Tropescilloscope: Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass

An idiot who can become awesome in situations. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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More Tropes Music Stories Zombie Stories Yandere You Have Failed Me Villain Song Black Dude Dies First Happily Married Bond One-Liner Death Glare Mythology Gag Empathic Environment Mad Scientist Artistic License – Military Love Triangle Chase Scene Those Wacky Nazis Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Leitmotif Knight Templar Hollywood Law Affectionate Parody The Smart Guy Groin Attack Does Not Like Shoes Pimped-Out Dress Vomit Discretion Shot Insistent Terminology Unspoken Plan Guarantee Broken Aesop Film Series Rated M for Manly No Good Deed Goes Unpunished La Résistance Did Not Get the Girl Calling the Old Man Out Works Set in World War II Demoted to Extra Evil Brit Badass Boast Imagine Spot From Nobody to Nightmare Eye Scream You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Never Found the Body Manipulative Bastard Big Damn Heroes Storming the Castle Idiot Ball Shipper on Deck Catch-Phrase B-Movie Arc Words Shirtless Scene Epic Fail One Steve Limit Science Fiction Films Closed Circle Manly Tears Take That! Double Entendre Russian Films Evil-Detecting Dog Informed Ability Ungrateful Bastard Pretty in Mink Daylight Horror Call-Forward O.O.C. Is Serious Business Gold Digger Covers Always Lie Refuge in Audacity Blatant Lies The Casanova Based on a True Story Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Moment Killer Italian Films Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Jerk with a Heart of Gold The Dreaded Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Once More, with Clarity! The Atoner Names to Run Away from Really Fast Setting Update Anguished Declaration of Love timeperiod Awesome, but Impractical The Mafia Dressing as the Enemy Ms. Fanservice Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Rape as Drama Blood Knight I Did What I Had to Do Bald of Evil Visual Pun Tranquil Fury Parental Incest Black Comedy Race Against the Clock Kubrick Stare Action Prologue Improvised Weapon Line-of-Sight Name Rasputinian Death Rule of Symbolism Not What It Looks Like Gilligan Cut Slasher Movie Brick Joke Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Fanservice Catapult Nightmare A Father to His Men Bolivian Army Ending The '80s Pyrrhic Victory Spared by the Adaptation Ax-Crazy Get Out! Unusually Uninteresting Sight What You Are in the Dark Artistic License – History Nice Guy Public Domain Feature Films Eiffel Tower Effect Ambiguous Disorder Camera Abuse Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping In Medias Res Early Installment Weirdness Boom, Headshot! Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Self-Deprecation Five-Man Band Naked People Are Funny The Un-Reveal Getting Crap Past the Radar Aside Glance Dies Wide Open BFG "Awesome McCool" Name The Dog Bites Back Death by Adaptation Race Lift Gratuitous English Pretty Little Headshots Scenery Porn Irony Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Horror Films The Lancer Mexican Standoff Agony of the Feet Reality Has No Subtitles Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience What Happened to the Mouse? A Date with Rosie Palms Historical In-Joke The Film of the Book Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Older Than They Look Madness Mantra Femme Fatale Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Improbable Weapon User Sports Stories An Arm and a Leg Handicapped Badass Slashed Throat Celebrity Paradox Punch-Clock Villain Male Frontal Nudity Ambiguous Ending Psycho for Hire Half the Man He Used to Be Failed a Spot Check Sequel Hook Disney Villain Death Deconstruction Greater-Scope Villain Meaningful Background Event Author Appeal The Lost Lenore Driven to Suicide One-Word Title Biopic Skewed Priorities Stepford Smiler Japanese Films The Ditz Corrupt Corporate Executive Tagline Book-Ends Vitriolic Best Buds Better to Die than Be Killed Mercy Kill Mama Bear Back from the Dead Put on a Bus Only a Flesh Wound Up to Eleven The Cameo Really Gets Around Jerkass Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Shout-Out Abhorrent Admirer She Cleans Up Nicely Hair-Trigger Temper Drill Sergeant Nasty Dogged Nice Guy Composite Character There Is No Kill Like Overkill Offscreen Teleportation My God, What Have I Done? Let's Get Dangerous! Twist Ending Amoral Attorney Heroic BSoD Translation Convention Brainless Beauty Death Seeker Fatal Family Photo Cool Guns The Chessmaster Big