History BrilliantButLazy / WesternAnimation

* It's occasionally hinted that the the [[Characters/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballGumballWatterson titular protagonist]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' is this. As despite generally being portrayed as a idiot (granted how much of an idiot [[DependingOnTheWriter varies depending on the episode]], anywhere from being TooDumbToLive to just being BookDumb and impulsive, but still having some sense), a wimp, and a LoserProtagonist in general, Gumball is also shown to have enough wit to often serve as a DeadpanSnarker, can think of elaborate schemes (which admittedly always backfire in some form for one reason or another, but still), can occasionally be pretty clever while having to think on his feet (like saving himself and [[LoveInterest Penny]] from hitting an oncoming truck by taking advantage of her emotion based powers in "The Shell"), [[GuileHero can be decent at manipulating others at times]] (He pulls an impressive fast one on his mother, Nicole, in the beginning of "The Question"), and can occasionally pull off pretty impressive feats of athleticism on par with [[ActionMom his mother]] when he's both sufficiently determined and not trying to show off despite being presented as out of shape, and occasionally shows a [[HiddenDepths surprising degree of skill in unexpected things, like cooking and archery]]. Probably best demonstrated in "The Grades", where Gumball is sent back to kindergarten and has to take a test that neither he (apparently having never opened at text book in his life) or his teacher think he can pass legitimately to get back to his original grade. So they try repeatedly to cheat, but it doesn't work out, so he ultimately decides to take the test legitimately even if he fails... except it turns out that writing down cheat sheets was all the practice he ''needed'' to ace the test.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': [[Characters/AmphibiaAnneBoonchuy Anne Boonchuy]]. While her friends [[Characters/AmphibiaSashaWaybright Sasha]] and [[Characters/AmphibiaMarcyWu Marcy]] had the issue of applying themselves in the wrong areas, Anne struggled with applying herself ''at all'' prior to landing in Amphibia, acting as an ExtremeDoormat who simply followed others thanks to just wanting to take the easy route (as well as due to a host of self-esteem issues). As she becomes more confident and learns to love herself, she proves to be a very resourceful person; she's a natural athlete, good at performance art and puppetry, a skilled cook, and is fantastic at [[IndyPloy coming up with plans in the heat of the moment]]. The last of which allows her to [[spoiler:even outsmart the BigBad by pointing out a flaw in its logic, delaying its attempt on her life and giving her extra time to strike back]].

* Buttercup from ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls.'' As seen in HiddenDepths, she is street-smart and quick-witted. Unfortunately, she doesn't dedicate the effort she puts in attacking villains the way into her schoolwork. This extends to the [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016 2016 series]], where despite being uninterested in academics, she's smart enough to be in advanced math classes with minimal effort.

** The same goes for [[PluckyComicRelief plucky sidekick]] Ron Stoppable, who is actually more skilled and capable than at first appearance, but (in addition to generally being unaware of his own capabilities) rather enjoys chilling and gliding through life. Up until the GrandFinale, [[TookALevelInBadass at least]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland,'' Noah is an InsufferableGenius ([[AllThereInTheManual and according to his bio]], a former ChildProdigy), but does as little as possible while [[DeadpanSnarker snarking]] at everyone else. This costs him, as his refusal to help in a challenge makes him the first Screaming Gopher to be voted out. [[CharacterDevelopment He seems to have learned his lesson]], however, actively participating in later seasons.
** In a FridgeBrilliance example of this, ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'' establishes that he spends the next several years participating in various reality TV shows. So he's a genius who could probably go to university and get a good job, but is willing to humiliate himself for the world in the hopes of winning big and getting to retire early. He also quips that his new girlfriend, [[spoiler:Emma]], will probably be rich enough that he won't need to work.

* [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has repeatedly shown his aptitude for manipulating others and pulling off elaborate schemes for his own petty benefit, but would never go to such lengths for anything productive or meaningful in the long term. At one point he starts a thorough investigation on Token Black because he failed his math test despite cheating off his classmate. Token even points out that if Cartman put that amount of effort studying for the test then he wouldn't need to copy off Token's answers.

