Discussion Main / BumblingSidekick

Probably not an example, a competent sidekick is not bumbling.

• Partially subverted in the Ciaphas Cain novels set in the Warhammer 40000 universe (inspired in no small part by Black Adder's Baldrick, according to author Sandy Mitchell). Commissar Cain's aide, Jurgen, is ugly, taciturn, unhygienic, and most can barely tolerate his presence. However, he is entirely reliable, competent, honest to a fault, and a frighteningly skilled driver of anything from civilian autos to heavy military tanks.
  • Also, the main reason people can't tolerate him is because he's a "blank" (a person who generates a negative psychic field), so his presence protects commissar Cain from enemy psykers, whose powers get nullified in his presence.
    • Further subverted in that, although Cain constantly describes Jurgen in his memoirs as being dim, unhygienic and ALWAYS preceded by his odor wherever he goes, he's also very fond of Jurgen, defends him to others who question his competence and (despite Cain's obsessive self-interest) is extremely upset in the first book when he thinks Jurgen has died. The fact that Jurgen is always left out of the stories about him is also something of an irritation to Cain.
      • Jurgen is a walking Deus ex Machina armed with a weapon best described as what flamethrowers want to be when they grow up. Of course Cain is fond of having him around...

Dr Lombriz: Nodwick isn't a Baldrick; he's more Deadpan Snarker than annoying and he's not incompetent. His failings are usually because his employers callously put him into very dangerous situations. When he's on his own he fares much better.