History Main / PhlebotinumInducedStupidity

* In ''SuperMarioBros'' #5 (from Creator/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.

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' features the [[StupidityInducingAttack Woozy Shooter]], whose effect consists of creating a mist that makes its targets [[MushroomSamba hallucinate]] and act madly goofy.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' episode "Enzo the Smart", Enzo messes with the clock speed of Mainframe in an attempt to make himself smarter. He asks it to make him twice as smart as everyone. Instead of making him smarter, [[LireralGenie it just makes everyone twice as stupid as him]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{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 early episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' Jimmy builds a "brain drain" helmet to lower his intelligence to normal levels. Unfortunately, the helmet works a little too well and he becomes a blithering idiot.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' episode "Enzo the Smart", Enzo messes with the clock speed of Mainframe in an attempt to make himself smarter. He asks it to make him twice as smart as everyone. Instead of becoming smarter, everyone else becomes [[LiteralGenie half as intelligent]] as him.

* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' has Experiment 319, named Spike, who can spray spikes that raises peoples' silliness by 99%, leaving them only 1% clever.

** The 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:

** Another ''Buffy'' episode had Ethan Rayne selling chocolate that made people act like particularly irresponsible teenagers. This is notable because "book smarts" weren't affected so much as common sense was. Buffy wound up having to be the responsible, mature one.

Generally played for comedy, with the afflicted people talking in [[SimpletonVoice exaggerated "stupid" dialect]] and making decisions that are a TakeThat against whatever the writers oppose. In almost all cases, the effect hits both "book smarts" and "common sense", even though they're different kinds of intelligence. For extra fun, one character will be functionally immune to the effect due to already being stupid.

** Geoff Johns [[InfiniteCrisis later]] threw in a revelation that Lex's recent bouts of stupidity were caused by the presence of his AlternateUniverse 'counterpart', Alex Luthor Jr. Somehow. [[VoodooShark Even though he is actually]] ''[[VoodooShark the son]]'' [[VoodooShark of his universe's Lex.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/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.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dogstar}}'': In "Mensamania", Fenwick creates a stupidity virus which Bob santino unleashes on Mensa, the most intelligent planet in the galaxy as a test run. If it works there, he intends to use it on Earth to make the population stupid enough to buy his latest product.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'', Beast Boy becomes sick of being the team's idiot, so he steals Raven's spellbook to make himself smarter with magic. When he screws that up, he realizes that to have a similar effect, he can just make everyone else on his team dumber than he is. He succeeds at that, but becomes frustrated with having to take care of four people who are bordering on TooDumbToLive. He decides to fix the dynamic... by making himself even dumber than his brain-drained teammates.

* 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 the first Djinn arc of ''TheWotch'', a wish turns all girls ''except'' blondes into stupid bimbos.

* In ''SuperMarioBros'' #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.

* 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. The ship's AI stops administering the drug when they get to their destination, and their intelligence comes back.

** In the 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.]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* The ''Series/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:

* In ''WesternAnimation/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.]]

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

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/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."
** Pretty much the exact same thing, with different {{phlebotinum}}, happened in TheMovie.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Homer Simpson's stupidity isn't natural: a crayon lodged in his brain takes 50 points away from his previously average IQ.
** 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."

* [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpson's]] stupidity isn't natural: a crayon lodged in his brain takes 50 points away from his previously average IQ.

** I already did!
*** No I'm... doesn't.

* The end of the PresidentEvil arc in the {{DCU}} explained ComicBook/LexLuthor's blaming {{Superman}} for a kryptonite meteor heading for Earth, putting on PoweredArmor, 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 SuperStrength despite being the President of the United States is definitely PlotInducedStupidity though. Damn you Loeb.

* One of the Vahki models in ''{{Bionicle}}'' had the ability to temporarily overwrite a Matoran's conciousness and turn them into a mindless "shambler" incapable of rational thought.
** It also occured to Vezok when he got a LiteralSplitPersonality - the original Vezok lost a few IQ points because the part split off got his ability to think tactically.

* Maul of the comic book ''WildCATS'' 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.

* In ''Series/Stargate Atlantis'' the Wraith serum raises physical abilities but seriously dampens intelligence.