* [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has repeatedly shown his aptitude for manipulating others and pulling off elaborate schemes for his own petty benefit, but would never go to such lengths for his academic development. At one point he starts a thorough investigation on Token Black because he failed his math test despite cheating off his classmate. Token even points out that if Cartman put that amount of effort studying for the test then he wouldn't need to copy off Token's answers.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':

** This character trait [[WellExcuseMePrincess also invokes a lot of Princess Sally's nitpicking towards Sonic]] in ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM''.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': Each of the three girls used to be this before the events of the series, with [[Characters/AmphibiaSashaWaybright Sasha Waybright]] using her leadership skills to manipulate people to get what she wants, instead of use them in a constructive way, and [[Characters/AmphibiaMarcyWu Marcy Wu]], despite being the smartest of the trio, being too focused on her nerdy interests to actually put her intelligence in practice. But [[Characters/AmphibiaAnneBoonchuy Anne Boonchuy]] is a unique case. Throughout the series, it’s shown that Anne is a very resourceful girl, a skilled athlete, performance artist, and puppeteer, and she can even cook fusion food due to her parents working in a restaurant. She is also able [[IndyPloy to come up with plans in the heat of the moment when she needs to do so]], and [[spoiler: she even outsmarted the true BigBad by pointing out a flaw in its logic, since that killing her wouldn’t guarantee her power being returned to her Calamity Stone, and forcing it to give her a stay of the execution, giving her the time to strike back]]. However, as lampshaded in a flashback in the episode “All In”, she used to be an ExtremeDoormat and a BookDumb, who preferred to take the “easy path” and to go with the flow, letting people walk on her as result. She latter admits that part of the reason why she didn’t apply herself was because she didn’t truly love herself.

* Spud from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' is a genius, but he thinks being focused on the books all the time is boring. He also believes due to experiences in his early childhood that if he shows his genius he will be faced with high and stressful expectations. As such he doesn't just not use his intellect but deliberately hides it. However, he does realize that indulging too much in laziness is also unhealthy. His genius is revealed when Jake tricks him into acing an IQ test.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderAvatarAang Aang]] is capable of picking up waterbending much faster than Katara. However, she quickly surpasses him in waterbending skills because he would rather play around than focus. The lazy aspect later becomes an issue when he's learning earthbending because as an airbender his instincts go entirely against what he's learning, leaving him unable to make any progress. He quickly becomes discouraged and it's not until Sokka's life is in danger that he can finally work through his mental block and learn to stand his ground against a problem instead of just dodging it as an airbender would.

* [[Characters/Ben10BenTennyson The titular protagonist]] of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' is a BookDumb and headstrong slacker, who often runs into situations without thinking things through. But it's hinted several times that Ben is smarter than his attitude would suggest; he has an almost photographic memory, shows a surprising degree resourcefulness when the Omnitrix gives him the wrong alien or times out while he's in a precarious situation, is shown to be pretty creative in how he uses the powers of his alien forms in general, and can get an extremely good grade when he is working seriously at school. Khyber even admitted at one point he was a "smart kid". Though by the [[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce sequel series]], Ben's mostly grown out of the "lazy" part, but it's still there.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': [[Characters/DuckTales2017LouieDuck Louie Duck]] is clever, but he's largely unmotivated, preferring to mooch off people - the show's EyeCatch even has him break the fourth wall and ask viewers to come do his chores for him during the commercial break. One of the three intertwining plots of ''The Great Dime Chase!'' has Scrooge trying to teach him the value of hard and honest work. By the second season, Louie discovers his true talent; [[TheChessmaster playing all the angles to achieve the best possible outcome]]. The problem though is that Louie would be perfectly happy gaining the biggest reward with the least possible effort, so it doesn't come into play often. And he learns the hard way he cannot see every angle, [[DidntSeeThatComing and others will often see those before he does]].

* It turns out the title character of ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' is a ''lot'' smarter than he looks, and is actually quite the math prodigy. One episode outright shows the mental math he uses when using one of his bio-mechanical weapons, all of which are implied to have been consciously designed. Both his parents AND his older brother turn out to have been/are genius scientists to even greater degrees, so it's only logical that he has some brains. Rex also managed to play a game of BatmanGambit [[XanatosSpeedChess Speed Chess]]. Very well, too.

** Shego is all over this trope. She is clearly [[HypercompetentSidekick much more competent]] than Drakken at everything except [[MadScientist the aspects of being a mad scientist]], and could definitely be an effective villain on her own if she so chose. The one time she actually applied herself, she took over the world... and even then, she had to be motivated and given the tools by her ''future self''. But for the most part, she would rather be on the beach, filing her gloves (don't ask), or lazing about reading "Villains' Magazine" than actually working, though she does enjoy her fights with Kim.

