History Main / TookALevelInDumbass

*** To be fair, [[GRatedDrug grape Nehi]] is a strong drink for ''anyone.'' [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin BillBryson solemnly swears that he once saw the edge of the universe after drinking it as a child.]]

** ''More'' dramatic than some, at its worst: Starts as O'Neill needing things explained to him more and more often, but by the time he was plugging his ears and saying "la la, I can't heeeear you!" and Carter was having to pull his fingers out of his ears like a mother dealing with a four-year-old... uh, yeah. Another episode had the people of the planet of the week talking about how Earth would have sent its best and brightest representative, and then O'Neill shows up, making one of the sort of inane comments that had become normal for him. When the idea of the leader of the team being a smart and capable guy ''is a punchline,'' you know you have a problem. Later seasons seemed to go back and forth with his intelligence.
** You're exaggerating a bit. He never stuck his fingers in his ears... or if he did, Sam never pulled them out. Insubordonate, much?

** Actually, there's another explanation: she was briefly visited by Padan Fain, whose powers include the ability to corrupt people and drive them insane. In one of Fain's POVs, he mentions that he "brushed [her] with what he carried from Aridhol." It's not exactly confirmed, but it is implied.

** Luanne and Peggy also. Peggy has never been the CloserToEarth person between her and Hank, but she used to be at least a competent Spanish teacher -- now she's shown to have a tenuous grasp at best on the Spanish language, though it does lead to some [[CringeComedy admittedly hilarious moments]]. Luanne has had a similar path of regression, though it was more of a case of complete CharacterDerailment: after an ''angel'' tells her to go to {{College}}, she marries TheWesley. This may have had something to do with KOTH being replaced by TheClevelandShow.
*** I object. Peggy ''[[BilingualBonus never]]'' spoke proper Spanish.

** Ron is more BrilliantButLazy. He has moments that show he's got a good mind he's just not very motivated to use it. And kind of prone to moments of wild panic and ditzyness crossed with CloudCukooLander traits

** Could be subverted hard, if you consider it an in-universe change. For starters, anyone who's so inconsistant to go from clueless to knowledgable and back to clueless, on ''the same subject'', in the course of ''one episode'', is a bloody liar. Then consider when it happened--it didn't happen before "''Shades of Gray''" in Season Three, when he deliberately and flagrantly abused his teammates trust [[spoiler: so he could pull off a sting]], then came back declaring that he was on their side... probably wanted it to be as clear cut as possible. Maybe he knew it wasn't enough and was trying to seem more non-threataning. Then there are other factors coming into play. Take his backstory, it doesn't fit. Special Forces like people who think fast. Quick generally means smart. Plus, you have to have at least a Masters to be even an O-4 in the Air Force, and he's an O-6... and then an O-7, an O-8, and an O-9. Considering his lack of diplomacy, it's safe to say he didn't get all those [[{{ModernMajorGeneral}} promptions through politics]]. Then there was the time he got downloaded with the Ancient Repository of Knowledge. It seems entirely possible that it's not actually gone, considering how convenient the Asgard [[{{CrazyPrepared}} hand-held device]] looked, in which case he'd definately want to hide it. Maybe he's just some form of [[{{GuileHero}} guile hero]]. And going back to the [[{{ColdBloodedTorture}} backstory]], there's no reason there why he shouldn't be a little crazy, too. Then there was that one episode where this Troper could have sworn his dialogue sounded like he was thinking about [[{{StableTimeLoop}} Einstein]] on time travel, but that he decided to try again anyway, just out of loyalty.

** If you consider it an in-universe thing, rather than a writer problem, anyone who's that inconsistant is a bloody liar. Take his backstory, it doesn't fit. Special Forces like people who think fast. Quick generally means smart. Plus, you have to have at least a Masters to be even an O-4 in the Air Force, and he's an O-6... and then an O-7, an O-8, and an O-9. Considering his lack of diplomacy, it's safe to say he didn't get all those [[{{ModernMajorGeneral}} promptions through politics]]. Maybe he's just some form of [[{{GuileHero}} guile hero]]. And going back to the [[{{ColdBloodedTorture}} backstory]], there's no reason there why he shouldn't be a little crazy, too. Then there was that one episode where this Troper could have sworn his dialogue sounded like he was thinking about [[{{StableTimeLoop}} Einstein]] on time travel, but that he decided to try again anyway, just out of loyalty.

* From {{Bleach}}: Head Captain Yamamoto jumping to the concussion that Orihime had turned traitor during the Hueco Mundo arc. This and a number of other incidents have many a fan pondering if perhaps the old man needs to be declaired incompetent and relieved of duty. Granted, [[LeeroyJenkins Ichigo]] wasn't much smarter rushing off to storm Aizen's stronghold without a solid gameplan, but that's another matter entirely.
** YourMileageMayVary: She was accompanied by two Shinigami, and they reported she vanished after she came to from Ulquiorra's attack. The general consensus was that she was either kidnapped or killed by Ulquiorra. When Ichigo stated that his wound was healed, and that it was Inoue who was responsible, the conclusion became that she had went on her own free-will, equalling betrayal in Yamamoto's eyes. With it being a state of war, and the two Shinigami not knowing the terms Ulquiorra gave Inoue, that would have been a normal conclusion a military leader like Yamamoto would come to.
** Also see entries on StockholmSyndrome and NotBrainwashed. Even ''she'' started to believe she was a collaborator, there's no surprise Yamamoto would. The level in dumbass comes from the fact that they didn't learn anything after the Rukia incident, especially that ''it's the same mastermind'' (and this time, they know it) in both cases.

