History Main / TooDumbtoFool

** In "Mrs. Beady Takes a Holiday", the foreign man who recently moved in to Mrs. Beady's new house is too dumb to be disgusted or scared by any of Otis' pranks.

** In "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E13CartmansIncredibleGift Cartman's Incredible Gift]]", Kyle tries to convince Yates and his partner that he is a psychic like Cartman by imitating the latter's stunt so they would finally listen to him. Of course, they immediately forget the reason they believed Cartman in the first place and still act skeptically with Kyle.

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS4E1FearOfAKrabbyPattyShellOfAMan Fear of a Krabby Patty]]", Plankton impersonates a psychologist to trick [=SpongeBob=] into revealing the Krabby Party formula, but [[Idiot Hero [=SpongeBob=]]] is too dumb to follow any of his ploys, rendering Plankton's plan entirely moot.

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS4E1FearOfAKrabbyPattyShellOfAMan Fear of a Krabby Patty]]", Plankton impersonates a psychologist to trick [=SpongeBob=] into revealing the Krabby Party formula. Of course, [=SpongeBob=] is too dumb to understand any of his ploys, rendering Plankton's plan entirely moot.

** In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS6E04FeelACop Feel a Cop]]", Officer Linda goes undercover, posing as a prostitute, to trick whoever asks for her advances into getting arrested, with Beavis and Butt-Head being her first "subjects". Of course, her scheme ends up failing because the duo was so stupid that they kept using slang instead of being specific about their demands.

** In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS6E04FeelACop Feel a Cop]]", Officer Linda goes undercover, posing as a prostitute, to trick whoever asks for her advances into getting arrested, with Beavis and Butt-Head being her first "subjects". Of course, her scheme ends up failing because the duo was so stupid that they kept using slang instead of being specific about their demands for sex.

** In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS6E04FeelACop Feel a Cop]]", Officer Linda goes undercover, posing as a prostitute, to trick whoever asks for her advances into getting arrested, with Beavis and Butt-Head being her first "subjects". Of course, her scheme ends up backfiring because the duo was so stupid that they kept using euphemisms instead of making their demands specific.

** Over the course of the series, Squidward has conducted various schemes to get rid of [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick. Naturally, they never work, as the two tend to take the schemes in a completely different direction.
** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS4E1FearOfAKrabbyPattyShellOfAMan Fear of a Krabby Patty]]", Plankton impersonates a psychologist to trick [=SpongeBob=] into revealing the Krabby Party formula. Of course, [=SpongeBob=] is too simple-minded to understand any of his ploys, rendering Plankton's plan entirely moot.

** The email "secret recipe" is basically about this, with Strong Bad's attempts to disgust other characters backfiring because they either ''like'' his concoctions or end up doing something even more disgusting. For instance, his plan to eat white chocolate while pretending it to be deodorant fails when he walks in on the King of Town [[ExtremeOmnivore eating deodorant]]. It concludes with Strong Bad tricking Homestar into eating a pinecone, at which he declares "So long, suckers!" and walks off looking pleased with himself. Making it even dumber, Homestar was the one who tried to trick Strong Bad into eating the pinecone in the first place, meaning he fell for his own trick.

** He's also the SpannerInTheWorks that causes [[spoiler:Kitanji's careful and perfectly laid plans to fall apart, right when Neku seems to be doomed.]]

* In ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'', BJ starts off trying to win fights by claiming to be Robert Haydn, which causes people to run in fear. While Mori falls for this, Ueki just remembers that BJ introduced himself as BJ earlier that day, and just can't seem to understand BJ's claims that his name is really Robert Haydn... and keeps insisting that he's really BJ. The fact that he doesn't even know who Robert Haydn is probably helps.

* ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'': WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse tries to [[TrickingTheShapeshifter get Willie the Giant to turn into a housefly, so he can swat him]]. But Willie's insistence on turning into a pink bunny thwarts this scheme.

* In ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkle'', Bullwinkle is immune to [[BigBad Fearless Leader's]] MindControl television broadcast because he's too stupid to be affected by it.

** ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' explains that one of the main reason Hutts tend to hire Gamorreans as guards is that the males are too stupid and too stubborn to [[BribeBackfire take bribes.]]
* ''Film/GoodBurger''; Roxanne's attempts to seduce Ed into giving her the secret sauce fails because he is too dumb to realize she's hitting on him. He's also too dumb and goofy to understand when he's being insulted or provoked. Subverted, however, when Dexter robs him blind in a terrible business deal because Dexter knows Ed doesn't understand basic arithmetic.
** Later [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation (possibly)]] double subverted when Ed [[DitzyGenius demonstrates an in-depth understanding of the legal system]] when explaining why he overdosed Mondo Burger's hamburger meat with Triumpathol instead of taking it to the authorities like Dexter planned. When asked how he thought of all that, he rolls his eyes and says, "I'm not ''stupid''." He'd given every impression that he'd read the contract and even said that he knew what some of the words meant, so likely knew that Dexter was ripping him off; [[NiceGuy he just signed it anyway because Dexter's his friend and he wanted to give him the money]].
* The title character of ''Film/ForrestGump''- a combination of being mentally disadvantaged, very swift on his feet, and [[BornLucky plain dumb luck]] not only keep him out of trouble (like drug addiction that Jenny and Lieutenant Dan suffered), but enable him to try strange, but ultimately successful, ideas that end up making him a very wealthy and mostly happy man.
** For example, when being ragged on by a drill instructor who yells in his face "What's your sole purpose in this army?", Gump replies "To do whatever you tell me Drill Sergeant". To which the D.I. can only reply "Goddamn it Gump! You are a goddamn genius!"
* Played with in the 2007 adaptation of ''Film/{{Hairspray|2007}}'', when Velma Von Tussle tries to seduce Wilbur Turnblad. She assumes that he is not responding to her advances because he's an idiot, but it's implied that he knows what she's trying and is deliberately ignoring her.
* In baseball {{tearjerker}} ''Film/BangTheDrumSlowly'', Creator/RobertDeNiro's character is described as "too dumb to play a joke on." This prevents him from being part of tegwar, a [[{{Calvinball}} card game with ever-changing rules]] which the ballplayers use to scam money from passersby.

* In ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'', the plotters use the fact that General Fromm is inevitably doomed if the Nazi regime continues (due to not having reported their plot despite having known about it) to attempt to win his (crucial) support. Fromm however is too proud to admit this and therefore opposes the plotters, causing them to fail and him to lose his only chance at survival.
* ''Film/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'': Working-class {{Muggle}} Jacob Kowalski doesn't question or argue much when he stumbles into the Wizarding world and all the odd stuff he encounters, bluntly telling Newt "I ain't got the brains to make this up!"
* In the ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' series, the Graboids and their other stages zig-zag on this Trope. They can learn how to solve problems, yeah, but for the most part they are a race of [[SuperPersistentPredator Super-Persistent Predators]] that will attack anything that they perceive as food and anything that gets in the way of getting said food--and in doing so, they systematically destroy everything the humans can use to get away from them, lure them into a trap, ask for help, or fight back. In the second film, for instance, the Shriekers keep attacking crucial targets like vehicles and the radio tower, but eventually the cast learns that the monsters hunt by heat and were just drawn to anything warm.
-->'''Grady''': You're telling me that they act smart because they're ''stupid''?
* The ogre in ''Film/TaleOfTales'', albeit only in his first scene. Everyone's trying to guess what animal a hide is from -- because the one who guesses it gets to marry the princess -- but they can't, because it's from a giant flea, and nobody can guess a flea could be that big. The ogre just smells that it smells like a flea.
* An interesting variation in ''Film/CabinInTheWoods'': The teenagers that go to the titular cabin are all pretty well-adjusted and smart college students, with the possible exception of [[TheStoner Marty]] who is always high as a kite. But as time passes, everyone starts acting like [[DumbBlonde stereotypes]] [[JerkJock of horror]] [[BlackAndNerdy movies]] and taking very dumb and counterproductive choices, except for Marty, who keeps pointing out something is wrong and who keeps hearing voices whispering orders to the group. [[spoiler: This is because the organization controlling the ritual is pumping them with airborne chemicals in order to make them easily manipulable into following the instructions of the ritual, but Marty's constant consumption of weed has basically made him immune to the chemicals, which ends turning him into the SpannerInTheWorks]].

