History MemeticBadass / RealLife

* Creator/FrankWelker, an iconic voice actor. Some of his claims to fame include just how long he's been at it--his first acting job was as Fred in the original ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' cartoon, and he's still playing that same role 50 years later, as well as having taken over the role of Scooby himself in 2002. What he's best known for is probably his uncanny ability to flawlessly imitate any animal sound. For several years, this skill-set had Welker at number one on a ranking of the highest box-office returns of any actor, on the technicality that his vocal effects have appeared in nearly every movie ever made. Such is Welker's reputation that many sources, such as the IMDB or Wiki/ThisVeryWiki, will attribute him as the voice of just about ''any'' character who makes non-human noises, and even some that don't make any noise at all. Rule of thumb, if he's not actually in the credits, he probably didn't do it, but it doesn't help that he occasionally ''gets credited'' for doing vocal effects that were actually done by real animals. A lot of people, even those who put credits together, simply refuse to believe that animal and monster sounds can come from anywhere else but Frank Welker's pipes.

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* [[TheContributors These people have perfected a form of]] [[Wiki/TVTropes mind control]] that [[GenreSavvy destroys ones ability to perceive fiction and reality the same way anymore]], and any mind exposed to it or will ever be exposed to it [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife is forever altered.]]

** Sharks? You mean Orca Food? It isn't for no reason Orcas have the single largest entry in Awesome on Wiki/ThisVeryWiki.

** He's not well known as a badass because he was so much of a badass that you can't make jokes about him, because anything you could think of as a joke, he really did. And then he'd punch you in the nuts with a burning tank. Seriously, just go read his entry on Wiki/TheOtherWiki, the guy is a real-life {{Wolverine}}.

* General Useful/WilliamTecumsehSherman, the Union general during the American Civil War known for his [[SaltTheEarth March to the Sea]] in which he razed Georgia and gave absolute hell to all the Confederacy supporters living in the state, as well as his VictoryByEndurance tactics in which he and his soldiers inflicted absolute cruelty on the opposing Confederate Army. His tactics during the war remained the one thing he was unapologetic for during the rest of his life. He knew that WarIsHell, and weaponized it against the Confederacy.

* Eugene Goodman, the black police officer who stood up to a mob of white supremacists during the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. His name means "Noble Good Man" and he ''lives up to it''.

* Ukranian President Zelensky became this after his outright defiance of the Russian army trying to invade Kyiv, and his refusal to personally evacuate. Very much helped by him famously saying [[BringIt "I need ammunition, not a ride."]]

* Ukranian President Zelensky became this after his outright defiance of the Russian army trying to invade Kyiv.

* Video game composer Tim Follin has gained a reputation among VGM and chiptune enthusiasts as a certified badass for his absurdly impressive compositions that absolutely blow any other works from his contemporaries out of the water for their sheer complexity and raw power, especially based on the limitations of the hardware of whatever soundchip he happened to be working with. Adding onto this are three key factors: 1) Tim has almost no formal music education and was entirely self-trained from a young age, drawing on his love for prog rock bands like Yes and Genesis as his primary education instead. 2) The games that Tim composed music for, regardless of whatever merits they may have or lack, are mostly considered to be undeserving of their soundtracks and seem in some cases wildly out of place, both for their tone and for how hard they go. And 3) Tim was known to almost completely disregard whatever game he happened to be composing for and focus instead on simply maxing out the sound capabilities of the soundchip he was working with to make it his proverbial bitch. In essence, every Tim Follin soundtrack is him flexing his skills like an absolute boss and leaving everything else about the game in the dust.

* Giuseppe Garibaldi. The saint patron of [[RagtagBunchofMisfits ragtag misfits]], he was able to take unexperienced young man and turn them in a [[BadassArmy army]]. His exploits include (but are in no way limited to): defending the city of Montevideo from a siege (after the Uruguayan army had been crushed) with an army formed only by immigrants and recently freed-slaves... '''for nine years!'''''' And winning''', causing the fall of two dictators; invading and conquering a country (Kingdom of Two Sicilies) with little more than a thousand men, and ending the campaign with an army of ''thirty thousands'' (he recruited most of the troops sent against him); escaping from his island, where he was being watched by nine ships, and then crossing Sardegna on a horse in a night and a day without stopping from resting... at sixty.

*** Chesty Puller was an commissioned Lieutenant around the end of World War I, but was put into the inactive list thanks to the military being scaled back down after the war. He then left and reapplied as a Private, fought in Haiti for five years and left as a Commissioned Lieutenant again. Yes, he demoted himself all the way back to private so he could fight, and then ''fought all the way back up to Lieutenant''.

