How about Jack Malone? I love Without A Trace(rip) but Jack has always been a loose cannon and a detriment to the department. There was a story arc where he was going to move to Chicago and reunite with his ex wife and kids, but that fell through because…why?
I frankly would have loved it had he left and Vivian was now in charge. The supporting cast was always more interesting to me.
Izzie is too soft I think, she lets her emotions influence her work. George was initially portrayed as someone who struggles, indeed he failed his exams and had to repeat his internship, but in a recent (for me) episode he discovered that he excelled in time critical emergency situations. He performed very well while the other bloke (can’t remember his name) didn’t. So perhaps both of these doctors are not bad per se but rather are searching for an area of medicine they are suited to.
I’m not sure that Meredith and Alex really shine in comparison to them, either. Cristina is usually referred to as a technical genius in surgery, so it’s probably unfair to use her as the standard of measurement.
Everyone in a position of power in Springfield is either incompetent, corrupt, or both- and that goes for those who aren’t in power as well.
Goofy held a number of jobs and did just as poorly at all of them.
Grover frequently fails both as a waiter and a superhero.
Didn’t anybody notice the study was a bit drafty?
Nah, he didn’t zip around…he used his Superman robots.
Or got Batman to play him.
One or the other. Those were his solutions to being in two places at once 99.9% of the time.
That said, in a team-up with the Atom (who worked the television camera, and was in on it), Clark did his zip-back-and-forth bit to sell it for the audience at home. And I’ve seen him ask questions that get answered by prerecorded Superman footage, likewise.
James Wilson is a terrible oncologist, and one of his ex-wives is referred to as “the worst realtor in New Jersey.”
They are all flawed in various ways, like real people but exaggerated I suppose, so the viewing audience don’t miss it.
I don’t recall this. At least, I don’t remember him making a misdiagnosis, like House does 3 times a week, or having any cancer related issue sent to someone else because he’s no good.
Superman is too ethical to do something like that. Clark, on the other hand, is a lying scumbag.
One of the many things I loved about the first season of “Prison Break” was Robin Tunney’s lawyer character Veronica being, at the very least, completely unsuited to what she was doing in the show. There are always shows where fans complain that someone makes stupid decisions, but in this case there was actually in-show evidence to support it. I remember distinctly someone saying something about how she “graduated in the middle of her Baylor law class” and “her background in real estate law” not being helpful to the criminal case she was investigating, but her habit of losing witnesses and evidence and only making progress by having people try to kill her makes her perhaps the most incompetent lawyer in the TVerse.
On the other hand, Robin Tunney is quite lovely.
His tendency to date his patients is unfortunate.
I hear he’s an asshole when he’s drunk
Al Bundy–shoe salesman who always insulted his customers
Beavis and Butt-head–Burger World cashiers & cooks
[Wolowitz] I have a master’s degree in Engineering for God’s sake! [/Wolowitz]
It wasn’t that he wasn’t a good engineer. He had bragged at one point about designing Mars rover equipment.
His problem was that he was often compared to his cohorts who were all accomplished scientists with the kinds of egos that invited comparison.
The series of maids that Emily Gilmore hires in Gilmore Girls. (According to Emily anyway.)
The intern “Cabbage” in Scrubs
The intern Doug in Scrubs (until they discovered he worked best in the morgue)
Squidward
Before Sipowitcz took over the squad, they had an LT who couldn’t be bothered with what was going on. I can’t remember the whole story, it’s been a few years and wikipedia’s list of NYPD Blue’s episodes just give short blurbs about each episode.
The first name that came to mind when I saw this thread was Al Bundy. It takes a true lack of effort to be an incompetent shoe salesman. 
Also, Mayor Adam West from “Family Guy” is pretty high on the list of incompetency.
And speaking of Adam West, what about Commissioner Gordon and Chief O’Hara from the old Batman TV show? The police never apprehended anyone on that show. All the criminals in Gotham City were always captured by Batman.
Ethically challenged? Yes.
Medically challenged? I still think the jury’s out.