History AwesomeButImpractical / LiveActionTV

*** The [[BoomStick staff weapon]]. It [[BlingOfWar looks great]], it fires [[BangBangBANG loud]] [[PowerGlows bright]] bolts of plasma, the wounds look horrific, it doubles as a melee weapon... but it's also really hard to aim, rarely does damage beyond twenty meters, fires only once a second, and the wounds are self-cauterizing, meaning basic medical care makes them easily survivable. Badasses who've trained for years such as [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Teal'c and Master Bra'tac]] can hit a human-sized target at range two times out of three, but Teal'c switches to P90-s in the later seasons. \\

*** The ship-mounted weapons are the more powerful version of staff weapons by several orders of magnitude (their firepower is in the megaton range). They are also much more precise than their handheld cousins. Presumably, the Ha'taks have some sort of a targetting system. Good luck trying to hit anything in space based on visual aiming alone. Then again, their weapons consistently fail to hit small craft.

** Jaime {{lampshades}} this with his golden hand. Despite its impressive appearance, a hook would serve him better.

** Gavin pays $20 million for a holographic conferencing tool, assuming it'll make him look amazing. However, the effect is not two-way so while Nelson can see Gavin's hologram, Gavin can't see him and it quickly turns out you can't communicate through a hologram. So they take to Skype only to have that crash on them as it's a bad expy. They're thus forced to talk over a bad long-distance phone connection, meaning Gavin wasted $20 million on a fancy light show.

** The [[BoomStick staff weapon]]. It [[BlingOfWar looks great]], it fires [[BangBangBANG loud]] [[PowerGlows bright]] bolts of plasma, the wounds look horrific, it doubles as a melee weapon... but it's also really hard to aim, rarely does damage beyond twenty meters, fires only once a second, and the wounds are self-cauterizing, meaning basic medical care makes them easily survivable. Badasses who've trained for years such as [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Teal'c and Master Bra'tac]] can hit a human-sized target at range two times out of three, but Teal'c switches to P90-s in the later seasons. \\

** The ship-mounted weapons are the more powerful version of staff weapons by several orders of magnitude (their firepower is in the megaton range). They are also much more precise than their handheld cousins. Presumably, the Ha'taks have some sort of a targetting system. Good luck trying to hit anything in space based on visual aiming alone. Then again, their weapons consistently fail to hit small craft.
** The Death Gliders can fly in space and in atmosphere and their shape is specifically meant to terrify enemies. They're also equipped with more powerful versions of the staff weapons. They also appear to lack any devices present in any modern jet fighter, such as ''targetting systems'' and friend-or-foe recognition. Now imagine humans taking the useful parts of the Death Glider, such as their drives and [[InertialDampening inertial dampers]], replacing the slow-firing and relatively short-range staff cannons with faster-firing railguns and long-range guided missiles, and adding the above-mentioned systems. ''Now'' you got an awesome fighter. Which shows when a single X-302 manages to own a pair of Death Gliders in the space of a second.
** Initially, the SGC trained its prospective recruits by having them contend with a fake foothold[[labelnote:*]]alien take over of the base[[/labelnote]]situation inside the actual Cheyenne Mountain complex. However, this required entire sections of the base to be sealed off every months, disrupting the work of the base staff. General Hammond eventually requested the money to build a dedicated off-world training facility.
** Discussed in one episode of ''Atlantis'', where the expedition finds an Ancient ship travelling between galaxies at 99.9% of the speed of light. Rodney admits that while it's extremely impressive that the Ancients managed to accelerate a ship that fast, it's also functionally useless when they'd already invented reliable FTL drives, especially given that it's taken the ship over 10,000 years just to get halfway between galaxies at that speed. This example is more justified than most, however, in that the FTL drives they had on board were so badly damaged they couldn’t be repaired, and to stay where they were would have resulted in sure death.

