The Peter Principle / Live-Action TV

• The Office (US)'s Michael Scott, Regional Manager of the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin. It's shown that he used to be a great salesman (and still is, when called upon), which got him promoted to management. Sadly, his management abilities are lacking to non-existent, because he is too focused on being the cool best friend to the office instead of being an authority figure, which makes few people respect him. It was also hoped he would be able to teach and pass on his skills to his subordinates, which was also a disaster; teaching is another skillset he simply does not have. At best he knows not to interfere with the sales team, which is why the branch pulls better numbers in the region.
• Columbo: An example in "Make Me a Perfect Murder". Kay Freestone, a network assistant executive with high goals, dictates and practically directs a film that the network wants and guarantees it will be a success. When she is told she can't have her boyfriend Mark McAndrews's job after his promotion to New York (as he doesn't feel she's qualified ^note  McAndrews tells her, she "doesn't make decisions", she "makes guesses".), she shoots and kills McAndrews in his office to get the job. Afterwards, her plans to bring Valerie Kirk, an old friend and former star who also happens to be a pill junkie, out of retirement for a TV special fall apart, and the film the network ordered is a massive bomb when it airs (mostly because she desperately put the film up to replace the cancelled special, thus running it suddenly with no advertising beforehand).
  • When her boss meets her, he points out several of her flaws: in addition to airing the aforementioned film suddenly (he specifically states she "threw away" said film), he's aware that the director of the cancelled special repeatedly warned her of issues with Kirk that Kay ignored, and he's displeased that Kay planned to move to the deceased McAndrews' office, not long after his murder. When she tries to protest that she did well considering the circumstances, he cuts her off by pointing out she was responsible for said circumstances.
• This happens on ER on occasion. The most obvious case is Dr. Kerry Weaver, who angles for any promotion she can get, generally letting the power go to her head immediately. This was also the case for Doug Ross, who was put in charge of a pediatric mini-ER, but let that spiral out of control while helping a woman with a terminally ill child. Mark Greene was an Attending, but continually was reminded that he was lacking in the discipline department, while Carter, while a very caring doctor, screwed up surprisingly often for a guy who seemed to be one of the senior residents. In fairness, Weaver didn't seem all that interested in hiring him as an Attending (she did so due to a shortage, mainly), and he was only made Chief Resident after Chen was fired.
• 30 Rock
  • Jack Donaghy, who was promoted from the microwave oven division of GE, was written this way early on. Liz Lemon, too, is a comedy writer by experience and inclination but her job is as much management as anything else, she's received no management training other than what Jack has given her on the job, and much of the show's comedy is derived from how in-over-her-head she is. As of the 100th episode this is really starting to haunt Jack, who never expected to be stalled on one corporate rung for five years.
  • In the episode "Double Edged Sword", Pete references this by name: "The reason people are unhappy in their careers is that they keep getting promoted until they're in over their heads. The Peter Principle says you rise to the level of your incompetence." He says this to Tracy, who was happy as a fallen immature B-list comedian and is currently miserable as a socially-responsible A-list Oscar winner.
• M*A*S*H
  • Hawkeye and Charles are amazing surgeons, but both have no management skills whatsoever. When Colonel Potter left each of them in charge, Charles turned the 4077th into his personal fiefdom (but did take care of his duties) and Hawkeye quickly degenerated to The Neidermeyer.
  • Henry Blake is a pretty good doctor, but he really isn't suited for a command position. Fortunately for him, Radar was able to take care of the day-to-day stuff, and the staff of the M*A*S*H (barring Majors Houlihan and Burns) preferred his Mildly Military style.
• Archie "Snake" Simpson in Degrassi: competent, well-liked and respected, Reasonable Authority Figure tech teacher who has the school spiral out of control as principal, cracks down hard, and has already begun capitulating less than five episodes later, in one case to a student who covered his car in Post-It notes!
• Explored in Game of Thrones, where one of the main ideas explored (as in the books A Song of Ice and Fire) is to question whether a good man would be a good ruler.
  • Robert Baratheon was mentioned to be a good warrior and general, which was how he got his throne in the first place. However, as Renly and Barristan point out, good warriors don't make good kings by default, since warring and ruling are two completely different beasts. Furthermore, despite serving as the leader and namesake of the rebellion that got him the throne in the first place, he never actually wanted to be king. And as a direct result of the complete lack of care he turns out to have for his duties as king, he proves to be a very poor administrator who only attended three Small Council meetings in seventeen years and rarely paid attention to his advisors whenever they tried to rein in his spending and he was a less than stellar husband in a position that required a decent marriage to ensure stability when it was time to transfer power. The moment he died everything fell to pieces precisely as a result of all the problems he'd allowed to fester within the kingdom right under his own nose in his apathy. It's often said in-universe that Robert was "the right man to win the throne, the wrong man to keep it."
