History Main / TookaLevelInDumbass

* Ralph in ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet'', he became a complete idiot with almost no intelligence whatsoever, that he can't even make logical decisions anymore and can't even understand basic English anymore. For starters, when Mr. Litwak put in the Wi-Fi router in the arcade outlet, he mispronounces it as "Whiffy" and "Why-Fee", which leads to Sonic having to correct him. On the contrary, it's somewhat understandable because Ralph was made in a game from the 1980's, and the internet was not yet invented until the 1990's, where Sonic was first created. At another point, when one of the kids clearly says "e-Bay", he somehow hears it as "eboy", which becomes the main example of him not being able to understand basic English throughout the film. He also mispronounces "Google" as "goggles" at one point. There were occasions in the first movie where he was acted dense, but he was not a total idiot. In those cases, he was just oblivious or ignorant.

* TookALevelInDumbass/{{Film}}

-->---''Series/GameOfThrones Season 8'' ''[[WebVideo/ScreenRantPitchMeetings Pitch Meeting]]''

Generally PlayedForLaughs. Sometimes used on the supporting characters to make the hero look more competent. Or sometimes, it's just that the show gets a pack of new writers and they turn the guy into a moron for kicks. It should be noted that [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools this isn't always a bad thing]]. In some cases, viewers may find the over the top idiocy more entertaining than the original concept, or that giving them some idiotic traits make them more of a RoundedCharacter.

May result in a typical IdiotHero degenerating into TooDumbToLive. Compare ForgotAboutHisPowers and TookALevelInJerkass. Contrast TookALevelInBadass and DumbassNoMore. If this happens when one works gets adapted to another medium rather than occurring within the same work, see AdaptationalDumbass.

* ''ComicStrip/{{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.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': Sally Brown started out as reasonably naïve and childish before devolving into a full-on TheDitz who made hilariously inaccurate school reports.

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In this ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' Franchise/MonsterVerse fanfiction, [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonTitansAndOtherCreatures MaNi/Elder Brother]] (the result of an ExpendableClone of Ghidorah's [[MultipleHeadCase right head]] merging with [[TheAssimilator the Many]]) is much more prone to committing acts of StupidEvil and [[TooDumbToLive forgetting about self-preservation altogether]] than the version of Ni attached to Ghidorah is. According to WordOfGod, this is due to a combination of: [=MaNi=] lacking Ghidorah's intelligent middle head to act as his RestrainingBolt, and AssimilationBackfire from the Many making him part-[[spoiler:Skullcrawler]].

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 ever anything other than a complete moron. For this very reason and the fact that it's easier to write comedy that involves dumb people, this trope is rather frequent in any comedy series.