History Main / BrainySpecs

->''"You don't even need them! You just think they make you look a bit clever."''
-->-- '''Tenth Doctor''', ''Series/DoctorWho''

%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.

Usually, only people with [[BlindWithoutEm vision problems]] go to the trouble of getting a pair of glasses. But sometimes, we have a character who dons a pair of spectacles even though they have perfect eyesight. The BrainySpecs are just there to make the character look smart, sophisticated, and/or [[{{Meganekko}} cute]]. However, whether they really do make the wearer smart, sophisticated, and cute is variable.
A sort of sister trope to GogglesDoNothing.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Advertising ]]

* A McDonalds commercial shows two men, wearing glasses and sitting at an intellectual coffee shop, somehow found out that McDonalds also serves coffee. They immediately rebel against the pseudo-intellectual front they had been putting up to get their coffee, and yes, one of them was pulling this trope. The other one [[BlindWithoutEm was not]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Asuka is angered by the fact that she's stuck with "Shinji the idiot" and [[MazingerZ Kouji]] the moron" again. Shinji goes all emo, but Kouji fires back claiming that he's spent the time away studying abroad and he's not the same Kouji as before. When she asks him to prove it, rather than showing off any actual knowledge, he pulls out a pair of glasses and exclaims how smart he looks. Asuka and every other girl in the room react by [[{{Bishonen}} thinking he's surprisingly hot.]]
* ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'': Yuki Nagato's glasses seem to be simply an aesthetic feature, and she stops wearing them after Kyon tells her she's cuter without them.
* AngelBeats: Takamatsu wears a pair of these. However, it is noted almost immediately that despite the specs, he's still an idiot.
* In ''SailorMoon'' Both Ami (Sailor Mercury) and Mamoru (Tuxedo Mask) have been shown wearing "reading glasses" on occasion. Neither of them actually ''need'' them.
* In ''OnePiece'', Nami wears a pair of glasses while lecturing the rest of the crew on what they'd learned at Sky Island since arriving. These glasses had never appeared before and only once since.
* ''AxisPowersHetalia'':
** Though people read into it for different reasons, [[LoveFreak America]] doesn't need his glasses. They represent Texas (rather, he puts them on after annexing Texas) but really seems to exist soley for looking [[MoeMoe cuter]].
** Something similar happens with TeamDad Austria, who's said via WordOfGod to be more or less [[GenericCuteness plain, looks-wise]].
* ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha [=StrikerS=]'': [[TheGlassesComeOff As shown]] in the last episodes, Quattro doesn't need her glasses. She just has them to help keep up her [[BitchInSheepsClothing facade]] of [[{{Kawaiiko}} innocent cuteness]].
* It's implied in ''ChronoCrusade'' that neither [[EvilGenius Aion]] or [[MadScientist Shader]] need their glasses. In Shader's case she's probably wearing them because it makes her look brainy, in Aion's case it might be that, or it might be to make him look [[ScaryShinyGlasses more intimidating]]. In Aion's case, they're probably also there to hide from the audience that [[spoiler:Chrono and Aion are identical twins]].
* In ''DNAngel'' Satoshi doesn't actually need his glasses, and admits it to people when they ask. However, it's implied they might function as a way to [[spoiler:hold back his alter-ego, Krad.]]
* [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Evangeline]] of ''MahouSenseiNegima'' would put these on whenever she wants to look more teacher-like before Negi and everyone else [[OldMaster training under her]].
* In ''KatekyoHitmanReborn'', Gokudera Hayato aquires a pair of glasses half way through the series for no apparent reason, aside from the fact that they make him [[EstrogenBrigadeBait look even cuter]].
** Well, he does seem to use them whenever he reads things. When studying Sistema CAI, when teaching Tsuna to swim, when trying to learn how to properly cook... Looks like it can be deduced that Gokudera has a little vision problem when it comes to reading things up close.
*** He seems to have no problem in school without his glasses, though.
**** He doesn't care about school, though.
* Jin from ''SamuraiChamploo'' wears designer glasses which are completely pointless, expressly for the purpose of looking sophisticated.
* [[spoiler:Firo]] of ''{{Baccano}}'' takes to wearing a pair of these from 1970 onwards [[spoiler:after he replaces Maiza as [[TheMafia the camorra's]] ''conta è oro'']]. When asked about them, he admits that they're just there to make him look smarter.
* Azuma from ''BambooBlade'' got herself (fake) glasses in the hopes that they would help improve her marks.
* Used by Poplar while studying for a test in ''[[{{ptitleqxnl7vpv}} Working!!]]''
* Dentaku, of ''LitchiHikariClub''. Suitably, his epithet is "Science Boy".
* When the master assassin ''{{Golgo13}}'' needs to infiltrate a chemical warfare lab by posing as a skilled chemist, his disguise consists of... a pair of glasses. It's arguable whether they make him look smarter, but they actually DO make him look less intimidating somehow, which is an accomplishment in itself, considering his [[PerpetualFrowner face]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comics ]]

