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A specific subtrope of {{Flanderization}} (and occasionally {{Jerkass}} also). As a series progresses, characters sometimes become more and more stupid as time goes on. Usually the reason is related to the BadassDecay phenomenon, but with the character's level of intelligence rather than his ability to kick ass, following something along the following cycle: an episode in which the characters acts like a total buffoon gets good ratings, so another one is made. It too gets good ratings. So they make another. And another. Eventually the character is so dumb that you wonder how he manages to walk across a room without injuring himself, and pretty soon everyone forgets that the character was anything other than a complete moron. For this same reason, it's a rather frequent trope in any comedy series
to:
A specific subtrope of {{Flanderization}} (and occasionally {{Jerkass}} also). As a series progresses, characters sometimes become more and more stupid as time goes on. Usually the reason is related to the BadassDecay phenomenon, but with the character's level of intelligence rather than his ability to kick ass, following something along the following cycle: an episode in which the characters acts like a total buffoon gets good ratings, so another one is made. It too gets good ratings. So they make another. And another. Eventually the character is so dumb that you wonder how he manages to walk across a room without injuring himself, and pretty soon everyone forgets that the character was anything other than a complete moron. For this same very reason, it's a this trope is rather frequent trope in any comedy series
series.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
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Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
A specific subtrope of {{Flanderization}} (and occasionally {{Jerkass}} also). As a series progresses, characters sometimes become more and more stupid as time goes on. Usually the reason is related to the BadassDecay phenomenon, but with the character's level of intelligence rather than his ability to kick ass, following something along the following cycle: an episode in which the characters acts like a total buffoon gets good ratings, so another one is made. It too gets good ratings. So they make another. And another. Eventually the character is so dumb that you wonder how he manages to walk across a room without injuring himself, and pretty soon everyone forgets that the character was anything other than a complete moron.
to:
A specific subtrope of {{Flanderization}} (and occasionally {{Jerkass}} also). As a series progresses, characters sometimes become more and more stupid as time goes on. Usually the reason is related to the BadassDecay phenomenon, but with the character's level of intelligence rather than his ability to kick ass, following something along the following cycle: an episode in which the characters acts like a total buffoon gets good ratings, so another one is made. It too gets good ratings. So they make another. And another. Eventually the character is so dumb that you wonder how he manages to walk across a room without injuring himself, and pretty soon everyone forgets that the character was anything other than a complete moron.
moron. For this same reason, it's a rather frequent trope in any comedy series
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BookDumb characters seem particularly prone to this; it is very easy for writers to go from 'savvy but unintellectual' to 'just stupid'.
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BookDumb characters seem particularly prone to this; it is [[MostWritersAreWriters very easy for writers writers]] to go from 'savvy but unintellectual' to 'just stupid'.
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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* Sailor Venus from ''Manga/SailorMoon''. See {{Flanderization}}.
* ''TenchiMuyo'': Mihoshi, ''especially'' in ''TenchiUniverse''. Somewhat justified in the case of ''TenchiUniverse'' (and ''Tenchi in Tokyo'') since those aren't actually the same Mihoshi, due to those being [[AlternateContinuity alternate continuities]]. Totally unjustified in the 3rd installment of the OVA series, though.
* Gourry from ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' degraded from IdiotHero to TheDitz and then became even dumber.
** The degradation arguably occurred before that, considering how Gourry's dumbass swordsman persona was apparently all an act in the original novels.
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Ohgi, after falling for Villetta. It's so bad that thanks partly to him, [[spoiler:Lelouch finishes crossing the DespairEventHorizon]], which causes [[spoiler:Lelouch]] to implement the [[spoiler:[[ThanatosGambit Zero Requiem]]]].
* ''LightNovel/{{Kampfer}}'': Natsuru but only in the anime. In the manga and light novels [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass however...]]
* ''RanmaOneHalf'': Genma. At the beginning of the series, he's lazy, doesn't think things through, and isn't the brightest bulb on the circuit, but is for the most part a competent martial artist who, despite some (admittedly quite serious) blunders, has trained his son to be an incredibly skilled martial artist. As the manga goes on, he becomes increasingly stupid and incompetent, with only one bright spot during the Ryu arc.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
** Light Yagami. He goes from erasing his own memory, trusting in the brilliance of his planning to ensure L's death while cementing his own complete innocence... to hiding the Death Note in storage and ''really hoping no one finds it while he's not looking''.\\
\\
The whole Mello and Near arc has Light {{nerf}}ed down hard, making great mistakes apparently to balance the odds of the two kids-nemesis. He loses the note, he loses Sayu, he loses his father... and one of his "best" responses is to confirm to Near he's Kira by ''sending a [[DyingLikeAnimals mass of stupid people]] at the exact location (and '''only there''') of Near's anti-Kira organisation with the '''great''' expectations that they'll lynch someone of L's level''. Believing his own [[AGodAmI hype]] likely has something to do with it, as does the fact that Near and Mello have far more information to work with than L did.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': The Team Rocket trio. In the early appearances they are very competent, albeit very hammy, and have succeeded several times 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, provide comic relief, 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]].
** This is finally subverted in Best Wishes as they now TookALevelInBadass. Ash, however...
* Alphonse in [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime version]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. He starts off as an intelligent, insightful young boy who was the [[StraightMan sensible one]] compared to Ed. Later on he makes many very poor, and arguably stupid choices like taking [[KnifeNut Barry the Chopper's]] mind games to heart, and distrusting people who he's known all his life. This happens in both the manga and anime, but in the manga, Al learns from this and doesn't do anything like it again. In the first anime it mainly takes effect in the later half,where he runs off every time he gets upset, even though the Homunculi [[spoiler: and Dante]] are looking for and trying to kill them, going along with Shou Tucker's plans and not telling Ed (even though Tucker made his daughter [[spoiler:into a chimaera, resulting in her death]], and letting Sloth convince him that she's his mother, even though she is a Homunculi when Ed is trying to remind him that they're fighting for their lives, [[spoiler:immediately running towards Envy disguised as Winry, right after Ed says it isn't her, and barely putting up a fight.]] He arguably became more impulsive than his brother, whereas earlier in the show it was the other way around. This could be interpreted as the writers having Al act more like how a real little boy would if they were put in such a situation, [[spoiler:but he becomes more competent again in the finale]]. Other than that he basically becomes [[TheLoad quite the load]].
* As of late, whenever Manga/{{Naruto}} seems to start growing as a character, he immediately takes a level in dumbass. Most notoriously when he doesn't realize anything is wrong during the attack on turtle island by Kabuto and zombie!Deidara. Despite the living island suddenly acting as if it were hit with a high-level earthquake.
** For a long while, Sasuke from [[spoiler:the death of Itachi]] and throughout the succeeding arcs. Even after both Tobi and Itachi had both implored that the destruction of Uchiha clan wasn't the fault of the Leaf, he decides to screw everything and try to destroy the Hidden Leaf village and every single person living in it, despite Itachi's intentions and words told by the main antagonist of all people himself urging the very contrary. All the while, his chakra grows noticeably darker and colder through his hatred, implications seeming as if he's forcing himself to hate in order get more powerful. At one point, he impales [[spoiler:Karin]] when held hostage with the Chidori, despite Danzo holding her in a position where his body and head is in clear sight of his lightning-fast attack and discards her for being "useless".
* Sakura Kinomoto of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' plays with this. In early episodes she was something of a NaiveEverygirl, childlike but fairly normal in terms of her age's intelligence and demeanor. In later episodes she is something of a GeniusDitz, highly developed in her handling of her cards and even the odd bit wisdomic, but an exagerratively naive KindheartedSimpleton in most other areas.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'': This trope happening to the entire human race is basically the plot.
* ''Film/TheMask'' has both a film-wise and adaptation wise example for Lt. Kellaway's partner, Det. Doyle. In his initial scene at the bank, Doyle seems to be quite intelligent. By the time we see him at the park, he's suddenly a ditz and by the film's end he's a certified idiot. [[Westernanimation/TheMask The cartoon]] made him even dumber.
* ''Film/TheNeverendingStory III'': Falkor, who is supposed to be a very ''smart'' character. He is a smart character in the first film and still somewhat smart in the second. In the third, however, he becomes a downright moron.
** Not to mention the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVV3MDJp5Xo Rock Biter...]]
* In ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', Marcus Brody was portrayed as a highly intelligent, very serious character. When he shows up again in ''IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' he was suddenly an incompetent [[TheLoad load]] who couldn't even initially tell that he was being kidnapped... even as Sallah was screaming at him that the bad guys were doing exactly that.
* In [[HomeAlone Home Alone 2]] Marv is a lot dumber than in the first film, possibly thanks to the head injuries he sustained in the first film (and/or additional head injuries he might have sustained in prison).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* ''SherlockHolmes'': Watson is compentent in the originals novel, though his mediocrity does serve to highlight the main character's brilliance. In many adaptations he has taken a level in dumbasss: few of which have portrayed him with any of his original intelligence or abilities.
** Same goes for HerculePoirot's sidekick Captain Hastings.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': In the first four books of the series Elaida is presented as a cunning member of the Red Ajah who is able to get Suian removed from power and still her. As soon as she gain powers her I.Q drops considerably, she pisses everyone in the tower off, she makes disastrous decisions that causes Aes Sedai to be captured, and she can't even decide that the Black Ajah exists or not even when it should be obvious after several sisters were murdered and Ter'angreal were stolen. The only possible explanation is she was elevated beyond her abilities (not surprising given she was the pawn of several Black Ajah in getting raised) and cracked after her first few screw ups.
** 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 points of view, he mentions that he "brushed [her] with what he carried from Aridhol." It's not exactly confirmed, but it is implied.
*** WordOfGod confirms it. Fain wasn't around Elaida long enough to substantially change her personality, but his presence brought out the worst aspects that were already there and certainly accelerated her deterioration.
** Alviarin was a member of the Black Ajah and Elaida's Keeper of the Chronicles. She had been bullying Elaida into obeying her orders, even using Compulsion on her to have her obey. Most of Elaida's efforts since being raised are to undermine Alviarin's influence on her, and it is known that Compulsion causes mental instability if it is used multiple times on one person. Both these factors, as well as Fain's ability to corrupt, would swiftly give her the dumbass experience required to level up from cunning to totally incompetent.
** Also, by the last several books things aren't going Elaida's way at all, and she's starting to crack under the strain. A VillainousBreakdown may not cause you to ''lose'' IQ points, but it'll certainly have a negative impact on your being able to use them.
* Cersei in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', although YMMV. In book 1 she successfully engineers her husband's death and beats out Ned Stark in the power struggle that follows, and while she's ultimately bested by the Imp in book 2, she's not a pushover. In book 4, though, she surrounds herself with morons and alienates everybody useful as if she's doing it on purpose - Littlefinger aptly describes her as "stumbl[ing] from one idiocy to the next." One interpretation is that she's gotten stupid and arrogant from her success, which matches this trope. But it's also possible that she's no dumber than before, and has simply been promoted to the level of her incompetence, Peter Principle-style. The Seven Kingdoms are not an easy realm to run.
** It helps that everyone capable of overriding her bad decisions is dead or has left King's Landing by the fourth book.
* Kalten in ''TheElenium'' seems to get a case of this. In the beginning of the trilogy, he is a skilled knight although basically book-dumb, i.e. he is incapable of performing magic because he couldn't learn the Styric language. By the end of the second book, this has turned into him not knowing what a diagonal is. Subverted at the end of the Tamuli where he reveals that he is playing the ObfuscatingStupidity card, since he knows that if people don't take him seriously they will be off-guard around him.
* Septimus Heap in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', between ''Syren'' and ''Darke''. In ''Syren'' he the cautious one, in ''Darke'' [[spoiler: his disregard for Jenna's warnings about the '''Darke Domaine''' doesn't match any of his past actions, and results in the '''Domaine''' being set loose.]]
* Claudia from ''TheBabysittersClub'' started out as a C-student who had an above average I.Q. but just didn't care about doing well in school. By the end of the series, she was so dumb the reader sometimes wondered how she managed to put on her pants in the morning.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* Sam Malone in ''{{Cheers}}''. He went from earthbound jock to idiot after Diane left.
** This was uneven. Some episodes he was still portrayed as being reasonably bright, others he was a lecher dominated entirely by his reproductive organs. It went back and forth depending on whether Sam was being a reality check for Rebecca or trying to bed her.
* Jayne over the course of the short run of the ''{{Firefly}}'' series seems to go from unsophisticated but frighteningly cunning in the pilot to just plain stupid.
* Cat from ''{{Victorious}}''. She goes from being of relatively normal intelligence in the early parts of Season 1 to a girl who is apparently intelligent enough to just color a "pretty tiger" purple and realize that "that doesn't happen in nature".
** Robbie also qualifies, as many of the problems the kids get into over several episodes (notably ''The Great Ping-Pong Scam'', ''How Trina Got In'' and ''Locked Up!''), are directly his fault. His behavior in dealing with Rex (notably in ''Wi-Fi In The Sky'') also puts him in this category.
* ''TheOffice'':
** Michael Scott for a bit, but they reined it back in.
** Inverted with Dwight who started the series as a gullible man with almost no common sense and then became more and more skilled and successful as time went on. By seasons six and especially seven he seems smarter than any of the other characters.
** Kevin Malone. He was never the brightest bulb at Dunder Mifflin, but he showed signs during the first few seasons of just being a little dopey. A savant at the worst. By Season 5, he had lost about 25-50 IQ points. As of Season 8, he is pretty much mentally retarded.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}''
** Peter Petrelli [[IdiotHero after he learns how to]] [[HowDoIShotWeb use the powers he absorbs.]]
** In fact, ''[[IdiotBall everyone]]'' on ''Heroes'' gets this, with nominal good guys Mohinder, Peter and especially Hiro getting the worst of it.
** The villains too. Adam Monroe goes from being a coldly calculating bad ass with mad samurai skillz to a guy who meekly 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.
** Mr. Linderman. He began as a cryptically whispered name that made the most BadAss among the cast cower in fear. He was revealed as an AffablyEvil WellIntentionedExtremist [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who had been engineering events across the entire first season. When DL and Jessica show up, what is his plan? [[spoiler: "Take this money and kill your husband."]] [[SarcasmMode Yeah, really bright, Linderman.]]
* Kelly Bundy from ''MarriedWithChildren''. The more her intelligence decreased, the more the show's quality increased in direct proportion.
** Hilariously subverted in the episode "Hi, I.Q.," in which she accomplishes what Al couldn't--assembling his workshop bench. Which could just suggest she is simply BookDumb.
*** Or that she's actually BrilliantButLazy and is simply playing dumb.
* Michael Kelso from ''That70sShow''. He was always a [[TheDitz ditz]], but he just got dumber and dumber as the show progressed.
* Chelsea from ''ThatsSoRaven''.
* London from ''TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody''. And ''again'' on ''The Suite Life On Deck''.
* Max from ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''
* Eric from ''BoyMeetsWorld''.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': This has happened to Dean Winchester, starting from the point that he became a [[BreakTheCutie Broken Cutie]], DependingOnTheWriter.
* Jack O'Neill in ''Series/StargateSG1''.
