History Main / CluelessBoss

** In ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', Vimes remembers Captain Tilden, the first captain he had after joining the City Watch, as this, though he didn't realise it at the time. When he travels back in time, Vimes ends up under Tilden's command again (under a false name) alongside his younger self. When Tilden is abruptly relieved of command and replaced, the younger version of Vimes is outraged and says that Tilden was a good captain, while the older, wiser Vimes thinks Tilden was a good man who was horribly out of place at the job of policing and ''way'' behind the times, and it was better for Tilden that he was relieved and out of the picture considering the nasty FullCircleRevolution that was about to happen.
** In ''Literature/SmallGods'', the Cenobiarch is the senile figurehead of the Omnian church, doing nothing except nodding while his senior chaplain conducts services and blessing anyone who comes near him. He has no involvement whatsoever with the inner workings of the church, which largely consist of brutally torturing and killing heretics.

* Princess Jasmine's father the Sultan in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' is a kind man and devoted father, but [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter completely blind]] to how evil [[TheGrandVizier Jafar]] really is and never even suspects that Jafar is plotting against him. The animated series continued this by portraying him as well meaning but completely out of touch.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film Live Action ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* God is depicted as this in [[http://oglaf.com/parenting/ this]] strip from ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}''.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Many, ''many'' examples on Website/NotAlwaysWorking. For example:
** One story tells of a video game store boss who discontinued the store's biggest draw (customers being allowed to play the games before they bought them) because he didn't want parents dropping off their children while they shopped. After this costs them half their business, he fires half the staff and discontinues the weekly game tournaments which another employee points out brings in more money than any other day. He also discontinues new game sales and trade-ins and holds off on ordering new parts for old console repairs. Since the story's submitter relies on commission for older console repairs, he quits since he isn't receiving a paycheck. He also notes that the store went out of business a few weeks later.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

** In ''Discworld/NightWatch'', Vimes remembers Captain Tilden, the first captain he had after joining the City Watch, as this, though he didn't realise it at the time. When he travels back in time, Vimes ends up under Tilden's command again (under a false name) alongside his younger self. When Tilden is abruptly relieved of command and replaced, the younger version of Vimes is outraged and says that Tilden was a good captain, while the older, wiser Vimes thinks Tilden was a good man who was horribly out of place at the job of policing and ''way'' behind the times, and it was better for Tilden that he was relieved and out of the picture considering the nasty FullCircleRevolution that was about to happen.
** In ''Discworld/SmallGods'', the Cenobiarch is the senile figurehead of the Omnian church, doing nothing except nodding while his senior chaplain conducts services and blessing anyone who comes near him. He has no involvement whatsoever with the inner workings of the church, which largely consist of brutally torturing and killing heretics.

* When Franchise/{{Tintin}} first meets Captain Haddock, he's a drunken wreck who has no idea his ship is being used to smuggle opium by his first mate Allan.

** In ''Discworld/SmallGods,'', the Cenobiarch is the senile figurehead of the Omnian church, doing nothing except nodding while his senior chaplain conducts services and blessing anyone who comes near him. He has no involvement whatsoever with the inner workings of the church, which largely consist of brutally torturing and killing heretics.

* Subverted with the Chairman of Omni Consumer Products in the ''Franchise/RoboCop'' series. For most of his appearances, he comes across as a doddering relic who is being kept on as CEO by a cadre of sharp and ambitious vice-presidents. Then in the first ''Film/RoboCop1987'' movie, he gets taken hostage by BigBad President Jones, who has programmed the OCP prototype not to act against OCP officers. The Chairman [[LetsGetDangerous neatly negates that immunity by declaring]], [[spoiler:"Dick, you're ''fired''!"]] In the [[Film/RoboCop2 second movie]], the [=OCP=] Chairman continues to play the clueless [=CEO=] while being seduced by Doctor Faxx, [[spoiler:mere moments after giving the green light to his minions to throw her to the media wolves]]. It's ultimately left ambiguous whether the Chairman is a GeniusDitz or ManipulativeBastard who purposely tries to make people think he is this trope.

