History Main / StupidityInducingAttack

** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' has a special rule called "Stupidity" which causes you to have to take an LD test or just wander forward. Several armies have magic weapons (such as the Wood Elf "Dragontooth Arrows") or abilities that cause a wounded model to be subject to the special rule, playing this trope literally. On the other hand, since it's on a model-by-model basis, and most models only have 1 wound, it's usually a wasted effort, but hey. Also, a high-level "metal" spell [[TakenForGranite turns an enemy into gold statues]], inducing Stupidity on nearby units through GoldFever.

* The Stand "Jail House Lock" from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'' reconstructs this trope; while active, it's victims can only remember three things at a time.

* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' has a unique monster called the Lethe Wywern, named so because its poison destroys a part of its prey's memory. After several bites, the victim forgets how to run or fight and becomes an easy meal. In gameplay, critical hits from the wyvern permanently reduce the victim's Intelligence stat. Additionally, there's a bottle of wyvern's poison in a zoological museum in Tarant; drinking it also will reduce Intelligence, though anyone who does so [[TooDumbToLive probadbly didn't have much of it to begin with]].

* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros'', Koopa uses the tactic to [[HollywoodEvolution de-evolve]] his opposition into mindless Goombas.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Post-VillainousBreakdown, Zola [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110103 announces her intent]] to administer a... rather crude version to Tarvek. Specifically, coring out his brain with a sword in order to make him her 'zombie slave'. In her defense, she was [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItMakesSenseInContext incredibly high]] when she came up with the idea.

This trope can take many forms. It can be temporary or permanent. It can be achieved through magic, surgery, or weaponised PhlebotinumInducedStupidity. It can have any number of degrees of severity, ranging from simply taking the edge off the victim's reasoning to full-on infantilisation or even reducing them to a drooling vegetable. Finally, depending on the work's tone, it can either be PlayedForLaughs or be a potent source of NightmareFuel.

* The first protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/EpithetErased'', Molly, can do this to people with a touch thanks to her Epithet "Dumb". Since she has no interest in fighting and mainly uses Dumb for defense or stealth, this actually seems to be her ''only'' form of attack.

* The protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/EpithetErased'', Molly, can do this to anyone she wants thanks to her Epithet "Dumb".

* Appears twice in ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''. In "Grounder the Genius", Hacker creates a "Stupid Chip" as a decoy for the one with the Super Genius Program he stole from Robotnik. When Robotnik thinks he's recovered the Genius Chip, he ends up using the Stupid Chip on himself, with predictable results. Another episode had Robotnik inventing a Stupid Ray, which became the episode's MacGuffin: a crazed general thinks he can use it to make an army of brainwashed soldiers, and [[HonestJohnsDealership sleazy salesman Wes Weasley]] figures it will make it easier to sell people his worthless junk.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' once included a device called the 'Stupid Gun' designed to do this. [[HilarityEnsues Predictably, it fell into precisely the wrong hands]].

** The spell Ray of Idiocy, which reduces the target's Intelligence by 1d4+1, [[LethalJokeItem can be hilariously broken if you know how to use it]]. How? Well, having a 0 in any stat is debilitating; 0 Intelligence causes a coma. Now, all animals have Intelligence 2 or less, and many magical beasts aren't much brighter. Thus, this spell can one-shot anything from a housecat to the Tarrasque.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' uses this on himself as the entire basis of one episode, when he decides to be less of a genius. In the third ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTimmyPowerHour'' the enemy gets the edge by robbing Jimmy of his genius intelligence (and Timmy of his fairies). He wasn't as stupid as in the other example, but aside from his lack of scientific know-how he also acted much [[TheDitz ditzier]] than usual, forgetting common words and such.

Contrast IdiotBall, PlotInducedStupidity, and TookALevelInDumbass, where it's the ''writer'' dumbing down their characters. Compare PhlebotinumInducedStupidity, which is often unintentional and possibly either self-inflicted or the result of some environmental effect, as well as BroughtDownToNormal or {{Depower}}, an event with a similar purpose used to strip away someone's physical or supernatural abilities. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] BrainDrain, which is about making a company or organization dumber by stealing away talented employees.

* In ''The Amtrak Wars'', Mr Snow does this to the commander of a wagon-train so he makes a tactical error by driving it into a gully where it can be ambushed.