** Initially he was quite intelligent and a prime example of ColonelBadass. He had tendencies of TheWatson, but there's no shame in knowing less about science than the one who [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun blew up a sun]], less about ancient cultures than the one who's studied them all his life, or less about alien technology than the one who lived with it. Then the things being explained to him got simpler and more obvious as his jokiness quotient rises. At the nadir, we get "La, la, I can't heeeear you!" when finding out a guest star was in fact someone ''incredibly'' dangerous from a previous episode, or later gems like "SHE'S HAVING HER BRAINS SUCKED OUT!" By season five, his role seems to be "make jokes during dead-serious situations while others roll their eyes and make the decisions that would have been O'Neill's responsibility." An episode had the people of the planet of the week talking about how Earth would have sent its best and brightest representative... and then [[DescriptionCut O'Neill enters, 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.
** Of course, the characters who know him best, especially Sam, insist this is just ObfuscatingStupidity.
** As of ''Series/StargateUniverse'', O'Neill limits his silliness to a couple of one-liners per appearance, and seems to have [[LetsGetDangerous gotten down to business]].
* Rimmer from ''Series/RedDwarf'', though how many levels taken seemed to change with every season. The Cat is an even better example having started out as... a cat and ended up with "a brain the size of a grape."
** Holli, the ship's A.I. went from being extremely eccentric after spending 3 million years alone and ObfuscatingStupidity to literally having a single digit IQ due to "computer senility" a couple of series later.
* Joey from ''{{Friends}}'' seems to have lost quite a few IQ points over the years, to the point where in the final season he can't tell left from right.
** Also Erica, the biological mother of Chandler and Monica's twins. When we first meet her she's a perfectly normal, intelligent girl. When she appears later in the season she's so stupid that her IQ is merely half of Forest Gump's.
* Chrissy on ''ThreesCompany'' was originally mildly ditzy. By the time she left the series one wondered how she managed to dress herself or hold a job.
* Baldrick from ''{{Blackadder}}'' -- there's the obvious leap between series one and two (while Blackadder himself does the opposite and takes a level in smartass), but even after that, he does still manage to get gradually worse over the next three series, until in ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' he's what Tony Robinson described as "[[TooDumbToLive terminally stupid]]" -- you literally can't imagine how he's survived to adulthood. Of course, in ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' his childlike personality is both hilarious & tragically poignant, given the hopelessness of the World War I trench setting. He even gets some moments of childlike wisdom in the finale, simply questioning why they can't all just stop fighting and go home.
** If you want concrete evidence, compare this scene from ''Blackadder II''...
--->'''Edmund''': That Farrow bloke you executed today, are you sure he's dead?
--->'''Baldrick''': Well I chopped his head off, that usually does the trick.
** ...with this one from ''Blackadder The Third''
--->'''Edmund''': [...]So, what's the plan?
--->'''Baldrick''': We do... nothing.
--->'''Edmund''': Yep, that's another world-beater.
--->'''Baldrick''': Wait, I haven't finished. We do nothing ''until'' our heads have actually been cut off...
--->'''Edmund''': ...and then we spring into action?
--->'''Baldrick''': Exactly![...]
*** The character changes between series are all justified because it is a different Baldrick in each one.
* Matthew Brock from ''{{Newsradio}}'' is another example; in the show's first season he seemed relatively normal and competent (he even secretly was [[spoiler: a registered dentist]]), but by the third or fourth season he came across as either mentally retarded or an eight-year old in a man's body. Jimmy James to an extent too, although that was more of Taking a Level in Craziness than Dumbness. Both characters were a lot funnier and more interesting due to these changes, of course, due to the quality of the writing & acting.
** While Matthew has no excuse, Jimmy James may have been engaging in ObfuscatingStupidity. Alternatively, he really is that eccentric, [[LetsGetDangerous and his business skills are only used as he needs them.]] This is apparent given that Mr. James is implied to be a highly successful SelfMadeMan, and his occasional bouts of serious behavior back up that he didn't get there by being an idiot. Most likely, he really is a goof ball and we generally only see him when he's relaxing, rather than engaging in SeriousBusiness (which is on several occasions implied to involve questionably legal activity).
* 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).
** Possibly justified. A recurring theme of the series was that people found odd and near-insane ways to cope with what they were experiencing. Radar's steady retreat towards childhood is actually one psychological response people have to stress in the real world.
** Radar's character regressed in a lot of ways. Early in the series, he was seen smoking cigars, drinking Henry's booze, and had several references to him peeping in the nurses' showers and enjoying developing their chest x-rays. As the show progressed, he got dumber, more naive, and less experienced to the point that even grape Nehi was a strong drink for him.
*** To be fair, [[GRatedDrug grape Nehi]] is a strong drink for ''anyone.'' BillBryson [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin solemnly swears that he once saw the edge of the universe after drinking it as a child.]]
* Nate Archibald on ''GossipGirl''. While he wasn't as intelligent as Chuck or Blair in season one he was still a guy of normal intelligence. By season four even his actor is complaining about what a moron he has become.
** In fairness, he's done so much pot in the last four seasons it actually does make sense that he's dumber.
* Granted, Potsie Webber of ''HappyDays'' started out a little on the dim side, but he only got dumber and dumber and dumber as the seasons went on.
* Nearly everyone from ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' but Paige was probably the worst affected, going from one of the best things about Seasons Four and Five to becoming a spazzy idiot. Best example of this? [[MemeticMutation ORB THE FUCKING GUN, RAIGE!]]
* Joe from ''Series/{{Wings}}'' after season five.
* Charlie on ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia. He was always the least intelligent/educated member of the group, but over the course of the first few seasons he got hit with this trope so hard he lost the ability to read and write (though he seems to ''think'' he can).
--> '''Mac''': Dammit, Charlie, your illiteracy has screwed us again!
* The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from being a witty, intelligent EveryMan who wins national writing awards into becoming a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show, so that the creators could more easily [[{{CharacterShilling}} shill]] his wife as "[[{{BlatantLies}} the reasonable one]]", pander to her fanbase for ratings, and make her the {{DesignatedHero}}ine of the show in the later seasons.
* KC from {{Degrassi}}, he's introduced as a member of the school's gifted program, two seasons later he thinks there's four trimesters during pregnancy.
* Randy Disher on ''Series/{{Monk}}'' seems to get more and more improbably stupid as the series progresses.
** This is even lampshaded in one of the novels. the Captain explains while he is an idiot in homicide cases, he is very good at the smaller crime cases.
** Monk himself isn't immune to this trope. As the series went on he seemed to morph from a brilliant but troubled detective to little more than a quivering mass of OCD hangups who just happens to work for the police on cryptic crimes.
* Robin Scherbatsky on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' didn't get ''dumber'' per se, but she did acquire a lot more quirky traits, gaps in her understanding of American culture, and general insanity ([[RunningGag *salutes*]]) in late season 1 through early season 2. The relative mildness of this effect meant it served to make her character a lot funnier and well-rounded: before, she had been an interesting character, but had a fairly narrow, undeveloped scope. [[FridgeBrilliance This trope also actually made sense here]], as she wasn't really a part of the gang in season 1, when her connection to the other characters was being Lily's new friend and the girl who Ted had a crush on, so she wasn't especially open with them and didn't spend as much time with them as she would later on.
* Jake on ''{{Two and a Half Men}}'' transformed from a fairly witty, albeit lazy, kid into a brain dead pothead in later episodes.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]
* ''{{Dilbert}}'': The [[PointyHairedBoss defining character trait]] of 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]]. And done deliberately in one strip where a new guy transitions from appearing to be smarter than everyone else in the team to having neanderthal-level intelligence over the course of a ''three panel comic''.
* ''FoxTrot'': Roger, the father figure. In the earliest years of the strip, he was a competent enough patriarch, though a bit harried and somewhat of a TedBaxter. As the strip went through ReverseCerebusSyndrome, his intelligence dropped severely and his occasional bouts of incompetence (he was a WalkingTechbane from the first month onward) became exaggerated to match.
* ''{{Garfield}}'': Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's owner. He started as a perfectly ordinary young man. Come the early-2000's, and he's a total moron who finds interest in mundane activities, mistakes a sudoku for a crossword, and mistakes an upside down restaurant menu for French. It was around the same time he was [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] into being the StrawLoser to Garfield.
* ''{{Peanuts}}'': Sally Brown started out as reasonably naïve and childish before devolving into a full-on TheDitz who made hilariously inaccurate school reports.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''FinalFantasy'': [[GenkiGirl Rikku]] got significantly ditzier between ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 X-2]]''.
** Yuna too although to a much lesser degree as it mostly takes the form of her naivety growing up on a small isolated island sheltered from life by her peers. It is also implied in-game that her new-found idiocy is due to the fact she is trying to imitate Rikku.
* Perhaps it was just Kazushige Nojima's shaky writing (he admitted in an interview that he didn't do a lot of work on the first game and wasn't familiar with the plot/characters/cosmology of KH), but Sora went from often naive in ''KingdomHearts'' to often ''ridiculously clueless'' in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''.
** This can probably be explained in-story by the fact that he [[spoiler:just spent a year in a coma, having his memories and certain parts of his personality recompiled basically from scratch.]] You're bound to have a bit of brain damage from that.
* Pete Wheeler of ''BackyardSports''. I mean, he ''forgot how to ride a bike within a few months of being a pro''.
* ''SuperMarioBros'' Has Bowser. Originally, just a straight up, ObviouslyEvil, DesignatedVillain. The lighthearted nature of the series however, lead to his portrayals as a dumb, immature bully, leading him down the path of this trope.
* The Avatar from the Ultima Games suffers an extreme case of this in Ultima 9, where he seems to have forgotten everything about Britannia, since he keeps asking about things he should know about since previous games. The most famous of these questions seems to be "What's a paladin?"
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''WebComic/EightBitTheater'':
** Bikke the pirate was actually fairly ruthless and cunning when he first appeared (well, compared to Garland and the heroes, anyway). At this point, his intelligence is viewed as on par with [[TheDitz Fighter's]]. In fact, he's probably worse since he's not even literate.
** D'rizzl actually ''inverted'' this trope, by taking levels in Smartass. Complete with a 50-point IQ hike.
** Fighter himself could also be considered a victim of this trope. Initially, he was simply TheFool with an intense sword obsession. For the past few hundred comics, he's essentially been a total idiot.
*** Could be justified due to brain damage as a direct result of Black Mage's stabby urges.
* Nick in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', who went from "stereotypical dim-bulb grunt" to an extreme [[TheDitz ditz]].
* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Sam "Da Man" Sein's intelligence has been plummeting ever since he became a vampire.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Web Original ]]
* Caboose from ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. This was explained in-universe as the result of the trauma of losing his girlfriend ([[CargoShip Sheila the tank]]) having his mind controlled by [[AIIsACrapshoot O'Mally]] and not being too bright to start with.
** Oddly enough, starting from ''Recreation'', Caboose actually seemed to ''regain'' some of his intelligence, upgrading from a complete idiot to merely TheDitz. This could be explained by the time Delta spent in Caboose's mind.
** Donut also seems to suffer from this to an extent, but he ''did'' take a sticky grenade to the head...
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Homestar himself. Which makes his [[SmartBall random moments of intelligence]] all the more hilarious. He once recited Coulomb's Law when asked "What is 2 plus 2?" (when Strong Sad reiterates the question, Homestar naturally gets it wrong), and actually outsmarted Strong Bad by getting him to say something stupid.
* The reviewers of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, whose characters are often not the smartest or most stable people anyhow, all seem to take stupid pills for the annual MassiveMultiplayerCrossover anniversary films and forget about the intelligence, resources or super-powers they've displayed in their own series. This is more or less justified by being a kind of RecursiveCanon, where the characters have made their videos instead of living them, but are still those characters instead of the people who actually play them.
** Happened to both WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick. The Critic used to be of average intelligence before morphing into a ditz with almost no common sense but can very insightful when he wants, and the Chick used to be an InsufferableGenius before becoming a KnowNothingKnowItAll who is oblivious to most things going on around her. TropesAreNotBad of course, their characters seen as much funnier now.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Homer Simpson, of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', has never been the brightest bulb in the box, but he actually started out a fairly normal person. He just got dumber and dumber as time went on. There have been a couple of in-show explanations for this, all contradictory. ConanOBrien said on a DVD commentary that Homer's IQ started out at 65 and dropped 5 points a year until it hit zero in Season 13.
-->'''Frank Grimes:''' I don't know anything, because I'm Homer Simpson!
** Ralph Wiggum has suffered from this trope more than any almost any other character mentioned. He was originally just another generic classmate of Lisa's before becoming the unbelievably dense collection of non-sequiturs we all know.
** WordOfGod says that Ralph was originally intended to be an eight year old version of Homer. When they realized that didn't really work, they just made him the most childlike character imaginable.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Almost every single adult undergoes this to a degree, but Randy Marsh is possibly the greatest example of this trope ever. Through the 13 seasons of the show, he has taken more levels in dumbass than any character other than possibly Ralph Wiggum.
** Despite being the town's only scientist, no less.
* WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants has always been [[CloudCuckoolander a little loopy]]. But he has become actually dumber and dumber (not just loopier and loopier) as the series has progressed.
** Especially after "A Pal For Gary". You'll hate him by the end.
** This trope also applies to [=SpongeBob=]'s best friend Patrick. Oh so much...
** Most of the stupidity in the post-movie episodes is due to Casey Alexander's writing, which is considered excremental by a lot of fans.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Pretty much every character with the exception of Wanda. Timmy started off simply as a ten year old boy who usually made rash decisions without thinking his wishes through. The newer series makes it debatable how he hasn't destroyed the world already yet.
** Cosmo most definitely. His first appearance was of a suave, gentlemanly persona in the first episodes, who made sarcastic comments and wisecracks. Now he's a screeching, literally brainless fairy who would have already killed Timmy if not for his wife's constant surveillance.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'': Done with several characters.
** Brak's case was actually justified; the cloud of space dust SpaceGhost threw him into during an episode of the original series was apparently to blame.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''
** All of Hank Hill's friends seem to slowly lose their precious remaining IQ points over the course of the series -- resulting in dumber and more outrageous schemes that Hank must eventually fix.
** 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. She was a bit of a WrenchWench during the first two seasons, but that was eventually abandoned and she became increasingly ditzy as the years went on (it should be noted that [[{{Misblamed}} this happened long before Lucky came along)]].
*** Peggy was bad at Spanish at the beginning of the series, in fact, she actually got a little better as it went on. The rest here is spot on, though.
*** Actually, Luanne could be seen fixing cars in later seasons, too.
** Joseph was a little kooky, being Dale's son and all (by nurture, of course) but when he hit puberty, he pretty much only begun to think with his hormones. This to the point where his dialog was replaced with HulkSpeak.
*** It gotten to extremes in one episode where Bobby accidentally sees Luanne without a shirt on and Joesph practically went beyond creepy levels when he kept asking Bobby to look at Luanne topless again so he can get the details on what her breasts look like.
* This happened to Fry in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. In the earliest episodes, where he was supposed to be a FishOutOfTemporalWater and stories would mostly focus around him adapting to life in the 31st century, he was a fairly average guy with a dash of {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and a few moments of genuine cleverness. As the show progressed, he adapted to his surroundings much faster than the writers intended, and so he devolved into a gibbering manchild [[PingPongNaivete unless the writers needed him to say something profound]].