* Subverted with the Chairman of Omni Consumer Products in the ''Franchise/RoboCop'' series. For most of his appearances, he comes across as a doddering relic who is being kept on as CEO by a cadre of sharp and ambitious vice-presidents. Then in the first ''Film/RoboCop1987'' movie, he gets taken hostage by BigBad President Jones, who has programmed immunity into the OCP prototype. The Chairman [[LetsGetDangerous neatly negates that immunity by declaring]], [[spoiler:"Dick, you're ''fired''!]] In the [[Film/RoboCop2 second movie]], the [=OCP=] Chairman continues to play the clueless [=CEO=] while being seduced by Doctor Faxx, [[spoiler:mere moments after giving the green light to his minions to throw her to the media wolves]]. It's ultimately left ambiguous whether the Chairman is a GeniusDitz or ManipulativeBastard who purposely tries to make people think he is this trope.

* King Théoden is this at first in ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'', kept ignorant and feeble by EvilChancellor Gríma Wormtongue.

* Princess Jasmine's father in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' is a kind man and devoted father but completely blind to how evil Jafar really is and never even suspects that Jafar is plotting against him. The animated series continued this by portraying him as well meaning but completely out of touch.

* An arc of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' featured a legendary OldSoldier Klingon warrior leading a contingent of Klingon ships against the Dominion... and doing really, really badly because he was secretly half senile and during the battle came to believe that he was fighting against TheFederation from [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the Original Series]] and ''Captain Kirk''!

** In ''Discworld/NightWatch'', when Commander Vimes goes back in time he realizes that Captain Tilden, the first captain he had after joining the City Watch, was this. When Tilden is abruptly relieved of command and replaced, the younger version of Vimes is outraged and says that Tilden was a good captain, while the older, wiser Vimes thinks Tilden was a good man who was horribly out of place at the job of policing and ''way'' behind the times, and it was better for Tilden that he was relieved and out of the picture considering the nasty FullCircleRevolution that was about to happen.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K'': One of the lords from the newest edition of the Necrons is this to his BeleagueredAssistant bodyguard. Zahndrekh's circuits were damaged during his stasis, and now he thinks he's still stamping down rebellions of his fellow Necrons, even seeing enemies as Necrons, and taking commanders captive. His bodyguard Obyron, who sees things as they are, ensures that these captives keep finding ways to kill themselves in "unfortunate accidents".

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Principal Skinner is often portrayed that way. He clearly has no authority and is ridiculed by all children, often making things worse by not thinking things over twice. An example of this occurs in "New Kid On The Block" where Jimbo is lifting Bart's head inside a toilet bowl, while Skinner just waits outside and buys Jimbo's incredibly paper thin excuse.

* Trebonius Artorius from ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind''. He's the Archmage of the Mages Guild. Most people in the guild seem to be regarding him as a joke, with him giving people seemingly random and pointless tasks (a good example being the quest he gives to you), and even being clueless enough not to notice when his adviser is actually a Telvanni spy and his credentials are forged, with an obvious spelling error in the name of the reference.

* ''Series/TheWire'':
** Lester Freamon invokes this, when he handpicks a new commander of the Major Crimes Unit after Cedric Daniels is promoted to Major and transferred. Rather than risk being interfered with by a new commander who is a toady to the highly corrupt police brass, Freamon handpicks his friend Lieutenant Jimmy Asher. Asher is much more focused on his upcoming retirement than anything going on in the MCU, so he simply signs anything that Freamon or the other detectives put in front of him. Asher then goes back to planning to build his dream house, blissfully unaware that his detectives are about to serve warrants for corruption to several of the most powerful political figures in the state just before an election. This is briefly put on hold when Rawls replaces Asher with the hostile [[MeanBoss Charles Marimow]], but the quo is restored when Daniels is promoted to Colonel and reinstates Asher as head of the MCU.
** Part of the reason Major Colvin is able to get away with his drug-free zones project for so long is the obliviousness of the higher-ups.

* Lester Freamon invokes this at one point in ''Series/TheWire'', when he handpicks a new commander of the Major Crimes Unit after Daniels is promoted and transferred. Rather than risk being interfered with by a new commander who is a toady to the highly corrupt police brass, Freamon handpicks his friend Lieutenant Asher. Asher is much more focused on his upcoming retirement than anything going on in the MCU, so he simply signs anything that Freamon or the other detectives put in front of him. Asher then goes back to planning to build his dream house, blissfully unaware that his detectives are about to serve warrants for corruption to several of the most powerful political figures in the state just before an election.

