History Main / PingPongNaivete

** And it even happens to House himself. He's deeply cynical about the state of things most of the time but when it comes to dealing with [[StockholmSyndrome a hostage-taker with a gun]], [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney Vogler]], [[DisproportionateRetribution Tritter]], [[NewOldFlame Stacy]], and sometimes problems with [[HoYay Wilson]] and [[SlapSlapKiss Cuddy]], he's naïve and mainly likes to keep his head stuck in denial-land.

** The Twelfth Doctor is even more socially alien than the Eleventh and has so little regard for social mores that he steals clothes from tramps, has no understanding of what makes people look different from each other, doesn't understand dating, thinks he is unrecognizable if he changes his coat, writes on walls and doesn't understand why putting a sign on his door reading 'GO AWAY HUMANS' is a bad idea. Occasionally, though, he's able to be incredibly socially manipulative - see [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E5TimeHeist "Time Heist",]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon "Kill the Moon",]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E2IntoTheDalek "Into the Dalek"]] for him forming subtle plans around reading other people.

* Adrian Series/{{Monk}} is, for example, still convinced that his college roommate's girlfriend was helping him organize whenever there was a tie on the door, or similar things [[RuleOfFunny whenever it's funny]], but always becomes an expert on human behavior just in time for TheSummation.

* Cloud Strife in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' is presented as being clueless around women, spending a whole dungeon struggling to negotiate a hi-five with Aerith and hurting Tifa while trying to hug her. However, upon entering Wall Market, he's accosted by a barker who tries to get Cloud and Aerith to book a room in a shifty love hotel, to which Cloud can answer "How much?" (resulting in Aerith scolding him). He's clueless about all the adult things going on in Wall Market on his night out with Johnny but is clearly turned on by Madam M's luxury massage, confidently telling her "no" when she asks if it hurts.

!!!'''In General:'''
* This trope is very common in {{Edutainment Show}}s, especially those that are either LongRunners, aimed at preschoolers, or sometimes both. Often, a series' characters will forget lessons they've learned in the past so that they can be taught to a new audience.

* Starfire from the animated version of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''. On occasion, it seems like she's learning and adapting to Earth culture, only to be as naïve as ever about it the next episode.
** Hilariously played with in one episode with a blatant example of ObfuscatingStupidity:
--> '''Robin''': "Starfire...where's the sofa?"
--> '''Starfire''': "Your Earth ways are strange to me. Please, what is this 'so-fa' of which you speak?"

** Putting Mr. X part of their team wasn't exactly her fault, since at that time, they ''didn't know'' who Mr. X was. And as noted above, it happens much less later on in the manga, with Nao actually pulling off some of her own tricks.

* Atsushi Arisawa from ''Manga/BadTeachersEquation'' is a GeniusDitz who consistently gets some of the best grades ''in the country'', was invited to an elite highschool in Tokyo ''without'' an entrance exam and who sometimes has enough insight on other people's relationships to identify core problems and underlying psychologies that no one else sees. Unfortunately, he has no idea that he's actually that smart, goes to a highschool for delinquents, doesn't see why he was invited to an elite highschool in the first place, completely misses the [[ObliviousToLove most obvious aspects of most people's relationships,]] and has the surface mentality and naïveté of a small child on a sugar high! Yes, this is very frustrating!
* Sakura Kinomoto from ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', who manages to capture Clow Cards using her brain and ingenuity but [[ObliviousToLove remain oblivious about people's affection to her.]]
* Tsukasa, the initial BigBad of ''Manga/DrStone'', is a GeniusBruiser who, while not as knowledgeable as ScienceHero Senku, is GenreSavvy enough not to underestimate Senku and smart enough to have an idea of what his enemy is likely to be up to. When it comes to his own followers, however, he seems to blinded by his [[WellIntentionedExtremist idealism]] into thinking that everyone who serves under him shares his ideals and morality. As a result, he doesn't realize how many of them are subverting his agenda, either through their own ruthlessness and deception or by converting to Senku's side. [[spoiler:This bites him ''hard'' when his [[TheDragon second-in-command,]] Hyoga, turns out to have just been biding his time for the opportunity to overthrow him as [[EvilerThanThou the primary antagonist.]]]]