** It's somewhat justified in-universe with Fry's lack of a delta brain-wave, which effectively stunted his mental growth:
--->'''Professor Farnsworth:''' And, Fry, you've got that brain thing.
--->'''Fry:''' I already did!
*** Of course, the means in which he contracted it — as shown in the episode "Roswell That Ends Well" — would have meant [[spoiler:[[GrandfatherParadox he had this his whole life, including all prior episodes.]]]] Also of note is that, in "The Why of Fry", [[spoiler:the Niblonians reveal that they deliberately froze him so that his "superior, yet inferior" brain would be used to protect the universe in the 31st century. Later it is revealed that the Niblonian who blew Fry into the cryochamber was, in fact, not a time traveler, and that the Niblonians knew of this phenomenon at least a millennium before the Roswell time travel incident.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Johnny.
** Averted when the series was temporarily revived, with Johnny instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Peter Griffin was a dumbass to begin with, but it got worse with [[UnCancelled uncancellation]]. Now he's gotten even worse. He's legally retarded in-canon. You never would have seen that coming in the show's early seasons.
* ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheFuture'': Marty [=McFly=]. He went from BookDumb in the films to TheDitz in the series.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'': Chowder; compare the naive little boy of Season One to the completely TooDumbToLive of Season Two.
* ''WesternAnimation/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. Beavis especially went from a generic dumb teenager to a bizarrely stupid boy with a split personality.
* There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', where Enzo [[ExactWords wished to be smarter than everyone else]]. So [[LiteralGenie the system]] underclocked everyone else, making them stupider so that Enzo would be the smartest person in Mainframe.
* In season one of ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo'', the villain Killface is intelligent, educated and sophisticated, by contrast to the IdiotHero Awesome X. A lot of the comedy from Killface stems from the contrast between their personae. Come season two, they're both complete morons.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': Fuzzy Lumpkins took this between the pilot 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:
--->'''Fuzzy:''' Come back here an' git off mah proppity!!
** The Mayor was never the sharpest knife in the drawer but in the early seasons he seemed to be more naive rather than outright stupid. By the end of the series half the time he can't even structure proper sentences together.
* Daffy Duck for ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow''. In the original shorts he was fairly intelligent and clever, but occasionally gullible and was often defeated due to his greed and selfishness. Here, he's a lazy idiot who can't do anything right and fails to answer even the simplest trivia questions correctly.
** And lets not forget Lola. Who in the movie she was a ActionGirl that could kick the butt of any toon and hated being called [[BerserkButton doll]]. However in this show she gets a GirlinessUpgrade, gains a ValleyGirl speak, and is a complete {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that seems to solely exist to be Bugs' ShallowLoveInterest.
* Penfold on ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' was the token dumbass, but as the series wound down to its final two seasons, Colonel K was afflicted by a case of the dumbasses which could be chalked up to early senility.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Battletoads}}'' cartoon turned the three protagonists into brain-dead teenage idiots. It even introduces Morgan "Zitz" Ziegler, a GeniusBruiser in the game canon, by having him cause a computer to explode just by trying to type something into it.
* Cleveland grew progressively dumber when he left ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and starred in his own show, ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''. Cleveland used to be the voice of reason in Peter's group but once he moved away, he became nearly incompetent and childlike.
* T.J. from ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' started out relatively average in the first season. He became more BookDumb in season two, and by season four, he was TheDitz.
* Captain Hook, MemeticBadass and much-loved villain of Disney/PeterPan comes back to menace the kid heroes of the [[{{Noninteractivity}} Dora-esque]] show ''WesternAnimation/JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'', missing about half his brain cells and with a somewhat off-putting redesign. Granted, Hook has [[FridgeBrilliance always had trouble defeating children]], but in this case it is particularly glaring.
* Fred from the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' franchise. He was originally the second smartest in the gang but has Took a Level in Dumbass ever since Daphne started [[TookALevelInBadass becoming more competent]]. Essentially Daphne took a good portion of his leadership skills and intelligence. [[WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo Some]] [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated incarnations]] flanderize this even more.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* Sailor Venus from ''Manga/SailorMoon''. See {{Flanderization}}.
* ''TenchiMuyo'': Mihoshi, ''especially'' in ''TenchiUniverse''. Somewhat justified in the case of ''TenchiUniverse'' (and ''Tenchi in Tokyo'') since those aren't actually the same Mihoshi, due to those being [[AlternateContinuity alternate continuities]]. Totally unjustified in the 3rd installment of the OVA series, though.
* Gourry from ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' degraded from IdiotHero to TheDitz and then became even dumber.
** The degradation arguably occurred before that, considering how Gourry's dumbass swordsman persona was apparently all an act in the original novels.
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Ohgi, after falling for Villetta. It's so bad that thanks partly to him, [[spoiler:Lelouch finishes crossing the DespairEventHorizon]], which causes [[spoiler:Lelouch]] to implement the [[spoiler:[[ThanatosGambit Zero Requiem]]]].
* ''LightNovel/{{Kampfer}}'': Natsuru but only in the anime. In the manga and light novels [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass however...]]
* ''RanmaOneHalf'': Genma. At the beginning of the series, he's lazy, doesn't think things through, and isn't the brightest bulb on the circuit, but is for the most part a competent martial artist who, despite some (admittedly quite serious) blunders, has trained his son to be an incredibly skilled martial artist. As the manga goes on, he becomes increasingly stupid and incompetent, with only one bright spot during the Ryu arc.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
** Light Yagami. He goes from erasing his own memory, trusting in the brilliance of his planning to ensure L's death while cementing his own complete innocence... to hiding the Death Note in storage and ''really hoping no one finds it while he's not looking''.\\
\\
The whole Mello and Near arc has Light {{nerf}}ed down hard, making great mistakes apparently to balance the odds of the two kids-nemesis. He loses the note, he loses Sayu, he loses his father... and one of his "best" responses is to confirm to Near he's Kira by ''sending a [[DyingLikeAnimals mass of stupid people]] at the exact location (and '''only there''') of Near's anti-Kira organisation with the '''great''' expectations that they'll lynch someone of L's level''. Believing his own [[AGodAmI hype]] likely has something to do with it, as does the fact that Near and Mello have far more information to work with than L did.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': The Team Rocket trio. In the early appearances they are very competent, albeit very hammy, and have succeeded several times 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, provide comic relief, 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]].
** This is finally subverted in Best Wishes as they now TookALevelInBadass. Ash, however...
* Alphonse in [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime version]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. He starts off as an intelligent, insightful young boy who was the [[StraightMan sensible one]] compared to Ed. Later on he makes many very poor, and arguably stupid choices like taking [[KnifeNut Barry the Chopper's]] mind games to heart, and distrusting people who he's known all his life. This happens in both the manga and anime, but in the manga, Al learns from this and doesn't do anything like it again. In the first anime it mainly takes effect in the later half,where he runs off every time he gets upset, even though the Homunculi [[spoiler: and Dante]] are looking for and trying to kill them, going along with Shou Tucker's plans and not telling Ed (even though Tucker made his daughter [[spoiler:into a chimaera, resulting in her death]], and letting Sloth convince him that she's his mother, even though she is a Homunculi when Ed is trying to remind him that they're fighting for their lives, [[spoiler:immediately running towards Envy disguised as Winry, right after Ed says it isn't her, and barely putting up a fight.]] He arguably became more impulsive than his brother, whereas earlier in the show it was the other way around. This could be interpreted as the writers having Al act more like how a real little boy would if they were put in such a situation, [[spoiler:but he becomes more competent again in the finale]]. Other than that he basically becomes [[TheLoad quite the load]].
* As of late, whenever Manga/{{Naruto}} seems to start growing as a character, he immediately takes a level in dumbass. Most notoriously when he doesn't realize anything is wrong during the attack on turtle island by Kabuto and zombie!Deidara. Despite the living island suddenly acting as if it were hit with a high-level earthquake.
** For a long while, Sasuke from [[spoiler:the death of Itachi]] and throughout the succeeding arcs. Even after both Tobi and Itachi had both implored that the destruction of Uchiha clan wasn't the fault of the Leaf, he decides to screw everything and try to destroy the Hidden Leaf village and every single person living in it, despite Itachi's intentions and words told by the main antagonist of all people himself urging the very contrary. All the while, his chakra grows noticeably darker and colder through his hatred, implications seeming as if he's forcing himself to hate in order get more powerful. At one point, he impales [[spoiler:Karin]] when held hostage with the Chidori, despite Danzo holding her in a position where his body and head is in clear sight of his lightning-fast attack and discards her for being "useless".
* Sakura Kinomoto of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' plays with this. In early episodes she was something of a NaiveEverygirl, childlike but fairly normal in terms of her age's intelligence and demeanor. In later episodes she is something of a GeniusDitz, highly developed in her handling of her cards and even the odd bit wisdomic, but an exagerratively naive KindheartedSimpleton in most other areas.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'': This trope happening to the entire human race is basically the plot.
* ''Film/TheMask'' has both a film-wise and adaptation wise example for Lt. Kellaway's partner, Det. Doyle. In his initial scene at the bank, Doyle seems to be quite intelligent. By the time we see him at the park, he's suddenly a ditz and by the film's end he's a certified idiot. [[Westernanimation/TheMask The cartoon]] made him even dumber.
* ''Film/TheNeverendingStory III'': Falkor, who is supposed to be a very ''smart'' character. He is a smart character in the first film and still somewhat smart in the second. In the third, however, he becomes a downright moron.
** Not to mention the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVV3MDJp5Xo Rock Biter...]]
* In ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', Marcus Brody was portrayed as a highly intelligent, very serious character. When he shows up again in ''IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' he was suddenly an incompetent [[TheLoad load]] who couldn't even initially tell that he was being kidnapped... even as Sallah was screaming at him that the bad guys were doing exactly that.
* In [[HomeAlone Home Alone 2]] Marv is a lot dumber than in the first film, possibly thanks to the head injuries he sustained in the first film (and/or additional head injuries he might have sustained in prison).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* ''SherlockHolmes'': Watson is compentent in the originals novel, though his mediocrity does serve to highlight the main character's brilliance. In many adaptations he has taken a level in dumbasss: few of which have portrayed him with any of his original intelligence or abilities.
** Same goes for HerculePoirot's sidekick Captain Hastings.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': In the first four books of the series Elaida is presented as a cunning member of the Red Ajah who is able to get Suian removed from power and still her. As soon as she gain powers her I.Q drops considerably, she pisses everyone in the tower off, she makes disastrous decisions that causes Aes Sedai to be captured, and she can't even decide that the Black Ajah exists or not even when it should be obvious after several sisters were murdered and Ter'angreal were stolen. The only possible explanation is she was elevated beyond her abilities (not surprising given she was the pawn of several Black Ajah in getting raised) and cracked after her first few screw ups.
** 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 points of view, he mentions that he "brushed [her] with what he carried from Aridhol." It's not exactly confirmed, but it is implied.
*** WordOfGod confirms it. Fain wasn't around Elaida long enough to substantially change her personality, but his presence brought out the worst aspects that were already there and certainly accelerated her deterioration.
** Alviarin was a member of the Black Ajah and Elaida's Keeper of the Chronicles. She had been bullying Elaida into obeying her orders, even using Compulsion on her to have her obey. Most of Elaida's efforts since being raised are to undermine Alviarin's influence on her, and it is known that Compulsion causes mental instability if it is used multiple times on one person. Both these factors, as well as Fain's ability to corrupt, would swiftly give her the dumbass experience required to level up from cunning to totally incompetent.
** Also, by the last several books things aren't going Elaida's way at all, and she's starting to crack under the strain. A VillainousBreakdown may not cause you to ''lose'' IQ points, but it'll certainly have a negative impact on your being able to use them.
* Cersei in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', although YMMV. In book 1 she successfully engineers her husband's death and beats out Ned Stark in the power struggle that follows, and while she's ultimately bested by the Imp in book 2, she's not a pushover. In book 4, though, she surrounds herself with morons and alienates everybody useful as if she's doing it on purpose - Littlefinger aptly describes her as "stumbl[ing] from one idiocy to the next." One interpretation is that she's gotten stupid and arrogant from her success, which matches this trope. But it's also possible that she's no dumber than before, and has simply been promoted to the level of her incompetence, Peter Principle-style. The Seven Kingdoms are not an easy realm to run.
** It helps that everyone capable of overriding her bad decisions is dead or has left King's Landing by the fourth book.
* Kalten in ''TheElenium'' seems to get a case of this. In the beginning of the trilogy, he is a skilled knight although basically book-dumb, i.e. he is incapable of performing magic because he couldn't learn the Styric language. By the end of the second book, this has turned into him not knowing what a diagonal is. Subverted at the end of the Tamuli where he reveals that he is playing the ObfuscatingStupidity card, since he knows that if people don't take him seriously they will be off-guard around him.
* Septimus Heap in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', between ''Syren'' and ''Darke''. In ''Syren'' he the cautious one, in ''Darke'' [[spoiler: his disregard for Jenna's warnings about the '''Darke Domaine''' doesn't match any of his past actions, and results in the '''Domaine''' being set loose.]]
* Claudia from ''TheBabysittersClub'' started out as a C-student who had an above average I.Q. but just didn't care about doing well in school. By the end of the series, she was so dumb the reader sometimes wondered how she managed to put on her pants in the morning.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* Sam Malone in ''{{Cheers}}''. He went from earthbound jock to idiot after Diane left.
** This was uneven. Some episodes he was still portrayed as being reasonably bright, others he was a lecher dominated entirely by his reproductive organs. It went back and forth depending on whether Sam was being a reality check for Rebecca or trying to bed her.
* Jayne over the course of the short run of the ''{{Firefly}}'' series seems to go from unsophisticated but frighteningly cunning in the pilot to just plain stupid.
* Cat from ''{{Victorious}}''. She goes from being of relatively normal intelligence in the early parts of Season 1 to a girl who is apparently intelligent enough to just color a "pretty tiger" purple and realize that "that doesn't happen in nature".
** Robbie also qualifies, as many of the problems the kids get into over several episodes (notably ''The Great Ping-Pong Scam'', ''How Trina Got In'' and ''Locked Up!''), are directly his fault. His behavior in dealing with Rex (notably in ''Wi-Fi In The Sky'') also puts him in this category.
* ''TheOffice'':
** Michael Scott for a bit, but they reined it back in.
** Inverted with Dwight who started the series as a gullible man with almost no common sense and then became more and more skilled and successful as time went on. By seasons six and especially seven he seems smarter than any of the other characters.
** Kevin Malone. He was never the brightest bulb at Dunder Mifflin, but he showed signs during the first few seasons of just being a little dopey. A savant at the worst. By Season 5, he had lost about 25-50 IQ points. As of Season 8, he is pretty much mentally retarded.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}''
** Peter Petrelli [[IdiotHero after he learns how to]] [[HowDoIShotWeb use the powers he absorbs.]]
** In fact, ''[[IdiotBall everyone]]'' on ''Heroes'' gets this, with nominal good guys Mohinder, Peter and especially Hiro getting the worst of it.
** The villains too. Adam Monroe goes from being a coldly calculating bad ass with mad samurai skillz to a guy who meekly 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.
