History Main / ModernMajorGeneral

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Luz is living with Eda so she can learn how to do magic. Unfortunately, while Eda may be one of the most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles and a wonderful ParentalSubstitute, actually teaching how to magic is not one of her strong suits (something that isn't helped by the fact that Luz is biologically incapable of casting magic the normal way). [[spoiler:In fact, it isn't until the FinalBattle when Luz is briefly imbued with the power of the Titan that Eda is able to give her a proper magic lesson, guiding her hand as she draws her first spell circle.]]

* UsefulNotes/JosefStalin was a HypercompetentSidekick to UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin before and during UsefulNotes/RedOctober, proving to be TheChessmaster. Those skills helped him become the DragonAscendant after Lenin's death. Unfortunately, while Stalin had many talents, military strategy was not one of them. Whenever he tried to control a Bolshevik war effort, it usually went badly, ending at best in a PyrrhicVictory. While he oversaw the Soviet Union's victory in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, it was mostly because he actually let his generals do their jobs and handle military strategy, and partly due to his opponent Hitler being even worse at running things and insisting on doing so anyway.

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Has only been brought down the beginning of the century.'' [[note]]One should note that the play takes place in 1877, making the beginning of the century roughly twenty years ''before he was born.''[[/note]]\\

* UsefulNotes/JosefStalin was a HypercompetentSidekick to UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin before and during UsefulNotes/RedOctober, proving to be TheChessmaster and briliant at politics and administration. Those skills helped him become the DragonAscendant after Lenin's death, and also helped him build the Soviet Union into a superpower. Unfortunately, while Stalin had many talents military strategy was not one of them. Whenever he tried to control a Bolshevik war effort, it usually went badly, ending at best in a PyrrhicVictory. While he oversaw the Soviet Union's victory in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, it was because he actually let his generals do their jobs and handle military strategy.

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* The Team Rocket TerribleTrio of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' are in fact often implied to be very talented individuals and have actually beat Ash and his comrades a few times in competitions just by playing fair. Unfortunately, the three think of themselves as fearsome criminal masterminds, and devote nearly all their time to stealing Pokémon or [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat playing dirty]], despite it always backfiring miserably due to LaserGuidedKarma or their own incompetence at being villains.
* ''Literature/{{Gate}}'': Pina Co Lada, good diplomat, bad war commander, despite the fact that she is the leader of the knightly order.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Max Smart in the 2008 movie ''Film/GetSmart'' is cast in a role something like this: many characters remark that he's probably the finest intelligence analyst in CONTROL. However, he desperately wants to be a field agent -- and when he's finally promoted, he's not entirely incompetent, but he is notably over-eager, naive, bumbling and prone to making a fool of himself.

* Captain Trips from the ''Literature/WildCards'' books. He's a genius biochemist -- was one of the best in the world, before his drug-and-superhero problems. He manages to be a competent detective when working with Tachyon on the Swarm case. In regular life, he tries to be a businessman, but couldn't sell tuna to dolphins.

* Officers of this type are common in the Union army of ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' series, many of whom seem to be more interested in how good they look in their uniforms than in the actual work of soldiering. There are many variations - for instance, General Jalenhorm is noted in ''Literature/TheHeroes'' as having the makings of a truly excellent junior officer, so it's a real shame that the king insisted on promoting him to general, a position he is absolutely terrible in.
* In the ''Literature/AsianSaga'' book ''Tai-Pan'', the British official in charge of the fledgling Hong Kong, William Longstaff, first appears to be an imbecile who knows absolutely ''nothing'' about Chinese culture or trade, and the only reason he doesn't completely ruin everything is because he takes the advice/gets manipulated by [[MagnificentBastard Dirk Struan]]. However, when a Russian Archduke turns up unexpectedly, Longstaff is an excellent diplomat and his insight into European politics far surpasses Struan's, and he also [[spoiler: comes up with the idea to shortcut the expensive business of buying tea from China by sneaking tea seeds to British territories in India where they can grow their own, and plays into his reputation as an out-of-his-depth buffoon to ensure that neither the Chinese nor the traders realise that he's tricked them into putting themselves out of business]]. He's not an idiot, merely in the wrong place for his skillset.
* Saber of ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'' is a seeming MasterOfAll talents, ranging from combat to the fine arts to [[TheTriple lovemaking]]. There were only two things in life he was not very good at: governance and the English language, which is a huge problem when you're [[spoiler:Richard the Lionheart, ''king of England'']].[[note]]The second shortcoming wasn't ''as'' problematic one might expect, given that the language of the royal court was Norman French rather than English. But by Richard's time, it ''was'' expected for those in authority to also speak English.[[/note]]

* Jack from ''Series/ThirtyRock'' was put into this situation by higher-ups who moved him from the appliance division to TV production. Liz, too, is a comedy writer by background, ability and official job title, but [[OnlySaneEmployee she spends most of her time doing HR work these days]].

