History Main / JokeCharacter

* Khan in ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture'' is based on an absolute nobody of a villain (a possessed barber who got his hands on Anubis) and it shows. He is [[SkillGateCharacters fairly easy to learn]] and has decent air mobility, but aside from that, his combo game is awful, his moves are really slow and easy to punish, he lacks the game's signature StanceSystem or PuppetFighter tricks, and you have Chaka and Black Polnareff who do everything he does and do it better.

* In ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled'':
** With the Neon Circus update, if you found all five Golden Eggs throughout the five Adventure Mode hubs, you unlocked King Chicken, a chicken with a crown on his head. He has no personality to speak of and his win/lose animations on the final podium are him eating bird seed because, after all, he's just an ordinary chicken.
** The March 2020 updated added a character who was so secret they're not even listed on the Character Select like every other locked character. To unlock them, you need to find an [[GuideDangIt incredibly well-hidden]] Beenox Crate on all 49 tracks in the game. Do this, and you unlock... the Iron Checkpoint Crate, an inanimate metal box with a C painted on it from one secret path in [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped the third game]]. It ups King Chicken by being ''completely inanimate'', pushing it close to CompanionCube territory.

* The Neko-Arc characters in ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood''. With their chibi designs, ludicrous attacks, and rather bizarre origins, you're clearly not supposed to take them seriously. The main Neko-Arc is definitely the most conventional one, with her nonexistent range, low durability, and one of her main attacks being focused on [[InterfaceScrew flipping the controls]] of ''both'' players--the Crescent version can be something of a LethalJokeCharacter if she can get a hit in and start a combo, but otherwise, she's pretty useless.

* You can capture humans in ''VideoGame/{{Palworld}}'' using Pal Spheres just like the eponymous [[{{mons}} Pals]] but doing so will net you one of the most useless "Pals" in the game.They only have one attack (a simple punch), even if they were armed before capture; poor stats; can't be taught additional attacks via skill fruits; lack Pal abilities; and have only the handiwork skill (at level 1).

** In ''[[Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger Abaranger]]'', Emri frequently tries to help out the team as "[=AbarePink=]"--and even makes her own Ranger suit in one episode--but since she lacks any powers, her effectiveness is...limited at best. Later, she returns in ''[[Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger Gokaiger]]'' and presents Ahim with the [=AbarePink=] Ranger Key--which naturally possesses no special powers and just puts Ahim in Emri's homemade costume when she uses it, forcing her to sit out the ensuing fight.

* Meat from ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' is a hidden character that was like this. It initially served as a skin, created by art director Tony Goskie, for each fighter in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4''. The name "Meat" was simply a designation given to the model so it could be used in the game. It was later decided to make him a playable character as part of a hidden Easter egg, albeit one with an almost nonexistent backstory (pretty much nothing other than being one of Shao Khan's failed experiments). For a long time, whether he was a real character at all was debated among fans, and it came as a ''big'' surprise when he was actually included later in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon'' (with somewhat more of a story, but still not much of one).

* Meat from ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' is a hidden character that was like this. It initially served as a skin, created by art director Tony Goskie, for each fighter in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4''. The name "Meat" was simply a designation given to the model so it could be used in the game. It was later decided to make him a playable character as part of a hidden Easter egg, albeit one with an almost nonexistent backstory (pretty much nothing other than being a one of Shao Khan's failed experiments). For a long time, whether he was a real character at all was debated among fans, and it came as a ''big'' surprise then he was actually included later in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon'' (with somewhat more of a story, but still not much of one).

