History Main / PlanetOfDunceCaps

Here's a PlanetOfHats in which the hats are on empty heads. This is when an entire species seem to be less than intelligent. If Humans are the idiots, then it's HumansAreMorons. May speak primarily in YouNoTakeCandle.

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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Sillage}}'': A species developed as clone soldiers with minimal intelligence. Even when freed, the one intelligent member of their race says they don't know what to do with themselves.
* The goblins in ''ComicBook/HouseOfMystery'' aren't a bright lot, with [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch one character]] being an exception.
* A strange case in ''[[http://www.maroonedcomic.com/ Marooned]]'' as there is very brilliant species that's brains in robot bodies. They couldn't manage to land their highly advanced ships. When one ship was saved, two of those died by accident while exiting the ship. Out of all the crew in ship, only one survived.
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[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* While not stupid, the little three-eyed Martians from ''Franchise/ToyStory'' seem to be quite gullible.
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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Humans might be considered this if you've seen the movie version of ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. That might be because HumansAreMorons.
* In ''Film/MomAndDadSaveTheWorld'', the inhabitants of the planet Spengo aren't too bright.
* Earth's future in ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}''. Apparently [[HumansAreMorons everyone becomes a moron]].
* The aliens in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' are pretty childlike and innocent.
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[[folder:Literature]]
* The Hork Bajir from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' were designed by the species that created them (to be gardeners of a sort) to be peaceful and not terribly bright. Occasionally one is born with human-level intelligence though.
* In ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber Nine Princes in Amber]]'', Corwin forms an army by recruiting entire species of creatures that are brutish, but a little slow. They also happen to have a predilection toward hero worship. This is all justified by the fact that as a Prince of Amber, Corwin can walk through [[TheMultiverse Shadows]] until he finds one with an ideal species to recruit.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** The Stupid [[LizardFolk Lizard Men]]. That's actually what they're called. They're all called Slime, since they can't remember any other names. As of ''Literature/TheLastHero'' there was believed to be only two left, but over the course of the book there was a battle in which they were both killed. By their own weapons.
** [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Trolls]] are a subversion; in Ankh-Morpork, they all seem to have rocks in their head metaphorically as well as [[SiliconBasedLife literally]] (not that you'd say that to their face) but this is because they come from cold mountains. In optimal temperatures, their brains work fine, sometimes even better than humans'. The trolls that decide to go to Ankh-Morpork ''are'' the smart trolls, they just have trouble functioning in the heat.
* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata'': the Posleen are an incredibly stupid variant of the HordeOfAlienLocusts. This was done in order to make space aliens that can attack but still be defeatable.
* The ogres in ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' are stupid and proud of it.
* ''[[Literature/XWingSeries X-Wing: Wraith Squadron]]'' mentions Agamar, a primarily agricultural planet whose inhabitants are derided as space hicks by the rest of the galaxy. The truth is of course more complicated, but the captain of the Wraiths' carrier, an Agamar native himself, helps drill some of the Wraiths in the stereotype so they can go undercover as a trio of Agamarian tourists looking for "brides." The customs official they deal with is so bewildered by their [[HawaiianShirtedTourist eye-searing outfits]] and [[ComicallySmallBribe attempt at bribery]] ([[FlatWhat "A whole credit."]]) that he waves them through without further incident and doesn't notice he was just dealing with Wedge Antilles, one of the most famous fighter pilots in the galaxy.
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[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* The Ogrons of ''Series/DoctorWho'' are explicitly TooDumbToFool.
* The episode "Samaritan Snare" featured the Pakleds in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. They're a bit of a zig-zagged example, as while they are genuinely stupid, they're still smart enough to go for ObfuscatingStupidity so they could steal technology. Pakleds do show up as non-speaking characters in later episodes, all in positions which would require at least ''some'' basic intelligence (such as mechanics -- the Pakleds in "Snare" had problems with basic maintenance of their ship), it's also likely that the "Snare" group of Pakleds were dumb even by Pakled standards.
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[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Many mookish monsters have their mental stats lowered in this way.
** [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orcs]] has lower Intelligence and Wisdom caps in ''AD&D2'' and penalties to intelligence in 3.5 ''Dungeons & Dragons''.
** LizardFolk, [[OurMinotaursAreDifferent minotaurs]] and most goblinoids has the same or worse hindrances.
** [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogres]] are dumb, but have also [[{{Youkai}} Oni]]-like ogre magi race who tend more toward "devious" and look down on those brutes.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** [[OurOgresAreDifferent Ogryns]], a HumanSubspecies of lumbering, dim-witted {{Heavyworlder}}s. Those who show an "exceptional" level of intelligence (i.e. equivalent to a four-year-old) are surgically enhanced to be marginally smarter. They're called Bone 'Eads and get lumped with ordering their dumber allies around.
** Orks in the same setting (being the comedy relief, they go for TooDumbToLive with great regularity), though they are also brutally cunning on the rare occasion that they aren't cunningly brutal. Orks also produce a BackgroundMagicField that allows their ramshackle, nonsensical technology to function just as well as everyone else's (by way of AchievementsInIgnorance).
* Played for laughs in the ''TabletopGame/{{Toon}}'' supplement ''Tooniversal Tour Guide''. The "Star Toon" setting features the Bozonians, a race of pigeon-people who are so stupid [[AchievementsInIgnorance they can perform seemingly-impossible feats of science and engineering]].
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* Florans from ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' are [[InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien Insufficiently Advanced]] PlantAliens who behave like carnivorous {{Psychopathic Manchild}}ren. The only reason they're able to travel in space is because of a specialized caste of "greenfingers", gifted with human-equal intellect and GreenThumb powers, who salvage and reverse-engineer alien technology. The greenfingers of each floran tribe are frequently described as being the OnlySaneMan, behaving much like beleaguered babysitters overseeing an army of excited toddlers.
* Doogs from ''VideoGame/StarControl3''.
* Ogres, Kobolds, Troggs, and Hobgoblins (aka Oafs) from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. Orcish peons, too, but not higher-ranking types.
** Ogres are an interesting case, as their past, the Gorian Empire was TheMagocracy ruled by powerful sorcerers and rather skilled shipwrights. In addition, Orcs turn out to be descended from them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]
* The Baro from ''Webcomic/{{Marooned}}'' are an odd, TooCleverByHalf example. The [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} smartest race in the universe is the most moronic]].
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Considering each sample of DNA in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'''s Omnitrix represents a species, Rath's race seems to be superstrong, arrogant, and kind of stupid.
* The Jakovasaurs from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (which were an obvious parody of Jar-Jar Binks) are a race of morons.
* The Ogres in ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'' are all pretty dumb, bordering on MinionWithAnFInEvil. The one smart Ogre, Toadwort, is about as tall as a human five-year-old and is routinely abused by his brother Ogres and his boss, TheManBehindTheMonsters, Duke Igthorn.
* In one episode of the ''WesternAnimation/MrBean'' animated series, it's revealed that Mr. Bean is actually from a planet where everyone looks and acts exactly like him.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' is full of dumb aliens, but the Abductors take the cake. The two we meet completely fail at their job, having all of ''one'' specimen in their "collection," and that's only because he's a blob creature with no legs. They mistake both Zim and a gopher for humans and Dib, an actual human, with a weasel; they also run "experiments" on their test subjects by fusing them together...with tape. Oh, and despite being capable of space travel, their method of cloaking their ship turns it into a floating whale and a giant floating baby.
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* While not stupid, the little three-eyed Martians from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' seem to be quite gullible.

