The John Henry - Television Tropes & Idioms

A character who eschews the snazziest technological marvels to do a task when much simpler alternatives exist, and even uses said manual methods to defeat those who rely on technology too much.

The basic principle here is working on the audience's perception of man fighting machine. Generally speaking, the viewer wants to see man win, because if he doesn't, it sort of implies that we'll all be doomed come the robot revolution.

It's also a great slam against The Smart Guy, who way overthinks situations when a straightforward, hard-working approach that we were using back when the Good Old Ways were still in style. Extra bonus to the fact that usually, doing things the old-fashioned way is faster than the new ways, getting us to the action quicker.

This is Science Is Useless condensed into a character. A very similar trope is Rock Beats Laser, were in direct conflict the simpler technology is underestimated and comes out on top.

See Good Old Fisticuffs for a similar principle, only instead of technology being eschewed, it's martial arts. Related to Cutting The Knot.

Examples:

Comic Books

There are a surprisingly small number of (currently active) heroes in the Marvel Universe who have marksmanship as a superpower, and of those a grand total of two or three use trick projectiles in any fashion. Hawkeye was once able to beat Iron Man, of all heroes, by relying on arrows.
- Hawkeye (Multiple variants)
- Green Arrow
- Deadshot
- Speedy
- Bullseye
The Punisher is a mostly no-frills kinda guy, relying on his special forces training and ordinary military-grade weapons. Granted, in reali life, a special forces commando is nothing to sneeze at, but in a universe with the Hulk, the X-Men, Spider Man, Iron Man et al he's almost pedestrian.
Ironic Subversion. DC Comics' Steel is named John Henry Irons and he does use a big hammer, however he also relies heavily on an Iron Man-like suit of Power Armor which simulates many of Superman's own powers.

Film

Zorro does this in The Legend of Zorro. You gotta love a guy who uses a whip and a sword when nitroglycerine and advanced (relatively speaking) firearms are in the hands of all his enemies.
- There's a sort of subversion in the novel that started it all, Johnston Mc Culley's The Curse of Capistrano (later renamed The Mark of Zorro to cash in on the movie): In his first appearance Zorro brandishes a gun against guards armed only with swords. The guards even call him dishonorable for using a "devil's weapon."
National Treasure: Ben and Riley use all sorts of electronics to fool sensors and cameras, but Ian just brings lots of guys with guns and some C4.
In Rocky IV, the Russian boxer Drago is seen training with high-tech material while Rocky is seen training in nature, dragging heavy stuff in the snow, and so on.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Ewoks vs. Imperial Walkers. Teddy bears win. Full Stop.

Folk Lore

Named after John Henry from the classic folk tale. He was an African-American railroad worker who competed against an automatic stake driver in order for the workers of his company to keep their jobs. He succeeded, but died from the strain. Making this Older Than Radio.
- Appears in Transformers: Hearts of Steel, where he befriends Bumblebee, who is the steam engine. (Not that ironic when explained in-story.)
- John Henry Irons is the name of the most well known incarnation of the DC superhero Steel. Which is somewhat ironic, since despite having a huge sledgehammer like his namesake, his powers come from an ultra advanced battlesuit he designed...
  - A character justifies this by saying the original John Henry beat the machine; Dr Irons mastered it.
  - And used more-or-less straight when Irons goes up against "Super-Luthor" (with Luthor's genetic Super Serum as "the machine"). His armour's shredded in the first few seconds, but he just keeps coming.
- The legend is spoofed in Dave Barry In Cyberspace, which tells a story of the first computer ever built that Dave Barry was definitely making up:
  The man responsible was inventor Elias Smurton, who in 1807 built his revolutionary steam-powered computer, the Data Belle, which featured a fourteen-ton floppy diskette that required forty men and a team of horses to insert. Seeking to publicize his invention, Smurton staged a computing contest between his machine and one of the leading mathematicians of the day, John "Henry" LaFromage. In a dramatic demonstration of the awesome potential of automated data processing, the human competition was literally "blown away" when the Data Belle, attempting to add 2 and 7, exploded with such force that what was believed to be LaFromage's pancreas was found nearly four miles away. Clearly, nobody was going to stand in the way of this amazing new technology.
Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox have this when they go up against the mechanized saw in a tree-cutting contest. Interestingly, it's a subversion because Paul loses (by a quarter of an inch, in Walt Disney's version).

