The Minnesota Fats - Television Tropes & Idioms

The character who is the best-of-the-best comes across someone even better than them; someone more powerful than the Super Hero, or more skilled than the ninja, or smarter than The Professor, or richer and more important than the rich important guy, or a better banjo player than the master banjo player, etc. This is generally just a one-shot character, but in action-oriented shows this can be a recurring villain or Big Bad.

It's not uncommon for the characters to be siblings, not unlike the Aloof Big Brother — e.g. Sam Malone's brother was more popular than him, Adrian Monk's brother was better at deduction. The classic better brother at deduction is, of course, Mycroft Holmes, making this Older Than Radio.

In many cases, the rivalry is entirely one-sided; the Minnesota Fats either doesn't know that his / her challenger exists, or likes their rival and considers them a friend, and either way genuinely doesn't seek to be so much better than the hero that they effortlessly leave him or her standing in the dust; it just sort of happens. In either situation, this will only have the effect of making the main character's rivalry more intense and bitter, as their jealousy will also have to cope with the fact that the Minnesota Fats is so much better than them without even trying to be.

By the end of the episode, one of three things has usually happened: the regular character has been totally humiliated, has grown up and realised that they don't need to be the best in the world, or has bested their superior. The most common ways for besting them in action shows is by outwitting/tricking them, finding their Achilles Heel, using a Forgotten Superweapon, getting into an Unstoppable Rage, or just a good old-fashioned David Versus Goliath confrontation. Sometimes, the character just has to get over their mental block/self-esteem issue, which was the problem all along.

Named after the better pool player from The Hustler. It should be noted that there was a Minnesota Fats in real life, but he (Rudolph Wanderone) took his stage name from the movie.

Examples:

Anime

Both Seta Noriyasu and Aoyama Tsuruko in Love Hina can outfight Aoyama Motoko. And eventually, so can Keitaro! (Well, about half the time.)
In Spiral, Narumi Ayumu's older brother, Kiyotaka, is far and away his superior (though he also seems to have vanished from the face of the earth for the anime portion of continuity).
One Piece had Mihawk, the greatest swordsman in the world, who in his first appearance utterly trounces Roronoa Zoro (greatest swordsman in the ocean of East Blue) with a tiny dagger, but spares him because Zoro shows promise.
- Also, Luffy's Brother Ace/Trace. He was already stronger than Luffy before he got his powers and after the former did.
The Slayers had Luna Inverse, Lina's older sister and the only person in a world full of chaos-demon-gods who scared her. She could trounce any of the bad guys Lina faces, being a reincarnation of one of the world's supreme gods...if she had any ambition beyond being a part-time waitress.
Mizuno Ami of Sailor Moon had two. One turned out to have psychic powers from the nijizuishou, lost them, and became a love interest; the other was exclusive to her OVA.
Whatever new skill Vegeta manages to acquire in DragonBallZ, he always ends up falling behind Goku. His sense of jealousy and rivalry gets increasingly bitter since Goku doesn't care and treats him like an old friend. Also, Goku is a good guy who can almost treat gods on a first-name basis, while Vegeta ends up in hell after his Heroic Sacrifice. At the end of the anime, he seems to have found some peace in always playing second flute to Goku.
In Naruto, Might Guy has this in Kakashi. Since Guy has a tendency to purposely take things to extremes (even a simple game of Paper-Rock-Scissors), it's possible that this came about through a conscious decision on his part rather than incidental jealousy. Regardless, he sees Kakashi as a rival he must surpass, which Kakashi sees as annoying and infantile.
Reiji, Paul's older brother on Pokémon, is an expert Pokemon breeder and trainer whose attitude towards Pokemon is the exact opposite of Paul's.
Being about sports, this happens kind of a lot in Eyeshield 21. Most recently, when Sena found himself up against Riku, the friend from his childhood who taught him how to run in the first place.
And it's not only Eyeshield. This is one of the biggest staples in sports manga as a whole. Heck, even some main characters are Minnesota Fats themselves, or become so as the plot goes on. Examples are...
- Captain Tsubasa: Tsubasa himself (being The Ace of sorts), Wakabayashi, Hyuuga, Schneider, Pierre, Santana.
- Slam Dunk: Sendoh, Fujima, Maki, the Sannoh team, Okita from the movies.
- The Prince Of Tennis: Tezuka, Atobe, Shiraishi, Chitose, Sanada, Yukimura, Ryoma himself.

