History Main / GiftedlyBad

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' Snoopy seems convinced that he's a famous writer. [[http://goldfishbroth.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/authorsnoopy.jpg He isn't]]. On at least one occasion, he received a publisher's rejection letter telling him [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech they wouldn't publish his work if he paid them]], which he dismissed as a simple form letter.

** Joey steps into this territory with his acting work; not only is he not particularly good, he's also [[TheDitz not quite smart enough]] to understand criticism of it (for instance, thinking the word "abysmal" is a positive word – after all, so many of his critics have described his work as such). Sometimes it's because he's acting in utter dreck and doesn't realize it, like his show ''Mac and CHEESE'', which Chandler referred to as the worst thing humanity had yet come up with.

** Phoebe is occasionally portrayed as a Giftedly Bad musician when she plays the guitar at the coffee shop -- specifically, she writes her own songs, and her lyrics tend to be bizarre, stupid, or both. Her friends just smile and nod, perhaps because they're not any better (if Ross's "wordless sound poems" are any indication, although Phoebe liked those -- go figure).

'''Cat:''' 'Cause that dude could play.\\

'''Lister:''' If anything, this is slightly better.

* ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'' is an account of actor Greg Sestero's work in ''Film/TheRoom'' and his relationship with the film's director/producer/writer/star, Creator/TommyWiseau. ''The Room'' is widely considered SoBadItsGood, to the point where people believed [[PoesLaw it had to be a parody]]; Sestero reveals that it was an earnest work of art by a singularly motivated individual, who just happens to be terrible at filmmaking.

* [[Music/{{Gorillaz}} Murdoc Niccals]] [[TakeOurWordForIt has never canonically been heard to sing onscreen]] except for the growling-whispering rap in "White Light", but his singing has been described as sounding "like someone treading on a duck". He insists the world is merely too small-minded to appreciate his genius and he needs 2D's more "conventional" voice for the albums.
** Possibly averted with the release of Demon Days, where supposedly he sang (Or whispered, more accurately) the words to the harder, punk track "White Light."

* Naga from ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' is giftedly bad all across the board. From her fashion sense to her magic, she views everything she makes or selects as a thing of elegant beauty, even though everyone else sees it as a source of absolute horror. She even creates a dragon golem that destroys most of a town simply trying to keep its poorly-balanced body upright, and her only response is that some people have no appreciation for art.

* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Akane Tendō is [[LethalChef bad at cooking]]. She does know she's not great at it. But she [[BerserkButton is offended by criticism]] and always tries to "improve" her recipes. Her relatives treat her cooking as some sort of disease or a curse.
** She's also shown to have a serious problem with believing that she is an InstantExpert at any skill, with many of the plots based round her claims of such. The fact Ranma is seemingly an IdiotSavant [[MasterOfAll at everything he tries to learn]] presses her BerserkButton that bit faster.

* In ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'', Nagi is convinced that she's an amazing manga writer. Only one other person can even understand her bizarre over the top storylines, let alone appreciate them. When she eventually sees an actual professional's manuscript and realizes just how bad she really is, she's absolutely devastated on realizing she doesn't even know how to do the one thing she thought she had a talent for.

* Sousuke of ''Anime/{{Classicaloid}}'' is a budding musician of the desktop music variety, but [[DreadfulMusician his music has caused glass to crack and objects to fall]] (even when it's not particularly loud). When he tries to sing, it causes people to collapse.
* Miia in ''Manga/MonsterMusume'' is a LethalChef, full stop. She doesn't realize this because lamia only have a fraction of the taste buds that humans do so she can't taste how awful her own cooking is. The smell alone has sometimes caused normal humans who've tried to eat her cooking to lose consciousness.
* Giant/Big G from ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' is not only a DreadfulMusician but also a Dreadful Painter and Chef. His songs are so terrible they are legitimately {{Brown Note}}s. When the world turned into a world without sound, just ''looking'' at its lyrics is enough to nauseate people and in ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasGreatAdventureIntoTheUnderworld'', they were able to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu knock out a group of sirens and a demon whale]] from sheer horribleness. Of course, this doesn't stop him from setting up his own concerts, which he practically forces others to attend, no one dares to point this out to his face as he's TheBully.