* In the MarvelUniverse, Jeanne-Marie Beaubier a.k.a. Aurora of the Canadian team AlphaFlight wore fake glasses when assuming the [[SplitPersonality persona]] of a straight-laced schoolteacher.
* In the same universe, some versions of Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}} claim that Peter Parker never needed glasses at all, but his Aunt May feared he would strain his eyes by reading without them. They were broken in an early strip, and after that he has never worn them again.
** The gag shows up again every couple of years where after seeing something supernatural/incredible Peter will muse that maybe he needs to go back to wearing glasses.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* Subversion: In the movie ''Charade'', Regina (Audrey Hepburn) accuses Peter (Cary Grant) of not needing the reading glasses he puts on. She pulls them from his face and dons them herself -- then gets a shocked expression and quickly hands them back, saying quietly, "You need them." Evidently, the degree of correction in those lenses was something fierce.
* Played straight in ''HighSchoolMusical'' with Kelsi, completely averted with every other character in the movie.
* ''HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': Tricia "Trillian" [=MacMillan=], in her first scene has a pair of glasses to flag her character as clued-in.
* In ''{{Gremlins}} 2'', the smart gremlin obtains a set of glasses from an unknown source the moment it acquires intelligence.
* In ''(Untitled)'' (yes, that's its name, parentheses and all), gallery owner Madeleine Gray has a whole collection of fake glasses she wears to look more sophisticated and hip, and she tries her hardest to prevent anyone from discovering that they're just for show.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Imzadi'' by PeterDavid. Mary Mac, a female Orion administrator of a Federation science post, dresses in a rather dowdy manner (loose fitting clothes, functional braids, and large glasses) to avoid being seen as just another GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe. Ironically, glasses are rare in Picard's time (or even Kirk's), as future medicine has other means of correcting eyesight.
* ''HarrietTheSpy'' wears a pair of lens-less frames as part of her spy gear and sometimes to school because she thinks they make her look smarter.
* In one essay in [[{{Dilbert}} Scott Adams']] book ''Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!'', he writes about how to appear smart. The first and most important tip he gives is to wear glasses, even if you don't need them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The name for this trope comes from the special episode "Time Crash" where the Doctor teases his own past self for wearing glasses he doesn't need in order to look "a bit clever". Ironically, the Tenth Doctor himself is practically infamous for his use of the brainy specs. The fact he has worn them in not only his fifth and tenth incarnations, but also, at least once in a TelevisionTieInNovel, his eighth, which were pretty much his [[OlderThanTheyLook youngest-looking]] incarnations, rather suggests he might not really need them and just wears them to give himself more gravitas. Out of universe, DavidTennant (the Tenth Doctor) has said that he wanted to have his Doctor frequently wearing glasses in order to give glasses-wearing kids a heroic role-model.
* On ''HowIMetYourMother'', in the flashback in "Arrivederci, Fiero," it's shown that Ted wore spectacles. When they accidentally break, however, he says they were merely "decorative."
* [[RedDwarf Rimmer]] dons specs in the episode ''Holoship'' after illegally enhancing his intelligence with a mind patch.
* In one episode of ''EvenStevens'', [[DumbMuscle Donny]] watches a video on how to appear smarter. One of the video's suggestions is to wear glasses (Also, to use big words like "cornucopia, meaning 'bountiful' or 'a lot of'").
* In a recent episode of ''BetterOffTed'', Lem reveals that he has been doing this for the past ten years.
* Both Mulder and Scully are seen wearing glasses occasionally in the first season of ''{{The X-Files}}''. No explanation in-story for why both stopped using them after that.
** And has anyone noticed that it seems to be the SAME pair of glasses?
** Mulder does make a passing reference to "need for corrective lenses" in the fourth-season episode "Home".
* ''{{Torchwood}}'': In "Adam," when the titular character has altered the Torchwood team's memories and personalities, Owen gets a fetching pair of specs with his nerdier, more awkward persona. As well as a cardigan and a slicked-back hairdo. Geek chic indeed.