* Max from ''ComicBook/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice''. Sometimes, he's making lewd sexual come-ons and innuendo about sadomasochism, masturbation and drug use. At other times, he's a childlike ChasteHero who doesn't even understand the biological differences between men and women. It's lampshaded in his ImageSong in the Telltale games, which flat-out calls him "a sandwich of naïveté and cynicism". This tendency gets lampshaded every so often, when Max will ask when he can find nubile young women, and Sam will say, "Max, you don't even like girls." Also, as the trope description indicates, ''Franchise/SamAndMax'' has quite a bit of NegativeContinuity going, to the point that Sam and Max will sometimes mix up each other's names.

* ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'': Filemón can either be the StraightMan with much more common sense than Mortadelo or just as big as an idiot as him (usually when the boss is present and both of them do something to anger him).

* This is a distinct problem in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' stories when authors try to balance Naruto's origins as an IdiotHero with him naturally becoming wiser and more well informed as time goes on. In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5012103/1/That-Look That Look,]]'' Naruto ping-pongs from coming up with clever strategies and surprising insight to needing to be told why a reservoir holding seventy percent of Suna's water is a prime target, despite knowing Suna is in the middle of a desert.

* Summer Roberts from ''Series/TheOC'' swings wildly back and forth between being a clueless, uniformed airhead and a savvy student who aced her SAT scores and got into Brown.

* In ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', the aliens' knowledge of Earth. One particular example is a second-season episode in which it's mentioned that Sally is going bowling. A fourth-season episode had her going bowling for the first time and not even knowing what it was. For the first two seasons, the Solomons were terrified of Jell-O (thinking it was a dangerous alien entity) yet in a first-season episode Sally mentions making "Jell-O with cheese.

** And it even happens to House himself. He's deeply cynical about the state of things most of the time but when it comes to dealing with a [[StockholmSyndrome hostage-taker with a gun,]] [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney Vogler,]] [[DisproportionateRetribution Tritter,]] [[NewOldFlame Stacy]] and sometimes problems with [[HoYay Wilson]] and [[SlapSlapKiss Cuddy,]] he's naïve and mainly likes to keep his head stuck in denial-land.
* Played for laughs, a lot, with Liz Lemon on ''Series/ThirtyRock''. She's the head writer for a comedy show that mocks pop culture in one scene, and then she'll pull out archaic slang like "discotheque" un-ironically in the next.

* The Doctor from ''Series/DoctorWho'', as a character trait. Even the Tenth Doctor, considerably more sexually/romantically inclined than most of them, had moments of being ObliviousToLove [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode (sharing the bed with Martha in "The Shakespeare Code",]] being offered a phone number in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartnersInCrime Partners in Crime").]]

** The Fourth Doctor is known for veering wildly between being quite a sexual character and a very non-sexual one. He has trouble understanding what features are supposed to make women beautiful in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath "City of Death"]] and seems sexually oblivious to the gorgeous, ludicrously underdressed NubileSavage he has following him around for a while, except to remind her that her style of dress is inappropriate on modern-day Earth or Victorian London. Yet he gets dialogue with Romana that is clearly intended to be flirtatious, makes {{double entendre}}s and even blowjob jokes, and sometimes flirts with side characters. Sometimes he treats Sarah Jane very sensually, [[{{UST}} touching her face gently, talking to her in a sultry voice, sniffing her hair while hiding behind her and even spooning her on one occasion]] - wheras at other times he looks at her like a thing. While carrying Eldraad in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E2TheHandOfFear "The Hand of Fear",]] he uses a delicate touch, parts of the action choreographed like a dance, but note how he manhandles Sarah Jane in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace "The Ark in Space"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion "The Android Invasion",]] in a way intended to give the impression he had no understanding of handling women.