* Destruction from ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' spends his days making new recipes, paintings, and sculptures, all of which are mediocre at best. This might be because he's the AnthropomorphicPersonification of [[DestroyerDeity destruction]].

* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'': Tonsils has a loud, clear voice and nothing else going for him as a singer. He's initially not sure about a musical career, but his manager "Dude" is convinced Tonsils will be a star. It turns out that audiences love Tonsils' SoBadItsGood singing, and he gets a swelled head. Unfortunately for Tonsils, this is a crime story, and things rapidly go downhill from there.
* Cookie in ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' thinks he's a virtuoso chef, even though he's more of a LethalChef. It varies, though; there are a few occasions when he seems to really have that kind of ability when a joke requires it. Mostly, though, it's jokes about his being really, really bad at what he does.

* Fanfic/AfterTheJungleSeries (by Creator/Flowerprincess11) combines this with HighHopesZeroTalent for Olga Sherman (née Pataki), the older sister of Helga Shortman (née Pataki). About five years after graduating from college (so when Helga's a freshman or a sophomore in high school), Olga decided to quit her job as a teacher to pursue a career as an actress--she moved to New York City to try and get a role on Broadway. Unfortunately, Olga fails to make it big as an actress and the few roles that she ''is'' able to get are in (very) off-Broadway style productions. Olga eventually moves back to her old hometown of Hillwood and also eventually gets married and has children--she's ultimately forced to go back to working as a teacher to help support her family. However, despite her acting abilities being ''mediocre'' at beast, Olga refuses let her "pipe dream" (as Helga calls it) go, [[WaitingForABreak convinced that she's a star just waiting to be discovered]]--seriously, even by the time that Olga's well into her 40s[[note]]And at this point, not only has Helga gotten married and had kids of her own, but Olga's kids are now in middle school and Helga's two oldest children are both students at P.S. 118, where Olga works as a 5th-grade teacher[[/note]], she's ''still'' trying to get a role on Broadway.

* Partially averted in the case of Susan Foster Kane's atrocious operatic performances in ''Film/CitizenKane'', because she realizes that she's untalented and only persists with her doomed operatic career because of the pressure from her ambitious husband, Charles Foster Kane.
* The titular character of ''Film/EddieTheEagle''. Despite having impossible odds placed against him, and coming in dead last at the Olympics, he's loved for his determined nature and relatability.

* ''Film/TheGreatMcGonagall'' is based on the RealLife giftedly bad Scottish poet William Topaz [=McGonagall=], considered in some circles to be the worst poet in the English language, and yet utterly convinced of his greatness.

