Characters who have trouble judging and controlling their own strength in Live-Action TV series.
- This trope was formerly named "Ace Lightning Syndrome", after the titular character in the CGI-animated TV program Ace Lightning, who had quite the tendency towards smashing his human sidekicks' household appliances when he arrived in the 'real world', super strength and all (not to mention his need to absorb energy in order to survive resulted in the destruction of much electrical equipment. And apparently Mark's family's electric bill was costing them a fortune).
- Altered Carbon: Lieutenant Ortega doesn't even realize her arm has been replaced by an artificial limb until she bends a rail on the hospital gurney she's lying on.
- In the Angel episode "Carpe Noctem", Angel's vampire body is taken over by a Dirty Old Man named Marcus. At one point, while out on the town, Marcus gets into a fight and sends a dude flying with a single punch, causing Marcus to yell "NICE!" in glee.
- Bionic Woman: After discovering that her Mad Scientist fiancée has turned her into a bionic woman, Jaime Sommers decides to stop looking for Mr. Right and settle for Mr. Right Now. At that moment a handsome stranger catches her eye; Smash Cut to them making out in the toilet. Unfortunately, Jaime accidentally breaks one of his ribs in her enthusiasm, putting an abrupt end to events.
- There's an accidental version in Blake's 7. In "Headhunter", a character breaks off the teleport control handle when he grabs it violently. This is nothing unusual given the No Budget sets, but he's later revealed to be an android disguised as a human, so this trope could be in play also.
- Bonanza: The Season 2 episode "The Ape" used this trope as its centerpiece: a lonely, mentally challenged man named Arnie desperately seeking both love and a chance at owning his own farm causing great physical harm to people who cruelly mock him. Hoss sees potential in Arnie and tries to mentor him, but his efforts are always thwarted by Arnie's desire to marry a barmaid, Shari, who wants nothing to do with him ... and Arnie's own temper and inability to realize that, due to his tremendous strength, he can kill a man rather easily. Hoss repeatedly tries to warn Arnie that he doesn't know his own strength. Before the episode ends, Arnie indeed kills at least two people: a Ponderosa ranch hand who had mocked his slow, awkward ways; and Shari, after he attempts to gift her with an expensive strand of pearls, who slaps the necklace away and tells him he's just a big old, dumb "ape" (Arnie grabs the much smaller Shari by the neck and shake her violently, until she dies). When Hoss realizes what Arnie has done, he tries to get Arnie to understand that he killed someone (and possibly a second person, too) and that he has to go to jail. Arnie then knocks down Hoss and tries to flee. When a sheriff's posse surrounds Arnie, he picks up a huge boulder and attempts to hurl it toward everybody, forcing them to gun him down.
- The Boys (2019). In "Get Some", Popclaw has sex with a man while high on Compound V, and during orgasm she squeezes her thighs around his head so much she cracks his skull open. As the whole thing was Caught on Tape, the Boys use this to blackmail her for information.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Buffy has this problem quite often.
- She accidentally smashes her alarm clock with her super strength, then sweep the pieces into a drawer of likewise broken alarm clocks.
- In "The Initiative" she accidentally tears the handle off a yogurt machine in the college cafeteria and makes a mess.
- There are several occasions when Buffy hugs someone too hard and has to be told to let go. When she glomps the surgeon who tells her Joyce's operation was a success, his ribs creak ominously and he shouts in pain.
- During the season one episode "Witch", she accidentally throws one of her classmates across the gym during cheerleading practice.
- In "A New Man", Giles awakens one morning as a large and powerful demon after being cursed. He walks through his home and accidentally tears the banister off of his stairs, smashes a phone when he tries to call for help, rips through his favorite shirt, and breaks the front door off its hinges. The irony of course is that Giles is normally a mild-mannered British librarian.
- During her introduction in "No Place Like Home", Glory causes the interior of a warehouse to cave in by merely stomping her foot in a hissy fit. For once this is a good thing, as she was chasing Buffy at the time.
- Buffy has this problem quite often.
- In Caprica, this is how Zoey Greystone killed her early Love Interest Philomon. Had some terribly bad consequences.
- Played with on Charmed when a spell cast on their police buddy gave him Superman-like strength and invulnerability. Has him accidentally ripping the door off a police cruiser, but only mildly bruising the suspect.
