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16
17->''"No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot."''
18-->-- '''Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw'''
19
20Under virtually all circumstances, they seem to be so stupid and [[NoSocialSkills socially awkward]] that they likely have a mental disorder. But put them in the right kind of situation, and they'll demonstrate outstanding brilliance.
21
22Mathematics (or a certain area of it) is a common area for Savant skills to show up. A few such people in real life are amazingly gifted at calendar-based calculations. Give them a specific date and they can tell you in seconds what day of the week it was or will be. Intuitive mathematical calculations, such as the multiplication of large numbers or the identification of primes, also occur. Non-mathematical abilities include precocious musical ability, including perfect pitch and intuitive ability to play an instrument; unusual artistic ability, especially the ability to draw anything after having seen it once; prodigious feats of memory, such as memorizing entire books or a million digits of pi; or even the ability to learn a new language in a week.
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24When Hollywood uses Savant characters, the most frequent talent the character will have will be something to do with mathematics.
25
26The term "Idiot Savant" is actually outdated, since the term "idiot" itself is no longer a medical term. The term "savant syndrome" is more correct. It refers to someone -- usually someone with a developmental disorder, often autism -- who has one or sometimes more extremely high abilities that are disproportionate to their normal level of functioning. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome The other wiki]] has more information.
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28See also GeniusDitz when the person has stupidity outside his field of expertise rather than a mental disorder. All three tropes can be confused with SeeminglyProfoundFool. Occasionally overlaps with DisabilitySuperpower and HollywoodAutism. Compare/contrast BunnyEarsLawyer, who is functioning properly despite a few quirks and CripplingOverspecialization, which could be seen as the ability version of this in the world of CompetitiveBalance. Also contrast SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining, where the person may have no particular mental condition but has focused on one (or a few) skills at the cost of everything else.
29
30'''This trope is about people with an actual mental disorder. If the character is simply ditzy, then that's GeniusDitz.'''
31
32----
33!!Examples:
34
35[[foldercontrol]]
36
37[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
38* Sasha in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. She's a BigEater who's so stupid that she doesn't even understand that eating a stolen potato in front of her commanding officer is a bad thing, believes that people who give her food are gods, and goes so far as to steal food directly from her superiors and show it off to her peers. Still, she is fantastic with a blade and even better with a bow, and one of the most effective combatants against the Titans. When she's not being distracted by food, at least.
39* Komugi of ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' can really not do anything at all, due in part to her blindness, general SelfDeprecation and the belief hammered into her by her parents that if she ever lost a game of Gungi ever, she is nothing more than trash... but she is quite literally undefeatable at Gungi to make up for this, being able to lead and control a game of it hundreds of moves ahead of her opponents and always increasing her skill with every match, making anyone she fights completely unable to catch up to her no matter how hard they try.
40%%* Stella Loussier of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' is a BrokenBird with mental damage and emotional stunting so severe that she arguably counts as mentally handicapped. Put her behind the controls of a Gundam though, and slaughter ensues.%%"Arguably?" Examples are not arguable. I don't know the work, so I'm not sure if she's just ditzy or actually mentally ill.
41%%* ''Manga/SoutenKouro'': Xu Chu can predict the weather based on the moon's phases. Xu Chu doesn't know that there's only one moon.%%Is this actual mental disability or just ditziness?
42[[/folder]]
43
44[[folder:Comic Books]]
45* Cassandra Cain, the third ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'', is a dark example. She's essentially a combat savant who's quite possibly ''the'' best martial artist in Franchise/TheDCU... but she became this way because [[AbusiveParents her father]] refused to teach her ''anything'' that wasn't fighting, not even ''how to talk''. It took psychic intervention in her teens for her to even begin to understand English, and she can still barely read or speak. Her predecessor Barbara Gordon notes that the language centers of her brain are wired in such a way that makes it extremely difficult for her to learn spoken language, meaning she essentially has a learning disability.
46* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': Despite being mentally handicapped, Big Sir is a genius at card games and was able to break the bank at ComicBook/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} Casino.