* Experiment 625 in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' is every bit as powerful and intelligent as Stitch... but he has no interest in using his abilities, and would rather make sandwiches. He does get to work to help Lilo a few times, though. In the GrandFinale movie, ''WesternAnimation/LeroyAndStitch'', in addition to finally getting his own name, Reuben, he successfully repairs Gantu's crashed ship, something Gantu had been unable to do all series.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', Rusty Venture and Pete White are both brilliant scientists who tend to be incredibly halfhearted in their endeavors, and it shows. Rusty in particular, though he is capable of creating numerous death-dealing devices and created a process to cheat death through cloning and computer memory back-up, would rather sit on his ass and leech off his dead father's reputation than earn respect and admiration through his own inventions. Rusty is a tragic example in the sense that he has ''plenty'' of issues due to how being a boy adventurer would actually be as well as the hell his father and his friends put him through. It is implied that if he did overcome the vast neuroses and psychological issues, he could surpass his father, whom everyone regards as the best super scientist.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': [[Characters/RickAndMortyRickSanchez Rick Sanchez]] could revolutionize human civilization overnight with his genius intellect, if only he cared enough to do it. Quite a few plotlines are started by him being faced with a problem he finds inconsequential and whipping up a quick and easy solution in response that tends to have disastrous side-effects attached to it.
** In "Something Ricked This Way Comes" he creates a robot with artificial intelligence for the sole purpose of getting him butter when he's eating.

** In the Season 3 finale "The Rickchurian Mortydate" he negotiates peace between Israel and Palestine, again purely out of spite, just to screw with the President.
** A ''very'' brief list of his inventions includes cybernetic prosthetic limbs, teleportation, interdimensional travel, faster-than-light space travel, a device that freezes time, shrinking technology, advanced cloning technology, and memory manipulation. He hoards all of these technologies in his garage for his own use.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': Each of the three girls used to be this before the events of the series, with Sasha using her leadership skills to manipulate people to get what she wants, instead of use them in a constructive way, and Marcy, despite being the smartest of the trio, being too focused on her nerdy interests to actually put her intelligence in practice. But Anne is a unique case. Throughout the series, it’s shown that Anne is a very resourceful girl, a skilled athlete, performance artist, and puppeteer, and she can even cook fusion food due to her parents working in a restaurant. She is also able [[IndyPloy to come up with plans in the heat of the moment when she needs to do so]], and [[spoiler: she even outsmarted the true BigBad by pointing out a flaw in its logic, since that killing her wouldn’t guarantee her power being returned to her Calamity Stone, and forcing it to give her a stay of the execution, giving her the time to strike back]]. However, as lampshaded in a flashback in the episode “All In”, she used to be an ExtremeDoormat and a BookDumb, who preferred to take the “easy path” and to go with the flow, letting people walk on her as result. She latter admits that part of the reason why she didn’t apply herself was because she didn’t truly love herself.
* It's occasionally hinted that the the titular protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' is this. As despite generally being portrayed as a idiot (granted how much of an idiot [[DependingOnTheWriter varies depending on the episode]], anywhere from being TooDumbToLive to just being BookDumb and impulsive, but still having some sense), a wimp, and a LoserProtagonist in general, Gumball is also shown to have enough wit to often serve as a DeadpanSnarker, can think of elaborate schemes (which admittedly always backfire in some form for one reason or another, but still), can occasionally be pretty clever while having to think on his feet (like saving himself and [[LoveInterest Penny]] from hitting an oncoming truck by taking advantage of her emotion based powers in "The Shell"), [[GuileHero can be decent at manipulating others at times]] (He pulls an impressive fast one on his mother, Nicole, in the beginning of "The Question"), and can occasionally pull off pretty impressive feats of athleticism on par with [[ActionMom his mother]] when he's both sufficiently determined and not trying to show off despite being presented as out of shape, and occasionally shows a [[HiddenDepths surprising degree of skill in unexpected things, like cooking and archery]]. Probably best demonstrated in "The Grades", where Gumball is sent back to kindergarten and has to take a test that neither he (apparently having never opened at text book in his life) or his teacher think he can pass legitimately to get back to his original grade. So they try repeatedly to cheat, but it doesn't work out, so he ultimately decides to take the test legitimately even if he fails... except it turns out that writing down cheat sheets was all the practice he ''needed'' to ace the test.