** Mr. Linderman. He began as a cryptically whispered name that made the most BadAss among the cast cower in fear. He was revealed as an AffablyEvil WellIntentionedExtremist [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who had been engineering events across the entire first season. When DL and Jessica show up, what is his plan? [[spoiler: "Take this money and kill your husband."]] [[SarcasmMode Yeah, really bright, Linderman.]]
* Kelly Bundy from ''MarriedWithChildren''. The more her intelligence decreased, the more the show's quality increased in direct proportion.
** Hilariously subverted in the episode "Hi, I.Q.," in which she accomplishes what Al couldn't--assembling his workshop bench. Which could just suggest she is simply BookDumb.
*** Or that she's actually BrilliantButLazy and is simply playing dumb.
* Michael Kelso from ''That70sShow''. He was always a [[TheDitz ditz]], but he just got dumber and dumber as the show progressed.
* Chelsea from ''ThatsSoRaven''.
* London from ''TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody''. And ''again'' on ''The Suite Life On Deck''.
* Max from ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''
* Eric from ''BoyMeetsWorld''.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': This has happened to Dean Winchester, starting from the point that he became a [[BreakTheCutie Broken Cutie]], DependingOnTheWriter.
* Jack O'Neill in ''Series/StargateSG1''.
** Initially he was quite intelligent and a prime example of ColonelBadass. He had tendencies of TheWatson, but there's no shame in knowing less about science than the one who [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun blew up a sun]], less about ancient cultures than the one who's studied them all his life, or less about alien technology than the one who lived with it. Then the things being explained to him got simpler and more obvious as his jokiness quotient rises. At the nadir, we get "La, la, I can't heeeear you!" when finding out a guest star was in fact someone ''incredibly'' dangerous from a previous episode, or later gems like "SHE'S HAVING HER BRAINS SUCKED OUT!" By season five, his role seems to be "make jokes during dead-serious situations while others roll their eyes and make the decisions that would have been O'Neill's responsibility." An episode had the people of the planet of the week talking about how Earth would have sent its best and brightest representative... and then [[DescriptionCut O'Neill enters, 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.
** Of course, the characters who know him best, especially Sam, insist this is just ObfuscatingStupidity.
** As of ''Series/StargateUniverse'', O'Neill limits his silliness to a couple of one-liners per appearance, and seems to have [[LetsGetDangerous gotten down to business]].
* Rimmer from ''Series/RedDwarf'', though how many levels taken seemed to change with every season. The Cat is an even better example having started out as... a cat and ended up with "a brain the size of a grape."
** Holli, the ship's A.I. went from being extremely eccentric after spending 3 million years alone and ObfuscatingStupidity to literally having a single digit IQ due to "computer senility" a couple of series later.
* Joey from ''{{Friends}}'' seems to have lost quite a few IQ points over the years, to the point where in the final season he can't tell left from right.
** Also Erica, the biological mother of Chandler and Monica's twins. When we first meet her she's a perfectly normal, intelligent girl. When she appears later in the season she's so stupid that her IQ is merely half of Forest Gump's.
* Chrissy on ''ThreesCompany'' was originally mildly ditzy. By the time she left the series one wondered how she managed to dress herself or hold a job.
* Baldrick from ''{{Blackadder}}'' -- there's the obvious leap between series one and two (while Blackadder himself does the opposite and takes a level in smartass), but even after that, he does still manage to get gradually worse over the next three series, until in ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' he's what Tony Robinson described as "[[TooDumbToLive terminally stupid]]" -- you literally can't imagine how he's survived to adulthood. Of course, in ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' his childlike personality is both hilarious & tragically poignant, given the hopelessness of the World War I trench setting. He even gets some moments of childlike wisdom in the finale, simply questioning why they can't all just stop fighting and go home.
** If you want concrete evidence, compare this scene from ''Blackadder II''...
--->'''Edmund''': That Farrow bloke you executed today, are you sure he's dead?
--->'''Baldrick''': Well I chopped his head off, that usually does the trick.
** ...with this one from ''Blackadder The Third''
--->'''Edmund''': [...]So, what's the plan?
--->'''Baldrick''': We do... nothing.
--->'''Edmund''': Yep, that's another world-beater.
--->'''Baldrick''': Wait, I haven't finished. We do nothing ''until'' our heads have actually been cut off...
--->'''Edmund''': ...and then we spring into action?
--->'''Baldrick''': Exactly![...]
*** The character changes between series are all justified because it is a different Baldrick in each one.
* Matthew Brock from ''{{Newsradio}}'' is another example; in the show's first season he seemed relatively normal and competent (he even secretly was [[spoiler: a registered dentist]]), but by the third or fourth season he came across as either mentally retarded or an eight-year old in a man's body. Jimmy James to an extent too, although that was more of Taking a Level in Craziness than Dumbness. Both characters were a lot funnier and more interesting due to these changes, of course, due to the quality of the writing & acting.
** While Matthew has no excuse, Jimmy James may have been engaging in ObfuscatingStupidity. Alternatively, he really is that eccentric, [[LetsGetDangerous and his business skills are only used as he needs them.]] This is apparent given that Mr. James is implied to be a highly successful SelfMadeMan, and his occasional bouts of serious behavior back up that he didn't get there by being an idiot. Most likely, he really is a goof ball and we generally only see him when he's relaxing, rather than engaging in SeriousBusiness (which is on several occasions implied to involve questionably legal activity).
* 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).
** Possibly justified. A recurring theme of the series was that people found odd and near-insane ways to cope with what they were experiencing. Radar's steady retreat towards childhood is actually one psychological response people have to stress in the real world.
** Radar's character regressed in a lot of ways. Early in the series, he was seen smoking cigars, drinking Henry's booze, and had several references to him peeping in the nurses' showers and enjoying developing their chest x-rays. As the show progressed, he got dumber, more naive, and less experienced to the point that even grape Nehi was a strong drink for him.
*** To be fair, [[GRatedDrug grape Nehi]] is a strong drink for ''anyone.'' BillBryson [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin solemnly swears that he once saw the edge of the universe after drinking it as a child.]]
* Nate Archibald on ''GossipGirl''. While he wasn't as intelligent as Chuck or Blair in season one he was still a guy of normal intelligence. By season four even his actor is complaining about what a moron he has become.
** In fairness, he's done so much pot in the last four seasons it actually does make sense that he's dumber.
* Granted, Potsie Webber of ''HappyDays'' started out a little on the dim side, but he only got dumber and dumber and dumber as the seasons went on.
* Nearly everyone from ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' but Paige was probably the worst affected, going from one of the best things about Seasons Four and Five to becoming a spazzy idiot. Best example of this? [[MemeticMutation ORB THE FUCKING GUN, RAIGE!]]
* Joe from ''Series/{{Wings}}'' after season five.
* Charlie on ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia. He was always the least intelligent/educated member of the group, but over the course of the first few seasons he got hit with this trope so hard he lost the ability to read and write (though he seems to ''think'' he can).
--> '''Mac''': Dammit, Charlie, your illiteracy has screwed us again!
* The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from being a witty, intelligent EveryMan who wins national writing awards into becoming a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show, so that the creators could more easily [[{{CharacterShilling}} shill]] his wife as "[[{{BlatantLies}} the reasonable one]]", pander to her fanbase for ratings, and make her the {{DesignatedHero}}ine of the show in the later seasons.
* KC from {{Degrassi}}, he's introduced as a member of the school's gifted program, two seasons later he thinks there's four trimesters during pregnancy.
* Randy Disher on ''Series/{{Monk}}'' seems to get more and more improbably stupid as the series progresses.
** This is even lampshaded in one of the novels. the Captain explains while he is an idiot in homicide cases, he is very good at the smaller crime cases.
** Monk himself isn't immune to this trope. As the series went on he seemed to morph from a brilliant but troubled detective to little more than a quivering mass of OCD hangups who just happens to work for the police on cryptic crimes.
* Robin Scherbatsky on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' didn't get ''dumber'' per se, but she did acquire a lot more quirky traits, gaps in her understanding of American culture, and general insanity ([[RunningGag *salutes*]]) in late season 1 through early season 2. The relative mildness of this effect meant it served to make her character a lot funnier and well-rounded: before, she had been an interesting character, but had a fairly narrow, undeveloped scope. [[FridgeBrilliance This trope also actually made sense here]], as she wasn't really a part of the gang in season 1, when her connection to the other characters was being Lily's new friend and the girl who Ted had a crush on, so she wasn't especially open with them and didn't spend as much time with them as she would later on.
* Jake on ''{{Two and a Half Men}}'' transformed from a fairly witty, albeit lazy, kid into a brain dead pothead in later episodes.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]
* ''{{Dilbert}}'': The [[PointyHairedBoss defining character trait]] of 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]]. And done deliberately in one strip where a new guy transitions from appearing to be smarter than everyone else in the team to having neanderthal-level intelligence over the course of a ''three panel comic''.
* ''FoxTrot'': Roger, the father figure. In the earliest years of the strip, he was a competent enough patriarch, though a bit harried and somewhat of a TedBaxter. As the strip went through ReverseCerebusSyndrome, his intelligence dropped severely and his occasional bouts of incompetence (he was a WalkingTechbane from the first month onward) became exaggerated to match.
* ''{{Garfield}}'': Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's owner. He started as a perfectly ordinary young man. Come the early-2000's, and he's a total moron who finds interest in mundane activities, mistakes a sudoku for a crossword, and mistakes an upside down restaurant menu for French. It was around the same time he was [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] into being the StrawLoser to Garfield.
* ''{{Peanuts}}'': Sally Brown started out as reasonably naïve and childish before devolving into a full-on TheDitz who made hilariously inaccurate school reports.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''FinalFantasy'': [[GenkiGirl Rikku]] got significantly ditzier between ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 X-2]]''.
** Yuna too although to a much lesser degree as it mostly takes the form of her naivety growing up on a small isolated island sheltered from life by her peers. It is also implied in-game that her new-found idiocy is due to the fact she is trying to imitate Rikku.
* Perhaps it was just Kazushige Nojima's shaky writing (he admitted in an interview that he didn't do a lot of work on the first game and wasn't familiar with the plot/characters/cosmology of KH), but Sora went from often naive in ''KingdomHearts'' to often ''ridiculously clueless'' in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''.
** This can probably be explained in-story by the fact that he [[spoiler:just spent a year in a coma, having his memories and certain parts of his personality recompiled basically from scratch.]] You're bound to have a bit of brain damage from that.
* Pete Wheeler of ''BackyardSports''. I mean, he ''forgot how to ride a bike within a few months of being a pro''.
* ''SuperMarioBros'' Has Bowser. Originally, just a straight up, ObviouslyEvil, DesignatedVillain. The lighthearted nature of the series however, lead to his portrayals as a dumb, immature bully, leading him down the path of this trope.
* The Avatar from the Ultima Games suffers an extreme case of this in Ultima 9, where he seems to have forgotten everything about Britannia, since he keeps asking about things he should know about since previous games. The most famous of these questions seems to be "What's a paladin?"
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''WebComic/EightBitTheater'':
** Bikke the pirate was actually fairly ruthless and cunning when he first appeared (well, compared to Garland and the heroes, anyway). At this point, his intelligence is viewed as on par with [[TheDitz Fighter's]]. In fact, he's probably worse since he's not even literate.
** D'rizzl actually ''inverted'' this trope, by taking levels in Smartass. Complete with a 50-point IQ hike.
** Fighter himself could also be considered a victim of this trope. Initially, he was simply TheFool with an intense sword obsession. For the past few hundred comics, he's essentially been a total idiot.
*** Could be justified due to brain damage as a direct result of Black Mage's stabby urges.
* Nick in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', who went from "stereotypical dim-bulb grunt" to an extreme [[TheDitz ditz]].
* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Sam "Da Man" Sein's intelligence has been plummeting ever since he became a vampire.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Web Original ]]
* Caboose from ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. This was explained in-universe as the result of the trauma of losing his girlfriend ([[CargoShip Sheila the tank]]) having his mind controlled by [[AIIsACrapshoot O'Mally]] and not being too bright to start with.
** Oddly enough, starting from ''Recreation'', Caboose actually seemed to ''regain'' some of his intelligence, upgrading from a complete idiot to merely TheDitz. This could be explained by the time Delta spent in Caboose's mind.
** Donut also seems to suffer from this to an extent, but he ''did'' take a sticky grenade to the head...
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Homestar himself. Which makes his [[SmartBall random moments of intelligence]] all the more hilarious. He once recited Coulomb's Law when asked "What is 2 plus 2?" (when Strong Sad reiterates the question, Homestar naturally gets it wrong), and actually outsmarted Strong Bad by getting him to say something stupid.
* The reviewers of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, whose characters are often not the smartest or most stable people anyhow, all seem to take stupid pills for the annual MassiveMultiplayerCrossover anniversary films and forget about the intelligence, resources or super-powers they've displayed in their own series. This is more or less justified by being a kind of RecursiveCanon, where the characters have made their videos instead of living them, but are still those characters instead of the people who actually play them.
** Happened to both WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick. The Critic used to be of average intelligence before morphing into a ditz with almost no common sense but can very insightful when he wants, and the Chick used to be an InsufferableGenius before becoming a KnowNothingKnowItAll who is oblivious to most things going on around her. TropesAreNotBad of course, their characters seen as much funnier now.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Homer Simpson, of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', has never been the brightest bulb in the box, but he actually started out a fairly normal person. He just got dumber and dumber as time went on. There have been a couple of in-show explanations for this, all contradictory. ConanOBrien said on a DVD commentary that Homer's IQ started out at 65 and dropped 5 points a year until it hit zero in Season 13.
-->'''Frank Grimes:''' I don't know anything, because I'm Homer Simpson!
** Ralph Wiggum has suffered from this trope more than any almost any other character mentioned. He was originally just another generic classmate of Lisa's before becoming the unbelievably dense collection of non-sequiturs we all know.
** WordOfGod says that Ralph was originally intended to be an eight year old version of Homer. When they realized that didn't really work, they just made him the most childlike character imaginable.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Almost every single adult undergoes this to a degree, but Randy Marsh is possibly the greatest example of this trope ever. Through the 13 seasons of the show, he has taken more levels in dumbass than any character other than possibly Ralph Wiggum.
** Despite being the town's only scientist, no less.
* WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants has always been [[CloudCuckoolander a little loopy]]. But he has become actually dumber and dumber (not just loopier and loopier) as the series has progressed.
** Especially after "A Pal For Gary". You'll hate him by the end.
** This trope also applies to [=SpongeBob=]'s best friend Patrick. Oh so much...
** Most of the stupidity in the post-movie episodes is due to Casey Alexander's writing, which is considered excremental by a lot of fans.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Pretty much every character with the exception of Wanda. Timmy started off simply as a ten year old boy who usually made rash decisions without thinking his wishes through. The newer series makes it debatable how he hasn't destroyed the world already yet.
** Cosmo most definitely. His first appearance was of a suave, gentlemanly persona in the first episodes, who made sarcastic comments and wisecracks. Now he's a screeching, literally brainless fairy who would have already killed Timmy if not for his wife's constant surveillance.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'': Done with several characters.
