History Main / TheRealHeroes

** While the police and other mundane emergency workers are often overshadowed by pro heroes, the heroes themselves are well aware of how important they are. It's just inevitable that heroes will draw more attention since they are the only ones allowed to use their big flashy quirks in combat. Hero agencies have a good working relationship with the police (who often provide backup on supervillain raids), and All Might tells a little girl that her father is ''his'' hero because he makes the [[MySuitIsAlsoSuper supersuit]] that helps All Might save lives.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsThroughDaybreak'', Dingo Brad is just a regular journalist in a series where the main characters can [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky smack a giant robot with just a stick]], [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure flash step all over the place to hit enemies in different directions]], [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel escape from captivity while carrying the princess of the empire who is guarded by bosses players fought for an entire game and a quarter with a shiny new]] SuperMode, and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie smack a giant laser capable of destroying a fortress that can travel very far with only just five enchanted weapons on foot.]]. And yet he's also the only reason why [[spoiler:the terrorist group Armata gets exposed by taking a bunch of pictures of them nuking an entire village, killing himself in the process. This was enough that other organizations in the area, the main characters included, decided that Armata needed to be dealt with.]]

* In one [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5Q984Mf3lY "Got Milk?" commercial]], a milkman doing his rounds falls down a trapdoor, and into a conference room where ComicBook/TheAvengers (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and Hawkeye) and a couple other Marvel heroes (Spider Man and Scarlet Witch) are meeting, who assume he's there for an interview. While his only "power" is the ability to deliver his much-desired product to customers, they consider that enough for him to join them.

* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''. The first time Timmy needs a number of regular adults with jobs to help him (such as a firewoman to help him against Francis or a milkman to give him some milk when he has a mouth full of peanut butter) they're distracted by Cosmo, who is currently in cat form. Timmy wishes for a world full of superheroes partially to spite the so-called regular heroes for ignoring his plights. When Nega-Chin manipulated things to remove the superheroes and leave only supervillains, they offer to redeem themselves for their previous failings by helping to take down Nega-Chin. Sure enough, (if in the show's own [[PlayedForLaughs whacky and playful]] way), each of the everyday heroes [[{{Reconstruction}} finds their own way]] to help Timmy thwart Nega-Chin and his cronies.

* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Super Rabbit" has WesternAnimation/BugsBunny receive a supply of [[SuperSerum Supercarrots]] that turn him into the titular Super-Rabbit. At the end of the cartoon, he loses his carrots to the bad guy and his horse after he unwittingly dropped the case and carrots midflight (and running out of power), at which point he says, "Hmm, this looks like a job for a ''real'' Superman!" He then runs into a phone booth and emerges [[SemperFi wearing a Marine uniform]], then he marches off to fight in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The Marines were so thrilled by this, they made Bugs Bunny an honorary Marine Master Sergeant.

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' featured a real life {{tearjerker}} moment where the first episode after 9/11 had New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani introduce actual 9/11 responders to the audience in the ColdOpen. Talking with Lorne Michaels, Michaels asked if they (after an event like this) can be funny. Giuliani replied "[[TakeThatUs Why start now?]]" to a standing ovation. In a retrospect Tracy Morgan said he greeted the responders and patted one on the shoulder, seeing dust fly off; they literally came from the field.

** Interestingly, the original Nite Owl ''was'' a cop, [[IncrediblyLamePun moonlighting]] as a costumed vigilante in his spare time.

* A bunch of these turn up at the end of Comicbook/CivilWar to stop ComicBook/CaptainAmerica finishing off ComicBook/IronMan.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesKuroNoKiseki'', Dingo Brad is just a regular journalist in a series where the main characters can [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky smack a giant robot with just a stick]], [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure flash step all over the place to hit enemies in different directions]], [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel escape from captivity while carrying the princess of the empire who is guarded by bosses players fought for an entire game and a quarter with a shiny new]] SuperMode, and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie smack a giant laser capable of destroying a fortress that can travel very far with only just five enchanted weapons on foot.]]. And yet he's also the only reason why [[spoiler:the terrorist group Armata gets exposed by taking a bunch of pictures of them nuking an entire village, killing himself in the process. This was enough that other organizations in the area, the main characters included, decided that Armata needed to be dealt with.]]

* Samaritan from ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' says this when receiving an award from the fire service. He really believes it, though he wishes he could skip the ceremonies and spend more time saving civilians instead.

** And the story "Since the Fire", written for one of the 9/11 benefit books, is all about this.

* [[Series/DoctorWho The Doctor]] seems to feel this way, often commenting that HumansAreSpecial and that [[SmallStepsHero anyone can be a hero]], not just people who fight aliens.

* Alluded to in ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'' during the pub scene, which shows a distraught Major William Cage after dying in battle and being resurrected to an earlier moment as part of a seemingly never ending time loop, sitting by himself listening to some old English men talk about their fathers and uncles who fought during the Battle of Britain and D-Day and how they believe that the British Armed Forces of that era was superior to the United Defense Force and could've easily beat the The Mimics (the invading aliens). Whilst the men were debating with the barmaid on the motivation behind the Mimics invading Earth, Cage interjects by saying that their reasons for invading make no difference and all that matters is that they're winning and that humanity is doomed, Cage then gets asked by an old man wearing a Parachute Regiment beret why he isn't on the frontline, he tells him that he's been on the battlefield more times than anybody and that he's "usually long dead by now", the Para veteran then dismisses Cage as a coward.

* Although in most of the ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'' games you play as a Spartan (a genetically enhanced power armoured soldier who is practically a superhero), most notably Master Chief, most of the battles are fought by regular humans, predominantly the UNSC Marines, Soldiers and ODSTS who were crucial to winning the war against the Covenant and the Flood despite being barely different from an infantry standpoint to modern day soldiers and having no superhuman abilities or any augmentations anywhere near the extent of the Spartans. Sometimes in Halo there are irregular combatants and even civilians who take it upon themselves to take up arms in defense of mankind, such as the Factory Workers in {{VideoGame/Halo 3}}, the Police Officers in ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'', and the Militia members in {{VideoGame/Halo Reach}}, many main character heroes in Halo are regular people, such as Sgt Johnson, The Rookie and his ODST Squad, Captain Keyes, his daughter Miranda Keyes,and the UNSC's leader Lord Hood.