%%* Edward Lionheart (played by Creator/VincentPrice) in ''Film/TheatreOfBlood''.
%%* The Cobra Dance in ''Film/BrideAndPrejudice''.
* In ''Film/{{Amadeus}}'', Antonio Salieri is portrayed as giftedly bad, at least in comparison to someone genuinely talented like Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart.
-->'''Salieri:''' Did you my work please you?
-->'''Mozart:''' ...I never knew that music like that was possible!
-->'''Salieri:''' ''[not fooled]'' You flatter me.
-->'''Mozart:''' ''[insincerely]'' No, no! One hears such sounds, and what can one say but... Salieri!
* ''Film/FlorenceFosterJenkins'' is about the RealLife giftedly bad singer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins of that name]].
* Stage director Mark Bodine in ''Film/TheGoodbyeGirl'', who has a ludicrous notion of staging ''Theatre/RichardIII'' with the titular king as a mincing, effeminate CampGay. The play is so bad that most of the audience is gone by the second act.
* ''Film/ThisHouseHasPeopleInIt'': The character known only as "The Sculptor", who goes so far as to run his own sculpting TV show called "The Sculptor's Clayground", can't actually make decent sculptures. Everything he makes turns out to be a lumpy, mishapen mess at best with random sticks, rhinestones and paint splatters for good measure. Despite this, he's delusional enough to feature several pictures of his art on his website, which claims that his art was sold to rich patrons or "a collection of good art".
* Arthur Fleck in ''Film/Joker2019'' is a mentally ill, impoverished clown in Gotham who fancies himself as a stand-up comic. However his first ever stint is a complete disaster; not only is his material deeply unfunny, but his first joke is ruined by an unceasing laughing fit which then prevents him from saying anything else. People end up laughing at his act, but for the wrong reasons...
* Rupert Pupkin in ''Film/TheKingOfComedy'' is obsessed with becoming a stand-up comic - stalking and eventually kidnapping late night talkshow host Jerry Langford to get his shot at fame. His material is predictably stale, unoriginal, and mediocre at best, even though he spent years of his life rehearsing and preparing it, but he delivers it with great enthusiasm and excellent timing.
* ''Film/BillAndTedFaceTheMusic'' reveals that 2.5 decades of attempting to write a world-saving hit have turned Wyld Stallions into this. Their attempt at a romantic first-dance song for Ted's brother's wedding involves a theremin, bagpipes, and throat-singing.
* The title character in ''Film/WhateverHappenedToBabyJane''. To be sure, her dancing is okay, but her singing is rubbish, and her acting is awful. The fact that what we get from the height of her career is her singing a StylisticSuck {{Glurge}}-y vaudeville song doesn't help.
* ''Film/ComingToAmerica'' has Randy Watson and his band Sexual Chocolate performing in Queens' Black Awarenes Rally. When he starts singing, practically everybody in the audience ''immediately'' begins dozing off.
-->'''Sweets:''' That's boy's good!
-->'''Clarence:''' Mmm, good and terrible.

* In the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', the Imperial Security HQ was designed by an insane architect (a relative of Mad Emperor Yuri). The building is so uncomfortable to be in, as either prisoner or actual staff of [=ImpSec=], that it verged on AlienGeometries -- to the point that [[TheSpymaster Simon Illyan]] once offhandedly remarked that he was never so close to emigrating as when he saw the beautiful glass tower that housed Escobar's Investigatif Federale. He also apparently once said that he'd sell the place for a Betan Dollar, if he could find a Betan with a Dollar and no taste.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' describes the three worst poets in the universe, all of whom are giftedly bad to some degree:
** The protagonists only encounter the third worst, the Vogons, who hook them up to "poetry appreciation devices" which make them [[SuckinessIsPainful physically feel how bad the poetry is]]. The Vogons seem to be aware how bad they are and take pride in it; when Arthur tries to compliment the poetry (a thought that had never ''occurred'' to the galaxy-savvy Ford), the Vogon poet gets pissed off and chooses to [[ThrownOutTheAirlock throw them out the ship's airlock]].
** The second worst are the Azgoths of Kria, whose most prominent poet was so oblivious to how bad his poetry was ("four of his audience died of internal haemorrhaging, and the President of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived only by gnawing one of his own legs off") that he was strangled to death ''by his own intestine'', which had become sentient in a desperate attempt to get him to stop.
** The worst poetry in the universe, naturally, came from Earth, courtesy of "Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex, England." This is, in fact, a reference to a RealLife terrible poet who went to school with Creator/DouglasAdams (and who's named for real in the original radio series as "Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge" -- he asked for the name change not to protect his reputation so much as to obscure his identity and address). He freely admits now that he was an awful poet as a teenager, but at the time, he was Giftedly Bad. The "dead swan" poem shown in the TV series is in fact one of his actual works from that period.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''

* Creator/JorgeLuisBorges' short story "El Aleph" features a poet who is obsessed with his own mediocre poetry, and believes that as soon as anyone of importance will read his epic poem, he will be immediately regarded as the greatest poet of his time. During the story, he is attempting to write a poem describing in minute detail the entirety of the Earth.

* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', Newton Pulsifier is passionate about electronics but manages to [[WalkingTechbane destroy everything he touches]]. His ham radios black out entire districts. He always buys a computer that doesn't work. His car ([[TheAllegedCar if you could call it that]]) is so dysfunctional that its airbags would randomly deploy. But when he puts together a circuit that's ''designed'' not to work, he ends up with a fully functional transistor radio that appears to be picking up communications from Russia.

