Line #77 Main/DumbAndDrummer


1	->'''Freddy:''' I play percussion.\
2	'''Gordon:''' Yeah, 'cause he couldn't play anything else!\
3	'''Freddy:''' Shut up!
4	-->--''Film/SchoolOfRock''
5
6	In the eyes of many people, a percussionist isn't a real musician. After all, how many brain cells can it really take to bang on stuff with sticks? For a ''single'' item, probably not many. As a result, it's common for a drummer to be portrayed as, well, stupid. And yet...
7
8	Playing percussion adequately often involves managing many more actions and ideas at once than most other instruments. Real drummers who consider themselves "serious" musicians often refer to themselves as "[[InsistentTerminology percussionists]]" in an attempt to distance themselves from this trope as well as because many drummers also play general percussion. They might even have different items of percussion attached to their kit, such as tambourines or mark trees. Even for those who ''only'' play drums, to do so at any professional level usually requires either the ability to read musical notation or the talent to create beats/play by ear, and they are the backbone of the band's sound in ''many'' genres - so if they are so stupid their musicianship is awful and/or they can't keep rhythm, the ''entire band'' will usually sound awful. So it's ''not'' TruthInTelevision for the most part. On the other hand, drum kits are ''expensive'' relative to guitars and amps, and require much more practice space. If your drummer ''is'' an idiot ([[GeniusDitz probably not]]), it's not all that easy to replace them.
9
10	Compare AllDrummersAreAnimals, as the two tropes often overlap; however, keep in mind that a savage character is [[GeniusBruiser not necessarily stupid]] and [[KindheartedSimpleton vice-versa]]. Also compare AlcoholInducedIdiocy because of the ([[TruthInTelevision not-unfounded]]) stereotype of drummers often being the heaviest drinkers in a band. Contrast NobodyLovesTheBassist.
11
12	'''[[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease No Real Life Examples, Please!]]'''
13
14	----
15	!!Examples:
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17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
20	* ''Manga/KOn'': Ritsu Tainaka. As the Light Music Club's drummer, she isn't particularly stupid, just lazy and forgetful. The reason she plays the drums is that she thinks playing the guitar or keyboard is too complicated and would frustrate her.
21	[[/folder]]
22
23	[[folder:Comic Books]]
24	* ''Vertigo Pop: London'' is about an aging rock star named Rocky looking to regain his lost youth. In a flashback set in India, a guru offers him some hash to smoke and Rocky's drummer gets envious:
25	-->'''Daz:''' Hey, I want some of this present. It sounds crazy.\
26	'''Rocky:''' Sorry, Daz. Not for you.\
27	'''Daz:''' And why not?\
28	'''Rocky:''' Because... Because you're a drummer. And drummers... they're not meant to have life-changing transcendental experiences.
29	* ''ComicBook/ScareTacticsDCComics'': This is what the rest of the band initially assume about Grossout because he is a hulking beast who only communicates in HulkSpeak. Subverted when Grossout gets hold of Arnie's computer and types out his story. He is actually intelligent and articulate, but cannot communicate verbally because of his transformation.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
33	* ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'': Ringo's clearly not as bright as his bandmates, but he seems more of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} than anything. [[spoiler: In the end, his quick thinking is what frees Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from their imprisonment, which surprises everyone.]]
34	-->'''George:''' Ringo, I take back all I said. You're a genius.\
35	'''Paul:''' Sheer genius!\
36	'''Ringo:''' I know, I know, I know.
37	* ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'': During the Silly Song, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Dopey]] is seen playing the drums.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
41	* Sort of implicit in ''Film/AlmostFamous'', as the drummer for Stillwater [[TheVoiceless never speaks]] until a rather pivotal moment: [[spoiler:when the band's plane starts to crash and they all believe they're going to die, the drummer yells "I'm gay!"]]. The others in the band tend to pretend he's not even there.
42	* In ''Film/SchoolOfRock'', Freddy is often teased for playing percussion because he "couldn't play anything else," but Dewey helps him use rock drumming as an effective outlet for his anger issues.
43	* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap''. Drummers keep getting themselves killed. One choked on (someone else's) vomit, one died in a "bizarre gardening accent" that the police said was "better left unsolved," and one died of spontaneous combustion. Their current drummer Mick Shrimpton doesn't seem at all alarmed by the cursed nature of the position and casually takes baths beside plugged-in toasters.