* The Governor of ''Series/TheSlammer'' may be an excellent entertainer, but he is really rather inept at running a prison. {{Lampshaded}} in one episode where a journalist points out that there have been several escapes in the time she has been talking to him.
* ''Series/{{MASH}}''
** Col. Henry Blake is a top-notch surgeon but is clearly out of his depth as commanding officer of a M*A*S*H unit. Fortunately, the actual clerical and day-to-day affairs are managed by [[HyperCompetentSidekick Radar.]]
** Lieutenant Colonel Harold Becket in Season 5's "Ping Pong" is an administrative officer who had friends pull some strings to get him a command so he could get a Combat Infantry Badge and retire a full Colonel. Unfortunately for those under him, he was a total incompetent who didn't know how to react to an order to retreat. Col. Potter had him removed from command, despite their being longtime friends, to prevent further bloodshed.
** Colonel Woody Cooke in Season 11's "Friends and Enemies" is an identical example. Col. Potter again has him removed despite a longtime friendship but is initially resistant. Cooke didn't take it nearly as well as Becket.
** Potter himself would be a subversion of this in his debut episode. The rest of the medical staff fear that this aged "regular army" Colonel may be an over disciplined desk jockey who can't keep up in surgery. But Potter proves to not only be a reasonable commander, but a skilled surgeon who can even teach Hawkeye a thing or two.
* ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'': Kadoya Tsukasa is [[TheAce good at pretty much everything he tries]] ([[{{Jerkass}} except, for a while, being nice]]), but despite being a photographer, his pictures inevitably end up terrible.
* Ron Swanson of ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' is supremely competent when it comes to making things with his hands, woodsmanship, and just being a general all-around manly man, but he lacks the personal, political and organizational skills and most of all the ''motivation'' to be an effective department head, which is why he palms all of his actual responsibilities off on his HypercompetentSidekick Leslie Knope. He ''is'' pretty good at managing her ([[CripplingOverspecialization and only her]]) since that boils down to "know when to let her loose and do when she does best, and know when to rein her in and prod her into directing her limitless energy elsewhere".
** Note that he's fully aware that he's not an effective department head, but stays in his job specifically because he ''wants'' to hamper the work of government.
** In the last season he proves that he ''can'' successfully manage when he cares about it, successfully building his own construction company. It helps that his employees are a lot closer to his attitude, and many or all of them are his relatives.

* ''Series/JohnDoe'' featured a variation, with the protagonist waking up on a beach with his head crammed full of knowledge and trivia on seemingly every topic, from the history of Jack the Ripper, to the plot of every TV show ever made, to the entire binary code of Microsoft Windows. Seemingly the only thing he knows nothing about is [[AmnesiacHero himself]].

* The TropeNamer is Major General Stanley from ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance'', who introduces himself with a long-winded song listing all of the things he knows, eventually summing up with a long verse about his complete and utter lack of military knowledge (he can barely tell the difference between a rifle and a javelin). He eventually concludes that:
-->''For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventurey,\\
Has only been brought down the beginning of the century.'' [[note]]One should note that the play takes place in 1877, making the beginning of the century roughly twenty years ''before he was born.''[[/note]]\\
''But still in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,\\
I am the very model of a modern Major General.''
** It should, however be mentioned that most of the things the Major General brags about are either impossible or trivial. See GeniusBonus or ''YMMV/ThePiratesOfPenzance'' for a more comprehensive rundown.

* Ymira from ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'' is a gentle and intelligent girl who seeks to join you to get away from an ArrangedMarriage. She proudly boasts on her recruitment that she is a skilled poet, musician and manager of household servants. All well and good, but those are hardly vital skills for a ''mercenary''. Eventually {{Subverted|Trope}} as her high Intelligence and low level allows her to quickly pick up stats and skills as you desire, allowing her to easily [[TookALevelInBadass Take Several Levels in Badass]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]
%% * Happens in ''Webcomic/{{Furmentation}}'' with [[http://xodin.comicgenesis.com/d/20030623.html Gulley.]]

** It should, however be mentioned that most of the things the Major General brags about are either impossible or trivial. See GeniusBonus or ''Trivia/ThePiratesOfPenzance'' for a more comprehensive rundown.

* From UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, we have [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Nicholas_Nikolaevich_of_Russia_(1856%E2%80%931929)) Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich]]. Nicholas steadily rose through the ranks of the Russian army and was renowned for being a SergeantRock who was a tough taskmaster but one respected by his troops. He also oversaw a successful reform of the training and education of the Russian cavalry. When the Tsar asked him to become a military dictator in response to the 1905 Revolution instead of accepting the reforms proposed by [[HypercompetentSidekick Sergius Witte]], Nicholas threatened to shoot himself on the spot if the Tsar didn't accept the reforms. When UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne started, the Tsar made Nicholas the Russian army's commander in chief. Unfortunately, while Nicholas was great at training men, he didn't have much experience commanding them. He [[OhCrap burst into tears when he received the Tsar's order making him commander in chief]], having no idea how to handle his new duties. He proved to be an utter disaster as a commander, not helped by the Russian army's awful logistics and poor training. Nicholas was eventually dismissed in 1915 and replaced by the Tsar, whose even ''worse'' leadership was one of the factors in the Empire's final collapse.

