History Main / PhlebotinumInducedStupidity

[[caption-width-right:234:[[OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope WARNING]]: Prolonged exposure can cause [[WhatAnIdiot severely reduced intelligence]], [[NoSocialSkills complete social ineptitude]], \\
[[TooDumbToLive and most likely]] [[BreadEggsMilkSquick death]].]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{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).

** The Confusion power is a psychic ability that induces confusion on others. This manifests in the form of a question mark, the dot used like a grenade, creating a temporary cloud of green smoke. Enemies hit with it attack other enemies, [=NPCs=] give disoriented dialogue, and if Raz is affected by an enemy's Confusion gas, the screen becomes blurry and the controls are reversed.

** The trope is also inverted in the case of Ford Cruller, who (due to a crippling psychic battle) is schizophrenic and amnesic when he's ''not'' near the [[GreenRocks Psitanium]] deposit.

* Website/SCPFoundation: [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-714 SCP-714]] is a ring that, among other symptoms, reduces the wearer's mental capacity, [[OneCurseLimit but also makes them resistant to other forms of mental manipulation]].

* Maul of the comic book ''ComicBook/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.

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* The ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' comic had an experimental weapon named "the Stupid Gun." It fell into the wrong hands--HilarityEnsues.

* In the utterly depressing [[AlternateUniverse alternate]] Franchise/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.

** 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 ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun'' 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; as a side effect, it also make women world-wide lose intelligence. Despite what it sounds like, he wasn't doing it to [[AuthorTract make any kind of social point or be chauvinistic]] -- the idea was simply based off of the fact that some diseases are linked to sex.

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

* ''Series/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!"

* In ''ComicStrip/TomTheDancingBug'', [[http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2013/06/13 "Flowers for Trinitron"]] uses this trope to create FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome. A television causes stupidity. A man is watching ''Series/NYPDBlue'' when the cable goes out. The man, cut from TV, becomes gradually smarter over the next six days. He reads ''Literature/EastOfEden'', volunteers at a homeless shelter, and shifts his handwriting from print to cursive. He is about to destroy his TV, when the cable comes back and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' comes on. The man soon reverts to stupidity.

** It also occurred 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.

* In ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', [[spoiler:Danette appears to be TheDitz for much of the game, but it turns out that the block on her memories is to blame. When it's finally removed, she's only a little bit ditzy.]]
* ''Franchise/MassEffect''
** [[MechanicalAbomination Reaper]] [[MindRape Indoctrination]] is initially a form of mind control that subtly compels afflicted individuals to follow the Reaper's commands, often encouraging them to view it with superstitious awe in the process. However, the more control the Reaper can exert over a victim, the more mental damage they sustain until they are no longer capable of independent thought; when the Reapers' harvest is over, the organic servants they leave in their wake are so blighted by this process that they ultimately starve to death or die of exposure, [[TooDumbToLive lacking even the instincts to care for themselves]].
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Jacob Taylor's loyalty mission takes you to the planet Aeia in search of his father, Ronald, who'd crashed there eight years ago. As it turns out, Aeia's native vegetation causes neural decay when ingested, gradually reducing cognitive function, and while most end up docile and childlike, a few become violent. [[spoiler: It turns out that Ronald Taylor exploited this by forcing his surviving crew to eat the toxic food while bagsying the ships' rations for himself, allowing him to reduce the female crew to [[SexSlave his personal harem]] and set himself up as a god.]] Fortunately, recovery appears possible once the victims have been weaned off the toxic food.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E7TheDayTheEarthStoodStupid The Day the Earth Stood Stupid]]", Fry is the only one immune to the giant brains' stupefying effect due to a deformity in his brainwaves caused by his... [[MyOwnGrampa unique ancestry]]. In practice, this basically means he's already so stupid that the brains can't make him any stupider.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'', Craniac 3 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 ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' had Dr. Drakken using "silly hats" to reduce the world's leading scientists to blithering idiots.

* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' Jimmy has a brief bout of FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome and builds a "brain drain" helmet to lower his intelligence to that of an average person, but it accidentally gets cranked up to maximum stupidity without him noticing, and turns him into a total idiot.
* ''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.
** The episode "Salsa Imbecilicus" has Plankton making salsa with Patrick's DNA that makes almost everyone in Bikini Bottom as dumb as Patrick, Plankton himself included.
* 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.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' had a power amplifier that "radiated pure stupid" when [[TheDitz GIR]] hooked himself up to it.
* 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, [[LiteralGenie it just makes everyone twice as stupid as him]].
* ''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."[[note]]Given how long that show has been on the air, he could have been the world's smartest man in season one and still ended up a blithering idiot by the present day at that rate of IQ decay[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' has Experiment 319, named Spike, who can spray spikes that raise people's silliness by 99%, leaving them only 1% clever.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'':
** In the episode "Sting Operation," the penguins use one of Kowalski's inventions to make themselves stupid so that they can't feel the hornets' stings.
** In another episode, Kowalski's attempt to boost his intelligence backfires and makes him stupid instead.
* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'': Susan and Mary Test built an intelligence amplification machine, and Johnny used it to give them an IQ of 22.

* 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.
* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' features the [[StupidityInducingAttack Woozy Shooter]], whose effect consists of creating a mist that makes its targets [[MushroomSamba hallucinate]] and act madly goofy. The Ring of Nine Dragons also has a similar effect as splitting yourself into nine duplicates of yourself only divides your brainpower instead of increasing it.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' has the First One's disk, which is capable of infecting many forms of technology as shown in "System Failure" and "White Out". This includes She-Ra's sword, which causes Adora to act like she's heavily [[DrunkOnMilk drunk]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'': In "Smarter Than the Average Dog", Cat tries to make Dog smarter with educational videotapes. As a result, Dog becomes smarter to the point where [[MyBrainIsBig his brain expands]], while Cat has his intelligence drained and becomes a pinheaded dolt.
-->'''Dumb!Cat:''' You... You d-did this to me, bow-wow person! You made the smart go bye-bye!

* 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 [[UpToEleven even dumber than his brain-drained teammates]].

** The episode "Salsa Imbecilicus" has Plankton making salsa with Patrick's DNA that makes almost everyone in Bikini Bottom as dumb as Patrick, himself included.

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

* ''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/{{Futurama}}'', Fry is the only one immune to the giant brains' stupefying effect due to a deformity in his brainwaves caused by his... [[MyOwnGrampa unique ancestry]]. In practice, this basically means he's already so stupid that the brains can't make him any stupider.

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' features the [[StupidityInducingAttack Woozy Shooter]], whose effect consists of creating a mist that makes its targets [[MushroomSamba hallucinate]] and act madly goofy. The Ring of Nine Dragons also has a similar effect as splitting your into nine duplicates of yourself only divides your brainpower not increase it.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': In "Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!", Black Heron builds an intelligence-draining ray that she plans to use on Scrooge. Steelbeak ends up [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard using it on her]] after she presses his BerserkButton one too many times, then later plans to make Duckburg literally TooDumbToLive. It also has a reverse setting.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog,'' Dr. Robotnik accidentally takes a stupid pill instead of a smart pill. In another episode he invents a ray that does this.

* ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'': In "Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!", Black Heron builds an intelligence-draining ray that she plans to use on Scrooge. Steelbeak ends up [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard using it on her]] after she presses his BerserkButton one too many times, then later plans to make Duckburg literally TooDumbToLive. It also has a reverse setting.

* One of the Vahki models in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' had the ability to temporarily overwrite a Matoran's conciousness and turn them into a mindless "shambler" incapable of rational thought.

* In the game ''VideoGame/{{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).

** The Confusion power is a psychic ability that induces confusion on others. This manifests in the form of a question mark, the dot used like a grenade, creating a temporary cloud of green smoke. Enemies hit with it attack other enemies, [=NPCs=] give disoriented dialogue, and if Raz is effected by an enemy's Confusion gas, the screen becomes blurry and the controls are reversed.

* ''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."

* An example where the change is permanent, the Creator/StephenKing short story ''[[Literature/NightmaresAndDreamScapes 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.

** The Confusion power is a psychic ability that induces confusion on others. This manifests in the form of a question mark, the dot used like a grenade, creating a temporary cloud of green smoke. Enemies hit with it attack other enemies, NPCs give disoriented dialogue, and if Raz is effected by an enemy's Confusion gas, the screen becomes blurry and the controls are reversed.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

** The above gets some possibly unintentional FridgeBrilliance from the fact that ''before'' Luthor's total breakdown, in ''Adventures of Superman'' #600, he had a brief period of amnesia during which he became a radical anti-corporate villain, in essence the opposite of regular-Luthor. During this story he called himself ... Alex.
* 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.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'': The Organization put a chemical in Jules's blonde hair dye that makes her [[DumbBlonde behave more stupid and slutty]] than she really is, as they force the various occupants of the cabin to fill their typical SlasherMovie roles. Jules is actually pretty intelligent, being pre-med.