* Creator/PGWodehouse wrote one ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'' story about a friend of Bertie's who wanted to be a portrait painter. He couldn't get any commissions until he had painted some portraits, and he couldn't paint any portraits until he fulfilled some commissions, so he spent his time doing commercial artwork. His uncle, who financially supported him, commissioned him to paint a portrait of his new baby. The portrait was so monumentally bad that his uncle cut him off completely, in a huff (or a minute and a huff). Jeeves, however, saw an opportunity to use the ugly portrait as the basis for a comic character, Baby Blobb, and the friend went on to become rich, drawing comics of ''The Adventures of Baby Blobb''.
* ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'' is an account of actor Greg Sestero's work in ''Film/TheRoom'' and his relationship with the film's director/producer/writer/star, Creator/TommyWiseau. ''The Room'' is widely considered SoBadItsGood, to the point where people believed [[PoesLaw it had to be a parody]]; Sestero reveals that it was an earnest work of art by a singularly motivated individual, who just happens to be terrible at filmmaking.
* The novel ''The Planet for Tyrants'' from the cycle ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture'' features Underwater Bull, an [[CivilizedAnimal alien frog]] from a society where social mobility depends on [[BlueAndOrangeMorality how well you could sing]] (well, croak). Underwater Bull was born tone-deaf, and he is completely disenfranchised by society -- so he [[PlayedForDrama organizes a coup]], installs himself as dictator, forces everyone to listen to his terrible singing, and tries to present his non-existent talent as the new, mandatory art form (to the point of banning everyone else from singing and enforcing the prohibition by [[TongueTrauma cutting out offenders' tongues]]). He gets ousted himself and taken to the eponymous [[CrapsaccharineWorld rehab planet for former tyrants]].
* The third ''Literature/MaloryTowers'' book introduces Zerelda Brass, an American transfer student who fancies herself as a great actress, and believes that her destiny to one day become a famous actress makes her exempt to many of the school's customs and regulations. When she does try to act, her acting is so [[{{narm}} melodramatically over-the-top]] that all the other girls laughs at it, thinking it to be a comedic act. Her arc ends with her learning humility and try to fit in better.

* Britta Perry of ''{{Series/Community}}'' believes herself to be a talented photographer, but the only good picture she takes is by accident.

''[Lister picks up the guitar and plays several dissonant, atonal notes.]''\\

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'':
** Tobias Fünke believes himself to be a good actor, when he really isn't. He thinks the only reason he hasn't landed a major film role is that he just hasn't tried yet. When he does try, he forgets to read the script. He's ''slightly'' more successful as a writer but gets in trouble thanks to his [[ThatCameOutWrong legendarily poor phrasing]] -- his only success was ''[[DoubleEntendre The Man Inside Me]]'', a self-help book that became popular in the gay community (he's not sure why).
** Gob thinks of himself as a talented magician, but his props constantly fail and his animals keep dying. As the show goes on, his [[InsistentTerminology illusions]] get more complex and his failures more spectacular; his method for making a yacht disappear is to sink it when nobody is looking. Despite this, he continues to vigorously pursue his craft and insists on everyone taking it [[SeriousBusiness deathly seriously]].
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Spike was a Giftedly Bad poet before he became a vampire (which didn't cure him of his bad poetry, but did cure him of the notion that he was a good one). His audience back then called him "William the Bloody" ("because he writes bloody bad poetry!"). He gets a better reception in the modern day, but that might be because it's SoBadItsGood. Series creator Creator/JossWhedon validates the trope in the DVDCommentary when he notes how difficult it is to write poetry [[StylisticSuck that entertainingly bad]].
* The main character in the KoreanSeries ''Series/OhMyLady'' is the world's worst actor.
* Franchise/TheMuppets thrive on this trope, especially in ''Series/TheMuppetShow.'' Fozzie Bear is probably the purest example; while he occasionally comes up with something good, the others point out that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Marshall Eriksen has many impressive talents, like winning every board game ever invented. He thinks that stand-up comedy is one of those talents. He would be wrong.
* ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'' has one-shot character Jimmy Nakata, whose singing causes physical pain to its listeners and knocks birds out of the sky. And he's winning an ''Series/AmericanIdol'' style show in spite of this (because the MonsterOfTheWeek is rigging the contest). In a slight subversion, when the [=MotW=] is dealt with and Jimmy sings again, the judges say it was bad, but they can't disparage anyone who sings [[ThePowerOfLove from the heart]].
* The Scouse woman in [[Recap/BlackMirrorFifteenMillionMerits the second episode]] of ''Series/BlackMirror'' is convinced she can sing. She's so sure of herself she paid 15 million merits just to enter the contest and then waited for over two months to be seen. She's on stage for all of a minute, after which she's told she's rubbish. She isn't convinced.