* ''{{Scrubs}}'': In an early episode, Elliot is seen with a pair of glasses that disappears without explanation and never comes back. In the commentary, the writers noted that Sarah Chalke wore them because she thought it would make the character seem smarter.
* On ''ThirtyRock'', Liz Lemon wears glasses most of the time, despite Jenna pointing out that she doesn't actually need them. This is a case of TruthInTelevision: TinaFey, who modeled the character of Liz on herself, has said many times that she only needed glasses to read the cue cards on ''[[SaturdayNightLive SNL]]'' but continued to wear them off the show because they unintentionally had become her trademark.
* ''{{NCIS}}'': This trope is Michael Weatherly's personal HandWave for his glasses showing up a few times in the first season. Tony, his character, is supposed to have 20/10 vision.
* Inverted on ''CriminalMinds'', when {{Meganekko}} Penelope briefly wears contacts in an attempt to look more serious.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Charlie from the ''StreetFighterAlpha'' series is a well-educated individual (on top of being [[GoodLookingPrivates devilishly handsome]]) and can be seen removing his glasses before a fight. A bit of Capcom trivia reveals that the glasses are purely aesthetic, as his vision is just fine.
* Emma plays this straight in ''{{Metal Gear Solid 2|SonsOfLiberty}}''. When Raiden is about to escort her underwater, she takes off her glasses and he suggests for her to get contacts. Emma then admits that she can see perfectly fine and only wears the frames to look cuter.
* In ''[[ChocobosDungeon Final Fantasy Fables]]'' Chocobo gains a pair of these while he's a Scholar. Most. Adorable. Nerdy bird. ''Ever''.
* ''MegaManZero's'' [[MeaningfulName Cerveau]] has glasses that are similar to [[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} Cyclops]]. But that didn't stop him from looking brainy.
* Scholars in ''FinalFantasyXI'' have two specially designed pieces of headgear that are mortarboards with built-in glasses. The lower-leveled one has Intelligence and augments their ability to regain MP. The higher leveled on has Mind (generally associated with wisdom in the game), elemental magic skill, and improves their spell-casting time. [[FantasticRacism But the amazing thing is that the mortarboards can even make Elvaans look smart!]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* ''ElGoonishShive'': Tedd's glasses, before their special abilities were revealed, could be called ''manly'' specs (stop laughing!), as he wore them to look less effeminate. However, the obvious side-effect was to make him more nerdy as well, an example of the trope.
* Ping from ''{{Megatokyo}}'' does this once to try to get her classmates to like her. The plan fails, unfortunately.
* Sarin the Wizard of TheDragonDoctors wore a monocle in the first chapter (and ditches it right around the same time he gets permanently turned into a woman). It's later revealed in a flashback this was entirely an affectation; a kid said Sarin (a young, green-haired man wearing a grey hoodie) didn't look anything like a wizard. Sarin's response was to magically grow a (green) mustache, throw on a robe, and pop in a monocle, with the words, "Impaired vision equals smart!"
* Jyrras Gianna of ''{{DMFA}}'' doesn't need glasses, and originally started wearing them on the suggestion of Dan, who told him that smart people usually wore glasses. They still serve a purpose, however, in somehow decreasing his cuteness, thus preventing people from slipping into [[TastesLikeDiabetes diabetic shock]] whenever he makes PuppyDogEyes...
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* ''AtopTheFourthWall'': In {{Linkara}}'s ''TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'' review, he wears one over his regular glasses, since nothing says [[AC:I am a real reviewer]] like wearing two pairs of glasses in your face.
* ''AskThatGuyWithTheGlasses'': In a segment, he reveals that he attended Glasses University, where everyone wears glasses and is therefore smart, good education and effort toward learning being well beside the point. He demonstrates by taking ''off'' his glasses, and... well, [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/ask-thatguy/1465-ask-thatguy-episode-21 it's hard to properly describe]].
* In TheNostalgiaCritic ''Film/AloneInTheDark'' review guest starring Linkara and [[TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]], the latter mocks Tara Reid's infamous archeologist role thusly:
