Line #46 Main/AsianAirhead


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6	[[quoteright:299:[[Theatre/MeanGirls https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/airhead_3.png]]]]
7	[[caption-width-right:299:"If Regina is the sun / Then I'm a disco ball\
8	'Cause I'm just as bright and fun / If you've had alcohol!"]]
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13
14	->''"Fool me seven times, shame on you, fool me eight or more times, shame on me."''
15	-->-- '''Amy Wong, Ph.D''', ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''
16
17	A stereotype used in various media, growing to prominence in TheNineties and the TurnOfTheMillennium. It is an inversion of AsianAndNerdy, purposefully [[StereotypeFlip turning the "model minority" stereotype on its head]] by having the Asian character in the narrative be the dumbest of the bunch rather than a StereotypicalNerd, the TheSmartGuy, ThePerfectionist, or a BookSmart GoGetterGirl set to become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer.
18
19	Like DumbBlonde, the stupidity of the characters can be presented in a variety of ways: TheDitz, TheFool, etc. Rarely will they present as the InsufferableImbecile who is dumb, stubbornly ignorant, and rude, unless the character is a DumbJock or an AlphaBitch (PopularIsDumb, and these characters are at the top of the PopularityFoodChain).
20
21	Many examples take the "airhead" in the trope name somewhat literally and make these dumb Asian characters a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, a KindheartedSimpleton whose head is in the clouds and appears to be channeling a different...frequency from everyone else. While BookDumb, they aren't complete idiots and will occasionally drop SimpleMindedWisdom to the shock of those around them.
22
23	Tends to overlap with BrainlessBeauty, PluckyComicRelief, and ValleyGirl in particular, given the high number of Asian people in RealLife who live on the American West Coast where the accent originated. Female versions tend to be the preferred type of Asian girls for [[MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow fictional white guys]]. And on that note, while this is frequently a girl or young woman, male examples are not unheard of and have gained prominence in the latter half of the 2010's.
24
25	Note: Given this trope is a direct response to a Western stereotype about Asian people, this trope only really applies to works that have a majority non-Asian cast and were created by and for non-Asian audiences. The vast majority of {{Anime}}, {{Manga}}, AsianAnimation, {{Light Novel}}s, and other media by and for an Asian audience do not qualify.
26	----
27	!Examples
28	[[foldercontrol]]
29
30	[[folder:Comic Books]]
31	* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': The Female's mother (according to The Female) was an utter airhead who happened to work for a Japanese company trying to recreate Compound V. When The Female fell into a vat of the stuff, she thinks that the company took her away from her mother with [[ComicallySmallBribe a subscription to a fashion magazine]].
32	* ''ComicBook/Gen13'': Grunge, a Chinese-American California surfer/skater/slacker dude, is presented as a rather dumb {{Manchild}}. He tests well in school, however, thanks to his PhotographicMemory.
33	* While not stupid, ComicBook/{{Jubilee\|MarvelComics}} of the ''ComicBook/XMen'' suffers dyscalculia, averting the "[[AsianAndNerdy Asians as math geniuses]]" stereotype.
34	* Robert Lai, a Chinese-American slacker who had trouble figuring out how to keep his mouth shut and managed to blow-up the chem lab at school after failing to listen to directions, was friends and classmates with ComicBook/{{Superboy\|1994}} when he was going to school in Hawaii.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
38	* Bibi from ''[[Film/TheCoedAndTheZombieStoner The Coed and the Zombie Stoner]]'', a college student so stupid she apparently forgot her own name while she was spelling it out.
39	%%* The ''Film/CampRock'' character, Ella.
40	%%* ''Film/TheHangover'': An antagonistic version of this trope, Leslie Chow (played by Creator/KenJeong) counts.
41	* Knives Chau from ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' is excitably ignorant of Scott's attempts at distancing himself from her, blundering through interpersonal interactions and becoming a ClingyJealousGirl, though her lack of social smarts are probably mostly to emphasize her youth.
42	* Creator/BrendaSong basically plays this part in every Creator/DisneyChannel show she's ever worked on. She played a vaguely competent person in her own movie ''Film/WendyWuHomecomingWarrior'', who still ended up blowing off saving the world in favor of being crowned 'Homecoming Queen', although she eventually saw the light after a very mild metaphorical slap across the face.
