film, with a much younger girl by his side.
- Gaenor, from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind has recently become a Memetic Badass among the community, as seen here. Interestingly, he's also The Scrappy...
- No, the Scrappy is Fargoth, Gaenor was the devolopers answer to Fargoth haters
- In the Dwarf Fortress forums, Captain Ironblood from Nist Akath (A Community Fortress, which is kinda-sorta-not-really a fanfiction).
- Gilgamesh in Final Fantasy V. An entertaining, Affably Evil Dragon at best? Not to his fans! He's the ultimate Badass of the FF series, and nobody should dare suggest he's a cowardly boastful goofball who brags about his abilities and flees at the drop of a hat.
- It's his theme song.
- And the fact that he's pretty much the only character to show up in more than one FF (all the other cameos are just alternate iterations).
- People shouldn't have been surprised that Link, Cloud, and Snake lost the way they did during The Great GameFAQs Character Battle of 2007. After all, the L-Block is shaped like a boot to kick your ass!
- Devil May Cry's Dante. Badass mutha 101. Wrote the book "My Life As A Badass With A Cool Jacket". Invented the line, "I'm too cool for stairs!"
- Simon Belmont, who can cause Galamoth to run away like a wuss. He once appeared on the cover of Nintendo Power magazine, waving around the severed head of Dracula.
- This thread on the GameFAQs Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles board started off as a questioning of why Richter Belmont is so "average." Eventually, it turned into a pages-long thread about Richter's awesomeness that would go on to hit the capacity of 500 posts.
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has a faceless, nameless NPC that the fandom calls the 3-13 Archer. Has been called the best character in the game. Has had fanfics devoted to him. Is known for having had entire strategies revolving around him.
- Statistically, he is considerably worse than your player characters, being only midway through his second tier, with average stats at best for said tier. This does not explain how he manages to instantly kill a tiger laguz every turn whilst taking no damage. It is the great mystery of Radiant Dawn.
- 'This is a message from Lord Nergal. "I await you on the Dread Isle." This is a message from Lord Nergal. "I await you on the Dread Isle." This is...' ...the most badass character in all of Blazing Blade, according to the fandom.
- There was a green-armoured Redshirt who appeared in the first stage of Mega Man X 2 and exploded in the game's opening. Nevertheless, the Green Biker Dude, as he became nicknamed, has gained something of a reputation.
- NO ZOMBIE IS SAFE FROM CHICAGO TED.
- I have a Steam friend by the name of Chicago Ted. When I met him, he mentioned something about getting bored of Left 4 Dead...
- Kratos, Villain Protagonist of the God Of War series. Given that he fought his way out of Hell on three separate occasions, and killed the Three Fates, even after they decided he wouldn't, it's entirely justified.
- Pit, Kid Icarus himself, did it seventeen years before him, though.
- Duke Nukem. Heck, his character is supposed to be seen as a Memetic Badass.
- Gaia Online has, in its 'casual' MMO zOMG, the Bonus Boss Landshark. Players roughly describe it as "what would happen if Chuck Norris used a CL 10 Shark Attack ring at RR 4".
- M. Bison from Street Fighter. So awesome and evil that he has done a lot of evil, Badass stunts, only to forget them, because for him... it was Tuesday. A role model for everyone who wants to, you guessed it, Take Over The World.
- According to TV Tropes, Kirby: he will destroy entire armies for a piece of cake and regularly kill Eldritch Abominations. Do not fuck with Kirby, for he is hardcore (IN AMERICA!)
- For that matter, many have described the Waddle Dee from Kirby Super Star's Arena as the most powerful boss in the entire game, in spite of the fact that his sole distinguishing trait is an unusually large amount of health for a Waddle Dee (though Kirby can still inhale him).
- The DS remake gave Waddle Dee a bandana and made him a secondary character in one of the storylines. FEAR THE BANDANA DEE!
- On Game FA Qs, it seems Captain MacMillan of Call of Duty 4 and Sergeant Reznov of Call of Duty: World at War are Memetic Badasses, the former despite being present for two missions, spending half the second one with a leg injury. This troper is genuinely surprised Captain Price in all his porn-stache glory isn't one.
- Captain Price isn't a Memetic Badass, he's a canonical Badass. As for MacMillan, spending half of the mission with a leg injury just makes it more badass that he still lays down covering fire for you.
- The same goes for Reznov, seeing as he not only survived and fought his hardest all the way from Stalingrad to Berlin, but did it with half a trigger finger. All of his deliciously sadistic dialogue and his saving Petrenko (the player character) at the very end of the last mission certainly helped, too. Hell, he even has an article on Uncyclopedia that calls him the "alpha male of the human race"!
- The same website has an article on the Red Shirt Carmine from Gears Of War. To best sum up their opinion of him, their link to a more professional version of the article is God on That Other Wiki.
