Brains Looks Muscle Wildcard- by Kieran

Today, I'd like to tell you about a concept brought to the world's attention by the television show: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Whether you've noticed it or not, these are the 4 distinct roles in every group, crew, or organization.
If you're part of an group, then you're probably one of these roles as well.
So what are you?

Are you The Brains, organized and methodical?
Are you The Looks, charming and compelling?
Are you The Muscle, hands-on and proactive?
Or are you The Wildcard, innovative and unpredictable?

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia brought up the idea up as a joke, but I researched it a little, and I genuinely believe this concept actually does have some truth to it.

A group can survive without all of these roles, but to achieve maximum potential, I believe a group actually does need to have someone with each of these 4 traits, even if one person fulfills more than one role.

I'm going to start by explaining each of these roles and why each of them are actually valuable.
Then we're going to look at the most famous crews in history, and see how those fit into this construct, if at all.
Also, roles are not mutually exclusive. There is often plenty of overlap.
I know it sounds stupid, but hear me out-



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1. The Brains


The first role is the easiest to explain. The Brains is the man with the plan. The Brains is thoughtful and methodical. They should have everything thought up ahead of time, but they also need to be able to adapt. They are also often the tech guy. Let's look at some famous examples

Brains also tend to be a little more passive. They're often like generals, not really following through with their own plans.

But don't think that the Brains always has to be the leader. In a military operation, yeah, the Brains should definitely be the leader. They should understant the strengths and weaknesses of all the other members of the group and be able use them effectively, not an easy job.
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2. The Looks


A lot of people misunderstand what the Looks is. They assume that the Looks is just being handsome or attractive, but that's not it at all. Don't get me wrong, being physically attractive would help, A LOT, but that's not all their is to it.

The purpose of being the Looks is being able to manipulate people and bend them to your will.
Being the Looks is about charisma. It's about being charming and confident, but not alarming.
They're the people you meet and you just instantly like.
The Looks should be able to inspire and persuade others.
It's not about content. It's about rhetoric. It's about showmanship and putting the right spin on what you say.
If you needed to get information out of a captive, and you weren't allowed to use force, you would send in your Looks. They're non-threatening and they have influence over others.
Or if you're trying to convince a member of the enemy team to forfeit their allegiance and join your side, you would send in your Looks to ease them into it.
The Looks is also your diplomat/ messenger, because they're the least likely to get shot at.
The Looks is a pretty great first resort. They go in and try to make people give you what you want, all without having to resort to complicated plans, trickery, or violence.

A great example of this is, of course, Obama. Obama is an amazing rhetorician and a terrific showman. If you simply read the content of a lot of his speeches there isn't very much there, but when he gets onstage and when his voice starts resonating, I always remember why he easily got elected in 2008. People are just drawn to him.

Inara from Firefly is another great example. Mal even points out that she tries to use her "feminine wiles" to manipulate people. She invites people into her room and makes some tea and before you know you it, you're sweaty and nervous and compliant.
What a pro.

But the number 1 best example of the Looks is Nick Naylor, the main character from one of my favorite movies: Thank You for Smoking. He's a lobbyist that speaks on behalf of Big Tobacco. Everything in this movie is basically talking about the importance of the Looks role, and how much influence it can have if done right. Nick Naylor is actually very smart, so he could be The Brains, but he finds it more effective to use logical fallacies in arguments because it's easier to convince a lot of dumb Americans using cheap tricks.
I highly recommend this movie to see what I'm talking about.

So in summary, the Looks is the member of your crew that has great influence over people and can easily bend them to their will, whether it be seduction or politics or whatever.
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3. The Muscle


The Muscle is not the most muscular person in your group.
The Muscle is the person who gets shit done.
The Muscle is assertive. They're often abrasive.
They're proactive. They hate passivity.
Don't think that the Muscle has to be violent.
The Muscle is the man of action. He doesn't waste time. He gets the job done. He dives in head first without looking back.
The Muscle isn't necessarily dumb or anything, they just go for a straightforward approach.

When I think of someone who's the Muscle, I think about Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who.


He was created to be a foil to the Doctor, who is very passive and will usually run from all his problems. but Captain Jack faces his problems head on. One time, the Doctor didn't do a simple sweep for alien tech which he could have, and would have sped up the process, because he thought it would be less fun. As soon as Captain Jack shows up, the first thing he does is do a sweep for alien tech so that he can find the theat as soon as possible and take care of it.

Skrimir from Fire Emblem is another great example of Muscle. He's honest. What you see is what you get, and what you get is an impatient giant who transforms into a giant red lion and wants to face his enemies in a fair fight.
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4. The Wildcard


The Wildcard is the most undervalued member of a group, and I'll admit, it is very difficult to describe the attributes of a Wildcard without making them sound bad.
Actually, it's hard to describe their attributes at all.

Perhaps the best way to describe the Wildcard is that they're just generally helpful in very unexpected ways.
Wildcards often have a knack for clever solutions to complicated problems, but don't mistake them for the Brains. The Brains comes up with a plan. The Wildcard is the one that does something extremely unexpected if the plan fails.
Wildcards have a tendency to take huge risks. They're the member most likely to cover themselves in dynamite and threaten to blow everyone up, and because a Wildcard generally seems like they're capable of anything, you'll believe them.
The Wildcard should generally not be used unless as a last resort.

It is often the case that the other group members don't have high expectations for their Wildcard.
There is also a high correlation between being the Wildcard and being the comic relief.

