History Main / IdiotSavant

** Caboose is the dumbest character amidst the core cast, mostly as a result of all the brain damage he suffers throughout the series. Despite this, he has the best understanding of AI-based technology, capable of repairing both Epsilon and the Mantis "Freckles", but also capable of easily transferring them to other machinery. He is also able to understand some more abstract concepts such as time travel, a RunningGag being that random innocuous comments of his turn out to be the truth to how certain things working, such as time being made of circles.

* Mashiro Shiina in ''LightNovel/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'' is an internationally famous painter by high school age, but she clearly has zero skills in anything else -- she doesn't know how to put on her shoes, or that she has to pay for items in a store, etc, etc, together with a long list of oddities (like NoSocialSkills or [[EmotionlessGirl having a flat affect]]) to the point that the speculation of her being autistic has become a rather universally accepted {{Fanon}}.

* Beak in ''Literature/ReapersGale'', book seven of ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', has an incredible natural magical ability that would've put him on the fast track to High Mage rank, if not for a combination of AmbiguousDisorder, childhood traumas, and a Film/{{Forrest Gump}}ish mental state -- which combine to give him NoSocialSkills and a mental handicap in understanding the world around him unless it has to do with magic. Even that he simplifies to a great degree. While other mages see magic as a complicated net of cause and effect, Beak simply sees differently colored candles. And while other mages can use one, maybe two of the [[FunctionalMagic Paths of Magic]], Beak can use ''all of them''. The other mages usually take a whiff of his magical potential, hear him babbling on about something and just give him a hug before they walk away crying.

%% * Brittany on ''Series/{{Glee}}'' is a naive, child-like idiot, but she knows ''everything'' about cat diseases and is one of the best dancers on the show and got early acceptance to MIT because she has "the greatest mathematical mind ever".
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%% How naive and childlike? Is she mentally disabled, or just ditzy?
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* Morty Smith from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is alleged to be stupid to the point of having a disability according to his parents and struggles quite a bit with basic math and schoolwork. When it comes to his knowledge of ''anything'' Rick, however, the guy reveals himself to be a quick and even ruthless thinker and planner capable of grasping advanced concepts about infinite realities and even disarming neutrino bombs. He also manages to fool Rick on at least a few occasions. [[spoiler:Rick even implies, correctly so if Evil!Morty is any indication, that Morty is fully capable of becoming a BigBad level EvilGenius if he gets the chance]].

* White from ''Anime/TekkonKinkreet'' plays this trope straight. He saves Black's life, perhaps more than once, and is eerily perceptive about some of the people around him: at the same time, he can't tie his own shoes or dress himself without help.

* [[TheBerserker Adus]] of ''Literature/TheElenium'' is an [[AxeCrazy evil]] [[TheBrute example]]. A mentally handicapped, barbaric savage, Adus can barely speak, doesn't bathe, is almost illiterate, and frequently eats raw meat. He's also a combat savant, with a talent not only for physical fighting but small unit tactics. Give him an [[AnAxeToGrind axe]] and a manageable number of troops, and no one is more dangerous.

* From ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':

* In ''Literature/TheStand'', Donald Elbert, better known as Trashcan Man, is questionably literate or numerate and has quite serious mental health problems, but can easily figure out the most complex machinery.

The term "Idiot Savant" is actually outdated, since the term "idiot" itself is no longer a medical term. The term "savant syndrome" is more correct. It refers to someone--usually someone with a developmental disorder, often autism--who has one or sometimes more extremely high abilities that are disproportionate to their normal level of functioning. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome The other wiki]] has more information.

%% Is this actual mental disability, or just ditziness?

* Mashiro Shiina in ''LightNovel/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'' is an internationally famous painter by high school age, but she clearly has zero skills in anything else--she doesn't know how to put on her shoes, or that she has to pay for items in a store, etc, etc, together with a long list of oddities (like NoSocialSkills or [[EmotionlessGirl having a flat affect]]) to the point that the speculation of her being autistic has became a rather universally accepted {{Fanon}}.

** The first ''Cube'' has Kazan, a severely mentally handicapped man who, to the rest of the people trapped in the Cube, is a nuisance at first, constantly banging his head against the walls, making weird honking noises and babbling about gumdrops. But later on it's discovered that he could find the prime factors of huge numbers in his head, and he ends up as their savior. [[spoiler: Or more accurately as his [[RayOfHopeEnding own savior]].]]