47* Spinister from ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' has a list of psychological issues that reads like the wet dream of a psychiatrist who wants a book deal. He suffers from delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia, he classifies random objects as good or bad based on the noises they make when punched, he has trouble counting, he doesn't even notice when his arm is removed...but he's also a brilliant surgeon who at one point works out an effective treatment to a very invasive and cruel procedure within an hour of learning it had even happened.
48[[/folder]]
49
50[[folder:Fan Works]]
51* Common in the ''Fanfic/TriptychContinuum'', in the form of ''falling into the mark'', a mental disorder among ponies that causes their cutie mark talent to consume their life. Nearly every pony goes through a touch of it after cutiesynthesis, becoming just a little bit too interested in their new skills. Far too many ponies exist in its early stages, simply never really developing a true interest in anything outside the range of their talent. But for those who ''fall'' furthest, the condition can approach this trope: A single field in which they are supremely competent... and total incapacity in any other.
52[[/folder]]
53
54%% [[folder:Films -- Animated]]
55%%* ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet's'' B.E.N.%%Zero-Context Example.
56%% [[/folder]]
57
58[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
59* In ''Film/ABoyCalledPo'', the titular autistic boy could read at age three, follows the stock market in the paper, and can do math that's way more advanced than anything his classmates can do, but he can't tie his own shoes.
60* Zen, star of ''Film/{{Chocolate}}'', is an autistic girl and [[WaifFu martial arts savant]].
61* ''Film/{{Cube}}'':
62** The first ''Cube'' has Kazan, a severely mentally handicapped man who, to the rest of the people trapped in the Cube, is a nuisance at first, constantly banging his head against the walls, making weird honking noises, and babbling about gumdrops. Later on, it's discovered that he could find the prime factors of huge numbers in his head, and he ends up as their savior, [[spoiler:or more accurately, as [[RayOfHopeEnding his own savior]]]].
63** In ''Film/CubeZero'', this is creepily hinted at with [[spoiler:Wynn]] as having become this at the end. He's lobotomized, thrown back in the Cube, and found by some other prisoners, mirroring Kazan's introduction. The last shot of the film settles on his tapping fingers as a computer interface is softly heard in the background...
64* The main character of ''Film/ForrestGump'', particularly with things that require speed (running, loading weapons, ping-pong, etc.) in combination with an extreme, single-minded concentration. This was actually toned down from the book.
65* In ''Film/TheInnocent1994'', the autistic and intellectually disabled nine-year-old Gregory can produce highly detailed sketches of everything he's ever seen. When Barlow discovers this fact, he tries to get Gregory to draw the men who committed a mass shooting he witnessed.
66* Tony from ''Film/JourneyOfTheHeart'' is an autistic piano savant who can't tie his shoes, tell up from down, or understand abstract concepts, but he can effortlessly play complicated pieces after hearing them only once.
67* ''Film/MercuryRising'' centers on an autistic child who can intuitively decipher top military ciphers and a police officer who can convey character with a silent telegenic stare.
68* In ''Film/MingAndMing'', the autistic boy Xiaoming can multiply and divide large numbers in a few seconds.
69* ''Film/TheProfessional'': Leon has NoSocialSkills and [[NeverLearnedToRead doesn't even know how to read]], but you won't find a man more apt at mowing down enemies with extreme prejudice. A lot of the movie centers on contrasting his ineptitude with normal life to his aptness at his hitman job.
70* ''Film/RainMan'': Raymond suffers from extreme autism and is usually restricted to a home. However, he has [[GoodWithNumbers savant abilities with numbers]], allowing him to count with lightning speed, do complex calculations in his head, and count cards.
71* Karl in ''Film/SlingBlade'' is a mentally disabled man with mechanical skills, especially when it comes to small engine maintenance and repair.
72* White from ''Manga/{{Tekkonkinkreet}}'' plays this trope straight. He saves Black's life, perhaps more than once, and is eerily perceptive about some of the people around him: at the same time, he can't tie his own shoes or dress himself without help.
73* ''Film/TheWizard'' features a young autistic boy who is fantastic at video games.
74[[/folder]]
75
76[[folder:Literature]]
77* ''Literature/AlCaponeDoesMyShirts'': Natalie is moderately to severely autistic. She's somewhat verbal, but not fluent, and few skills in most areas. She also has two classic "autistic" skills, calendar calculations[[labelnote:*]]'''Moose:''' When's your birthday, Piper? '''Piper:''' November sixteenth. '''Moose:''' 1922? '''Piper:''' Yep. '''Moose:''' Natalie, what day of the week was Piper born? '''Natalie:''' Thursday.[[/labelnote]] and math.[[labelnote:*]]'''Theresa:''' Numbers Nat, we need you! '''Piper:''' Three dollars and twenty cents split [...] three ways. '''Natalie:''' One dollar six cents, two cents left over.[[/labelnote]]
78* ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'': One book has Kristy sitting for a girl with autism. The girl, Susan, is mostly non-verbal and generally not able to take care of herself, but is a brilliant piano player ''and'' can do the "identify the day of the week" calendar trick.
79* ''Literature/DolphinBoy'': Six-year-old Dibs can't talk, but he can draw beautiful sketches of sea creatures and almost perfectly mimic a huge variety of sounds. Most people treat him like a baby, but his sister Amy realizes how intelligent he is before anyone else does.
80* ''Literature/TheElenium'': Adus is an evil example. A [[MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency mentally handicapped]], [[TheBrute barbaric savage]], Adus can barely speak, doesn't bathe, is almost illiterate, and frequently eats raw meat. He's also [[TheBerserker a combat savant]], with a talent not only for physical fighting but small unit tactics. Give him an axe and a manageable number of troops, and no one is more dangerous.
81* ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'': Flat Escardos is a complete and utter moron who thinks that Qin Shi Huang and Godzilla wanted the Holy Grail. He enters the Holy Grail War as a tourist and is bent on befriending every Servant participating. At the same time, he's frighteningly talented at magecraft, [[PlayfulHacker playfully rewriting]] meticulously laid wards simply by touching them for four seconds. He also summoned his Servant, Jack the Ripper, completely by accident simply by fiddling with the residual magical energy in the air.
82* ''Literature/HouseOfTheScorpion'': Ton Ton has trouble speaking and is regarded as a dumb ox by his peers, but can work almost any machine.
83* ''Literature/MaloryTowers'': Irene is forgetful and scatterbrained to a hilarious degree (often forgetting the classes she should be in and the like), but the narrative never fails to mention that she's also a genius in both music and maths.
84* ''Literature/MeWhoDoveIntoTheHeartOfTheWorld'': Karen Nieto is autistic. Tests have found that her intellectual abilities in most areas range from kindergarten to second-grade level, but she has savant skills in memory, spatial awareness, and concentration. She also has a unique understanding of the wants and needs of tuna, which allows her to become [[spoiler:the first person to successfully breed bluefin tuna in captivity]].
85* In ''Literature/MySweetAudrina'', Audrina's sister Sylvia is born with a severe intellectual disability which means that she can't speak, walk properly, close her mouth or control her bodily functions. Despite this, she is presented as preternaturally wise and has powers of telepathy which allow her to communicate with Audrina, ultimately leading to her coming up with a very clever solution to [[spoiler:save the comatose Audrina from Vera, who was about to switch off Audrina's life support machine]].
86* Mashiro Shiina in ''Literature/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'' is an internationally famous painter by high school age, but she clearly has zero skills in anything else -- she doesn't know how to put on her shoes, or that she has to pay for items in a store, etc., etc., together with a long list of oddities (like NoSocialSkills or [[EmotionlessGirl having a flat affect]]) to the point that the speculation of her being autistic has become a rather universally accepted {{Fanon}}.
87* ''Literature/ReapersGale'': Beak has an incredible natural magical ability that would've put him on the fast track to High Mage rank, if not for a combination of an unspecified disorder, childhood traumas, and a Film/{{Forrest Gump}}ish mental state -- which combine to give him NoSocialSkills and a mental handicap in understanding the world around him unless it has to do with magic. Even that he simplifies to a great degree. While other mages see magic as a complicated net of cause and effect, Beak simply sees differently colored candles. And while other mages can use one, maybe two of the [[FunctionalMagic Paths of Magic]], Beak can use ''all of them''. The other mages usually take a whiff of his magical potential, hear him babbling on about something and just give him a hug before they walk away crying.
88* ''Literature/TheSaxonStories'': [[TheBigGuy Steapa Snotor]] is so stupid that he's nicknamed [[IronicNickname "The Clever"]], and is reckoned by the hero to be completely lacking in imagination. He is uneducated, illiterate, and can spend hours wrapping his head around the simplest of situations. The exception to this is on the battlefield, where he is both a terrifying warrior and an extremely capable commander. Alfred the Great, a man who admires only learning and otherwise only trusts literate and intelligent men, promotes Steapa to command of his personal guard, which frequently means effective command of his entire army.
89* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' was a self-inflicted version of this trope. He apparently managed to acquire and retain his encyclopedic knowledge of anything and everything to do with crime and detection in part by taking care never to learn anything that did not relate to crime-solving. In the first book, Watson is gobsmacked to find that Sherlock doesn't know that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
90* ''Literature/TheStand'': Donald Elbert, better known as Trashcan Man, is dubiously literate or numerate and has quite serious psychiatric problems, but can easily figure out the most complex machinery.
91* ''Literature/TheTommyknockers'': The titular "Tommyknockers" are smart enough to create DC-powered anti-gravity, dumb enough to never think of buying an AC-DC converter so they don't have to power it with batteries.
92* In ''Literature/TheUnderlandChronicles'', Gregor’s sister falls into this category. She is very mathematically inclined but is regularly overcome by panic attacks that make it hard for her to function.
93[[/folder]]
94
95[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
96* Kyle in ''Series/AllTheSmallThings'' displays symptoms of high-functioning autism, being unable to relate to most people, saying very little, and [[LiteralMinded speaking literally when he speaks at all]]. However, he's a superb singer and guitarist.
97* Paisley from ''Series/ANTFarm'' can't read or remember her name, but she can build a functioning helicopter complete with rope ladder out of balloons, which she can also make into a pony complete with ''functioning internal organs''.
98* There's a throwaway gag in one episode of ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' in which Shawn refers to himself as one after revealing he can speak French. This was during the period in the show where he got really dumb, which didn't stick as a character trait, so this is never brought up again.
99* "Coach" Ernie Pantusso from ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' is implied to be TheDitz due to head injuries, but he's also a geography expert, even making up mnemonic songs about countries.
100* Melvin Potter from ''Series/Daredevil2015'' displays some very childlike behavior and is clearly mentally unbalanced, but he is also a savant when it comes to making armored combat suits. He takes an authoritative tone when he's in his element, but sounds like an insecure child the rest of the time. In Season 2, he acts more mature as a result of Fisk no longer being around to pressure him, taking medication against his mental disorder, and his parole officer/girlfriend acting as a stabilizing influence.
101-->'''Leland Owlsley:''' He's half an idiot.\
102'''Wilson Fisk:''' It's the other half that counts.
103* Shaun Murphy, the main character of ''Series/TheGoodDoctor'', is a clear example of this trope, being a genius surgeon with autism and savant syndrome.
104* Colonel Klink of ''Series/HogansHeroes'' is often thought of as one of these as anyone who meets him quickly realizes how dumb he is. However, when asked how he holds on to his job as the commandant of Stalag 13, they always bring up his perfect no escape record (which is because Hogan and the company keep it that way to keep the bumbling Klink in command).
105* Patrick, the PatientOfTheWeek in the ''Series/{{House}}'' episode "Half-Wit", is this due to a car accident he was in as a kid. He can't even button his own shirt, yet he's a brilliant pianist despite never having practiced it.
106* Charlie Kelly in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' is not a very smart man -- he NeverLearnedToRead (although it's more that he tries and fails) and carries a general air of incompetence, but he's very adept at playing and creating music. When Mac expresses surprise that Charlie can play a keyboard, let alone with great skill, Charlie says, "Oh man, keyboards just make sense to me, man. I get 'em, ya know?" He also shows remarkable ImprovisationalIngenuity as seen in "Charlie Work," where he has to create a complex plan on the fly to dupe the incoming health inspector into giving the bar a passing grade while covering up a very messy "chicken and airline miles" scam the rest of the gang concocted while Charlie wasn't there.
107* One episode of ''Series/LawAndOrder'' has a suspect who can do quantum physics but can't remember a grocery list.
108* Reese from ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''. He is the dumbest person on the show but he is a genius in the kitchen and very naturally gifted. One example is him making an entire dinner for his family with a little help from Piama, Francis's wife, but he can't find the oven mitts. He then grabs the turnkey dish ''with his bare hands fresh out of the oven'' and tells Paima to move the oven mitts.
109* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': "[[Recap/MurdochMysteriesS4E6DeadEndStreet Dead End Street]]" features a woman who is almost mute and regarded as an 'imbecile' (in the parlance of the era), but has total recall and a phenomenal ability in making models. When she makes a scale model of her street with a tiny figure holding a rifle at the window, Murdoch realizes she has witnessed a murder and reconstructed it in the model. However, because she cannot distinguish faces, Murdoch has no way of identifying the figure at the window and has to work out a means of communicating with her to discover what she knows.
110* One episode of ''Series/Numb3rs'' features a very Film/RainMan-like autistic savant character, right down to being able to count spilled toothpicks quickly and accurately. He's employed by a courier company to help track packages with missing or damaged bar codes, and when he's off work, they have to bring in at least ten people to do his job.
111* Rom, a recurring Ferengi on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', goes far beyond basic idiocy. Somehow he is an extremely capable engineer and at one point, even able to spout technobabble on the level of Spock and Data. His skills seem to have been honed by the Ferengi's natural skill with mathematics and the years working as Quark's personal repairman for anything and everything.
112%%* In ''Series/That70sShow'' Kelso is able to perfectly calculate how much money they'd make from a Kegger in relation to how many people showed up and paid for beer.%%You seem to be missing the "idiot" part. How does it apply?
113* While the Tick was always a ditz, ''Series/TheTick2001'' plays up his ditzy traits so much that he seems barely capable of functioning in society. Notably, he doesn't even know his own real name or where he's from, he can't recognize other superheroes when they're out of costume (the other characters might have trouble at first, but The Tick never picks up on it even when it's explained to him), and at first doesn't even know what death is. When it comes to heroics, however, he's a genius: he's an expert fighter and shows a decent amount of philosophical thought. Notably, when he did discover that everyone (even potatoes) can die, he spent about 30 seconds thinking about it before giving Arthur a motivating speech that ''actually makes sense''.
114* Ricky from ''Series/TrailerParkBoys'' is so dumb he struggled to pass even grade 11, ''constantly'' spouts {{malaproper}}s, genuinely believes that evidence can be disposed of by simply flinging it into the air, can't even keep a goldfish alive, and can barely even speak without stumbling over words and swearing. However, he's a genius at pretty much anything that requires using his hands: he's better at growing marijuana than even Julien and the hyper-intelligent Bubbles, a very talented mechanic, and (despite his heavy diet of canned ravioli and chicken fingers) a capable cook. He's also shown to be very quick-witted when the time calls for it, frequently (but not always) able to talk himself out of a situation, such as the time he ''weaponized'' his stupidity to convince a judge to allow him to swear in court by pointing out that he can't properly defend himself without swearing because of how stupid he is... ''which works''.
115[[/folder]]
116
117[[folder:Music]]
118* Music/{{Eminem}} repeatedly self-describes as an 'idiot savant' in interviews, superlatively gifted at rapping, but unable to do anything else. This is an exaggeration, but he does have a large collection of mental conditions (autism, hyperlexia, OCD, drug addiction, suicidality, physical brain damage that gave him a HairTriggerTemper, trauma from his abusive childhood, and a phobia of giraffes) and is useless at a lot of things most people find easy (he has no attention span, no sense of direction, got HeldBackInSchool three times before dropping out, has little interoception and participates in MuseAbuse to TooDumbToLive levels). He has a fascination with the movie ''Film/RainMan'' due to relating to the main character, and has imitated Raymond's voice in some of his songs as well as dressed as him for photoshoots. Songs like "Brainless" and "Rain Man" are both about his uselessness in all non-rapping areas of existence.
119* 2D of Music/{{Gorillaz}} is most certainly not playing with a full deck of cards, not at all helped by numerous head injuries he's sustained over the years, but still has incredible musical talent. He's also just as likely to ramble on about something borderline nonsensical as he is to dip into a beautiful and poetic spiel about life and music and meaning of it all.
120[[/folder]]
121
122[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
123* ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'' shows Bucky to be one multiple times. The most famous example is when he fixed Satchel's broken watch. When Rob presses Bucky on how he knew how to fix a watch (remember, we're talking about a cat who thinks Ben & Jerry's Chunky Munky contains ''actual monkey''), Bucky responds that he just kinda... did.
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
127* WWE once featured a wrestler called [[Wrestling/NickDinsmore Eugene]] who was billed as an idiot savant. He was mentally and socially way below the norm, but his wrestling abilities were pretty good, including pulling off numerous classical moves from the old days of pro wrestling.
128[[/folder]]
129
130[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
131* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': The Primordials are often referred to by fans and writers alike as idiot savants. This is directly enshrined in their powers; when acting within their defining themes, even the basic abilities of a Primordial are transcendentally incredible. In any area outside of their themes, they are utterly hopeless. The relevance of these matters is a bit bigger considering that they are [[EldritchAbomination the immense and barely comprehensible Titans who forged the world and created all mortal and godly races]]; since those tended to be group efforts, the Primordials were never really fully capable of grasping the consequences or possibilities of their creations. It did not work out well for them. However, [[EraSpecificPersonality this only applies to the period]] from ''Manual of Exalted Power: Infernals'' to the end of second edition. Outside of that period, they're still portrayed as vast and barely comprehensible, but they're not idiot savants.
132* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
133** Savant Madboyz are Orks with prodigious powers of memory and calculation, twitchy and erratic behavior, and a firm obsession with a single specific subject, about which they will babble on unceasingly. Most Orks cannot make heads or tails of their rants, but Mekboyz consider them to be valuable retainers and keep them around as essentially living memory banks to consult during difficult projects.
134** The Jokaero are basically space orangutans, in both appearance and intellect. Yet somehow, they are also mechanical craftsmen par excellence.
135[[/folder]]
136
137[[folder:Video Games]]
138* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' allows the player to take "Idiot Savant" as a character trait. It gives a bonus to intelligence and gambling skills, but speech is limited to HulkSpeak.
139* The Hodunk bandit clan from the ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series are a bunch of space hillbillies, with all the lack of intelligence that implies, but are unparalleled vehicle mechanics, and build and race cars on their own racetrack. It's implied that they don't even understand how vehicles actually work or know what any of the parts are supposed to do and operate purely on instinct. Scooter, Ellie, and [[spoiler:Moxxi]] are former members of this clan.
140* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'': Sandal is a savant when it comes to enchanting weapons. However, if you talk to him all he'll say is "Enchantment!" and "Enchantment?", probably owing to the amount of [[ToxicPhlebotinum lyrium]] he's been exposed to. (Although the sequel reveals he is able to speak, he's just shy and inarticulate.) In the final dungeon at the end of the game, you also encounter him alone, covered in blood, and surrounded by heaps of slain monster corpses. So he would appear to be a bit of a savant when it comes to combat as well. That incident repeats itself ''twice'' in the second game.
141-->'''Warden:''' You're surrounded by darkspawn corpses! What happened here?\
142'''Sandal:''' Enchantment!
143* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': The [[DivineParentage Demiprinces]], a form of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent lesser Daedra]] born from the union of a [[HalfHumanHybrid Daedra and a mortal]]. Their dual nature gives them an ''odd'' [[CloudCuckoolander perception of the world and time itself]]. In addition to their eccentricities, Demiprinces have an extremely difficult time maintaining knowledge that lies outside their spheres of influence. However, they are the ''[[BunnyEarsLawyer undisputed masters]]'' of whatever lies within their spheres.
144* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'':
145** ''VideoGame/Fallout2'': The NPC Algernon is an idiot savant with a talent for fiddling with weapons and upgrading them. The poor guy lives in the WretchedHive New Reno and lacks the character and social acumen to hold his own there, only capable of expressing himself verbally through onomatopoeia, so an unscrupulous gun shop owner hides him in his basement and makes him work for food. If the player meets him, Algernon will help them with their weapons for free.
146** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'': One of the Luck perks is named this. It gives the player a random chance of getting hugely multiplied experience points from any action, said chance being higher the lower their intelligence is. Every time you get the boost Nate/Nora makes a goofy sound or laughs while a RimShot and a boink sound play along.
147* ''VideoGame/{{Hoosegow}}'': Muddy Charlie is an inept criminal whose schemes always fail somehow. His entire plan for springing himself and Rick from the titular jail is to "break out". However, when the player character reads a religious pamphlet describing a beast with twelve horns, sixteen stalks on each horn, and eighty eyes on each stalk, Muddy immediately asks why it would need 291,840 eyes.
148-->'''Rick:''' What? Are you kidding me? How could you figure that out?\
149'''Muddy Charlie:''' Don't rightly know. Just something I do. Same way as I know there's 69,105 railroad ties between here and Muskogee. Ma said I was some kind of idiot savage.
150* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has a DLC side mission in which Shepard takes on a rogue Virtual Intelligence that has melded to the mind of the project lead's autistic brother David. Through a series of holograms projected from David's mind, Shepard learns that not only was he a math genius, but he could actually imitate the geth language so accurately that the deactivated geth would respond to it. He's also shown calculating square roots in his head when stressed. Shepard remembers one of those square roots and uses it as a TrustPassword in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' when he/she meets David again, who is under attack by Cerberus:
151-->'''David:''' The square root of 906.01 equals--\
152'''Shepard:''' 30.1.
153* ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'': Characters who survive a traumatic brain injury have a 12% chance of developing the "Trauma Savant" trait, which gives a 50% boost to the Manipulation stat used for technical work and melee combat at the cost of removing any and all ability to socialize.
154* ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'': Max Hass, a gigantic ManChild who can only [[PokemonSpeak say his own name]] due to having a third of his skull missing, proves to be this. With Wyatt, [[spoiler:he points out a paragraph in an ancient manuscript written by the Da'at Yichud to help him find the information he was seeking]]. While this might have been blind luck, he later beats [[TheSmartGuy Set]] at [[SmartPeoplePlayChess a game of chess]], sending Set into a RapidFireNo before [[RageQuit he flips the board and storms off]]... Max just quietly takes out a paper and starts coloring on the now-vacant table. And said coloring is eventually revealed [[spoiler:to be part of a larger mural on Max's wall depicting Klaus, his foster father who had died in the first game]].
155[[/folder]]
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157[[folder:Web Originals]]
158* Ethan in ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', emphasis on [[TooDumbToLive idiot]] (he thinks the best way to deal with paperwork is to KillItWithFire). He claims he's intelligent for only a few seconds a day and created two [[SnarkyNonHumanSidekick intelligent robots]] without fully understanding how, since the only plans he could find were scribbled in sauce on a restaurant menu. [[spoiler:When one of them needs to be fixed, he gives a very technical explanation of why he can't do it. The next strip shows him wearing all his winter clothes instead of, y'know, putting them on a chair or something because he needed the storage space.]]
159* In ''ARG/TheLostExperience'', the Hanso Foundation uses autistic savants as human computers in the basement of a mental hospital.
160* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'':
161** Caboose is the dumbest character amidst the core cast, mostly as a result of all the brain damage he suffers throughout the series. Despite this, he has the best understanding of AI-based technology, capable of repairing both Epsilon and the MANTIS-class military assault droid "Freckles", but also capable of easily transferring them to other machinery. He is also able to understand some more abstract concepts such as time travel, a RunningGag being that random innocuous comments of his turn out to be the truth to how certain things working, such as time being made of circles.
162** Loco (the Caboose counterpart among the Blues and Reds) is just as stupid as Caboose is, but is somehow able to construct advanced machinery out of simple materials. All of his inventions look utterly ridiculous but they work quite well, his grand achievement being a working time machine.
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166* Goku from ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' puts virtually all his brainpower towards fighting. Hence why he's good at fighting and fighting-related analysis (accurately and deeply explaining why Trunk's newer and bulkier form is bad by giving him power but makes him too slow to make good on the meager upgrade), and near-brain dead stupid at everything else. He is implied to have suffered brain damage as a child.