** Brak's case was actually justified; the cloud of space dust SpaceGhost threw him into during an episode of the original series was apparently to blame.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''
** All of Hank Hill's friends seem to slowly lose their precious remaining IQ points over the course of the series -- resulting in dumber and more outrageous schemes that Hank must eventually fix.
** 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. She was a bit of a WrenchWench during the first two seasons, but that was eventually abandoned and she became increasingly ditzy as the years went on (it should be noted that [[{{Misblamed}} this happened long before Lucky came along)]].
*** Peggy was bad at Spanish at the beginning of the series, in fact, she actually got a little better as it went on. The rest here is spot on, though.
*** Actually, Luanne could be seen fixing cars in later seasons, too.
** Joseph was a little kooky, being Dale's son and all (by nurture, of course) but when he hit puberty, he pretty much only begun to think with his hormones. This to the point where his dialog was replaced with HulkSpeak.
*** It gotten to extremes in one episode where Bobby accidentally sees Luanne without a shirt on and Joesph practically went beyond creepy levels when he kept asking Bobby to look at Luanne topless again so he can get the details on what her breasts look like.
* This happened to Fry in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. In the earliest episodes, where he was supposed to be a FishOutOfTemporalWater and stories would mostly focus around him adapting to life in the 31st century, he was a fairly average guy with a dash of {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and a few moments of genuine cleverness. As the show progressed, he adapted to his surroundings much faster than the writers intended, and so he devolved into a gibbering manchild [[PingPongNaivete unless the writers needed him to say something profound]].
** It's somewhat justified in-universe with Fry's lack of a delta brain-wave, which effectively stunted his mental growth:
--->'''Professor Farnsworth:''' And, Fry, you've got that brain thing.
--->'''Fry:''' I already did!
*** Of course, the means in which he contracted it — as shown in the episode "Roswell That Ends Well" — would have meant [[spoiler:[[GrandfatherParadox he had this his whole life, including all prior episodes.]]]] Also of note is that, in "The Why of Fry", [[spoiler:the Niblonians reveal that they deliberately froze him so that his "superior, yet inferior" brain would be used to protect the universe in the 31st century. Later it is revealed that the Niblonian who blew Fry into the cryochamber was, in fact, not a time traveler, and that the Niblonians knew of this phenomenon at least a millennium before the Roswell time travel incident.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Johnny.
** Averted when the series was temporarily revived, with Johnny instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Peter Griffin was a dumbass to begin with, but it got worse with [[UnCancelled uncancellation]]. Now he's gotten even worse. He's legally retarded in-canon. You never would have seen that coming in the show's early seasons.
* ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheFuture'': Marty [=McFly=]. He went from BookDumb in the films to TheDitz in the series.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'': Chowder; compare the naive little boy of Season One to the completely TooDumbToLive of Season Two.
* ''WesternAnimation/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. Beavis especially went from a generic dumb teenager to a bizarrely stupid boy with a split personality.
* There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', where Enzo [[ExactWords wished to be smarter than everyone else]]. So [[LiteralGenie the system]] underclocked everyone else, making them stupider so that Enzo would be the smartest person in Mainframe.
* In season one of ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo'', the villain Killface is intelligent, educated and sophisticated, by contrast to the IdiotHero Awesome X. A lot of the comedy from Killface stems from the contrast between their personae. Come season two, they're both complete morons.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': Fuzzy Lumpkins took this between the pilot 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:
--->'''Fuzzy:''' Come back here an' git off mah proppity!!
** The Mayor was never the sharpest knife in the drawer but in the early seasons he seemed to be more naive rather than outright stupid. By the end of the series half the time he can't even structure proper sentences together.
* Daffy Duck for ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow''. In the original shorts he was fairly intelligent and clever, but occasionally gullible and was often defeated due to his greed and selfishness. Here, he's a lazy idiot who can't do anything right and fails to answer even the simplest trivia questions correctly.
** And lets not forget Lola. Who in the movie she was a ActionGirl that could kick the butt of any toon and hated being called [[BerserkButton doll]]. However in this show she gets a GirlinessUpgrade, gains a ValleyGirl speak, and is a complete {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that seems to solely exist to be Bugs' ShallowLoveInterest.
* Penfold on ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' was the token dumbass, but as the series wound down to its final two seasons, Colonel K was afflicted by a case of the dumbasses which could be chalked up to early senility.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Battletoads}}'' cartoon turned the three protagonists into brain-dead teenage idiots. It even introduces Morgan "Zitz" Ziegler, a GeniusBruiser in the game canon, by having him cause a computer to explode just by trying to type something into it.
* Cleveland grew progressively dumber when he left ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and starred in his own show, ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''. Cleveland used to be the voice of reason in Peter's group but once he moved away, he became nearly incompetent and childlike.
* T.J. from ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' started out relatively average in the first season. He became more BookDumb in season two, and by season four, he was TheDitz.
* Captain Hook, MemeticBadass and much-loved villain of Disney/PeterPan comes back to menace the kid heroes of the [[{{Noninteractivity}} Dora-esque]] show ''WesternAnimation/JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'', missing about half his brain cells and with a somewhat off-putting redesign. Granted, Hook has [[FridgeBrilliance always had trouble defeating children]], but in this case it is particularly glaring.
* Fred from the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' franchise. He was originally the second smartest in the gang but has Took a Level in Dumbass ever since Daphne started [[TookALevelInBadass becoming more competent]]. Essentially Daphne took a good portion of his leadership skills and intelligence. [[WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo Some]] [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated incarnations]] flanderize this even more.
[[/folder]]
to:
[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
*
*
*
** The degradation arguably occurred before that, considering how Gourry's dumbass swordsman persona was apparently all an act in the original novels.
*
*
*
*
** Light Yagami. He goes from erasing his own memory, trusting in the brilliance of his planning to ensure L's death while cementing his own complete innocence... to hiding the Death Note in storage and ''really hoping no one finds it while he's not looking''.\\
\\
The whole Mello and Near arc has Light {{nerf}}ed down hard, making great mistakes apparently to balance the odds of the two kids-nemesis. He loses the note, he loses Sayu, he loses his father... and one of his "best" responses is to confirm to Near he's Kira by ''sending a [[DyingLikeAnimals mass of stupid people]] at the exact location (and '''only there''') of Near's anti-Kira organisation with the '''great''' expectations that they'll lynch someone of L's level''. Believing his own [[AGodAmI hype]] likely has something to do with it, as does the fact that Near and Mello have far more information to work with than L did.
*
** This is finally subverted in Best Wishes as they now TookALevelInBadass. Ash, however...
*
* As of late, whenever Manga/{{Naruto}} seems to start growing as a character, he immediately takes a level in dumbass. Most notoriously when he doesn't realize anything is wrong during the attack on turtle island by Kabuto and zombie!Deidara. Despite the living island suddenly acting as if it were hit with a high-level earthquake.
** For a long while, Sasuke from [[spoiler:the death of Itachi]] and throughout the succeeding arcs. Even after both Tobi and Itachi had both implored that the destruction of Uchiha clan wasn't the fault of the Leaf, he decides to screw everything and try to destroy the Hidden Leaf village and every single person living in it, despite Itachi's intentions and words told by the main antagonist of all people himself urging the very contrary. All the while, his chakra grows noticeably darker and colder through his hatred, implications seeming as if he's forcing himself to hate in order get more powerful. At one point, he impales [[spoiler:Karin]] when held hostage with the Chidori, despite Danzo holding her in a position where his body and head is in clear sight of his lightning-fast attack and discards her for being "useless".
* Sakura Kinomoto of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' plays with this. In early episodes she was something of a NaiveEverygirl, childlike but fairly normal in terms of her age's intelligence and demeanor. In later episodes she is something of a GeniusDitz, highly developed in her handling of her cards and even the odd bit wisdomic, but an exagerratively naive KindheartedSimpleton in most other areas.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'': This trope happening to the entire human race is basically the plot.
* ''Film/TheMask'' has both a film-wise and adaptation wise example for Lt. Kellaway's partner, Det. Doyle. In his initial scene at the bank, Doyle seems to be quite intelligent. By the time we see him at the park, he's suddenly a ditz and by the film's end he's a certified idiot. [[Westernanimation/TheMask The cartoon]] made him even dumber.
* ''Film/TheNeverendingStory III'': Falkor, who is supposed to be a very ''smart'' character. He is a smart character in the first film and still somewhat smart in the second. In the third, however, he becomes a downright moron.
** Not to mention the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVV3MDJp5Xo Rock Biter...]]
* In ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', Marcus Brody was portrayed as a highly intelligent, very serious character. When he shows up again in ''IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' he was suddenly an incompetent [[TheLoad load]] who couldn't even initially tell that he was being kidnapped... even as Sallah was screaming at him that the bad guys were doing exactly that.
* In [[HomeAlone Home Alone 2]] Marv is a lot dumber than in the first film, possibly thanks to the head injuries he sustained in the first film (and/or additional head injuries he might have sustained in prison).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* ''SherlockHolmes'': Watson is compentent in the originals novel, though his mediocrity does serve to highlight the main character's brilliance. In many adaptations he has taken a level in dumbasss: few of which have portrayed him with any of his original intelligence or abilities.
** Same goes for HerculePoirot's sidekick Captain Hastings.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': In the first four books of the series Elaida is presented as a cunning member of the Red Ajah who is able to get Suian removed from power and still her. As soon as she gain powers her I.Q drops considerably, she pisses everyone in the tower off, she makes disastrous decisions that causes Aes Sedai to be captured, and she can't even decide that the Black Ajah exists or not even when it should be obvious after several sisters were murdered and Ter'angreal were stolen. The only possible explanation is she was elevated beyond her abilities (not surprising given she was the pawn of several Black Ajah in getting raised) and cracked after her first few screw ups.
** 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 points of view, he mentions that he "brushed [her] with what he carried from Aridhol." It's not exactly confirmed, but it is implied.
*** WordOfGod confirms it. Fain wasn't around Elaida long enough to substantially change her personality, but his presence brought out the worst aspects that were already there and certainly accelerated her deterioration.
** Alviarin was a member of the Black Ajah and Elaida's Keeper of the Chronicles. She had been bullying Elaida into obeying her orders, even using Compulsion on her to have her obey. Most of Elaida's efforts since being raised are to undermine Alviarin's influence on her, and it is known that Compulsion causes mental instability if it is used multiple times on one person. Both these factors, as well as Fain's ability to corrupt, would swiftly give her the dumbass experience required to level up from cunning to totally incompetent.
** Also, by the last several books things aren't going Elaida's way at all, and she's starting to crack under the strain. A VillainousBreakdown may not cause you to ''lose'' IQ points, but it'll certainly have a negative impact on your being able to use them.
* Cersei in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', although YMMV. In book 1 she successfully engineers her husband's death and beats out Ned Stark in the power struggle that follows, and while she's ultimately bested by the Imp in book 2, she's not a pushover. In book 4, though, she surrounds herself with morons and alienates everybody useful as if she's doing it on purpose - Littlefinger aptly describes her as "stumbl[ing] from one idiocy to the next." One interpretation is that she's gotten stupid and arrogant from her success, which matches this trope. But it's also possible that she's no dumber than before, and has simply been promoted to the level of her incompetence, Peter Principle-style. The Seven Kingdoms are not an easy realm to run.
** It helps that everyone capable of overriding her bad decisions is dead or has left King's Landing by the fourth book.
* Kalten in ''TheElenium'' seems to get a case of this. In the beginning of the trilogy, he is a skilled knight although basically book-dumb, i.e. he is incapable of performing magic because he couldn't learn the Styric language. By the end of the second book, this has turned into him not knowing what a diagonal is. Subverted at the end of the Tamuli where he reveals that he is playing the ObfuscatingStupidity card, since he knows that if people don't take him seriously they will be off-guard around him.
* Septimus Heap in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', between ''Syren'' and ''Darke''. In ''Syren'' he the cautious one, in ''Darke'' [[spoiler: his disregard for Jenna's warnings about the '''Darke Domaine''' doesn't match any of his past actions, and results in the '''Domaine''' being set loose.]]
* Claudia from ''TheBabysittersClub'' started out as a C-student who had an above average I.Q. but just didn't care about doing well in school. By the end of the series, she was so dumb the reader sometimes wondered how she managed to put on her pants in the morning.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* Sam Malone in ''{{Cheers}}''. He went from earthbound jock to idiot after Diane left.
** This was uneven. Some episodes he was still portrayed as being reasonably bright, others he was a lecher dominated entirely by his reproductive organs. It went back and forth depending on whether Sam was being a reality check for Rebecca or trying to bed her.
* Jayne over the course of the short run of the ''{{Firefly}}'' series seems to go from unsophisticated but frighteningly cunning in the pilot to just plain stupid.
* Cat from ''{{Victorious}}''. She goes from being of relatively normal intelligence in the early parts of Season 1 to a girl who is apparently intelligent enough to just color a "pretty tiger" purple and realize that "that doesn't happen in nature".
** Robbie also qualifies, as many of the problems the kids get into over several episodes (notably ''The Great Ping-Pong Scam'', ''How Trina Got In'' and ''Locked Up!''), are directly his fault. His behavior in dealing with Rex (notably in ''Wi-Fi In The Sky'') also puts him in this category.
* ''TheOffice'':
** Michael Scott for a bit, but they reined it back in.
** Inverted with Dwight who started the series as a gullible man with almost no common sense and then became more and more skilled and successful as time went on. By seasons six and especially seven he seems smarter than any of the other characters.
** Kevin Malone. He was never the brightest bulb at Dunder Mifflin, but he showed signs during the first few seasons of just being a little dopey. A savant at the worst. By Season 5, he had lost about 25-50 IQ points. As of Season 8, he is pretty much mentally retarded.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}''
** Peter Petrelli [[IdiotHero after he learns how to]] [[HowDoIShotWeb use the powers he absorbs.]]
** In fact, ''[[IdiotBall everyone]]'' on ''Heroes'' gets this, with nominal good guys Mohinder, Peter and especially Hiro getting the worst of it.
** The villains too. Adam Monroe goes from being a coldly calculating bad ass with mad samurai skillz to a guy who meekly 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.
** Mr. Linderman. He began as a cryptically whispered name that made the most BadAss among the cast cower in fear. He was revealed as an AffablyEvil WellIntentionedExtremist [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who had been engineering events across the entire first season. When DL and Jessica show up, what is his plan? [[spoiler: "Take this money and kill your husband."]] [[SarcasmMode Yeah, really bright, Linderman.]]
* Kelly Bundy from ''MarriedWithChildren''. The more her intelligence decreased, the more the show's quality increased in direct proportion.
** Hilariously subverted in the episode "Hi, I.Q.," in which she accomplishes what Al couldn't--assembling his workshop bench. Which could just suggest she is simply BookDumb.
*** Or that she's actually BrilliantButLazy and is simply playing dumb.
* Michael Kelso from ''That70sShow''. He was always a [[TheDitz ditz]], but he just got dumber and dumber as the show progressed.
* Chelsea from ''ThatsSoRaven''.
* London from ''TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody''. And ''again'' on ''The Suite Life On Deck''.
* Max from ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''
* Eric from ''BoyMeetsWorld''.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': This has happened to Dean Winchester, starting from the point that he became a [[BreakTheCutie Broken Cutie]], DependingOnTheWriter.