* White from ''Anime/TekkonKinkreet'' plays this trope straight. He saves Black's life, perhaps more then once, and is eerily perceptive about some of the people around him: at the same time, he can't tie his own shoes or dress himself without help.

* ''Film/MercuryRising'' centers on an autistic child who can intuitively decipher top military ciphers, and a police officer who can convey character with a silent telegenic stare.

* Beak in ''Literature/ReapersGale'', book seven of ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', has an incredible natural magical ability that would've put him on the fast track to High Mage rank, if not for a combination of AmbiguousDisorder, childhood traumas and a Film/{{Forrest Gump}}ish mental state -- which combine to give him NoSocialSkills and a mental handicap in understanding the world around him unless it has to do with magic. Even that he simplifies to a great degree. While other mages see magic as a complicated net of cause and effect, Beak simply sees differently colored candles. And while other mages can use one, maybe two of the [[FunctionalMagic Paths of Magic]], Beak can use ''all of them''. The other mages usually take a whiff of his magical potential, hear him babbling on about something and just give him a hug before they walk away crying.

* [[TheBerserker Adus]] of ''Literature/TheElenium'' is an [[AxeCrazy evil]] [[TheBrute example]]. A mentally handicapped, barbaric savage, Adus can barely speak, doesn't bathe, is almost illiterate, and frequently eats raw meat. He's also a combat savant, with a talent not only for physical fighting, but small unit tactics. Give him an [[AnAxeToGrind axe]] and a manageable number of troops, and no one is more dangerous.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Charlie Kelly in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' is not a very smart man -- he NeverLearnedToRead (although it's more like he tries and fails) and carries a general air of incompetence, but he's very adept at playing and creating music. When Mac expresses surprise that Charlie can play a keyboard, let alone with great skill, Charlie says, "Oh man, keyboards just make sense to me, man. I get 'em, ya know?" He also shows remarkable ImprovisationalIngenuity as seen in "Charlie Work," where he has to create a complex plan on the fly to dupe the incoming health inspector into give the bar a passing grade while covering up a very messy "chicken and airline miles" scam the rest of the gang concocted while Charlie wasn't there.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}'' featured a very Rain-Man-like autistic savant character, right down to being able to count spilled toothpicks quickly and accurately. He was employed by a courier company to help track packages with missing or damaged bar-codes, and when he was off work, they had to bring in at least ten people to do his job.

* Colonel Klink of ''Series/HogansHeroes'' is often thought of as one of these as anyone who meets him quickly realizes how dumb he his. However when asked how he holds on to his job as the commandant of Stalag 13 they always bring up his perfect no escape record (which is because Hogan and the company keep it that way to keep the bumbling Klink in command).

* Music/{{Eminem}} repeatedly self-describes as an 'idiot savant' in interviews, superlatively gifted at rapping, but unable to do anything else. This is an exaggeration, but he does have a large collection of mental conditions (autism, hyperlexia, OCD, drug addiction, suicidality, physical brain damage that gave him a HairTriggerTemper, trauma from his abusive childhood, and a phobia of giraffes) and is useless at a lot of things most people find easy (he has no attention span, no sense of direction, got HeldBackInSchool three times before dropping out, has little interoception and participates in MuseAbuse to TooDumbToLive levels). He has a fascination with the movie ''Film/RainMan'' due to relating to the main character, and has imitated Raymond's voice in some of his songs as well as dressed as him for photoshoots. Songs like "Brainless" and "Rain Man" are both about his uselessness at all non-rapping areas of existence.

* WWE once featured a wrestler called [[Wrestling/NickDinsmore Eugene]] who was billed as an idiot savant. He was mentally and socially way below the norm, but his wrestling abilities were pretty good, including pulling off numerous classical moves from the old days of pro-wrestling.

* The Jokaero of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' are basically space Orangutans, in both appearance and intellect. Yet somehow, they are also mechanical craftsmen par-excellance.

