Leeroy Jenkins / Live-Action TV

Leeroy Jenkins behaviour in live-action TV.

---

• 24
  • Chase often got into trouble in the third season because of his tendency to act on his own, especially when pursuing Jack to Mexico.
  • Many plans that are laid out in detail that involve civilians or former terrorists fall apart when someone deviates from the plan and acts independently, like in the first season, when one of Senator Palmer's aides stabs the person she is supposed to be recording instead of excusing herself after learning of his planned rendezvous with a fellow conspiracy member.
  • This later causes another Leeroy moment when Jack Bauer poses as the murdered guy to meet the conspiracy member. As he waits in a cafe, one of the snipers who has a personal issue with Bauer begins to taunt him before being told to shut-up by CTU head George Mason. When the conspiracy member realizes Jack is not the guy he was supposed to meet, the sniper ignores all instructions to hold fire (they needed the guy alive) and fatally shoots the suspect causing a loud "DAMNIT!" from Jack Bauer.
• Jason Landers in Aaron Stone was prone to running his avatar headlong into the fray without regard for caution or strategy in the game 'Hero Rising', resulting in him being infamous as the worst player in the game. Totally opposite to his brother who was seen as the 'best' player.
• In the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Heavy is the Head", Lance Hunter ices the rest of the team and charges in to face off with superpowered HYDRA goon Carl Creel alone. It nearly gets him killed.
• Angel:
  • The Groosalugg, at first. He realizes it and gets better.
  • Good luck trying to control Connor.
• Babylon 5
  • The show features a whole species of Jenkinses in the Narns. The biggest instance is in the pivotal episode Severed Dreams, where Garibaldi declares to his team that they've reached the right spot to hold their ground against the imminent boarders. The Narns keep going; he shouts "Nuts!" and orders everyone to follow them. Described in the script as "But the Narns, being Narns, keep going."
  • The Minbari are also a milder version of this. They are said to be psychologically unable to back down or retreat from a fight that is picked with them, but they make up for it by being extremely advanced with powerful warships and shock troops, and able to design amazing battle strategies while they fight.
• Better Call Saul: Nacho stakes out the Espinosa compound and lays out a plan to attack it that night; the Cousins completely ignore him and immediately launch an all-out assault in broad daylight.
• In one episode of The Big Bang Theory, during a game of Dungeons and Dragons, Rajesh expresses disdain for caution and charges headlong into a trap in the first few minutes. His character is killed and he spends the rest of the episode hanging out with the girls.
• Off-screen example, but in the first season of Black Adder, Richard the IV runs into a castle filled with Turks with only a fruit knife to use. And despite all of this, he succeeds. Of course, he is played by BRIAN BLESSED.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Spike sometimes does this. He's perfectly capable of coming up with a good plan, but he rarely has the patience to pull it off. This tendency was made clear in his first appearance, when he was supposed to lead the vampires to kill Buffy on the Night of St. Vigeous, a day of vampiric significance when their power would be heightened — but attacked the day before instead, getting a lot of them killed because he was too impatient to wait.
    Spike: I had a plan! A good plan! Smart! Carefully laid out! But I got bored!
  • On occasion, Buffy show shades of this. But really, it's to be expected, considering that her job basically consists of two things: figuring out how to kill something, and doing so.
  • Faith too, which leads her into trouble in "Bad Girls".
    Buffy: Wait! Stop! Think!
    Faith: No, no, no!
• In the season finale of Community, For a Few Paintballs More: "VICKI!!!"
• The "real" Leeroy invades CNN's 2012 virtual Super Tuesday coverage on The Daily Show.
• Dog with a Blog: Avery does this when she and Stan attempt to get revenge on Stan's former in-game friend, Killgore. Avery, being pretty new to game, has zero patience for Stan's plan and attacks before Stan is ready They still defeat Killgore, who is still pretty savvy, but not match for the surprise attack.
• Talyn in Farscape demonstrates that, bad as many Leeroys can be, it's even worse when it's a Living Ship that has this problem.
• Firefly
  • Back in his army days, Mal from had a tendency to be this. Possibly as a result, hardly any of his squad members survived.
  Zoë: First rule of battle, little one: Don't ever let them know where you are.
  (Mal bursts in firing behind her)
  Mal: WHOO-HOO! I'M RIGHT HERE! I'M RIGHT HERE! YOU WANT SOME O' ME?! YEAH YOU DO! COME ON! COME ON!