** He was also so manly that he was the first president to grow a BadassBeard. He even used said beard to defeat the Confederate South, [[https://youtu.be/zj2Zf9tlg2Y apparently]]! (Legend has it that he grew said beard as a favor to a young admirer around the time he was elected.)

** And he had BadassBeard!

** To Americans, [[BadassBeard Tim Howard]] has this reputation (Everton fans think otherwise). David De Gea is also treated this way by Manchester United fans (and many Spanish fans). Generally, any goalkeeper who makes impossible or breathtaking saves will be considered a MemeticBadass by his team's fans.

* [[UsefulNotes/ThePope St. John Paul II]] is often likened to Franchise/JamesBond without the sex. Of course, this ''was'' a man who lived under and opposed both Nazi occupation ''and'' a Soviet puppet government, [[BadassPacifist and is credited with playing an active role]] [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp in ending Communism in Europe]] by none other than UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev himself.

* [[TheContributors These people have perfected a form of]] [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage mind control]] that [[GenreSavvy destroys ones ability to perceive fiction and reality the same way anymore]], and any mind exposed to it or will ever be exposed to it [[TvTropesWillRuinYourLife is forever altered.]]

* Gavin Gunhold.

* John Cena. He can overcome any odds. EVER. Thanks to [[NoSell his particular fighting style]], it can truly be said the only thing he sells is merchandise. Also, thanks to memes from his theme song, [[{{Invisibility}} you can't see him]].

* John Paul Jones has not yet begun to fight.

* Among people on the left, President UsefulNotes/BarackObama himself is considered a Memetic Badass. Just LOOK at all the pictures and gifs of him on Website/{{Tumblr}}—singing, dancing, doing the Vulcan salute with Nichelle Nichols (the original [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Uhura]]), the man can do it all.

** ''A man named Richard Lawrence approached Jackson with two pistols both of which, for some reason, misfired. ...Jackson proceeded to beat Lawrence near death with his cane until Jackson's aides pulled him off the assassin. The guns were inspected afterwards and it was discovered that they were in perfect working order ... we're pretty sure that the bullets, like everyone else, were simply scared of Jackson.''

* President Abraham Lincoln:

** No Cher or Joan "I Can't Feel My Face!" Rivers?
*** Well...not anymore.

** Ben Afleck once did an imitation of Morgan Freeman at his request. After seeing it, Morgan Freemon told Afleck he would kill him if he ever did it again. Yes, Morgan Freeman threatened Batman.

* Sgt. Alvin York: They had the whole thing with clucking like a turkey in the Gary Cooper movie because people wouldn't have even believed the real version. The man stood up in the middle of the forest while a machine gunners nest was shooting at him and tearing up EVERYTHING BUT HIM. He ultimately captured over 80 Germans almost single highhandedly.

* Thanks to his "performance" at the VMA, Kanye West has become a Memetic Interrupter.

* [[Series/DirtyJobs Mike Rowe]].

* Kathy Bates. Her reputation for being "difficult" is legendary, but it somehow hasn't hurt her film career.

*** And Frankie Boyle (himself a Scot) used it as an example of what Scots are like: Scotland is the only place in the world where a flaming man would be punched to the ground instead of being given medical attention.

* [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury.]] Aids didn't kill him, epic power just engulfed his body.

** As Nintendo Power once put it, "He could rip out your heart, show it to you, and then race through the original Super Mario Bros before you died."

* Both Isaiah Mustafa and Terry Crews for their Old Spice commercials. Bonus points for displaying an example of a [[RedOniBlueOni two-person trope]] even though they've never appeared in the same commercial. ''That's how badass they are.''

* Among many of his fans, Creator/ChristopherLee is thought of like this. Want evidence? Go and read the comments of this Website/YouTube [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84i82QxNk74 video]]. He seems to be older and more cultured version of Chuck Norris. The fact that he really ''is'' amazingly talented in a lot of different areas (as shown on his page) just backs it up.
** Do you know what sound a man makes when he's stabbed in the back with a dagger, for real? Christopher Lee does.

** Christopher Lee played Scaramanga in [[Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun The Man with the Golden Gun]]. In real life, he was one of the people the character of James Bond was based on (British Intelligence agents).

* What do ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' and ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' have in common, aside from both films being the box office topper? Creator/ZoeSaldana in a starring ActionGirl role. Apparently, the key to even hoping to get to the top of the box office is to cast [[Creator/ZoeSaldana Zoe]] in the film.