Applesauce Heroes Want Redheads The Hero Dies Alpha Bitch Badass Grandpa Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Armor-Piercing Question Say My Name Bavarian Fire Drill Rule of Three Time Skip Obfuscating Stupidity Maybe Ever After Male Gaze Lampshade Hanging Darkest Hour The Reveal Crucified Hero Shot Action Genre It's Personal Film Noir Man on Fire German Films Unresolved Sexual Tension Real Life Writes the Plot Adaptational Badass No-Sell Age Lift Big Bad Mooks The Alcoholic Shown Their Work Lighter and Softer Film Noir Index Protagonist Title Green-Eyed Monster Redemption Equals Death Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Those Two Bad Guys No Ending The End... Or Is It? Morality Pet Bloodless Carnage Authority Equals Asskicking Star-Crossed Lovers It Can Think Lock and Load Montage Never My Fault Easily Forgiven Bad Boss The '50s Meaningful Echo No Celebrities Were Harmed Cool Car Fainting World of Ham Precision F-Strike Only in It for the Money Crazy Jealous Guy Country Matters Roaring Rampage of Revenge Sadistic Choice Facial Horror Horror Comedy Genre Savvy Ironic Echo Made of Iron Manic Pixie Dream Girl Genre Throwback Silence Is Golden Dirty Cop Arranged Marriage Damsel in Distress Made of Explodium Alliterative Name Intrepid Reporter Taking the Bullet Earn Your Happy Ending Adaptational Villainy N-Word Privileges Red Eyes, Take Warning Hate Sink Car Fu Large Ham Obstructive Bureaucrat Fiery Redhead Continuity Nod Major Injury Underreaction Badass Longcoat Karma Houdini Crapsack World Woman Scorned Disproportionate Retribution Gainax Ending Word of God Historical Villain Upgrade I Need a Freaking Drink An Axe to Grind Hypocrite Smug Snake "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Mood Whiplash Hollywood Darkness Big Bad Duumvirate Break the Cutie Expository Hairstyle Change Gorn Grey and Gray Morality Together in Death Big Eater No Antagonist Took a Level in Badass For the Evulz A God Am I Romantic False Lead Hypocritical Humor Accidental Misnaming Dirty Old Man Bottomless Magazines Didn't Think This Through Important Haircut Big Brother Instinct Reality Is Unrealistic Grievous Bottley Harm He Who Fights Monsters Darker and Edgier The '60s Babies Ever After The '70s Death of a Child Action Survivor Red Shirt Bi the Way Stuff Blowing Up Animal Title Index Casting Gag Becoming the Mask Pragmatic Adaptation Attempted Rape Christmas Movies Index Spanner in the Works Final Girl Throwing Your Sword Always Works Television Movie Index Beard of Evil Face–Heel Turn '80s Hair Big-Bad Ensemble Immune to Bullets Needs Wiki Magic Love Sole Survivor Only Known by Their Nickname Action Girl Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Silent Movie Off-into-the-Distance Ending The Brute Riddle for the Ages Dark Is Not Evil The Ace Badass Bookworm Rousing Speech NO INDOOR VOICE Mystery and Detective Films Ambiguously Gay Jump Scare Dramatic Gun Cock Cassandra Truth Comically Missing the Point Hope Spot Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Eagleland Due to the Dead Animal Motifs The Place Insane Troll Logic Chekhov's Gunman Famous Last Words Posthumous Character Cowboy Cop Our Vampires Are Different Wrong Genre Savvy As Long as It Sounds Foreign Break the Haughty Foil All There in the Script Cruel and Unusual Death As Himself Cold-Blooded Torture Heel Realization Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Peek-a-Boo Corpse Evil vs. Evil Chekhov's Skill Sexy Discretion Shot Random Events Plot Video Credits The Dragon Alas, Poor Villain Jerk Jock Sealed Evil in a Can Interrupted Suicide Product Placement Establishing Character Moment Stylistic Suck The Bully Cat Fight Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Men Are the Expendable Gender Same Language Dub Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Demonic Possession Cool Old Guy The Stinger Index of Film Westerns Disney Death My Greatest Failure Villain Protagonist Chekhov's Gun My Beloved Smother Martial Arts Movie Disappeared Dad Bad "Bad Acting" Sanity Slippage Guns Akimbo Bare Your Midriff Last-Name Basis Only Sane Man Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Extreme Doormat An Aesop Fate Worse than Death Deus ex Machina Spell My Name with an "S" Knife Nut Improbable Aiming Skills Punny Name British Films War Is Hell Central Theme Fatal Flaw Australian Movies Chewing the Scenery Deliberate Values Dissonance Adaptation Distillation Coming-of-Age Story Straight Gay And the Adventure Continues Mighty Whitey Bunny-Ears Lawyer Contrived Coincidence Wham Shot Beware the Nice Ones I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Title