** Yogg-Saron was supposed to be another useless but cool card. That... didn't work out so well. See his entry on LethalJokeCharacter.
** [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/The_Boogeymonster The Boogeymonster]] is generally considered the worst card in Hearthstone. Even Majordomo can be given to your opponent or combined with cards that increase your hero's health, but Boogeymonster has no such use. He has bad stats (6/7 for 8 mana) and the sole effect of gaining +2/+2 after successfully attacking and killing an enemy minion. That means he needs to stay alive for multiple turns and keep killing enemy minions ''without dying'' in order to become a big vanilla beatstick. For comparison, Gruul is a card that starts at a 7/7 for 8 and gains +1/+1 every turn passively. That means he's an 8/8 to your opponent and a 9/9 when it's your turn, ready to attack, and keeps growing. And even Gruul is considered bad.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' is full of cards that seem underpowered or even useless, such as [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=88817 One With Nothing]] and [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=113512 Norin the Wary]], that exist solely for PlayerArchetypes who like to try and make a workable deck out of such cards.
** The prize for "Worst Card In The Game" unquestionably goes to [[http://magiccards.info/lg/en/129.html Wood Elemental]], which requires you to sacrifice ''untapped'' forests to power up. Destroying lands sets you back hard. Destroying unused lands sets you back harder. Destroying unused lands to power a 4-mana cost creature (by only +1/+1, and it starts from 0/0) that can be killed by a 10-cent doom blade and has no other abilities is beyond idiotic. To make it even less useful, you can't even use this power-up ability after the card is in play; only while it's being summoned.
** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136151 Steamflogger Boss]] was a card introduced in ''Future Sight'' that supported a mechanic that ''didn't exist yet'', making it almost completely useless. It took over ten years for "assembling Contraptions" to be introduced in the joke set ''Unstable''.
** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=88962 Zephyr Spirit]] is another strong contender for "worst card in the game" alongside Wood Elemental. A 6-mana 0/6 is an absolutely horrid stat total to begin with, meaning you're sinking a hefty sum of resources into a crappy blocker. Except Zephyr Spirit can't even do ''that'' properly, because whenever it blocks something, it ''returns itself to your hand'', completely wasting the mana you spent on it. When Mark Rosewater, the game's Head Designer, was asked about how horrible this card is, his response is that it was entirely intentional; Zephyr Spirit was made to be so bad that even a new player can look at it and tell you how bad it is.

* In a similar vein, ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' has an amazing number of cards that have no conceivable use, or that simply don't do their job well. Early sets were crammed with low-stat normal monsters that were irrelevant even at release, but even then, some went above and beyond. Witness Thousand-Eyes Idol, a monster with the lowest stats possible (0 attack and 0 defense) and no effect. (It technically does have the use of being Fusion material for the infamously powerful [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Thousand-Eyes_Restrict Thousand-Eyes Restrict,]] but is never actually used as such since any deck that wants to use Restrict - both now and back in the day - has ways of getting it out without having to run an otherwise useless monster.)
** Shapesnatch due to his "horrible power". Ironically, it is [[LethalJokeCharacter among the best when it comes to low-stat normal monsters]], and certainly scores points for his [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Shapesnatch jaunty bow tie.]] This is in contrast to his first appearance in ''VideoGame/YuGiOhTheDuelistsOfTheRoses'', where he was an [[InfinityPlusOneSword Immortal.]]

** Similarly, it's a tradition for releases of Normal Monsters connected to Joey to have their flavor text [[AccentAdaptation translated into a terrible Brooklyn accent.]] These cards weren't jokes when they were originally released, but the fact that many of them weren't exported for more than a decade left them well behind the curve of PowerCreep. At this stage, it's not like anyone was gonna use [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Anthrosaurus Anthrosaurus]] or [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Meotoko Meotoko]] anyway, so you might as well get a laugh.

** [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Artist Dark Artist]] -- a monster with stats that were below-average in its time, and godawful at any time thereafter, and its only effect is that when it's attacked by a Light monster, it gets ''even weaker.''
** A lot of very early effect monsters seemed to have had effects created by random number generators, and the king of them all is [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Yado_Karu Yado Karu]]. Its effect is that when it's changed to Defense Position, it lets you return any number of cards in your hand to the bottom of your deck. Put simply, there are only two situations where this is beneficial -- when your opponent is playing a Mill deck and you need to put some cards in your deck right now or you will lose, or when you accidentally drew into one of the small handful of cards that can only be used from the Deck (such as Assault Modes). In any other case, all this card does is take cards you have immediate access to and then put them out of your reach. Just activating the effect is fairly cumbersome and slow, it has bad stats, and on top of that, it's not even unique; there are plenty of cards that let you send your own cards back into the Deck (Plaguespreader Zombie, Pot of Generosity, Transmigration Prophecy, Assault Teleport, Magical Mallet) with much greater efficiency.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/True_Exodia True Exodia,]] like the rest of the Exodia-based monsters, offers an InstantWinCondition. You must have it and the four Forbidden One limbs as the ''only'' monsters on the field to trigger this, and the card has no stats or upsides to offset this. For all that effort, True Exodia gives the victory to... ''its controller's opponent.'' It's clearly designed for laughs and trying to get a proper win with it (by switching its control) is more trouble than it's worth, though that hasn't stopped players from trying.
** Some characters from the anime can fill this role when they're opponents in videogames, particularly characters [[TheLoad who never dueled.]] Tristan and Mokuba tend to favor the aforementioned extremely weak Normal Monsters or suicidally bad strategies, but Dorothy in ''Tag Force'' seems to be an ongoing experiment in making unplayable decks. One of her decks has nothing but Level 5 or higher Normal Monsters, making it impossible for her to play anything. Another is a sixty-card (and therefore hugely inconsistent) deck based on bringing out the weakest Fusion Monsters in the game. Yet another is a deck that's nothing but drawing cards, causing her to deck herself out, and a fourth is a deck of nothing but detrimental cards like [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Burning_Algae Burning Algae]] or [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Fine Fine.]] Some of her decks are actually ''[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard illegal]]'', by virtue of not complying to the banlist, meaning Dorothy is such a bad Duelist that she ''breaks the game'' to be worse at it. The anime seems to confirm this, as her only onscreen duel was her Summoning [[StoneWall Marshmallon]] in ATK and then ending her turn, promptly costing the game for her partner. In ''Tag Force 3'', though, she's a LethalJokeCharacter when she's partnered with you: her Deck is nothing but Tuners and Synchro-based support cards with a powerful assortment of Synchros, but since Synchros need a Tuner and a non-Tuner, she can't summon any of them... but since you're partnered with her, you can just provide the non-Tuners.