* The titular character from ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' certainly counts. While on the surface, Sterling Archer is a brainless egotist, the show makes it clear he genuinely ''is'' the world's most dangerous spy. Archer boasts unparalleled skills in almost every field needed to be a secret agent, incredible and in-depth knowledge about a wide variety of topics (some quite obscure), and some outright savant-like genius abilities. He's even able to count the number of shots being fired from multiple guns being used simultaneously in a fire-fight and keep track of exactly how many bullets each shooter has left. Unfortunately he's also a selfish hedonist who's concern isn't whatever mission he's supposed to be handling but rather his own comfort and (short-sighted) entertainment. His main motivation for being a secret agent seems to mostly be so he can travel the world getting drunk and bedding women.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Aang is capable of picking up waterbending much faster than Katara. However, she quickly surpasses him in waterbending skills because he would rather play around than focus. The lazy aspect later becomes an issue when he's learning earthbending because as an airbender his instincts go entirely against what he's learning, leaving him unable to make any progress. He quickly becomes discouraged and it's not until Sokka's life is in danger that he can finally work through his mental block and learn to stand his ground against a problem instead of just dodging it as an airbender would.

** Aang's successor [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Korra]] has a similar problem to him as well; she's incredibly HotBlooded and excels in the more fast-paced aspects of her position (fighting being the best example), but the slower-paced parts (such as diplomacy and spiritual meditation) don't hold her interest for very long and she ends up getting herself into far more trouble than she can handle at times.

* The titular protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' is a BookDumb and headstrong slacker, who often runs into situations without thinking things through. But it's hinted several times that Ben is smarter than his attitude would suggest; he has an almost photographic memory, shows a surprising degree resourcefulness when the Omnitrix gives him the wrong alien or times out while he's in a precarious situation, is shown to be pretty creative in how he uses the powers of his alien forms in general, and can get an extremely good grade when he is working seriously at school. Khyber even admitted at one point he was a "smart kid". Though by the [[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce sequel series]], Ben's mostly grown out of the "lazy" part, but it's still there.

** Louise has a level of intelligence, manipulation and ingenuity far above her age, but she's also not one for patience or doing things the right way. There was an episode where she tried to break into the locked up ceramics room to get out of making her grandparents a gift for the rest of her life by stealing pottery that's already there. She does so with an elaborate plan of breaking into the room with tools that, as Tina puts it, [[LaboriousLaziness took more effort than making said pottery themselves]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': Luey is clever, but he's largely unmotivated, preferring to mooch off people - the show's EyeCatch even has him break the fourth wall and ask viewers to come do his chores for him during the commercial break. One of the three intertwining plots of ''The Great Dime Chase!'' has Scrooge trying to teach him the value of hard and honest work. By the second season, Louie discovers his true talent; [[TheChessmaster playing all the angles to achieve the best possible outcome]]. The problem though is that Louie would be perfectly happy gaining the biggest reward with the least possible effort, so it doesn't come into play often. And he learns the hard way he cannot see every angle, [[DidntSeeThatComing and others will often see those before he does]].

** Helga is shown to possess an intellect well beyond that of the typical fourth grader. She's a talented poet with an impressive vocabulary and gets an impressive score on her aptitude test. Unfortunately, [[TheUnfavourite being neglected by her parents in favor of her older sister Olga]] has squandered her confidence and most of the time she doesn't even try to do well in school.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in Ponyville, is seen slacking off quite a bit -- [[EstablishingCharacterMoment including in her first appearance]] -- but repeatedly proves herself to be extremely competent. Amongst her many dramatic heroics, that same debut scene where she's been putting off work that ends with her clearing a cloud-filled sky in ''[[NotHyperbole literally]]'' "ten seconds flat." In "Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3", she has absolutely no interest in ''any'' of the teaching techniques her friends try to use to teach her the History of the Wonderbolts, which she needs to pass a test to get into the famous team but didn't think she needed to worry about, leading to her neglecting it. However late in the episode, she demonstrates an ability to pick up any and ''every'' detail she sees while flying, which leads to Twilight's EurekaMoment on how to get the history into her head.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Rick Sanchez could revolutionize human civilization overnight with his genius intellect, if only he cared enough to do it. Quite a few plotlines are started by him being faced with a problem he finds inconsequential and whipping up a quick and easy solution in response that tends to have disastrous side-effects attached to it.

