History Main / CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass

* ''{{Film/PaulBlartMallCop}}'': Paul during the robbery.

* Creator/AdamSandler's eponymous hero in ''Film/TheWaterboy'' looks like the poster child for the trope.
** And ''Film/HappyGilmore'' and ''Film/PunchDrunkLove''...pretty much any Adam Sandler movie.

* Subverted in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. Indy has given his father's Grail Diary to Marcus Brody, an apparently goofy, harmless professor. The villains indicate that Brody will be easy to find, but Indy tells them that Brody fits this trope. [[spoiler: As it turns out, he does not. [[GilliganCut The camera then cuts]] to a scene of Brody in a crowded market, conspicuously wearing the same thing he always does, calling out "Does anybody speak English?"]]

** Brody does eventually redeem himself by clonking a Nazi unconscious with a bottle while in the tank.

* Hercules became this around ''TheIncredibleHercules.'' At first glance, he's a [[DumbMuscle second-rate Thor with an IQ on par with brine shrimp]], whose strategy in every fight is to [[PowerfulButUnskilled club his opponents until they stop moving.]] As it turns out, this is mostly because Herc is a BoistrousBruiser in all incarnations. Far from unskilled, he's one of the best hand-to-hand fighters out there, being a superb wrestler and boxer with [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld millenia of experience.]] Additionally, though he's not super-smart, he's very perceptive and great with puzzles and thinking on his feet. All that, on a guy who's strong enough to fight Thor to a draw.

->'''Vlad Plasmius''': This can't be happening! You're an idiot! ''An idiot''!
->'''Jack Fenton''': That may be, but I'm the idiot who beat ''you''.

* [[CelebrityResemblance Rasputin]] in the ''CortoMaltese'' series. He's a {{Foil}} to the title character and a SociopathicHero sidekick. Totally unpredictable, too.

[[folder:{{Real Life}}]]

* Rebecca Stone from WebVideo/DemoReel comes off at first as a ditzy {{Cloudcuckoolander}} with no empathy and no clue how to look after pets. Turns out? She's a GunNut security guard who won't hesitate to beat the shit out of anyone who hurts her best friends.

** In the "Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe" miniseries, he single handedly slaughtered nearly every superhero on the planet. This was caused when [[spoiler:Psycho Man fiddled with Deadpool's brain until something clicked, turning him into the perfect killing machine with a penchant for nihilism. He resolved to destroy reality itself, believing that it never mattered anyway, due to him being aware that he is a comic book character.]] This is proof that he isn't just being capable of fighting A-list Marvel heroes and villains, he capable of '''murdering every single one with ease'''.

** In the "Deadpool Kils the Marvel Universe" miniseries, he single handedly slaughtered nearly every superhero on the planet. This was caused when [[spoiler:Psycho Man fiddled with Deadpool's brain until something clicked, turning him into the perfect killing machine with a penchant for nihilism. He resolved to destroy reality itself, believing that it never mattered anyway, due to him being aware that he is a comic book character.]] This is proof that he isn't just being capable of fighting A-list Marvel heroes and villains, he capable of '''murdering every single one with ease'''.

* Subverted in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. Indy has given his father's Grail Diary to Marcus Brody, an apparently goofy, harmless professor. The villains indicate that Brody will be easy to find, but Indy tells them that Brody fits this trope. [[spoiler: As it turns out, he does not. [[GilliganCut The camera then cuts]] to a scene of Brody in a crowded market, conspicuously wearing the same thing he always does, calling out "does anybody speak English?]]

** The most famous would be turnbuckle eating. George "The Animal" Steele would use this gimmick to show he was crazy, however, he copied it from earlier wrestlers, like Antonio Pugliese.

-->"Oh you want some of this to? Come get it!"

* In ''Destry Rides Again'', the eponymous character (played by JimmyStewart in his finest "nice guy" style) becomes the deputy of the marshal in a lawless town. At first, he seems to be completely harmless; he doesn't carry a gun, drinks milk at the bar, tells anecdotes to everybody, and makes napkin rings as a hobby. However, he eventually proves to be a very capable gunfighter.