--->'''Spoony''': How do we know she's a scientist? Because she wears glasses, of course! And as we all know, any woman who has glasses is either a scientist or an [[HotLibrarian adventurous librarian]]. As if wearing glasses makes you look any smarter!
--->''[NC and Linkara glare at Spoony]''
--->'''Spoony''': ''[sheepishly]'' ...I need glasses.
** The other take of this was Spoony trying to cover his ass and eventually telling Critic that he'd do him. [[RapeAsComedy ...he got his wish]].
* TheNostalgiaChick will sometimes wear hipster glasses when she wants to appear more like an academic.
* JamesRolfe doesn't need to wear glasses, as can be seen in some of his videos, but wears them in his persona as TheAngryVideoGameNerd to add to the image of a stereotypical geek.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In an episode of ''CowAndChicken'', Cow immediately became smarter after she started wearing glasses. Chicken then started wearing glasses to try and become smarter - it failed, but he ''acted'' like he was much more intelligent.
* On ''{{Daria}}'', noted [[TheDitz ditzes]] Kevin and Brittany are convinced for one episode that glasses might make them smart. Brittany ''does'' say something intelligent and then declares, "Wow, these things really do work!" but Kevin gets a pair without lenses because he doesn't want to get ''too'' smart.
* In an episode of ''TheSimpsons'', Homer finds glasses and immediately starts acting smart, by quoting the scarecrow in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' after he got his diploma (and making the same mistake of referencing the wrong type of triangle). He does the same thing in one of the comics, when he buys Artie Ziff's glasses.
* It's been debated in ''{{Metalocalypse}}'' fandom whether or not Charles Foster Ofdensen's glasses are functional or just there to both accentuate his cleverness and make him seem more harmless than he really is (which isn't at all. He's the BadassNormal).
* On ''{{Jimmy Two-Shoes}}'', during a [=~Screw Learning, I Have Phlebotinum!~=] plot, Beezy dons a pair of glasses even though he has perfect eyesight. Heloise apparently needs hers to read, but in one episode she puts them on before giving advice, probably to appear smarter.
* Later episodes of ''ReBoot'' had Dot adopt a pair of BrainySpecs while working as Mainframe's COMMAND.COM. In earlier episodes she would wear them inconsistently with the implication that she didn't ''need'' them, she just ''liked'' them.
* Rarity, the resident ''Artiste'' on ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' tends to don bright red glasses when she's in creative mode, sewing, or looking for inspiration ("ideeeeeeeaaaaa!").
* On ''FamilyGuy'' Brian tries to show [[TheHills Lauren Conrad]] how smart he is by taking out glasses to read. When she asks when he got reading glasses, he says he always wore them. She points out she knows they aren't real as she can see the ''AustinPowers'' logo.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Drew Carey got laser surgery at some point, but started wearing a pair without lenses, because he looked weird without them. Not only that but he usually wears a specific ''style'' of glasses modeled after military-issue "Birth Control" glasses (so named because no one wearing them will ever get laid). This was lampshaded in one episode of ''TheDrewCareyShow'' where he addresses the audience wearing a slimmer, more stylish pair that he usually wears off camera before switching to his familiar ones right before the show starts.
* For a brief time, WeirdAlYankovic wore these after he got laser surgery of his own, since his glasses were part of his iconic look. He quickly decided this was silly and simply ''altered his look'' instead.
* In his youth, EltonJohn played this trope straight when he started wearing glasses to copy his idol, Buddy Holly. Subverted, now that he can't see without them.
* This trope has its origins in Medieval and Renaissance Europe. The literate educated classes were often forced to read by candlelight, straining and eventually damaging their eyes. Therefore, intelligent people were more likely to need (and be able to afford) glasses than the ignorant masses, or those who earned their fortune in other ways.
* Sadly believed to be played straight in real life by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which executed any "intellectuals" in their attempt to bring Cambodia back to a self-sufficient agricultural community, including [[InsaneTrollLogic anyone who wore glasses]].
* Stephen Harper started wearing glasses, seemingly for no reason other than to look smart. They don't help.

