Comedic Hero

Tons of gadgets, milligrams of brain.

The Comedic Hero is a less-than-competent protagonist who nevertheless succeeds despite his best efforts. He might have dumb luck on his side, or a Hypercompetent Sidekick might be watching his back with or without his knowledge.

The Fool is a specific variant of this character type. Might be a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass. For the superhero version, see Super Zeroes. For a goof who is more competent than people would like to admit see Let's Get Dangerous

Examples of Comedic Hero include:

Anime

• Milfeulle Sakuraba of Galaxy Angel, a ditz of epic proportions, actually survives by the most improbable luck in the universe.
• The title character from Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo, Bobobo.
  • Not so much because of luck, but because his brand of insanity is perfect for dealing with the insanity around him.
• The Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Maybe.

Comic Books

• Numerous from the Golden and Silver Ages of comics, including but not limited to:
  • The original Red Tornado, a hefty housewife who crossdresses as a superhero with a cooking pot over her head and beats up gangsters.
  • Johnny Thunder, a hopeless twit who has an all-powerful genie at his command and doesn't even know it.
  • Super-Hip, aka Tadwaller Jutefruce, Bob Hope's nerdy nephew who turns into a super-powered mod crooner whenever he gets angry. His battle-cry? "Bleck to Lawrence Welk!"
  • Angel and the Ape: She's a private eye with brains and beauty to spare. He's a comic-book artist who happens to be a talking gorilla. They Fight Crime!
  • Stanley and His Monster, a little boy who pals around with a demon who was kicked out of Hell for being too darn nice.
• Zayne Carrick, main character of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (no, not that one, I'm talking about the comic series) started out as this, a walking catastrophe who couldn't even hold onto one lowlife criminal once captured (my apologies to Gryph). However, after the first story-arc, he settled into a more heroic mold, and his proneness to accidental carnage degenerated to an Informed Attribute.
  • He also becomes smarter (he outsmarts and derails the plans of a mad scientist, a corrupt corporate executive, and a deranged Sith wannabe), and when he fights his former teachers he actually does fairly well (when he fights Raana Tey they're pretty evenly matched for most of the fight).
• Bananaman of The Dandy

Film

• Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther films.
• Bullshot (1983). Bullshot Crummond, a spoof of British hero Bulldog Drummond.

Literature

• Bertie Wooster, Jeeves and Wooster. Hilariously incompetent, "mentally negligible", and the epitome of the Upper Class Twit—but so ridiculously nice that you can't help but root for him.

Live Action TV

• Maxwell Smart, Get Smart
• Chespirito's El Chapulin Colorado
• The Greatest American Hero
• NBC's Captain Nice, and CBS's Mr. Terrific, two very short-run (half season) series which tried to ride the "camp superhero" wave started by the Adam West Batman series.

Western Animation

• Mr. Magoo
• Homer Simpson, The Simpsons
• Inspector Gadget
• Bullwinkle, Rocky and Bullwinkle
• Peter Griffin from Family Guy.
• George of the Jungle
• The Tick (animation)
• Daffy Duck, primarily in certain Chuck Jones cartoons: "Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century," "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," "Robin Hood Daffy," etc.
• Coop of Megas XLR
• Fry of Futurama
• Ron Stoppable from Kim Possible,

Video Games

• Dirk the Daring of Dragon's Lair