History Main / PhlebotinumInducedStupidity

* An example where the change is permanent, the StephenKing short story ''The End of the Whole Mess'', was about some Phlebotinum applied to the world's water supply in order to make everyone less aggressive. It worked, but it caused the end of the world anyway, because a side-effect was rapid onset dementia/Alzheimer's.

* In ''{{Futurama}}'', Fry is the only one immune to the giant brains' stupefying effect due to his...unique...brain structure, which is normally a handicap.

* An episode of ''KimPossible'' had Dr. Drakken using "silly hats" to reduce the world's leading scientists to blithering idiots.

* ''SpongebobSquarepants'': "You won't get away Man-Ray; not while we have the Orb of Confusion!" Which, by the way, causes a wave of confusion that ''starts'' with the person who turned it on, making it a very ''literal'' IdiotBall.

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A device or effect that makes people less intelligent. (Usually temporarily.)

* Maul of the comic book ''[[WildCATS Wild C.A.T.S]]'' has size-changing powers that makes his intelligence inversely proportional. Not only does growing make him dumber, he later discovers he can shrink to get smarter, although this proves exhausting.

* There was at least one AirportFantasy-style disaster novel which had this effect as the result of a communicable disease. Toward the end, a newscaster (who is having trouble reading the [=TelePrompTer=]) notes that sales of all literature except pornography have fallen drastically. The heroes finally found a cure, but were uncertain if anyone would want it anymore.

* "AUM" in the ''{{Illuminatus}}!'' trilogy is a hallucinogenic drug cocktail that renders users highly creative and supremely gullible at once. When one character tests it by spiking the punch at a meeting of a FictionalCounterpart to the Knights of Columbus, the group ends up renouncing Christ and adopting geocentrism.
** Unlike most examples, this stuff tends to make people ''more'' intelligent, not less. Initially they believe almost everything that follows some kind of logic, but since it stimulates inquisitivness and curiosity, it tends to produce more knowledgeable and open-minded people, on average. It's implied that sometimes the opposite can happen as well, but those examples are never seen in the book.

* The novel ''{{Bimbos of the Death Sun}}'' is centered around the author of a [[ShowWithinAShow novel within a novel]] with the same name, whose basic premise involves solar radiation messing up computers and (as a side note) making women lose intelligence. Despite what it sounds like, he wasn't doing it to be chauvinistic - he's an electrical engineering professor and the phenomena were based in his research.

* The ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Beer Bad." Buffy drinks cursed beer which turns her into a cavewoman. (Although she still looks the same, the guys who drink the beer literally look like cavemen. Granted, Xander expressly cut her off before the rest) Ends with a SpoofAesop:
--> '''Xander:''' And was there a lesson in all this? huh? What did we learn about beer?
--> '''Cave Buffy:''' Foamy.

** Of course, the beer itself wasn't a good idea for someone who can literally punch through car doors.

** It seemed to depend on what sort of person the reverted individual was as a teen. The principal was, and became again, a dweeb and mindless hanger-on to whoever seemed coolest (in this case, Buffy.) Giles was, and became again, a danger to everyone around him.

* ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' - In the "Gumby Surgery" sketch, the head surgeon (Graham Chapman) is perfectly intelligent and lucid while asking the nurse for glasses, mustache, and handkerchief. As soon as the latter is put on, he turns into the usual Gumby idiot/madman: "I'm going to operate!"

* The plot of the point-and-click adventure game ''ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders'' revolves around aliens who took over the phone company and are sending out a signal that makes people stupid.

* In ''{{Futurama}}'', Fry is the only one immune to the giant brains' stupefying effect due to his...unique...brain structure, which is normally a handicap.

* In an episode of ''ChalkZone'', Craniac 4 tries to get Rudy with a smart bomb. It is sentient, though, and does not want to blow itself up. He instead opts for the Dumb Dart, which lowers intelligence.
* An episode of ''KimPossible'' had Dr. Drakken using "silly hats" to reduce the world's leading scientists to blithering idiots.

* An episode of ''RockyAndBullwinkle'' featured "goof gas". Bullwinkle was too stupid to be affected by it. Boris remarked something like, "Goof gas affects the brain. No brain, no effect."

** This is worsened by the fact that the nuclear power plant where he works doesn't use proper shielding. All the slapstick violence in the form of blows to the head certainly can't help, either. WordOfGod is that he loses 5 IQ points a season from brain damage, and at this point he's basically "a dog that can talk."

* Played with in an ''I.M Weasel'' Short on ''WesternAnimation/{{Cow and Chicken}}'', in which [[ButtMonkey I.R. Baboon]] managed to publish a book that apparently turns everyone who reads it into complete and utter idiots. Lamenting on this turn of events, I.M. Weasel decides to expose himself to the "stupid powers"... but remains unaffected. He eventually realizes that everyone around him was already a stupid twit and he just didn't notice it.

* In ''ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' episode "Sting Operation," the penguins use one of Kowalski's inventions to make themselves stupid [[spoiler: so that they can't feel the hornet's stings.]]

* [[{{JohnnyTest}} Susan and Mary Test]] built an intelligence amplification machine, and Johnny used it to give them an IQ of 22.

* [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy Ethyl alcohol]].

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* In the utterly depressing [[AlternateUniverse alternate]] MarvelUniverse that serves as the setting for ''Mutant X'', there is a DumbMuscle character called The Brute. He used to be brilliant scientist Hank [=McCoy=] before his notorious ProfessorGuineaPig tendencies took a tragic turn, leaving him too stupid to figure out how to reverse what he'd done to himself.
* Maul of the comic book ''Wild C.A.T.S'' has size-changing powers that makes his intelligence inversely proportional. Not only does growing make him dumber, he later discovers he can shrink to get smarter, although this proves exhausting.

* The novel ''Bimbos of the Death Sun'' is centered around the author of a [[ShowWithinAShow novel within a novel]] with the same name, whose basic premise involves solar radiation messing up computers and (as a side note) making women lose intelligence. Despite what it sounds like, he wasn't doing it to be chauvinistic - he's an electrical engineering professor and the phenomena were based in his research.

* In one episode of ''SonicTheHedgehog,'' Dr. Robotnik accidentally takes a Stupid Pill instead of a Smart Pill.

* Played with in an ''I.M Weasel'' Short on ''{{Cow and Chicken}}'', in which [[ButtMonkey I.R. Baboon]] managed to publish a book that apparently turns everyone who reads it into complete and utter idiots. Lamenting on this turn of events, I.M. Weasel decides to expose himself to the "stupid powers"... but remains unaffected. He eventually realizes that everyone around him was already a stupid twit and he just didn't notice it.

* In the game ''{{Psychonauts}}'' using super-powerful sneezing powder to make people ''literally sneeze their brains out'' results in the person turning into a listless zombie obsessed with television (and hacky-sack, for some reason).

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* Ethyl alcohol.

** Drinking green, radiated rocks from outer space in liquid form is even worse. And don't forget this IS the guy who had cancer because he wore a Kryptonite ring all the time.

*** No I...doesn't.

When someone's using this as a weapon, it's a type of IdiotCannonball.

* In ''SuperMarioBrothers'' #5 (from ValiantComics), King Koopa's (full name "Bowser Koopa") science team comes up with "the Stoopid Bomb." The King of the Mushroom Kingdom, being an idiot, is unaffected, but everyone else becomes foolish, including King Koopa's own troops, as the bombs are on a hair trigger and keep getting dropped. There are also antidote Smart Bombs, but they are all used on one Shyguy, who becomes a genius and temporarily wrests control from Koopa. Too bad he's now the OnlySaneMan.

** It might have been the same episode, but this is also inverted when [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Sheen]] puts on the helmet...and develops [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]], [[AGodAmI a god complex]], and a [[MyBrainIsBig a really big head]].

