Combat Pragmatist/Live Action TV

• In a pirate themed episode of Married With Children, Captain Courage (Al) and Rubio the Cruel (Steve) are sword fighting for Scarlett's (Peg) freedom, Rubio boasts, "How can you think to beat me? I was taught swordfighting by the finest teachers of the finest schools in Europe!" Courage simply says: "Oh yeah, I learned in the streets!" and knees Rubio in the nads, winning the battle.
  • Bud also applies this trope on a few occasions. When he gets into his first barfight at the nudie bar, a seasoned veteran decides to give the "rookie" a free shot. Bud immediately smashes him over the head with a chair, which makes Al very proud.
• Michael Westen in Burn Notice. As he explains in the Season 3 episode, "Friends and Family", "Spies are not trained to fight fair. Spies are trained to win." He always explains via voice-over what he's doing and why he's doing it. For example, in a car chase, he explains that small-caliber weapons can't penetrate the engine block, so it's best to aim for the windshield, or try to ricochet bullets up from the ground, as it's really hard to drive when you've got bullets coming at you from under your car.
  • He once used a copy of Cat Fancy magazine to beat up some loan shark thugs. In another episode, he teaches self-protection techniques to a kid with a bully problem, including feigning submission and headbutting
  • The other two members of Michael's Power Trio, Sam and Fiona, fit this as well. One episode has Fiona showing that she had no qualms about subduing a thug she was trying to capture with a well-placed beanbag shotgun round to the thug's groin.
• Sam from iCarly will cheat as much as possible in any combat related event. She ran around with an extra half-dozen blowtubes for her game of paintball assassin with Spencer.
  • Apparently she's also knocked out a trucker with a jug of milk, according to Carly.
• Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly goes here too. Man cheats in a fight every real chance he gets.
  • Similarly, the Operative fights dirty too. As Mal himself exclaims, "You shot me in the back!"
    • Notably in this scene from Serenity (according to the DVD commentary, it was created as a deliberate subversion of the controversial Greedo Shot First incident, and was the second of three "Mal shoots an unarmed man" moments just in the film proper).

Operative: "I want to resolve this like civilized men. I'm not threatening you... I'm unarmed..."
Mal: "Good."

Mal shoots him, turns to run. Operative grabs Mal from behind.

Operative: "I am of course wearing full body armor - I am not a moron!"

• • • It might be thought that Mal is still honorable enough not to shoot a man who isn't wearing a helmet in the head, but hitting someone with a from-the-hip quick-draw like that, you're lucky to actually hit them, let alone shoot them in the head. That he managed a direct torso hit is testament to Mal's skill, not his honor.
  • He also got in a couple of jabs at his opponent after he'd clearly won a sword fight in Shindig.

Mal: They say mercy is the mark of a great man. *poke* Maybe I'm just a good man. *poke* I'm alright.

• • River also fights quite dirty when she goes loopy, going as far as crushing Jayne's genitals.
  • For that matter, Jayne himself. And Zoe "sand in the eyes" Washburn, who throws dirt in someone's eyes in The Train Job.
  • The only person who fights even remotely fair is Simon in Safe, and that was only because he was unarmed, outnumbered, and had never been in a fight before. Simon might be one of those people who actually read the Marquis of Fantailler (above). Though he isn't adverse to choking a guy to unconsciousness with his knee.
  • He did drug Jayne in "The Train Job" to prevent him from taking over the ship.
    • And once made it perfectly clear to Jayne on a later occasion (while Jayne was restrained and medicated in the sickbay due to a back injury) that he was not to be trifled with because Jayne depended on Simon when he was most vulnerable. Simon doesn't fight dirty because, when given a choice, Simon doesn't fight. He's smart enough to just slip you something that will make you fall asleep. If you're lucky.
    • It also helps that his sister can kill you with her mind. And her everything else too.
  • Pretty much every fight in Firefly that isn't caused by alcohol is this trope.
    • From the fight in the second episode: "Actually, I just said that so that she could get behind you."
  • I think the fighting philosophy of much of the Firefly crew can be summed up by Jayne's line from the movie that "I'll kill a man in a fair fight... or if I think he's gonna start a fair fight."
• Angel had a few of these, which is surprising considering that it's high fantasy, and the protagonist is nearly indestructible. Especially when considering how over the top its parent show could be. Probably the best example would be Lindsey's hand. Lindsey dangles a scroll that Angel desperately needs to save Cordelia over an open fire while goading Angel. So Angel cuts the guy's hand off at the wrist then casually walks over and picks the scroll up.
  • And, lets not forget Russel Winters,Lindsey: "So you kicked him out a window."
• Or from Buffy:

Buffy: "Don't make me do the chick fight thing."
Kendra: "Cheek faaaiitt?" (Buffy digs her nails into Kendra's skin.)

• • The best examples from this series comes from the defeat of the Judge and the final battle with Glory. The Judge was an immortal demon (meaning that you could cut him to pieces and he'd return alive as soon as the pieces are reassembled) and invulnerable to forged weapon: Buffy followed Xander's advice and shot him with a rocket launcher. Glory was a goddess too powerful for Buffy to match in normal combat: Buffy and the gang slugged her with the hammer of a troll god and a wrecking ball, and when Glory retreated and left control of the body to Ben Giles calmly walked up and strangled him, killing a goddess in the process.
• While in Professional Wrestling cheating to win a match usually makes you a bad guy, several noted wrestlers have gotten famous as nontraditional babyfaces who beat the heels through all manner of dirty tricks. The two most famous examples would probably be Eddie Guerrero, who would win matches by (among other things) throwing a chair to an opponent and flopping to the mat as though he had been hit and was one of the most beloved men in the industry despite having "I lie, I cheat, I steal" as his personal slogan, and the legendary Ric Flair, world renowned as "The Dirtiest Player in the Game" who would beat the opposition with eye gouges and the dreaded "testicular claw".
  • You can call this a gutless rationalization if you like, but technically Eddie's chair trick wasn't illegal because it didn't require him to touch his opponent. The only three actions that can get a wrestler disqualified are 1) hitting your opponent in the groin or using another dirty strike, or using a dirty grapple and not releasing it in five seconds; 2) hitting the referee; or 3) hitting someone not involved in the match, in which case you essentially get disqualified for being a dick. You can also get disqualified if another person hits your opponent or the referee, which isn't really fair.
  • Finlay, in his current WWE run, is a more recent example. To Finlay, every part of the ring is a weapon, including the apron (which he utilizes as a net to trap wrestlers trying daring-leap-to-the-outside or baseball-slide maneuvers). And, just in case things start really going south and he needs a real weapon, he always has his shillelagh waiting for him in the corner. And did we mention he's a Face?
  • And then there's Money in the Bank, a Gimmick Match whose winner can claim a title shot any time within the next year. It usually gets cashed in right after the current champ has gotten thoroughly beat up by someone else.
• An episode of Seinfeld has Jerry and George ask Elaine which of the two would win in a fight. Elaine says George, on the basis that he would fight dirty. George happily admits it, and Jerry happily accepts it. This is confirmed in a later episode where the three of them fight, and George does win.
• Starbuck in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica Reimagined, particularly during the episode Scar, wherein Viper pilots are confronted with a deadly, newly-motivated enemy sortie, who utilises all sorts of tricks and decoys.

Starbuck: 'This isn't dueling pistols at dawn, this is war. You never wanna fight fair. You wanna sneak up behind your enemy, and club 'em over the head. You see, Scar understands that. And so do I. So, that's why I'm gonna kill him.'

• • Of course, the most pragmatic thing Starbuck ends up doing in that fight is swallowing her pride and luring Scar into an ambush so that someone else can take the kill and get the glory.
  • Colonel Tigh took this trope to a much wider field during the occupation of New Caprica. Suicide bombers, random violence -- "I'm on the side of the demons."
• 24 Jack Bauer especially but also many of his opponents. He'll use sneak attacks and break bones, kick in kneecaps, and shoot to incapacitate or coerce. His fighting style is brutal with little or no flourish.
  • This gets taken to utterly pants-shitting levels at times. Early in Day 6 whilst tied to a chair and being tortured, he waits until the mook has his back turned, and removes the cuff on his EKG from his arm, causing it to flatline. He plays dead while the mook comes over to check on him and then TAKES A CHOMP OUT OF THE DUDE'S FUCKING NECK.
• A producer's write-up on The Avengers' John Steed, to guide writers of episodes, specifically stated that "he fights like a cad and uses every dirty trick in the book..."
• If you take out the wacky sound effect frames and just look at how Batman fights in the 60s TV show, you'll see that he gets fairly brutal. At one point, he rips a lead pipe off a wall and beats a Mook with it.
• Star Trek the Original Series: Captain Kirk, despite fighting dirty whenever possible, is still seen as one of the most honorable men in the galaxy.
• Garak from Star Trek Deep Space Nine. It's best summed up in this exchange.

Odo: 'You'd shoot a man in the back?'
Garak: 'Well, it's the safest way, isn't it?'

• • Weyoun. Of the more strategic type than actual throw-downs, the idea that there are 'rules' in combat is a notion he is only aware of so that he can manipulate other people. This may be a trait of the Vorta in general, given that they are a genetically engineered race.
  • And Major Kira. As has been noted elsewhere, fair tactics do not keep one alive in the Bajoran Rebellion. Therefore, Kira doesn't use them.
    • Deep Space Nine didn't shy away from calling the Bajoran Resistance fighters terrorists. Terrorism is generally referred to as perfectly legitimate tactics, and not just in the back story.
  • By Klingon standards General Martok can seem like this. He is perfectly willing to perform hit and run, and strike weak enemies, and cut-off supply lines rather than directly engage. Being a Klingon, he really doesn't like these tactics (They're not very fun), but he feels that winning the war is more important than earning honor and glory in individual battles.
• Babylon 5: John Sheridan used a distress signal to lure a Minbari capital ship in an asteroid field mined with fusion bombs. Garibaldi put it best:

Garibaldi: "[...] Right now, according to his file, Sheridan is a good tactical thinker. He can take an inferior defensive force and turn it into an offensive force capable of taking on a better-equipped enemy. Now, he did it with the Black Star, he did it during the Mars riots. Now, you ask me, he is the one chance we've got to make it through this thing alive."