  • Ned Stark was a brilliant Lord Paramount of the North, steeped in tradition, Code of Honor, local laws and understanding of justice. But when he moved to the capital of King's Landing, and despite being actually quite astute about the Crown's problems and political situations, the same codes that helped him in the North prevent from being an effective Hand of the King due to his personal understanding of justice and inability to separate his sentiments from his professional requirements preventing him from properly using his office as Hand to its fullest capabilities.
  • Theon Greyjoy has this best demonstrated when he manages the daring feat of capturing the fortress of Winterfell with only a handful of men, showing off his skills as a raider and low-level tactician. Once he's in command of Winterfell and and in a position to make major strategic decisions, he proceeds to immediately start bungling due to how, at the end of the day, he's spent the majority of his life as a glorified hostage to the Stark family who ultimately never got remotely any real training and experience in serving as a lord, let alone as a commander in a long term combat situation. The smart thing to do would be to kill some prisoners, grab everything his men can carry, set fire to the place, and make a run for it, but Theon has the wild idea to try and hold this entire massive fortress. Predictably, it ends poorly for him.
• In The Ranch, Rooster is repeatedly shown to be a quite competent rancher when working on his father's privately-owned cattle ranch, but when he's offered a job running a ranch owned by a large cattle firm, he quickly finds himself in over his head. He thinks he can behave like he did when his "boss" was also his father, and thus ignores emails, lets paperwork pile up and deliberately ignores a timeline the company puts in place for tagging the cows because it would interfere with his planned ice-fishing trip that weekend. Unlike a lot of other examples here, he ultimately does lose the job.
• In Star Trek, Starfleet seems to have systems in place to avert this trope wherever possible (with exceptions):
  • Commander Riker of Star Trek: The Next Generation is offered a promotion to captain of his own vessel more than once and refuses on the grounds that he has more to learn from Captain Picard before he steps up to his own command. It's stated at least once that if he refuses again he is unlikely to get another offer, implying that Starfleet views a repeated refusal as a sign that this trope is in place and the officer is unsuited for further promotion. Indeed, on those (relatively rare) occasions where Riker is seen performing the duties unique to first officer such as organizing duty rosters and dealing with disciplinary issues among the crew, he seems very competent in his current position. On the other hand, every time he winds up commanding in his own right, he seems perfectly competent at that too. He argues that being First Officer of the flagship of the fleet is far more prestigious than being the Captain of any "lesser" ship, and he has a point: Star Trek: Nemesis shows that even despite his repeated refusals before, he still basically has the pick of any ship in the fleet when he finally does accept a promotion. Of course, the Doylist explanation is that he will never be permanently promoted during the show's run because Status Quo Is God. In addition, had Stewart not renewed his contract midway through the series, the plan was to promote Riker to Captain.
  • The Security Chief/Tactical Officer position Worf had for several years fit him like a glove. As his career advanced and he moved to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Sisko's First Officer, he struggled to keep his "shoot first ask questions never" tendencies in check. However, once he did, he became a solid, conscientious leader.
  • In the TNG episode "Gambit, Part II", Data is in command of the Enterprise, with Worf as his First Officer. Data is forced to take Worf to task for being a Sour Supporter in front of the crew, leading to this discussion in the Ready Room:
    Data: The primary role of the second in command is to carry out the decisions of the Captain in this case, me.
    Worf: But is it not my duty to offer you alternatives?
    Data: Yes. But once I have made a decision, it is your job to carry it out regardless of how you may personally feel. Any further objections should be given to me in private, not in front of the crew. I do not recall Commander Riker ever publicly showing irritation with his Captain as you did a moment ago.
    Worf: No, sir.
  • In an alternate timeline in "Tapestry", a Picard that has remained a competent but relatively low-ranking science officer throughout his career suddenly displays an interest in promotional opportunities, especially in command. He is discouraged from pursuing this on the grounds that, while excellent as a science officer, he has never shown any real spark of ambition or initiative, implying that his superiors are consciously attempting to avert this trope. (They seem to suspect that this sudden interest in command may be due to a midlife crisis.)
