History Main / KnownothingKnowItAll

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' has Dr. Migleemo, the resident councilor on the ''Cerritos''. The problem is, he's about as qualified to diagnose a cold as he is to treat his ship's patients, since he doesn't know the first thing about psychiatry or being a science officer, and causes multiple diplomatic incidents because of his lack of knowing when to keep his beak shut. Mariner, who's later revealed to be [[spoiler:a ShellShockedVeteran who's harboring intense trauma from losing her friend and being forced to participate in the Dominion War]], isn't able to properly able to overcome her traumas under his care because he's ''that'' incompetent at his job.

* ''Literature/{{Confessions}}'': Mani, the founder of the Manichees, claimed to have great spiritual and scientific knowledge. As Augustine learned that eclipses aren't caused by the moon's fear of the dark, he came to understand Mani was too ignorant to know he knew nothing.

** On the more humorous front, there's Moe Cronin in Diamond City, who sells "Swatters", his name for baseball bats. Only his idea of how baseball was played back before the Great War is more akin to a brutal gladiatorial battle to the death. Your protagonist, who actually knows how baseball was played back then due to having been frozen soon after the bombs fell, can call him on this.

-->'''Truck:''' [[https://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2013/01/09/planning-face/ What's a non-enclosure?\\]]

-->'''Truck:''' I shoulda known! I wish I was as smart as you, Fals.

'''Falstaff:''' That's any place that's not inside, or not enclosed, see? It means we're not domestics.\\
'''Truck:''' I shoulda known! I wish I was as smart as you, Fals.

[[https://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2013/01/09/planning-face/ -->'''Truck:''' What's a non-enclosure?\\]]

* ''Fanfic/TheSaviorKingTheMasterTacticianAndTheQueenOfLiberation'' has [[spoiler:Edelgard]], who knows far less than they realize, yet positions themselves as somebody capable of "guiding the sheeple to salvation", with predictably tragic results.

* ''Fanfic/KnightOfSalem'': Salem is supremely confident in her wealth of knowledge, while remaining stubbornly set in her ways. For instance, she believes that water mills are the height of technology, that illnesses are called by imbalanced humors, and that vehicles are just odd-looking beasts of burden.

* ''Fanfic/{{What You Knead|Naruto}}'': Despite being Konoha's self-proclaimed spymaster, Jiraiya has a [[FatalFlaw bad habit]] of making assumptions and acting impulsively based on faulty, outdated or outright wrong information. For instance, his EstablishingCharacterMoment has him paying Kakashi a visit two years after he retired from active service, having assumed he'd been killed when his face stopped appearing in Bingo Books. He then attempts to lecture and shame Kakashi for ''daring'' to retire, despite not knowing anything about ''why'' he did so, and is shocked at having his {{hypocri|te}}sies}} thrown back in his face. He further assumes that Kakashi hasn't done anything to address Naruto's situation, only to learn that he's reached out to him and become his BigBrotherMentor.

* The FurryWebcomic ''Webcomic/NipAndTuck'', by Creator/RalphHayesJr, justifies [[StrawCharacter Gilly Gopher]] as being the ButtMonkey that he is because he's a Know-Nothing Know It All.

-->'''Dr. Smith''': [[{{Catchphrase}} Never fear, Smith is here!]]

* Jolly from ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' claims to be an all-knowing prophet, but a lot of his actions seem to point to him not being particularly "all-knowing" at all, such as providing a picture of a screwdriver and attempting to pass it off as a map showing how to find the Luminous Ray.

[[index]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll/AnimeAndManga
* KnowNothingKnowItAll/FanWorks
* KnowNothingKnowItAll/VideoGames
* KnowNothingKnowItAll/WesternAnimation
[[/index]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Brainy Smurf has a library of books, all written by him, all useless. Whenever he gives a useless lecture to Franchise/TheSmurfs, they hit him with a hammer.[[note]]The series changes this to the more familiar throwing him out of the village.[[/note]] He also insists that "Papa Smurf is always right."