• • Do note that in the incident with Black Star, he's actually sending out REAL distress signal.
  • Note that Sheridan was merely beating the Minbari at their own game, the Black Star wasn't coming to help. Minbari tactics were to listen for human distress calls then come to finish them off even though they're crippled and no threat. Dirty play indeed.
• Cameron of The Sarah Connor Chronicles does not know of any other way to fight. For example, at one point she casually shoves another Terminator through a wall and blows its prone body apart with a grenade launcher. She also has no qualms with dropping a Terminator down an elevator shaft, and then dropping the elevator on said Terminator. Being a Terminator herself and given the kind of opponents she faces, this pretty much comes with the territory.
• The Rockford Files: Jim Rockford definitely fits. Whether it's low blows, improvised weapons, or distractions, he uses any dirty fighting technique he can think of. Lampshaded in one case, where he makes sure he has the Mook's attention, goes into the bathroom, spreads soap all over the floor, slips a roll of quarters into his hand to up the impact on his punch, and, when the guy follows him in, goads him into attacking first so he'll slip and be easier to cold-cock. He then tells the recumbent idiot that "the problem with Karate is it's based on the ludicrous notion that the other guy is gonna fight fair."
• Odd case in Deadliest Warrior. For the choreographed fight scenes at the end of each episode, if somebody has a ranged weapon, they immediately use it, and it never succeeds in making a kill, typically for implausible reasons (except in Pirate vs. Knight where tests earlier in the show showed that the pirate's guns could not pierce the knight's armor). Note however, that those fights are only for show and have nothing to do with how with how the fights in the simulated program turn out, not matter how onesided the scores of kills are. The fights in the simulator program actually work under the example of the fighters being an example of this trope in Apache vs. Gladiator, more then a fifth of the fights ended with the Apache just killing the gladiator with his bow.
  • It should be pointed out that, in several instances, one side of the fight or the other actually called foul over the fact that these tactics weren't factored into the calculations. Most spectacularly was the Ninja Vs Spartan battle; the ninja was hopelessly outmatched in "honorable", head-to-head combat, to which the representative team quite rightly pointed out that the ninja was equipped for stealthy, quick, brutal and surprising attacks after which he would (hopefully) escape.
• Methos in Highlander the Series. If the fight's going against him, Methos is not above feigning helplessness (such as pretending to slip) and then, when his opponent moves in for the kill, drawing a hidden dagger and stabbing him.
• In Malcolm in the Middle Malcolm, Dewey and Reese teach Craig how to win a fight by any means necessary.

Reese: So, once you've taken out his eyes, you can take your time and really get creative. Personally, I like to leave at least one sense working, so he can tell what's happening to him.

• On The West Wing, campaign consultants Bruno Giannelli and Lou are political equivalents of this, in contrast to most of the other protagonists, who are more principled and idealistic.
• On Smallville Clark Kent of all people does not believe in a fair fight. His usual strategy boils down to "clock you in the head from behind at 500 miles an hour."
  • Tess Mercer is just as bad, if not worse.
• Pierce in Community episode Comparative Religion claims to be using this to try and help teach Jeff fighting, but actually he just wanted an excuse to kick Jeff (and Troy) in the shin.
• Gawain in Camelot explains the philosophy of pragmatic combat to Arthur and his merry men. It takes them a while to accept the idea.
• In The Office (US), the duel between Michael and Dwight proves the point. While Dwight uses honorable combat and martial arts, he gets easily defeated by Michael's schoolyard bully tactics.
  • Plus there was that other duel Dwight fought against Andy. Dwight again tried to fight honorably, but Andy opted to use his electric (and therefore silent) car to sneak up on Dwight and pin him against a fence.
• In an episode of Legend of the Seeker, Kahlan is kidnapped and kept in a dungeon. She finally escapes after the guards give her a plate of stale bread to eat. She takes the metal plate, folds it in half, creating a sharp corner, and stabs her guards with it. Stay in the Kitchen does not work on this woman.
• Eliot can be like this on Leverage. Mr. Quinn and Roper are as well, with the former comboing Talk to the Fist with Kick Them While They Are Down and the latter deliberately targeting a concussed Eliot in a hall of mirrors.
• Law and Order Special Victims Unit In the Season 10 episode, "Crush", Stabler attempts to question an arrogant suspect in a gym in a boxing ring, only for the guy to tell Stabler to wait until he's done. Stabler gets into the ring, and the guy to takes a swing at him. Stabler dodges it and knocks him down, to which the suspect yells that it was a cheap shot, to which Stabler replies, "I though it was a street fight".
• In Red Dwarf Rimmer tries to persuade Lister to be this:

Rimmer: "What are you waiting for? Gloop him."
Lister: "I can't. He's not armed."
Rimmer: "Lister, this isn't a Scout meeting. We're not trying to win the
Best-Behaved Troop flag. Gloop him."
Lister: "What? In the back?"
Rimmer: "Of course in the back. It's only a pity he's awake."
Lister: "You mean you could happily kill him if he was asleep?"
Rimmer: "I could happily kill him if he was on the job. Gloop him."