->''"All my life, I've been weak — so weak that my most trusted adviser was able to hide a hundred years' war behind a curtain of lies!"''
-->-- '''Earth King Kuei''', ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''

[[BenevolentBoss Some bosses are kind]]. [[PointyHairedBoss Some bosses are stupid]] and woefully ineffective. [[MeanBoss Some bosses are jerks]] or [[BadBoss even worse]]. And then there's this guy: often a decent person, and possibly well meaning, but so completely disconnected from the reality of his organization that he has no idea that it's frequently doing terrible things.

Often there is either an EvilChancellor and/or a legion of {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s that keep him from finding out the truth and blissfully ignorant. A frequent plot is the heroes having to clue him in to what is really going on in order to make changes. A frequent subversion to that is it turning out that the boss can't do so, for various reasons such as he's now a senile figurehead, the corruption the heroes are fighting is InherentInTheSystem, the boss actually approves of it once he finds out and things continue as they were, etc.

Counterpart of the ReasonableAuthorityFigure. Compare PuppetKing, BeleagueredBureaucrat. Often relies on a helping of GoodIsImpotent. These characters often suffer from being a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter, and place far too much trust in people who don't deserve to be trusted at all.

----

!!Examples

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* The ''ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio'' story ''QRN sur Bretzelburg'' has the {{Ruritania}}n king kept heavily sedated by his top general so he'll sign the defense contracts to make war on their neighboring country. The general is actually a disguised conman RunningBothSides, making the other country's queen buy the same bogus equipment in a different disguise. The king is not happy when he finds out.
* When Franchise/{{Tintin}} first meets Captain Haddock, he's a drunken wreck who has no idea his ship is being used to smuggle opium by his first mate Allan.
* In ''ComicStrip/{{Nero}}'', The King of Papland in ''De Gouden Vrouw'' is completely unaware that his trusted advisors are evil, until the end of the story.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'', that universe's version of ComicBook/WonderWoman is not exactly an idiot, but she has no idea that one of her most trusted advisors has been turning the United Kingdom into a huge concentration camp. After learning about it, she is ''pissed''.