* Used seriously as a main plot point of an entire arc in ''{{Perry Rhodan}}'', when extragalactic invaders did this to the ''entire Milky Way Galaxy''. Some rare few people were immune (including most of the protagonists), but civilization basically broke down right then and there because those few were usually too busy trying to keep all the morons in check and from accidentally killing themselves and each other to keep things running on the necessary scale, let alone go after the actual threat; the need to figure out what was going on and find a countermeasure drove much of the early plot. (The scale of the event was later [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that the so-called 'Swarm' was revealed to have been built by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens and actually intended to help spread ''intelligence'' on a cosmic scale. It just eventually got hijacked by ambitious underlings who basically [[ReverseThePolarity Reversed The Polarity]].)

* The end of the {{President Evil}} arc in the {{DCU}} explained Lex Luthor's blaming {{Superman}} for a kryptonite meteor heading for Earth , putting on {{Powered Armor}}, and ranting madly on national TV, by him having injected himself with a mind-altering mixture of Bane's Venom formula and liquid kryptonite. Why he decided he needed some pretty low level {{Super Strength}} despite being the President of the United States is definitely {{Plot Induced Stupidity}} though. Damn you Loeb.
** Drinking green, radiated rocks from outter space in liquid form is even worse. And don't forget this IS the guy who had cancer because he wore a Kryptonite ring all the time.

* In the ''PenguinsOfMadagascar'' episode "Sting Operation," the penguins use one of Kowalski's inventions to make themselves stupid [[spoiler: so that they can't feel the hornet's stings.]]

* An example where the change is permanent, the Stephen King short story ''The End of the Whole Mess'', was about some Phlebotinum applied to the world's water supply in order to make everyone less aggressive. It worked, but it caused the end of the world anyway, because a side-effect was rapid onset dementia/Alzheimer's.

* In one episode of SonicTheHedgehog, Dr. Robotnik accidentally takes a Stupid Pill instead of a Smart Pill.

* Played with in an ''I.M Weasel'' Short on {{Cow And Chicken}}, in which [[ButtMonkey I.R. Baboon]] managed to publish a book that apparently turns everyone who reads it into complete and utter idiots. Lamenting on this turn of events, I.M. Weasel decides to expose himself to the "stupid powers"... but remains unaffected. He eventually realizes that everyone around him was already a stupid twit and he just didn't notice it.
* LiloAndStitchTheSeries has Experiment 319, named Spike, who can spray spikes that raises peoples' sillines by 99%, leaving them only 1% clever.
* In the "Penguins of Madagascar" episode "Sting Operation," the penguins use one of Kowalski's inventions to make themselves stupid [[spoiler: so that they can't feel the hornet's stings.]]

* The novel ''Bimbos of the Death Sun'' is centered around the author of a [[ShowWithinAShow novel within a novel]] with the same name, whose basic premise involves solar radiation making women lose intelligence. Despite what it sounds like, he wasn't doing it to be chauvinistic.

* "Bimbo Rays" are popular in certain kinds of fetish fiction. OrSoIHeard.

* In Robert Forward's ''Rocheworld,'' the ship's crew are given a drug (NoDie) that greatly extends their lifespans at the expense of making them stupid.

* Used seriously as a main plot point of an entire arc in ''{{Perry Rhodan}}'', when extragalactic invaders did this to the ''entire Milky Way Galaxy''. Some rare few people were immune (including most of the protagonists), but civilization basically broke down right then and there because those few were usually too busy trying to keep all the morons in check and from accidentally killing themselves and each other to keep things running on the necessary scale, let alone go after the actual threat; the need to figure out what was going on and find a countermeasure drove much of the early plot. (The scale of the event was later [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that the so-called 'swarm' was revealed to have been built by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens and actually intended to help spread ''intelligence'' on a cosmic scale. It just eventually got hijacked by ambitious underlings who basically [[ReverseThePolarity Reversed The Polarity]].)