** The Twelfth Doctor is even more socially alien than the Eleventh and has so little regard for social mores that he steals clothes from tramps, has no understanding of what makes people look different to each other, doesn't understand dating, thinks he is unrecognizable if he changes his coat, writes on walls and doesn't understand why putting a sign on his door reading 'GO AWAY HUMANS' is a bad idea. Occasionally, though, he's able to be incredibly socially manipulative - see [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E5TimeHeist "Time Heist",]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon "Kill the Moon",]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E2IntoTheDalek "Into the Dalek"]] for him forming subtle plans around reading other people.

* The titular character from ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''. In one episode, he's so oblivious John has to explain to him what a date is, while in another he is able to successfully manipulate another character by appealing to her romantic feelings for him. And then in another episode he correctly deduces that this same character is in love with someone, but is very surprised to find out that it's him.

* In a ''Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV'' {{Mockumentary}} skit about a hospital, the couple who are trying to have a baby are consistently misunderstanding things, but exactly how naïve they are about where babies come from in general is based on RuleOfFunny. The punchline of the entire sketch is their outrage at having what you have to do to get a baby explained to them, but earlier, when a test-tube baby is explained as making a baby in a test-tube, they ask how they'd both fit.

* In ''Series/UnderTheUmbrellaTree'', Gloria, Iggy and Jacob sometimes seem like children no older than six, just learning how to read, write, tell time, and other such things. Yet at other times they belong to sophisticated animal clubs, give speeches, get jobs, or teach classes like adults. Before Holly became their roommate they lived by themselves in their apartment, yet in the present Holly acts as their ParentalSubstitute, paying their rent, doing the laundry and most of the cooking, and not allowing them to use the stove, kitchen knives, or anything else dangerous to children.

* Natalia from ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. She's a bit spoiled, but otherwise elegant and conscious of her responsibilities as a princess. This doesn't stop her from believing every single tall tale that Anise tells her, including the ones about Van's eyebrow powers. Yeah. Eyebrow beams.
* Estelle from ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' is the same. She knows that combat is necessary and feels ACupAngst towards Judith, on other things however, and well...
* Cloud Strife in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' is presented as being clueless around women, spending a whole dungeon struggling to negotiate a hi-five with Aerith and hurting Tifa while trying to hug her. However, upon entering Wall Market, he's accosted by a barker who tries to get Cloud and Aerith to book a room in a shifty love hotel, to which Cloud can answer "How much?" (resulting in Aerith scolding him). He's clueless about all the adult things going on in Wall Market on his night out with Johnny, but is clearly turned on by Madam M's luxury massage, confidently telling her "no" when she asks if it hurts.

* The titular character of ''Webcomic/TheLegendOfMaxx'' occasionally qualifies. He's generally stupid and has a tendency to Main/LeeroyJenkins into everything, but there are times where he proves to be somewhat competent, and he makes very elaborate buildings.
* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' does this with just about all the main characters, with Black Mage being probably the biggest shifter, depending on the needs of the joke. In general, if someone else is being stupid at the moment, Black Mage will be intelligent, rational, and logical, while if most of the other characters are acting smart (especially if one of them is White Mage), he will be a rage-fueled triggerhappy child with a gnat's attention span. Fighter also has moments of his intelligence abruptly pingponging up for a few seconds at a time.

** Lisa switches between world-weary cynicism and childlike naïveté as the plot demands. In one instance, within seconds - she hurls a bucket of red paint at Krusty (who's wearing a coat made from some kind of animal skins), screams "Fur is murder!" then follows it with "When's the Krusty movie coming out?"

