History Main / JokeCharacter

* ''The TempleOfElementalEvil'' features three joke characters, Ted, Ed and Ed. They are hopelessly weak, being first level in the 'final' area and having 3 HitPoints between them.

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'' has Oliver, a boss from the previous game who was somehow NotQuiteDead and does a HeelFaceTurn [[note]]Only if he is recruited by a specific character, which the player is unlikely to think to do for several reasons: he's the only boss in either Tellius game that can be recruited, you encounter him at a time when your teams have been killing all of the senators they meet (for good reason), and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking he made the player slog through a big swamp level in the last game]] so inexplicable Ike outright Lampshades it.[[/note]] He's got pretty bad stats, but he has a unique [[FatBastard (fat)]] combat model, a unique theme that plays every time he attacks and unique, [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]] dialogue with each of the end-game bosses.

* In the tabletop fantasy football game ''BloodBowl'' (and its PC adaptation) a lot of the teams are stronger or weaker than others, but the Ogre team is the one that is simply not competatively viable. Its strengths? You can hire up to ''six'' Ogres (without the usual 'Loner' drawback that big guys like that usually have) who are incredibly hard-hitting, dangerous and quite durable, the Snotlings you hire to make up the numbers are ''ridiculously'' cheap and are so agile they can all but ignore enemy tackle zones, and the Ogres can throw the Snotlings downfield in some truly bizarre plays. Their weaknesses? Pretty much ''everything else.'' Ogres are ridiculously expensive, not very agile and due to being as thick as lard each have a 1 in 6 chance of forgetting what they're supposed to be doing every turn, while Snotlings are slow (thanks to their short legs), so weak they get beaten up by ''Halflings'' and have a tendancy to die when the enemy so much as ''looks'' at them.

* Several in the ''[[TonyHawkProSkater Tony Hawk]]'' series, though the most obvious and fitting is Benjamin Franklin (''the'' Benjamin Franklin) in ''THUG 2'', who has the lowest stats out of any playable character. There's also Paulie "Wheels of Fury" Ryan (a ten year old boy in a body cast and wheelchair) Jason "Wee Man" Acuna (a little person best known for being a cast member on ''Jackass''), Jesse James (of ''American Chopper''. He rides on his suped-up segway), a cowardly Spanish Matador, an Australian Aborigine in a go-kart, a Cajun voodoo priest on a rocket powered tricycle...

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'' has Oliver, a boss from the previous game who was somehow NotQuiteDead and does a HeelFaceTurn [[hottip:*:Only if he is recruited by a specific character, which the player is unlikely to think to do for several reasons: he's the only boss in either Tellius game that can be recruited, you encounter him at a time when your teams have been killing all of the senators they meet (for good reason), and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking he made the player slog through a big swamp level in the last game]] so inexplicable Ike outright Lampshades it. He's got pretty bad stats, but he has a unique [[FatBastard (fat)]] combat model, a unique theme that plays every time he attacks and unique, [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]] dialogue with each of the end-game bosses.

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'' has Oliver, a boss from the previous game who was somehow NotQuiteDead and does a HeelFaceTurn [[hottip:*:Only if he is recruited by a specific character, which the player is unlikely to think to do for several reasons: he's the only boss in either Tellius game that can be recruited, you encounter him at a time when your teams have been killing all of the senators they meet (for good reason), and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking he made the player slog through a big swamp level in the last game]]. so inexplicable Ike outright Lampshades it. He's got pretty bad stats, but he has a unique [[FatBastard (fat)]] combat model, a unique theme that plays every time he attacks and unique, [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]] dialogue with each of the end-game bosses.

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'' has Oliver, a boss from the previous game who was somehow NotQuiteDead and does a HeelFaceTurn so inexplicable Ike outright Lampshades it. He's got pretty bad stats, but he has a unique [[FatBastard (fat)]] combat model, a unique theme that plays every time he attacks and unique, [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]] dialogue with each of the end-game bosses.

* Pichu in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'' is a weakened version of Pikachu. It damages itself when it attacks, it's lighter and easier to knock off, has drastically inferior range, and often has to use its head in the place of Pikachu's longer, more powerful tail. There are some advantages, such as it being a little faster and having higher knockback, but most would agree that that doesn't make up for all of the disadvantages.