44	%%* Animal from ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'' was portrayed this way.
45	* The drummer in ''Film/StillCrazy'' clearly isn't the brightest in the band and the narrator expresses the opinion that "If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then drummers are from Pluto."
46	* Joe of ''Film/JoesApartment'' is made the drummer of a band called Shit shortly after moving in and is humiliated when he plays his first gig with them with zero skill.
47	* Averted in ''Film/{{Whiplash}}'', where the potential for drummers to be great musicians in their own right is treated completely seriously, and much of the focus of the film is on the endless practice, discipline and physical pain required to become genuinely good at drums as opposed to simply keeping the beat.
48	* Creator/JeanReno's character in Creator/LucBesson's ''Subway''. Even when he's not drumming, he's constantly playing with his sticks and tapping along to a rhythm only he can hear.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Jokes]]
52	* "What does it mean when the drummer's drooling out of both sides of his mouth?" "The stage is level."
53	* "What's got three legs and a twat at the top?" "A drum stool."
54	* "How do you turn a guitarist into a bassist?" "[[NobodyLovesTheBassist Knock his head on something]], but not too hard, so he doesn't turn into a drummer."
55	* "How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb?"
56	** Answer 1: "Just one, but he has to figure out not to hit it with a stick first."
57	** Answer 2: "Three. One to hold the lightbulb, and two to spin the stool."
58	* "How can you tell if there's a drummer at your door?" "The knocking speeds up and he comes in at the wrong time."
59	* "A percussionist is a musician. A drummer is some guy who hits things with sticks."
60	* "Did you hear about the guitarist who locked his keys in his car?" "It took him an hour to get the drummer out."
61	* "How do you confuse a drummer?" "Put sheet music in front of him."
62	* "What do you call a drummer who's broken up with his girlfriend?" "Homeless."
63	* "What do you call a guy who likes to hang out with musicians?" "A drummer."
64	* "Why can't drummers tell jokes timing".
65	* Q: What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?\
66	A: With a drum machine you only have to punch the information in once. \
67	''Alternate Answer:'' About 40 seconds by the end of the song.
68	* And in revenge: "How late does [band] play?" "About half a beat behind the drummer..."
69	* "What's the difference between a drummer and a large pizza?" "A large pizza can feed a family of four."
70	* "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a drummer!" "Now dear, you can't do both."
71	* Two musicians [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and a drummer]] walk into a bar...
72	* An oft-seen story involves an interview with Music/TheBeatles:
73	-->"Is Ringo the best drummer in the world?"\
74	"Ringo isn't even the best drummer in The Beatles."
75	* A similar one from an interview with Music/{{Metallica}}
76	-->'''Lars:''' How many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?\
77	'''James:''' One... As soon as he gets here.
78	* "What's the last thing a drummer says before he leaves the band?" "How about we try one of my songs?"
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Literature]]
82	* ''Literature/SoulMusic'':
83	** Lias "Cliff" Bluestone is a rather simple-minded [[AllTrollsAreDifferent troll]] who's frequently described as "one of nature's drummers".
84	** Scum of Ande Supporting Bandes is apparently ''too stupid'' to be a drummer. "What if I miss?"
85	* Chapter 15 in the autobiography of famously intelligent/subdued/DeadpanSnarker ProgressiveRock drummer Music/BillBruford is titled, "What Do You Call A Guy Who Hangs Out With Musicians?".
86	* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' associates drums with idiocy, as [[https://books.google.com/books/about/Musical_imagery_in_the_Mastro_Adamo_epis.html?id=mZ6XAQAACAAJ identified by Amilcare Iannucci.]] The dull counterfeiter Master Adam may have a disproportioned body that looks like a lute, but when hit, his dropsies make the sound of a drum that exposes his lower class, brutish nature, and idiocy to all fooled by his self-excusing lies.
87	[[/folder]]
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89	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
90	* Ash from ''Series/ImInTheBand'' is considered a GeniusDitz...at best. At worst, he's a moron.
91	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer:'' Faith's list of loser ex-boyfriends went "[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Ronnie: deadbeat. Steve: klepto. Kenny:]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking ''drummer'']]."
92	* ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' utilized this trope whenever Drake's band appeared, and his drummer felt the need to call drums every time they went onstage.