** Norimaro from ''[[VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroesVsStreetFighter Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter]]'' [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelvscapcom/images/6/69/Nori1.gif is probably the only character that could make Dan Hibiki look like a badass]]. Not only does he look extremely pathetic, his attacks are also comedic. His projectile attack is him panicking and swinging a random item out of his bag, and his hard kick is him slipping on a banana peel. One of his hyper combos is him switching between a variety of poses recounting his memories, such as flipping an egg, dressing up as Mega Man, playing with a teddy bear, and singing karaoke. For his taunt, he holds out a pen and paper and asks the opponent for their autograph. Even though most of his lines were translated into English, he was DummiedOut from the international versions of the game, which was apparently done because [[ExecutiveMeddling Marvel didn't want him in the game]].

** Spinda, which has a similar problem, only without the decent Speed. It probably says something about Luvdisc that Spinda's attack strength is ''double'' that of Luvdisc...and still horrible. Spinda's primary purpose in the game is similar to the below Unown's, although it's not nearly as well known: each and every Spinda has a unique pattern of spots. (Well, okay, technically there are only [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Spinda_(Pokemon)#Trivia 4,294,967,296]] different Spinda spot patterns.) One new Ability in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black and White]]'', Contrary, reverses stat changes for the Pokémon, and Spinda is one of the few to have this Ability. Doesn't really put it in LethalJokeCharacter status, as it doesn't really have any good moves to use it with...but at least it has Skill Swap, which lets it gain a niche in doubles granting this ability to stronger Pokémon (most frequently Arcanine).

* The ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise as a whole has the Acguy, an amphibious assault unit that unfortunately happens to look like a [[http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/MSM-04_Acguy giant teddy bear]]. It's quite beloved among franchise fans, despite being a silly-looking {{Mook}} that gets annihilated in droves.

* In the boxing video game ''Fight Night: Champion'', players have the option of fighting as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Esch Eric "Butterbean" Esch]], a (real) 400lb boxer/wrestler/MMA fighter. The game does not use his real name ('Butterbean' is used as his last name and he has no first name, though you can hear the ring announcer say it), and he is among the lowest-rated boxers in the game.

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample. Explain why her strengths don't work in the game.
%%* Hong Meiling in ''VideoGame/TouhouSuimusouImmaterialAndMissingPower''. She's the worst character in the game, but she's not totally unusable. It's more that Meiling's strengths don't work in this game. Playing as China has the feel of trying to kill ComicBook/{{Spiderman}} by dropping him off a cliff.%%

* Fan game ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosCrusade'' has [[VideoGame/MarioIsMissing Weegee]]. His sole reason for being in the game is due to a gag during development. His entire moveset is one big memefest. The dev team claims that they were intending to remove Weegee from the roster, but he stuck, making him the only exception (besides Goku) to the "characters featured on Nintendo consoles only" rule when deciding the character roster.

* ''VideoGame/{{Lisa}} the Painful'' has Fardy Hernandez, who joins your party after you save him from the Men's Hair Club. His stats are pitiful and all of his moves are PowerfulButInnacurate attacks with heavy emphasis on the "innacurate". Before you gain access to the truck, all Fardy can do is use the move "Weep", which restores SP but inflicts him with the "crying" debuff. Notably, you gain him right before two sections where it's possible to permanently lose party members, with the game nudging you subtly to kill him off so as to not lose any valuable members.