History Main / FakeSpecialAttack

* Usopp from ''Manga/OnePiece'' abused the hell out of this trope early part in the story. Yelling out a rubber band attack that made opponents flinch was used as an escape tool. His 10 ton hammer is just a balloon with two frying pans attached at the ends. Post time skip, however, his arsenal has [[TookALevelInBadass become a legitimate threat]].

*** Dimentio's initial master stroke to take out Mario is to bring him to a dimension where's allegedly 255 times stronger than normal... except it turns out that this (also allegedly) makes ''everyone'' in it stronger, so his supposed power increase is completely negated. The game doesn't even try to re-enforce the joke, as the damage output both parties take is completely unchanged.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', One of O'Chunks' attacks involves grabbing the player character, spinning them around and tossing them away to watch them bounce all over the screen like a pinball. It only does one damage in your first encounter with him, but O'Chunks does a series of [[IShallTauntYou elaborate taunts and victory poses after he pulls it off]] as if it was an extremely strong attack. It gets stronger once you encounter him again, but it's really no stronger than his other attacks.

When the attack is actually used... it's far less than impressive. The alleged FingerPokeOfDoom really is just a poke. The [[OneWingedAngel "ultimate" transformation]] is just a [[FanService bikini-clad]] [[AttractiveBentGender girl]]. The {{BFG}} shoots RedBoxingGloves or is an oversized water gun. The supposed DeathRay is just TheNudifier. Part or all of the attack is an illusion. ''All'' Bob's power is in his huge BattleAura and he's bluffing. The lightshow is just a distraction from something else, like a VillainExitStageLeft. [[OverlyLongGag The... no, I'm done.]] In any case, the attack has a humorous non-effect.

** [[CharacterizationTags Young!]]Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura's [[CombinationAttack "Outstanding Team Work?!"]]. [[IdiotHero Naruto]] goes LeeroyJenkins, while [[TheRival Sasuke]] uses him as a GoombaSpringboard to land his own attacks. [[TheLoad Sakura looks like she's not going to do anything]], [[SubvertedTrope but then surrounds all three of them with a rope]]. [[HitFlash We're not shown]] [[NoodleIncident what happens next,]] but it ends in [[CallBack both Naruto]] and the opponent tied to a stump.

Contrast TheWorfBarrage, which ''does'' do something big... which is ''then'' [[NoSell laughed off]]. JokeItem and JokeCharacter are the item/character versions. A ClippedWingAngel is a similarly [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] transformation, but is not always humorous. If all your fighting skill is like this, then WhatTheFuAreYouDoing. HeartIsAnAwesomePower is when a power - that would become this if used to attack directly - is put to creative and effective use. Can be {{Subverted}} with YouAreAlreadyDead, where the attack seems to do nothing, but its serious effects are about to be felt.

-->'''Karin:''' There's [[FinishingMove a limit to being sloppy,]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech you halfwit!]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' has Shadow Madarame's ultimate move, "Madara-Megido". Most people who have played the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series would be worried to see a Megido attack that hits everyone, especially this early in the game... except that this particular variant does ''pitiful'' damage when it hits. Turns out that this plagiarising artist's own art really does suck.
* If you ask Remilia Scarlet from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' what she won in the SuperPowerLottery, she'll boastfully tell you that she won the ability to [[WindsOfDestinyChange Manipulate Fate]]. If you ask her little sister, Flandre, she'll tell you that Remilia won the ability to invoke IMeantToDoThat whenever she wants to look cooler than she really is. [[ShrugOfGod Canon doesn't bother to explicitly state]] if Flandre is telling the truth or not, but it would be in-character for Remi to hype herself up to levels even she cannot reasonably live up to, what with her being a {{chuuni|byou}} vampire and all.

* In ''WebComic/HeroOhHero'', [[NoNameGiven The Aristocrat]] subverts CallingYourAttacks in order to [[http://www.neorice.com/hoh_60 make a bandit flinch long enough for him to make his getaway]].

** [[TheChick Karin's]] Perfume Spray. This Jutsu has ''terrible'' [[UselessUsefulSpell damage and priority]], and even the [[StandardStatusEffects poison]] it inflicts does ''nothing'' to make it useful.

* In Chapter 2 of ''{{VideoGame/Deltarune}}'', [[TheBigGuy Susie]] (whose natural magic leans heavily towards offense) asks [[WhiteMage Ralsei]] to teach her healing magic after he uses it to heal her from a fall that severely hurt her leg. When they return to the party later she's extremely hyped to show off her new attack, [[BlatantLies "UltimateHeal"]], which has her charge up a KamehameHadoken... to shoot a piddly little energy ball that heals about 2 or 3 HP in a game where the characters' max is a little over 100. In combat, [=UltimateHeal=] is about as effective as it is in its introduction, but also costs 100% of the party's TP gauge (which could be better used on literally ''anything'' else) and only heals one party member, making it an amazingly bad waste of time and effort.

* In Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/Deltarune'', [[TheBigGuy Susie]] (whose natural magic leans heavily towards offense) asks [[WhiteMage Ralsei]] to teach her healing magic after he uses it to heal her from a fall that severely hurt her leg. When they return to the party later she's extremely hyped to show off her new attack, [[BlatantLies "UltimateHeal"]], which has her charge up a KamehameHadoken... to shoot a piddly little energy ball that heals about 2 or 3 HP in a game where the characters' max is a little over 100. In combat, [=UltimateHeal=] is about as effective as it is in its introduction, but also costs 100% of the party's TP gauge (which could be better used on literally ''anything'' else) and only heals one party member, making it an amazingly bad waste of time and effort.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' will claim to possess the Excalibur, a legendary sword that should by all rights do lots of damage. Then he attacks your party with it, and it does...1 damage. Turns out it's a cheap knockoff called the Excali''poor''.

* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', Alucard can combine his personal shield with the Shield Rod to perform a spell that makes him invincible and able to drain HP from touching enemies. If you try that with the Alucar''t'' Shield, however, nothing happens and [[MythologyGag that same]] '''?''' pops over Alucard's head.

* Gilgamesh in the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games will often claim to possess the Excalibur, a legendary sword that should by all rights do lots of damage. Then he attacks your party with it, and it does...1 damage. Turns out it's a cheap knockoff called the Excali''poor''.

** The Bakusai Tenketsu (Breaking Point), a FingerPokeOfDoom capable of shattering the target. It is only effective on rocks and dirt.
*** {{Subverted}} by the training required to achieve the technique granting an actual benefit: impressive durability.

** In an anime filler, [[OldMaster Happosai]] and Genma use up ''all'' their power growing to giant size, [[SubvertedTrope subverting]] what seemed like a show-down.
** In another filler, [[OldMaster Happosai]] fights another master, both of whom have invisibility techniques. Neither can attack while staying hidden. Stalemate ensues, [[SubvertedTrope subverting]] another would-be showdown.
** The Happo Fire Burst [[ZigzaggingTrope zigzags this]]. For most of its introductory episode, it's played up as a horrifically powerful KiManipulation. Eventually, Happosai uses it. Genma and Soun panic. Ranma calls it out as mere fireworks. However, in later episodes it becomes Happosai's signature move and is rather effective ([[AshFace for the]] [[{{Slapstick}} genre]], anyway); the technique is implied to be ''conjuring'' these bombs [[KiManipulation from Ki energy]], which would make it a legitimately powerful technique, since it can [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight bring a bomb to a fistfight]].

* Monstar in the first ''VideoGame/{{Paper Mario|64}}'' game charges up a huge aura attack with plenty of light effects while taunting Mario. The attack only does a single point of damage. [[spoiler:Monstar is an illusion created by star children to scare intruders away. The attack is weak because they're kids]].

* Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta's Bluff Kamehameha from ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. Clones himself, charges up to full power,threatens to disintegrate every cell in Omega Shenron's body, and theeeeen... poof. Confetti. [[CurbStompBattle He could afford to have a little fun]].

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', the Tantalus gang picks up the "SFX" skill set during the play at the beginning of the game, keeping it through the fights against Steiner later on that they try to play off as AllPartOfTheShow. These skills imitate classic Final Fantasy magic spells. They also all deal a whopping 0 damage.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has the Joestar Family Secret Technique...which is just running away.

** {{Subverted}} again with later abuse of the [[AssShove Thousand Years Of Death]]; Naruto uses the attack in an until-that-point deadly serious fight. {{Beat}}... and then it's revealed he used not his fingers, but an explosive-loaded knife. Ouch.

** The Happo Fire Burst [[ZigzaggingTrope zigzags this]]. For most of its introductory episode, it's played up as a horrifically powerful KiAttack. Eventually, Happosai uses it. Genma and Soun panic. Ranma calls it out as mere fireworks. However, in later episodes it becomes Happosai's signature move and is rather effective ([[AshFace for the]] [[{{Slapstick}} genre]], anyway); the technique is implied to be ''conjuring'' these bombs [[KiAttacks from Ki energy]], which would make it a legitimately powerful technique, since it can [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight bring a bomb to a fistfight]].

** The skeleton brothers both have one: Papyrus's [[spoiler: gets stolen by a dog (though the "Absolutely normal attack" he does after is one of the hardest patterns to not take damage on in the entire game on a pacifist run)]] and [[spoiler: Sans's is literally nothing. Subverted in that doing nothing actually proves to be pretty darn effective.]]

** [[SternTeacher Iruka's]] Love Roar, which features him displaying a DemonHead and HighPressureEmotion at their best, before [[MegatonPunch nailing the victim]] and inflicting a CranialEruption. And yes, [[BreakTheHaughty you can do this to]] ''[[VillainSue Madara Uchiha]]''.

** IIn [[VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice the following game]], however, it's now a S rank damage skill, as opposed to an E. [[RedemptionPromotion Probably because the Prism Ranger using it is on your side this time.]]
* ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Street Fighter Alpha 2]]'': Dan Hibiki's Chohatsu Densetsu (literally, "Legendary Taunt") is a [[LimitBreak Super Combo]] that's true to its name; all he does is a series of taunts that not only wastes your super meter, it also leaves you open to attack. It's especially worthless in ''VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2'', where taunting will cause your opponent's super meter to charge, so all you're doing by using the move is making your opponent ''more dangerous.''

* Monstar in the first ''VideoGame/{{Paper Mario|64}}'' game charges up a huge aura attack with plenty of light effects while taunting Mario. The attack only does a single point of damage. Justified since [[spoiler:Monstar is an illusion created by star children to scare intruders away. The attack is weak because they're kids]].

** It ends up being subverted in [[VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice the following game]], however, where it's now a S rank damage skill, as opposed to an E. [[RedemptionPromotion Probably because the Prism Ranger using it is on your side this time.]]