Comic Books

In the GI Joe Marvel comic series, before the actual events of the comic, Snake-Eyes became Storm Shadow's Minnesota Fats, with some judicious manipulation from Firefly.
In the new Transformers series from IDW, Sixshot seems to be every Decepticon's Minnesota Fats...or he would be, if anyone but Megatron weren't so afraid of him they strip gears at the mention of his name.

Film

Lancey Howard in The Cincinnati Kid.
In many ways, and in a rare example of a Minnesota Fats being a main character, Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) of the Fantastic Four is the Minnesota Fats to his arch-nemesis Dr. Doom; one of Doom's key driving motivations is to prove himself superior to Richards, who has always demonstrated that he's just that little bit smarter and better than Doom. In this case, the rivalry is far from unnoticed, although it's always Doom who actively plans and attempts to humiliate and subdue Reed, who is less interested in proving himself superior to Doom and in fact considers it a waste that Doom expends his still-impressive intellect on what amounts to little more than petty jealousy.
- One thing, though: Doom is a scientist and a sorcerer. Doom is a slightly less brilliant scientist than Richards, but he's almost as good at magic as he is at science—second on Earth only to Doctor Strange. In total, he might be more powerful than Reed, but he does see Reed as an undeserving Minnesota Fats—that is, someone who people think is better but who isn't—and as a result is obsessed with besting Richards entirely on his own terms, i.e. with science.
- A similar motivation is attributed to Lex Luthor's hatred of Superman, starting with John Byrne's reboot in the 1980s. Lex Luthor was the most powerful man in Metropolis, with even politicians and law enforcement afraid to cross him, until Superman arrived in town and not only showed Lex up but emboldened the police and mayor to stand up to Lex as well. In John Byrne's version of the first meeting between Lex and Superman, Lex tried to hire Superman as one more obedient employee, and he has never forgiven Superman for being the first person in Metropolis ever to dare to say "no" to him. This is further compounded by the fact that, over the years, Superman's increasing popularity has drastically overshadowed Lex.

Literature

The concept was subverted in the Hercule Poirot novel The Big Four, when Poirot mentions his older brother Achille as being a better detective than he is; the only visual difference, he claims, is that Achille doesn't have a mustache and has a scarred lip. Near the end, when the villains have captured Hastings and Poirot, Hastings realizes that they captured Achille instead - only to have it revealed that Achille doesn't exist; in order to fool the villains, Hercule shaved off his mustache and scarred his own lip. Hastings probably should have realized something was up when Poirot, the biggest egomaniac in literature, started describing someone as better... This idea was likely inspired by Mycroft Holmes; Poirot gives a Shout Out to him by noting, "Don't all great detectives have a brother better at it than them?"
The novel (later turned into a film) Hating Alison Ashley is based on this.
The Shadow Club by Neil Shusterman was devoted to this concept, with seven second-best children being driven to incredible lengths to humiliate their Minnesota Fats. They start off sympathetic, one girl is even being ignored by her parent and stepparent DURING THEIR WEDDING because of her superior cousin, but they ultimately begin to cause serious harm to their rivals, and nearly kill one of them and an innocent bystander.
- Then, for extra fun, a sequel is made in which a Minnesota Fats arrives who is better than EVERYONE at EVERYTHING. When he too is targeted, the adults suspect the former Shadow Club of being the cause, but they are surprisingly innocent and the main character begins sleuthing to figure out who is trying to frame them.