** In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS6E04FeelACop Feel a Cop]]", Officer Linda goes undercover, posing as a prostitute, to trick whoever asks for her advances into getting arrested, with Beavis and Butt-Head being her first "subjects". Of course, her scheme ends up backfiring because the duo were so stupid that they kept using euphemisms instead of making their demands specific.

** In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS6E04FeelACop Feel a Cop]]", Officer Linda goes undercover, posing as a prostitute, to trick whoever asks for her advances into getting arrested, with Beavis and Butt-Head being her first "subjects". Of course, her scheme ends up backfiring because the duo were so stupid that they used euphemisms instead of making their demands specific.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'': In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS6E14PrankCall Prank Call]]", when the duo harasses a man named Harry Sachz with prank calls one too many times, he gets Caller ID to trace the call back and calls them pretending to be a pizza delivery man. The only problem is that the two are too stupid to even know their own address, so they instead give him Stewart's address from some mail they took from him.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Numenera}}'' (and its attached Cypher System), one of the descriptors a character can get is "Scatter-Brained". The disadvantage of getting this descriptor is a strong penalty to logic-based rolls (and the note that the character is plagued with AttentionDeficitOhShiny), but as a bonus the character is pretty much immune to people trying to swindle him.

Not to be confused with the similarly-named TooDumbToLive, in which a character does a suicidal thing that can get themselves killed, like BullyingADragon. Often this can be a result of someone trying to pull IKnowYouKnowIKnow and think three moves ahead of someone who hasn't even reached the first move in reality.

Not to be confused with the similarly-named TooDumbToLive, in which a character does a suicidal thing that can get themselves killed, like BullyingADragon.

-->'''Plankton:''' But what about the formula?\\

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E13TheJoyOfSectThe Joy of Sect]]", Homer resists the most powerful persuasion techniques of the Movementarian cult thanks to his negligible IQ and [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny attention span]]. [[SubvertedTrope They eventually succeed]] when they use a technique [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame that's as stupid as he is]]: change the lyrics to the 1960's ''Series/Batman1966'' theme song from "Batman" to "Leader".

** Squidward conducts various schemes to get rid of [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick. Naturally, they never work, as the two tend to take the schemes in a completely different direction.

** In "Dead Putting Society", Lisa tries to deliver the classic {{Koan}} of "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" to Bart. [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder He simply slaps the fingers and palm of one hand together]]. Lisa has better luck with "If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound?". Bart initially gives the technical answer that yes it does, until Lisa points out "how can sound exist if no one can hear it?"
%%* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Naturally [=SpongeBob=] in "Fear of a Krabby Patty".
* From ''WesternAnimation/{{Squidbillies}}'', when Early walks in on his wife naked with the band .38 Special, and they try to convince him nothing is going on:

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', TreacherousAdvisor Yzma tries to rationalize to Kuzco why she's doing his job, but he doesn't listen because he has [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny the attention span of a goldfish]]. This is shown by [[PaintingTheMedium her dialogue not being audible to the audience either]] and replaced by Kuzco's internal monologue about Yzma's ugliness. He then fires her on the spot, which was the right decision, albeit for the wrong reasons.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker", it's revealed that March 15th is the day Crocker is more of a SadistTeacher than the rest of the year, torturing all students in specific ways. While wondering what to do with Timmy Turner, he decides against using rhetorical questions (like he did with A.J.) because Turner isn't intelligent enough to get frustrated by them.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In one episode, Peter is able to realize a records store employee is Jesus, despite Jesus's disguise never having been broken before in 2,000 years.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': In "Fun with Jane and Jane", Luanne joins the Omega House sorority, unaware that they're actually part of a cult. However, Luanne's ditziness make her practically immune to their programming. Meanwhile, her aunt, the KnowNothingKnowItAll Peggy, not only encourages her to go back to the cult after she escapes, but falls under their sway almost effortlessly.