* Subverted on the teen comedy ''Series/CityGuys'': Cassidy is about to perform at a big New York audition night with Chris and L-Train. Her bad singing convinces them they'll be a laughingstock if they go on stage with her, so they let her perform by herself. At that point, Cassidy reveals she's a fantastic singer and was faking being bad to trick the two into letting her go solo.
* A common trait in ''Series/PeopleLikeUs'', but particularly "The Photographer" (played by Bill Nighy), who thinks himself much more talented than he actually is.
* In ''Series/{{Victorious}}'', Trina Vega is so bad that no one's sure how she even got into the Hollywood School of Arts. She can't sing, she can't dance, and she can't act. The other students -- and even some teachers -- are befuddled as to how she got in. A later episode shows that most of the select committee never saw her to begin with; only Sikowitz was left to judge her, and he drank spoiled coconut milk and just saw [[MushroomSamba a beautiful performance of colors]].
* Echo from ''Series/MrYoung'' is a terrible singer. The eponymous Mr. Young spends the episode about her singing trying to either improve her voice or hide it. By the end, he saves her public embarrassment by performing a duet with his own amazing voice. Echo then believes that the horrible voice is the duet was his and the amazing one was hers.
* Tim Taylor from ''Series/HomeImprovement'' is a Giftedly Bad handyman. His problem lies in his never keeping things simple; everything he does has to be "improved". There's a reason TimTaylorTechnology was named after him. His show ''Tool Time'' consists mostly of Tim trying to soup something up and failing spectacularly (while his HyperCompetentSidekick Al provides actual useful repair tips). Not only does Tim think he's a home improvement genius, he thinks he's more popular than RealLife well-known handyman Bob Vila. It's established that Tim is ''capable'' of repairing things properly; he just doesn't want to. He's also got a couple of remarkable accidental achievements this way, like launching a barbecue grill into geosynchronous orbit.
* On ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'', Maya is a very talented artist. Riley, not so much. She pretty much paints purple cats in a style one might get from a kindergarten student.
-->'''Riley:''' I’m a happy artist...This is why I stink.

