Verb: To Nigel
Proposed: the following piece of new story jargon:
Nigel (verb): To portray a foil character as especially stupid or foolish. Most often, but not always, used as a cheap and easy way to burnish the heroic image of the protagonist he contrasts with.
As in:
The second half of this season of House has grown a little less shark-jumpy. One way to tell: they're not Nigelling his staffers so much these days.
Wow, the Gospel of Mark really Nigels the apostles.
Derivation: named after the character actor Nigel Bruce, whose portrayal of Watson in the Basil Rathbone Holmes movies shifted the baseline image of the character to that of a jabbering idiot. Bruce may just have been following his script or direction, but “to Lanfield” doesn't ring the same way.
Parting observation: though a lazy device in non-improvised forms, Nigelling may prove acceptable in a roleplaying context. All too often players Nigel their own protagonists. To maintain the idea that they are competent heroes (where this is desired), the GM may then be prompted to introduce some easily bested foil characters.
Apologies if you are actually called Nigel. In my defense, this is not as bad as what XTC did to you.