* ''Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon''

--->'''Pumbaa''': Oh, gee. I always thought they were balls of gas burning millions of miles away.
--->'''Timon''': Pumbaa, with you, [[{{Gasshole}} everything is gas]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime''
** In the original film, Cera was this. She frequently boasted about always knowing the right way to do things, only to go on to prove that she, in fact, did not. She ended up suffering quite a bit of [[HumiliationConga humiliation]] because of it--particularly after she lands the gang sans Littlefoot in trouble while trying to lead them to the Great Valley--and she loses the trait in the sequels.
** Mr. Thicknose in the [[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTimeVIIITheBigFreeze eighth film]] turns out to be this. Originally respected as the smartest resident of the Great Valley, having "been everywhere and seen everything", he soon confesses to the kids that he gets most of his knowledge from second-hand sources.

* Moe of ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' often rudely bosses Larry and Curly (and Shemp) around for goofing up and considers himself smarter than them but is clearly every bit as dim as they are.
* Oliver Hardy's character in ''Creator/LaurelAndHardy'' also presents himself as the bossy, arrogant, intelligent, more polite, and civilized one of the duo, but is actually not that much sharper than Stan Laurel's character. Hardy himself was known to state that his character was truly the more dumb of the two, because of how he would so often place his complete trust in Stan despite how invariably the latter led them to disaster.

-->'''Otto:''' Don't call me stupid.
-->'''Wanda''': Oh, right! To call you stupid would be [[InsultToRocks an insult to]] ''[[InsultToRocks stupid people!]]'' I've known sheep that could outwit you. I've worn dresses with higher [[UsefulNotes/IQTesting IQs]]. But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?
-->'''Otto''': Apes don't read philosophy.
-->'''Wanda''': Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it. Now let me correct you on a couple of things, OK? Creator/{{Aristotle}} was not Belgian. The central message of UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} is not "Every man for himself". And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up.
* Jimmy from ''Film/{{Barbershop}}'' is only working at the shop to pay his way through college, and he tends to lord his superior education over his fellow workers. Problem is, he frequently gets his facts wrong, such as when he corrects another character by saying that scallops aren't mollusks (they are) and that a local store owner is Pakistani, not Indian (no, he's definitely Indian and quite resents being called Pakistani, thank you very much).
* Calvin Candie, the villainous Southern slaveowner from ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', certainly thinks himself a wise and cultured man, particularly with his love of French culture. However, he doesn't speak the language (guests are specifically advised not to speak French around him so as not to embarrass him), doesn't know his favorite French author Alexandre Dumas was black, and justifies his beliefs in racial superiority with pseudo-scientific phrenology (already discredited among scientists even at the time).
* ''Film/{{Zelig}}'', who has the uncommon ability to blend in and [[MistakenForSpecialGuest be mistaken for someone important]], despite knowing [[FeigningIntelligence very little]], is somewhere between this and SeeminglyProfoundFool.
* Inverted in Music/TheMonkees' 1968 movie, ''Film/{{Head}}''. Peter, frustrated that the guys wouldn't listen to him after warning them about the "Black Box", makes them sit down to listen to his highly intelligent philosophy passed down to him by the [[OldMaster Swami]] earlier in the film. His monologue closes with: "But then... why should I speak, since I know nothing?"
* Paul, the "pseudo-intellectual" in the Creator/WoodyAllen film ''Film/MidnightInParis'' acts like an expert on general Parisian art and culture but is proven wrong several times. It doesn't stop him though.

-->'''Walt:''' [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords ''Death is bittersweet''? ''Bitter in the pain, sweet in the salvation''?]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech That’s what you know of life and death? Good God, it’s pathetic.]]
-->'''Father Janovich''': [[LetsSeeYouDoBetter What do you know, Mr. Kowalski?]]
-->'''Walt:''' Plenty. [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar I lived with death for three years in Korea.]] [[WarIsHell We shot people, we stabbed them with bayonets,]] [[MoralEventHorizon we hacked seventeen-year-old kids to death with shovels, for Christ’s sake]]. [[ShellShockedVeteran I did things that won’t leave me till the day I die, horrible things, things I have to live with.]]
-->'''Father Janovich''': [[ArmorPiercingQuestion And what about life?]]
--> ''[[[{{Beat}} Walt has to think for a second as he struggles with his answer.]]]''
-->'''Walt:''' Well... I survived the war... got married... and raised a family.
-->'''Father Janovich:''' [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Sounds like you know more about death than you do living.]]
-->'''Walt:''' ''[[[INeedAFreakingDrink Downs a shot]]]'' [[HeelRealization Maybe so.]]