* Cordelia Chase in ''Series/{{Angel}}'' is so bad at acting that her colleagues debate yelling "Fire" to get out of her play. They reason that although it's a theater, it's not a ''crowded'' one, so they can get away with it.
* Madam Edith in ''Series/AlloAllo'' is such a terrible singer that she makes customers stick cheese in their ears, if not outright run away.
-->'''Lt. Gruber:''' Madam Edith has an unusual voice, René. Was it trained?
-->'''René:''' Oh, yes. But it escaped and returned to the wild.
* Debra Jo from ''Series/LittleLunch'' is convinced that she is very good at ballet and a virtuoso on the recorder. Neither is true, with her recorder playing landing soundly in DreadfulMusician territory.
* In an audition of the third series of ''Factor X'' (the Spanish version of ''Series/TheXFactor''), a contestant introduced himself saying he thought of himself as "the personification of the X factor". Said contestant then proceeded to butcher Music/ElvisPresley's "Steamroller Blues", and afterwards admited to one of the jurors that his friends and family had advised him to quit singing. Other juror advised him in return to listen to that advice.
* Jessica from ''Series/FreshOffTheBoat'' spends quite a bit of time working on her mystery novel, "A Case of a Knife to the Brain". She considered it an instant classic before writing a single word, but in the end the book sold terribly and got terrible reviews.
* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': Diane Chambers, several times over, usually blithely ignoring anyone telling her she's awful or suggesting she stop. Her drawing of a horse is mistaken for a lizard. Her poetry is automatically rejected. Her attempt at ballet is so awful everyone at Cheers is reduced to hysterics, but Diane is convinced she could've been a star. And her writing winds up with her writing for cable TV (the joke at the time being that, despite her desire to break it big, this was all she could manage). This is even part of what Sam says when she leaves the series, that she's failed at everything she's tried except writing.
* ''Series/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents2017:'' Count Olaf believes he is a tremendous actor, despite being literally unable to distinguish between "literally" and "figuratively", and his acting being very poor indeed. He doesn't take well to criticism, but even the most praise he can sum up for his works is that he's been "favourably mentioned in several small reviews". Most of his attempts at disguising himself are the most thin of [[PaperThinDisguise Paper Thin Disguises]], only working because the people he's dealing with don't know him, or are mind-bogglingly stupid.
* At one point in ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', Frasier and Niles try to revive the career of Jackson Hedley, a Shakespearean actor who performed for their school when they were children. However, it turns out they were too young to realize he's utterly awful. Jackson himself has absolutely no idea how bad he is and thwarts all their efforts to keep him off the stage.

* Music/HarryChapin's "Six String Orchestra" is about a would-be musician continuing to pursue his dream in the face of humorously harsh criticism.

-->'''Dr Cliff Highball''': Raffi's a quack! Some sort of a bush butcher! I bet you never even asked to see his qualifications! Unload him....and you can have me!
-->''' Dr Mitch Shudlem''': I can't believe you bought Raffitto Leevon's story about being a doctor! I can't work with him!

--> '''Patron''': "Anyone can sing a melody. It takes a true artist to ''defy'' a melody!"

---> '''Wheatley''': '''[[BerserkButton I! AM NOT! A MORON!!!]]'''
* ''VideoGame/Persona4'': Yukiko, Chie, and Rise have the utmost confidence in their cooking skills and are seemingly oblivious to the fact that they're [[LethalChef absolutely horrible at it]], no matter how many times they're told as such and how many times their meals have made the others sick. Yosuke even lampshades it in ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'', outright asking them ''how'' they haven't realized how badly they suck at cooking.
* Saber in ''VideoGame/FateExtra'' believes herself to be the pinnacle of the arts, a creative savant on par with the gods. In reality, her skills are below-average at best. In her past life as [[spoiler:Nero Caesar]] she even built a personal theatre devoted specifically to her performances, and when people started to leave in the middle of her first recital, she ordered all the exits sealed.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', there is Lurbuk, an Orc bard working in the Moorside Inn in Morthal. He is a notably terrible bard and the only reason the innkeeper doesn't kick him out is because there are no customers around to complain, so there's no point. He's so bad that, if you work for the [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood]], you get a contract to assassinate him. In fact, the Brotherhood recieved ''multiple'' requests to assassinate him and had to hold a lottery to determine whose request got picked.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'':
** Rosabeth of Melfia is an eager and passionate student of sorcery. She is absolutely terrible at sorcery. She is, however, an incredibly gifted pyromancer, but is utterly uninterested in pyromancy.
** Similarly, Felkin the Outcast finds hexes fascinating and is a keen student of their use, eagerly discussing them with you... but when you aggro him, he will only ever attack you with pyromancies. What's especially notable is that pyromancies and hexes scale off ''the same stats'', although in different ways.[[note]]Pyromancies scale off Intelligence and Faith added together, softcapping at a total of 60, while hexes scale off of whichever of the two stats is currently lower than the other, softcapping at 30. If Felkin has most of his points dumped into one stat instead of going for an even 30/30 split, then it's understandable that his pyromancies would be better than his hexes.[[/note]]
* Dan Hibiki in the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series constantly operates under the belief that his partly-self-learned style of martial arts, Saikyo Karate, is the ultimate fighting style ("Saikyo" even meaning "the strongest"), when actually, it's pretty much quite the opposite. Perhaps he developed the stance in order to stand up to Sagat (as in, the King of Muay Thai, the greatest of all street fighters before Ryu came around, and the killer of his father), but even after his character arc moved on, Dan has maintained the stance, even with a "disciple" who eclipses him only by watching and imitating moves and a rundown dojo no one applies for.