** The biggest examples are the Team Rocket trio. In the early appearances they are very competent, albeit very hammy, and have succeeded several time in stopping the heroes and capturing Pikachu only to be save by a BigDamnHeroes moment or an AssPull of some sorts. Fast forward and their only real purpose now is to show up, do something stupid and blast off again, barring the episodes that focus on them being sympathetic to the point where they might as well not be villains if not for [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo getting in the way]].

* Interestingly enough, the [[PointyHairedBoss defining character trait]] of [[{{Dilbert}} Dilbert]]'s boss was a result of this. In the earlier strips he was just a regular BadBoss who was more likely to be shown performing evil experiments on his employees than [[TheDitz losing at chess to a pineapple]].

** Most of his TookALevelInDumbass qualities came from adaptations of the books anyway, few of which have portrayed him with any of his original intelligence of BadAss abilities.

** The VILLAINS too. Adam Monroe goes from being a coldly calculating bad ass with mad samurai skillz to a guy who meakly allows powerless brainless thug Knox to take him to see Arthur Petrelli. Arthur himself goes from an EvilOverlord big on the "You have outlived our usefulness" who was genre savvy enough to take out everyone who could oppose him to being a dumb ass who stands around and does nothing while Sylar has a bullet aimed at him. The German in the graphic novels was a vicious amoral killer who knew how to use his powers in clever and brutal ways but in the show he's an idiot who just does nothing while Knox lumbers over to him and slams his fist through his chest. Candice goes from being a smart and sadistic villainess to being stupid enough to let her guard down around Sylar. Elle has the exact same thing happen to her.

* Jayne over the course of the short run of the {{Firefly}} series seems to go from stupid but frighteningly cunning in the pilot to just stupid.
** Jayne's intelligence does appear to wane as the season progresses, but his cunning remains in tact.

** The Cat's an even better example. He started out as.. a cat, and ended up with "a brain the size of a grape."

** She had [[MostCommonSuperPower other]] [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean assests]].

--->'''Baldrick''': We do...nothing.

* Radar O'Reilly of ''[[MASHTheSeries M* A* S* H]]'' could be regarded as a variation of this. He didn't get ''dumber'', per se, but more [[ManChild childlike and naïve]] as the series progressed. There's an element of PingPongNaivete there too, however, as he was apparently still savvy enough to make deals for supplies with other units, keep all the paperwork straight, and otherwise serve as HypercompetentSidekick to Colonel Blake (and, later, Colonel Potter).

* Perhaps it was just Kazushige Nojima's shaky writing, but Sora went from often naive in KingdomHearts to often ''ridiculously clueless'' in KingdomHeartsII.

** Luanne and Peggy also. Peggy has never been the CloserToEarth person between her and Hank, but she used to be at least a competent Spanish teacher -- now she's shown to have a tenuous grasp at best on the Spanish language, though it does lead to some [[CringeComedy admittedly hilarious moments]]. Luanne has had a similar path of regression, though it was more of a case of complete CharacterDerailment: After an ''angel'' tells her to go to {{College}}, she marries TheWesley. This may have had something to do with KOTH being replaced by TheClevelandShow.

* This happened to Fry in ''{{Futurama}}''. In the earliest episodes he was a fairly average guy with a dash of {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and a few moments of genuine cleverness. As the show progressed he devolved into a gibbering manchild [[{{PingPongNaivete}} unless the writers needed him to say something profound]].

* [[FamilyGuy Peter Griffin]] was a dumbass to begin with, but it got worse with [[UnCancelled uncancelation]]. Now he's verging on {{Ralph Wiggum}}-hood.

* Chowder from...{{Chowder}}. Compare the naive little boy of Season One to the completely TooDumbToLive of Season Two.

* Fuzzy Lumpkins took this between the pilot of ''ThePowerpuffGirls'' and the series proper: in the pilot he was a reasonably calm [[BuffySpeak furry...thing]] with enough intelligence to build a gun that turns objects into meat, in the series he's a trigger happy hillbilly stereotype whose idea of a weapon is a rock (compared to, say, the ray guns of Mojo Jojo and Princess). Consider his line in "Fuzzy Logic" while chasing a squirrel from his home:

* [[Anime/Pokemon Pokemon]], so very, very much.

* {{Pokémon}}, so very, very much.

* [[Anime/Pokémon Pokémon]], so very, very much.

* Kelly Bundy from ''MarriedWithChildren''.

*** Light wasn't the only victim of this; L also suffered it in his last episode (averted in TheMovie version). And part of Light's problem is that he no longer had the convenient strokes of luck that sustained him in the first half of the series, where whenever L ''almost'' caught him, something outside of either of their control would happen that Light was able to exploit.

* ''TenchiMuyo'': Mihoshi, ''especially'' in ''TenchiUniverse''.

* Fuzzy Lumpkins took this between the pilot of ''ThePowerpuffGirls'' and the series proper: in the pilot he was a reasonably calm [[BuffySpeak furry...thing]] with enough intelligence to build a gun that turns objects into meat, in the series he's a trigger happy hillbilly stereotype whose idea of a weapon is a rock (compared to, say, the ray guns of Mojo Jojo and Princess).

* ''BeavisAndButthead'' started out as just stereotypically lazy and not all that bright teenagers. As the show's popularity picked up the need for more outrageous material resulted in them becoming the TooDumbToLive types everyone knows them as.

* Jane over the course of the short run of the Firefly series seems to go from stupid but frighteningly cunning in the pilot to just stupid.