** Pichu's own trophies blatantly admit that he's worthless, going so far as to describe him as the weakest character in the game, has to survive matches using items rather than actual skill, and better suited as a handicap for experienced players fighting newer, unskilled players.

* In a similar vein, ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game}}'' has an amazing number of cards that have no conceivable use, or that simply don't do their job well. Witness Thousand-Eyes Idol, a monster with the lowest stats possible (0 attack and 0 defense) and no effect. Then again, some of these cards eventually become {{Lethal Joke Character}}s...to wit, Thousand-Eyes Idol. Fuse him with Relinquished, and you get the (now banned in advanced format) Thousand-Eyes Restrict, which FREEZES EVERY MONSTER ON THE FIELD, and steals whichever of your opponent's monsters you want to copy its stats. (Granted, most people used other methods to get Thousand-Eyes Restrict out rather than intentionally putting a monster in the deck that can't do anything on its own.

** Delibird seems to be an experiment by Game Freak/Nintendo to create the worst Pokémon of all time. Its Ice/Flying type leaves it with only 2 resistances and one immunity, compared to four weaknesses (including a [[QuadDamage 4X weakness to Rock]]). It has the base stat total are the same as '''Luvdisc'''. It only learns a single move by leveling up (and its a terrible move with low accuracy, variable damage, with a chance to '''heal the opponent'''). This means that it has to rely on TM, move tutor and egg moves alone. It barely learns any special moves outside of Ice type, meaning it has to rely on its inferior physical attack. Abilities? It gets one that lowers accuracy to get a boost in attack, and [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment two abilities]] that prevent sleep. Which means it can't heal up with Rest (but why would you when your defenses and HP are only ''45''?). The one saving grace it has is that it can learn Aerial Ace (combined with Hustle, it's boosted without the chance of missing). Its like Game Freak regrets adding this guy to the game or something...

* The most famous JokeCharacter is probably Dan Hibiki of the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series. He was created as a joke about SNK's VideoGame/ArtOfFighting and KingOfFighters games, whose protagonists borrowed heavily from the Street Fighter games.

* Roll in the original ''Marvel vs. Capcom''. (Upgraded in the sequel, where [[VideoGame/MegaManLegends ServBot]] fills the JokeCharacter role).

** Nearly every JokeCharacter in Pokemon has some sort of strange gimmick. Chatot interacts with the DS microphone, Smeargle [[{{Megamanning}} can learn any move in the game through Sketch]], Plusle and Minun have an interaction in double battles, etc. Sometimes a gimmick allows one of these to be a LethalJokeCharacter; most of the time, they are stuck being the TierInducedScrappy.

** Salsa is something of a deconstruction of a JokeCharacter. He's nigh-useless in battle, but Fassad puts him through so much that you can't help feeling terrible for the poor little guy.

** The WorldWarII props [[LethalJokeCharacter get an upgrade]] in AceCombatAssaultHorizonLegacy. They're very agile, and their machine guns are the most powerful of all aircraft.

* The Easter Bunny in ''WebOriginal/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory''. Even the announcer isn't impressed.
* Jim Davis in the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yELOiYgR2aI 08/18/1978]]" episode of ''Lasagna Cat'' has pathetic stats (even at Level 99!) and no skills.
* Rotton The Wizard of ''Anime/BlackLagoon''. Introduced in an arc full of psycho assassins, his only memorable action is to gloat, and get shot by Revy in the middle of it. He survives cause he was smart enough to wear a bulletproof vest.

** Until the fifth gen, [[DittoFighter Ditto]] was a glaring example of this, since it had terrible stats and was only capable of doing one thing in battle, which two other Pokemon could do better - its only real use was as a universal breeder, allowing male-only and genderless Pokemon to [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction make eggs]] [[ScrewYourself with it]]. The latest versions gave it a tremendous buff in the unique Impostor ability, giving it a great niche in battles and single-handedly saving it from this trope - though its low HP is still a bit of an issue, it's not a dealbreaker.