- The unsub in the Criminal Minds episode "Damaged" turns out to be a big and strong but mentally challenged man who was childlike and arguably did not intend to kill his victims.
- In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Karli accidentally punches Lemar Hoskins onto a pillar because of her Super Serum-fueled strength, killing him. She is horrified while sending John Walker onto an Unstoppable Rage over his friend's death.
- The Flash (2014). While still getting used to his the A.T.O.M. suit, Ray Palmer does a Three-Point Landing and cracks the concrete.
- Eun Bi, an ex-high school delinquent, from Flower Boy Ramyun Shop says this after playfully hitting Ba Wool around the back of the head and he comments that it really hurts.
- Sometimes a problem for The Greatest American Hero.
- Happens to Gilligan on Gilligan's Island in the episode where the castaways ate radioactive vegetables. Gilligan ate a lot of spinach, giving him super strength.
- An episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys takes place in modern times and involves the creators of the show going on a retreat in order to improve the show. The star Kevin Sorbo also comes along, except that he's really Hercules (yes, a Greek demigod pretending to be an actor playing a Greek demigod). During a dinner outside, he gets over-excited and slams the long dinner table, breaking it in half. The host blames the rotten wood and laughs it off. Of course, it's revealed at the end of the episode that the host is, in fact, Ares in disguise.
- In UPN super-spy show Jake 2.0, the main character mostly dodged this because his powers were mostly by activation; nevertheless, there was at least one occasion where his little brother pissed him off, resulting in him accidentally breaking off the handle to his car door. He also put a ton of holes in the walls of his apartment trying to gently tap in nails.
- Kamen Rider:
- Hongo Takeshi from the original Kamen Rider. In fact, a recurring source of Angst in the earlier episodes was Hongo's fear that his superhuman abilities would make it impossible for him to live a normal life. In one episode, he freaks out after accidentally injuring a child (by crushing his fingers) during a misguided attempt to comfort the boy.
- Early on, Kintaros from Kamen Rider Den-O suffered from this, or at least K-Ryotaro/K-Masaru (first possessee), breaking everything from park benches to lamp posts.
- Kamen Rider Zi-O: Sougo Tokiwa. What was intentionally considered to be Sougo seeing future events via dreaming, it is in reality him unintentionally influencing and even outright shaping the future according to what he sees in those very dreams. In others words, Sougo is unconsciously creating new timelines simply by dreaming.
- In Lois & Clark, after being exposed to red kryptonite, Clark's powers get boosted beyond his control. His strength gets boosted to the point that when he hugs Lois, it gives her bruises on her arms, turns their place into a mess after he sneezes and accidentally breaks a chair from getting up too quickly. Surprisingly, doesn't happen much in the episode where Clark gets Laser-Guided Amnesia and forgets who (and what) he is. His dad has to hit him with a baseball bat (the only time when a father saying "It'll hurt me more than you" while hitting his son is true) to prove it.
- Power Rangers Time Force: Katie comes from a future of Designer Babies, and possesses superhuman strength as a result. She's also fond of hugging her teammates.
- The Price Is Right: On numerous occasions during the Bob Barker era, overly excited contestants who were Samoans would pick up Barker, bearhug him, and otherwise get very affectionate with him, causing him brief physical discomfort. Often, but not always, these instances occurred after the contestant won a pricing game. A running joke was that, every time a Samoan contestant appeared on the show, Barker would claim that a past Samoan contestant injured him (before playfully admonishing the new contestant to keep her distance). This gag was downplayed and eventually forgotten upon Drew Carey's appointment as host, and never came into play with either Dennis James or Tom Kennedy.
- Smallville:
- In "Blank", Clark has his memories removed, resulting in him ripping the door to his home from its hinges as he literally doesn't know his own strength.
- Chloe once winced when he grabbed her shoulders with unnecessary force. In "Persona", when Chloe admits she couldn't help with what he is doing, Clark grabbed her arm forcibly, only to let her go quickly. It tipped her off that he is actually Bizarro.
- In "Warrior", a newly empowered superhero accidentally crushes Chloe's hand.
