History Main / SuddenIntelligence

* John Travolta in ''Film/{{Phenomenon}}'' plays an amiable not-too-bright handyman who achieves phenomenal intelligence after being hit by a glowing ball from space.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': After a crayon is dislodged from Homer's brain, he becomes a genius. But he the entire town turns against him after he causes the nuclear plant to be temporarily shut down. At the end of the episode, he gets Moe to stick a new crayon in his brain, [[StatusQuoIsGod reverting him back to being the old, stupid self]].

* ''Film/{{Charly|1968}}'' based on ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon''.

* ''Film/{{Charlie}}'' based on ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': After a crayon is dislodged from Homer's brain, he becomes a genius. But he the entire town turns against him after he causes the nuclear plant to be temporarily shut down. At the end of the episode, he gets Moe to stick a new crayon in his brain, reverting him back to being the old, stupid self.

[[folder:Film]]

* John Travolta in ''Film/Phenomenon'' plays an amiable not-too-bright handyman who achieves phenomenal intelligence after being hit by a glowing ball from space.
* ''Film/Charlie'' based on ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon''.

The usual answer is to momentarily give this character the SmartBall. Completely out of the blue, your [[TheDitz ditz]] spouts out a tidbit of knowledge regarding astrophysics or thermodynamics. Some writers, however, take this act UpToEleven, by writing an ''entire episode'' regarding a character suddenly showing unnatural intelligence.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': After a crayon is dislodged from Homer's brain, he becomes a genius. But when he causes the entire town to turn against him after he causes the nuclear plant to be temporarily shut down. At the end of the episode, he gets Moe to stick a new crayon in his brain, reverting him back to being the old, stupid self.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' has Dexter deciding to increase Dee Dee's intelligence and make her his new lab assistant. To do this, he replaces her literally peanut-sized brain with a much bigger one. The operation is a success, but Dee Dee is now actually ''smarter'' than Dexter is. She tries pointing out flaws in his machines, but Dexter's ego prevents him from heeding her warnings. Finally, Dexter's behavior offends Dee Dee so much that she decides that working for him is beneath her, and so leaves him with a cymbol banging toy monkey, feeling that it would be a more fitting assistant.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': Leni Loud is normally TheDitz and a DumbBlonde. But in "Butterfly Effect", after getting conked on the head by a coat rack and several pairs of shoes, she inexplicably becomes intelligent and is even smarter than [[ChildProdigy Lisa]], to the point of inventing a car that runs on apple juice and going off to Harvard. [[spoiler: Of course, it turns out to be AllJustADream from Lincoln.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': Leni Loud is a total [[TheeDitz ditz]] and a DumbBlonde... normally. But in "Butterfly Effect", after getting conked on the head by a coat rack and several pairs of shoes, she inexplicably becomes intelligent and is even smarter than [[ChildProdigy Lisa]], to the point of inventing a car that runs on apple juice and going off to Harvard. [[spoiler: Of course, it turns out to be AllJustADream from Lincoln.]]

* John Travolta in ''Film/Phenomenon'' plays an amiable not-too-bright handyman who achieves phenomenal intelligence after being hit by a glowing ball from space.[[/folder]]

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[[folder:ComicBooks]]

* The ComicBook/SpiderMan story "Flowers for Rhino" was a whole-plot reference to "Flowers for Algernon," where [[DumbMuscle Rhino]] decides that he's had enough of being a laughing stock and undergoes an experimental procedure to make himself smarter. This leads to him easily outwitting Spider-Man, then successfully filing a restraining order against the hero in court, then becoming the leader of New York's criminal enterprises before realizing that VictoryIsBoring and finding himself without anything left to accomplish. He ends by giving everything up and having his intelligence boosting procedure reversed, and, just to make certain, makes himself even dumber than he was before. The story is ''probably'' not canon.

* Radio/TheBurnsAndAllenShow: A two-part episode in the last season, has Gracie Allen become a genius after being hypnotized into believing she's the smartest woman in the world.

* In one episode of ''{{Series/Star Trek:The Next Generation}}, Reg Barkley, a terminally awkward and clumsy engineer suddenly becomes a supergenius and saves the ship. He later reverts to his old self, mostly, but there are hints that he has been changed. In the last scene he interrupts a 3-D Chess game by making a move to checkmate; someone says, "I never knew you played chess." He replied, "I don't!