** Aegon the Conqueror deliberately had the Iron Throne made so it would be both awe-inspiring and uncomfortable to sit on.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances "The Doctor Dances"]], this trope is used to make an implicit comparison between the Doctor and LovableRogue conman Captain Jack Harkness. Part of this is the tools that both men use; Jack is equipped with a flashy sonic blaster which does awesome things like cut holes in walls and restore them — against which the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, which takes hours to "resonate concrete" in order to achieve the same effect, looks more than a little naff. This earns some rather snide and dismissive comments on the screwdriver from Jack and Rose, who has fallen under Jack's sway a bit... except it turns out you can only use those cool features on the sonic blaster a handful of times before the battery completely runs out and it basically becomes a glorified paperweight, whereas the humble-yet-trusty sonic screwdriver just keeps going and going. The point is made that while Jack has all the charm and outer trappings of the cooler-than-cool "Han Solo[=/=]Captain Kirk" space hero, he's ultimately a bit rubbish and not nearly as good as he thinks he is, while for all his eccentricities and nerdishness the Doctor is the real deal who ultimately gets the job done.
** The Moment, the Time Lord superweapon which appears in [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]], turns out to be something like this. It's a sentient super-weapon which is capable of destroying entire galaxies... except the fact that it's sentient means that it's also developed a conscience, and will sit in judgement over you as you use it. Meaning that if you still have a shred of conscience left, you shouldn't be able to use it, and if you somehow are still able to it will inflict a worse punishment on you for doing so, thus rendering any 'victory' achieved through using it [[PyrrhicVictory completely pyrrhic in nature]]. [[spoiler:However, it also turns out that because it's super-sentient, it will also try and work out some way so that you don't ''have'' to use it, even if it has to completely tangle up time and space in order to do so.]]

** Harrenhal is the greatest fortress in the Seven Kingdoms. It's also a logistical nightmare, practically impossible to man and govern properly, which is why the Lannister troops abandon it, rather than defend it, when the Northern army arrives. Justified for the original builders, since it had the full resources of a small empire behind it; the lands and incomes associated with it now are a tiny fraction of the minimum requirements.

** Discussed in one episode of ''Atlantis'', where the expedition finds an Ancient ship travelling between galaxies at 99.9% of the speed of light. Rodney admits that while it's extremely impressive that the Ancients managed to accelerate a ship that fast, it's also functionally useless when they'd already invented reliable FTL drives, especially given that it's taken the ship over 10,000 years just to get halfway between galaxies at that speed.

* The ''[[CoolShip Excalibur]]'' from ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' had the ability to fire a supercharged shot that could kill any ship it faced. Downside? It almost drained the ship, leaving it vulnerable for a minute. A minute in which the destroyed enemy ship's buddies could use to wail on it. They only try to use it as a last resort. Besides, the ship has top-of-the-line armor which absorbs and dissipates something like 80% of incoming energy.
* ''Series/SiliconValley'' nicely showcases how tech companies try to develop stuff that's way out of reach simply to show themselves "ahead of the curve." The problem being, so many of these ideas are decades away from becoming reality and, in fact, shown to not be that useful for regular lives.
** Gavin pays $20 million for a holographic conferencing tool, assuming it'll make him look amazing. However, the effect is not two-way so while Nelson can see Gavin's hologram, Gavin can't see him and it quickly turns out you can't communicate through a hologram. So they take to Skype only to have that crash on them as it's a bad expy. They're thus forced to talk over a bad long-distance phone connection, meaning Gavin wasted $20 million on a fancy light show.
** Jared tries to take a self-driving car to a house but a computer error ends up sending him onto a cargo ship. When he gets out to its island destination, Jared finds the entire place is automated and he's stuck there.
** The gang is surprised to hear Peter Gregory's company is failing after his death. They're informed that's because Gregory was financing projects like ''three'' companies working on making things invisible and turning genetically engineered fungus into cotton.
** When his much hyped Nucleus program turns into a public disaster, a desperate Gavin turns to Nelson for help, assuming the man has been busy with new projects. He discovers Nelson has been wasting the last few weeks and company resources building a potato cannon. Nelson does show he has a system that can let people literally type texts with their minds...only it can't be achieved in anything less than 30 years.