167* Jeffy from ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' has a difficult time fitting a star block into a square hole, yet is able to paint the Mona Lisa on an Easter egg, and makes almost uncannily accurate chicken noises. He even says his ABCs backwards. In "Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Part 6", he somehow catches [[Series/SesameStreet Cookie Monster]] in a Pokéball and teaches him Thunderbolt.
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171* Subverted when Charmcaster calls Gwen Tennyson this exact name in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'', referring to Gwen's incredible but self-taught magical powers. "I've trained in magic my whole life, and you just pick up my spell book and you're instantly out-magicking me. You're not a ''real'' sorceress, you're an idiot savant." Gwen is a more realistic version of a TeenGenius and likely knows what an idiot savant is. Charmcaster is insulting her out of envy for her natural talent (due to being part anodite, a being of pure mana, the substance of magic).
172* Iqbal in ''WesternAnimation/BromwellHigh'', on one hand, is a very, ''very'' lousy headmaster at [[SuckySchool the titular school]]. On the other hand, he paints in his spare time (although has trouble selling his paintings), can memorize an encyclopedia, works a bit of amateur theater into staff meetings and assemblies, and can dance and sing.
173* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' when the gang play laser tag and talk about how Peter is amazing at it, all while he's rolling on the ceiling and other crazy stunts.
174-->'''Joe:''' Alright, keep an eye out for Peter, he's oddly competitive at this stuff.\
175'''Quagmire:''' Yeah, he seems to be weirdly physically fit at this place.\
176'''Brian:''' Yeah, it's almost like he has unrealistic abilities when we play laser tag.
177* Fry from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' is this, having a handful of genuine talents peppering his otherwise frightfully idiotic "brain". This may be a result of his strange mind due to [[spoiler:[[MyOwnGrandpa being his own grandfather]] (which also provides [[DisabilityImmunity protection against the Brainspawn]])]]:
178** One episode reveals that he has an encyclopedic knowledge of campfire horror stories of all things. Naturally, it's {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d:
179--->'''Leela:''' Okay, my turn to tell a ghost story. Once, there was this woman driving--\
180'''Fry:''' Hook on the hand!\
181'''Kif:''' Okay, I've got one. This family--\
182'''Fry:''' Man in the attic!\
183'''Leela:''' Fine, Mr. Know-It-All-About-Something-Finally, you tell a story!
184** It turns out that he's a naturally talented composer, at least for the Holophoner, though he lacks the dexterity to actually play it properly. In "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E18TheDevilsHandsAreIdlePlaythings The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings]]", he switches his hands with the Robot Devil's and becomes an overnight musical sensation.
185* It's never directly addressed, but Destro's lackey Metalhead in ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' is one of the dumbest characters around, yet can apparently do complex artillery calculations for his rockets in his head. He also has one of the best accuracy rates of any Joe or Cobra, mostly because he only fires at vehicles.
186* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'':
187** Morty Smith is alleged to be stupid to the point of having a disability according to his parents and struggles quite a bit with basic math and schoolwork. When it comes to his knowledge of ''anything'' Rick, however, the guy reveals himself to be a quick and even ruthless thinker and planner capable of grasping advanced concepts about infinite realities and even disarming neutrino bombs. He also has a real penchant for understanding and utilizing technology developed by Rick, and has on several occasions helped himself to weapons and tech from Rick's lab and never once struggled to use such weapons. He also manages to fool Rick on at least a few occasions. [[spoiler:Rick even implies, correctly so if Evil Morty is any indication, that Morty is fully capable of becoming a BigBad level EvilGenius if he gets the chance.]]
188** Rick himself is later revealed to have HollywoodAutism that contributed to his status as an ImpossibleGenius, at the cost of crippling his ability to relate to others and making him a HeroicComedicSociopath.
189* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The male Simpsons can be classified as this at their worst. While being born smart, a gene causes that to deteriorate. However, both Homer and Bart have displayed excellent skills in multiple languages (Homer once speaking ''penguin''), to say nothing of musical talent. Bart shows great skill with the drums, and Homer has repeatedly shown himself to be capable at anything -- literally anything -- connected to music. Two hit bands, several successful songs both with those bands and independently -- he even shows incredible skill as a music manager, for both Lurleen Lumpkin and Lisa.
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