- Auron: Square's own Uncle Iroh with a bigass sword. He knows exactly what Xanatos has planned, killing him does nothing to stop him, he mocks the god of death, and Hercules only survived a fight with him because Auron allowed him to.
- Hades is the god of the dead, not the god of death. Doesn't make Auron any less badass, though.
- The Tails Doll of Sonic R infamy.
- Taban is the true mastermind behind everything!
- Sephiroth, to the point that the exaggerations are becoming canon in spin-offs.
- In the genre of sports games, there has never been, or never will be, a greater athlete than Tecmo Bowl's Bo Jackson.
- SAXTON HALE. If you're not satisfied with his fine line of spy articles, you can take it up with him!
- A piece of fan art for Narbonic made the distinctly non-Bad Ass Dave Davenport out like Bruce Willis. The non-canonical Sunday comics, which were used to have the characters show off fan art, fan fiction, and side stories, meant Dave got to directly see himself rendered as a Bad Ass, began demanding the comic change artists, and gave him a (somewhat implied, but outright mentioned once) canonical man-crush on Willis. Coincidentally, the comic's artist eventually married this fan artist. And Dave ultimately went on to become amazingly Bad Ass in a completely different, somewhat nerdy way.
- O-Chul from The Order Of The Stick has become one of these, along with a list of "O-Chul facts". To be fair, he did survive being tossed into a spiked tank with an acid-breathing shark in it, and (off-screen) won a staring contest against a basilisk...
- "Survive"? More accurately, he was tied up when thrown in, cut the ropes on the spike, punched the teeth out of the shark, was carried out of the tank by shark bite, and had enough hit points remaining to attack the evil mastermind.
- This troper has summarized the phenomenon by stating that "O-Chul is Chuck Norris' character."
- Also "That Guy With A Halberd", a nameless Red Shirt type from the battle for Azure City who got his own fan thread in the forums as a social experiment and is rapidly growing to Memetic Badass status.
- V's Mate can beat anyone just by using a pointy stick.
- Something Positive had this strip featuring Alan Moore that portrayed him as one of these.
- In the universe of Girl Genius, the Heterodyne Boys are indubitably Memetic Badasses. In the fandom, it's probably Baron Klaus Wulfenbach. Who conquered Europe in a matter of months - uphill - both ways - in a zeppelin castle - with a lollipop-sucking baby on his back.
- Doris, with one appearance as of this writing, has become this in the forums for Misfile.
- The Gunnerkrigg Court forums have Boxbot as sort of an anti-badass ("Boxbot's terrible"), to the point where he features heavily in Remix Comics. Similarly his "competent" counterpart, Robox, is a more classic Memetic Badass. As is Mr. Thorn (and his beard, not that they don't deserve it in this case), the previous BFS wielding Dragon Slayer/Gym Teacher.
- Jane. Freakin'. Goodall.
Tabletop Games
- Some Warhammer 40000 fans make Commissar Yarrick out to be the series' answer to Chuck Norris. Two of their claims:
- The God-Emperor of Mankind is merely warming Yarrick's seat.
- The Tyranid extra-galactic Horde Of Alien Locusts encroaching on human-controlled space was a set of splinter groups fleeing from Yarrick's own extra-galactic adventuring, which had previously destroyed the majority of their forces. Or, should they say, "fleeing".
- Within the W40K 'verse itself, we also have Commissar Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, whose reputation for heroism has grown to the point that one Imperial cult has actually proclaimed him "a physical manifestation of the God-Emperor's Will". Of course, because Cain is an Accidental Hero who is actually a Dirty Coward, the whole thing is played for laughs.
- The Oot S forum is attempting to turn Eldrad Ulthran into the man who caused everything in the universe, along the lines of "God created Earth, Chuck Norris created God, Rick Wakeman composed Chuck Norris, and Eldrad Ulthran gave Rick piano lessons."
- Sounds more like a memetic dick to me.
- Because there isn't a memetic niceguy trope, Kharn is one heck of a guy.
- And he's the new commissar, after all.
- And we can't forget the Tactical Genius of CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!
- Bliss Stage: Keenan Caine once got his Anchor pregnant just by kissing her.
- Exalted's Michael Goodwin, aka Nephilpal, is the true designer of the system, who died in the First Age but will return to save us all from crappy quality control.
- Also from Exalted: the Mirror Flag. The greatest liar in Creation. She canonically rewrote her own history because it wasn't epic enough for her. Less canonically, everyone in Creation is the Mirror Flag in disguise and doesn't know it.
- Steve Kenson rolls twenties.
- Doctor Kromm, the line editor of GURPS, has a cult following.[2]
- Many, many people in Legend Of The Five Rings, but the greatest of them is Toku. Following his elevation to memetic baddass-hood, he was elevated by the tournament wins (which determine storyline in L 5 R) to canon badass. Originally a peasant acting as a samurai, Toku ended up becoming a recognized samurai, hero of two wars, captain of the Imperial Guard, founder of his own clan, Empire-renowned legal and moral authority, and, posthumously, a god. All of this because people thought a free, unaligned character designed to be fed to demons was pretty funny.