* Jack O'Neill in ''Series/StargateSG1''.
** Initially he was quite intelligent and a prime example of ColonelBadass. He had tendencies of TheWatson, but there's no shame in knowing less about science than the one who [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun blew up a sun]], less about ancient cultures than the one who's studied them all his life, or less about alien technology than the one who lived with it. Then the things being explained to him got simpler and more obvious as his jokiness quotient rises. At the nadir, we get "La, la, I can't heeeear you!" when finding out a guest star was in fact someone ''incredibly'' dangerous from a previous episode, or later gems like "SHE'S HAVING HER BRAINS SUCKED OUT!" By season five, his role seems to be "make jokes during dead-serious situations while others roll their eyes and make the decisions that would have been O'Neill's responsibility." An episode had the people of the planet of the week talking about how Earth would have sent its best and brightest representative... and then [[DescriptionCut O'Neill enters, 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.
** Of course, the characters who know him best, especially Sam, insist this is just ObfuscatingStupidity.
** As of ''Series/StargateUniverse'', O'Neill limits his silliness to a couple of one-liners per appearance, and seems to have [[LetsGetDangerous gotten down to business]].
* Rimmer from ''Series/RedDwarf'', though how many levels taken seemed to change with every season. The Cat is an even better example having started out as... a cat and ended up with "a brain the size of a grape."
** Holli, the ship's A.I. went from being extremely eccentric after spending 3 million years alone and ObfuscatingStupidity to literally having a single digit IQ due to "computer senility" a couple of series later.
* Joey from ''{{Friends}}'' seems to have lost quite a few IQ points over the years, to the point where in the final season he can't tell left from right.
** Also Erica, the biological mother of Chandler and Monica's twins. When we first meet her she's a perfectly normal, intelligent girl. When she appears later in the season she's so stupid that her IQ is merely half of Forest Gump's.
* Chrissy on ''ThreesCompany'' was originally mildly ditzy. By the time she left the series one wondered how she managed to dress herself or hold a job.
* Baldrick from ''{{Blackadder}}'' -- there's the obvious leap between series one and two (while Blackadder himself does the opposite and takes a level in smartass), but even after that, he does still manage to get gradually worse over the next three series, until in ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' he's what Tony Robinson described as "[[TooDumbToLive terminally stupid]]" -- you literally can't imagine how he's survived to adulthood. Of course, in ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' his childlike personality is both hilarious & tragically poignant, given the hopelessness of the World War I trench setting. He even gets some moments of childlike wisdom in the finale, simply questioning why they can't all just stop fighting and go home.
** If you want concrete evidence, compare this scene from ''Blackadder II''...
--->'''Edmund''': That Farrow bloke you executed today, are you sure he's dead?
--->'''Baldrick''': Well I chopped his head off, that usually does the trick.
** ...with this one from ''Blackadder The Third''
--->'''Edmund''': [...]So, what's the plan?
--->'''Baldrick''': We do... nothing.
--->'''Edmund''': Yep, that's another world-beater.
--->'''Baldrick''': Wait, I haven't finished. We do nothing ''until'' our heads have actually been cut off...
--->'''Edmund''': ...and then we spring into action?
--->'''Baldrick''': Exactly![...]
*** The character changes between series are all justified because it is a different Baldrick in each one.
* Matthew Brock from ''{{Newsradio}}'' is another example; in the show's first season he seemed relatively normal and competent (he even secretly was [[spoiler: a registered dentist]]), but by the third or fourth season he came across as either mentally retarded or an eight-year old in a man's body. Jimmy James to an extent too, although that was more of Taking a Level in Craziness than Dumbness. Both characters were a lot funnier and more interesting due to these changes, of course, due to the quality of the writing & acting.
** While Matthew has no excuse, Jimmy James may have been engaging in ObfuscatingStupidity. Alternatively, he really is that eccentric, [[LetsGetDangerous and his business skills are only used as he needs them.]] This is apparent given that Mr. James is implied to be a highly successful SelfMadeMan, and his occasional bouts of serious behavior back up that he didn't get there by being an idiot. Most likely, he really is a goof ball and we generally only see him when he's relaxing, rather than engaging in SeriousBusiness (which is on several occasions implied to involve questionably legal activity).
* 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).
** Possibly justified. A recurring theme of the series was that people found odd and near-insane ways to cope with what they were experiencing. Radar's steady retreat towards childhood is actually one psychological response people have to stress in the real world.
** Radar's character regressed in a lot of ways. Early in the series, he was seen smoking cigars, drinking Henry's booze, and had several references to him peeping in the nurses' showers and enjoying developing their chest x-rays. As the show progressed, he got dumber, more naive, and less experienced to the point that even grape Nehi was a strong drink for him.
*** To be fair, [[GRatedDrug grape Nehi]] is a strong drink for ''anyone.'' BillBryson [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin solemnly swears that he once saw the edge of the universe after drinking it as a child.]]
* Nate Archibald on ''GossipGirl''. While he wasn't as intelligent as Chuck or Blair in season one he was still a guy of normal intelligence. By season four even his actor is complaining about what a moron he has become.
** In fairness, he's done so much pot in the last four seasons it actually does make sense that he's dumber.
* Granted, Potsie Webber of ''HappyDays'' started out a little on the dim side, but he only got dumber and dumber and dumber as the seasons went on.
* Nearly everyone from ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' but Paige was probably the worst affected, going from one of the best things about Seasons Four and Five to becoming a spazzy idiot. Best example of this? [[MemeticMutation ORB THE FUCKING GUN, RAIGE!]]
* Joe from ''Series/{{Wings}}'' after season five.
* Charlie on ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia. He was always the least intelligent/educated member of the group, but over the course of the first few seasons he got hit with this trope so hard he lost the ability to read and write (though he seems to ''think'' he can).
--> '''Mac''': Dammit, Charlie, your illiteracy has screwed us again!
* The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from being a witty, intelligent EveryMan who wins national writing awards into becoming a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show, so that the creators could more easily [[{{CharacterShilling}} shill]] his wife as "[[{{BlatantLies}} the reasonable one]]", pander to her fanbase for ratings, and make her the {{DesignatedHero}}ine of the show in the later seasons.
* KC from {{Degrassi}}, he's introduced as a member of the school's gifted program, two seasons later he thinks there's four trimesters during pregnancy.
* Randy Disher on ''Series/{{Monk}}'' seems to get more and more improbably stupid as the series progresses.
** This is even lampshaded in one of the novels. the Captain explains while he is an idiot in homicide cases, he is very good at the smaller crime cases.
** Monk himself isn't immune to this trope. As the series went on he seemed to morph from a brilliant but troubled detective to little more than a quivering mass of OCD hangups who just happens to work for the police on cryptic crimes.
* Robin Scherbatsky on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' didn't get ''dumber'' per se, but she did acquire a lot more quirky traits, gaps in her understanding of American culture, and general insanity ([[RunningGag *salutes*]]) in late season 1 through early season 2. The relative mildness of this effect meant it served to make her character a lot funnier and well-rounded: before, she had been an interesting character, but had a fairly narrow, undeveloped scope. [[FridgeBrilliance This trope also actually made sense here]], as she wasn't really a part of the gang in season 1, when her connection to the other characters was being Lily's new friend and the girl who Ted had a crush on, so she wasn't especially open with them and didn't spend as much time with them as she would later on.
* Jake on ''{{Two and a Half Men}}'' transformed from a fairly witty, albeit lazy, kid into a brain dead pothead in later episodes.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]
* ''{{Dilbert}}'': The [[PointyHairedBoss defining character trait]] of 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]]. And done deliberately in one strip where a new guy transitions from appearing to be smarter than everyone else in the team to having neanderthal-level intelligence over the course of a ''three panel comic''.
* ''FoxTrot'': Roger, the father figure. In the earliest years of the strip, he was a competent enough patriarch, though a bit harried and somewhat of a TedBaxter. As the strip went through ReverseCerebusSyndrome, his intelligence dropped severely and his occasional bouts of incompetence (he was a WalkingTechbane from the first month onward) became exaggerated to match.
* ''{{Garfield}}'': Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's owner. He started as a perfectly ordinary young man. Come the early-2000's, and he's a total moron who finds interest in mundane activities, mistakes a sudoku for a crossword, and mistakes an upside down restaurant menu for French. It was around the same time he was [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] into being the StrawLoser to Garfield.
* ''{{Peanuts}}'': Sally Brown started out as reasonably naïve and childish before devolving into a full-on TheDitz who made hilariously inaccurate school reports.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''FinalFantasy'': [[GenkiGirl Rikku]] got significantly ditzier between ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 X-2]]''.
** Yuna too although to a much lesser degree as it mostly takes the form of her naivety growing up on a small isolated island sheltered from life by her peers. It is also implied in-game that her new-found idiocy is due to the fact she is trying to imitate Rikku.
* Perhaps it was just Kazushige Nojima's shaky writing (he admitted in an interview that he didn't do a lot of work on the first game and wasn't familiar with the plot/characters/cosmology of KH), but Sora went from often naive in ''KingdomHearts'' to often ''ridiculously clueless'' in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''.
** This can probably be explained in-story by the fact that he [[spoiler:just spent a year in a coma, having his memories and certain parts of his personality recompiled basically from scratch.]] You're bound to have a bit of brain damage from that.
* Pete Wheeler of ''BackyardSports''. I mean, he ''forgot how to ride a bike within a few months of being a pro''.
* ''SuperMarioBros'' Has Bowser. Originally, just a straight up, ObviouslyEvil, DesignatedVillain. The lighthearted nature of the series however, lead to his portrayals as a dumb, immature bully, leading him down the path of this trope.
* The Avatar from the Ultima Games suffers an extreme case of this in Ultima 9, where he seems to have forgotten everything about Britannia, since he keeps asking about things he should know about since previous games. The most famous of these questions seems to be "What's a paladin?"
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''WebComic/EightBitTheater'':
** Bikke the pirate was actually fairly ruthless and cunning when he first appeared (well, compared to Garland and the heroes, anyway). At this point, his intelligence is viewed as on par with [[TheDitz Fighter's]]. In fact, he's probably worse since he's not even literate.
** D'rizzl actually ''inverted'' this trope, by taking levels in Smartass. Complete with a 50-point IQ hike.
** Fighter himself could also be considered a victim of this trope. Initially, he was simply TheFool with an intense sword obsession. For the past few hundred comics, he's essentially been a total idiot.
*** Could be justified due to brain damage as a direct result of Black Mage's stabby urges.
* Nick in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', who went from "stereotypical dim-bulb grunt" to an extreme [[TheDitz ditz]].
* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Sam "Da Man" Sein's intelligence has been plummeting ever since he became a vampire.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Web Original ]]
* Caboose from ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. This was explained in-universe as the result of the trauma of losing his girlfriend ([[CargoShip Sheila the tank]]) having his mind controlled by [[AIIsACrapshoot O'Mally]] and not being too bright to start with.
** Oddly enough, starting from ''Recreation'', Caboose actually seemed to ''regain'' some of his intelligence, upgrading from a complete idiot to merely TheDitz. This could be explained by the time Delta spent in Caboose's mind.
** Donut also seems to suffer from this to an extent, but he ''did'' take a sticky grenade to the head...
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Homestar himself. Which makes his [[SmartBall random moments of intelligence]] all the more hilarious. He once recited Coulomb's Law when asked "What is 2 plus 2?" (when Strong Sad reiterates the question, Homestar naturally gets it wrong), and actually outsmarted Strong Bad by getting him to say something stupid.
* The reviewers of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, whose characters are often not the smartest or most stable people anyhow, all seem to take stupid pills for the annual MassiveMultiplayerCrossover anniversary films and forget about the intelligence, resources or super-powers they've displayed in their own series. This is more or less justified by being a kind of RecursiveCanon, where the characters have made their videos instead of living them, but are still those characters instead of the people who actually play them.
** Happened to both WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick. The Critic used to be of average intelligence before morphing into a ditz with almost no common sense but can very insightful when he wants, and the Chick used to be an InsufferableGenius before becoming a KnowNothingKnowItAll who is oblivious to most things going on around her. TropesAreNotBad of course, their characters seen as much funnier now.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Homer Simpson, of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', has never been the brightest bulb in the box, but he actually started out a fairly normal person. He just got dumber and dumber as time went on. There have been a couple of in-show explanations for this, all contradictory. ConanOBrien said on a DVD commentary that Homer's IQ started out at 65 and dropped 5 points a year until it hit zero in Season 13.
-->'''Frank Grimes:''' I don't know anything, because I'm Homer Simpson!
** Ralph Wiggum has suffered from this trope more than any almost any other character mentioned. He was originally just another generic classmate of Lisa's before becoming the unbelievably dense collection of non-sequiturs we all know.
** WordOfGod says that Ralph was originally intended to be an eight year old version of Homer. When they realized that didn't really work, they just made him the most childlike character imaginable.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Almost every single adult undergoes this to a degree, but Randy Marsh is possibly the greatest example of this trope ever. Through the 13 seasons of the show, he has taken more levels in dumbass than any character other than possibly Ralph Wiggum.
** Despite being the town's only scientist, no less.
* WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants has always been [[CloudCuckoolander a little loopy]]. But he has become actually dumber and dumber (not just loopier and loopier) as the series has progressed.
** Especially after "A Pal For Gary". You'll hate him by the end.
** This trope also applies to [=SpongeBob=]'s best friend Patrick. Oh so much...
** Most of the stupidity in the post-movie episodes is due to Casey Alexander's writing, which is considered excremental by a lot of fans.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Pretty much every character with the exception of Wanda. Timmy started off simply as a ten year old boy who usually made rash decisions without thinking his wishes through. The newer series makes it debatable how he hasn't destroyed the world already yet.
** Cosmo most definitely. His first appearance was of a suave, gentlemanly persona in the first episodes, who made sarcastic comments and wisecracks. Now he's a screeching, literally brainless fairy who would have already killed Timmy if not for his wife's constant surveillance.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'': Done with several characters.
** Brak's case was actually justified; the cloud of space dust SpaceGhost threw him into during an episode of the original series was apparently to blame.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''
** All of Hank Hill's friends seem to slowly lose their precious remaining IQ points over the course of the series -- resulting in dumber and more outrageous schemes that Hank must eventually fix.
** 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. She was a bit of a WrenchWench during the first two seasons, but that was eventually abandoned and she became increasingly ditzy as the years went on (it should be noted that [[{{Misblamed}} this happened long before Lucky came along)]].
*** Peggy was bad at Spanish at the beginning of the series, in fact, she actually got a little better as it went on. The rest here is spot on, though.
*** Actually, Luanne could be seen fixing cars in later seasons, too.
** Joseph was a little kooky, being Dale's son and all (by nurture, of course) but when he hit puberty, he pretty much only begun to think with his hormones. This to the point where his dialog was replaced with HulkSpeak.
*** It gotten to extremes in one episode where Bobby accidentally sees Luanne without a shirt on and Joesph practically went beyond creepy levels when he kept asking Bobby to look at Luanne topless again so he can get the details on what her breasts look like.