** LizardFolk, [[ALoadOfBull Minotaurs]] and most goblinoids has the same or worse hindrances.
** [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogres]] are dumb, but have also [[{{Youkai}} Oni]]-like Ogre Magi race who tend more toward "devious" and look down on those brutes.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''
** [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogryns]], a HumanSubspecies of lumbering, dim-witted {{Heavyworlder}}s. Those who show an "exceptional" level of intelligence (i.e. equivalent to a four-year-old) are surgically enhanced to be marginally smarter. They're called Bone 'Eads and get lumped with ordering their dumber allies around.

* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' is full of dumb aliens, but the Abductors take the cake. The two we meet completely fail at their job, having all of ''one'' specimen in their "collection," and that's only because he's a blog creature with no legs. They mistake both Zim and a gopher for humans and Dib, an actual human, with a weasel; they also run "experiments" on their test subjects by fusing them together...with tape. Oh, and despite being capable of space travel, their method of cloaking their ship turns it into a floating whale and a giant floating baby.

* A strange case in ''[[http://www.maroonedcomic.com/ Marooned]]'' as there is very brilliant species thats brains in robot bodies. They couldn't manage to land their highly advanced ships. When one ship was saved, two of those died by accident while exiting the ship. Out of all the crew in ship, only one survived.

* While not stupid, the little three-eyed martians from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' seem to be quite gullible.

** [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogryns]]: those who show an exceptional level of intelligence (something like a four-year-old's) are surgically enhanced to be marginally smarter. They're called Bone 'Eads and get lumped with ordering their dumber allies around. They all still come across as {{Psychopathic Manchild}}ren though.
** Orks in the same setting (being the comedy relief, they go for TooDumbToLive with great regularity), though they are also brutally cunning on the rare occasion that they aren't cunningly brutal.