[[/folder]]
----

[[quoteright:318:[[Series/DoctorWho http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doctorglasses.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:318:You'll never see them again after this scene.[[hottip:*:Well, okay, we see it over 20 years later in "Time Crash". Once.]]]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The name for this trope comes from the special episode "Time Crash" where the Doctor teases his own past self for wearing glasses he doesn't need in order to look "a bit clever". Ironically, the Tenth Doctor himself is practically infamous for his use of the brainy specs. The fact he has worn them in not only his fifth and tenth incarnations, but also, at least once in a TelevisionTieInNovel, his eighth, which were pretty much his [[OlderThanTheyLook youngest-looking]] incarnations, rather suggests he might not really need them and just wears them to give himself more gravitas. Out of universe, David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor) has said that he wanted to have his Doctor frequently wearing glasses in order to give glasses-wearing kids a heroic role-model.

* It's been debated in ''{{Metalocalypse}}'' fandom whether or not Charles Foster Ofdensen's glasses are functional or just there to both accentuate his cleverness and make him seem more harmless than he really is (which isn't at all. He's the [[BadassNormal Badass Normal]]).

* Rarity, the resident ''Artiste'' on ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' tends to don bright red glasses when she's in creative mode, sewing, or looking for inspiration ("ideeeeeeeaaaaa!")

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Asuka is angered by the fact that she's stuck with "Shinji the idiot" and [[MazingerZ Kouji]] the moron" again. Shinji goes all emo, but Kouji fires back claiming that he's spent the time away studying abroad and he's not the same Kouji as before. When she asks him to prove it, rather than showing off any actual knowlage, he pulls out a pair of glasses and exclames how smart he looks. Asuka and every other girl in the room react by [[{{Bishonen}} thinking he's surprisingly hot.]]

* In the ''{{Marvel}}'' universe, Jeanne-Marie Beaubier a.k.a. Aurora of the Canadian team AlphaFlight wore fake glasses when assuming the [[SplitPersonality persona]] of a straight-laced schoolteacher.
* Also in the {{Marvel}} universe, some versions of Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}} claim that Peter Parker never needed glasses at all, but his Aunt May feared he would strain his eyes by reading without them. They were broken in an early strip, and after that he has never worn them again.