* Shows up in ''[[Film/FortyTwo 42]]'' with a baseball announcer who declares that African-Americans are naturally faster runners than whites due to having the advantage of a "naturally longer" heelbone. He gets mocked by his peers when Jackie Robinson hits a home run soon afterwards.
-->"How did his longer heelbone help him do ''that?''"

* Janine Melnitz of ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'' looks fairly nerdy, and she claims people tell her she's "too intellectual" and that she's "very psychic." However, at no point does she actually show any intellectual ability, she constantly misunderstands Egon's comments, and at one point Peter puts her down by pointing out she is only qualified for some pretty low-end jobs. When Egon experiments on Louis Tully, she fails to grasp anything that's going on. During the [[Film/GhostbustersII second movie]], she also proves to be a mediocre babysitter and that's about it. She undergoes CharacterDevelopment and becomes a much more important character in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' and other spin-off materials.
* In ''Film/ITonya'', Tonya Harding's bodyguard Shawn Eckardt gives a television interview at the height of the Nancy Kerrigan scandal, where he claims to be a counterterrorism expert who works internationally and has been consulted for a "travel magazine during the Gulf War." His character is so outlandishly delusional that it probably took some audiences out of the story a little...which is probably why the filmmakers added footage over the credits of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV8gyTEKG3A&t=68s the actual Shawn Eckardt]] [[FreakierThanFiction making that actual claim.]]
* In ''Film/TheSquidAndTheWhale'', Walt makes a lot of authoritative comments about literature, but a lot of it might just come from his father. He belittles Sophie for loving a lesser-known F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, claiming ''[[Literature/TheGreatGatsby Gatsby]]'' is superior, but his teacher later claims that Walt never read ''The Great Gatsby'' based on his coursework. Similarly, when Sophie talks to him about ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis'', she has substantial thoughts about it while Walt just condescendingly calls it [[ShapedLikeItself "Kafkaesque"]].

* Literature/{{Discworld}}

* In the short story "Literature/EverydayUse," Mama's daughter Dee is trying to immerse herself in her family's African culture, but repeatedly fails to understand its true meaning, or what it means to her family. She changes her name to "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo" to protest the oppression and cultural whitewashing of black Americans, ignoring Mama's protest that the name "Dee" is just as important to their family if not more, having been passed down through many generations. The title of the story comes from Dee/Wangero's reaction to Mama not giving her a particular handmade quilt to hang up, saying that it should go to her and not her sister Maggie because the latter would "probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use". Dee/Wangero only views the quilt as a kind of trophy, something to be used to display pride in her heritage, while Maggie learned to make quilts from their mother and even sewed some of her own quilts, showing a more in-depth understanding of their family's traditions that she doesn't flaunt or take unnecessary pride in.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''

* Kirtan Loor from the Literature/XWingSeries has a PhotographicMemory and, because of it, thinks himself a genius and is always surprised when his plans don't work. Early in the series he's taken before the BigBad and lambasted for his flaws, most notably a tendency not to ''think''. For the rest of the series he proceeds believing himself to have changed, but one or two insights aside he really hasn't. It's not until [[spoiler:his death]] that he realizes that he's kept falling back on his old habits without even realizing it.

* Death: "The Philosopher"

* The subject of Music/MenWithoutHats' "I Like".
-->''I like when they talk real loud, try to tell you what they know.''
-->''I like when it blows real hard and it doesn't even show.''
-->''I like when they haven't seen a thing and try to tell you where to go.''