** Bart Simpson is a good example. He can be pretty cunning, deductive, and intelligent when he puts his mind to it, particularly when up against his nemesis Sideshow Bob, but in school, he'd rather do the bare minimum (if that). He mastered two languages (Spanish and French) in a relatively short time. Only to 'forget' French and literally have Spanish knocked out of him. And Japanese along with Homer after a short while in jail. This also shown mixed with his [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny short attention span]] where he's willing to do ''algebraic equations'' as a distraction from the ten-page book report he was assigned. When an aptitude test shows that he's not useless and is suited to be a police officer, he unleashes that potential. [[ResetButton For a while]].
** This also overlaps with BookDumb, as when he actually does try in one episode, he technically still fails the test. He only manages to pass because he related his experience to something he read in his studies, which got him extra credit for "applied knowledge". A FlashForward shows that he will be a Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, made even more impressive in that in a not-as-far flash forward, he went to night school for his law degree. Then again, in almost all the others, he's a bum, or at least hardly works. However, it is all presented in chronological order: he spends his early adulthood in a troubled state and as a bum before getting a job in demolition to work out his anger (while also going to night school) and eventually becomes a Chief Justice in his older adult years. This is all in spite of the Simpsons Gene, which leads to Simpsons men becoming losers as adults.
** Homer also qualifies ([[InTheBlood maybe it's genetic?]]), frequently displaying [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands a surprising amount of intelligence for whatever this week's obsession is]]. Across various episodes he's become a top employee for Globex, started a very successful home security business, and was able to trick Mr. Burns into making him CEO of the power plant, which he did in revenge for his rather comprehensive safety report being ignored. Also like Bart, he displays BookDumb tendencies, rarely reading books while also retaining an amazing breadth of knowledge, including at least some awareness of the works of Walt Whitman, how to brew several varieties of beer, and at least some knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics, despite not knowing who Isaac Newton is. It's just that, much like Bart, he's only willing to put in the minimum effort.

* Cartman from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has repeatedly shown his aptitude for manipulating others and pulling off elaborate schemes for his own petty benefit, but would never go to such lengths for his academic development. At one point he starts a thorough investigation on Token Black because he failed his math test despite cheating off his classmate. Token even points out that if Cartman put that amount of effort studying for the test then he wouldn't need to copy off Token's answers.
* Squidward from ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' is already one of the smartest characters on the show and would be extremely competent if not for his extreme apathy to everything. In ''Opposite Day'' he rebuilt [=SpongeBob=]'s entire ''house'' all by himself, something that, due to him hating his neighbor and wanting nothing to do with him, he didn't bother to do in ''Home Sweet Pineapple''. In ''A Breath of Fresh Squidward'' his personality is inverted so that he's incredibly enthusiastic and cheerful about everything, and as a result, manages to beat [=SpongeBob=]'s Employee of the Month winning streak.
* Star Butterfly from ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' is a magical prodigy, described as being far beyond the skill level of [[TheHighQueen her mother Queen Moon]] and on par with [[TheDreaded Eclipsa]] (the most notorious magic user in Mewni's history, who created magic so dangerous that her chapter of the royal spellbook is sealed). She's able to "dip down" and use magic solely from her own power (normally the assistance of a MagicWand is required) at the age of 14 (something her mother never managed until she was 19), and constantly invents new spells off the top her head (which are often more powerful than she intended them to be). But Star is incapable of using the most basic magic because she found it too boring to bother learning. Which in turn leads to Star having poor ''control'' over her magic, with her spells sometimes failing to work, being more powerful than intended and causing collateral damage, or going completely wrong and having an effect completely unrelated to what she intended.

** Jeff Albertson, the Comic Book Guy is probably the biggest example on the show. He's actually a member of Mensa, and does tend to talk like a "book smart" (though [[SmallNameBigEgo snobbish and egotistical]]) type, and he once did write and self-publish a comic book called ''Everyman'' that was a brief success (and cancelled it later when he condoned the movie it was made into, even if it meant dismissing the chance for more money and potential for another film closer to the source material) but usually all he does with his smarts is [[SnakeOilSalesman profiteering]] (Maybe it makes sense at first that he can justify charging $150 for a photo of Sean Connery that was signed by Roger Moore, as he did in one episode, [[IceCreamKoan but when you think about it for a few minutes...)]]. And he's definitely lazy, being a morbidly obese couch potato who doesn't give a damn about his health, in one episode buying a hundred tacos for a ''Series/DoctorWho'' marathon. (In another episode he admitted to being a 45-year-old virgin who still lives with his mother.)

* Eddy from ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is implied to be this. He's cunning enough to think up scams that can actually be rather brilliant at times, though he often heaps the heavy-lifting parts of building his scams off to Ed and Double D and struggles academically, though he'll occasionally make a comment or reference to people or events that imply he's smarter than he seems. Overall, he is clever, but apparently bored easily to the point of avoiding any sort of studying and notes from his teachers imply he may have an ADD or ADHD-type disorder.