* ''Franchise/StargateVerse'':
** The [[BoomStick staff weapon]]. It [[BlingOfWar looks great]], it fires [[BangBangBANG loud]] [[PowerGlows bright]] bolts of plasma, the wounds look horrific, it doubles as a melee weapon... but it's also really hard to aim, rarely does damage beyond twenty meters, fires only once a second, and the wounds are self-cauterizing, meaning basic medical care makes them easily survivable. Badasses who've trained for years such as [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Teal'c and Master Bra'tac]] can hit a human-sized target at range two times out of three, but Teal'c switches to P90-s in the later seasons. \\
\\
Made explicit in one episode where O'Neill (with two l's) is training some rebel Jaffa to use P-90s. After an impressive demo comparing the firearm's superiority, he explains "This [the staff weapon] is a weapon of terror. Its purpose is to intimidate the enemy. This [the P-90] is a weapon of war. Its purpose is to ''kill'' your enemy."
** The ship-mounted weapons are the more powerful version of staff weapons by several orders of magnitude (their firepower is in the megaton range). They are also much more precise than their handheld cousins. Presumably, the Ha'taks have some sort of a targetting system. Good luck trying to hit anything in space based on visual aiming alone. Then again, their weapons consistently fail to hit small craft.
** The Death Gliders can fly in space and in atmosphere and their shape is specifically meant to terrify enemies. They're also equipped with more powerful versions of the staff weapons. They also appear to lack any devices present in any modern jet fighter, such as ''targetting systems'' and friend-or-foe recognition. Now imagine humans taking the useful parts of the Death Glider, such as their drives and [[InertialDampening inertial dampers]], replacing the slow-firing and relatively short-range staff cannons with faster-firing railguns and long-range guided missiles, and adding the above-mentioned systems. ''Now'' you got an awesome fighter. Which shows when a single X-302 manages to own a pair of Death Gliders in the space of a second.
** Initially, the SGC trained its prospective recruits by having them contend with a fake foothold[[labelnote:*]]alien take over of the base[[/labelnote]]situation inside the actual Cheyenne Mountain complex. However, this required entire sections of the base to be sealed off every months, disrupting the work of the base staff. General Hammond eventually requested the money to build a dedicated off-world training facility.
** Discussed in one episode of ''Atlantis'', where the expedition finds an Ancient ship travelling between galaxies at 99.9% of the speed of light. Rodney admits that while it's extremely impressive that the Ancients managed to accelerate a ship that fast, it's also functionally useless when they'd already invented reliable FTL drives, especially given that it's taken the ship over 10,000 years just to get halfway between galaxies at that speed.

* A large number of wrestling moves are not only ridiculous, but literally impossible if the receiver doesn't put as much work in as the giver. But they ''look'' so cool. Particular examples are:
** Wrestling/TripleH's Pedigree
** The Canadian Destroyer
** The Powerbomb
** The Missile Dropkick
** The Cross Body Block
* ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'':
** Serpentera: Ostensibly powerful enough to destroy a planet, but it kept running out of power when it came time to actually fight the Power Rangers. Despite being the largest Zord ever in the series, it was hardly effective beyond its first few appearances. The behind-the scenes reason for this was the limited footage of Serpentera available from the original Sentai, where it was an envoy of the Powers That Be that told ''both'' sides to stop upsetting the cosmic balance with their fighting, not a weapon of the villains'.
** The Megazord itself became this from time to time, as it often seemed more practical to split the zords up, either to take on multiple monsters or to flank and overpower an single one. Notably, while fighting Commander Crayfish and the mutant Ranger clones, the clones held Crayfish on their shoulders, leading Billy to say he was out of their weapons range. Never did it occur to anyone to disassemble and let the Pterodactyl Zord (which can '''fly''') attack from above. This became even more apparent any season they had bipedal humanoid zords, such as the Super Zeo Zords, Rescue Zords, or the Shogun Zords, since, being realized via stuntmen in costumes same as the combined Megazord, they were utilized more often than animal or vehicle-style individual zords.
** Later zord combinations got a [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo lot]] [[Series/PowerRangersSamurai bulkier.]] Not only did it make them practically immobile but they always looked like they'd topple over.