Literature

In Reaper Man, a scythe-wielding Bill Door (Death's mortal alter-ego) competes with the experimental combination harvester to cut a field of wheat. He's run into the ground, but only because he insists on cutting one shaft of wheat at a time. This contest is both a John Henry parallel, and a metaphor for how Discworld is better served by a Death who cares for each individual life he collects than a successor who would seek only to harvest lives efficiently. Death does get back at the combination harvester later, by sabotaging its mechanism and swiping the tarp that would've protected it from rusting in the rain.

Live Action TV

Star Trek Voyager: Harry Kim and Seven of Nine are fixing something that's fused to the inside of a Jeffries Tube. As a role reversal, Harry starts talking about a tool they'll need, but Seven says that they should just use "radical dislocation". That is, just yank the thing out.
It's remarked numerous times in Stargate SG-1 that although Goa'uld energy weapons are very nice for some things, the simple bullets that our heroes use are often better. This becomes important once the Replicators show up.
- As Colonel Jack O'Neill notes, "This [staff weapon] is a weapon of terror. It's made to intimidate the enemy. This [Automatic Rifle] is a weapon of war. It's made to kill the enemy." Staff weapons are slow, loud, and bright. Bullets are fast, loud, and relatively invisible. So for the SGC's purposes, the latter just does the job better. The SGC often uses more advanced weapons when they do the job better (Zat'nik'tel for example), but they aren't going to use advanced technology just for the sake of doing so.
In the second episode of Pushing Daisies, Emerson smugly describes in detail the complex technological machinations he has gone through to create a duplicate pass for the lab that they are invading. Chuck then explains that she swiped one from the security guard while giving him a hug.
In Friends, the gang is at gazillionaire Pete's house. Monica attempts to show off the advanced (by mid-90s standards) technology, including the videophone and voice-controlled lights. She accidentally turns the lights on to full brightness. Everybody ducks away to prevent blindness as Monica attempts to find the right command. She's proud that "Lights go away!" seemed to be the valid command, but Ross points out that he just used the dimmer switch.
Explicit in "Mr Monk and the Really, Really, Dead Guy", where a bunch of special agents try to use the latest technology to find a killer, leaving Monk feeling like he can't measure up. His therapist compares him to the John Henry of legend to assure him that he doesn't need machines. Naturally, Monk solves the case without using any technology.

Video Games

At one point in Deus Ex, you can find a terrace that should in theory let you bypass security by climbing it. Your Voice With An Internet Connection notes that you should never depend on weapons and high tech when there is a simpler solution.

Western Animation

An episode of Jackie Chan Adventures has Jackie having to break into a museum to get one of the Talismans. He uses the foil from a stick of gum to foil (pun intended) the electric eye on the window. His future Love Interest, Viper, uses a portable computer to figure out the combination by brute force.
I'm sure it happened in the Derek Blunt episode of Darkwing Duck. DW's all fired up to show off his gizmos, but Blunt uses an easier way.
- If we're thinking of the same episode, that was actually a subversion: Darkwing kept wanting to use his gadgets, Blunt hated it, but in the end Darkwing had to use his gadgets to save them both.
  - it was play straight, then subverted. It leaded to one of DW's funniest freakous:
  Darkwing Duck: He drew on my map... he drew on my map!
An episode of TaleSpin has Baloo compete with a robotic pilot. In the end soda pop trumps robot.
- That and the robot's complete inability to deviate from its flight route, even to handle a sudden air pirate attack.
In one episode of Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, Zack and Ivy diss Carmen for always using high-tech gadgets for her heists - and she retorts by pulling off a Western-style train robbery, using nothing more advanced than dynamite and well-trained horses.