History Main / RevolutionariesWhoDontDoAnything

* In the take on the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' by Creator/AAPessimal, Reg Shoe makes many cameo appearances as a theoretical revolutionary. He meets another misfit who joins the City Watch, in this case a [[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong former revolutionary idealist from Far Überwald]]. Irena Politek is saved from being a SoapboxSadie by first having undergone Witch training in Lancre where she discovered stolid Lancre farmers are not impressed by talk of forming soviet collective farms and punch great holes in her ideals. Irena then meets Reg Shoe where she realises that while people like her ''could'' win a Revolution, it would be people like Reg, stuffed full of theory and ideals, who would then try to win the peace afterwards and make it work. Irena is no longer a communist revolutionary.

* ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'' features the People's Front of Judea, which seems more concerned with fighting with other Judea liberation groups than actually fighting the Romans, and at one point are seen discussing the fact that "The time to take action is now!" while Brian was being crucified, and afterwards congratulated him on his new martyr status. It's implied most of the Judean anti-Roman resistances work the same way, with the Judean Popular People's Front consisting of a single man who split from the others for unknown reasons. The only revolutionary group in the film to actually accomplish anything is the crack suicide squad of the Judean People's Front, who take their 'suicide' descriptor a bit too literally.

* One farcical chapter of Creator/JohnLeCarre's novel ''The Secret Pilgrim'' takes place in [[TheSeventies 1970's]] Munich, where the protagonist, Ned, is assigned to liaise with a RagtagBunchOfMisfits who were exiled from various Eastern Bloc countries and are plotting to return and overthrow the communists. Ned remarks that most of these "revolutionaries" are so busy plotting what their ''post''-revolution country will look like - i.e., whose aristocratic titles will be restored, who will get first dibs on retrieving this family or that's hidden treasure - that they have little time left for actually doing anything to bring the revolution about in the first place.

* ''Series/{{Yonderland}}'': Despite supposedly being the front line force against [[EvilOverlord Imperatrix]]'s tyranny and created a network of secret tunnels beneath her lands, the resistance are presented as a bunch of layabouts, who spend all their time eating rich food, drinking wine and discussing politics. This infuriates Debbie when she finally meets them. Thankfully this inspires them to actually act, with them successfully rescuing her from Imperatrix's goons at the end.

* This is basically the whole point of ''Series/CitizenSmith''. In his own mind "Wolfie" Smith is the leader of the Tooting People's Front, an urban Marxist revolutionary on the verge of bringing "power to the people", in emulation of his hero UsefulNotes/CheGuevara. In reality, the Tooting Popular Front is entirely composed of the small group of his friends who humour him, and Wolfie is an unemployed dreamer and small-time criminal, whose plans never go anywhere due to laziness or poor organisation. The one time in the series he actually accomplishes anything revolutionary, namely hijacking a Scorpion Tank - which itself was mostly down to luck - and using it to storm Westminster, his victory is immediately undercut when he finds the Parliament has already disbanded for Summer recess.

* The satirical song "Bill Bailey, the Ultimate Sectarian" by Joe Glazer and Bill Friedman is about a would-be revolutionary who never accomplishes anything because it's too important to him to remain ideologically pure and never compromise. In the end he burns to death and refuses to enter Red Heaven because he disagrees with everyone inside on something or other.
* "I Was a Teenage Anarchist" by Music/AgainstMe is about singer Laura Jane Grace's own dissilusion towards the politics of the Anarchist scene, particularly in the USA which she goes into detail about in her memoir.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': Several secret societies may fall victim to this, but the Humanists especially spend more time debating the most pointless of minutae involving their glorious revolution than actually trying to make that revolution come to pass. One noted example was forming a focus group to decide on the colour of the ''banners'' for the victory celebration.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'': A common stereotype (which is also commonly true) is that most cells of the Revolutionary League spend more time discussing and and bickering with each other than engaging in any revolution.

* ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'': The Concordia Liberation Front is an over the top group of [[GranolaGirl Granola Girls]] who pretend to fight against the tyrany of big corporations and protect the wildlife. The most they do is to stick a few of their posters, and even then, not downtown as they would get removed. They are also on vegan diet and can't seem to ditch their mundane habits of sleeping until afternoon or having snack times.

* In ''VisualNovel/BecauseWereHere'', Laurent is a socialist who lives in hope that another revolution will come to end the reign of the Bourgeoisie in Levasseur, the world's FantasyCounterpartCulture to France. However, he himself is a rather ditzy, friendly chap whose radical leanings never go far beyond reading prohibited literature and stewing in silence while the wealthy politicians of the council he works at argue amongst themselves.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': Robert Freeman was shown to have been this during the civil rights movement, shown in several flashbacks where he either missed various sit-ins or where he did actually do something but was overshadowed by a more well-known figure. In "Freedom Ride Or Die" it's revealed he didn't even ''want'' to be part of the civil rights movement, but got pressganged into it by the leader of one of the Freedom Riders groups, who refused to let him leave, insisting that Robert had a "moral duty" to his people to participate.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': For all her anti-capitalist and anti-government sentiments, Haley Smith doesn't seem to do much in the way of revolutionary actions (for added funniness, [[{{Irony}} the bracelets she likes to wear look a bit like handcuffs]]), but she at least occasionally protests. Her (sometimes) boyfriend is a more obvious example, seeing as how he does very little aside from getting high. While originally it was more a case of Haley having rather poor judgement when it came to which causes to support, such as joining an environmentalist group led by a man who literally identified as a plant, in later seasons she's portrayed as a LazyBum who refuses to leave the comfort of her parents suburban home despite legally being an adult, and at one point supported selling the mineral rights to the backyard to a salt company just so she could protest the mining operation without getting out of bed.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The college hippies from "Die Hippie, Die", who constantly go on and on about fighting "The Man" and the establishment (and even manage to recruit Stan, Kyle and Kenny with their rethoric), are quickly proven to be nothing but a bunch of pretentious douchebags who do nothing but smoke an enormous amount of weed and listen to crappy music.

** The bikers from "The F Word" believe their lifestyle makes them counter-culture badasses, while in reality, everyone just find their obnoxious behavior and loud bikes annoying rather than intimidating, seeing them as nothing more than pathetic, insecure attention hogs.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bordertown}}'': J.C, a pretentious college graduate who refuses to work to support himself, instead living off his uncle Ernesto while engaging in half-assed protests for social causes. After he almost ruins Ernesto's landscaping business by leading the workers in a strike (which he only organized because he was too lazy to put in the hard work needed for the job), J.C realizes what an ungrateful ass he's been, helps fix the damage he did, and this trait is toned down somewhat in the remaining episodes.

* One Creator/TimDorsey novel has a scene with a group of Cuban refugee counter-revolutionaries that never gets any of their plans to overthrow Castro off the ground due to the fact that [[FlockOfWolves they're so thoroughly infiltrated by Cuban intelligence that only one member]] ''[[FlockOfWolves isn't]]'' [[FlockOfWolves a spy secretly working for Castro]]. The one exception is CIA. The really sad thing is that every single one of them knows it.