Drop Unwitting Instigator of Doom Novelization Super Strength Badass in a Nice Suit Meet Cute Your Cheating Heart Tap on the Head Plot Hole Adaptation Name Change Evil Is Petty Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Not Even Bothering with the Accent Vacation Films Epic Movie Freeze-Frame Bonus Black and Gray Morality Cain and Abel Belligerent Sexual Tension Broken Bird Distracted by the Sexy Dull Surprise Scary Black Man Loads and Loads of Characters Dwindling Party The Voiceless The Power of Love No Name Given Meaningful Name Tempting Fate The Cavalry You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Anti-Villain Missing Mom Wham Line Anachronic Order Slap-Slap-Kiss Hell Is That Noise Totally Radical Malevolent Masked Men Dutch Angle Heroic Sacrifice Bittersweet Ending All Men Are Perverts Romantic Comedy Laughing Mad The Smurfette Principle How We Got Here No OSHA Compliance Homage Hero Antagonist Not Quite Dead Re-Cut Sinister Minister Our Zombies Are Different Taking You with Me Brutal Honesty Henpecked Husband The Big Guy Exactly What It Says on the Tin Dirty Coward Evil Plan Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Adaptational Attractiveness Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Noodle Incident Mugging the Monster Shoot the Shaggy Dog Too Dumb to Live Guile Hero Villainous Breakdown Papa Wolf Victoria's Secret Compartment May–December Romance Serious Business Off with His Head! Stealth Pun Your Head A-Splode Hidden Depths Historical Hero Upgrade The Chick Kill 'em All Bury Your Gays Beta Couple Fake Shemp The Sociopath Every Car Is a Pinto Anti-Hero Rule of Funny Neck Lift Black Best Friend Big Fancy House Sacrificial Lion Domestic Abuse Death by Irony Reality Ensues As the Good Book Says... Author Avatar Depraved Bisexual Sci-Fi Horror Jerkass Has a Point Auto Erotica Laser-Guided Karma Not So Stoic Batman Gambit Heterosexual Life-Partners Documentary The Stoic Corpsing Vampire Fiction Bring My Brown Pants The Ghost For Want of a Nail Psychological Thriller Evil Laugh Take a Third Option Would Hit a Girl Manchild Chiaroscuro Cat Scare Foreshadowing Drugs Are Bad The Quiet One Would Hurt a Child Ship Tease Narrator Monumental Damage Thriller Diabolus ex Machina Logo Joke Fourth Date Marriage Good Is Not Nice Scenery Gorn Make It Look Like an Accident Friend to All Children The Great Depression French Films True Companions Spiteful Spit Love at First Sight Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Framing Device Dual Wielding Stock Footage Instant Death Bullet Exact Words Double-Meaning Title All for Nothing Bowdlerise Here We Go Again! Properly Paranoid Cloudcuckoolander Shell-Shocked Veteran You Killed My Father Soundtrack Dissonance Obviously Evil Rich Bitch Despair Event Horizon Sequel Escalation Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Sassy Black Woman Took a Level in Jerkass Brother–Sister Incest Cluster F-Bomb Jitter Cam Card-Carrying Villain Defrosting Ice Queen Eureka Moment Antagonist Title Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Apocalypse How Bilingual Bonus Expy Advertised Extra MacGuffin Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Fantastic Racism Dramatic Irony Betty and Veronica Be Careful What You Wish For The Vamp Outrun the Fireball Spiritual Successor The Load The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite The Faceless Ominous Latin Chanting Pre-Mortem One-Liner Canon Foreigner Match Cut Disguised in Drag Breaking the Fourth Wall The Starscream Red Herring Pragmatic Villainy Dumb Blonde Suspiciously Specific Denial Reckless Gun Usage Ass Shove Kick the Son of a Bitch The Musical Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Cool Old Lady Flashback Dark Action Girl Affably Evil Wounded Gazelle Gambit Room Full of Crazy Drives Like Crazy Nice Hat Aluminum Christmas Trees Retired Badass Politically Incorrect Villain Fan Disservice Deadpan Snarker Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Scare Chord Mistaken for Gay Adults Are Useless All Girls Want Bad Boys Slasher Smile Trailers Always Spoil Humiliation Conga The Oner Air-Vent Passageway From Bad to Worse A.I. Is a Crapshoot What the Hell, Hero? Motor Mouth Developing Doomed Characters The Hero Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Karmic Death Gender Flip Bar Brawl Fantasy Films Toplessness from the Back "Well Done, Son!" Guy Mind Screw Dark and Troubled Past A Minor Kidroduction It's All About Me Pet the Dog Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Dropped a Bridge on Him Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Humans