* ''Series/BattleBots'':
** Flamethrowers. They look really impressive and intimidating, and they'd definitely do damage to humans. But these are robots, which require the flames to stay close for an extended amount of time in order to inflict proper damage, and no sane opponent is going to let you do that to their bots. There have only been two cases of a flamethrower unambiguously destroying an opponent: The first instance, Complete Control, had a huge clamp to immobilize the opponent. The second, Free Shipping, relies on the world-class driving skill of Gary Gin to keep the flamethrower pointed at the foes for long enough while dodging their attacks.
** In 2016, drones were allowed to compete. There is no doubt seeing a flying combatant is really cool. However, because they fly, they have to be light by necessity, meaning drones are found only as small assistant bots helping a larger main unit. Also, because the fight is confined to a space more cramped than most drones are used to, drones spend more time trying not to crash into the walls than actually participating in the fight and are destroyed if the opposing bot so much as touches it.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpZVdAltIhM Floating Head Doctor.]]
* The original opening sequence to the ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' miniseries. It was originally meant to show the Armistice Officer arrive at the station several times at different stages in his career, from a lowly lieutenant to his final rank as colonel. They even cast a young actor to play him, putting him through lots of makeup to show him accurately age over the 40 years. Realistically, this would have stretched the opening to maybe 10 minutes.

* The [[CoolCar Panthermobile]] from the live action start of the 70s Pink Panther show. It has absolutely jaw dropping lines, but also no windows, no roof for the driver, and my goodness [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bii-PIGprv8 does it fishtail all over the place!]]
* ''Snooki & J-Woww'': Snooki loves her chunky stiletto pumps, perhaps a bit too much. When she's about to leave her pad (mind you, she's ''knocked up'' here) along with J-Woww, she takes a tumble down the steps like she's pounded one too many.
* DiscussedTrope in an episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' where the titular mystery writer and his cop friends are shooting the breeze about what the (working class) cops would do if they won the lottery. One of them claims he'd buy a Ferrari, at which point Castle, a millionaire, says he has one and it's actually not as impressive as you'd think. When the cop points out that they're "hella fast", Castle retorts that a Ferrari is just as fast as any other car on the street when it's stuck in rush-hour traffic.
* The titular ''Exo-man''. It gives the wearer enhance strength, immunity to bullets and can withstand a car ramming through it. However, it's slow as turtle on meds and has to fully turn his body to look right and left. Its air supply and operation time are also limited. Not to mention its [[UnfortunateCharacterDesign phallic design]]...
* ''Series/FreshOffTheBoat'' has Shaquille O'Neal sell a line of fancy basketball-shaped vodka bottles. It ''looks'' cool and the basketball motif fits Shaq, but the lack of flat sides makes it a pain in the ass to store properly and you can't even set the bottle down after pouring your drink without it rolling off the table. As Shaq himself admits "ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime".
* In ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', we have Daniel Warmolt's new Hummer H2. It's flashy, and chock-full of features that make it quite comfortable to be in, and the bright-yellow-with-red-flames paint job is great at drawing attention. Which is exactly the ''opposite'' of what you want for a vehicle that you will be bringing to a quick and discreet drug deal. Additionally, the fact that it's so expensive immediately makes the cops suspicious when they see it parked in the driveway of his relatively small house. And even the "Awesome" part can be debatable, because other characters see it as gaudy and ugly (Mike calls it a "MidlifeCrisisCar" , while Nacho calls it a "school bus for six-year old pimps").
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In the episode "The Doctor Dances", this trope is used to make an implicit comparison between the Doctor and LovableRogue conman Captain Jack Harkness. Part of this is the tools that both men use; Jack is equipped with a flashy sonic blaster which does awesome things like cut holes in walls and restore them -- against which the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, which takes hours to "resonate concrete" in order to achieve the same effect, looks more than a little naff. This earns some rather snide and dismissive comments on the screwdriver from Jack and Rose, who has fallen under Jack's sway a bit... except it turns out you can only use those cool features on the sonic blaster a handful of times before the battery completely runs out and it basically becomes a glorified paper-weight, whereas the humble-yet-trusty sonic screwdriver just keeps going and going. The point is made that while Jack has all the charm and outer trappings of the cooler-than-cool "Han Solo[=/=]Captain Kirk" space hero, he's ultimately a bit rubbish and not nearly as good as he thinks he is, while for all his eccentricities and nerdishness the Doctor is the real deal who ultimately gets the job done.
** The Moment, the Time Lord superweapon which appears in "The Day of the Doctor", turns out to be something like this. It's a sentient super-weapon which is capable of destroying entire galaxies... except the fact that it's sentient means that it's also developed a conscience, and will sit in judgement over you as you use it. Meaning that if you still have a shred of conscience left, you shouldn't be able to use it, and if you somehow are still able to it will inflict a worse punishment on you for doing so, thus rendering any 'victory' achieved through using it [[PyrrhicVictory completely pyrrhic in nature]]. [[spoiler: However, it also turns out that because it's super-sentient, it will also try and work out some way so that you don't ''have'' to use it, even if it has to completely tangle up time and space in order to do so.]]
* ''TheGreatBritishBakeOff'': Flora's skillset in series 6 fell loosely under this; she just couldn't stop overdecorating her creations, often far beyond what was required. This resulted in her overextending her abilities which in turn weakened her overall efforts, producing among other things runny cream horns and an underbaked chocolate tart thanks to elaborate tuille and macaron decorations respectively. In the Class of 2015 special, it was mentioned that the bakers referred to this as "Florafication".