  • Counselor Troi is actually a Lt. Commander by rank for most of the show and serves as an advisor to Captain Picard but is not part of the actual command hierarchy. In "Thine Own Self" she takes the bridge officer's exam so that she will be better qualified to command the ship in the event of an emergency. She talks to Doctor Crusher who is bridge certified despite it not being particularly relevant to her position as Chief Medical Officer (an alternate future shows her commanding a medical frigate). She is given a battery of tests specifically designed to ensure that she is not promoted above her ability; she has the most trouble with a Secret Test of Character designed to test if she would be willing to order a subordinate to undertake a Suicide Mission if it's the only way to save the lives of the rest of the crew. She does manage to pass and is promoted to Commander by the end of the episode, remaining a more active character through the shows and movies.
  • In more of a lateral example, Gowron originally came to power during a civil war crisis in Star Trek: The Next Generation. His chief rival was Duras, who had long been proven to be very corrupt but his family house was politically powerful. Gowron ascended to become Chancellor because Worf killed Duras in a combat challenge. Gowron was an outsider to Klingon politics and his autonomy helped expose the Duras family for being backed by the Romulans, which rooted them out and stabilized the empire. However, by the time of the Dominion War in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, his position as Chancellor started to show its problems as he had functionally no experience in military matters while his military adviser General Marok was gaining all the prestige. Fearing being usurped, Gowron tried to wrest command away from Martok and had a detrimental effect on the war effort itself. Worf had to step in and eventually killed Gowron, appointing Martok in his place because that was what the Empire needed now.
  • While Captain Picard was advised by Kirk himself to remain a captain as the best place to make a difference, Star Trek: Picard revealed that Picard did eventually accept a promotion to Admiral. In this case though Picard didn't do this to become a mostly inactive paper pusher but to head a massive humanitarian project to evacuate a doomed star system that only an Admiral could run which he decided was a worthy cause to accept promotion on. Tragically it fails, leading Picard to become disillusioned with Starfleet and retire, which potentially leaves him in an even more broken state than Kirk was at the start of this series. Throughout his return to action Picard is shown to be far happier when out in the field making decisions with his crew rather than coordinating larger operations as an admiral; when the out-of-date computer on the rebuilt Enterprise-D identifies him as "Captain" Picard, Picard smiles as he accepts the "field demotion", his old crew all in agreement that they will go into action under the command of Captain Picard once again.
• Invoked in Hustle for Ash Morgan; while he is presented as the second most experienced grifter on the team, with a great deal of experience and knowledge, he states a few times he's not interested in being a leader the same way that new team member Danny Blue is desperate to be. The few times Ash takes the lead on a con happen because he's forced to due to Mickey being out of action for some reason, either losing his mojo due to a crisis of confidence or being kidnapped by gangsters (and in the first case Ash subtly relied on Mickey to come up with an idea to con the person who deceived Mickey).
• Both Power Rangers Lost Galaxy and Power Rangers S.P.D. had episodes where the resident engineer (Green Ranger Damon in Lost Galaxy and technical advisor Kat Manx in S.P.D.) was offered a promotion, only to back out when they realized it meant they'd be supervising projects and not doing the fun part any more. Neither one addressed whether the character would be (in)competent in a supervisory role, but the point is made that the promotion would involve an entirely different skillset from what they enjoy and are already established to be good at.
• Breaking Bad:
  • Walter White is one of the best meth cooks on the planet. He's also a fairly clever schemer who can usually come out on top and is excellent at manipulating people, despite being generally unlikable on a personal level. It was these traits that led him to kill Gustavo Fring, one of the most powerful crime bosses in the United States and become a kingpin himself. In that role, he's utterly inadequate. His reliance on intimidation and emotional manipulation means he struggles to maintain the loyalty of others, his insistence on keeping his secrets means that he cannot leave a successor and safely retire, and his shortsightedness and ego means he keeps the operation going long past the point where he has the money he needs. As Mike put it: "Just because you shot Jesse James, don't make you Jesse James."
  • Hank Schrader has an excellent sense of intuition and is a great shot under pressure, which makes him a brilliant field agent in the DEA. His work on the Heisenberg case eventually contributes to his promotion to Assistant Special Agent in Charge, which is only a step or two from Da Chief of the entire DEA. Unfortunately, Hank is more focused on the Heisenberg/Fring case than more mundane yet larger and more important responsibilities for a management position, to the point that his boss threatens him with a funding cut until he shapes up and stops doing work more fitting for field agents.
• Parks and Recreation:
  • Ron Swanson:
    • Ron is an excellent handyman and one could imagine him as a top-notch park ranger, but he lacks the interpersonal and political skills and most of all the motivation to be an effective department head, which is why he pawns off all his actual duties on Hypercompetent Sidekick Leslie Knope. When the series ends, Leslie makes him the superintendent in a new national park.
    • Ron actually invokes this trope; he doesn't believe that the government should exist, so he took a job there knowing he would be bad at it, just so he could do it poorly and slow everything down. There are moments when he actually considers trying for a promotion so he could do an even worse job at something even more important. He does get motivated at meetings involving budgets, but only because he gets to cut government spending.
    • In the final season he starts a contracting business and excels at his management role there. This appears to be a mix of actually caring about his job and staffing the company with employees who appreciate his no-nonsense style (many of which are from his own family).
  • For Leslie's part, she excels as the Deputy Director of a relatively small department where she can micromanage her subordinates and do the vast majority of the organizational work herself, but she's far too idealistic, bullheaded, and unwilling to delegate to be an effective City Councilwoman. She persists in forcing through unpopular legislation and pet projects that she hasn't adequately sold to the voters or her fellow council members, resulting in her being recalled in an election. She found more success taking a job at the federal level dealing with national parks, then parlaying that into a renewed political career as she could bring her own staff with her instead of be at the mercy of a committee.
• In Scrubs a major element of the Character Development involves the various cast members seeking promotions and jumping through bureaucratic hoops in order to get them. In the case of Dr. Cox, he proved to be very talented in the small leadership positions he took on, but found himself completely overwhelmed when he reached Chief of Medicine because it required a lot more paperwork and less time with patients. It took him a couple of episodes to find his own rhythm. With both J.D. and Turk, it's a plot point at several times that they are not the most skilled in their specific field (internal medicine and surgery) but had a natural gift in leadership positions. This is in contrast to Elliot, who is extremely gifted with general practice but her neuroticism and poor interpersonal skills make her a bad choice to be in a leadership position.
  • In the final season/quasi-sequel Drew, a forceful personality similar to Dr. Cox, quickly becomes the unofficial leader of the study group; while Lucy, the new viewpoint character, becomes Number Two as her unrelenting positivity and niceness allows her to mediate between the sometimes-abrasive Drew and the others, and manage the clashing personalities of the group. When Drew temporarily drops out of the group and Lucy has to take over she is unable to impose any kind of discipline or direction on the others and the only way she can find to get them to work is become a bullying tyrant. When Drew comes back she literally runs up and hugs him because she hates having to be the bad guy.
• Barry Garner in Battlestar Galactica (2003). Originally the chief engineer on the Pegasus he was promoted to captain following the deaths of the senior officers. He was stated to have been an excellent engineer but a mediocre captain due to trying to treat people like machinery. To his credit, he does recognise his failings after leading his ship directly into an ambush. He immediately relinquishes command to Apollo (who's far more qualified for the role) and heads down to the engine room where he can actually help.
  • Crashdown starts out as Boomer's Guy in Back which he handles just fine. When Boomer is injured he gets promoted to pilot for their next mission but is immediately out of his depth. He has limited experience in the field, struggles to think on his feet and has no idea how handle authority. Two members of the team end up dead due to his poor decision making and he eventually pulls a gun on Cally when she refuses a blatantly suicidal order. This last action leads to Gaius Baltar shooting him In the Back.
• Kristin Baxter in Last Man Standing did an excellent job as the day-to-day manager of an upscale restaurant so Mike hired her to be in charge of the planning and opening of the new "Outdoor Man Grill" restaurant in Denver. However, while Kristin did an excellent job with the day-to-day planning, she dropped the ball on a number of things she never had to do before such as dealing with suppliers and building inspectors. This led to Mike having to cover for her and him not wanting to hire her as a consultant for the second restaurant opening in Dallas.
• On Justified Mr. Picker is a rather competent henchman for the Detroit Mob and is often the Only Sane Man when his bosses start to fall apart. He is a firm believer in this trope and prefers to be The Dragon rather then trying to become The Don. He is proven right in the final season when he is pretty much forced to take over as the Detroit Mob has run out of competent leaders. Things quickly go downhill for him and he starts making the same mistakes that his predecessors did.
• The Wire:
  • Stringer Bell acts as The Consigliere to the Barksdale organization for the first season, and clearly demonstrates his skill as a business manager and strategist. When he's put in charge of the organization when Avon Barksdale is sent to prison, he quickly finds that, while he's far more effective at dealing with the business side of things than Avon ever was, he does not have what it takes to be in charge of a criminal gang. For all his intelligence, he's incapable of managing things like turf wars, street politics, and the loyalty of soldiers who think he's "soft". His attempts at breaking into legitimate business just get him conned by bigger fish, simply because his only experience with the legitimate world is what he's learned in school, and he is naive about the corrupt side of the business world. Avon has him pegged when he describes him as not hard enough to be a gangster, and maybe not smart enough to be a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
  • Barksdale soldier Shamrock is way out of his depth, but by season 3 he's essentially Stringer's right hand man/aide (Stringer starts out the season as the acting head of the Barksdale Organization, then goes back to being the Number Two after Avon gets out of jail), because of the number of competent members who were killed or arrested in season 1.
  • Michael Santangelo, an incompetent detective, gets busted down to patrol officer in the Western District for political reasons. He finds that he's much happier walking a beat and driving a paddy wagon, since he's better suited to the work than trying to solve crimes.
  • The abrasive Charles Marimow, who is put in charge of the Major Crimes Unit in season 4, voices pride in having worked his way up to the rank of Lieutenant from the bottom. If he ever was competent at any of his prior positions, he certainly isn't at his current rank. His attempts to bust the notorious Stansfield gang can only be described as an Epic Fail, and even Herc, who has thoroughly earned the right to be considered the MCU's Dumb Muscle, shows more competence and insight into how drug gangs work than Marimow does.
  • Speaking of Herc, while he was always a screw-up and needed careful management to keep him from being counterproductive to the Unit's investigations, when he was just another foot soldier he could at least carry out simple but necessary tasks, and there's always some need for a guy to be the muscle of a group. Once he got promoted to sergeant he was completely out of his depth, which combined with his brute force approach to policing, disdain with taking the time to gather intelligence, impatience with following basic police procedure, and simple carelessness created multiple disasters for himself and others around him all throughout season 4. In short order Herc manages to lose valuable police equipment he signed out under false pretenses, harass multiple innocent people, ruin the life of a young witness, and create a political headache for the mayor himself with his antics.
• Silicon Valley:
  • Richard Hendricks is a gifted computer programmer who was able to create a highly innovative data compression program. However, upon starting his own tech company based around the program, he has been shown to be a woefully incompetent CEO: He lacks eloquent speaking ability in even casual conversation, he has virtually zero business savvy, negotiating skills, or backbone. On several occasions, he made critical errors that would have destroyed the company but for the actions of his colleagues and pure, dumb luck. He is fully aware he is out of his depth and never really grows into that position, but he sticks with it because he felt a moral obligation to treat the technology right.
  • Bighead's story arc is a parody of when this happens. He is at best a casual coder, sees it more as a fun hobby to do with his friends than trying to make a career out of it. But his proximity to Richard developing Pied Piper has Gavin Belson from Hooli snag him with a generous salary believing him to have inside information on how Richard's technology works. He really doesn't because he isn't that good of a coder to begin with. He gets "unassigned" from any projects (due to contracts he still gets paid but has no responsibilities, an entire crew at Hooli hang out on the roof all day), but later gets a promotion and major pay bonus in an attempt by Gavin to legitimize a lawsuit, while also giving him some press exposure. The entire time he is falling backwards into lots of money, and then having the reputation of being a major Hooli executive lands him a guest lecturing gig at Stanford. At no point is he competent at any of those jobs, but takes Kicked Upstairs to a new level.
• On iZombie this happens to Chase Graves. He becomes the head of the Fillmore-Graves Private Military Contractor company when his sister-in-law is assassinated. It quickly becomes clear that while a competent and respected junior officer, he struggles with the job of a CEO. He probably would have grown into the job if it was not for the fact that he he and most of his employees are zombies and he also inherited the position of the head of a conspiracy to preserve The Masquerade. Then events overtake him and he becomes de-facto dictator of a new zombie city-state that the US government would love to nuke off the face of the Earth. As things spin out of control, he makes worse and worse decisions and a lot of people die. A good example of his failure to adapt to his new position is his habit to shoot his zombie subordinates in the chest when they severely disappoint him. To a zombie this is the equivalent of getting punched really hard and might be an effective way to keep discipline in a squad of zombies who might 'rage-out' in a moment of stress. However, it is not how a general is supposed to act and when he does it one too many times, it ends in tragedy and costs him the loyalty of his Only Sane Employee.