* Natalie Voss, the rich girl in ''TheChase''. Kidnapped at a convenience store, she begs for her life, vomits in terror, and [[ScreamingWoman shrieks so loudly and shrilly]] that her suave, dark-haired kidnapper (who else but CharlieSheen?) [[PityTheKidnapper can just barely tolerate her]]. As the getaway car heads to Mexico and Natalie gets to know her captor a lot more, learning that he's actually an unjustly accused criminal acting out of desperation, she not only [[StockholmSyndrome grows to like him]] but realizes that he's her ticket out of her stiflingly buttoned-down existence. When Sheen's character is finally caught just short of the border, Natalie sees him getting hauled into a police car in handcuffs and, realizing this is her last chance to escape her former life, and despite never having handled a gun before and in fact [[DoesntLikeGuns finding guns repellent]], steals a gun from one of the police officers, puts him in a headlock...and after her father scolds her for [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt pretending to defy him]], shoots a nearby hovering helicopter right out of the sky with one shot from the pistol. This sudden feat takes ''everyone'' aback - not least of all Natalie herself, who for a moment can do nothing but stare saucer-eyed at her handiwork as if to say, [[FamilyMatters "Did I do that?"]]

* Orcs/orks from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and 40k. Just...yeah.

* SquirrelGirl, hands down. Cute. Fuzzy. Talks to squirrels. Lips taste like hazelnuts. Defeated SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom [[hottip:*:which, before you ask, was ''not'' retconned as being ActuallyADoombot]], The Mandarin, Giganto, {{MODOK}}, {{Thanos}}, Terrax, Bug-Eyed Voice, Bi-Beast, {{Deadpool}}, Pluto, Fin Fang Foom, Baron Mordo, Korvac, and Ego the Living Planet...

* Cliff Young. One day, this Australian potato farmer showed up at the [[MarathonLevel 550-mile long]] [[DeathCourse Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon]]. Wearing overalls and rain boots, Young slowly loped off the line while the world-class ultramarathoners shot off into the distance. Cliff Young had two things on his side: one, his laughable running style was actually very efficient; later race winners would copy his technique. Two, he had [[TheSleepless absolutely no need for sleep]]. He won the race by 10 hours over his closest challenger. By the way, he was [[BadassGrandpa 61 years old]].

* Pick any sportsperson who occasionally excels in a discipline within their sport that they aren't expected to. Australian cricketer Jason Gillespie once famously scored 201 not out after being temporarily promoted in the batting order as a "nightwatchman" - the only batsman with an average under 20 ever to achieve this milestone. The very important qualifier is that this was against the highly unskilled Bangladesh, but that doesn't explain how he was able to outperform the other five batsman who batted before Australia's declaration, all of whom had averages roughly two and a half times that of Gillespie. To top it off, Gillespie took 3/11 in his professional role as a bowler in Bangladesh's first innings.

* Natalie Voss, the rich girl in ''TheChase''. Kidnapped at a convenience store, she begs for her life, vomits in terror, and [[ScreamingWoman shrieks so loudly and shrilly]] that her suave, dark-haired kidnapper (who else but CharlieSheen?) [[PityTheKidnapper can just barely tolerate her]]. As the getaway car heads to Mexico and Natalie gets to know her captor a lot more, learning that he's actually an unjustly accused criminal acting out of desperation, she not only [[StockholmSyndrome grows to like him]] but realizes that he's her ticket out of her stiflingly buttoned-down existence. When Sheen's character is finally caught just short of the border, Natalie sees him getting hauled into a police car in handcuffs and, realizing this is her last chance to escape her former life, and despite never having handled a gun before and in fact finding guns repellent, steals a gun from one of the police officers, puts him in a headlock...and after her father scolds her for [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt pretending to defy him]], shoots a nearby hovering helicopter right out of the sky with one shot from the pistol. This sudden feat takes ''everyone'' aback - not least of all Natalie herself, who for a moment can do nothing but stare saucer-eyed at her handiwork as if to say, [[FamilyMatters "Did I do that?"]]

* Perpetually horny CIA operative Colette Dubois (Anna Nicole Smith) in the unbelievably cheesy erotic thriller ''To The Limit'' is a bit of a question mark. Most of the time, she seems to almost have the mind of a child and doesn't even try to come off as anything but TheDitz. When it's time for action, however, she can inexplicably hold her own in fights with ninja assassins and coolly kill whole carloads of villains. It's all very bizarre even by the standards of a bizarre movie, and leaves one wondering whether Colette is actually this or another practitioner of ObfuscatingStupidity. Considering Anna Nicole's real-life persona.