** In "For Bros About to Rock", Lincoln and Clyde are arrested and thrown in mall jail, and Lincoln's sister Luna comes to bail them out while disguised as their mother Rita. Unfortunately, ditzy Bobby Santiago is working at the mall, and he isn't fooled by the disguise one bit, even blowing Luna's cover and getting ''her'' arrested.
** In "Grub Snub", Lincoln's friends attempt to stop his ditzy sister Leni and her posse from hanging out at Gus's Games and Grub by placing caution tape near the games. Leni ends up thinking the tape means they're VIP.
** In "Party Fowl", the Casagrandes' parrot Sergio is locked out of the Loud House at night and wakes Leni up, trying to convince her to open her window and let him in under the impression that it's all a dream. Unfortunately, Leni instead opens her closet and then goes back to sleep on the floor, foiling his plan.

** In "The Joy of Sect", Homer resists the most powerful persuasion techniques of the Movementarian cult thanks to his negligible IQ and [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny attention span]]. [[SubvertedTrope They eventually succeed]] when they use a technique [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame that's as stupid as he is]]: change the lyrics to the 1960's ''Series/Batman1966'' theme song from "Batman" to "Leader".
** In "Last Exit to Springfield", there was also Mr. Burns' numerous attempts to negotiate with Homer when he became head of the union for the Power Plant. Homer being Homer, he mistakes the innuendo Mr. Burns is using to offer Homer a bribe for ''sexual'' innuendo, and leaves thinking Mr. Burns is coming on to him. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] at the end of the episode when Homer celebrates his victory for the union with an extended [[Film/TheThreeStooges Three Stooges]] esque "woop woop woop woop" leading Mr. Burns to comment that Homer might not be the master negotiator that he'd taken him to be.
** In "Homer's Enemy", Frank Grimes, who is frustrated by Homer's dumb luck, attempts to show the power plant the follies of putting a complete idiot in charge of plant safety by tricking Homer into entering a "Design Your Own Power Plant" contest meant for elementary school age students. Homer enters a power plant with aerodynamic wings to lower wind resistance and a racing stripe, and even after Grimes tells Homer that the contest was meant for school-age children, [[SpringtimeForHitler Mr. Burns and the plant employees still give him a standing ovation, much to Frank Grimes' chagrin]].
** In "Homer the Moe", Homer took over Moe's duties as bar tender. When Bart tried his usual PrankCall, Homer ''immediately'' recognizes that it is Bart pranking him but is eager to go along. He doesn't get the joke however, even after Bart explains it to him, so Bart just hangs up in disgust.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'': In one episode, when the duo harasses a man named Harry Sachz with prank calls one too many times, he gets Caller ID to trace the call back and calls them pretending to be a pizza delivery man. The only problem is that the two are too stupid to even know their own address, so they instead give him Stewart's address from some mail they took from him.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': In "Fun With Jane And Jane", Luanne joins the Omega House sorority, unaware that they're actually part of a cult. However, Luanne's ditziness make her practically immune to their programming. Meanwhile, her aunt, the KnowNothingKnowItAll Peggy, not only encourages her to go back to the cult after she escapes, but falls under their sway almost effortlessly.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': In the latter-series episode "Scary Monsters", a kid with uncontrolled psychic powers starts hurting people because he manifests illusions of a variety of monsters and threats and they hurt or kill themselves trying to fight them off. Agent Doggett, however, is able to fend off the illusions because he is a hard-core AgentScully ([[ExaggeratedTrope to]] ''Agent Scully'' - he is clever, just not "Mulder and Scully" clever) and scares the kid into submission by applying ThoughtAversionFailure (he tosses water all over the room and lights up a match and tells the kid to not think he is setting the room on fire, and sure enough, the kid imagines an inferno and knocks himself out).

* In ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', losing a certain amount of sanity in one go - as caused by say, seeing an EldritchAbomination or reading a Mythos book can cause temporary insanity... unless the Investigator fails an Idea roll... essentially, meaning they're too dumb to realize the full enormity of what they're just experienced [[IgnoranceIsBliss and are thus saved some of its horror]].