[[AC:FilmLiveAction]]
* A short educational film about the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike portrays Andrew Carnegie as this. Carnegie spends the entire film disconnected from events, philosophizing about the rights of man and workers somewhere in a peaceful meadow, while his NumberTwo Henry Frick refuses to compromise with the striking union, forcibly locks them out, and then hires Pinkerton detectives to break the strikers, resulting in multiple deaths. The film closes by cutting straight from the carnage at the steel mill to one last segment of Carnegie's monologues.
* Subverted with the Chairman of Omni Consumer Products in the ''Franchise/RoboCop'' series. For most of his appearances, he comes across as a doddering relic who is being kept on as CEO by a cadre of sharp and ambitious vice-presidents. Then in the first ''Film/RoboCop1987'' movie, he gets taken hostage by BigBad President Jones, who has programmed immunity into the OCP prototype. The Chairman [[LetsGetDangerous neatly negates that immunity by declaring]], [[spoiler:"Dick, you're ''fired''!]] In the [[Film/RoboCop2 second movie]], the [=OCP=] Chairman continues to play the clueless [=CEO=] while being seduced by Doctor Faxx, [[spoiler:mere moments after giving the green light to his minions to throw her to the media wolves]]. It's ultimately left ambiguous whether the Chairman is a GeniusDitz or ManipulativeBastard who purposely tries to make people think he is this trope.
* In ''Film/AmericanDreamz'', the US President is a nice, well-meaning guy who is utterly clueless about his Vice-President's machinations.
* During the TimeSkip at the beginning of ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Bruce Wayne has been a complete recluse for eight years. At the start of the film he realizes that, while he was moping in his mansion, Wayne Enterprises was bleeding money, and his charity projects were severely under-funded.
* The Chairman, Daniel Clamp in ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'' is presented as a childlike idealistic figure entranced by his futuristic visions for his enterprise, seemingly unaware of the less scrupulous antics of his chief of security or MadScientist in his research clinic.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* King Théoden is this at first in ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'', kept ignorant and feeble by EvilChancellor Gríma Wormtongue.
* ''God'' turns out to be senile and basically on life support when encountered in ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials''. His former NumberTwo, Metatron, now runs all of creation like a despot.
* Cornelius Fudge in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has no clue someone is going behind his back to authorize Dementor attacks on Harry, thinking everything reported to him is a ploy by Dumbledore to take over the Minister of Magic (a position Dumbledore never wanted). Dolores takes care to ensure this remains the case.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In ''Discworld/NightWatch'', when Commander Vimes goes back in time he realizes that Captain Tilden, the first captain he had after joining the City Watch, was this. When Tilden is abruptly relieved of command and replaced, the younger version of Vimes is outraged and says that Tilden was a good captain, while the older, wiser Vimes thinks Tilden was a good man who was horribly out of place at the job of policing and ''way'' behind the times, and it was better for Tilden that he was relieved and out of the picture considering the nasty FullCircleRevolution that was about to happen.
** In ''Discworld/SmallGods,'', the Cenobiarch is the senile figurehead of the Omnian church, doing nothing except nodding while his senior chaplain conducts services and blessing anyone who comes near him. He has no involvement whatsoever with the inner workings of the church, which largely consist of brutally torturing and killing heretics.
* Jean Valjean posing as M. Madeleine in ''Literature/LesMiserables'' does a lot of good as Mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer, but doesn't realize that one of his employees has turned Fantine out onto the street.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* Lester Freamon invokes this at one point in ''Series/TheWire'', when he handpicks a new commander of the Major Crimes Unit after Daniels is promoted and transferred. Rather than risk being interfered with by a new commander who is a toady to the highly corrupt police brass, Freamon handpicks his friend Lieutenant Asher. Asher is much more focused on his upcoming retirement than anything going on in the MCU, so he simply signs anything that Freamon or the other detectives put in front of him. Asher then goes back to planning to build his dream house, blissfully unaware that his detectives are about to serve warrants for corruption to several of the most powerful political figures in the state just before an election.
* An arc of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' featured a legendary OldSoldier Klingon warrior leading a contingent of Klingon ships against the Dominion... and doing really, really badly because he was secretly half senile and during the battle came to believe that he was fighting against TheFederation from [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the Original Series]] and ''Captain Kirk''!
* On ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' the team infiltrates a greeting card company in order to take down the CorruptCorporateExecutive CEO who is embezzling from the company. However, they soon realize that the CEO is actually a good guy who is way over his head running the company and has no clue what is really going on. They then have to find out which of the employees have been manipulating the clueless boss and setting him up to be the FallGuy.
* On ''Series/{{Turn}}'', Maj. Hewlettt is ostensibly the commander of the British forces in Setauket and, realizing that there's a lot of anti-Tory sentiment underfoot, tries to be as fair-minded as possible. In practice, though, he's so clueless that at one point, Capt. Simcoe manages to poison his beloved horse right under his nose.
* On ''Series/{{MASH}}'', Col. Henry Blake was the commanding officer of the 4077, but relied heavily on his assistant Radar O'Reilly to do most of the work and was often oblivious to the goings-on around the base.
* Melissa [=McCall=] in season one and most of season two of ''Series/TeenWolf''. At first she was a keen observer of HandsOffParenting (being a single mom with a unpredictable schedule) until season two, when the story begins to kick off and her son continues to miss class and get caught up in the plot. Despite being unaware of the actual circumstances, she eventually begins to take a more active role in his life and investigates; And she does well. Until, she lets it slip that her son is still [[StarCrossedLovers dating Allison]]...to her homicidal mother.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K'': One of the lords from the newest edition of the Necrons is this to his BeleagueredAssistant bodyguard. Zahndrekh's circuits were damaged during his stasis, and now he thinks he's still stamping down rebellions of his fellow Necrons, even seeing enemies as Necrons, and taking commanders captive. His bodyguard Obyron, who sees things as they are, ensures that these captives keep finding ways to kill themselves in "unfortunate accidents".
* Classic ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' campaign ''The Traveller Adventure''. The Marquis of Aramis is a well-intentioned but clueless noble. He's manipulated by the Tukera MegaCorp leader Roald Bulolo into allowing a tradewar with Oberlindes Lines. He has no idea that the main provocation for the tradewar was the result of the criminal scheming of another Tukera leader, Aran Ashkashkur.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* Trebonius Artorius from ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind''. He's the Archmage of the Mages Guild. Most people in the guild seem to be regarding him as a joke, with him giving people seemingly random and pointless tasks (a good example being the quest he gives to you), and even being clueless enough not to notice when his adviser is actually a Telvanni spy and his credentials are forged, with an obvious spelling error in the name of the reference.

