Tropescilloscope: Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass

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

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