Web Sites
- Badass of the Week is a whole website devoted to profiling historical and fictional bad-asses, from Erwin Rommel to Ash Williams. They've even covered beef jerky, the B-2 Bomber, the country of Australia, and This Huge-Ass Beetle.
- An in-joke among lonelygirl15 fans is to speculate that the Purple Monkey is an immortal being responsible for every plot twist in the series.
- Most Internet forums have a tendency to make out their Admins and Moderators into this very thing if they're around for any solid stretch of time (see also Forum Pecking Order).
- Survival of the Fittest has this in the form of V3's Bobby Jacks, who after scoring a headshot on another student while his back was turned, was named 'Bocelot' (a reference to Revolver Ocelot) by other handlers, who joked about him killing other students with triple ricochet shots, scoring headshots from halfway across the island, and even firing his gun and killing a student in V4 a year later.
- Furthermore: Nobody killed Bocelot. He just got bored.
- John Rizzolo is just your average player, except a little more cunning and a lot more sadistic. THE RIZ!, however, is so entirely badass that he creates cliffs from nowhere and drop kicks anyone he wants off of them. His Rizzlefandom on the SotF Rizwebsite has gotten to the point where Rizzlehandlers, often discussing entirely unRizrelated things, will add 'Rizzle' or 'Riz' to their words.
- On a Lesser Note Lance Vanguard and Zack Dynamite, two rejected names for Characters in v4.
- Dr. Tran has a PhD in KICKING YOUR ASS!
- You gotta hack teh gibbson if you are anything like a 1337 hax0r.
- Wands don't kill people. Jason Frost kills people.
Card Games
- In Magic The Gathering has (or had, the fad has mostly passed now) Tarmogoyf Facts, based on the rather overpowered creature Tarmogoyf.
- Fans of the Universal Fighting System collectable card game have elevated players to such levels.
- Matt "Matt Khols" Khols, the only man badass enough to have his whole name be his nickname.
- Alternatly, Scott "Scott Gaines" Gaines, the master of orange card-blue card.
- James Hata, former US and World Champion and new designer for Fantasy Flight Games (the game's producer) is regarded by some as God.
- Shape Snatch in Yu Gi Oh. Look at it and despair at its horrible power!
Other
- According to hbi2k, Rex Griswold is our true overlord.
- God created Earth. Chuck Norris created God. Rick Wakeman composed Chuck Norris while drunk out of his skull. His website has a number of good Rick Wakeman facts. (Got everyone in the studio to drink all day, barricaded the bathroom, then mic'd a echo chamber and got people to piss in it at the same time.)
- Of course, Don Francisco taught Rick Wakeman everything he knew...
- And Don Francisco was created because Earth Herself was bored...
- In Cardiff University graffiti started appearing on the desks a few years ago bearing the name Dan Towers. Who he was we had no idea, but the fact he had so much graffiti in several different people handwriting lead us to add our own such as "Dan Towers stole my sandwich." "Dan Towers got me pregnant just by looking at me" "Dan Towers is watching Big Brother watching you" and "Dan Towers is the Stig." In the end they had to re-furnish the lecture theater to kill the meme.
- At U Maine Farmington, there is a simple, unassuming Political Science teacher named Louis Sell. Louis Sell is a retired U.S. Diplomat who single handedly outed over 100 alleged Soviet spies(the Soviets maintain it was to neuter their basketball team). Louis Sell drove around the remains of the Soviet Union, granting political recognition to all of the successor states. Louis Sell has spent most of his life in countries that don't exist anymore. Louis Sell was once challenged to a drinking match with a member of the KGB, and won. Everything about him is larger than life. If you can think of something, Louis Sell has done it twice, in a different language.
- Cockroaches. They are renowned for being the ones to inherit the Earth if said Earth's ecosystem is destroyed by a nuclear bomb. Of course, it turns out that there are insects and bacteria that are even better than cockroaches at surviving nuclear radiation (and if cockroaches were the only things to survive what would they eat?), so why deinococcus radiodurans isn't the badass instead is beyond rational comprehension.
- Bikecat, Emperor of Japan!
- Gavin Gunhold.
- Bob Ross can paint anything as "happy and little", not just trees.
- Bob Ross can paint Universe. in the smallest frame.
- TV Tropes eats wikis at breakfast. And its WMG actually alters both canon and reality. In a really drastic way.
- John Cena
- Michael Angelo Batio. He plays a double guitar like it's nothing and not happy with that he lifts it over his head while playing both sides with one hand in each guitar neck. Did I mention that he's still way faster than your regular guitar player while doing that?
- Mantis shrimp, they can see your soul, then punch it to death...
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