[[AC:WebComics]]

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* Many, ''many'' examples on Website/NotAlwaysWorking. For example:
** One story tells of a video game store boss who discontinued the store's biggest draw (customers being allowed to play the games before they bought them) because he didn't want parents dropping off their children while they shopped. After this costs them half their business, he fires half the staff and discontinues the weekly game tournaments which another employee points out brings in more money than any other day. He also discontinues new game sales and trade-ins and holds off on ordering new parts for old console repairs. Since the story's submitter relies on commission for older console repairs, he quits since he isn't receiving a paycheck. He also notes that the store went out of business a few weeks later.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* The Earth King from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is a well meaning young man who is an amazingly ShelteredAristocrat whose EvilChancellor has kept him from even learning that his kingdom has been at war for a century, that his city came close to falling a decade ago and is in the middle of be besieged again now.
* Princess Jasmine's father in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' is a kind man and devoted father but completely blind to how evil Jafar really is and never even suspects that Jafar is plotting against him. The animated series continued this by portraying him as well meaning but completely out of touch.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Principal Skinner is often portrayed that way. He clearly has no authority and is ridiculed by all children, often making things worse by not thinking things over twice. An example of this occurs in "New Kid On The Block" where Jimbo is lifting Bart's head inside a toilet bowl, while Skinner just waits outside and buys Jimbo's incredibly paper thin excuse.
* The farmer tends to be conveyed as such in ''WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep''. The farmyard tends to be a completely dysfunctional place, but his sheepdog Bitzer (sometimes helped or hindered by Shaun and the flock) manages to get everything back in line before he becomes the wiser.

[[AC:RealLife]]

* Trebonius Artorius from ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind''. He's the Archmage of the Mages Guild. Most people in the guild seem to be regarding him as a joke, with him giving people seemingly random and pointless tasks (a good example being the quest he gives to you), and even being clueless enough not to notice when his advisor is actually a Telvanni spy and his credentials are forged, with an obvious spelling error in the name of the reference.

* King Theoden is this at first in ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'', kept ignorant and feeble by EvilChancellor Grima Wormtongue.

* The ''ComicBook/SpirouEtFantasio'' story "QRN sur Bretzelburg" has the {{Ruritania}}n king kept heavily sedated by his top general so he'll sign the defense contracts to make war on their neighboring country. The general is actually a disguised conman RunningBothSides, making the other country's queen buy the same bogus equipment in a different disguise. The king is not happy when he finds out.

-->--'''Earth King Kuei''', ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''

* Subverted with the Chairman of Omni Consumer Products in the ''Film/{{Robocop}}'' series. For most of his appearances, he comes across as a doddering relic who is being kept on as CEO by a cadre of sharp and ambitious vice-presidents. Then in the first ''Robocop'' movie, he gets taken hostage by BigBad President Jones, who has programmed immunity into the OCP prototype. The Chairman [[LetsGetDangerous neatly negates that immunity by declaring]], [[spoiler:"Dick, you're ''fired''!]] In the second movie, the [=OCP=] Chairman continues to play the clueless [=CEO=] while being seduced by Doctor Faxx, [[spoiler:mere moments after giving the green light to his minions to throw her to the media wolves]]. It's ultimately left ambiguous whether the Chairman is a GeniusDitz or ManipulativeBastard who purposely tries to make people think he is this trope.

-->'''Earth King Kuei''', ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''

->All my life, I've been weak — so weak that my most trusted adviser was able to hide a hundred years' war behind a curtain of lies!

* In real life, you have the term "puppet king", which is used to describe kings who ''think'' they have the power, but are basically puppets in the hands of their prime minister or another royal family member.

[[BenevolentBoss Some bosses are kind]]. [[PointyHairedBoss Some bosses are stupid]] and woefully ineffective. [[BadBoss Some bosses are jerks]]. And then there's this guy: often a decent person, and possibly well meaning, but so completely disconnected from the reality of his organization that he has no idea that it's frequently doing terrible things.

->All my life, I've been weak — so weak that [[EvilChancellor my most trusted advisor]] was able to hide [[ForeverWar a hundred years' war]] behind a curtain of lies!

* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}''. When Tintin first meets Captain Haddock, he's a drunken wreck who has no idea his ship is being used to smuggle opium by his first mate Allan.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Nero}}'': The King of Papland in ''De Gouden Vrouw'' is completely unaware that his trusted advisors are evil, until the end of the story.

* The Chairman, Daniel Clamp in ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'' is conveyed as such, more a childlike idealistic figure entranced by his futuristic visions for his enterprise, seemingly unaware of the less scrupulous antics of his chief of security or MadScientist in his research clinic.