History ObfuscatingStupidity / Film

* There is some evidence in the phantom menace that jar jar binks isnt as stupid as people thinks he is and its argued he manipulated the events of the first movie into happening and thee entire republic into giving up its own power. multiple scenes in the [hantom menace show him mumbling the words charactrers later say. suggesting he knows how to use jedi mind tricks. that and an early script suggests a much bigger more complex role from him and george kucas in some footage says jar jar is the key to everything. a clone wars episode goes with this in reference to jar jar binks.

* There is some evidence in the phantom menace that jar jar binks isnt as stupid as people thinks he is and its argued he manipulated the events of the first movie into happening and thee entire republic into giving up its own power. multiple scenes in the [hantom menace show him mumbling the words charactrers later say. suggesting he knows how to use jedi mind tricks.

* The Film ''Film/TheIdiots'' is about a bunch of middle class teenagers and 20-somethings that pretend to be mental retarded in order to fuck with people. And of course when the leader of The Idiots actually encounters someone mentally retarded he flips completely out on them. Needless to say the movie does not end to well.

* Harry Deane, of ''Film/{{Gambit}}'', seems intelligent, but horribly naive and prone to screwing up everything. In actuality, he's the mastermind of a greater con than what he claims to be perpetrating]].

* Iago from ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' pretends to be a normal parrot in front of everyone but Jafar.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': Sid kept going on about how Diego is [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes afraid of water]], and subtly teaching him how to swim, saying that most animals can swim when they're babies. [[ChekhovsSkill It comes in handy when the area is flooded, and Sid's unconscious.]] Diego jumps into the water, swims to Sid, Crash and Eddie, and hoists them onto a rock. Sid then states that everybody can swim when they're babies... except tigers.

* Silent Bob, from Creator/KevinSmith's ''Franchise/TheViewAskewniverse'' appears to be little more then Jay's silent companion, only less exuberant and dumber. It turns out that he's quite knowledgeable. Silent Bob may seem smarter than Jay because his friend is very loud. In ''Film/{{Mallrats}}'', Silent Bob apparently won his eighth grade science fair by turning his mom's vibrator into a CD player with "[[NoodleImplements chicken wire and shit]]"

* ''Disney/BigHero6'': At the begining of the movie, Hiro goes to a back-alley robot fighting competition with a pathetic-looking robot, and shyly asking if he can fight too. After getting beaten in a couple of hits he asks if he can bet more money for a second chance. When the second fight starts he drops the shy attitude and shows his robot's true talents by utterly destroying the rival's robot.

* In ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', Stephen plays the role of a submissive house slave in public. In private however, he's actually smarter than his master and serves as Candie's personal adviser.

* JackieChan tends to play these kinds of characters, particularly in ''Film/RushHour'', when he allows Chris Tucker's character, Carter, to believe he doesn't speak English. [[spoiler: Carter gets him back, though, when he reveals that he can speak Chinese just fine. The Screwups Reel makes it quite clear, however, that Tucker himself can't, and since he doesn't speak Chinese in the second movie either, it's possible that Carter only knows the basics of the language or learned just enough for the prank.]]

** In ''At World's End'', referring to Jack again,

* In the 2006 ''Film/PinkPanther'' remake, it is revealed that Inspector Clouseau could [[spoiler: speak Chinese all along and figured out who the killer was when the Chinese woman named "Yu" was brought in for questioning. His rant about actually knowing Chinese turned out to be true.]]
* In ''Film/RevengeOfThePinkPanther'', a character expresses the (erroneous) belief that Clouseau's blundering is actually a version of this.

* In ''Film/TheCaptainHatesTheSea'', Schulte the PI is following Danny Crockett on the cruise ship, trying to get the $250,000 in bonds that Danny has stolen. Danny's OutlawCouple partner Janet, aka "MIchigan Red" and posing here as an innocent librarian, manipulates Schulte into falling in love with her in order to distract him from the bonds. Schulte appears to be falling for their scheme, until he's shown holding Janet's rap sheet, revealing that he knows everything.

** I you watch closely, you will notice that the "brainless" Scarecrow is the one who has all the ideas, comes up with the plan to sneak into the witch's castle, and even (at the climax) manages to think quickly enough to use the Tin Man's ax to drop a chandelier on the witch's soldiers. This is even more pronounced in [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz the original book]], where he comes up with clever solutions to nearly every obstacle and monster that the Witch of the West and Oz itself throws at them. In both versions, the Scarecrow's dumb act has even [[BelievingTheirOwnLies fooled himself]]. He associates intelligence solely with being a "great brain" or "deep thinker". Since he's not one of those by any means, he fails to recognize his planning, quick thinking, and resourcefulness are ''also'' signs of intelligence.

* [[spoiler:Doofy, the killer,]] in the first ''ScaryMovie''.

** In at least one movie [[spoiler: he actually can see, but pretends to be blind in order to gain a blind person's insight. Seriously. It makes more sense when he says it.]]

* In ''Film/{{Maverick}}'', Bret Maverick pulls this off effectively in an early scene where he invites himself into a {{poker}} game, saying, "I promise that I'll do nothing but lose for at least an hour." For the first hour of so he indeed loses every hand. From the second hour of the game on, Maverick winds up cleaning out the rest of the table. When one fellow gambler accuses him of cheating, Maverick explains, "What do you think I was doing for the first hour? I was learning your tells." This sets the tone for the rest of the movie, in which Maverick appears to be bumbling his way through the West, but in reality is as shrewd and sly as anyone else in the movie.

* In ''Film/DirtyRottenScoundrels'', [[spoiler: Glenne Headly plays an extremely ditzy poor little rich girl who is an obvious target of the two cons, SteveMartin and MichaelCaine. Turns out that she was counter-conning them from the beginning.]]

* ''Summer of '42'' has its underage protagonist employ some of this to [[TrojanGauntlet obtain some condoms]] from a pharmacist. When asked what he wants them for, he says they're actually for his (nonexistent) older brother and that he assumes they're for filling with water and dropping on people from a roof.

* ''Film/{{Zatoichi}}'', in the series of movies of the same name, posed as a harmless blind masseur (he really was blind) until it came time for either intimidation or the mass slaughter of the EvilMinions.

** [[spoiler:Kyoko pretends to be obedient and guileless until she can get her revenge on Nathan]].

* Sir Roger Moore's Franchise/JamesBond uses this several times.