* Inverted with Uncle Tommy in ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework''. He ''knows'' that his playing and singing suck, and to him, that’s part of the sound. And the crowds... they don’t care.

* In ''Webcomic/MenInHats'', Jeriah likes to [[http://www.meninhats.com/d/20040324.html think he's an underappreciated great artist]]. He characteristically maintains that TrueArtIsAngsty, but his own efforts come across more as [[http://www.meninhats.com/d/20040322.html just plain ridiculous]].

* Count Legato [[spoiler:actually a nerdy kid named Panpipe using a [[ItmakesSenseInContext stolen magic contact lens]]]] of ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'' writes and stars a play that is atrocious by just about any standards. Not only is it poorly-written and possibly even less well acted, it's also incredibly self-serving to the point of creepiness. He is so deluded that he thinks it's a work of brilliance and only realizes how bad it is when he's called out on his behavior and his writing in front of the audience, whereupon he promptly has a pseudo-VillainousBreakdown.

* The Light Warriors in ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' are, collectively, extremely bad at [[YouFightLikeACow throwing around snarky quips at their enemies' expense]], yet all of them insist they're great except Fighter. When fighting the Dark Elf king Astos, for example, Red Mage fumbles out something about kicking his ''ass'', which would bring their ''toes'' into close proximity; Black Mage insults him for it, then trots out "Astos? Mo' like your ass is toast!", a line so bad that [[AntiClimax Astos dies immediately upon hearing it]].

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'''s resident [[DreadfulMusician dreadful]] [[PissTakeRap white rapper]] Coach Z. Notably, he's pretty decent when he's had time to set up and practice but his preferred style is free-style and he sucks at it.
* Website/{{Cracked}} gives us "[[http://www.cracked.com/article_170_5-people-who-failed-their-way-to-fame-fortune.html 5 People Who Failed Their Way to Fame And Fortune]]".
* Rusty from ''WebAnimation/PokemonRusty'' believes he is destined to be a Pokemon master, despite clearly being one of the worst, most ignorant trainers in the world who shouldn't be allowed to take care of anything let alone Pokemon, and everybody but him knows it.

* Brian Griffin of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' is a dedicated, passionate, confident writer... whose book was such a flop that the unsold copies were sent back to him packed in shredded copies of his book. The one time he writes a hit is supposed to be a TakeThat to the trend of awful self-help books, which he writes in a day. When he's suddenly well-known, he rolls with it until Creator/BillMaher utterly destroys him on his show.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' has Captain Peter "Wrong-Way" Peachfuzz, the worst sailor in the world. Despite having wanted to be a sailor since childhood, he's totally incompetent at it (mainly because he has NoSenseOfDirection). He only captains a ship because he inherited a huge sum of money, bought a cruise liner, and hired himself as its captain. The rest of his crew has a conspiracy to keep him from actually controlling the ship: they disconnected all the controls on the bridge, and the ship is actually steered from a secret control room he doesn't know about. This plan fails when he blunders his way into the real control room by accident while trying to get to the fake one.
* From ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'', Trent and his band "Mystik Spiral" [[RunningGag (although they're thinking of changing their name)]] are pretty poor musicians in general, but Trent is absolutely ''abysmal'' at writing lyics. The lyrics of "Oh, my nose! Oh, my face!" have to be heard to be believed.
--> '''Daria:''' It has a beat, and you can dance to it. If you have no shame.
* Throughout ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', whenever the Cutie Mark Crusaders attempt a new scheme to get their cutie marks, it usually goes wrong in a particularly spectacular fashion. Their attempt at performing a rock ballad in "The Show Stoppers" is probably the best example. It ends up winning them an award... for best comedy act. All of this despite being told multiple times by multiple different characters that they're going about getting their cutie marks the wrong way. [[spoiler: It takes them until season five to finally get their cutie marks, in the episode "Crusaders of the Lost Mark".]]
* Leela from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' became a major-league blernsball player in "A Leela of Her Own". Her complete lack of depth perception combined with a very strong throwing arm made it quite dangerous to be on the receiving end of her pitches. She did, however, provide a strong boost to ticket sales, as people would show up just to see how many batters she would "bean" during the game. It took her most of the episode to discover that she was really nothing more than a publicity gimmick... despite [[ComicallyMissingThePoint being explicitly told so multiple times]].
* WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}} draws like a kindergartener, but considers herself to be a great artist (not that anyone else does).