-->''A year ago, last Thursday, I was strolling in the zoo,''
-->''When I met a man who thought he knew the lot.''
-->''He was laying down the law about the habits of baboons,''
-->''And the number of quills a porcupine has got.''
-->''So I asked him: "What's that creature there?" He answered, "It's a h'elk."''
-->''I might have gone on thinking that was true,''
-->''If the animal in question hadn't put that chap to shame''
-->''And remarked "I h'ain't a h'elk, I'm a g-nu."''

* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'':
** King Steve is completely insane, but how do you argue with someone who "invented inventing"?
** Red Mage professes towards being a genius, but being unbelievably WrongGenreSavvy, he tends to only succeed on the rare occasions that RuleOfFunny ends up in his favor.
* The FurryWebcomic ''Webcomic/NipAndTuck'', by Creator/RalphHayesJr, justifies [[StrawCharacter Gilly Gopher]] as being the ButtMonkey that he is because he's a Know-Nothing Know It All.

* ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'': Emil had expensive private tutors growing up, but the story keeps dropping hints that they failed at actually teaching him anything. First, his grades dropped when he went into public school after his family's RichesToRags episode. Second, any high knowledge level information he shares tends to be blatantly wrong and just asking to be corrected by one of his crewmates who got an actual education. However, since he hasn't figured out that the problem was his tutors and not the public school system having it in for him, he still thinks of himself as well-educated and shares his inaccurate knowledge with certainity that it's right.
* ''WebComic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/behold "Behold"]] has a man thinking he's on a date with a woman and going on about how he knows better than anyone about everything from string theory to economics, only for her to come up behind him and reveal he's been talking to a crude mannequin but didn't notice because he was so self-absorbed. He calls it a "{{Doppelganger}}" and then, in the bonus punchline, explains that the word means "double ganger" in German.

* WebVideo/{{Ask That Guy|WithTheGlasses}} is a particularly psychopathic version of this. It's implied in some episodes that he knows he's wrong and just does it for the fun of it, such as in one episode where he's asked "why is my nose bleeding?". He begins going on about how every nose goes through what's called a "nose-period", but then just shouts out "I don't know! What kind of a stupid question is that?" A less insane ([[MadLove but]] [[StalkerWithACrush only]] [[SanitySlippage slightly]]) version from the same site would be WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick. Best showcased in the ''[[Film/XMenFilmSeries X-Men]]'' review, where normal!Chick brushes off Dr. Tease with "I know everything", and Chick on TruthSerum admits that the mutant powers really confused her as a kid.

* Early WebVideo/SMBCTheater had this issue with subjects like Christianity, Superheroes, and geek culture. However, they have stuck with subjects they're more familiar with.
* "Crank" is a pejorative term for a person who holds an unshakable belief or opinion that most of their contemporaries consider to be false. Unlike the likes of Gallileo, Copernicus, and Ignaz Semmelweis (whom Cranks may compare themselves to), whose theories were proven correct despite conflicts with established authorities, Cranks are characterized as overestimating their own knowledge and abilities regardless of others opinions and experience, insisting their discoveries are urgently important while rarely if ever acknowledging faults no matter how trivial.