43	%%** Her character in ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'' is basically an Asian Airhead with CuteAndPsycho tendencies.
44	* ''Film/WhiteWolves II'': The Filipino Steve has some wariness and respect for the wilderness, but also gets some LiteralMinded and SkewedPriorities moments. When Beri makes a crack about breaking out a guitar to sing campfire songs, he thinks she means they have a real guitar. More dramatically, he fails to bury food scraps far from the camp, which attracts a bear.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Literature]]
48	* Claudia Kishi of ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'' is crafty/artsy but has problems with grades, in contrast with her AsianAndNerdy older sister Janine. In TheMovie, she has to go to summer school and is shown to be unable to remember the digestive system. In most of the books, though, it's indicated that while Claudia [[BookDumb isn't very good at school]], she is, in fact, intelligent. Mostly. Spelling, one of her defining not-too-bright traits, improved for awhile, before [[{{Flanderization}} plummeting to near elementary-school-levels]] in the later books, to the point that it became a fandom joke.
49	* Exploited in ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'' when Nikita alters her appearance and acts like an airhead to fool her target and let her get close to him.
50	* Subverted in the ''Literature/StarTrekEnterpriseRelaunch'' novel ''The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing'', when a reporter is taken aback to find the current Dalai Lama is a teenage girl who talks like a ValleyGirl and says she doesn't follow the news, but by the end the reporter has decided she probably ''does'' have the wisdom you'd expect of the Dalai Lama, just [[BunnyEarsLawyer an unusual way of showing it]].
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
54	* A season one episode of ''Series/{{Blackish}}'' has Kyra Kang Nussbaum, who is mentioned to be a [[HeldBackInSchool super senior]]. Zoe helps [[BlackAndNerdy Junior]] hook up with her, believing it will help boost his popularity. However, Kyra instead uses Junior to edit together an audition tape for ''Series/TheBachelor''.
55	* The show ''Series/{{Cake}}'' gives us Miracle, a young Filipino girl. Gorgeous, glamorous, and, of course, stupid.
56	%% * Keiko of the ABC reality show ''Conveyor Belt of Love''.
57	* On ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'', Filipino-American Josh Chan is handsome and popular, but he is also not very smart. He's a LovableJock and doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his body, but his oblivious nature does occasionally cause him to be InnocentlyInsensitive, particularly when it comes to other people's feelings.
58	* The Filipino-American Jason from ''Series/TheGoodPlace''. While other characters find him attractive, they also agree that he's possibly one of the dumbest humans on the planet.
59	%%* Ashley Dewitt on ''Series/HannahMontana''. Basically the same character [as Miracle], but much stupider, with a different name.
60	* ''Series/MaggieAndBiancaFashionFriends'': Yuki is a pretty girl, but is also very clumsy, ditzy, and has a crush on the only other character who is just as dumb as her. Yuki's character is Japanese, although she's played by [[FakeNationality a Chinese actress]].
61	%%* Sui Blake from ''Series/OneWorld''.
62	* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' has [[http://orange-is-the-new-black.wikia.com/wiki/Brook_Soso Brook Soso]], the half-Japanese, half-Irish inmate of Litchfield Penitentiary (portrayed by Creator/KimikoGlenn) and a naive, talkative, [[GranolaGirl new-age hippie]] who often annoys the other inmates with her non-stop talking and often [[TheDitz ditzy]] personality.
63	* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
64	** Cassie Chan of ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'' fame, whose character seemed based around fawning over the Phantom Ranger and jutting prominently. She's gorgeous, but airy and fickle.
65	** There's also Mia Watanabe from ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' and Dax Lo from ''Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'' (who is a mix of this and {{Cloudcuckoolander}}).
66	** Trip from ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'' (of the DitzyGenius variety) arguably counts as well. The arguable part being that he's an Asian actor portraying an alien.
67	%%* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' once had a model named Natasha Yi, who would go on to become an Internet celebrity. Something about the way she acted reeked of this trope.
68	* ''Series/SaluteYourShorts'' had Dina Alexander. Played by Chinese-American actress Heidi Lucas, she was, in effect, a mirror image of London Tipton years before the latter character was created. Dina is dim-witted, easily manipulated, vain, and yet also universally considered beautiful and popular by her peers.
69	* Korean-American Miggy Park from ''Series/SingleParents''. He is a clueless new single father who can't even care for himself and needs help to parent.