* Sandal, from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', is a savant when it comes to enchanting weapons. However, if you talk to him all he'll say is "Enchantment!" and "Enchantment?", probably owing to the amount of [[ToxicPhlebotinum lyrium]] he's been exposed to. (Although the sequel reveals he is able to speak, he's just shy and inarticulate.) In the final dungeon at the end of the game you also encounter him alone, covered in blood, and surrounded by heaps of slain monster corpses. So he would appear to be a bit of a savant when it comes to combat as well. That incident repeats itself ''twice'' in the second game.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has a DLC side mission where Shepard takes on a rogue Virtual Intelligence that has melded to the mind of the project lead's autistic brother David. Through a series of holograms projected from the David's mind, Shepard learns that not only was he a math genius, but he could actually imitate the geth language so accurately that the deactivated geth would respond to it. He's also shown calculating square roots in his head when stressed. Shepard remembers one of those square roots and uses it as a TrustPassword in the third game when he meets David again, who is under attack by Cerberus:

** The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' NPC Algernon is an idiot savant with a talent of fiddling with weapons and upgrading them. The poor guy lives in the WretchedHive New Reno and lacks the character and social acumen to hold his own there, only capable of expressing himself verbally through onomatopoeia, so an unscrupulous gun shop owner hides him in his basement and makes him work for food. If the player meets him, Algernon will help them with their weapons for free.

* Muddy from ''Hoosegow'' is an inept criminal whose plans inevitably fail. However, when the player character reads a religious pamphlet describing a beast with twelve horns, sixteen stalks on each horn and eighty eyes on each stalk, Muddy immediately asks why it would need 291,840 eyes.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series has the [[DivineParentage Demiprinces]], a form of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent lesser Daedra]] born from the union of a [[HalfHumanHybrid Daedra and a mortal]]. Their dual nature gives them an ''odd'' [[CloudCuckoolander perception of the world and time itself]]. In addition to their eccentricities, Demiprinces have an extremely difficult time maintaining knowledge which lies outside their spheres of influence. However, they are the ''[[BunnyEarsLawyer undisputed masters]]'' of whatever lies within their spheres.
* Max Hass, a [[GentleGiant gigantic]] ManChild who can only [[PokemonSpeak say his own name]] due to having a third of his skull missing, proves to be this in ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus''. With Wyatt, [[spoiler: he points out a paragraph in an ancient manuscript written by the Da'at Yichud to help him find the information he was seeking]]. While this might have been blind luck, he later beats [[TheSmartGuy Set]] at [[SmartPeoplePlayChess a game of chess]], sending Set into a RapidFireNo before [[RageQuit he flips the board and storms off]]... Max just quietly takes out a paper and starts coloring on the now-vacant table. And said coloring is eventually revealed [[spoiler: to be part of a larger mural on Max's wall depicting Klaus, his foster-father who had died in the first game]].

** Caboose is the dumbest character amidst the core cast, mostly as a result of all the brain damage he suffers throughout the series. Despite this, he has the best understanding of AI based technology, capable of repairing both Epsilon and the Mantis "Freckles", but also capable of easily transferring them to other machinery. He is also able to understand some more abstract concepts such as time travel, a RunningGag being that random innocuous comments of his turn out to be the truth to how certain things working, such as time being made of circles.

* Ethan in ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', emphasis on [[TooDumbToLive idiot]] (he thinks the best way to deal with paperwork is to KillItWithFire). He claims he's intelligent for only a few seconds a day and created two [[SnarkyNonhumanSidekick intelligent robots]] without fully understanding how, since the only plans he could find were scribbled in sauce on a restaurant menu. [[spoiler:When one of them needs to be fixed, he gives a very technical explanation why he can't do it. The next strip shows him wearing all his winter clothes instead of, y'know, putting them on a chair or something because he needed the storage space.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The male Simpsons can be classified as this at their worst. While being born smart, a gene causes that to deteoriate. However, both Homer and Bart have displayed excellent skills in multiple languages (Homer once speaking ''penguin''). To say nothing of musical talent. Bart showed great skill with the drums, and Homer has repeatedly shown himself to be capable at anything - literally anything - connected to music. Two hit bands, several successful songs both with those bands and independently - he even shows incredible skill as a music manager, for both Lurleen Lumpkin and Lisa.

* Morty Smith from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is alleged to be stupid to the point of having a disability according to his parents and struggles quite a bit with basic math and schoolwork. When it comes to his knowledge of ''anything'' Rick however, the guy reveals himself to be a quick and even ruthless thinker and planner capable of grasping advanced concepts about infinite realities and even disarming neutrino bombs. He also manages to fool Rick on at least a few occasions. [[spoiler:Rick even implies, correctly so if Evil!Morty is any indication, that Morty is fully capable of becoming a BigBad level EvilGenius if he gets the chance]].

%%* ''Literature/{{Mindblind}}'' has Nathaniel and Molly, who both have Asperger's. Despite their many difficulties, Nathaniel is a TeenGenius who graduated college at fourteen, while Molly's detailed drawings of her obsession, horses, have been praised by ''Magazine/{{TIME}}''.