93	* ''Series/{{Glee}}'': In some respects, Finn Hudson ''is'' a walking, talking (though not at the same time) drummer joke...
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Music]]
97	* Music/BradPaisley's "Kung Pao Buckaroo Holiday," running down the list of holiday songs identifying who they'd offend:
98	-->"How 'bout 'Little Drummer Boy?'"\
99	"Nope, that offends short people."\
100	"And you can't say 'drummer,' 'cause that'll offend real musicians."
101	* Music/{{Pink}} sings in "So What" that after the waiter gives her table to Jessica Simpson, "I guess I'll go sit with drum boy" - drummers get the kids' table? On the other hand, she compliments that "At least he'll know how to hit" ([[https://youtu.be/FJfFZqTlWrQ?t=1m10s the music video even has the drummer with a]] FunTShirt reading [[DoubleEntendre "I Like to Bang"]]).
102	* Lampooned in Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "Don't Download This Song" when it's pointed out that of all people, a drummer went after the file sharers for violation of international copyright law.
103	-->''Even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong (you can just ask him!)''
104	* Glenn Fricker, owner of Spectre Media Group and longtime heavy metal record producer, hands drummer jokes out like they're candy - both in the studio and on his [=YouTube=] channel. As with his [[NobodyLovesTheBassist hatred of bass players]], he often plays this straight but will [[DiscussedTrope sometimes take the time to explain why he feels this way about drummers]], noting that as with bass players there ''are'' good drummers out there to whom this trope doesn't apply and with whom he has enjoyed working. Unlike with bass players, who usually can't play at all, drummers often ''can'' play. The problems with drummers tend to be that they can't keep a good beat, they're unable to keep their affairs outside the studio straight (e.g. Phil Rudd of {{Music/ACDC}}), and they tend to whine and complain when the producer insists on arranging drums, cymbals, and microphones in such a way as to get the optimal sound, seeing it as too much work and too different from how they normally play to the point that they can't play their kit this way at all.
105	* Overlapping slightly with AllDrummersAreAnimals, Russian FolkRock band Music/OtavaYo has its drummer Petr S cultivates an air of other-worldly "strangeness" as if he's two or three steps behind everybody else and has to run to keep up. This aura of being the ''weird'' one is played in so many videos that it can't be there by chance or accident; if anything strange or perhaps [[Magazine/ForteanTimes Fortean]] occurs in the videos, it will occur around Petr. (His apparently developing a third hand to play a complex drum-beat, for instance, as in ''Cossack's Leginka'')
106	* Implied in the Music/JohnnyCash song ''The One On The Right Is On The Left''. While the other three members of the band are having political arguments the guy in the rear (who is presumably the drummer) is portrayed as doing something stupid such as burning his driver's license instead of [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar his draft card]].
107	[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Music Videos]]
110	* Music/{{Miserable}} invokes both this and NobodyLovesTheBassist near the end of the video. When [[GiantWoman Pam/Vallery]] starts chasing down and [[ToServeMan devouring]] the band members, Allen, the band's drummer, is easily caught and eaten by her, making him her second victim. Though he at least lives longer than the band's bassist, Kevin Baldes.
111	* The {{credits\|Gag}} for Music/{{Sabaton}}'s single [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um5R_PH7Jek "Livgardet"]] credit the band members each as "Leading Actor"--except for drummer Hannes, who is credited as "Extra". (Note that he also wrote the script for the video, so this is likely SelfDeprecation.)
112	* Playing off the band's name (and giving some ProductPlacement to Papermate pencils), Autograph's "Turn Up The Radio" has an intro where band members sign their names next to their respective instruments - only drummer Keni Richards is shown writing an X instead.
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
116	* ''Series/FraggleRock'': Balsam, who plays the bongos, is TheDitz of the Minstrels, as he admits in his verse of "Music Makes Us Real (Ping!)."
117	-->'''Balsam:''' ''[singing]'' I can barely tie my shoe\
118	If I got some gum to chew.\
119	I can't count from one to two.\
120	But music's number one, ooh!
121	* ''Series/TheMuppetShow'': Animal, the drummer for the Electric Mayhem. Once, when Kermit was too busy to answer a knock, he asked Animal to get the door. Animal [[LiteralMinded got it by ripping it off its hinges and bringing it to the frog]].
122	-->'''Animal:''' Here door!