* Creator/JackPalance gained newfound fame thanks to his role in Film/CitySlickers playing a bad ass with one-liners that probably inspired the Creator/ChuckNorris meme. He earned an Academy Award for the part, and celebrated by doing push-ups on stage...at age 73. The following year Crystal came on stage to host the show on a giant Oscar statue that Palance was pulling by his teeth.
--> '''Jack Palance''': Billy Crystal... I crap bigger than him.

* Kazimierz Piechowski, a Polish soldier during World War II. Along with three other men, he escaped from Auschwitz. Yes, that Auschwitz. How they did it? They stole uniforms and a car (belonging to Rudolf Hess himself!) and drove out. The best part? They were unlucky and a guard post was standing on their way. Piechowski, fluent in German, proceeded to flip the fuck out in German on the guardsmen and they let them through. BAD. ASS.

* If Mike Tyson starts losing a match he'll eat the ear of his opponent to win!

* if Australia can kill Steve Irwin, what chance do YOU have?

** The German term `stormtrooper`, later used to describe elite units in both Allied and Axis armies in [=WW2=], was coined as a nickname for the Canadian Corps.

* [[Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood Mr Rogers]] is an interesting example, being such an icon of IncorruptiblePurePureness and basically one of the nicest people who ever lived that people either tried to dig up any kind of dirt on him that they could (the worst thing they could find was him flipping the double bird...which was taken out of context) or made up MemeticBadass rumors about him, like how he was a sniper in Vietnam. Then of course, there's the fact that he's the winner of the UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny.

* Bryan Cranston can go from [[Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle a lovable dorky father]] to [[Series/BreakingBad a badass, evil drug kingpin]] to [[Film/{{Argo}} a CIA agent]] to Lyndon B. Johnson, all without breaking a sweat. Oh, and most of the time, he's usually in his underwear.

** UsefulNotes/JohnAdams proved that the concept of memetic badassery is OlderThanYouThink by laying out how both Washington and his fellow revolutionary UsefulNotes/BenjaminFranklin were likely to be remembered.

* Duct Tape. Is there anything it can't do, [[NonIndicativeName except seal ducts]]?

* John Cena. He can overcome any odds. EVER. Thanks to [[NoSell his particular fighting style]], it can truly be said the only thing he sells is merchandise.

* [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 The Soldier]] may be a CloudCuckooLander, but his respect for Sun Tzu is justified. One of these days, actually go ahead and read ''Literature/{{The Art of War|SunTzu}}''. Then, look into what's known about Sun Tzu's life and history (both proven and rumoured). Trust me... [[RealityIsUnrealistic The Soldier is probably not]] [[CrazyAwesome that far off]]...

* Florida Man. News reports constantly report the CrazyAwesome antics of something that could happen OnlyInFlorida, usually involving some [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Trevor Phillips]] like carnage, generally while on meth.

* Rahm Emanuel, former Obama administration chief-of-staff, American political operative of legendary action and [[ClusterFBomb even more legendary language]], current mayor of UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, whom the news media, every other political operative in Washington, and Obama himself are incapable of ''not'' telling Chuck Norris-style jokes about. The man was nicknamed "The Enforcer" when he worked for Clinton, and once [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome sent Illinois governor Bruce Rauner a dead fish in the mail]] during a feud between the two. Obama publicly joked that the surviving the amputation of [[FlippingTheBird a middle finger]] after a teenage meat slicer accident rendered Rahm ''practically mute''. They don't call him "Rahmbo" for nothing.

* The blue whale. It's the largest animal on Earth right now and probably ever (''Argentinosaurus'' might have been longer, but may not have been as heavy), and people have come up with some rather Website/ChuckNorrisFacts-esque tall tales about exactly ''how'' big it is. Per Wiki/ThatOtherWiki, other badass memes about the blue whale include that a human can swim through its arteries, that its heartbeat can be heard 19 miles away, and that [[GagPenis it has a 16-foot penis]]. Admit it, until just now you thought all those things were actually true.

*** [[Literature/MoreInformationThanYouRequire Teddy Roosevelt once had a presidential aide who was suffering from the dread disease tuberculosis. TR organized a staring contest and STARED THE TB RIGHT OUT OF HIM.]]
*** How can you compare to the only president ever to get in a knife fight with a cougar? Where the cougar got the knife, no one knows...
*** And, to top of the badassery, this man [[BloodKnight who would fight anyone and anything for the sheer hell of it]] won a '''Nobel Peace Prize!''' And, after his death, they awarded him the '''Medal of Honor''' for his actions in the Spanish-American War, the only man to win both.

*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRom1Rz8OA This]] video has the most accurate explanation of George Washington's badassery.

** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint It is a shame though]] [[ShoutOut that]] [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Maul]] [[KilledOffForReal didn't aim for his beard]].

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