* ''Literature/{{Mindblind}}'' has Nathaniel and Molly, who both have Asperger's. Despite their many difficulties, Nathaniel is a TeenGenius who graduated college at fourteen, while Molly's detailed drawings of her obsession, horses, have been praised by ''TIME'' magazine.

* Iqbal in ''WesternAnimation/BromwellHigh'', on one hand, is a very, ''very'' lousy principal at [[SuckySchool the titular school]]. On the other hand, he paints in his spare time (although has trouble selling his paintings), can memorize an encyclopedia, works a bit of amateur theater into staff meetings and assemblies, and can dance and sing.

* Music/{{Eminem}} repeatedly self-describes as an 'idiot savant' in interviews, superlatively gifted at rapping, but unable to do anything else. This is an exaggeration, but he does have a large collection of mental conditions (autism, hyperlexia, OCD, drug addiction, suicidality, physical brain damage that gave him a HairTriggerTemper, trauma from his abusive childhood, and a phobia of giraffes) and is useless at a lot of things most people find easy (he has no attention span, no sense of direction, and got HeldBackInSchool three times before dropping out). He has a fascination with the movie ''Film/RainMan'' due to relating to the main character, and has imitated Raymond's voice in some of his songs as well as dressed as him for photoshoots. Songs like "Brainless" and "Rain Man" are both about his uselessness at all non-rapping areas of existence.

* Music/{{Eminem}} repeatedly self-describes as an idiot savant in interviews, superlatively gifted at rapping, but unable to do anything else. This is an exaggeration, but he does have a large collection of mental conditions (autism, hyperlexia, OCD, drug addiction, suicidality, physical brain damage that gave him a HairTriggerTemper, trauma from his abusive childhood, and a phobia of giraffes) and is useless at a lot of things most people find easy (he has no attention span, no sense of direction, and got HeldBackInSchool three times before dropping out). He has a fascination with the movie ''Film/RainMan'' due to relating to the main character, and has imitated Raymond's voice in some of his songs as well as dressed as him for photoshoots. Songs like "Brainless" and "Rain Man" are both about his uselessness at all non-rapping areas of existence.

* Music/{{Eminem}} repeatedly self-describes as an idiot savant in interviews, superlatively gifted at rapping, but unable to do anything else. This is an exaggeration, but he does have a large collection of mental conditions (autism, hyperlexia, OCD, drug addiction, suicidality, physical brain damage that gave him a HairTriggerTemper, trauma from his abusive childhood, and a phobia of giraffes) and is useless at a lot of things most people find easy (he has no attention span, no sense of direction, and got HeldBackInSchool three times before dropping out). He has a fascination with the movie Film/RainMan due to relating to the main character, and has imitated Raymond's voice in some of his songs as well as dressed as him for photoshoots. Songs like "Brainless" and "Rain Man" are both about his uselessness at all non-rapping areas of existence.

* Iqbal in ''WesternAnimation/BromwellHigh'', on one hand, is a very, ''very'' lousy principal at [[SuckySchool the titular school]]. is quite the libertine. On the other hand, he paints in his spare time (although has trouble selling his paintings), can memorize an encyclopedia, works a bit of amateur theater into staff meetings and assemblies, and can dance and sing.

[[folder: Western Animation]]

%% * Iqbal in ''WesternAnimation/BromwellHigh'' is quite the libertine. He paints in his spare time (although has trouble selling his paintings), can memorize an encyclopedia, works a bit of amateur theater into staff meetings and assemblies, and can dance and sing.
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%% You seem to be missing the "idiot" part. How does it apply?
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* Charlie Kelly in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' is not a very smart man -- he NeverLearnedToRead (although it's more like he tries and fails) and carries a general air of incompetence, but he's very adept at playing and creating music. When Mac expresses surprise that Charlie can play a keyboard, let alone with great skill, Charlie says, "Oh man, keyboards just make sense to me, man. I get 'em, ya know?" He also shows remarkable ImprovisationalIngenuity as seen in "Charlie Work," where he has to create a complex plan on the fly to dupe the incoming health inspector into give the bar a passing grade while covering up a very messy "chicken and airline miles" scam the rest of the gang concocted while Charlie wasn't there. The episode is [[TheOner shot in one long take]] to play up the feeling of everything being done in the spur of the moment.