History Main / WorkingClassPeopleAreMorons

* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', the filthy rich Cullens are treated as the epitome of class and intelligence, while almost all of the rest of Forks (working-class people) are portrayed as gossipy (Jessica and her mother), impractical (Mike's mother), overly superstitious (nearly every Quileute), stupid (most of the other students at Forks), or in awe of the endless wealth of the Cullens. Bella is working-class and [[InformedAbility supposedly]] very intelligent, but spends the entire series identifying with Edward and his family.

** Their son Bud might be a subversion in that he gets good grades, but he's such a CasanovaWannabe that he's constantly ridiculed and rejected by women and is often reduced to scheduling ADateWithRosiePalms.

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* ''Series/MASH'': The blue blooded Charles Winchester quite enjoyed the view from the top of his nose of the company clerks, the farmboy Radar O'Reily and the Toldeo-born Max Klinger. If he was ever upset with them, his insults almost invariably conflated their lower class and their intelligence, with Klinger also getting a bonus jab for being Lebanese.

Compare and contrast LowerClassLout, the malevolent version of this trope. See also SlobsVersusSnobs. For when the stereotypical and "simple" character is specifically rural, see CountryCousin. The inverse of this trope is UpperClassTwit; the reverse of this trope is WorkingClassHero.

** Their daughter Kelly is TheBrainlessBeauty and the DumbBlonde taken UpToEleven. She was an AlphaBitch in high school who also thought that SchoolIsForLosers and tried to get by in life on her looks, only to end up working in a run-down diner and having a Z-list acting career;

-->Part of the reason I chose to write this novel is because I am more than a little sick and tired of two characteristics of most modern fiction, including science fiction. The first is that the common folk who built this country and keep it running blue-collar workers, schoolteachers, farmers, and the like hardly ever appear. If they figure at all, it is usually as spear carriers or, more often than not, as a bastion of ignorance and bigotry. That is especially true of people from such rural areas as West Virginia. Hicks and hillbillies: a general, undifferentiated mass of darkness.

* Played with in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', when the OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness tries to stop Nathan from getting his high school diploma because then the working classes might realize that anyone can get an education.

* Averted in ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty''. Just about all the residents of the eponymous community (mostly peopled by scruffy farmers) are a bunch of yokels who live by RuleOfFunny and InsaneTrollLogic. However, the upper-class characters that show up (Senator Bedfellow, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, Mr. Limekiller's ex-wife Elanor, etc.) aren't [[UpperClassTwit much better]].

* Averted In ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty''. Just about all of the titular town (mostly peopled by scruffy farmers) are a bunch of yokels who live by RuleOfFunny and InsaneTrollLogic. However, the upper-class characters that show up (Senator Bedfellow, Donald Trump, Mr. Limekiller's ex-wife Elanor, etc) aren't [[UpperClassTwit much better]].

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' the fascist [[TheEmpire Coalition States]] promote this idea to the majority of their population. Since the game is set AfterTheEnd, they have great latitude in doing this. For example, they faked the destruction of the largest library in North America just to back up their claim that certain knowledge (such as pre-Rifts history) was lost forever. They officially maintain a policy of public illiteracy for the masses and teach that [[PersecutedIntellectuals non-government intellectuals are dangerous]] and probably in league with demons. All (censored) education, entertainment and news are delivered in audio-video format so that nobody needs to read to utilize this approved information. However, the CS is actually run by a technocrat elite that is heavily-educated (using the "lost" knowledge they have stockpiled) and are thus a bunch of {{Hypocrite}}s. Even more ironic, their foremost top-secret research facility is packed with MadScientist[=s=], whose director actually [[AGodAmI believes himself to be a god]]!

* Creator/ArnoldWesker played with this in his trilogy of stage plays concerning the British-Jewish Kahn family and their ups and downs in the fight for socialism before, during, and after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. In the second play, ''roots'', the young and idealistic farm girl Beattie Bryant tries hard to get her fellow countrymen in Norfolk understand the intellectual concepts of politics and a better life. It turns out her boyfriend, Ronnie Kahn, has come to terms with his view of her as a working-class moron without any independent attitudes. She finally subverts this, but it is open guessing if she ever gets through to her relatives - who openly adapt to their "moron" qualities (and even seem to pride themselves of it).

This is prime time's go-to plot device whenever embarrassing relatives come to visit the Girl Who Married Up or the blue-collar schlub wins the lottery. Basically, in TV Land, it is impossible to be both poor and intelligent unless you're the show's InsufferableGenius or precocious child. Such smart individuals may experience TallPoppySyndrome. One would almost be tempted to believe that there are no libraries or schools beyond elementary.

->''"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West. You know... morons!"''

Especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} in episodes involving court cases, where heartfelt pleas from a SimpleCountryLawyer seem to sway judges more effectively than any number of rational, legalistic arguments from highly-paid big name firm lawyers.

* ''Film/LaTerraTrema'': The villagers of Aci Trezza, a Sicilian fishing town where the fishermen are ruthlessly cheated and exploited by the fish wholesalers who collect their catch. The villagers accept their fate with ox-like stupidity, not even realizing that they are exploited by the merchants, and if they do, simply accepting it as their fate. They mock and ridicule Ntoni Valastro, the one young fisherman who had hoped to break the cycle of poverty by buying his own fishing boat and selling his own catch. After his boat is wrecked they are even worse, taking positive delight in the misfortunes of the Valastros. At the end a bitter Ntoni talks about how everyone in the village abandoned him.

