History CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass / LiveActionTV

* [[ExtravertedNerd Steve Urkel]] of ''Series/FamilyMatters'' fame is this trope [[PlayedForLaughs played entirely for laughs]]. He's just ''so'' incompetent, inept, and prone to disaster that [[EpicFail the amount of destruction he causes occasionally borders on the epic]] -- never more so than in a nightmare sequence of Laura Winslow's. In the dream, Steve builds a fully-functioning nuclear weapon and inadvertently detonates it by uttering the code word "buttercup", blowing half of Chicago completely off the map and killing millions. As always, all Steve can say in light of his actions is [[CatchPhrase "Did I do that?"]]

** The boys of the Ranger Teen Camp from Season 5's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS5E15LastHope Last Hope]]", Eddie Del Toro, Joey and Clifton, all fall under this, but of the boys, Eddie is the most notable who deserves this award. A much-bullied pre-teen, at school and [[CutHimselfShaving at home at the hands of his mother's abusive live-in boyfriend]], Eddie becomes the seventh kid to join Walker's Ranger Teen Camp. The camp was originally composed of two boys and five girls, [[TeenPregnancy until one girl ended up pregnant]], to which Eddie ended up filling in for her. While the three boys confront the drug dealers who attacked the camp as they threaten Trivette, Eddie was able to take out one of them by hitting them over the head with a frying pan. Needless to say, it earned Eddie praise from his classmates.

** The boys of the Ranger Teen Camp from Season 5's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS5E15LastHope Last Hope]]", Eddie Del Toro, Joey and Clifton. A much-bullied pre-teen, at school and [[CutHimselfShaving at home at the hands of his mother's abusive live-in boyfriend]], Del Toro becomes the seventh kid to join Walker's Ranger Teen Camp. The camp was originally composed of two boys and five girls, [[TeenPregnancy until one girl ended up pregnant]], to which Eddie ended up filling in for her. Of the three boys at the camp, Eddie is the most notable who deserves this award after helping his classmates and Trivette take out a gang of drug dealers who attacked the camp. Needless to say, it earned him praise from his classmates.

** Eddie Del Toro from Season 5's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS5E15LastHope Last Hope]]". A much-bullied pre-teen, at school and [[CutHimselfShaving at home at the hands of his mother's abusive live-in boyfriend]], he becomes the seventh kid to join Walker's Ranger Teen Camp. The camp was originally composed of two boys and five girls, [[TeenPregnancy until one girl ended up pregnant]]. Of the three boys at the camp, he is the most notable who deserves this award after helping his classmates and Trivette take out a gang of drug dealers who attacked the camp. Needless to say, it earned him praise from his classmates.

** Eddie Del Toro from Season 5's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS5E15LastHope Last Hope]]". A much-bullied pre-teen, at school and [[CutHimselfShaving at home at the hands of his mother's abusive live-in boyfriend]], he becomes the seventh kid to join Walker's Ranger Teen Camp. Of the three boys at the camp, he is the most notable who deserves this award after helping his classmates and Trivette take out a gang of drug dealers who attacked the camp. Needless to say, it earned him praise from his classmates.

** Vir is introduced as a timid and shy comic relief, used to being pushed around by his boss Londo. However as the show goes on he gradually shows more and more backbone, first by not backing from a huge monster (a hologram, but he didn't know that) when sent to deliver a message to technomages, then by telling off an emissary of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s in the most awesome way, and finally by retorting to an insult and a spying attempt by borrowing his Londo's duel sword and trashing the offender's stall and forcing him to confess at swordpoint.

* Jason Stackhouse spends most of ''Series/TrueBlood'' constantly doing absolutely stupid shit, because he's dumb as a stump, and is often led about by just about anyone. Threaten his sister Sookie, however, and he will not just step up; he'll absolutely take you down and make the audience's jaws drop. But he's still dumb as a stump for the most part.
** This appears to be somehow related to Sookie being around. When she disappears for months, she returns to find him a full-fledged cop, having become much more responsible in the meantime and even running the police station, more or less, when the sheriff turns out to be a drug addict.

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' has Gypsy, who at [[MamaBear one point]] [[BerserkButton beats down]] her creator Joel after he was being mean to the other robots by cheating at 'Rock, Paper, Scissors', and in The Deadly Mantis, she steers the Satellite to help the crew escape from Pearl.