* Dexter from ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' had his moments of stupidity. One example is when he thought he was going to die...because he had gas. We're talking about a boy genius that has done everything from go inside his sister's body to traveling to other planets using his inventions.
** To "simulate" the gas buildup in his lab, he used a ''balloon'' to represent himself. In other episodes/shorts, he didn't know what the "strange protrusions" all over his body were (he had the chicken pox) and tried to do a search through the entire animal kingdom for the "species" known as...the ''girl''.

---> '''Zoidberg''' ''(at the wheel):'' "I'll just turn the wheel to maximum fastness!"

** "What's to understand? You get a boner, slap her titties around, stick it inside her and pee."

* Otto and Twister from ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'', with Twister being more the naive one. One particular episode [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this in effect; the gang convince Eddie (Prince of The Netherworld) to skate in his empty pool as long as they keep it to themselves and leave before his parents get home. Twister, for his part, keeps quiet, even when his brother Lars comes to make mischief. Otto on the other hand, kept bragging about it to strangers like it was a party, even to Lars. Reggie's WhatTheHellHero one liner sums it up perfectly.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', the RunningGag of the show (almost OncePerEpisode) is Brainy getting an OffhandBackhand from Helga while stalking her. At the end of ''Helga's love potion'', Helga seems to recognize Brainy's feelings for her and kisses him in the forehead, causing him to faint. However, in ''Helga at the Couch'', Helga seems to forget that when she asks Brainy what his deal is with her, after Brainy gave Helga a toy engagement ring. Brainy seems very confused. Then again, Helga has such self-esteem problems and she is a {{Hypocrite}} so big [[IRejectYourReality that her relationship with reality could be described as "distant"]] and she could be very well [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believing nobody loves her.]]

A character who, due to previous experiences, should know better but doesn't. But later, they display that they do. But then they don't, and so on, and so forth.

* This is a distinct problem in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' stories when authors try to balance Naruto's origins as an IdiotHero with him naturally becoming wiser and more well informed as time goes on. In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5012103/1/That-Look That Look]]'', Naruto ping-pongs from coming up with clever strategies and surprising insight to needing to be told why a reservoir holding seventy percent of Suna's water is a prime target, despite knowing Suna is in the middle of a desert.

* Vala Mal Doran's knowledge of popular culture in ''Series/StargateSG1'' is inconsistent in the first few episodes of season 10.

". Dick is sometimes supremely sarcastic, but at other times he doesn't seem to be able to recognize sarcasm and interprets everything literally. A particularly severe example is the episode when, very late in the show's run, and after hundreds of scenes in restaurants, the aliens finally figure out what "tipping" is.

* Grace from ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', even though she's smart and learns quickly. In part because she was raised by mad scientists and so has NoSocialSkills and remains {{facepalm}}ingly [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-12-01 naïve in some areas,]] in part because [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-07-26 she thinks]] messing with people is funny -- and it's not quite clear which case is which. One side of this was her smooth transition from InnocentFanserviceGirl to TheTease playing InnocentFanserviceGirl for her boyfriend. That said, when she's naïve, she's REALLY naïve. A big part of her storyline is [[spoiler: letting a Hitler expy escape, although he ends up dead anyway. When she later learns about UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 and what she almost allowed to happen, it nearly breaks her.]]

* In WesternAnimation/HeyArnold, The RunningGag of the show (almost OncePerEpisode) is Brainy getting an OffhandBackhand from Helga while stalking her. At the end of ''Helga's love potion'', Helga seems to recognize Brainy's feeling for her and kiss him in the forehead, causing him to faint. However, at ''Helga at the couch'', she seems to forget that when Helga asks Brainy what is his deal with her after Brainy gaves Helga a toy engagement ring. Brainy seems very confused. Then again, Helga has such self-steem problems and she is a {{Hypocrite}} so big [[IRejectYourReality that his relationship with reality could be described as "distant"]] and she could be very well [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believing nobody loves her.]]