  Zoë: ... Of course, there are other schools of thought.
  Mal: They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself..
  • In the movie, it's the always cool, competent Zoë of all people who does a minor version of this, abandoning the defensive line set up in order to fight the Reavers hand to hand. She's obviously being affected by Wash's death. The sheer death wish of this move horrifies even Jayne.
• The Flash (2014):
  • Barry is prone to just charging into situations, believing his speed makes him infallible. He often gets tripped up by opponents who come prepared and use the environment against him. In the crossovers with Arrow, Arrow tries to teach him to mind his surroundings and not get cocky.
  • In the Episode "Rupture", Barry has lost his powers, and Cisco uses video-game controllers to drive a Flash hologram around the city. Psyching himself up to send the hologram against the episode's Big Bad, he cuts loose with a big "LEEEEEEROOOOOOYYY —" before the show cuts away to another scene.
• Occasionally on Flashpoint, a hostage will try to take on the subject, frequently right as the team was on track to talk the subject down. It never ends well.
• Game of Thrones:
  • The poor wildling who tried to charge Stannis.
  • Jon Snow charges the entire Bolton force after Ramsay shoots and kills Jon's brother Rickon.
  • Jorah was the second into the breach at the Siege of Pyke, behind Thoros with his flaming sword. He was knighted by the king himself for his bravery. Averted as a councilor to Daenerys, where he tends to council restraint, instilling her with patience and doing things the right way, even if it is harder or longer.
  • Stannis notes that Robert had this quality. He refused his advice and marched West and suffered his only defeat at the Battle of Ashford, at the hands of Randyll Tarly.
  • Jaime charging at Drogon, armed only with a lance, in order to try and kill his enemy commander, who is being protected by a dragon.
• "Captain America" in Generation Kill, who seems to think he's in an epic action movie, and whose ineptness always leads to trouble for those under his command.
  Captain America: FOLLOW MY TRACERS!
• In the penultimate episode of Henry Danger, while Chapa, Mika, and Miles were trying to plan how to attack and stop Drex, Bose just pops up from their hiding place and go after him. To be fair, they were just kids trying to fight a nigh invulnerable man.
• In Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, when Autolycus the King of Thieves was younger, he was very reckless and arrogant, charging straight into vaults and tombs without paying any heed to traps and guards. When Autolycus meets his younger self with time travel, he is disgusted by him and wonders how he managed to survive long enough to learn caution and planning.
• Heroes Season 4 has Peter rushing off to stop a madman with a gun when he has Rene's ability, in spite of Claire's insistence that he should've sent her since she's the one that can't be hurt by bullets. Partially justified in that he's trying not to think about the fact that Nathan is dead.
  • In the Season 1 finale, Matt decides to go shoot Sylar. Noah Bennet warns Matt that Sylar will kill him. Matt shoots at Sylar and Sylar telekinetically reverses the bullets and very nearly kills him. Leeroy Jenkins would've been proud.
  • In Heroes Reborn, one of the characters can transform herself into a video game character and go into the game itself. However, she's surrounded by mooks and needs a little backup. Queue the fanboy character logging in under his own avatar and shouting this as he plows in.
• Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother does this in an episode. BARNEEEY AH-STIIIIIN-SAAAAHNNN!!
• Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: In one episode Ahim of all people does this, due to psychological issues. She facing the monster that destroyed her planet.
• Kamen Rider Stronger's Sidekick Denpa Ningen Tackle was prone to do this rather than waiting for the main hero on numerous occasions — always with predictable results.
• Level Up: The Leeroy Jenkins meme is referred to by name (as well as the follow-up line, "he just ran in"). It's a shoutout because "Conquerer of All Worlds" is an expy of "World of Warcraft."
• There is the episode in Lost where the survivors corner Ethan, but just as they are going to imprison him and presumably ask him some vital questions about the island, Charlie shoots him. There is at least one review out there calling Charlie a Leeroy Jenkins.
• Interestingly, this trope appeared in its modern form years before popularization via the internet. An episode of Matlock features Matlock's sidekick conducting a screaming charge (ultimately into a couch) with "TYYYYLER HUUUUUUUDSOOOOON!"
• Moonlight: The effective series finale has one of the main characters assaulting a federal transport while yelling, "LEE-ROOOOY JENKINS!"
• In an episode of My Name Is Earl, Randy decides to stand up for his little brother against an angry mob.
