History Main / SimpleMindedWisdom

* Obelix in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}''. He's a bit socially awkward and only seems to have a vague idea what's going on most of the time, but because of this is able to see contradictions and strangeness in cultural behavior everyone else sees as being normal. His CatchPhrase -- "these Romans are crazy" -- represents this about half of the time (the other half of the time, he is just mistaken about what the Romans are thinking).

See also: AchievementsInIgnorance, TooDumbToFool, WhoopiEpiphanySpeech, InfallibleBabble, HanlonsRazor, WisdomFromTheGutter. Contrast DitzyGenius, which is in many ways the diametric opposite of this trope, and SeeminglyProfoundFool, in which other characters erroneously read wisdom into the genuinely banal observations of a bona fide fool.

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Journeys: The Series'', Ash's primary distinction from Goh is that he's BookDumb and doesn't know how to use words good, but he still manages to teach Goh things the book-smart boy wouldn't understand otherwise, because he has more life experience.

TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons players will lecture, in great detail, that [[TropesOfWisdom Wisdom]] and [[IntelligenceTropes Intelligence]] are not the same thing.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': During Thanksgiving, Rachel shows interest in Tag, who's just been dumped that morning and is a little upset about having to spend Thanksgiving away from his family at the same time. Rachel asks Joey, Monica, and Phoebe when is the right time to ask someone out after a breakup; Phoebe says 1 month, Monica says 3-4 months, and Joey initially says 30 minutes. Joey adds to his answer by saying she's asking the wrong question because if Tag's already not interested in Rachel then there's no point worrying about the right time to ask him out. Rachel is baffled by this argument and surprised that this makes sense, whereas Monica dismisses it and says that Rachel should be more empathetic since Tag is obviously upset and needs a friend.

* As mentioned above, ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' can invoke this when a character with low Intelligence has a high Wisdom score. The closest analogue for these stats are IQ vs. EQ, with Intelligence representing things like knowledge, education, and problem-solving while Wisdom is more about empathy, introspection, and the ability to read motivations in others.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': During Thanksgiving, Rachel shows interest in Tag, who's just been dumped that morning, and is a little upset about having to spend Thanksgiving away from his family at the same time. Rachel asks Joey, Monica, and Phoebe when is the right time to ask someone out after a breakup; Phoebe says 1 month, Monica says 3-4 months, and Joey initially says 30 minutes. Joey adds to his answer by saying she's asking the wrong question because if Tag's already not interested in Rachel then there's no point worrying about the right time to ask him out. Rachel is baffled by this argument and surprised that this makes sense, whereas Monica dismisses it and says that Rachel should be more empathetic since Tag is obviously upset and needs a friend.

* Okuyasu Nijimura from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'' is often like this. For example, he convinces himself that Yoshihiro Kira, the ghost Stand user, doesn't actually need to breathe because if he did, in his words, "all the dead people would suck up the air and we'd all suffocate". Even though he's technically correct, he still sounds like he's got rocks in his head.

* ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'': The protagonists, an IdolSinger group secretly made of {{Friendly Zombie}}s, get deep in debt after a failed concert in a large venue. Their manager Kotaro, who has also been the one doing the makeup work that allowed them to leave their mansion while being able to pass for live humans, gets too busy [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] to take care of that task. Soon, the girls, minus the member who failed to recover her full mental capabilities upon revival, are having a meeting to address the growing debt, their lack of money and their depleted food supply. During the discussion, Tae, the aforementionned member with limited mental capabilities, comes in wearing UncannyValleyMakeup, turning out to have gone shopping after stealing Kotaro's savings. This allows the others to realize they can do each other's makeup and find jobs.

* In ''Theater/ErasmusMontanus'', Erasmus' brother Jacob strikes a balance between Erasmus' InsufferableGenius, and the townsfolk's WorkingClassPeopleAreMorons by maybe not having the fancy oratory skill or education of his brother, but being clever enough to recognize when you should stick to your principle and when you should go with the flow.

** This is one of Captain Carrot's defining traits. At the start of the Watch sequence, he really is naive to the ways of the city, arresting the head of the thieves' guild for thievery and not recognizing that his boarding house is actually a ''brothel'', but he also takes literally Vimes' order to [[spoiler:"throw the book at [Wonse]", while Wonse is at the edge of a three-story drop]]. As the books progress he wises up, but continues to act in a very simple matter. To free a golem, he puts its receipt of sale in its head, to stop a war, he suggests arresting the armies for breach of the peace. And it all works.

** This trope shows up in ''Literature/TheHobbit'' as well. Thorin Oakenshield remarks that Bilbo has "some wisdom and some courage, in equal measure." Thorin goes on to say this about hobbits and their Arcadian lifestyle as a whole, remarking that "if more of us valued food and cheer and song over hoarded gold, this world would be a merrier place."

* Okuyasu Nijimura from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'' is often like this. For example, he convinces himself that Yoshihiro Kira, the ghost Stand user, doesn't actually need to breathe because if he did, in his words, "all the dead people would suck up the air and we'd all suffocate". Well, he's technically correct, right?

* ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'': The protagonists, an IdolSinger group made of {{Friendly Zombie}}s, gets deep in debt after a failed concert in large venue. Their manager Kotaro, who has also been the one doing the makeup work that allowed them to leave their mansion while being able to pass for live humans, gets too busy [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] to take care of that task. Soon, the girls, minus the member who failed to recover her full mental capabilities upon revival, are having a meeting to address the growing debt, their lack of money and their depleted food supply. During the discussion, Tae, the aforementionned member with limited mental capabilities, comes in wearing UncannyValleyMakeup, turning out to have gone shopping after stealing Kotaro's savings. This allows the other to realize they can do each other's makeup and find jobs.

* ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'': The protagonists, an IdolSinger group made of {{Friendly Zombie}}s, gets deep in debt after a failed concert in large venue. Their manager Kotaro, who has also been the one doing the makeup work that allowed them to leave their mansion while being able to pass for live humans, gets too busy [[DrowiningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] to take care of that task. Soon, the girls, minus the member who failed to recover her full mental capabilities upon revival, are having a meeting to address the growing debt, their lack of money and their depleted food supply. During the discussion, Tae, the aforementionned member with limited mental capabilities, comes in wearing UncannyValleyMakeup, turning out to have gone shopping after stealing Kotaro's savings. This allows the other to realize they can do each other's makeup and find jobs.

* ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'': The protagonists, an IdolSinger group made of {{Friendly Zombie}}s, gets deep in debt after a failed concert in large venue. Their manager Kotaro, who has also been the one doing the makeup work that allowed them to leave their mansion while being able to pass of human, gets too busy [[DrowiningMySorrow drowning his sorrows]] to take care of that task. Soon the girls, minus the member who failed to recover her full mental capabilities upon revival, are having a meeting to address the growing debt, their lack of money and their depleted food supply. During the discussion, Tae, the aforementionned member with limited mental capabilities, comes in wearing UncannyValleyMakeup, turning out to have gone shopping after stealing Kotaro's savings. This allows the other to realize they can do each other's makeup and find jobs.