Compare GeniusDitz, which is a character who is ditzy and unskilled ''except'' for being brilliant in their actual job, and BunnyEarsLawyer, whose quirks belie their true competence. Contrast ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder and the AlmightyJanitor. Civilians also count. A Modern Major General who actually ''is'' a military leader may overlap with GeneralFailure.

* Saber of ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'' is a seeming MasterOfAll talents, ranging from combat to the fine arts to [[TheTriple lovemaking]]. There were only two things in life he was not very good at: governance and the English language, which is a huge problem when you're [[spoiler:Richard the Lionheart, ''king of England'']].

* From UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, we have [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Nicholas_Nikolaevich_of_Russia_(1856%E2%80%931929)) Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich]]. Nicholas steadily rose through the ranks of the Russian army and was renowned for being a SergeantRock who was a tough taskmaster but one respected by his troops. He also oversaw a successful reform of the training and education of the Russian cavalry. When the Tsar asked him to become a military dictator in response to the 1905 Revolution instead of accepting the reforms proposed by [[HypercompetentSidekick Sergius Witte]], Nicholas threatened to shoot himself on the spot if the Tsar didn't accept the reforms. When UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne started, the Tsar made Nicholas the Russian army's commander in chief. Unfortunately, while Nicholas was great at training men, he didn't have much experience training them. He [[OhCrap burst into tears when he received the Tsar's order making him commander in chief]], having no idea how to handle his new duties. He proved to be an utter disaster as a commander, not helped by the Russian army's awful logistics and poor training. Nicholas was eventually dismissed in 1915 and replaced by the Tsar, whose even ''worse'' leadership was one of the factors in the Empire's final collapse.

* Max Smart in the 2008 movie ''Film/GetSmart'' is cast in a role something like this; many characters remark that he's probably the finest intelligence analyst in CONTROL. However, he desperately wants to be a field agent -- and when he's finally promoted, he's not entirely incompetent, but he is notably over-eager, naive, bumbling and prone to making a fool of himself.

** ''However'', he is ostensibly a ''lawyer''. At law school, students and teachers alike assumed he would never pass the bar exam, though he somehow managed it. He very rarely practices law and when he does, often loses ''on purpose'', but even when he's not trying to lose he's shown using InsaneTrollLogic, going on tangents unrelated to the case, and being generally regarded as a joke by the judge. In one episode, he also claims to have been absent on the day he should have been taught what the fifth amendment was.

** From the same show, Neelix. He actually is a skilled scrounger and great at gathering info and otherwise dealing with the underworld of whatever region the ship is in that week. Unfortunately he decides to make himself useful as a "survival expert", cook, and self-appointed morale officer, all of which he is absolutely terrible at. After a while Janeway makes him the ship's official ambassador, which he does rather better at.

** Col. Henry Blake is a top-notch surgeon, but is clearly out of his depth as commanding officer of a M*A*S*H unit. Fortunately the actual clerical and day-to-day affairs are managed by [[HyperCompetentSidekick Radar.]]

** Colonel Woody Cooke in Season 11's "Friends and Enemies" is an identical example. Col. Potter again has him removed despite a longtime friendship, but is initially resistant. Cooke didn't take it nearly as well as Becket.

* Jennifer Marlowe of ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati'' ''almost'' fits this trope. She's the smartest person at the station (and the highest paid), and it's pretty clear that the station would fall apart without her. She's the receptionist, but spends most of her time making Mr. Carlson's decisions for him and playing mother to everyone else. Now, she's not incompetent as a receptionist at all, but she has shown an unwillingness to do things like take dictation or get coffee, or many other things that receptionists are supposed to do. In the pilot she acts as though getting three calls in one day is being "swamped" and starts talking about more money.

* From UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, we have [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Nicholas_Nikolaevich_of_Russia_(1856%E2%80%931929) Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich]]. Nicholas steadily rose through the ranks of the Russian army, and was renowned for being a SergeantRock who was a tough taskmaster but one respected by his troops. He also oversaw a successful reform of the training and education of the Russian cavalry. When the Tsar asked him to become a military dictator in response to the 1905 Revolution instead of accepting the reforms proposed by [[HypercompetentSidekick Sergius Witte]], Nicholas threatened to shoot himself on the spot if the Tsar didn't accept the reforms. When UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne started, the Tsar made Nicholas the Russian army's commander in chief. Unfortunately, while Nicholas was great at training men, he didn't have much experience training them. He [[OhCrap burst into tears when he received the Tsar's order making him commander in chief]], having no idea how to handle his new duties. He proved to be an utter disaster as a commander, not helped by the Russian army's awful logistics and poor training. Nicholas was eventually dismissed in 1915 and replaced by the Tsar, whose even ''worse'' leadership was one of the factors in the Empire's final collapse.