** Until recently, [[DittoFighter Ditto]] was a glaring example of this, since it had terrible stats and was only capable of doing one thing in battle, which two other Pokemon could do better - its only real use was as a universal breeder, allowing male-only and genderless Pokemon to [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction make eggs]] [[ScrewYourself with it]]. The latest versions gave it a tremendous buff in the unique Impostor ability, giving it a great niche in battles and single-handedly saving it from this trope - though its low HP is still a bit of an issue, it's not a dealbreaker.

** [[DittoFighter Ditto]]. The ability to transform into anything the opponent uses sounds decent enough, but Ditto has three issues:
### Ditto's stats are horrible. Most importantly, its HP and Speed. HP because that is the only stat that carries over after it transforms, meaning it will almost certainly be weaker overall than whatever it becomes. Speed because its defenses are horrible and thus the opponent can just kill it before it even transforms at all. It has a personal item called Quick Powder to remedy the latter issue, but it becomes completely useless after the transformation, effectively leaving Ditto without any item boost at all.
### Transforming is the ''only'' thing it can do. At all. This means it is incredibly predictable, and thus the opponent can simply switch in a team member that another team member can easily defeat, then just switch that in.
### There are two other Pokemon that can learn Transform, Mew and Smeargle, both of which have much better stats than Ditto, and in both cases their movepools are huge so the opponent will likely never see it coming. Granted, Mew is usually banned in TournamentPlay, but that still leaves Ditto outclassed by Smeargle.
**** Smeargle has better HP and much better Speed than Ditto, yes, but its stats are pretty horrible too, especially its Attack and Special Attack which are among the worst in the whole game. There must be a counterweight to being able to learn almost any move in the game...
**** Smeargle does have one use. It can be used to breed useful Egg Moves that only female Pokémon know into some Pokémon (like say, breeding a Chansey that knows Heal Bell) via a process called [[FanNickname "chain Smeargling"]].
*** The one upside to Ditto is that it's the universal breeder- you can use it to get eggs of Pokemon you only have males of, male-only Pokemon, and even genderless Pokemon. (It's the only way you can breed a Phione from a Manaphy, for example).
*** As of the 5th generation Ditto may no longer be a joke character. Ditto's getting what's basically an automatic transform ability may make it ''much'' more useful now, and if it has a Choice Scarf, it'll be faster than its opponent (except if the opponent has a choice scarf too). [[http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79160&page=1 The people at Smogon]] are discussing whether Ditto is useful thanks to this.

** He has a bit of a LethalJokeCharacter in himself, too: in fact, in all iterations, he can learn some of the most powerful moves of the games, was the player patient enough to level him up to the max. Doesn't stop him from screwing up due to its low stats...

* Pichu in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'' is basically a weakened version of Pikachu (it damages itself when it attacks, it's lighter and easier to knock off, has drastically inferior range, and often has to use his head in the place of Pikachu's longer, more powerful tail). There are some advantages, such as it being a little faster and having higher knockback, but most would agree that that doesn't make up for all of the disadvantages.

* {{Mortasheen}} has The Devilbird of Sloth. While the other Devilbirds are like a combination of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]] and TheHeartless, with all sorts of truly nasty MindRape abilities that leaves them open only to higher level players, Sloth... is just an egg. That does absolutely nothing.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' included a BonusLevel which told the story of Hunk, one of the Umbrella commandos who was knocked unconscious and forced to fight his way out of the Raccoon Police Department after the events of the main game (now throughly overrun with enemies). The truly hardcore could play that level again as Tofu, truly ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, a block of bean curd with a knife.

*** Tofu was also not actually created to be a playable character or even a tofu. It was a block the developers made to test hit detection for the game. But they decided to take the joke and run with it after development.

* Megane in ''InazumaEleven'' is a rare example of a joke character that you start out with on your team. This was probably an intentional move by [[{{Level5}} Level-5]] to train players to swap out team members and avoid settling into a PlayerPreferredPattern. This is taken even further in the anime adaptation, where it's repeatedly lampshaded that his 2 primary contributions to the team are naming hissatsu techniques and acting as a CombatCommentator. And he gets upset and cries whenever someone else steals his thunder and fulfills one of those roles instead of him. He ''does'' score one goal in the entire series... by [[spoiler:letting the ball hit him in the face to redirect it into the goal]].

[[quoteright:276:[[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DanSF4.jpg]]]]