* This happened to Fry in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. In the earliest episodes, where he was supposed to be a FishOutOfTemporalWater and stories would mostly focus around him adapting to life in the 31st century, he was a fairly average guy with a dash of {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and a few moments of genuine cleverness. As the show progressed, he adapted to his surroundings much faster than the writers intended, and so he devolved into a gibbering manchild [[PingPongNaivete unless the writers needed him to say something profound]].
** It's somewhat justified in-universe with Fry's lack of a delta brain-wave, which effectively stunted his mental growth:
--->'''Professor Farnsworth:''' And, Fry, you've got that brain thing.
--->'''Fry:''' I already did!
*** Of course, the means in which he contracted it — as shown in the episode "Roswell That Ends Well" — would have meant [[spoiler:[[GrandfatherParadox he had this his whole life, including all prior episodes.]]]] Also of note is that, in "The Why of Fry", [[spoiler:the Niblonians reveal that they deliberately froze him so that his "superior, yet inferior" brain would be used to protect the universe in the 31st century. Later it is revealed that the Niblonian who blew Fry into the cryochamber was, in fact, not a time traveler, and that the Niblonians knew of this phenomenon at least a millennium before the Roswell time travel incident.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Johnny.
** Averted when the series was temporarily revived, with Johnny instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Peter Griffin was a dumbass to begin with, but it got worse with [[UnCancelled uncancellation]]. Now he's gotten even worse. He's legally retarded in-canon. You never would have seen that coming in the show's early seasons.
* ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheFuture'': Marty [=McFly=]. He went from BookDumb in the films to TheDitz in the series.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'': Chowder; compare the naive little boy of Season One to the completely TooDumbToLive of Season Two.
* ''WesternAnimation/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. Beavis especially went from a generic dumb teenager to a bizarrely stupid boy with a split personality.
* There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', where Enzo [[ExactWords wished to be smarter than everyone else]]. So [[LiteralGenie the system]] underclocked everyone else, making them stupider so that Enzo would be the smartest person in Mainframe.
* In season one of ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo'', the villain Killface is intelligent, educated and sophisticated, by contrast to the IdiotHero Awesome X. A lot of the comedy from Killface stems from the contrast between their personae. Come season two, they're both complete morons.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': Fuzzy Lumpkins took this between the pilot 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:
--->'''Fuzzy:''' Come back here an' git off mah proppity!!
** The Mayor was never the sharpest knife in the drawer but in the early seasons he seemed to be more naive rather than outright stupid. By the end of the series half the time he can't even structure proper sentences together.
* Daffy Duck for ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow''. In the original shorts he was fairly intelligent and clever, but occasionally gullible and was often defeated due to his greed and selfishness. Here, he's a lazy idiot who can't do anything right and fails to answer even the simplest trivia questions correctly.
** And lets not forget Lola. Who in the movie she was a ActionGirl that could kick the butt of any toon and hated being called [[BerserkButton doll]]. However in this show she gets a GirlinessUpgrade, gains a ValleyGirl speak, and is a complete {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that seems to solely exist to be Bugs' ShallowLoveInterest.
* Penfold on ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' was the token dumbass, but as the series wound down to its final two seasons, Colonel K was afflicted by a case of the dumbasses which could be chalked up to early senility.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Battletoads}}'' cartoon turned the three protagonists into brain-dead teenage idiots. It even introduces Morgan "Zitz" Ziegler, a GeniusBruiser in the game canon, by having him cause a computer to explode just by trying to type something into it.
* Cleveland grew progressively dumber when he left ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and starred in his own show, ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''. Cleveland used to be the voice of reason in Peter's group but once he moved away, he became nearly incompetent and childlike.
* T.J. from ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' started out relatively average in the first season. He became more BookDumb in season two, and by season four, he was TheDitz.
* Captain Hook, MemeticBadass and much-loved villain of Disney/PeterPan comes back to menace the kid heroes of the [[{{Noninteractivity}} Dora-esque]] show ''WesternAnimation/JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'', missing about half his brain cells and with a somewhat off-putting redesign. Granted, Hook has [[FridgeBrilliance always had trouble defeating children]], but in this case it is particularly glaring.
* Fred from the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' franchise. He was originally the second smartest in the gang but has Took a Level in Dumbass ever since Daphne started [[TookALevelInBadass becoming more competent]]. Essentially Daphne took a good portion of his leadership skills and intelligence. [[WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo Some]] [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated incarnations]] flanderize this even more.
[[/folder]]
[[/index]]
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* The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from a somewhat intelligent EveryMan into a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show so that the show could more easily [[{{CharacterShilling}} shill]] his wife as "[[{{BlatantLies}} the reasonable one]]", pander to her fanbase for ratings, and make her the {{DesignatedHero}}ine of the show in the later seasons.
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* The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from being a somewhat witty, intelligent EveryMan who wins national writing awards into becoming a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show show, so that the show creators could more easily [[{{CharacterShilling}} shill]] his wife as "[[{{BlatantLies}} the reasonable one]]", pander to her fanbase for ratings, and make her the {{DesignatedHero}}ine of the show in the later seasons.
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* The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from a somewhat intelligent EveryMan into a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show so that the show could more easily [[{{CharacterShilling}} shill]] his wife as "[[{{BlatantLies}} the reasonable one]]", pander to her fanbase for ratings, and make her the {{DesignatedHero}}ine of the show in the later seasons.
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* The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from a somewhat intelligent EveryMan into a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show so that the show could more easily [[{{CharacterShilling}} shill]] his wife as "[[{{BlatantLies}} the reasonable one]]", pander to her fanbase for ratings, and make her the {{DesignatedHero}}ine of the show in the later seasons.
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* The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from a somewhat intelligent EveryMan into a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show.
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* The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from a somewhat intelligent EveryMan into a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show.show so that the show could more easily [[{{CharacterShilling}} shill]] his wife as "[[{{BlatantLies}} the reasonable one]]", pander to her fanbase for ratings, and make her the {{DesignatedHero}}ine of the show in the later seasons.
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* Jack O'Neill in ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}''.
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* Jack O'Neill in ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}''.''Series/StargateSG1''.
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* In ''RaidersOfTheLostArk'', Marcus Brody was portrayed as a highly intelligent, very serious character. When he shows up again in ''IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' he was suddenly an incompetent [[TheLoad load]] who couldn't even initially tell that he was being kidnapped... even as Sallah was screaming at him that the bad guys were doing exactly that.
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* In ''RaidersOfTheLostArk'', ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', Marcus Brody was portrayed as a highly intelligent, very serious character. When he shows up again in ''IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' he was suddenly an incompetent [[TheLoad load]] who couldn't even initially tell that he was being kidnapped... even as Sallah was screaming at him that the bad guys were doing exactly that.
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*** Or that she's actually BrilliantButLazy and is simply playing dumb.
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** Monk himself isn't immune to this trope. As the series went on he seemed to morph from a brilliant but troubled detective to little more than a quivering mass of OCD hangups who just happens to work for the police on cryptic crimes.
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The whole Mello and Near arc has Light {{nerf}}ed down hard, making great mistakes apparently to balance the odds of the two kids-nemesis. He loses the note, he loses Sayu, he loses his father... and one of his "best" responses is to confirm to Near he's Kira by ''sending a [[DyingLikeAnimals mass of stupid people]] at the exact location (and '''only there''') of Near's anti-Kira organisation with the '''great''' expectations that they'll lynch someone of L's level''. The only vague explanation would be that years as Kami without a WorthyOpponent dulled his senses.
*** That, or it was he was going insane due to his [[AGodAmI god complex]] and truly thought that everyone was beneath him.
*** That, or it was he was going insane due to his [[AGodAmI god complex]] and truly thought that everyone was beneath him.
to:
The whole Mello and Near arc has Light {{nerf}}ed down hard, making great mistakes apparently to balance the odds of the two kids-nemesis. He loses the note, he loses Sayu, he loses his father... and one of his "best" responses is to confirm to Near he's Kira by ''sending a [[DyingLikeAnimals mass of stupid people]] at the exact location (and '''only there''') of Near's anti-Kira organisation with the '''great''' expectations that they'll lynch someone of L's level''. The only vague explanation would be that years as Kami without a WorthyOpponent dulled Believing his senses.
*** That, or it was he was going insane due to hisown [[AGodAmI god complex]] and truly thought hype]] likely has something to do with it, as does the fact that everyone was beneath him.Near and Mello have far more information to work with than L did.
*** That, or it was he was going insane due to his
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* Luffy of OnePiece has done this during the timeskip.
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*In [[HomeAlone Home Alone 2]] Marv is a lot dumber than in the first film, possibly thanks to the head injuries he sustained in the first film (and/or additional head injuries he might have sustained in prison).
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*The title character from ''{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' was flanderized from a somewhat intelligent EveryMan into a bumbling buffoon over the course of the show.
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** Brak's case was actually justified; the cloud of space dust SpaceGhost threw him into during an episode of the original series was apparently to blame.
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* Jake on ''Two and a Half Men'' has transformed from a reasonably intelligent, albeit lazy kid to a brain dead pothead in later episodes.
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* Jake on ''Two ''{{Two and a Half Men'' has Men}}'' transformed from a reasonably intelligent, fairly witty, albeit lazy lazy, kid to into a brain dead pothead in later episodes.
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* Jake on ''Two and a Half Men'' has transformed from a reasonably intelligent, albeit lazy kid to a brain dead pothead in later episodes.
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** For a long while, Sasuke from [[spoiler:the death of Itachi]] and throughout the succeeding arcs. Even after both Tobi and Itachi had both implored that the destruction of Uchiha clan wasn't the fault of the Leaf, he decides to screw everything and try to destroy the Hidden Leaf village and every single person living in it, despite Itachi's intentions and words told by the main antagonist of all people himself urging the very contrary.
to:
** For a long while, Sasuke from [[spoiler:the death of Itachi]] and throughout the succeeding arcs. Even after both Tobi and Itachi had both implored that the destruction of Uchiha clan wasn't the fault of the Leaf, he decides to screw everything and try to destroy the Hidden Leaf village and every single person living in it, despite Itachi's intentions and words told by the main antagonist of all people himself urging the very contrary. All the while, his chakra grows noticeably darker and colder through his hatred, implications seeming as if he's forcing himself to hate in order get more powerful. At one point, he impales [[spoiler:Karin]] when held hostage with the Chidori, despite Danzo holding her in a position where his body and head is in clear sight of his lightning-fast attack and discards her for being "useless".
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**For a long while, Sasuke from [[spoiler:the death of Itachi]] and throughout the succeeding arcs. Even after both Tobi and Itachi had both implored that the destruction of Uchiha clan wasn't the fault of the Leaf, he decides to screw everything and try to destroy the Hidden Leaf village and every single person living in it, despite Itachi's intentions and words told by the main antagonist of all people himself urging the very contrary.
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* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Johnny. Averted when the series was temporarily revived, with Johnny instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
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* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Johnny. Averted Johnny.
**Averted when the series was temporarily revived, with Johnny instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
**Averted when the series was temporarily revived, with Johnny instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
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* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Johnny. Ironically, when the series was temporarily revived, Johnny wasn't fucking retarded, instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
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* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Johnny. Ironically, Averted when the series was temporarily revived, with Johnny wasn't fucking retarded, instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
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* In ''RaidersOfTheLostArk'', Marcus Brody was portrayed as a highly intelligent, very serious character. When he shows up again in ''IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' he was suddenly an incompetent [[TheLoad load]] who couldn't even initially tell that he was being kidnapped... even as Sallah was screaming at him that the bad guys were doing exactly that.
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* Homer Simpson, of ''TheSimpsons'', has never been the brightest bulb in the box, but he actually started out a fairly normal person. He just got dumber and dumber as time went on. There have been a couple of in-show explanations for this, all contradictory. ConanOBrien said on a DVD commentary that Homer's IQ started out at 65 and dropped 5 points a year until it hit zero in Season 13.
to:
* Homer Simpson, of ''TheSimpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', has never been the brightest bulb in the box, but he actually started out a fairly normal person. He just got dumber and dumber as time went on. There have been a couple of in-show explanations for this, all contradictory. ConanOBrien said on a DVD commentary that Homer's IQ started out at 65 and dropped 5 points a year until it hit zero in Season 13.
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** WordOfGod says that Ralph was originally intended to be an eight year old version of Homer. When it they realized that didn't really work, they just made him the most childlike character imaginable.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Almost every single adult undergoes this to a degree, but Randy Marsh is possibly the greatest example of this trope ever. Through the 13 seasons of the show, he has [[TookALevelInDumbass taken more levels in dumbass]] than any character other than possibly Ralph Wiggum.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Almost every single adult undergoes this to a degree, but Randy Marsh is possibly the greatest example of this trope ever. Through the 13 seasons of the show, he has [[TookALevelInDumbass taken more levels in dumbass]] than any character other than possibly Ralph Wiggum.
to:
** WordOfGod says that Ralph was originally intended to be an eight year old version of Homer. When it they realized that didn't really work, they just made him the most childlike character imaginable.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Almost every single adult undergoes this to a degree, but Randy Marsh is possibly the greatest example of this trope ever. Through the 13 seasons of the show, he has[[TookALevelInDumbass taken more levels in dumbass]] dumbass than any character other than possibly Ralph Wiggum.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Almost every single adult undergoes this to a degree, but Randy Marsh is possibly the greatest example of this trope ever. Through the 13 seasons of the show, he has
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** This trope also applies to SpongeBob's best friend Patrick. Oh so much...
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** This trope also applies to SpongeBob's [=SpongeBob=]'s best friend Patrick. Oh so much...
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* ''TheFairlyOddparents'': Pretty much every character with the exception of Wanda. Timmy started off simply as a ten year old boy who usually made rash decisions without thinking his wishes through. The newer series makes it debatable how he hasn't destroyed the world already yet.
to:
* ''TheFairlyOddparents'': ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Pretty much every character with the exception of Wanda. Timmy started off simply as a ten year old boy who usually made rash decisions without thinking his wishes through. The newer series makes it debatable how he hasn't destroyed the world already yet.
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* ''SpaceGhostcoastToCoast'': Done with several characters.
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* ''SpaceGhostcoastToCoast'': ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'': Done with several characters.
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* ''JohnnyBravo'': Johnny. Ironically, when the series was temporarily revived, Johnny wasn't fucking retarded, instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
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* ''JohnnyBravo'': ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': Johnny. Ironically, when the series was temporarily revived, Johnny wasn't fucking retarded, instead trying to avoid his now-annoying neighbor, Suzie.
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* ''BackToTheFutureTheAnimatedSeries'': Marty [=McFly=]. He went from BookDumb in the films to TheDitz in the series.
* ''{{Chowder}}'': Chowder; compare the naive little boy of Season One to the completely TooDumbToLive of Season Two.
* ''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. Beavis especially went from a generic dumb teenager to a bizarrely stupid boy with a split personality.
* There was an episode of ''ReBoot'', where Enzo [[ExactWords wished to be smarter than everyone else]]. So [[LiteralGenie the system]] underclocked everyone else, making them stupider so that Enzo would be the smartest person in Mainframe.
* In season one of ''FriskyDingo'', the villain Killface is intelligent, educated and sophisticated, by contrast to the Idiot Hero Awesome X. A lot of the comedy from Killface stems from the contrast between their personae. Come season two, they're both complete morons.