** Flamethrowers. They look really impressive and intimidating, and they'd definitely do damage to humans. But these are robots, which require the flames to stay close for an extended amount of time in order to inflict proper damage, and no sane opponent is going to let you do that to their bots. There has only been one case of a flamethrower unambiguously destroying an opponent, and that bot (Complete Control) had a huge clamp to immobilize the opponent.

* ''Series/StargateVerse'':

*** The original model of the Enterprise-D in''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' was effectively retired in Season 3, as a new, smaller and more practical model was introduced. However, this model was also not capable of separating. The cost of dragging out the old model, refurbishing it and using in the Season 4 opener was prohibitive, effectively meaning it couldn't be done again without a feature film budget.

** Discussed in one episode of ''Atlantis'', where the expedition finds an Ancient ship travelling between galaxies at 99.9% of the speed of light. Rodney admits that while it's extremely impressive that the Ancients managed to accelerate a ship that fast, it's also functionally useless when they'd already invented reliable FTL drives, especially given that it's taken the ship over 10,000 years just to get a bit outside the Pegasus Galaxy at that speed.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Doctor Dances", this trope is used to make an implicit comparison between the Doctor and LovableRogue conman Captain Jack Harkness. Part of this is the tools that both men use; Jack is equipped with a flashy sonic blaster which does awesome things like cut holes in walls and restore them -- against which the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, which takes hours to "resonate concrete" in order to achieve the same effect, looks more than a little naff. This earns some rather snide and dismissive comments on the screwdriver from Jack and Rose, who has fallen under Jack's sway a bit... except it turns out you can only use those cool features on the sonic blaster a handful of times before the battery completely runs out and it basically becomes a glorified paper-weight, whereas the humble-yet-trusty sonic screwdriver just keeps going and going. The point is made that while Jack has all the charm and outer trappings of the cooler-than-cool "Han Solo[=/=]Captain Kirk" space hero, he's ultimately a bit rubbish and not nearly as good as he thinks he is, while for all his eccentricities and nerdishness the Doctor is the real deal who ultimately gets the job done.

** Wildfire's awesome destructive power is match only by the danger of handling it in a combat situation. Tyrion brings its full power to bear by laying a trap with it that eliminates the problem of misfiring catapults and fumbling handlers.

** The bat'leth, while definitely a CoolSword, isn't very practical in a realistic swordfight. For one, the normal stance requires the use of both hands and severely limits the reach. If you grip it in one hand, then you have an unbalanced weapon with no hilt and a ''pointy end'' facing your gut. Made more jarring by the fact that Klingons ''do'' have normal swords, but only one is ever used. Duras uses one in his fight against Worf but loses, as Worf has the advantage of vengeance on his side ([[spoiler:Duras having just killed Worf's girlfriend]]). Also, most fights with the bat'leth show it as a slow, cumbersome weapon that could likely be overcome by a nimble swordsman with a rapier. Additionally, let's not forget that Klingons still use swords in the days of directed-energy weapons. It's even explicitly mentioned that an old lady with a phaser could hold off a dozen Klingon warriors with bat'leths. However, at least one of the novels states that the bat'leth was designed for large close quarters battles in narrow city streets, presumably of similar size to modern starship corridors - so it is slightly [[JustifiedTrope justified]].