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' has Gypsy, who at one point beats down her creator Joel after he was being mean to the other robots by cheating at 'Rock, Paper, Scissors', and Professor Bobo in the episode Film/TheGiantSpiderInvasion , in which he defeats a race of pod people assimilating the Mads ''and'' the [=SoL=] crew.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** In spite of becoming a fat, lecherous, and drunken king, Robert is still no fool. He can still command obedience from his subordinates ("Stop this madness in the name of your king!"), knows a lot about war as shown by his summation of the Dothraki threat, and is acutely aware certain things that slip right past several otherwise intelligent characters, like how vulnerable Westeros really is due to the disunity plaguing his realm.
** Podrick Payne is a bumbling and stammering squire, but he comes to Tyrion's rescue in battle none the less.

* Hiro of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' is a WrongGenreSavvy {{Otaku}} who spends most of each season suffering from severe PlotInducedStupidity. But when he gets his act together and wades into the fight, he will ''own'' you. He has basically singlehandedly defeated [[ArchEnemy Sylar]] (a couple of times), two seasonal {{Big Bad}}s, and an entire government black ops ''agency''. The only villain on the show who was ever any match for him was Arthur Petrelli, who had his same power ([[AllYourPowersCombined among many others]]).

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** Diotoir from original series was an obvious joke entry featuring a rather ineffective weapon and covered in highly flammable red polka dot fur. However, it's predecessor Nemesis defeated a house robot, and Diotoir itself reached 2 Heat finals, the semis of the First World Championship and was one of the few robots to hand [[TheAce Tornado]] a defeat. Beware the beast in red dotted fur.

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' has Gypsy, who at one point beats down her creator Joel after he was being mean to the other robots by cheating at 'Rock, Paper, Scissors', and Professor Bobo in the episode Film/TheGiantSpiderInvasion , in which he defeats a race of pod people assimilating the Mads ''and'' the SoL crew.

** The Second Doctor was probably the most representative of this trope. While all incarnations of the Doctor are capable of deadly seriousness and incredible skill, and most (Exception for the Fifth Doctor, the human and hesitant Doctor who would weigh out his choices to see if they were right and often get frazzled while doing so) were usually goofy, Creator/PatrickTroughton brings the apparent goofiness up to eleven. The vast majority of the time, the second Doctor pretended to be a bumbling idiot, constantly stressed out and panicking. However, when faced with the right danger, he drops the act and becomes dead serious and sometimes even diabolic. Or [[ObfuscatingStupidity feigns the act of stupidity altogether to trick his enemies]]. This is especially pronounced whenever he encounters Daleks or Cybermen.

* Agent Bill Hoyt of ''Series/{{Undercovers}}''. He's usually the [[HollywoodNerd nerdy]], [[PluckyComicRelief sycophantic]] tech guy for the Blooms; but in the episode "Xerxes" he [[spoiler:single-handedly takes down the villainess after learning that she had almost manipulated him into falling in love with her.]]

* ''Series/SledgeHammer''; his {{catchphrase}}, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing." is a {{blatant lie|s}}, but when the chips are down, his {{crazy awesome}}ness kicks in.

** The Thirteenth Doctor is insanely cheerful and optimistic, [[{{Keet}} easily excited]], more than a little scatterbrained and occasionally forgets things like [[GenderBender what gender she's supposed to be]]. However, threaten her or her friends and she'll drop this attitude in an instant in favor of ice cold, [[TranquilFury deadly calm]] rage. She also had no qualms about exposing [[spoiler: the Master]]'s treasonous behavior to the Nazi's he'd been working with, or stranding him in a different dimension with no hope of return.

* Jackie Burkhart serves TheDitz with a HairTriggerTemper on ''Series/That70sShow''.
** Eric proves to be one of these when he beats up a guy who insults Red during a Packers-Bears football game.

* ''{{Series/Sharpe}}'': Mentioned in passing, in reference to Tippoo, the Sultan of Mysore, against whose troops Sharpe cut his teeth as a fighting man.

** Example of the "Hidden Badass" part...pretty much every time he's involved in an interrogation. Not only is he skilled at making the ones interrogated say more than they should by annoying them, he can make the ones interrogating him say more than they should. Prime example from "Aliyah": Eli David, head of Mossad, accidentally says too much to Tony while he's being interrogated...and while Vance, Gibbs, and Ziva are watching.
** Example of Both at once: He's been captured by a terrorist in the Middle East while on a mission (unsanctioned, IIRC) to save Ziva. (Yeah, don't mess with Ziva and let Tony find out about it.) He's been given truth serum, and is answering every question put to him about the team, with his usual frat-boy snark. (So, yeah, the Hidden Moron part wasn't really his fault.) Finally, toward the end, when he's about to be killed, he tells his interrogator, "You have 30 seconds to live." The man is baffled and agitated and says "You're lying!" Tony's response? "I can't lie, remember? I haven't told you yet [[spoiler:that the head of our team, Gibbs, was a Marine sniper." Naturally, a bullet comes through the window and kills the bad guy right then.]]