If you're looking for a really amazing example of a Wildcard, I'd recommend taking a look at River Tam from Firefly. She's insane, and when I say that, I mean there is actual damage to her brain that makes her absolutely bonkers. But she frequently surprises absolutely every other character on a regular basis with her genius intellect and random skill set.
Here's a quote regarding her:
"She'll either kill us in our sleep or rub soup in our hair"

But the most famous Wildcard of all time is of course:

So when Brains, Looks and Muscle fail, you can always count on your Wildcard to have an ace up his sleeve.
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5. The Useless Chick


Remember when I said there were only 4 roles? Well, that's kinda true. This is an unofficial position. The Useless Chick is a derogatory term used to desrcibe a member of a group that contributes nothing.

The Useless Chick is best used as a scapegoat in times of emergency. They also are very useful as monster bait. Or if times are so bad that your group has to turn to cannibalism, you can eat your useless chick and rest easy knowing that nothing of value has been lost.

Also, THE USELESS CHICK DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A GIRL. It's just a term from Always Sunny in Philadelphia, because their useless chick happens to be a girl.


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Famous Groups

Let's take a stroll down memory lane and look at some examples

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1. The A-Team
-Possibly the single most iconic representation of the four roles.
Hannibal is The Brains. He comes up with the plans
Face is The Looks, he's smooth and seductive.
Murdoch is The Wildcard. He's an incredible pilot known for his unorthodox skills, and he is actually mentally insane. He is frequently found in an insane asylum.
Finally, BA Baracus is the Muscle. I don't think I need any explanation there. He is Mr. T after all.

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2. Alvin and the Chipmunks
This one's pretty obvious

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3. Scooby Doo

Velma's the smart one, Daphne's hot and seductive, Fred is the one who always makes the trap so he's the muscle, and Shaggy and Scooby are surprisingly helpful at times.
Really though, Shaggy and Scooby are also The Useless Chicks, because they are always used as bait to lure the monster into one of Fred's traps.

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4. The Fantastic Four

-Reed Richards has one of the most amazing intellects in all of fiction, so he's the Brains.
-Sue is the Looks not just because she's hot, but because she's often used as a negotiator. She's the one who regularly talks to Doctor Doom who actually kinda likes her.
-Ben is the Muscle because he's simple minded, has military training, and can stand up to the Hulk
-And finally, Johnny is just plain nuts

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5. Seinfeld

How to explain my logic with this..........
-Well, Kramer is obviously the Wildcard. There's no arguing with that.
-I would say Elaine is the Muscle because she's hotheaded and Jerry and George and too lazy. Neither of them are aggressive enough to be the Muscle. They're cowards.
-Jerry is probably the Looks. He gets laid all the time and we know how comfortable he is speaking his mind in front of huge crowds of people.
-That leaves George as the Brains. This actually makes sense if you watch enough of the show. He comes up with a lot of weird ideas, like the idea for making the show about nothing. He also came up with the plan for switching from dating one girl to dating her roommate.
He is actually quite smart. The only problem is that he's an idiot.
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6. The Avengers

This one is pretty obvious. And just for the record, Tony is too crazy to be Looks, and Captain America has too much appeal to people to only be Muscle. Besides, Cap isn't really strong enough to go toe to toe with Thor or the Hulk, but he inspires the rest of the team.

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7. Firefly

This one is a little controversial. Several of these people could fit into more than one role.

-Jayne is really more of a Muscle/Wildcard, but I'd say he's consistently useful in a muscle way so that's why he's there in the chart.
-I also put Zoe and Mal under Muscle because the three of them really are the muscle of the crew, even though Mal and Zoe could also count as Brains. But they participate enough and resort to brute force to be counted as Muscle.
-Book could be considered a Wildcard as well, but I feel like he's too restrained. He's unexpectedly helpful when he shows his strange skill set, but he always knows exactly what he's doing. He never takes any risks. He's too organized and methodical with everything that he does, so I count him as a Brains.
-And finally, Inara is the very definition of Looks, just like Simon is for Brains, and Wash and River are for Wildcard.
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8. How I Met Your Mother

Robin does stuff, Ted whines a lot, and Marshall and Lily are sort of ambiguous blank slates without much consistent personality.
Also, even though Barney has slept with hundreds of women he is not the Looks because he's hit on thousands of women. And the kinds of girls he seduces are idiots. He actually has a very low success rate.

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9. The Big Bang Theory

This is an example of the dangers of having too many Brains in one crew.
Also, they're mostly Wildcards, and Leonard barely counts as Muscle. He's probably closer to being Brains neutral.
This is also an example of how much influence the Looks can have on people.

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10. Lost


The cast of Lost should forever stand as an example of the dangers of having too many Wildcards in one organization. Almost everyone on that island is off doing crazy shit, making alliances, and blowing shit up.
They also have way too many Looks. Seriously, like 5 of the passengers on the plane were con artists before the plane crashed on the island. Way too many of the characters are good at manipulating people to get what they want.

Looking at this chart it's a wonder any of them ever got off the island.

Oh, and Kate is the embodiment of "The Useless Chick". She manages to go through like 6 seasons without ever doing anything helpful. She's always creating stupid love triangles that pit the useful male characters against one another. Also, something that happens like a million times is someone will do something amazing and unexpected and turn the tide of battle, only to realize that Kate got herself captured, which makes the person who was just amazing have to surrender because they don't want her to die.
It seriously happens a lot.
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11. The Muppets

Kermit is the Brains/Looks, Miss Piggy is the Muscle.
Everyone else is a Wildcard.
And that's why we love them
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In Conclusion

So those are the roles. A lot of this is obviously just for fun, but I really do think that this concept holds some truth in forming actual organizations. The thing to learn from this is to have members that each bring something to the table. If you have nothing but Brains, no one will listen to you. If you have nothing but Looks, nothing will get done. If you have nothing but Muscle you'll be too disorganized. And if you have nothing but Wildcards you'll wind up dead.