- Stargate SG-1: In "Upgrades", Jack, Sam, and Daniel are all equipped with an alien wristband that enhances the wearer's speed and strength, if only for a limited amount of time. In the episode, Jack crushes a grip-meter and accidentally takes a chunk out of General Hammond's wall just by lazily kicking it. He also knocks Sgt. Siler off a balcony while trying to high-five him. In this case, said alien tech grants super strength and poor judgement. Siler was a genuine accident. The other two times were demonstrations of his strength, just poorly thought out. They also get into a bar fight, earning themselves a rebuke from General Hammond. After all, with their strength and speed, they could have easily killed those guys (especially since Jack is a Colonel Badass).
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Original Series:
- In "Amok Time", we get a look at how strong Vulcans really are when Spock loses control and manages to completely destroy his computer terminal. Other times when Spock loses control he becomes really scary because of it. In another episode when Kirk had to provoke Spock into a murderous fury to free his mind from an alien influence, he noted in his log that he might die before Spock comes back to his senses. He nearly does.
- A more humorous example occurs in "Day of the Dove" when Kang the Klingon sends Kirk staggering with a good-natured back slap.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation:
- In "A Fistful of Datas", the holodeck malfunctions, replacing characters in a Wild West simulation with recreations of Data, with his approximate physical abilities as well. Some of the characters are weaselly cowards and otherwise unaware of their enhanced strength, but others are the Big Bad of the story and also unaware of their strength.
- In "Masks", an alien probe starts taking over the Enterprise, and Data, who gets possessed by it. At one point, Data grabs Picard's wrist and Picard visibly freaks out as he knows Data could easily crush it (and is possibly already holding it way too hard).
- In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Worf (yes, that Worf) relates a story of when he was 13, playing soccer, and accidentally headbutted a player on the opposing team. Since Klingons are much stronger than humans and have ridged foreheads, the other kid's neck was snapped and died of his injuries shortly after. He uses the incident to explain why he's not a Boisterous Bruiser like other Klingons.
- Star Trek: The Original Series:
- Provides some of the fun when super-strong-ordinary-girl Do Bong-soon overdoes it in Strong Woman Do Bong-soon.
- Supergirl (2015):
- In the pilot episode, Kara is fired up after rescuing the plane and greets her sister with an overly energetic hug (complete with cartoony sound effect). Alex says, "Ow!" and Kara pulls back with an apologetic "Sorry, that was too hard."
- In "Truth, Justice and the American Way", Kara Danvers claims she's not angry after meeting Siobhan. Barry then informs her that she's just broken the phone she's holding.
- In "World's Finest", a crossover with The Flash (2014), Kara gives Barry a friendly slap on the back, causing him to wince in pain and her to say, "Sorry."
- In "Legion of Super-Heroes", Kara describes finding a stray cat shortly after arriving on Earth. She fed him, but was afraid to touch him at first for fear of accidentally hurting him. Finally, she was sufficiently sure of herself in that regard to pick him up and pet him, which helped her feel a bit more at home.
- The Tick (2001) has a gag of Arthur shaking hands with the Champion, and Arthur clutching his hand in pain. Then the Tick shakes hands with the Champion and the Champion recoils in pain.
- The Twilight Zone (1959): In "The Little People", one of the giant spacemen accidentally crushes Peter Craig to death when he picks him up to examine him. He feels guilty about it.
- The Umbrella Academy (2019):
- Number 1 a.k.a. Luther has this problem frequently, as his size and strength guarantees that he'll break something when indoors. At one point, when fighting Diego, he punches over a statue; later, he rips a bar door off its hinges when in a hurry. Still, that's nothing compared to when he's piss drunk and depressed, as Luther casually shoves his brother Klaus, sending the latter flying across the room. In Season 2, during his Despair Event Horizon after getting fired from his seedy club after losing a match, he smacks the brickwork in his room in frustration, making a big hole, to the amusement of his brother Five, who's waiting outside. Luther uses the new window he made to flip Five off.
- Played for Drama with Number 7 a.k.a. Vanya once she inadvertently unlocks her destructive powers (that were suppressed since childhood). She damages streetlights and cars while angrily ranting, and when she and her boyfriend Leonard get attacked by three drunk men, she accidentally kills two of them. Worse still, in a moment of rage, Vanya slits her sister Allison's throat with Razor Wind by mistake, which is her Start of Darkness to becoming a supervillain.