* ''ThePowerpuffGirls'': Fuzzy Lumpkins took this between the pilot 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:
* ''{{Chowder}}'': Chowder; compare the naive little boy of Season One to the completely TooDumbToLive of Season Two.
* ''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. Beavis especially went from a generic dumb teenager to a bizarrely stupid boy with a split personality.
* There was an episode of ''ReBoot'', where Enzo [[ExactWords wished to be smarter than everyone else]]. So [[LiteralGenie the system]] underclocked everyone else, making them stupider so that Enzo would be the smartest person in Mainframe.
* In season one of ''FriskyDingo'', the villain Killface is intelligent, educated and sophisticated, by contrast to the Idiot Hero Awesome X. A lot of the comedy from Killface stems from the contrast between their personae. Come season two, they're both complete morons.
* ''ThePowerpuffGirls'': Fuzzy Lumpkins took this between the pilot 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:
to:
* ''BackToTheFutureTheAnimatedSeries'': ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheFuture'': Marty [=McFly=]. He went from BookDumb in the films to TheDitz in the series.
*''{{Chowder}}'': ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'': Chowder; compare the naive little boy of Season One to the completely TooDumbToLive of Season Two.
*''BeavisAndButthead'' ''WesternAnimation/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. Beavis especially went from a generic dumb teenager to a bizarrely stupid boy with a split personality.
* There was an episode of''ReBoot'', ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', where Enzo [[ExactWords wished to be smarter than everyone else]]. So [[LiteralGenie the system]] underclocked everyone else, making them stupider so that Enzo would be the smartest person in Mainframe.
* In season one of''FriskyDingo'', ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo'', the villain Killface is intelligent, educated and sophisticated, by contrast to the Idiot Hero IdiotHero Awesome X. A lot of the comedy from Killface stems from the contrast between their personae. Come season two, they're both complete morons.
*''ThePowerpuffGirls'': ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': Fuzzy Lumpkins took this between the pilot 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:
*
*
* There was an episode of
* In season one of
*
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* Daffy Duck for ''TheLooneyTunesShow''. In the original shorts he was fairly intelligent and clever, but occasionally gullible and was often defeated due to his greed and selfishness. Here, he's a lazy idiot who can't do anything right and fails to answer even the simplest trivia questions correctly.
** And lets not forget Lola. Who in the movie she was a ActionGirl that could kick the butt of any toon and hated being called [[BerserkButton doll]]. However in this show she gets a GirlinessUpgrade, gains a ValleyGirl speak, is a complete {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that seems to solely exist to be Bugs' ShallowLoveInterest.
* Penfold on ''DangerMouse'' was the token dumbass, but as the series wound down to its final two seasons, Colonel K was afflicted by a case of the dumbasses which could be chalked up to early senility.
** And lets not forget Lola. Who in the movie she was a ActionGirl that could kick the butt of any toon and hated being called [[BerserkButton doll]]. However in this show she gets a GirlinessUpgrade, gains a ValleyGirl speak, is a complete {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that seems to solely exist to be Bugs' ShallowLoveInterest.
* Penfold on ''DangerMouse'' was the token dumbass, but as the series wound down to its final two seasons, Colonel K was afflicted by a case of the dumbasses which could be chalked up to early senility.
to:
* Daffy Duck for ''TheLooneyTunesShow''.''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow''. In the original shorts he was fairly intelligent and clever, but occasionally gullible and was often defeated due to his greed and selfishness. Here, he's a lazy idiot who can't do anything right and fails to answer even the simplest trivia questions correctly.
** And lets not forget Lola. Who in the movie she was a ActionGirl that could kick the butt of any toon and hated being called [[BerserkButton doll]]. However in this show she gets a GirlinessUpgrade, gains a ValleyGirl speak, and is a complete {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that seems to solely exist to be Bugs' ShallowLoveInterest.
* Penfold on''DangerMouse'' ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' was the token dumbass, but as the series wound down to its final two seasons, Colonel K was afflicted by a case of the dumbasses which could be chalked up to early senility.
** And lets not forget Lola. Who in the movie she was a ActionGirl that could kick the butt of any toon and hated being called [[BerserkButton doll]]. However in this show she gets a GirlinessUpgrade, gains a ValleyGirl speak, and is a complete {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that seems to solely exist to be Bugs' ShallowLoveInterest.
* Penfold on
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* Cleveland grew progressively dumber when he left ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and starred in his own show, ''TheClevelandShow''. Cleveland used to be the voice of reason in Peter's group but once he moved away, he became nearly incompetent and childlike.
* T.J. from ''{{Recess}}'' started out relatively average in the first season. He became more BookDumb in season two, and by season four, he was TheDitz.
* Captain Hook, MemeticBadass and much-loved villain of Disney/PeterPan comes back to menace the kid heroes of the [[{{Noninteractivity}} Dora-esque]] show ''JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'', missing about half his brain cells and with a somewhat off-putting redesign. Granted, Hook has [[FridgeBrilliance always had trouble defeating children]], but in this case it is particularly glaring.
* Fred from the ''ScoobyDoo'' franchise. He was originally the second smartest in the gang but has TookALevelInDumbass ever since Daphne started [[TookALevelInBadass becoming more competent]]. Essentially Daphne took a good portion of his leadership skills and intelligence. [[APupNamedScoobyDoo Some]] [[ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated incarnations]] flanderize this even more.
* T.J. from ''{{Recess}}'' started out relatively average in the first season. He became more BookDumb in season two, and by season four, he was TheDitz.
* Captain Hook, MemeticBadass and much-loved villain of Disney/PeterPan comes back to menace the kid heroes of the [[{{Noninteractivity}} Dora-esque]] show ''JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'', missing about half his brain cells and with a somewhat off-putting redesign. Granted, Hook has [[FridgeBrilliance always had trouble defeating children]], but in this case it is particularly glaring.
* Fred from the ''ScoobyDoo'' franchise. He was originally the second smartest in the gang but has TookALevelInDumbass ever since Daphne started [[TookALevelInBadass becoming more competent]]. Essentially Daphne took a good portion of his leadership skills and intelligence. [[APupNamedScoobyDoo Some]] [[ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated incarnations]] flanderize this even more.
to:
* Cleveland grew progressively dumber when he left ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and starred in his own show, ''TheClevelandShow''.''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''. Cleveland used to be the voice of reason in Peter's group but once he moved away, he became nearly incompetent and childlike.
* T.J. from''{{Recess}}'' ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' started out relatively average in the first season. He became more BookDumb in season two, and by season four, he was TheDitz.
* Captain Hook, MemeticBadass and much-loved villain of Disney/PeterPan comes back to menace the kid heroes of the [[{{Noninteractivity}} Dora-esque]] show''JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'', ''WesternAnimation/JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'', missing about half his brain cells and with a somewhat off-putting redesign. Granted, Hook has [[FridgeBrilliance always had trouble defeating children]], but in this case it is particularly glaring.
* Fred from the''ScoobyDoo'' ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' franchise. He was originally the second smartest in the gang but has TookALevelInDumbass Took a Level in Dumbass ever since Daphne started [[TookALevelInBadass becoming more competent]]. Essentially Daphne took a good portion of his leadership skills and intelligence. [[APupNamedScoobyDoo [[WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo Some]] [[ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated incarnations]] flanderize this even more.
* T.J. from
* Captain Hook, MemeticBadass and much-loved villain of Disney/PeterPan comes back to menace the kid heroes of the [[{{Noninteractivity}} Dora-esque]] show
* Fred from the
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[[quoteright:350:[[JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whyhookwhy_4264.png]]]]
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** The Mayor was never the sharpest knife in the drawer but in the early seasons he seemed to be more naive rather than outright stupid. By the end of the series half the time he can't even structure proper sentences together.
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-->-- ''RedVsBlue'', "Episode 39"
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-->-- ''RedVsBlue'', ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', "Episode 39"
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* Sailor Venus from ''SailorMoon''. See {{Flanderization}}.
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* Sailor Venus from ''SailorMoon''.''Manga/SailorMoon''. See {{Flanderization}}.
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* Gourry from ''TheSlayers'' degraded from IdiotHero to TheDitz and then became even dumber.
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* Gourry from ''TheSlayers'' ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' degraded from IdiotHero to TheDitz and then became even dumber.
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* ''CodeGeass'': Ohgi, after falling for Villetta. It's so bad that thanks partly to him, [[spoiler:Lelouch finishes crossing the DespairEventHorizon]], which causes [[spoiler:Lelouch]] to implement the [[spoiler:[[ThanatosGambit Zero Requiem]]]].
to:
* ''CodeGeass'': ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Ohgi, after falling for Villetta. It's so bad that thanks partly to him, [[spoiler:Lelouch finishes crossing the DespairEventHorizon]], which causes [[spoiler:Lelouch]] to implement the [[spoiler:[[ThanatosGambit Zero Requiem]]]].
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* As of late, whenever {{Naruto}} seems to start growing as a character, he immediately takes a level in dumbass. Most notoriously when he doesn't realize anything is wrong during the attack on turtle island by Kabuto and zombie!Deidara. Despite the living island suddenly acting as if it were hit with a high-level earthquake.
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* As of late, whenever {{Naruto}} Manga/{{Naruto}} seems to start growing as a character, he immediately takes a level in dumbass. Most notoriously when he doesn't realize anything is wrong during the attack on turtle island by Kabuto and zombie!Deidara. Despite the living island suddenly acting as if it were hit with a high-level earthquake.
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* Luffy of OnePiece has done this during the timeskip.
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* Luffy of OnePiece has done this during the timeskip.
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* ''WheelOfTime'': In the first four books of the series Elaida is presented as a cunning member of the Red Ajah who is able to get Suian removed from power and still her. As soon as she gain powers her I.Q drops considerably, she pisses everyone in the tower off, she makes disastrous decisions that causes Aes Sedai to be captured, and she can't even decide that the Black Ajah exists or not even when it should be obvious after several sisters were murdered and Ter'angreal were stolen. The only possible explanation is she was elevated beyond her abilities (not surprising given she was the pawn of several Black Ajah in getting raised) and cracked after her first few screw ups.
to:
* ''WheelOfTime'': ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': In the first four books of the series Elaida is presented as a cunning member of the Red Ajah who is able to get Suian removed from power and still her. As soon as she gain powers her I.Q drops considerably, she pisses everyone in the tower off, she makes disastrous decisions that causes Aes Sedai to be captured, and she can't even decide that the Black Ajah exists or not even when it should be obvious after several sisters were murdered and Ter'angreal were stolen. The only possible explanation is she was elevated beyond her abilities (not surprising given she was the pawn of several Black Ajah in getting raised) and cracked after her first few screw ups.
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* Jack O'Neill in ''{{Stargate SG-1}}''.
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* Jack O'Neill in ''{{Stargate ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}''.
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* Randy Disher on ''{{Monk}}'' seems to get more and more improbably stupid as the series progresses.
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* Randy Disher on ''{{Monk}}'' ''Series/{{Monk}}'' seems to get more and more improbably stupid as the series progresses.
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* Robin Scherbatsky on ''HowIMetYourMother'' didn't get ''dumber'' per se, but she did acquire a lot more quirky traits, gaps in her understanding of American culture, and general insanity ([[RunningGag *salutes*]]) in late season 1 through early season 2. The relative mildness of this effect meant it served to make her character a lot funnier and well-rounded: before, she had been an interesting character, but had a fairly narrow, undeveloped scope. [[FridgeBrilliance This trope also actually made sense here]], as she wasn't really a part of the gang in season 1, when her connection to the other characters was being Lily's new friend and the girl who Ted had a crush on, so she wasn't especially open with them and didn't spend as much time with them as she would later on.
to:
* Robin Scherbatsky on ''HowIMetYourMother'' ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' didn't get ''dumber'' per se, but she did acquire a lot more quirky traits, gaps in her understanding of American culture, and general insanity ([[RunningGag *salutes*]]) in late season 1 through early season 2. The relative mildness of this effect meant it served to make her character a lot funnier and well-rounded: before, she had been an interesting character, but had a fairly narrow, undeveloped scope. [[FridgeBrilliance This trope also actually made sense here]], as she wasn't really a part of the gang in season 1, when her connection to the other characters was being Lily's new friend and the girl who Ted had a crush on, so she wasn't especially open with them and didn't spend as much time with them as she would later on.
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* In ''SluggyFreelance'' Sam "Da Man" Sein's intelligence has been plummeting ever since he became a vampire.
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* In ''SluggyFreelance'' ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Sam "Da Man" Sein's intelligence has been plummeting ever since he became a vampire.
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* Caboose from ''RedVsBlue''. This was explained in-universe as the result of the trauma of losing his girlfriend ([[CargoShip Sheila the tank]]) having his mind controlled by [[AIIsACrapshoot O'Mally]] and not being too bright to start with.
to:
* Caboose from ''RedVsBlue''.''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. This was explained in-universe as the result of the trauma of losing his girlfriend ([[CargoShip Sheila the tank]]) having his mind controlled by [[AIIsACrapshoot O'Mally]] and not being too bright to start with.
Changed line(s) 168 (click to see context) from:
* ''SouthPark'': Almost every single adult undergoes this to a degree, but Randy Marsh is possibly the greatest example of this trope ever. Through the 13 seasons of the show, he has [[TookALevelInDumbass taken more levels in dumbass]] than any character other than possibly Ralph Wiggum.
to:
* ''SouthPark'': ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Almost every single adult undergoes this to a degree, but Randy Marsh is possibly the greatest example of this trope ever. Through the 13 seasons of the show, he has [[TookALevelInDumbass taken more levels in dumbass]] than any character other than possibly Ralph Wiggum.
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* SpongebobSquarepants has always been [[CloudCuckoolander a little loopy]]. But he has become actually dumber and dumber (not just loopier and loopier) as the series has progressed.
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* SpongebobSquarepants WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants has always been [[CloudCuckoolander a little loopy]]. But he has become actually dumber and dumber (not just loopier and loopier) as the series has progressed.
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* ''KingOfTheHill''
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* ''KingOfTheHill''''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''
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* ''FamilyGuy'': Peter Griffin was a dumbass to begin with, but it got worse with [[UnCancelled uncancellation]]. Now he's gotten even worse. He's legally retarded in-canon. You never would have seen that coming in the show's early seasons.
to:
* ''FamilyGuy'': ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Peter Griffin was a dumbass to begin with, but it got worse with [[UnCancelled uncancellation]]. Now he's gotten even worse. He's legally retarded in-canon. You never would have seen that coming in the show's early seasons.
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* Cleveland grew progressively dumber when he left ''FamilyGuy'' and starred in his own show, ''TheClevelandShow''. Cleveland used to be the voice of reason in Peter's group but once he moved away, he became nearly incompetent and childlike.
to:
* Cleveland grew progressively dumber when he left ''FamilyGuy'' ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and starred in his own show, ''TheClevelandShow''. Cleveland used to be the voice of reason in Peter's group but once he moved away, he became nearly incompetent and childlike.
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** This can probably be explained in-story by the fact that he [[spoiler:just spent a year in a coma, having his memories and certain parts of his personality recompiled basically from scratch.]] You're bound to have a bit of brain damage from that.