* Creator/MarkTwain went on at considerable length to describe just how awful he thought the works of Creator/JamesFenimoreCooper were in ''Literature/FenimoreCoopersLiteraryOffences''.

It's also a surprisingly common trope in RealLife, thanks to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect Dunning-Kruger effect]], which states that the skills necessary for being good at something are also necessary for assessing one's talent at something. This means that someone who's ''really'' untalented doesn't know enough to know how untalented they are.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'': Rosabeth of Melfia is an eager and passionate student of sorcery. She is absolutely terrible at sorcery. She is, however, an incredibly gifted pyromancer, but is utterly uninterested in pyromancy.

* In the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', the Imperial Security HQ was designed by an insane architect (a relative of Mad Emperor Yuri). The building is so uncomfortable to be in, as either prisoner or actual staff of [=ImpSec=], that it verged on AlienGeometries -- to a point [[TheSpymaster Simon Illyan]] once offhandedly remarked that he was never so close to emigrating as when he saw the beautiful glass tower that housed Escobar's Investigatif Federale.

* A Subaru commercial involves a 30-something man getting an easel from his wife for his birthday. He enthusiastically brings it with him in his Subaru as he drives through increasingly punishing terrain to get the best view for his painting. But for all his enthusiasm (and the car's capability), he still can't paint better than a 5-year-old. He's very proud of his artwork, while his wife can't tell top from bottom on her "favorite" painting.

-->''If you wanted a small surface-to-air missile, you asked Johnson to design an ornamental fountain. It came to pretty much the same thing in the end.''

--> '''Wheatley''': '''[[BerserkButton I! AM NOT! A MORON!!!]]'''

** Similarly, Felkin the Outcast finds hexes fascinating and is a keen student of their use, eagerly discussing them with you...but when you aggro him, he will only ever attack you with pyromancies. What's especially notable is that pyromancies and hexes scale off ''the same stats''.

* Leela from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' became a major-league blernsball player in "A Leela of Her Own". Her complete lack of depth perception combined with a very strong throwing arm made it quite dangerous to be on the receiving end of her pitches. She did, however, provide a strong boost to ticket sales, as people would show up just to see how many batters she would "bean" during the game. It took her most of the episode to discover that she was really nothing more than a publicity gimmick... despite [[ComicallyMissingThePoint(being explicitly told so multiple times).]]

* ''Film/ComingToAmerica'' has Randy Watson and his band Sexual Chocolate performing in Queens' Black Awarenes Rally.

* Leela from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' became a major-league blernsball player in "A Leela of Her Own". Her complete lack of depth perception combined with a very strong throwing arm made it quite dangerous to be on the receiving end of her pitches. She did, however, provide a strong boost to ticket sales, as people would show up just to see how many batters she would "bean" during the game. It took her most of the episode to discover that she was really nothing more than a publicity gimmick.

'''Dr Cliff Highball''': Raffi's a quack! Some sort of a bush butcher! I bet you never even asked to see his qualifications! Unload him....and you can have me!
'''Dr Mitch Shudlem''': I can't believe you bought Raffitto Leevon's story about being a doctor! I can't work with him!

* Susan Foster Kane's atrocious operatic performances in ''Film/CitizenKane'', though she realizes that she has no musical talent and only persists with her career as an opera singer because of her husband, Charles Foster Kane's ambition.