* Maria was a WWE diva so vapid she could leave viewers wondering how she hadn't died from forgetting to breathe but apparently possessed an impressive breadth of knowledge about law.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} 2'': Mater, oh excuse me Sir Tow Mater. He spends most of the movie being his lovable bumbling self. Then he finds out Lightning [=McQueen=] is in trouble, lesson when dealing with Mater, NEVER threaten his friends, just ask [[spoiler:the three or four bad guys he took BY HIMSELF.]]

* "TheQuickAndTheDead": Cort starts out this way, a somewhat awkward, hapless preacher who initially seems to be way in over his head when he's forcibly entered into the quick draw competition. He refuses to participate and repeats over and over again that he won't draw...until the clock strikes the hour and he's shot his opponent without even seeming to realise it.
* ''KungFuHustle'':

* SquirrelGirl, hands down. Cute. Fuzzy. Talks to squirrels. Lips taste like hazelnuts. Defeated SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom, The Mandarin, Giganto, {{MODOK}}, {{Thanos}}, Terrax, Bug-Eyed Voice, Bi-Beast, {{Deadpool}}, Pluto, Fin Fang Foom, Baron Mordo, Korvac, and Ego the Living Planet...

* Though this is mentioned in the Cracked article above, the hippopotamus deserves a special mention. Chubby river dwelling creatures that look like they couldn't hurt a fly, right? Wrong. The hippo is widely regarded as one of the most aggressive animals in the world, and one of, if not ''the'' most dangerous creature in all of Africa, a continent second only to Australia in {{Everything Trying To Kill You}}-ness. Steve Irwin, a man who called himself ''the CrocodileHunter'', considered crossing a river filled with hippos to be the most dangerous moment of his career.

* [[Characters/GLOrangeLanternCorps Larfleeze]], the wielder of the orange light in the Franchise/GreenLantern universe. Most of the time, he comes off as completely insane, with a Gollum-like drive to own ''everything'' and a tendency to talk to himself. At one point, SelfDemonstrating/{{Sinestro}} and [[Characters/GLRedLanternCorps Atrocitus]] get so annoyed by him they suggest just killing him and taking along whoever his ring goes to next. Despite his CloudCuckoolander tendencies, however, he's incredibly powerful, as his light represents avarice, and is at its most potent when wielded by one lone ringslinger. In terms of sheer raw power, he's probably the strongest Lantern as his ring is capable of charging to ''100,000 percent energy''- in comparison, Hal Jordan's maxes out around 210% under certain circumstances, and it's explained any more might blow up the ring and take his hand with it. Insane? Yes. Take him lightly, though, and you're dead.

* {{Deadpool}} sometimes slips into this, DependingOnTheWriter. His CloudCuckooLander tendencies and ability to both shake off bodily harm and make a joke of it tend to obscure the fact that he is an immortal, unstoppable, superhuman killing-machine with a penchant for inventively torturing and/or brutally slaughtering anyone who manages to get on his bad side.

* The Mad Hatter in Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland'' is a CloudCuckooLander with a side order of TheWoobie. However, he doesn't hesitate to put himself in danger to save Alice, or the White Queen. [[spoiler: Not to mention fighting the Knave of Hearts, TheDragon of the Red Queen, and ''kicking his ass''.]]

* At the start of ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', T.E. Lawrence is stationed at a humdrum position in Cairo, and most of his fellow officers view him as [[MilitaryMaverick insurbordinate]] and [[CloudCuckoolander quite the eccentric]]. It's only after he's sent on a mission to Arabia that he reveals himself to be a superb military commander.

* The Sandford PD from ''HotFuzz''. For all their weird ways of doing things, and their almost naive, CloudCuckooLander personalities, they ''excel'' at armed response.

*** Doink the Clown (when he started out) was an evil version of this trope.

* Wrestling/SantinoMarella is [[CloudCuckooLander probably one of the silliest guys on the roster]], but when the man does have genuine wrestling skill and now that he's [[TookALevelInBadass taken a few levels in badass]], he's cleanly won quite a few matches and even become US Champion.

* Rebecca Stone from WebVideo/DemoReel comes off at first as a ditzy {{cloudcuckoolander}} with no empathy and no clue how to look after pets. Turns out? She's a GunNut security guard who won't hesitate to beat the shit out of anyone who hurts her best friends.

** Could be a case of MuggingTheMonster or BullyingTheDragon when you consider just how much bigger the one being bullied was.