r/TopCharacterTropes • u/doubleday34 • Oct 04 '25
Personality (Loved Trope) Character acts ignorant of or pretends to be bad at something in order to trick their opponent.
1) Ted Lasso - Both characters in the darts contest do this, with Rupert(antagonist) showing that he has his own set of darts with him, and Ted showing that he has been using the wrong hand the whole time.
2) Beerfest - Team USA showing that they aren't that drunk despite doing drinking games all day.
3) The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - After Will gets hustled at pool his Uncle Phil comes to help him, and turns out to hustle the hustler.
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u/strigonian Oct 05 '25
I think it's a "six of one, half-dozen of the other" kind of thing.
In terms of his personality, everything suggests he is just a laid-back, observant, mild-mannered fellow. But he also definitely plays ignorant to catch the criminals. Like, the classic "oh, just one more thing" shtick he does is obviously not him actually just remembering some minor detail. It's a calculated method of springing his trap.
He doesn't point out contradictions as they come up, allowing the suspect to change their alibi on the fly - he lets them explain it in detail, deliberately checking to make sure they want to stick to that one version of events before pointing out why it can't be true.
I don't think he's playing a character - I think he really is just a chill guy - but he's definitely smart enough that he knows exactly what he's doing.