** R.J., TricksterMentor of ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'', seems at first to be nothing more than an overly-mellow pizza restauranteur. Then he steps out of the kitchen and reveals himself by taking down a squad of {{Mooks}} without breaking stride, and suddenly the guy who seemed like bumbling comic relief a few seconds ago takes on a whole new light. He barely changes at all, busting out the crazy martial arts skills while remaining as calm and carefree as ever.

* In the Mexican sitcom, ''Series/ElChapulinColorado'' the titular Chapulín is as clumsy and conceited as a superhero can be, but at the end of the episode he manages to subdue his adversaries either by outsmarting them, or by taking advantage of an opening and knocking them out.

** Marcus has the personality of an all around goofball and jokester, but as one of the first human Rangers you do not want to be in a fight against him. Unless you also happen to be a Ranger and a Warrior Caste Minbari.

* The live action TV version of ''[[Series/CuteyHoneyTHELIVE Cutey Honey]]'' had Honey as a ditzy high school student who could take on entire swarms of mooks.

* [[ExtravertedNerd Steve Urkel]] of ''Series/FamilyMatters'' fame is this trope [[PlayedForLaughs played entirely for laughs]]. He's just ''so'' incompetent, inept, and prone to disaster that [[EpicFail the amount of destruction he causes occasionally borders on the epic]] -- never more so than in a nightmare sequence of Laura Winslow's. In the dream, Steve builds a fully-fuctioning nuclear weapon and inadvertently detonates it by uttering the code word "buttercup", blowing half of Chicago completely off the map and killing millions. As always, all Steve can say in light of his actions is [[CatchPhrase "Did I do that?"]]

* Vince Teague, the mild mannered small town newspaper editor in ''Series/{{Haven}}''. When a menacing and muscular ex-con shows up in town and threatens Vince's little brother, you can see the until then goofy exterior slough off and his inner badass reveal itself. A couple seasons later it is revealed that Vince is [[spoiler:the leader of the Guard, a badass organization of Troubled people who have protected other Troubled from persecution since Haven was founded]].

** T-Bo, a background character who runs the Goovy Smoothy and is normally seen just putting random items on sticks to sell and being wierd, reveals himself to be one in "iStill Psycho" when he helps [[MamaBear Mrs. Benson]] [[BigDamnHeroes rescue the iCarly gang]] from [[AxCrazy Nora]] and her equally insane family. Not only does he kick down the basement door so Carly can rescue Spenser, he singlehandedly takes down Nora's father.

* Bob Sweeney from ''Series/{{Justified}}'' is an overweight, unpromotable constable whose cockiness has found him on the wrong side of a gun a couple of times. Push one of his beserk buttons or test his loyalty to Raylan, however, and you unleash a whole different beast. To date, he has taken down two attackers on separate occasions with a concealed knife, withstood a vicious beating and opened fire on a couple of guys with an AK-47 because they made fun of him. Raylan is always very respectful of Bob because he remembers that back in elementary school a bully started abusing Bob and when Bob had enough of it, he fought back so ruthlessly that the bully ended up in a coma. When Raylan is getting ready for a desperate LastStand against a group of mob hitmen, he is quite happy to have Bob by his side.

** Kagami Arata from Series/KamenRiderKabuto. He's pretty much GoodIsDumb, esepcially compare to the show's protagonist [[InsufferableGenius Tendo Souji]]. Doesn't stop him from kicking ass, especially after becoming Gatack

** Eric proves to be one of these when he beats up a guy who insults Red during a Packers Bears football game.

** Example of the "Crouching Moron" part from Season 2's episode, "Bikini Wax". [=DiNozzo=] and Kate are going to a prison to interrogate the cell mate of their prime suspect. Tony lectures Kate on the way there about how they're supposed to keep their guards up, since prisoners have nothing to lose. A few minutes into the interrogation, Tony notices an Alpha Chi Delta tattoo, and...

''Series/CobraKai'': Stingray is an unabashed NEET, BasementDweller and eighties {{Fanboy}}, and looks like an oblate spheroid with a neckbeard. However, in the Coyote Canyon exercise, he manages to pull a victory against the far more formidable Miguel by using camouflage, stealth and ambush and massaging the rules of the exercise. Even [[EvilMentor Kreese]] is impressed and offers a few complimentary words.