* ''Literature/AnimalFarm'', by [[Creator/GeorgeOrwell the same author]], features Boxer, a horse meant to represent the working class. He is shown to lack basic literacy, and remains completely loyal to the farm's new management, which makes Napoleon's disgraceful treatment of him all the more sickening.

* In the ''Series/AdamRuinsEverything'' episode "Adam Ruins...Voting," Adam explains to [[AudienceSurrogate the voter]] that America's Founding Fathers wanted to restrict the right to vote to wealthy land owning white men, since they deemed anyone else too ignorant/illiterate to make an informed decision. He goes on to explain that right to vote was then reserved to land owning white men, with universal white male suffrage not legalized until 1856, universal male suffrage in 1865 following the end of the Civil War, and women would be given the vote in 1920.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' the fascist [[TheEmpire Coalition States]] promote this idea to the majority of their population. Since the game is set AfterTheEnd, they have great latitude in doing this. For example, they faked the destruction of the largest library in North America just to back up their claim that certain knowledge (such as pre-Rifts history) was lost forever. They officially maintain a policy of public illiteracy for the masses and teach that [[PersecutedIntellectuals non-government intellectuals are dangerous]] and probably in league with demons. All (censored) education, entertainment and news are delivered in audio-video format so that nobody needs to read to utilize this approved information. However, the CS is actually run by a technocrat elite that is heavily-educated (using the "lost" knowledge they have stockpiled) and are thus a bunch of {{Hypocrite}}s. Even more ironic, their foremost top secret research facility is packed with MadScientist[=s=], whose director actually [[AGodAmI believes himself to be a god]]!

* Creator/HenrikIbsen played with this time and again. In ''Theatre/TheLeagueOfYouth'', the honorable chamberlain Bratsberg chides the more base and crude proprietor Monsen because Bratsberg thinks this of him. Monsen was a lumberjack who worked his way up the social ladder, but will never be anything but a slob in the eyes of the Chamberlain. The chamberlain is proud if his ''inherited'' wealth.
* Creator/ArnoldWesker played with this in his trilogy of stage plays concerning the British-Jewish Kahn family and their ups and downs in the fight for socialism before, during and after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. In the second play, ''roots'', the young and idealistic farm girl Beattie Bryant tries hard to get her fellow countrymen in Norfolk understand the intellectual concepts of politics and a better life. It turns out her boyfriend, Ronnie Kahn, has come to terms with his view of her as a working class moron without any independent attitudes. She finally subverts this, but it is an open guessing if she ever gets through to her relatives - who openly adapt to their "moron" qualities (and even seem to pride themselves of it).

* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob''— Bob runs a newsstand, and is generally the most poorly educated member of the central cast (he's dating a college teacher, his adopted daughter is a genius, and Voluptua is a 300-year old member of space royalty), but he consistently displays more [[SimpleMindedWisdom common sense]] than those around him. Played with when Jean expresses surprise that he went to college. Bob: "I majored in [[ADegreeInUseless newsstand management]]! No way I could have kept it running through [[WeirdnessMagnet all this]] if I didn't have a degree in it!"

* Plankton's family in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' comprises hillbillies with a taste for root beer. [[spoiler: [[EmbarrassingFirstName Sheldon]]]] Plankton is the only one of them to have gone to college, and is thoroughly ashamed of his uneducated family.

Compare and contrast LowerClassLout, the malevolent version of this trope. See also SlobsVersusSnobs. For when the stereotypical and "simple" character is specifically rural, see CountryCousin. The inverse of this trope is UpperClassTwit.

%%* '''Everyone''' in ''Film/{{Amarcord}}''.

** Hermione is the smartest of the main trio, and she's the daughter of two Muggle dentists. Indeed, she's smarter than Draco, a pureblood aristocrat. However, being a dentist is not working-class by any estimation in the Muggle world.

** Hermione is the smartest of the main trio, and she's the daughter of two Muggle dentists. Indeed, she's smarter than Draco, a pureblood aristocrat.

* In the ''Series/AdamRuinsEverything'' episode "Adam Ruins...Democracy," Adam explains to [[AudienceSurrogate the voter]] that America's Founding Fathers wanted to restrict the right to vote to wealthy land owning white men, since they deemed anyone else too ignorant/illiterate to make an informed decision. He goes on to explain that right to vote was then reserved to land owning white men, with universal white male suffrage not legalized until 1856, universal male suffrage in 1865 following the end of the Civil War, and women would be given the vote in 1920.

* Plankton's family in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' comprises hillbillies with a taste for [[FrothyMugsOfWater root beer]]. [[spoiler: [[EmbarrassingFirstName Sheldon]]]] Plankton is the only one of them to have gone to college, and is thoroughly ashamed of his uneducated family.

Compare and contrast LowerClassLout, the malevolent version of this trope. See also SlobsVersusSnobs. For when the stereotypical and "simple" character is specifically rural, see CountryCousin.

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** Also averted by Archie's neighbor, [[TheJeffersons George Jefferson]]. He lacked even a high school education and started off as a janitor but was a shrewd businessman who [[SelfMadeMan taught himself the dry cleaning business]] and eventually [[PutOnABus "moved on up"]]. In one episode he showed he was too savvy to fall for a scam that Archie had fallen into.

This is prime time's go-to plot device whenever embarrassing relatives come to visit the Girl Who Married Up or the blue-collar schlub wins the lottery. Basically, in TV Land, it is impossible to be both poor and intelligent unless you're the show's InsufferableGenius or precocious child. Indeed, one would almost be tempted to believe that there are no libraries.