Live Action TV

In Friends, Chandler panics when Monica refers to a colleague as the funniest guy she's ever met.
Angel had the weird undefined demon-ish...thing The Immortal, who in his single not-quite-appearance managed to embody Spike and Angel's insecurities, by constantly one-upping them at everything they did—without even trying. He did both Darla and Drusilla while they were still seeing Angel and Spike respectively, and in the present day was supposed to be dating Buffy. The entire demon world, of course—and some of the magical world that wasn't fond of demons—fawned over him and considered him an idol. In a subversion, at the end of the episode, Spike and Angel were no more over their inferiority complex than before. (In fact, the whole episode played out like the writer had a huge cuckolding fetish.)
It's subverted in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Superstar," when previously nerdly Jonathan shows up everyone on the cast. He even takes over the opening credits montage. Unfortunately, being perfect created an Evil Twin which doubled as his Kryptonite Factor, which only Buffy was able to destroy.
- On the other hand, the spell also seems to make Buffy weaker and generally less effective (it's implied that this is because Buffy never had to cope by herself what with Jonathan easily defeating every Big Bad from the Master onward). Even Super Jonathan probably isn't equal to normal Buffy.
  - Could be that there is only a finite amount of Awesome in the world, and for Jonathan to get so much requires taking it away from others. Him being good at killing vampires requires taking that ability from Buffy; him being a great basketball player requires some other star player become a benchwarmer; him starring in the Matrix means Keanu couldn't have done so, etc.
In the series Dream On, Martin Tupper's ex-wife Judith's new husband Richard was annoyingly perfect in every way.
Monk, Mr. Monk and the Other Detective - another detective starts showing up Monk at the scene of a crime, using clues such as smelling a bag of dog poop, smelling the dog itself, tasting mud, and other such egregious acts to deduce exactly what happened. It gets to a point where Monk accuses the man of cheating. Of course, it turns out he really is cheating...
Frasier: The new radio host Clint Webber is everything Frasier prides himself on being but more, (a polyglot, a gourmet chef, a great chess player, etc.) At the end of the episode Frasier has his revenge when he discovers that Clint's a terrible singer and tricks him into humiliating himself by suggesting he serenade Frasier's party-guests.

Video Games

This pretty much describes the relationship between Kieran and Oscar in Fire Emblem : Path of Radiance (and subsequently Radiant Dawn). Kieran is a loud, obnoxious man who challenges Oscar at every possible moment, yet Oscar isn't even aware of it until he breaks Kieran out of prison. Needless to say, he is indifferent to Kieran's continued proclamations.

Webcomics

Dora's brother Sven in Questionable Content is more popular with the opposite sex (often stealing Dora's friends) and better at earning money than his sister, a fact that bothers her to no end.