* Doc of ''WebVideo/TheTIMEGuys'' thinks he's a scientific genius, but it's obvious that he has no idea what he's talking about.
* Jace from ''WebVideo/DeagleNation'' claims to be an expert in firearms, parkour, and the US military. Due to this, he ends up spouting out nonsense facts that aren't true at all every time he appears.
* The Healthy Band from ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'' sing about healthy foods but the problem is their views on what is healthy are messed up. 'Bland' and plain-looking foods like bread and cream are healthy no matter how processed they are while 'fancy foods' like eggs, vegetables, and fruits are unhealthy. Later they even say white sauce - something they encouraged seconds before - is bad for you.
* ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'':
** As of Part 5 of the "Bowser Junior's First Grade!" story arc, Bowser Junior believes the sun is a planet, much to Cody's disappointment. Unlike Rosalina, who says the same thing but is clearly off her rocket, Junior makes logical arguments that are entirely wrong such as the Sun being round and therefore being a planet. He actually even died when trying to go to the Sun to prove it.
** In "Jeffy's Homework!", When it comes to math, Jeffy thinks 2+2=2 because it makes a baby 2, 8-4=8 because the four is taken away, and 0+0=2 because there are two zeroes who don't love each other. It even causes him to go into a swearing fit and suddenly become more eloquent and curse his diaper, helmet, and pencil, as well as several scientists while claiming that his answers are right. [[spoiler:By the end of the video, Mr. Goodman reveals that he believes in his subtraction reasoning, and it is even named "Jeffy's Law of Subtraction", leading the whole world into believing Jeffy as well.]]
** Both Toad and Chris the Cucumber continuously give out wrong advice while claiming it to be correct.
* Chronicling real-life examples of this is the entire point of [[Website/{{Reddit}} r/iamverysmart]].
* While Mordecai, MMFEC's shaman in ''WebVideo/ShadowrunCorporateSins'' is a competent and powerful magician he is almost completely useless regarding technology but refuses to admit it.
* The hosts of ''Podcast/OhNoRossAndCarrie'' encounter these types fairly frequently, given the nature of their show. The flat-earth believers in particular have enormous creativity when it comes to inventing explanations for why the planet is definitely not spherical and all evidence that it is has been faked by the government/NASA for...reasons.
* Matt from season one of ''WebVideo/EscapeTheNight'' IS very smart, but not in his element, he becomes increasingly arrogant despite constantly proving himself to be WrongGenreSavvy most of the time.
* [[https://notalwaysright.com/science-versus-susan/269731/ This]] ''Website/NotAlwaysRight'' story is about a woman who tries to get rid of multiple books she considers scientifically inaccurate while revealing her own ignorance.

-->'''Q:''' Egregious Expert, could you tell me the meaning of the famous E=mc[--[[superscript:2]]--] formula?
-->'''A:''' It is of course impossible to express the full complexity of [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein's]] ideas in the limited space of this column; nonetheless, keeping in mind that the following is by necessity a simplification, we can say that the formula in question equals twenty-eight. Twenty-nine, tops.

* Creator/YefremLevitan's educational ''Literature/BookAboutStarsAndPlanets'' features a self-praising gnome's wild stories about his supposed space adventures; the readers' objective is to find [[ArtisticLicenseSpace all the flaws in his stories]], and there are ''many''.
* In Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado'', The target of Montresor's hatred is the wealthy and well-connected Fortunato, who proclaims himself an expert wine connoisseur, but when Montresor suggests inviting a mutual friend with them to sample the titular spirit, he admonishes the idea because the friend "wouldn't know sherry from Amontillado." Amontillado ''is'' a sherry. He also guzzles an expensive fine wine like cheap swill, holds plonk brands in high regard, and samples wine while already heavily drunk, something no real wine connoisseur would do; all actions that do little to refute Montresor's opinion that he is really a boorish idiot.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Starlyght thinks herself 'enlightened' and acts like an expert on spirituality, but it's clear she knows virtually nothing about the cultural traditions she discusses and just has an inflated opinion of her own knowledge. One immediate example is that she's introduced wearing a dreamcatcher as a necklace, which isn't traditionally how those are used.

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': Vizzini is a rather subtle case, as his whole schtick is being intelligent (completing the brain/brawn/skill trio with Fezzik and Inigo), but he really isn't. He repeatedly uses the word "inconceivable" to sound educated even though it's not accurate (as Inigo points out), his claim to genius is to mock other, actually acknowledged geniuses without anything to actually show for it, and he takes the Battle of Wits at face value, without even considering any other possibilities than one chalice being poisoned. He's a fast-talker, but that's about it.

* Bill [=McNeal=] from ''Series/NewsRadio'' quite frequently. He once attributed the line, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" to the poet John Keats in 1776. Too bad that 1) that wasn't Keats, it was Robert Herrick, and 2) it wasn't written in 1776; in fact, neither man was alive then, Herrick having died in '''16'''74, and Keats not being born until 1795.