• In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Captain John Walker, the first recipient of three Medals of Honor is chosen by the United States Government to be the new Captain America after Sam retired the Shield. But while Walker's combat credentials are impressive, he lacks all the other qualities that had allowed Steve Rogers to be such a respected leader and beloved figure to those who knew him, which causes him to quickly alienate potential allies. And to make matters worse, the sheer pressure of such a public role causes him to make bad judgment calls. This comes to a head when he takes the Super Soldier Serum, which causes his traits, positive and negative, to exaggerate, making his poor temper worse. And when his best friend is killed in front of him, he snaps to the point that he brutally kills a surrendering opponent in broad daylight in front of civilians and then attempts to kill Sam and Bucky when they come to take him in. It's only when he lets go of the idea of being Captain America, symbolised by him tossing aside his warped homemade replacement shield and take up a new position as a covert operative that he's able to be useful again.
• The Sopranos is built around the question of who exactly fits in positions of power, and the disasters that come from those positions being filled incorrectly. Silvo Dante, as a character, exemplifies this, ironically by not being an example: he knows exactly how good he is at what he does, and despises being moved out of his position. The one time he's put into a position of higher responsibility, the stress nearly shakes him to pieces.
• CSI has a unique example of a person who started as a victim of The Peter Principle and then got kicked downstairs into his area of expertise. Captain Brass' initial impression in the first episode made him look like an incompetent and biased boss, most likely because his promotion put him in over his head. After he was demoted to Homicide in the second episode, he becomes every bit the equal to the crime lab folks in professional competence.
• Marco Inaros from The Expanse successfully ran a (relatively small) piracy/terrorist/guerrilla organization for decades, and eventually a combination of putting a new spin on old tactics, some key strategic alliances, and a willingness to go far beyond anyone else led him to becoming the largest scale terrorist/mass murderer in human history when he covered asteroids in Martian stealth technology and then dropped them on both Earth and Mars. When he tries to take the leap from guerilla leader to de facto dictator of the Outer Planets and the asteroid belt, however, the cracks show almost immediately. Marco has no interest in the details of being a good administrator, and no respect for the logistical processes that keep a society running and supplied with what it needs to function, especially if it requires mutual cooperation with people who do anything besides blindly obey and worship Marco. The opening of the final season shows that Marco is leading the Belt to disaster and will likely cause much of the Belt starve, simply because the Belt is physically incapable of producing enough food to independently sustain itself and Marco refuses to make any deals with the food producing Inner Planets that might give them an advantage in relations. (He doesn't seem to be interested even if the sides break even, seemingly wanting deals only if they favor the Belt.) Marco is obviously relieved when war with Earth and Mars heats up again, since it lets him get back to fighting, which is what he's really interested in.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has commanding officer Capt. Cragen temporarily reassigned. Det. Munch, who had secretly taken the sergeant's exam on a bar bet, is promoted to acting commander in the interim. Munch has seniority, is arguably the best detective in the unit, and has a long record of success to back him up. However, he flounders as commander due to having No Social Skills and his general loathing of bureaucracy which is now his primary job to deal with. He performs so badly that the higher-ups practically beg Cragen to take command again, which Munch is all too happy to relinquish. Even afterwards, he never exercises the supervisory responsibilities of his rank, simply because he knows everyone's better off without him in charge.
  Munch: Thank God you're back. I don't know how you do it. This job sucks!
• Ted Lasso:
  • Inverted with Ted and his Hypercompetent Sidekick Coach Beard. While they both "played" American Football in college, they were second-string players in positions (punter and kicker) where even the starters are rarely used, and never actually played in an actual competitive game throughout their whole college careers. However, despite being mediocre players, they were actually quite competent coaches, leading a team to a championship. And once they find their feet, they prove to be very effective at coaching Association Football too.
  • While Keeley Jokes averts this, having gone from glamour model to PR guru with much success, her fellow model Shandy is a shining example. Keeley hires Shandy for her PR firm after realising Shandy has impressive PR skills of her own, but it soon becomes apparent that that's all she has going for her: she has none of Keeley's professionalism or class, and her ideas and actions grow increasingly inappropriate until she becomes a complete liability. And when Keeley does actually fire her, she doesn't take it well.