  Randy: Besides, you know I've always wanted to fight thirty people at once. LLLEEEERROOOYYY JEEENNNKIIIINSS!!
  (Dives headlong into attacking mob)
• Dawn invokes this in the "I Want My Mae B. Back" episode of Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn. She wanted their help for something else, but her brothers were too busy playing a video game. She then picks up the fourth controller and just attacks the enemy, causing them all to die. This go them to want to help her with her problems.
• Once Upon a Time: In Season 6, the heroes try to carefully plan how to take down the Black Fairy, but when she threatens Zelena's baby, Zelena decides to take her on herself, which only makes things worse for everyone - except the Black Fairy.
• Oz: Huseni Mershah is easily pushed into violence with very little prompting should he be in the least offended, which causes friction with the rest of the Muslims, all of whom are staunch pacifists. He eventually starts scheming to kill Kareem Saïd and take over the gang because he sees them as weak for repeatedly preventing him from getting into pointless fights with other inmates.
• Parks and Recreation: "The Possum" has Leslie organize a battle plan to capture the titular possum, only for Andy to run up behind her and successfully tackle it.
• Psych has a villain named after the original Leeroy, whose name Shawn announces with the appropriate gusto.
• Red Dwarf introduced a convict named Kill Crazy, who was obsessed with killing. When the crew accidentally end up in the Canaries, Kill Crazy, excited that he finally has a shot at some action, charges into the fray and knocks himself out before he even manages to exit the diving bell. Another episode shows that this tendency actually works against a mutated creature, causing it to flee upon seeing him.
• In Scrubs, Laverne helps Carla break in Turk's car by shouting, "LAVERNNNNE ROBERRRRRRTS!!" and punching the window. To her dismay, Carla had the keys to Turk's car in the first place.
• Clark Kent from Smallville has an annoying habit of charging into a situation without checking the area for kryptonite or other anti-Kryptonian hazards. He also often doesn't notice he's lost his powers until it is too late.
  • In the episode "Prophecy", Clark's powers get transferred to Lois Lane. She overconfidently charges into action and Toyman quite easily defeats her with a mind-control device.
• Stargate Atlantis. Ronon has shades of this, preferring action to planning. However, Sheppard is usually able to restrain him and he generally goes along with the plans. Though with growing reluctance if the plan involves not killing Wraiths.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Season 6 episode "Sacrifice of Angels" features Sisko attempting to get Dukat's ships to start chasing his own rather than remain in their strong formation with the Dominion. Dukat sees right through it and outgambits Sisko. Later on in the episode, the Defiant single-handedly charges into the wormhole where a much larger Dominion fleet is headed to the station, though they realized that without the divine intervention that they eventually received, it would have been a Suicide Mission.
• S.W.A.T. (2017): Zoe Powell's Establishing Character Moment is her ignoring the orders of a superior officer and heading further into a structurally unsound building following an explosion because she head someone crying for help.
• In The Wire: some Barksdale soldiers headed by Cutty and Slim Charles plan an ambush on a corner that Marlo Stanfield's dealers hold. To try to counter the loss of accuracy that is typical with drive-bys, the guys in the car — Country, Chipper and Bernard — are to attack once Cutty and Slim Charles strike first and have the Stanfield dealers distracted. The guys in the car, however, are far too eager for glory and decide to attack without waiting for the signal and to disregard all the tactics they had been told to use, including keeping their driver out of the line of fire. Not only that, but one of Marlo's lookouts spots them before they even try to pull it off, so the dealers are already armed and ready when their car went by. Only Bernard escapes the car alive with the targets barely scratched, while Country and Chipper are killed. Cutty and Slim Charles, meanwhile, quietly slip away in the chaos.
• In an episode of Workaholics, this is foreshadowed in the episode "Office Campout", Montez mentions how he's showed the guy's cool internet videos, like Leroy Jenkins. Then at the end of the episode, Adam subdues what he thinks are two criminals by charging them with a fire extinguisher and shouting "LLLEEEERROOOYYY JEEENNNKIIIINSS!"
• Mulder of The X-Files is infamous for rushing into dangerous situations without thinking things through, usually with less than great results.
• Pretty bizarre considering the source, but Zeke and Luther has one of these coming from Nana Waffles. Even weirder considering the context, which... involves her playing an MMO with a few other people who are carefully planning out their strategy.

---