Basic Trope: The hero is actually incompetent while the Side Kick is the one who does most of the work.
- Straight: Bob is a bumbling detective who has a young partner; Alice, who actually solves most of the cases.
- Exaggerated: Bob is nigh brain-dead while Alice is an ultra-intelligent genius.
- Downplayed: Bob is smart in his own right but has Alice along because she has a particular set of skills that he has need for from time to time.
- Justified:
- Bob is really just an actor who looks good for the public and takes credit while his "secretary", Alice, is the real detective and prefers to remain anonymous so that she can solve crimes more easily.
- Alice is by no means an attention seeker, and doesn't mind being the "sidekick" so long as the job gets done.
- Alice, being as young as she is, would never be taken seriously as a detective, while Bob would be, so she uses Bob to help herself get assigned to cases.
- Alice is some form of strange being, either being an enhanced human or some mythical creature or even a human in odd circumstances, and thus cannot risk being the center of attention for some reason. Bob getting all the credit means nobody looks too much into Alice.
- Bob looks better for the cameras, so everybody assumes the more photogenic one is the real hero, so people consult Bob about detective work, while Alice is assumed to simply be somebody on the side who helps out.
- Alice is competent in a lot of things, but she still needs education on some of the things required of a self-sufficient hero, which Bob is providing so that he'll finally be able to retire.
- Inverted: Bumbling Sidekick
- Subverted: Alice does not appear to be very smart while Bob is the hero solving all the crimes.
- Double Subverted: Alice is actually an idiot savant who has an extremely good knack for problem solving, making her an asset to Bob.
- Parodied: Bob is The Ditz who sometimes even forgets to breathe and doesn't even realize that Alice is the one solving all the crimes.
- Zig Zagged: Bob appears to not be nearly as smart as Alice who seemingly solves the crimes for him. It turns out, Bob is Alice's eccentric instructor who is training Alice by appearing to know nothing so that she can take charge. Eventually, Alice becomes a better detective than even Bob.
- Averted: Bob solves all the crime and Alice simply helps out when she can.
- Enforced: The writers decide to flip the hero/sidekick dynamic around for a change.
- Lampshaded: "Sometimes I wonder why I let myself be the sidekick."
- Invoked:
- Bob wants to start a detective agency but isn't all that good at detective work so he hires Alice, who has been a police detective for years and is actually much more skilled.
- Alice is The Man Behind the Man and has Bob as a "puppet detective" so that she can work unopposed.
- Exploited: Bob is just a Guile Hero who is good at suckering other people into doing things for him. Case in point: Alice, a sweet, easily manipulated girl who just so happens to be good at detective work, martial arts, weapons, etc.
- Defied: Alice believes she is the competent one but really, Bob is every bit the hero he appears to be.
- Discussed: "Bob is the leader but really, Alice is the one doing all the work."
- Conversed: "In this series, the sidekick is the real hero!"
- Implied: Detective Bob arrives on the scene along with his partner Alice. He doesn't seem to be able to figure out the mystery unless Alice makes various remarks about the crimescene that gives him the proper "Eureka!" Moment when he needs one.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice can only get away with being so hypercompetent because she is in a lower position. Not having The Chains of Commanding strangle her allows her to do everything with much more ease than Bob can. When something happens to Bob and she is put in the hot seat, she struggles because she does not have the proper training to be a full time leader.
- Alice eventually becomes resentful of Bob since she is better at solving crime and demands to be placed in charge of the detective agency.
- Deep down, Bob knows full well that Alice is the one who gets everything done and feels deeply jealous of her superior ability. Rather than trying to improve himself, he either keeps doing things "his way" (and failing), deliberately falls behind so Alice can take care of the mess or gives Alice demeaning tasks so he can still feel superior...
- Once Bob figures out that not a single one of his accomplishments were the result of his own efforts and he is just dead weight to Alice, Bob is probably going to leave. Maybe he will even ask Alice exactly what the hell is his role in their partnership and Alice will need a long time to think of an answer that does not sounds like "someone for the bad guys to try to kill while I'm being awesome", "a jester to amuse me", "I like an audience" or "keeps me from wasting time on romantic nonsense".
- Alice decides to quit, as she realises all she's doing is enabling Bob's thoughtless antics and that he'll never learn to do proper detective work himself with her around.
- Reconstructed:
- As it turns out, Bob is a bit of a Bunny-Ears Lawyer when it comes to running a detective agency while Alice's detective skills do nothing for her when it comes to business management. They both quickly realize that their previous roles were better suited for the agency, despite all appearances.
- ...but Alice knows that Bob knows and is so hypercompetent that none of his antics get in her way at all.
- Alice realises that Bob will get killed without her around, and so starts acting as a Stealth Mentor to improve Bob's track record.
- There is always darkness before the dawn and eventually Alice and Bob will get credit for their respective contributions (yes, Bob helped somehow… even if it was by being the guy everybody was trying to kill while Alice did her stuff undisturbed).
- Played For Laughs: Bob constantly bumbles his way through crime scenes while Alice rolls her eyes and solves the mysteries for him.
- Played For Drama:
- Alice has a friend named Bob who is mentally handicapped but always wanted to be a detective. She pretends to be his sidekick and guides him through each mystery while he "solves" crimes.
- Things are going to get really ugly and will stay ugly for a long while once someone figures out that Alice is the one pulling all the weight.
Go back to Hypercompetent Sidekick.