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Theatre]]
126	* In ''Theatre/{{Follies}}'', Phyllis tells Buddy that about a lover she once had who "played the drums and had long hair and no command of language."
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Video Games]]
130	* The LoadingScreen for ''VideoGame/GuitarHero 3'' has random quotes, one of which is, "I'm the drummer, I don't get paid to understand any of this!"
131	** Another reads, "Don't let your drummer handle the money."
132	** "A [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_machine drum machine]] would come to practice on time."
133	* In ''[[VideoGame/Persona4 Persona 4 Golden]]'', you have to play a concert at one point, and it's resident big guy and probably dumbest guy on the team Kanji who is on drum duty. When attempting to stagedive, he even manages to land upright (and stay) on his face.
134	* In the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn game ''VideoGame/MrBones'', the penultimate stage has the title character, a [[SkeletalMusician Skeletal Blues Musician]], take on a skeletal undead army of darkness by telling jokes. Some of them naturally fall into this trope.
135	-->'''Mr. Bones:''' How do you get two drummers to play in unison? Shoot one.\
136	'''Mr. Bones:''' Now why do bands have bass players? To explain things to the drummer.\
137	'''Mr. Bones:''' How do you know when a drummer is knocking at your door? The knock is out of time.\
138	'''Mr. Bones:''' What do you call a guy who hangs out with musicians? A drummer.
139	* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with [[HypercompetentSidekick Zuke]] in ''VideoGame/NoStraightRoads'', who's shown to be much smarter than fellow band member [[IdiotHero Mayday]], not to mention having earned himself a degree in Fine Arts and Music during his college days.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Web Animation]]
143	* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'':
144	** In the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "best thing", the drummer of Limozeen was made the FatComicRelief in their [[OneEpisodeWonder short-lived]] BandToon "[[ShowWithinAShow Limozeen: But They're In Space]]!"
145	--->'''Mary Palaroncini:''' How come they made me fat and have red hair?\
146	'''Larry Palaroncini:''' Because you're the comic relief-uh!
147	** In Issue 8 of ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'', the girls form a band and The Ugly One (the [[CloudCuckoolander biggest space cadet]] of the group) ends up playing drums.
148	* Yahtzee from ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' has invoked this twice:
149	** Part of his GDC video was dedicated to 2007's rhythm game boom, in which he commented "It seems these days even the most talentless, brick-headed, rhythm-deficient drool dispenser can know what it's like to be in a rock band as something other than the drummer."
150	** In his ''VideoGame/GuitarHero World Tour'' review he had this to say in response to some of the songs having non-English lyrics: "If you don't speak Spanish, singing them is like if the guitarist was required to play wearing mittens. Or if the drummer were required to think."
151	[[/folder]]
152
153	[[folder:Web Comics]]
154	* Kevin from ''Webcomic/{{Rhapsodies}}'' is essentially an amalgamation of every drummer joke you ever heard. Though he's more oblivious than stupid.
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Web Original]]
158	* Bandcamp - "[[http://bandcamp.com/features So Easy Even Your Drummer Could... Well, Perhaps Not That Easy]]"
159	[[/folder]]
160
161	[[folder:Western Animation]]
162	* Averted with ''{{WesternAnimation/Metalocalypse}}''; Pickles the Drummer is almost certainly the smartest member of the band (that is to say, [[SurroundedByIdiots the only member of even average intelligence]]), and was lead singer and guitarist of Snakes & Barrels before joining Dethklok.
163	* In one episode, WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants' band, [=SpongeBob=] and the Hi-Seas, has the [[TheDitz village-idiot]] [[AchievementsInIgnorance character]] [[TooDumbToLive Patrick]] as its drummer.
164	** Also in 'Band Geeks'.
165	* The '60s animated series ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles'' gave Ringo this treatment.
166	* [[DumbBlonde Melody]] from ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats''.
167	* Howard Weinerman from ''WesternAnimation/RandyCunninghamNinthGradeNinja''.
168	* Kon Kujira isn't the smartest member in ''WesternAnimation/{{Grojband}}'' obviously (although he tends to lean more into being a GeniusDitz than a full-on Ditz), but being TheBigGuy pretty much makes up for it.
169	* In ''WesternAnimation/ScaryLarry'', the band's drummer is [[Main/FrankensteinsMonster Frank]], who is the biggest and by far the dumbest member of the group.
170	[[/folder]]
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