Are Bastards Extremely Short Timespan Defiant to the End Decoy Protagonist Even Evil Has Loved Ones Villain Ball Bait-and-Switch Deliberately Monochrome Implacable Man Dark Reprise Gory Discretion Shot Unreliable Narrator Kids Are Cruel Faux Affably Evil Conspicuous CG Freudian Excuse Soft Glass Redshirt Army Annoying Younger Sibling As You Know Offscreen Moment of Awesome Small Name, Big Ego Ripped from the Headlines Married to the Job Berserk Button Asshole Victim Artistic License – Gun Safety Red Oni, Blue Oni In the Back folderlabel Villain with Good Publicity Light Is Not Good Reasonable Authority Figure Foregone Conclusion Overly Long Gag Adaptation Dye-Job Artistic License – Law Costume Porn Villain Opening Scene Call-Back Plucky Comic Relief Fish out of Water Well-Intentioned Extremist Leaning on the Fourth Wall The Alleged Car Serial Killer Character Development Heel–Face Turn Cool Shades All There in the Manual The '90s Everyone Has Standards Vomit Indiscretion Shot Ghost Fiction Rewatch Bonus Shut Up, Hannibal! Award-Bait Song Determinator Frame-Up Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Parental Substitute Playing Gertrude Credits Gag Real Life Leave the Camera Running Left the Background Music On Insult Backfire The Mole Nothing Is Scarier Rule of Cool Killed Mid-Sentence Face Death with Dignity Wicked Cultured Children Are Innocent And Starring Big "NO!" Danny Peary Cult Movies List Poor Communication Kills Determinator aka: The Determinator Canadian Movies Very Loosely Based on a True Story Arch-Enemy Anyone Can Die Destination Defenestration Black Comedy Rape This Is Gonna Suck Naïve Newcomer Show Within a Show Blackmail Enemy Mine Hero of Another Story Adaptation Expansion 20 Minutes into the Future Red Right Hand Woman in White Dramedy Artistic License – Physics Undying Loyalty Training Montage Bound and Gagged Not So Above It All Loophole Abuse Adult Fear Evil Is Hammy Death by Sex Pay Evil unto Evil Suspiciously Similar Substitute Does This Remind You of Anything? Creator Cameo Ascended Extra Police Brutality Funny Background Event Butt-Monkey Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Revenge Bloodier and Gorier Broken Pedestal Badass Normal Actor Allusion Whole Plot Reference Animated Credits Opening The Bad Guy Wins Only One Name Almost Kiss Kill It with Fire Suddenly SHOUTING! Evil Sounds Deep Mr. Fanservice Fanservice Extra Downer Ending Kick the Dog Stealth Hi/Bye After the End Adapted Out I Have Your Wife Gone Horribly Right Paper-Thin Disguise Fun with Acronyms And I Must Scream Eyepatch of Power Psychopathic Manchild She's Got Legs Bland-Name Product Non-Indicative Name Running Gag Drowning My Sorrows Market-Based Title Funny Foreigner Even Evil Has Standards Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Deal with the Devil Hoist by His Own Petard Accidental Murder Faking the Dead Genre Shift Daddy's Girl Curse Cut Short Not So Different Mundane Made Awesome Combat Pragmatist More Dakka Those Two Guys Overprotective Dad One-Man Army Curb-Stomp Battle Evil Counterpart The Remake Wretched Hive Screw the Money, I Have Rules! The X of Y Dissonant Serenity "The Reason You Suck" Speech "Shaggy Dog" Story Sir Swears-a-Lot I'm a Humanitarian Retirony Flipping the Bird Captain Ersatz Beauty Is Never Tarnished Not Using the "Z" Word Blood from the Mouth Captain Obvious Superhero Fingore Mr. Exposition Truth in Television Recycled IN SPACE! He Knows Too Much Anachronism Stew I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Unusual Euphemism Worthy Opponent Department of Redundancy Department Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Dying Moment of Awesome Retcon Eldritch Abomination Artistic License – Geography Hooker with a Heart of Gold Fire-Forged Friends Camp Gay Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Bloody Hilarious Crazy-Prepared Body Horror Parental Neglect No-Holds-Barred Beatdown In Name Only The Stoner Historical-Domain Character Military and Warfare Films Intergenerational Friendship Parental Abandonment Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Amusing Injuries Fat Bastard Creative Closing Credits Adorkable Artistic License – Biology Bond Villain Stupidity Never Trust a Trailer Token Minority Have a Gay Old Time Early-Bird Cameo Creepy Child Adaptational Heroism Neck Snap Actually Pretty Funny Four-Temperament Ensemble Police are Useless Bullying a Dragon All Just a Dream Abusive Parents Honor Before Reason Screw This, I'm Outta Here! It Will Never Catch On Smoking Is Cool Oh, Crap! Shower Scene Hong Kong Films Stalker with a Crush