Western Animation

In The Simpsons, Lisa panics when a kid turns up who's smarter than she.
- Before the Flanderization for which he's named after had set in, Ned Flanders was very much a Minnesota Fats to Homer. Flanders made more money, had a better house, better things, a more attractive (and still living) wife, better-behaved and more affectionate children—he had everything better than Homer. This was why Homer hated him so much. Ned's Christian faith was initially just the reason why Ned was too nice to realize all this. There was even an early episode where Homer makes Bart compete with Ned's son Todd in a miniature golf tournament that fits this trope to a T, especially when a loophole in a bet makes both him and Homer have to mow the other's lawn in a dress and Ned doesn't even mind that much.
Kids Next Door, "Op DOGFIGHT" had a pilot known only as "The Kid" who kept shooting Numbuh Two down through most of the episode. It was never established whether he was truly a better pilot, or if it was due to his superior equipment.
Batman The Animated Series had a Minnesota Fats, Kyodai Ken, appear in two episodes, "Night of the Ninja" and "Day of the Samurai". Both times, Kyodai is built up as a fighter Batman cannot hope to beat. Batman beats him the first time by holding back until he can beat Kyodai without revealing his secret identity. The second time, he uses hidden armor to keep Kyodai from using a deadly pressure-point strike on him.
Whenever Gizmoduck guest stars on Darkwing Duck, there is an element of The Minnesota Fats to his role in the story. He is a truer, nobler, more all around impressive and famous Super Hero than Darkwing, apparently upstaging him without even noticing. On the first such occasion, Darkwing suffered the traditional inferiority complex that such a plot calls for, but after that episode disproved Gizmoduck's true superiority conclusively, Darkwing has since never shown any sign of Gizmoduck envy. Even so, during that first episode and every Gizmoduck episode since, Darkwing always resents him, treats him as unwelcome and unnecessary competition, even thinks of him as The Rival, despite Gizmoduck's routinely demonstrated and explicitly stated refusal to consider competitiveness as a motive fit for a true hero. This, if anything, only serves to infuriate Darkwing further, and despite Gizmoduck's repeated requests for mutually beneficial cooperation, he finds himself feuding with Darkwing again and again. It could be said that Darkwing himself is The Rival, and Gizmoduck is The Hero, despite the fact that Darkwing invariably triumphs in the end regardless of whether he agrees to team up with Gizmoduck, and in every episode where Gizmoduck is absent, Darkwing is unquestionably The Hero.
The episode "The Original Fry Cook" of Spongebob Squarepants has Spongebob, who is regarded as the best fry cook in Bikini Bottom, meet the Krusty Krab's first and best fry cook, named Jim.
One episode of GI Joe had a costumed crimefighter, "Serpentman" come out of nowhere and begin upstaging the Joes in their fight against COBRA, complete with a toadying news crew that followed him around everywhere, reporting on his successes. Naturally, it turns out to be another of Cobra Commander's schemes, intended to make the Joes look unnecessary and lose public support and government funding. What's great is that it actually works, until C.C. screws it all up.
Recess had an episode of this, where a new kid is introduced who is faster than Vince, smarter than Gretchen, stronger than Spinelli, and can eat more than Mikey. It's revealed that the kid feels isolated because he's always better at everything, and at every school he goes to the same thing happens. Mikey points out that they should have all been more accepting. The episode ends with the kid getting a message from the Secret Service saying the president needs him. He gets into a jet, takes off, does a perfect barrel roll, and flys off.
In one episode of The Powerpuff Girls, the Girls found themselves upstaged by "Major Man", a fairly conventional Superman-type hero, to the extent that the Mayor even called the Girls to break off his (professional) relationship with them. Needless to say, Major Man was not all that he appeared, and once again the day was saved... no thanks to him.
Mandark in Dexter's Laboratory is originally introduced as one of these, smarter and more efficient than Dexter in nearly every field imaginable (to the point of being able to read Dexter's mind), and he even has a not-so-secret laboratory that's even larger than Dexter's.
Jonas Venture Jr. in The Venture Brothers. Despite being eaten by his twin brother in the womb and spending 40 years inside him, within weeks of escaping he's already become a better super-scientist, has more friends, still has his hair, and is much more successful with the ladies (actually winning over Sally Impossible, the one female that Dr. Ventur had any chance with). He even somehow has a better tan than Dr. Venture right after spending 40 years in his stomach.
In The Proud Family, Trudy hires a nanny named Renée. At first, she seems perfect for the job: She's a good housekeeper, great with Oscar and the kids, and knows exactly what to do when in trouble and when. Trudy gets upset, though, because she's too perfect, like an angel, and sends her back. Apparently, this wasn't the first time Renée's been given up because of the 'Renée syndrome'.
Cartman's alter-ego, Bulrog, hangs a lampshade on this in episode 801 of South Park when he invents powers for himself that are "better than Kyle's."
In an episode of Captain N The Game Master, Kevin teams up with his video game hero, Link, and proceeds to show up the elf at every junction as they venture through Hyrule, meaning well the whole time. Of course, Kevin is the Canon Sue and can do no wrong in Nintendo Land...
- And of course, it was Link who had to learn to move past his jealousy and accept Kevin.
In the '80s cartoon of Alvin and the Chipmunks, Alvin encountered one of these in the person of a boy named Apollo Jones, who kept beating him at everything. It turned out that Apollo genuinely envied Alvin because Alvin had one thing he himself lacked — a family that could be bothered with him. Apollo's parents were rarely home and sent him extremely generic postcards from wherever they went. ("Dear Son, Congratulations on whatever it is you've done well lately.")