* After Wrestling/BookerT became "King Booker" in June of 2006, he not only started acting like an UpperClassTwit but apparently underwent a personality disorder of some sort that caused him to forget everything he had experienced as Booker T. When he saw Wrestling/{{Edge}} backstage, for instance, he would demand to know who he was - despite having bitterly feuded with Edge just a few years earlier. At other times, however, the old Booker T persona would reemerge and he'd once again speak in his stereotypical [[JiveTurkey "Harlem"]] accent.

* Atsushi Arisawa from ''Manga/KusattaKyoushiNoHouteishiki'' is a GeniusDitz who consistently gets some of the best grades ''in the country'', was invited to an elite highschool in Tokyo ''without'' an entrance exam and who sometimes has enough insight on other people's relationships to identify core problems and underlying psychologies that no one else sees. Unfortunately, he has no idea that he's actually that smart, goes to a highschool for delinquents, doesn't see why he was invited to an elite highschool in the first place, completely misses the [[ObliviousToLove most obvious aspects of most people's relationships,]] and has the surface mentality and naïveté of a small child on a sugar high! Yes, this is very frustrating!

** DependingOnTheWriter, Kaeloo may be an innocent girl or a CovertPervert. For example, when Mr. Cat uses [[UnusualEuphemism Unusual Euphemisms]] to imply that he wants to have sex with her, she doesn't get it, but she has also flirted with him in extremely suggestive ways before and once even tried to convince ''him' to have sex with ''her''.

** It's heavily implied that he's being deliberately obtuse about the date in question. And understanding sexual attraction is a bit different than understanding unrequited affection.

A character who, due to previous experiences, should know better but doesn't. But later, he displays that he does. But then he doesn't, and so on, and so forth.

** "Scott Tenorman Must Die" - Cartman knows what pubes are, but not that you're supposed to grow them yourself (instead of purchasing them) and gets tricked into giving Scott Tenorman money and travelling to the "Pube Fair" but is able to get revenge by tricking Scott Tenorman into [[DisproportionateRetribution getting his parents killed and then making him them.]]

** Depending on the episode, Kaeloo may be an innocent girl or a CovertPervert. For example, when Mr. Cat uses [[UnusualEuphemism Unusual Euphemisms]] to imply that he wants to have sex with her, she doesn't get it, but she has also flirted with him in extremely suggestive ways before and once even tried to convince ''him' to have sex with ''her''.

* ''Series/MorkAndMindy'': In another alien example: Mork. One moment he mentions he still doesn't know where babies come from, the next he's making subtle sexual innuendos. This is probably the result of Creator/RobinWilliams sticking to the script half the time and GettingCrapPastTheRadar for the other half. It got particularly bad in the second season when [[ExecutiveMeddling ABC wanted Mork to become more "hip".]]

** The Fourth Doctor is known for veering wildly between being quite a sexual character and a very non-sexual one. He has trouble understanding what features are supposed to make women beautiful in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath "City of Death"]] and seems sexually oblivious to the gorgeous, ludicrously underdressed NubileSavage he has following him around for a while, except to remind her that her style of dress is inappropriate on modern-day Earth or Victorian London. Yet he gets dialogue with Romana that is clearly intended to be flirtatious, makes [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar double-entendres and even blowjob jokes,]] and sometimes flirts with side characters. Sometimes he treats Sarah Jane very sensually, [[{{UST}} touching her face gently, talking to her in a sultry voice, sniffing her hair while hiding behind her and even spooning her on one occasion]] - wheras at other times he looks at her like a thing. While carrying Eldraad in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E2TheHandOfFear "The Hand of Fear",]] he uses a delicate touch, parts of the action choreographed like a dance, but note how he manhandles Sarah Jane in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace "The Ark in Space"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion "The Android Invasion",]] in a way intended to give the impression he had no understanding of handling women.

-->'''Phineas:''' Perry laid an egg! [[YourTomcatIsPregnant You know what this means, don't you?]] ...[[SubvertedTrope We're gonna have two Perrys!]] Congratulations, old boy! You're gonna be a...[[CatchPhrase Hey, where's Perry?]]