70	* London Tipton from ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody''. A beautiful, rich, popular young Asian-American girl... who just happens to be dense as a brick.[[note]]It turns out that the role was not written for an Asian girl, as it's supposed to be a parody of Paris Hilton. In fact, Creator/AshleyTisdale was originally going to play London with Brenda Song in the [[BookSmart Maddie]] role, but they ended up being switched because the girls played the other parts better. This is referenced in the AlternateRealityEpisode, where the girls are their original intended roles.[[/note]] London originally started out as simply being a lazy rich kid who didn't like school or work, however she was flanderized into being increasingly more ignorant as time went on. In later seasons she is a BrainlessBeauty who NeverLearnedToRead.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Theatre]]
74	* Creator/AshleyPark as Gretchen Wieners in the original Broadway cast of ''Theatre/MeanGirls'' is one of the main popular girls (though interestingly, she also identifies as Jewish). While Gretchen is often the StraightMan to the [[TheDitz even more air-headed Karen Smith]], and shows more self-conscious vulnerability than the norm for this trope, this is still the same Gretchen who is trying to make "fetch" happen.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Web Animation]]
78	* ''WebAnimation/TheMostPopularGirlsInSchool'': Mackenzie's {{Cloudcuckoolander}} little sister, [[ExtremeOmnivore Katelynn Zales]], is TooDumbToLive. For a seven-year-old, [[KiddieKid especially]].
79	* ''WebAnimation/{{Anon\|Machinima}}'': Vivian, Candace's best friend. From her awkward flirting with Candace's younger brother to failing to recognise the difference between a dentist and a dental assistant, Vivian can at times be frustratingly dumb.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Webcomics]]
83	* ''Webcomic/BloodyUrban'' has Shaun, an aswang who is usually [[CloudCuckoolander fairly dopey]] and almost always [[StonersAreFunny baked out of his mind]].
84	* ''WebComic/VampireCheerleaders'': Suki lies somewhere between being a [[TheDitz a ditz]] and [[CloudCuckoolander a goofball]]. While her antics are played for laughs, her impulsive behavior [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120223171500/http://www.vampirecheerleaders.net/strips-vc/suki_has_an_idea and lack of forethought]] tends to create problems for her friends. She also has [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny an incredibly short attention span]], which made for poor study habits that caused her to [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130902004832/http://www.vampirecheerleaders.net/strips-vc/quick_snack flunk her senior year.]] Though, truthfully, [[spoiler:it was done as an excuse to keep Suki in the story, since she was the only one of the cheerleaders [[EnsembleDarkhorse that the fans liked]].]]
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Web Original]]
88	%%* Sunji Spencer in ''WebVideo/PrettyDudes''.
89	* The selling point behind World of Wonder's WAIT, WHAT? which features ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' alums Gia Gunn and Kimora Blac as they get quizzed on various topics that they missed out on in school.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Western Animation]]
93	* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', we have Francine's unseen adoptive sister Gwen; Stan's constantly going on about how hot she is (even recalling how beautiful she looked ''on Francine's wedding day'') and her parents favor her...but they openly admit that it's because she's an idiot who needs all the help she can get, while Francine is smart and clever enough to take care of herself. As Francine's father put it: "I mean can you believe it? An Asian girl who can't do math?!" However, this is later retconned when she appears in the show. Aside from lighting a cigarette in a gas-soaked room and failing math in high school, she's actually quite intelligent, cunning, and manipulative.
94	%%** Vince Chung.
95	* Bridgette in ''WesternAnimation/CloseEnough'' is a Japanese-American social media influencer from a rich family, which is fortunate because her singing career with Emily is a failure and she can't hold a job more complex than clothing store employee.
96	* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'': Background character Naomi N'guyen, though we aren't given any hints that she's Asian within the show (the last name is only present [[AllThereInTheManual in show notes]], and she doesn't look remotely Asian). She tries out for Odd's band but is rejected because she's clearly never played the drums before.
