This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Red Shoe: I can't remember the details. Can anyone confirm whether this ever happened in Doctor Who, Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Stargate Atlantis? I've got vague memories of it in all three, but can't recall specifics.
Looney Toons: Can't attest to any of those, but there is a sequence much like this in Sakura Taisen OVA 2.
Is there an entry for the similar trope in which a character accidentally saves the day and is then treated like a hero for a while only to be later revealed as a fraud (learning a valuable lesson in the process)? An example would be when Homer Simpson saves the power plant using "eeny meeny miny moe."
Dark Sasami: Can't think of one. But that one is named in that episode..."Pulling a Homer." It's in the dictionary!
Jayne from Firefly did that too, didn't he? Had a statue and everything?
Tabby: That he did. And just 'cause it's my favorite line, I move that we call any entry about this phenomeon "the crappy town where I'm a hero."
I've heard this as a joke. In summary: a nonagenarian (90-smth-year-old) gets his young girlfriend pregnant. The doctor tells him a Liberty Valence story. nonagen: "that's impossible! someone else must have fired the bullet!" doctor: "that's what I was getting at..."
grixit: is there a name for the one where the protagonist is just setting the opponent up for a secret weapon attack? I'm thinking of a Green Lantern episode in which GL, faced with a villain who's neutralized his power, exclaims in frustration "if i could just get one punch!" The opponent says hey, take a free shot, haha. So GL steps up, throws a fist-- and bashes the opponent's head in with his invisible power battery.
Uncola Man: is there a trope for doing this with a weapon, but for intimidation instead of damage? In the Street Fighter movie, Guile thinks he's intimidating a number of armed soldiers using his knife, but it turns out they're nervous about from his armed backup. Is that still this trope?