* Played straight in HighSchoolMusical with Kelsi, completely averted with every other character in the movie.
* ''HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': Tricia "Trillian" MacMillan, in her first scene has a pair of glasses to flag her character as clued-in.

* ''Harriet the Spy'' wears a pair of lens-less frames as part of her spy gear and sometimes to school because she thinks they make her look smarter.

* Both Mulder and Scully are seen wearing glasses occasionally in the first season of ''TheXFiles''. No explanation in-story for why both stopped using them after that.

* On ''[[ThirtyRock 30 Rock]]'', Liz Lemon wears glasses most of the time, despite Jenna pointing out that she doesn't actually need them. This is a case of TruthInTelevision: TinaFey, who modeled the character of Liz on herself, has said many times that she only needed glasses to read the cue cards on ''[[SaturdayNightLive SNL]]'' but continued to wear them off the show because they unintentionally had become her trademark.

* Emma plays this straight in ''MetalGearSolid 2''. When Raiden is about to escort her underwater, she takes off her glasses and he suggests for her to get contacts. Emma then admits that she can see perfectly fine and only wears the frames to look cuter.

* ''MegaManZero's'' [[MeaningfulName Cerveau]] has glasses that are similar to [[Comicbook/XMen Cyclops]]. but that didn't stop him from looking brainy.
* Scholars in FinalFantasyXI have two specially designed pieces of headgear that are mortarboards with built-in glasses. The lower-leveled one has Intelligence and augments their ability to regain MP. The higher leveled on has Mind (generally associated with wisdom in the game), elemental magic skill, and improves their spell-casting time. [[FantasticRacism But the amazing thing is that the mortarboards can even make Elvaans look smart!]]

* Sarin the Wizard of TheDragonDoctors wore a monocle in the first chapter (and ditches it right around the same time he gets permanently turned into a woman). It's later revealed in a flashback this was entirely an affectation; a kid said Sarin (a young, green-haired man wearing a grey hoodie) didn't look anything like a wizard. Sarin's response was to magically grow a (green) mustache, throw on a robe, and pop in a monocle, with the words, "Impared vision equals smart!"

* ''AtopTheFourthWall'': In {{Linkara}}'s ''The Dark Knight Strikes Again'' review, he wears one over his regular glasses, since nothing says [[AC:I am a real reviewer]] like wearing two pairs of glasses in your face.

* In TheNostalgiaCritic ''AloneInTheDark'' review guest starring Linkara and [[TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]], the latter mocks Tara Reid's infamous archeologist role thusly:

* In an episode of ''TheSimpsons'', Homer finds glasses and immediately starts acting smart, by quoting the scarecrow in the ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' after he got his diploma (and making the same mistake of referencing the wrong type of triangle). He does the same thing in one of the comics, when he buys Artie Ziff's glasses.

* Later episodes of {{Reboot}} had Dot adopt a pair of BrainySpecs while working as Mainframe's COMMAND.COM. In earlier episodes she would wear them inconsistently with the implication that she didn't ''need'' them, she just ''liked'' them.
* Rarity, the resident ''Artiste'' on {{My Little Pony Friendship is Magic}} tends to don bright red glasses when she's in creative mode, sewing, or looking for inspiration ("ideeeeeeeaaaaa!")

* Drew Carey got laser surgery at some point, but started wearing a pair without lenses, because he looked weird without them. Not only that but he usually wears a specific ''style'' of glasses modeled after military-issue "Birth Control" glasses (so named because no one wearing them will ever get laid). This was lampshaded in one episode of TheDrewCareyShow where he addresses the audience wearing a slimmer, more stylish pair that he usually wears off camera before switching to his familiar ones right before the show starts.

* In an episode of ''TheSimpsons'', Homer finds glasses and immediately starts acting smart, by quoting the scarecrow in the TheWizardOfOz after he got his diploma (and making the same mistake of referencing the wrong type of triangle). He does the same thing in one of the comics, when he buys Artie Ziff's glasses.