97	* Kuki Sanban (a.k.a. Numbuh 3) of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' is effectively like a younger, prepubescent [[ComicBook/{{WITCH}} Hay Lin]]. An adorable, girly, kindhearted, rather prissy Japanese girl who is personified as being [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} extremely scatterbrained]]. But she has [[BewareTheNiceOnes a fair share]] of [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass kick-butt moments that even it out]]. The finale shows that she is really a StepfordSmiler and her peppy personality is mostly an act, however Numbuh 3 still officially caused problems for her team due to ignorance such as in episodes "Operation: NO-POWUH" and "Operation: SPANK". Of note is that she was voiced by Creator/LaurenTom, the same actress who provides the voice for Amy Wong in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. In fact, one of the only young, popular characters she voices that ''doesn't'' fit into this trope in some manner is Kahn "Connie" Souphanousinphone, Jr. from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''. In a twist of irony, Numbuh 3 claims that she's not an airhead in the series finale "Operation: I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S" but she ''could'' have been sarcastic / joking. If not, then she's oblivious to her own abnormal behavior.
98	* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom:'' Kwan ([[OnlyOneName is that his first name or his last name?]]) is Dash's friend and was initially shown as being a JerkJock like him, but became more of a dumb TokenGoodTeammate of the popular kids as time went on. Interestingly, the BadFuture shown in "The Ultimate Enemy" seems to have him grow up to be a scientist, so he may switch to [[AsianAndNerdy that other stereotype]] when high school popularity is no longer a factor.
99	* Tiffany, a member of the Fashion Club on ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}''. She has no actual characterization: she just [[YesMan agrees with whatever her friends tell her to]]. She is also the ''dumbest'' character of the Fashion Club; she, literally, agreed with whoever spoke last, lost her place on a piece of paper three sentences in, and just so you know, that isn't how fast she speaks, that's how fast ''she thinks''. She also scores the lowest out of her friends on the [=PSATs=] at a lackluster 902, when most colleges will typically only accept 1200 points or higher.
100	* Lee Lee, one of Dee Dee's friends in ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory''. Though, to be fair, she just has the exact same [[TheDitz ditzy personality]] as Dee Dee and all her other friends.
101	* Amy Wong of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. She ''acts'' so ditzy that it's easy to forget that she was introduced as a [[GeniusDitz graduate student in applied physics]] (and [[ForgotFlandersCouldDoThat eventually gets her PhD]].)
102	-->'''Professor Farnsworth:''' I'm sure I don't need to explain that all dark matter in the universe is linked in the form of a single non-local meta-particle.\
103	'''Amy:''' Guhh! Stop patronizing us.
104	* By her own admission, Cassandra of ''WesternAnimation/HighSchoolUSA'' is 100% Chinese. She's also about 300% vapid, self-important moron. Fortunately (for men) she's very attractive. [[spoiler:Subverted when it's revealed that her parents were actually Americans who moved to China to pick up their old manufacturing jobs who then applied permanent skin coloring and plastic surgery on their daughter to make her appear to be Chinese.]]
105	* In ''WesternAnimation/LouAndLouSafetyPatrol'', Lulu is Asian like her younger siblings, but she often commits "safety violations", bordering on TooDumbToLive territory.
106	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Motorcity}}'': Texas is the Burners' resident {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, though he shows GeniusDitz qualities on occasion when dispensing his own special brand of advice. [[WordOfGod The creators]] say he's Filipino.
107	* Stacy Hirano, Candace's best friend from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', sometimes fits this trope. Stacy ''does'' show a keen interest in things like fashion and romance, and she appears to be BookDumb (since she thinks the pyramids are in France), but she's often the StraightMan to Candace's neurotic mania. She gets easily distracted when trying to bust Phineas and Ferb for Candace, but that's mainly because she realizes there's no real ''point'' in doing so; given another task, she's far more sane and rational than Candace. (Also of note: Stacy's mother is a doctor, and apparently she'll grow up to be [[spoiler:the President of Uruguay.]])
108	-->(Stacy suggests Candace should focus her attention on where the inventions go)\
109	'''Candace:''' Stacy, you're a genius!\
110	'''Stacy:''' Thanks. Could you call my mother and tell her that?
111	* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': Lillian, who is Chinese-American, is shown to be somewhat ditzy. In "The Grandest Canyon" she doesn't know what "perspective" means, and in "Mindy Turns Five", she outright tells Mindy what she got her for her birthday instead of keeping it a surprise like she said she would. In "Fact or Fiction?", she legitimately believes that clouds are made of cotton candy. Why? Because someone at school told her so.
112	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AsianAirhead