* In Paula Volsky's ''The Sorcerer's Wife,'' the great sorcerer, Lord Terrs Val Grizhni, is finally [[spoiler:defeated by his archenemy]]. The [[spoiler:archenemy]], enjoying what he thinks is his moment of triumph, opens a casket belonging to [spoiler: Grizhni]], which releases a spell that results in him being brain-damaged, terrified, and unable to speak, for the rest of his life.

* WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' uses this on himself as the entire basis of one episode, when he decides to be less of a genius. In the third ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTimmyPowerHour'' the enemy gets the edge by robbing Jimmy of his genius intelligence (and Timmy of his fairies). He wasn't as stupid as in the other example, but aside from his lack of scientific know-how he also acted much [[TheDitz ditzier]] than usual, forgetting common words and such.

* In ''Webcomic/DubiousCompany'', one of [[MarySue Marty]] [[ParodySue Stu's]] nebulously defined superpowers is being so handsome that nearly all women completely lose common sense in his presence.

* JimmyNeutron uses this on himself as the entire basis of one episode, when he decides to be less of a genius. In the third ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTimmyPowerHour'' the enemy gets the edge by robbing Jimmy of his genius intelligence (and Timmy of his fairies). He wasn't as stupid as in the other example, but aside from his lack of scientific know-how he also acted much [[TheDitz ditzier]] than usual, forgetting common words and such.

In short, a weaponized IdiotBall.

* One Franchise/SuperMarioBros story from Creator/ValiantComics involved a new weapon from King Koopa- the Stoopid Bomb, a hair-trigger explosive that can make anyone (Except King Toadstool) mind-numbingly dumb. There's also the Smart Bomb developed to counter the Stoopid Bomb's effects, though they all get used up on one Snifit. By the end of the story, everyone, including Koopa's army, are rendered idiots, and the now-genius snifit's attempts to take over are ignored.

* A medical lobotomy is used for this purpose in ''Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'' to get rid of a particularly troublesome patient -- [[spoiler:the protagonist, in fact]].
* Likewise, the impending use of a lobotomy to achieve this end hangs over Baby Doll's head throughout most of ''Film/SuckerPunch''. The original purpose is to make it impossible for her to give testimony about her stepfather's crimes, though, rather than to make her stop causing trouble in the institution.
* In ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', Dave Bowman pulls a rare lethal version on the [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue computer]] HAL 9000, removing its memory modules until its "brain" shuts down. Despite the machine being a clear antagonist, the sequence is remarkably upsetting.

* Used as a main plot point of an entire arc in ''Literature/PerryRhodan'', when extragalactic invaders did this to the ''entire Milky Way Galaxy''. Some rare few people were immune (including most of the protagonists), but civilization basically broke down right then and there because those few were usually too busy trying to keep all the morons in check and from accidentally killing themselves and each other to keep things running on the necessary scale, let alone go after the actual threat; the need to figure out what was going on and find a countermeasure drove much of the early plot. (The scale of the event was later {{justified|Trope}} in that the so-called 'Cosmic Swarms' were revealed to have been created by {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s with the intent to help spread ''intelligence'' on a cosmic scale. This particular one had simply been hijacked by ambitious underlings who decided to ReversePolarity...)

* Discussed in Creator/IsaacAsimov's first novel, ''Pebble in the Sky'', which revolves around an intelligence-enhancing UpgradeArtifact. At a point, the villain threatens to ReversePolarity and use the machine to reduce the heroes to vegetables.

** Also, the BadFuture shown in the two Epitaph episodes is the result of this being done on a massive scale. By "massive scale", we mean somewhere around 80-90% of the world's population having their minds wiped in a single instant and then being reprogrammed to mercilessly hunt down and murder anybody that wasn't wiped.

* ''VideoGame/NetHack'''s Mind Flayers have an attack that reduces intelligence. They can also cause amnesia, making you forget which of your items are which.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', [[spoiler: Wheatley]] is an Intelligence Dampening Sphere who was created as part of [=GLaDOS's=] AI, to prevent her from killing everyone in the facility by giving her a constant stream of terrible ideas.

** A closer interpretation comes in the form of attacks such as Supersonic, which causes the Pokemon afflicted to "hurt themselves in confusion".

* Inverted (with the possibility of it being played straight {{discussed|Trope}}) in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', where, in one major story-arc, the [[MilkmanConspiracy Bird Conspiracy]] turns out to have an 'Intelligence Beam' with a... reverse setting. This results in one of the cast being threatened with the loss of a few dozen IQ points, and allows another (one of the denser members) to experience a bout of FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome.