Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Main / SmartPeopleWearGlasses

Go To

1%%%
2%%
3%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
4%%
5%%%
6
7[[quoteright:350:[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/homestarglasses_205.png]]]]
8[[caption-width-right:350:[[TheDitz Homestar]], who tries his hardest to [[SubvertedTrope subvert this trope]].]]
9
10->'''Customer:''' I like these glasses. They make me look more smarter!\
11'''Customer's boyfriend:''' Yeah, well looks can be deceiving.
12-->-- ''Website/NotAlwaysRomantic''
13
14In the media, smart characters have a tendency to wear glasses. The association with the nerd archetype helps in modern works, although this trope is possibly older than that. Sometimes believed to be TruthInTelevision, as it is a common myth that since smarter people typically do more reading, they place more strain on their eyes and are more likely to develop myopia (nearsightedness). It should be noted that whilst reading in dim light can cause temporary eye-strain, there is no clinical evidence that this has any long-term effects. [[http://www.infoniac.com/science/people-wearing-glasses-more-intelligent.html Some studies]] have gone so far as to claim that myopia itself is linked with open-mindedness and intelligence. On the other hand, glasses are expensive, so people wearing them will not risk them in sports or fights (but some may use contact lenses instead).
15The trope's origins are more likely connected with the financial aspect, as both a high-quality education and seeing a doctor to get prescription lenses have always been expensive, so if a rich family can invest in one they'll probably invest in the other, too. Going even further back, glass of a high enough quality to be used as corrective lenses was difficult and expensive to make in many parts of the world, increasing the difficulty of obtaining glasses and monocles even further, and limiting it once again to the rich and academically inclined.
16
17In {{anime}}, there is a commonly-used variant of this called [[FanNickname Glasses-Kun]]: A [[TheLancer Lancer]] who has black hair, is taller than TheProtagonist, is ''always'' smarter than the main character, is relatively quiet, somewhat broody, and wears glasses.
18
19In RealLife, there are lots of different types of people who wear glasses, but in fiction they are more rare. This is due to problems such as glare from the cameras in live-action media (cosplayers often pop the lenses out to avoid this in photos), difficulty reading facial expressions, etc., and is the reason why when such characters are present it seems more significant. As proven by the examples, it is also why this trope occurs more so in live action, animated programming, and other pictorial media and less so in literature; it's a visual cue to the audience that the character is intelligent, yet is used sparingly because of the aforementioned difficulties involved.
20
21This trope is an inherent part of TheGlassesGottaGo and BeautifulAllAlong, and often nerds. {{Supertrope}} to NerdGlasses. The invoked form of this is PurelyAestheticGlasses. Compare GlassesOfAging and TheShortGuyWithGlasses.
22----
23!!Examples:
24!!'''Please do not list aversions, seeing as then it would be just a [[Administrivia/PeopleSitOnChairs list of characters with glasses]].'''
25
26[[foldercontrol]]
27[[folder:Advertising]]
28* Explicit use of the trope as symbolism: Ads for the mental-exercise website Lumosity show people giving testimonials while various background and foreground animations appear. In one of them, glasses are drawn on the speaker's face as she says the site helps her stay sharp.
29* The nerdy I.Q. from ''Advertising/TheBurgerKingKidsClubGang'' wears red glasses.
30[[/folder]]
31
32[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
33* In ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'', Koutarou Takebayashi and Manami Okuda are the only Class 3-E students who wear glasses, and both of them are among the smarter students in the class. [[spoiler:In the epilogue, they combine their knowledge to develop universal artificial blood.]]
34* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Mikage {{invoked}} it during her SchoolFestival exhibit the year before Mira and Ao entered high school. She doesn't need any correction, but she put on glasses to look more professional and academic.
35* Firo invokes this trope in ''Literature/{{Baccano}}''. After taking the position of the [[TheMafia Martillo Family]] bookkeeper, he immediately takes to wearing a pair of PurelyAestheticGlasses. Why? Because he's doing a smart-person job now, so he has to look smart (and because he wants to look slightly less like the [[CompleteImmortality perpetual teenager he is]]).
36* Ishida Uryuu from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' wears glasses and is number one in his class. He also perfectly fits the description for a "glasses-kun". He takes after his father, Ryuuken, who also wears glasses and ends up being revealed to be so intelligent that he can keep up with ''Urahara''. To put that into perspective, even the hyperintelligent BigBad Aizen admits that Urahara is the most intelligent shinigami alive. Urahara first realised Ryuuken was capable of keeping up with him when Ryuuken was only a teenager, and was stunned.
37* Played with in ''Manga/CaseClosed''. Shinichi is already very smart without glasses, but as Conan, he wears glasses so he won't be recognized as a younger version of Shinichi.
38* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': This trope is parodied in episode 10. Denji and Power, who are decidedly not the sharpest tools in the shed (and don't wear or need glasses), decide that they'll "use their brains" and try to beat seasoned devil hunter Kishibe through smarts. When he comes to their house the following day, both Denji and Power are wearing glasses.
39* Sion Ogura is the only glasses-wearing character in the cast of ''Manga/TheDemonGirlNextDoor'' and also the smartest of the bunch.
40* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': Played with Osamu/Sammy Ichijouji. He's a child prodigy and an AcademicAthlete. He wears glasses, but this is more to give him a resemblance to the Digimon Kaiser/Emperor, who subconsciously modeled his own appearance after his deceased older brother Osamu.
41* ''Franchise/DragonBall'': To showcase that Gohan has fulfilled his dream of becoming a scholar, he's wearing glasses after the Boo Saga. For almost three decades, nothing really indicated that he has actual vision problems and he's fine fighting with or without them. In ''Anime/DragonBallSuperSuperHero'', it is finally revealed that Gohan is BlindWithoutEm when he does not transform, but that didn't bother him during the Tournament of Power in either version. In ''Super Hero'', Gohan is shown to be a workaholic researcher, and him wearing glasses in addition to his old Piccolo-style dōgi symbolizes his two-faced character: being a nerdy scholar and a fighter.
42* ''Manga/FoodWars'': Downplayed with Zenji Marui. While he ''is'' very smart and studious, he's nowhere near being ''the'' smartest character in the series. There are some fields that are just beyond his knowledge. Alice's molecular gastronomy techniques, for instance, is not something he can explain to his peers when they are watching her match against Soma during the Autumn Election quarterfinals, prompting Yuuki to ask if his glasses are just for show. Later we're shown that the entire Miyazato Seminar, the research club he is a part of, all wear glasses.
43* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
44** Maes Hughes works in the military's intelligence division for a reason.
45** Sheska, the bookworm who memorizes every single thing she reads -- to the point where she can rewrite entire alchemy journals from memory.
46** Scar's brother is a brilliant self-taught alchemist [[spoiler:who happens to be the very first person to realize that Amestris is actually a nation-sized transmutation circle. He even devises the countermeasure to Father's anti-alchemy buffer.]]
47* Both Franz Heinel and Shinsuke Maki in ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula''. One is a GadgeteerGenius with cars and a computer expert, and the other is a computer machinist who makes computer games in his free time.
48* In ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', America's glasses are a hint that he isn't as stupid as he seems. One of his hobbies turns out to be archaeology.
49* ''Manga/HighschoolOfTheDead'' doesn't reveal that Saya wears glasses until the second chapter, when she finally removes her contact lenses. However, the manga wastes no time in establishing her as the smartest girl at Fujimi High by illustrating her analytical and decision making abilities right from the start. In addition, she not only serves as [[TheSmartGuy the brain]] of Takashi's group, she's usually [[MrExposition the one to provide exposition as well]].
50* ''Anime/{{K}}'':
51** Yhe Blue Clan, Scepter 4, has ''three'' glasses guys, all of whom are the smart ones:
52*** One is an expert hacker.
53*** Another, the above character's subordinate, assists him in computer things and is a nerd in his own right.
54*** The Blue King himself i something of a super-genius.
55** TheSmartGuy of Red Clan wears sunglasses -- smart enough to wear glasses, but cool enough to fit with HOMRA.
56* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'': Played with Osaragi. Despite wearing OpaqueNerdGlasses and sometimes showing that she can be very observant when it comes to other people, she's actually among the bottom quarter of the freshman class in terms of grades. [[spoiler:Then again, Hayasaka's FlashForward has Ishigami mention that she's attending grad school, so her grades must have improved later on.]]
57* ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaInnocent'':
58** Stern Starks, who is this AlternateUniverse's version of the [[VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable Material]] [[TheSmartGuy of Wisdom]], is depicted as regularly wearing glasses in the real world.
59** In the direct SequelSeries ''INNOCENTS'', Fate is now shown wearing glasses as well, most likely to emphasise the slight TimeSkip between series.
60* Hazuki Fujiwara from ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'', the resident [[TheSmartGuy smart girl]] in TheTeam, wears glasses and consistently makes very high grades in school. She is able to use those smarts to help solve issues in the series as well.
61* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'':
62** Kyoya is the one that keeps the club afloat and one of the highest-ranking students in the school. Naturally, he wears glasses.
63** Haruhi is also explicitly described as exceptionally intelligent. She initially wears glasses in the series until Tamaki insists on replacing them with contact lenses.
64* ''Anime/PaniPoniDash'':
65** Discussed in one episode. Class rep Ichijou notices that Miyako is wearing glasses while they study (up until then she mostly wore contacts). When the group fails to get much studying done during their sleepover, Ichijou says that she has it covered -- by bringing enough glasses for everyone.
66** Played straight in Rei and Miyako, who always wears glasses and sometimes wears glasses, respectively, and both have high grades.
67* ''Anime/ThePlacePromisedInOurEarlyDays'': Takuya is so smart that he's doing cutting-edge study into alternate universes at a university despite only being a high schooler, contrasting the glasses-free and spacey Hiroki.
68* ''Anime/PrettyCure'':
69** ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'': Honoka's nerdy friend Yuriko, who is in the chemistry club with her, wears a pair of coke-bottle glasses.
70** ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar'': Kayo, a model student and ClassRepresentative, wears a pair of ovular glasses.
71** ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'': Mika Masuko, the head of the newspaper club, wears ovular glasses that shine when she gets a scoop.
72** ''Anime/SuitePrettyCure'': Ako, who is resourceful, clever, and [[spoiler:a master of disguise]], wears magenta glasses.
73** ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure'': Rikka, the studious, level-headed foil to Mana, sometimes wears a pair of glasses.
74** ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'': The two Wonderful Net Pretty Cure girls, who have tech as a theme and calculator-esque {{Transformation Trinket}}s, both wear red glasses.
75** ''Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure'': Yui, a bookish girl whom Haruka rooms with, wears thick glasses.
76** ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'': Like Rikka above her, Saaya, TheSmartGirl of the Cures, occasionally dons some glasses while studying.
77** ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'': Minori, the bookish Cure who bears a strong resemblance to [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Velma Dinkley]], wears round glasses to add to that similarity.
78** ''Anime/HirogaruSkyPrettyCure'': Yoyo, Mashiro's wise grandmother who was once known as the greatest scholar in Sky Land, wears a pair of round glasses.
79* ''Anime/RuneSoldierLouie'': Ila is only a novice mage from the Magician's Academy, but what she lacks in prowess is made up for by her extensive knowledge of ancient tomes and magical artifacts. Which often helps Louie and his travelling party on their adventures.
80* ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Ami Mizuno is TheSmartGirl of the Sailor Scouts and wears glasses occasionally, but only for reading.
81%%** As does Mamoru Chiba. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
82* Parodied during a sketch in ''Manga/SeitokaiYakuindomo'' when Aria comes to the student council room wearing glasses without lenses [[PurelyAestheticGlasses for fashion purposes]]. Tsuda comments that they make her look smart (she's already the second-highest-ranked student in the school), but -- this being ''Seitokai Yakuindomo'' -- she turns it into a sex pun.
83* ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}'': PlayfulHacker Matsu is the only member in Minato's harem who wears glasses, and she's hands down [[TheSmartGuy the brains of the group]], always using her extensive computer expertise and {{Technopathy}} to help as MissionControl.
84* Invoked in a chapter of ''Manga/SquidGirl'', where the titular protagonist becomes convinced that wearing glasses automatically ''makes'' one smarter, so she starts wearing a pair of PurelyAestheticGlasses. It doesn't work that way, but it does make her look cuter than usual.
85* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' plays it completely straight on numerous occasions.
86** Nishiki Nishio wears glasses, and is described by others as being a "prodigy". He's GoodWithNumbers and excels in a prestigious Pharmacy program at Kamii University, even though his childhood involved very little formal education.
87** The legendary Investigator Kishou Arima wears glasses, and the prequel about his teen years shows him to have been a brilliant student that ''memorized text books'' and to be able to deduce things from small details.
88** Novelist Sen Takatsuki turns out to wear glasses when she's [[TheGlassesGottaGo not making public appearances]] and is famous for having published her first, bestselling work as a teenager.
89** In the sequel, BadassBookworm Haise Sasaki has typically nerdy reading glasses.
90** Invoked in the sequel, with [[BookDumb Ginshi Shirazu]] borrowing Sasaki's glasses in order to try to look more intelligent.
91* The glasses-wearing Eddie from ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' is the smartest and most tech-savvy major character in the anime.
92* Discussed in episode 6 of ''Manga/YouAndMe''. Chizuru buys novelty glasses and says that they make him feel smarter when he puts them on. One of the twins says, "Illness starts in the mind and studying starts with glasses."
93* Kousei from ''Manga/YourLieInApril'' is not particularly book smart, however he is a ChildProdigy at the piano. Other similarly gifted musicians lack glasses, though Kousei was well-known for his abilities at a young age.
94* ''Manga/YubisakiMilkTea'':
95** Minamo Kurokawa and Chika Kodama, who are best and second best of their year, both wear glasses.
96** Later Hidari Morii, whom Minamo teaches, as well.
97* {{Defied|trope}} in ''Manga/{{Yuyushiki}}'', where the local DitzyGenius Yuzuko says that she doesn't usually wear glasses since she does not want to appear too smart.
98[[/folder]]
99
100[[folder:Asian Animation]]
101* ''Animation/BanzisSecretDiary'': Eungsim is the tomboyish smart girl of Banzi's group and wears square-shaped glasses.
102* In ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'', Mr. Slowy, who's the smartest out of the main goats, is always seen wearing glasses.
103[[/folder]]
104
105[[folder:Comic Books]]
106* As a psychologist/psychiatrist, ComicBook/HarleyQuinn is shown with glasses. When she goes off the deep end and becomes a supervillain, she ditches the glasses. She's never seen with glasses outside of flashbacks, even in civilian clothes.
107* In ''ComicBook/JimmyTornado'', Lupé is a brainy scientist who wears glasses.
108* ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'': Milly Hayday fills the role of TheSmartGuy for the Holiday Girls and is the only member to wear glasses.
109* In all incarnations of ''ComicBook/MotuPatlu'', Patlu wears PurelyAestheticGlasses and is much more intelligent and reasonable than his brother/friend Motu, for whom he has to brainstorm ideas when they are in a pickle since Motu ''literally'' cannot think [[ObsessedWithFood on an empty stomach]].
110* Klik and Teela from ''ComicBook/PocketGod'' are {{Gadgeteer Genius}}es and are the only pygmies that wear glasses. Klik usually keeps on the top of his head, however.
111* ''[[ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'': Sebastian Ives wears glasses and consistently scores better than anyone else on tests. Tim also notes that he's annoyingly good at spotting and getting rid of a tail despite his vision problems.
112* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Brainy Smurf]] from ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs''. (Although he's more of a KnowNothingKnowItAll than truly smart.)
113* ComicBook/SpiderMan:
114** While not as smart as Reed Richards or [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Charles Xavier]], Spider-Man has above-average intelligence and originally wore glasses in his civilian identity as Peter Parker, before they were broken in an altercation with Flash Thompson. DependingOnTheWriter and the continuity, he either never truly needed them to begin with (the glasses having a weak prescription that he wore due to his aunt's concern over eyestrain due to him reading so much) or his vision was corrected by the spider-bite that gave him his powers.
115** {{Lampshaded}} in an issue of ''Amazing Spider-Man''. Black Cat [[MuggedForDisguise mugs a female scientist for her clothes]], and states that none of the other researchers will suspect her as an impostor since she's wearing a pair of glasses.
116* Discussed in ''ComicBook/SupermanSecretOrigin''. When attempting to sell his old science books, Lex Luthor targets Clark Kent, who has started wearing glasses, stating that glasses mean one of two things: genetic inferiority, or he reads a lot. Somewhat subverted since in actuality, Clark's heat vision has just developed, and the lenses from the glasses shield it in case it's accidentally triggered.
117* ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'': Professor Barabas wears two large glasses without a bridge to support them on his nose.
118* ''ComicBook/TomPoes'': Professor Zbygniew Prlwytzkofsky and Professor Sickbock both wear glasses.
119* ''ComicBook/TytusRomekIAtomek'':
120** A'Tomek, a nerdy, math-minded kid.
121** Professor T. Alent, a genius inventor.
122** "Papcio Chmiel", the AuthorAvatar.
123* The Beast from ''ComicBook/XMen'' (who's a GeniusBruiser) wears glasses when he reads. (And it looks kind of funny, considering that he's a muscular guy covered with blue fur.)
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Comic Strips]]
127* ''ComicStrip/{{Crabgrass}}'': In [[https://www.gocomics.com/crabgrass/2023/01/21 a January 2023 story arc]], when Kevin is about to take a science quiz that he absolutely must ace or he will be [[HeldBackInSchool held back a year]], he tries to invoke the trope by putting on a pair of oversized glasses, and asks Miles how smart they make him look. Miles is clearly not impressed by the plan. Kevin [[https://www.gocomics.com/crabgrass/2023/01/23 even lampshades the trope]]. Kevin nevertheless sticks to his strategy, and when he gets an A+ on the test, it only increases his believe that the glasses make him smart. He also starts acting more like a stereotypical smart person, like resorting to SesquipedalianLoquaciousness in his conversations.
128* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': Two cavemen (grimacing and red-faced) are cooking meat over a fire...by holding it in their bare hands. A third is looking over to a fourth caveman sitting nearby at his own fire, calmly cooking ''his'' lunch on a stick ("Hey! Look what Zog do!"). Zog, although dressed in the same sort of caveman outfit as everyone else, is also wearing eyeglasses.
129[[/folder]]
130
131[[folder:Fan Works]]
132* ''Fanfic/AllMixedUp'' takes Oprah's appearance trait of having PurelyAestheticGlasses at the end of the ''Series/OddSquad'' episode "How to Interrogate a Unicorn" and makes it so the glasses are actual reading glasses that she needs to wear in order to be able to read books and other such reading materials properly.
133* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11886910/1/Gankona-Unnachgiebig-Unità Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità]]'': Although Japan only wears hexagonal glasses with his [[Anime/DeathNote Teru Mikami]] cosplay, he still is a ''very'' smart person.
134* This comes up in ''Fanfic/{{Girlfrenemies}}'' when commenting on why Apple refuses to wear glasses. Raven tells her that Rosabella wears glasses, to which Apple replies that Rosabella (the next Beauty of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'') is supposed to be bookish so she can get away with it.
135* ''Webcomic/NaruHinaChronicles Mini-sodes'':
136** {{Parodied|Trope}}. In one strip, Naruto is portrayed as being intellectual while wearing glasses. Then Hinata removes his glasses from his face and he goes back to being his normal, significantly less intellectual self, much to her joy.
137** In a story arc, [[LiteralSplitPersonality Naruto accidentally creates clones with different personalities]]. One of them is the smart one and appropriately wears glasses.
138* [[Characters/TheFlashWallyWest Wally West]], resident science nerd of the new Titans in the ''Our Own League'' fan novels, wears thick glasses his comic counterpart lacks. The goggles he wears as part of his Kid Flash uniform are also fitted with corrective lenses.
139* Invoked in ''Fanfic/PsalmOfTheLark''. At a hearing to get out of Arkham Asylum, Harley intentionally forgoes her contacts in favor of glasses so that she'll look more smart.
140* ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' fanfiction and fanart tend to portray [[ScienceHero Carlos the scientist]] as wearing glasses.
141[[/folder]]
142
143[[folder:Film]]
144* Peter Parker in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan''. Unlike in Raimi's movies, this version of Peter doesn't get his myopia cured by Spider-powers, so he keeps using glasses and contacts even after he's become Spider-Man. He's also able to figure out how to construct a costume and create functional webbing based on research and a bit of elbow grease.
145%%** Richard Parker. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
146%%** Curtis Connors.
147%%** Norman Osborn.
148* Milo Thatch from ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire''. He's the only Disney leading man (or woman) wearing glasses, and he has a double doctorate in Linguistic Theory and Dead Languages, as well as minor degrees in Chemistry, Literature, Art History, Sociology, and Anthropology, and that's just his formal education.
149* Invoked by Professor Sutwell in ''Film/BeachParty''. When he first became a professor, he was so much younger than the others that he got laughed at by his students. On the advice of another professor, he grew a beard and started wearing glasses, which made his students take him more seriously.
150* In ''Film/DoctorAtLarge'', Joy wears fake glasses to her medical final, to try and make the examiners look past the fact that she is a woman and see how qualified she truly is.
151* In ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'', Egon Spengler, TheSmartGuy, GadgeteerGenius, and MrExposition of the group, is the only Ghostbuster who wears glasses.
152* ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'': The Brain Gremlin immediately puts on glasses when he establishes that he's smart.
153* Referenced in ''Film/HiddenFigures'': When Jim Johnson expresses surprise that women work at NASA, Katherine Goble (who does wear glasses) goes on a rant, culminating in this memorable put-down:
154-->'''Katherine:''' So yes, they let women "do some things" at NASA, and it's not because we wear skirts, it's because we wear glasses!
155* Invoked by Elle Woods in ''Film/LegallyBlonde'', when she dons glasses to appear smarter and more professional in order to help Paulette get her dog back.
156* ''Film/TheMcKenzieBreak'': The only bespectacled character in the movie is Unger, a trained engineer who acts as the TunnelKing.
157* ''Film/NapoleonDynamite'' and his brother Kip both wear glasses but are more stereotypically nerdy than intelligent.
158* Noge, the hero of ''Film/NoRegretsForOurYouth'', is a studious and serious young man who joins the anti-war underground Japanese left after graduating from college. Naturally, he wears glasses. Significantly, they are knocked off his face when he's arrested by StateSec.
159* Mia Thermopolis from ''Film/ThePrincessDiaries''. It's part of her early GeekPhysiques look, though it turns out that she was BeautifulAllAlong. (Of course, it's freaking Creator/AnneHathaway.)
160* You can tell that David Talbot in ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned'' is intellectual, although not clever enough to accomplish much with his knowledge of vampires, by the fact that his office looks like a library and he wears glasses, which he draws attention to by taking them off and putting them back on a lot.
161* {{Invoked| trope}} in the 2007 ''Film/{{St Trinians|2007}}'', when the PR guru advises the posh totties to wear fake specs as part of their image to make themselves look smarter.
162* In ''Film/SuckerPunch'', both Dr. Gorski the psychologist has glasses, though he mostly only wears them when he need to take a closer look at something (they might merely be reading glasses, rather than corrective lenses).
163%%** Blue also wears glasses for the same purpose in the nightclub. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
164* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Mei wears glasses, is a huge nerd, gets straight As, and is quite smart.
165[[/folder]]
166
167[[folder:Literature]]
168* While the Oxford Clerk from ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'' lacks the requisite glasses from this trope (they were just starting to come into fashion during the time period), he is specifically noted as having poor eyesight from staying up and reading books by candlelight.
169* Tris from ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'' is the most academic of the main characters, and the only one to wear glasses.
170* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': Alex Aruda has a pair of typical NerdGlasses.
171* Ponder Stibbons in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series is a brilliant natural philosopher and theoretical wizard who wears thick, round glasses. In ''Literature/TheLastContinent'', when he's given a chance to [[ItMakesSenseInContext help design life on the Disc]], he plans for this trope to trump WizardBeard (which he can't grow) as a symbol of wisdom.
172* Intentionally invoked in ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'' by the intellectual Erudite. PurelyAestheticGlasses are part of their "uniform".
173* ''Literature/DontCallMeIshmael'' has Scobie and [[MeaningfulName Prudence]], the resident {{Teen Genius}}es, who both wear glasses. Scobie is brilliant at debating and very good at all his school subjects. Prue plays three instruments and is usually seen reading {{doorstopper}}s.
174* Kosma of ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'' is a walking encyclopedia and a tech genius, and he wears glasses.
175* Murph, the TeenGenius introduced in the fourth ''Literature/HenryHuggins'' book, is the only character to be described as wearing glasses.
176* ''Literature/MonsterOfTheMonthClub'': Owl, the September Selection, is easily the smartest of the monsters (and the only one able to speak English), and the only one to wear normal glasses.
177* George "Sticky" Washington from ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' wears glasses and has a nervous tic of cleaning them. While all the children are some form of smart, be it book smart or street smart, Sticky has been shown to be on a different level from the others due to his PhotographicMemory.
178* ''Literature/RoysBedoys'': Downplayed for Maker. He wears glasses, and seems to have a bit more general knowledge and be slightly more academically inclined than his friends.
179* In ''Literature/SkateTheThief'', Haman is a wizard in [[TheFagin Boss Marshall's]] crew who handles all of the paperwork and record keeping. He's knowledgeable and diligent, and he's the only character in the book who wears spectacles.
180* Tumpkin in ''Literature/TheSixtyTwoCursesOfCaliphArenschadd'' is bookish, and intelligent enough to solve the problem that has every other character stumped. The power of this trope is strong enough that he wears glasses despite them technically being an anachronism in an ArabianNightsDays setting.
181* Uesugi from ''Literature/TanteiTeamKZJikenNote'', whose epithet is "[[GoodWithNumbers the numbers guy]]".
182* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' has the Number Man, TheSmartGuy[=/=]EvilGenius (depending on how you see him) of Cauldron, who deliberately dresses like a stereotypical accountant down to the glasses, and is so GoodWithNumbers that it goes right into BadassBookworm.
183[[/folder]]
184
185[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
186* ''Series/TheArk2023'': Angus and Alicia, two of the smartest people aboard the ship, both wear spectacles most of the time.
187* Andrea Zukerman, the GoGetterGirl from ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'', is always shown wearing glasses, except in her very rare BeautifulAllAlong moments.
188* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'':
189** Leonard and Amy are both highly intelligent people who wears glasses.
190** Bernadette has a Ph.D in microbiology and wears glasses as well.
191** The trope is at one point {{invoked}} by Penny, who wears a pair of PurelyAestheticGlasses that make her look smarter, ''and sexier'', simply by tilting them down and saying, "molecule".
192%%* ''Series/BreakingBad'': (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
193%%** Walter White.
194%%** Gus Fring.
195* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Giles, while not the resident genius, is the resident MrExposition.
196* Several in the ''Series/{{Charite}}'' hospital -- Professor Virchow, Professor Koch, Doctor Kitasato, and Doctor Ehrlich, all of whom are highly renowned medics and research scientists.
197* ''Series/CriminalMinds'':
198** Garcia, a computer genius, wears glasses.
199** Garcia's boyfriend Kevin Lynch, who is himself an FBI computer technician, does as well.
200%%** Though he apparently switched to contacts, flashbacks to Reid's youth in shows that he had some of the largest glasses any child has ever worn, ever. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExamples; in what way is he smart?)
201%%* Gil Grissom from ''Series/{{CSI}}'', at least some of the time. Apparently they're mostly reading glasses. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; how is he smart?)
202* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
203** Ben Urich, veteran journalist with the ''New York Bulletin'', wears a pair of spectacles that give him this image. After he dies, his editor Mitchell Ellison takes up the mantle.
204** Admittedly he only wears the glasses because he's blind, but Matt Murdock graduated from Columbia Law School ''summa cum laude''.
205%%** James Wesley wears glasses most of the time, befitting his role as the loyal number two to Wilson Fisk. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; what does this role entail that shows his intelligence?)
206* Liberty, Toby, and Claire on ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration''. Actually, if a character wears glasses on that show, it's almost a given that they're intelligent.
207* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'':
208** Lampshaded in the episode "[[Recap/DollhouseS01E01 Ghost]]", when Echo's programmed personality is a hostage negotiation specialist. Topher explains that the glasses aren't to make her look smarter; her implanted personality is short-sighted and her intellect comes from the drive to overcome such imperfections.
209** A weird example as it's something of an informed trait: Scientist Bennett wears, as [[PairTheSmartOnes Topher]] so gleefully puts it, "glasses. On a chain!" She's apparently far-sighted, because she only wears them when looking at computer screens.
210* Dr Harrison Wells, from ''Series/TheFlash2014''. He works alongside a GadgeteerGenius, a brilliant geneticist and a smarter-than-average forensic scientist, but there's no denying that even compared to them he's a genius. This is emphasised by the fact that he is the only member of Team Flash to wear glasses. [[spoiler: Earth-2 Harrison Wells]] is similarly indicated to be a genius by his glasses, although he is seen with them [[TheGlassesComeOff off]] much more frequently because he's been forced into the role of action hero.
211* FBI computer genius Winifred from ''Series/GeneralHospital'' wears nerd glasses, even though the guy she's a DistaffCounterpart of (Spinelli) does not.
212* Lane Kim from ''Series/GilmoreGirls''. Lampshaded by her mother and boyfriend when she get contacts. It's a big moment in the series, when the strict mother and slacker boyfriend ''finally'' agree on something -- the glasses suit Lane because they show that she's smart.
213* ''Series/HermansHead'': The personification of Herman's intellect wear glasses, even though Herman himself has perfect vision.
214* ''Series/JustCause'':
215** Ted Kasselbaum, the resident private investigator and genius computer hacker on the show, wears glasses with blue tinted lenses.
216** Peggy, a paralegal with three graduate degrees, also wears glasses.
217* Alex Dunphy from ''Series/ModernFamily'' is the only one of the Dunphy kids to wear glasses, and is definitely the brains of the family.
218* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': In "[[Recap/PErsonOfInterestS02E05 Bury the Lede]]", Reese decides that the best way to protect the VictimOfTheWeek is to take her on a date. Because her profile on the dating website says that she likes the intellectual type, Finch gets Reese the appropriate NerdGlasses. Reese is understandably reluctant to wear them, but does.
219* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
220** ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'': In the series' original incarnation, Billy (the Blue Ranger) is shown to be [[TheSmartGuy a straight A student]], and actually suffers a mild HeroicBSOD the ''one time'' he scores a "B" on a test. However, he gets rid of the glasses by the end of the second season, switching to contact lenses.
221** ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'':
222*** Tommy Oliver's doctorate apparently came with smart-guy glasses.
223*** In "[[Recap/PowerRangersDinoThunderS1E15LeaderOfTheWhack Leader of the Whack]]", Conner, normally the unintellectual jock, gets a [[NotHimself personality inversion]] from a strange meteor fragment and starts behaving like a brainiac. In the next scene he is suddenly wearing glasses. Either he normally needs glasses and doesn't wear them (or wears contacts) because glasses would spoil his athlete persona, not that there's any sign of imperfect vision in other episodes; or the glasses are cosmetic and he's wearing them because he's feeling nerdy and therefore needs to wear glasses; or they're reading glasses and he doesn't normally bother reading (he does come in with a pile of books the first time he's seen wearing them).
224** Kendrix in ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'', Cam in ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'', Noah in ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce'', and Kendall in ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'' also wear glasses and are their respective teams' smartest members.
225* ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'':
226** Mona, [[spoiler:evil]] genius. She loses the glasses when she leaves her dorky past behind her, in order to become the not-so-ditzy AlphaBitch of Rosewood High.
227** Spencer, the smartest PLL, is also sometimes shown with glasses.
228* George Costanza from ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' claims in the episode "[[Recap/SeinfeldS3E7TheCafe The Cafe]]" that he is not smart but people ''think'' he is. He does not state a reason for this, but it can be assumed that it's because he wears glasses, especially since many real-life viewers of the show made the exact same mistake and simply could not see George as anything other than TheSmartGuy of the group purely because he wears glasses, no matter how many times they were told or shown otherwise. It eventually got so bad that the show's creators had to dedicate an entire episode to George proclaiming (and proving) himself "Lord of the Idiots" to finally get it through their heads that glasses do not automatically equal smart person.
229* ''Series/StargateSG1'': In an alternate universe episode where she never joined the SGC, we find Sam Carter wearing huge NerdGlasses. It may be that in the regular timeline she wears contacts. Either way, there's no denying that her (excellent) combat skills are not the ''only'' reason she's on the team.
230* {{Invoked}} by [[Creator/DavidCronenberg Dr. Kovich]] in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' when asked why he wears glasses when any issues with vision can easily be corrected in the 32nd century.
231-->"They make me look smarter. I like them."
232%%* Prof. Shane from ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' is another [[spoiler: villainous]] example. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
233* Creator/VanKootenEnDeBie: Their characters O. den Beste, a German language teacher, and Professor Kipping, a Dutch language specialist, both wore glasses.
234* A computer genius from ''Series/VengeanceUnlimited'' wears glasses.
235[[/folder]]
236
237[[folder:Roleplay]]
238* Lampshaded in ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues''. Ivy creates a drone called Ziz that then has to make an inquiry during a school crisis. Ziz reasons that since its creator wears glasses, and its creator is clearly a genius, then that means that [[FalseCause all people who wear glasses are intelligent]]. It's also ironic since, while there are multiple characters who are smart and bespectacled, Ivy herself is only about average intelligence (though her superpower does grant her temporary bursts of genius).
239[[/folder]]
240
241[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
242* ''TabletopGame/ResArcana'': The male Demonologist wears glasses and is implied to be intelligent -- he's portrayed studying a book, and he's capable of growing demons in PeopleJars.
243[[/folder]]
244
245[[folder:Toys]]
246* [[AttractiveZombie Ghoulia Yelps]] from ''Toys/MonsterHigh'' is the smartest student in the school, and, you guessed it, she wears glasses.
247* Double subverted with Apple White from ''Toys/EverAfterHigh''. She's very academic and needs prescription glasses for her nearsightedness, but goes without because they clash with her PrincessClassic look.
248[[/folder]]
249
250[[folder:Video Games]]
251* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'': Characters originating from the science-based Sector Seven, such as Kokonoe, Tager, Litchi, and Roy ([[spoiler:before he became Arakune]]), all wear glasses. The rare physical-based hard-hitters like Azrael or Makoto do not wear glasses and they're usually the less smart (in the book-learning manner) characters from that faction.
252* Lex from ''VideoGame/{{Bookworm}}''. He's a regular old bookworm who is able to ''tell'' if the paper he eats has letters on it and if said letters form words. As a result, he chooses to only eats words.
253* In ''VisualNovel/CodeRealize'', Victor Frankenstein is one of the foremost scientific minds in all of Britain, with a focus on alchemy and chemistry, and is one out of two of the love interests to wear glasses.
254* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'': [[spoiler:[[BigBad Junko Enoshima]]'s "teacher" [[SplitPersonality personality]] wears glasses. She typically switches into it to give exposition dumps or explain the finer workings of her plans.]]
255* ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'': All three scientists that are a part of [[PlayerCharacter Sam's]] support team ([[ArtificialHuman Deadman]], [[TheSmartGuy Heartman]], and [[WrenchWench Mama]]) wear glasses.
256* Dennis, Dr. Mosely, and Daniela, probably the three most intelligent characters in ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', all wear glasses.
257* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': Double-subverted with Tepau; while he is a researcher, his glasses are actually [[GogglesDoSomethingUnusual Mystic Eye blockers]] that he would have to wear regardless of his intellect. He's actually pretty surprised when the party tells him that they make him look smart and distinguished.
258* ''VideoGame/IgglePop'': Both Dr. Iggle and his assistant Rizzo are geniuses, and both wear glasses.
259* Monty from ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten|2017}}'' is the only student to wear glasses (at least in the first game), and he's a GadgeteerGenius who can reprogram or disarm bombs, synthesise the drugs Ms. Applegate is addicted to, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking read]] (which is still more impressive than it sounds, given that the characters are kindergarteners).
260* Shad from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' is an archaic researcher and CunningLinguist at age seventeen. He's the first prominent character in the entire ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]'' series to sport glasses.
261* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry5PassionatePattiDoesALittleUndercoverWork'': A few researchers who work at the FBI Laboratory wear thick glasses. Most other characters in the series don't.
262* The very intelligent Becca from ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}'' wears spectacles.
263* Dr. Ray from ''VideoGame/{{METAGAL}}'' is a bespectacled genius who made nine robots.
264* ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'': The Goblins Mages and the Banshee Brainboxes both wear glasses, invoking this trope. The Banshee Brainbox's description even alludes to her highly educated status.
265* Osvald from ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'' is TheSmartGuy of the party, being a renowned scholar and magic researcher, and he's the only one of the main cast to wear glasses.
266* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': The two characters that wear glasses are particularly intelligent people:
267** Mei is a brilliant Chinese climatologist who has a lot of research notes about trying to stop global warming.
268** Winston is a hyper-intelligent sapient gorilla. To drive the point home even further, Winston has the ability to [[HulkingOut Hulk Out]] and act like a mindless rampaging beast for a little while, and this ability tends to be associated with his glasses being broken (a pair of broken glasses is even the HUD icon for this ability). The real reason for this is because the glasses are a TragicKeepsake from the scientist who raised him and having them broken seriously pisses him off, but the fact that his intelligence seems to correlate with what kind of shape his glasses are in has to count for something.
269* In ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTetris'', Ai is the sole member of the S.S. Tetra's crew to wear glasses. He knows enough about repairing spaceships to act as the Tetra's engineer.
270* ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'': Invoked. Resident {{Ditz}} and assistant relic hunter Bolo is given a pair of [[XRayVision X-Ray Specs]] to help with his nearsightedness. While it doesn't help with his vision, it does make him feel super smart, and he proceeds to identify the fossil he was given with a series of smart-sounding words. "It's been heavily pyritized, and contains high levels of sulfur." then procedes to clean it. "I've removed most of the sediment, but left a bit of matrix for stability." Some time later, [[spoiler:the Techno Baron employs him as his assistant simply because of how super smart he looks with his glasses... whereupon this gets subverted as Bolo accidentally installs the circuit panel of the Targeting Module backwards, upside down, and inside out, causing the Disruptor Cannon to miss its intended target wildly and hit the Techno Baron several islands over. While Shantae initially believes that he did that on purpose, talking to him in Propeller Town afterwards proves that he had no idea about what happened and removes any doubts about him still being the same dunderhead as before.]]
271* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'': Sheldon, the resident weapons expert and ArmsDealer, wears what appears to be a pair of brass binoculars as glasses. While he initially planned to join the military, years of staying up late at night tinkering with weapons and small parts caused him to develop nearsightedness. The military rejected him because of his poor eyesight, so he instead put his skills to use designing and selling weapons.
272* ''VideoGame/ThemsFightinHerds'': Oleander, as if she wasn't enough of an intellectual showoff already, wears a pair of teacher-like glasses when going over the mechanics in the game's tutorial mode.
273[[/folder]]
274
275[[folder:Webcomics]]
276* In ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'', [[http://dragondoctors.dhscomix.com/archives/comic/ch-8-page-13 this trope laid behind Sarin's monocle]] pre-GenderBender. He wore it so he'd be taken more seriously as a wizard.
277* {{Invoked| trope}} in ''Webcomic/{{Dumbing of Age}}'': [[https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/04-hompk/messagin/ Robin has perfect vision, but wears a pair of prop glasses because they make her seem smarter]].
278* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive''. Tedd Verres is a TeenGenius with a dash of MadScientist. He originally wore a pair of large OpaqueNerdGlasses that came with [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2002-07-06 other features]] like XRayVision, but he mostly wore them because [[DudeLooksLikeALady they made him look less feminine]]. Once he became more comfortable with his appearance, he stopped wearing the glasses at home and then eventually in public, and only puts them on [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2012-06-13 when he wants to look science-y]]. And then ''double subverted'' [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/party-085 when he reveals that he's nearsighted]], again making him the only main character that wears glasses.
279* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': While not all the [[MadScientist Sparks]] in the work wear glasses, all of the notable glasses wearers are either Sparks or elderly.
280* ''Webcomic/TheGuyUpstairs'': Played with with Rozy. She’s very street smart, but almost ''too much''; it comes across as incessant paranoia instead, especially when everything turns out alright.
281* The blue guy with glasses in ''Webcomic/{{Irrelevator}}'' is stickman wearing glasses. Being smart is [[http://i.imgur.com/7bWEBWM.gif his thing]], he does [[http://i.imgur.com/UpjtOeC.gif earn the]] [[http://i.imgur.com/JAlIDL3.gif title of being the]] [[http://i.imgur.com/1LY94sw.gif smart]] [[http://i.imgur.com/n26DyxC.gif guy though]].
282* ''WebComic/MagickChicks'': [[{{Technopath}} Sandi Mnemonic]] is a member of her school's [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil student council]] and serves as [[StudentCouncilPresident Faith's]] personal secretary. She's so knowledgeable that the cast page of the comic's print edition describes her as (quote): "a living Website/{{Google}}". Plus, she can predict the outcome of future events with 97.09% accuracy, provided she has all the pertinent data to work with.
283* ''Webcomic/MonsterOfTheWeek'' lampshades it in its first strip. In his first scene, Mulder wears glasses. There's an arrow pointing at them with "smart glasses" written next to it.
284* ''Webcomic/{{Parisa}}'':
285** Julian is a nurse, and is by far the smartest member of the main group during the earlier chapters. He is constantly sporting a pair of glasses.
286** Dr. Wyrm also wears glasses whenever he's seen. He delivers the exposition about the world's magic system just before chapter 5, and presumably earned a doctorate of some sort somewhere.
287** Constantine is a librarian, and helps deliver some exposition before chapter 6. One of his most defining features is his pair of rectangle-lensed glasses.
288* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': Vedika, the top student at Future's Promise and TheSmartGuy of her training club, normally wears a pair of large round glasses. She [[TheGlassesComeOff removes them]], however, upon transforming into the {{magical girl}} Mindful Eye.
289* ''WebComic/TowerOfGod'': It's pretty unlikely that any of the leaders of the Ten Families have mortal eyesight deficiencies, since they're PhysicalGods, but TheSmartGuy of the group, Poe Bidau Gustang, wears a pair of attractive glasses anyway. They enable him to better see the flow of [[MagicByAnyOtherName Shinsu]].
290[[/folder]]
291
292[[folder:Web Original]]
293* Overlaps with SpecsOfAwesome (and ScaryShinyGlasses) on ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' with the GadgeteerGenius Percy de Rolo, who wears circular gold-framed glasses with small additional lenses (changed to plain round glasses in [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfVoxMachina the animated adaptation]]).
294* ''WebAnimation/EpithetErased'': Sylvester Ashling, a [[TeenGenius 15-year-old licensed psychologist]], wears glasses.
295* The dictionary website [[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ The Free Dictionary]] has a logo featuring a pair of glasses, because dictionaries are smart or something like that.
296* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': Sniffles is a GadgeteerGenius (albeit a BunglingInventor) and thus is considered the smartest character on the show, as well as the only one to wear glasses (besides [[BlindPeopleWearSunglasses the Mole]]).
297* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Strong Bad tries to invoke this (with limited success) in the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "[[Recap/StrongBadEmailE98StupidStuff stupid stuff]]". While trying to make Homestar say something intelligent, he gives Homestar a pair of glasses and a LabCoatOfScienceAndMedicine to wear.
298-->'''Homestar:''' Check it out, Strong Bad, I look a-smart!\
299'''Strong Bad:''' You sure do, stupid.
300* In WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic, [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] and [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]]'s [[Recap/TheNostalgiaCriticS2E36 joint-review]] of the ''Film/AloneInTheDark2005'' movie, Linkara points this out regarding Creator/TaraReid's character.
301-->'''Spoony:''' ''[scoffs]'' As if wearing glasses make anyone look smarter! ''[Critic and Linkara, who both wear glasses, glare at Spoony]'' ...I need glasses.
302* The Director in ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' is a brilliant AI theorist who, of course, wears glasses.
303* From ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'', a Chuckya teacher who appears in "Sob story: Tale of a Bob-omb".
304[[/folder]]
305
306[[folder:Western Animation]]
307* {{Invoked}} in the ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS2E15TheRealYou The Real You]]", when [[KidHero Finn]] wears a pair of magic glasses that make him smart to the point of [[TheOmniscient near-omniscience]] but [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity also make him a bit unstable]].
308* ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' has Simon and Jeanette. Simon excels academically and Jeanette is his DistaffCounterpart, but she's also a CuteClumsyGirl and DitzyGenius. Which makes her dorkier.
309%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Colin is a nerd and wears glasses. Principal Brown is also a principal so he must be smart and wears glasses. Joan is a nurse, Dr. Old Man Reaching For A Jar Of Olives is a surgeon, Dr. Butt is a doctor, Dexter is a surgeon, the Librarian and Tree Librarian are librarians, and and Nurse is a nurse, and they all wear glasses.
310* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Steve is the only of his immediate family to wear glasses and is quite the smart guy. His other friends don't wear glasses and, while geeky, most of them are less likely to be shown as smart (especially [[TheDitz Barry]]).
311%%** Steve's friend Toshi is the exception to the above rule. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
312* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': In "[[Recap/ArthurS20E1BustersSecondChanceArthurAndTheWholeTruth Buster's Second Chance]]", Buster has a dream where he's a genius. He and the other kids in the advanced placement class all wear glasses.
313* PlayedWith on ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' -- Junior wears glasses, but his intelligence is somewhere between PingPongNaivete and straight-up DependingOnTheWriter, which the show itself sometimes {{Lampshades}}. If a character ''is'' going to be portrayed as unusually intelligent, however, it's usually him.
314%%* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'': (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
315%%** Jeremie.
316%%** Franz Hopper, when he had a physical body.
317* Chicken tries to invoke this trope in the ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' episode "The Cow with Four Eyes", thinking glasses will make him smart after Cow seems smarter once she starts wearing hers. He even goes so far as to deliberately flub his vision test. Chicken thinks he's smarter, but is really a KnowNothingKnowItAll. Cow even tries to tell him that glasses don't work that way.
318* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'':
319** Daria is famous for her coke-bottle glasses, and for being one of very few [[TooDumbToLive Lawndale residents]] with a rapier-wit.
320** Invoked in "[[Recap/DariaS3E02 Through a Lens Darkly]]", where resident [[DumbJock jock]] Kevin starts wearing glasses to become smarter. Mind you, the frames don't have lenses in them. They don't want to be ''too'' smart.
321* [=PeeBee=] Kappa from ''WesternAnimation/DennisTheMenace'' is Dennis's friend and resident genius and technology freak. [=PeeBee=] wears glasses as part of his ChildProdigy ensemble.
322* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'': Both [[ChildProdigy Dexter]] and his equally brilliant rival Mandark wear glasses.
323* Invoked in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' with Brian, who wears glasses just to try to look smart and really comes off as more arrogant and pretentious than usual, which subsequently prompts Stewie to destroy the glasses with a bat, during which the lenses cut Brian's eyes.
324* Poindexter from ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat'' is a ChildProdigy.
325* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends''. When Bloo freaks out after seeing Mac doing schoolwork during recess, one of the "proofs" that Mac is a nerd is a picture of Mac with coke-bottle glasses. In actuality, Mac doesn't wear glasses. Bloo took a picture of him and drew glasses (and a mustache) with a marker.
326* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', both [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Stan]] and [[ScienceHero Ford]] wear glasses in their old age, but the WholeEpisodeFlashback reveals that Ford, being a genius, had them even as a child.
327* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gumby}}'' played with this in the late 1960s episode "Dopey Nopey". A smart, intellectual boy [[DroppedGlasses has lost his glasses]] and is [[BlindWithoutEm blindly trying to find them]], and then when Pokey finds them he wants to wear them because he thinks the glasses will make him smart. But despite Gumby warning him that's not the case and not to wear them, Pokey doesn't listen, puts on the glasses anyway, and [[BlindMistake proceeds to walk right into a closet]] (he was meaning to go to the library). And then Gumby's dog Nopey comes in, gets into a scuffle with Pokey, and the glasses end up on ''his'' head, but don't make him any smarter (hence the title), and HilarityEnsues... at least until they come across the boy and return his glasses, and he gets back to reading his Shakespeare book.
328* Chief Quimby in ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget2015'' wears glasses, possibly to add emphasis to him being smarter than Gadget.
329* [[HeroAntagonist Dib]] from ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', who's the only human smart enough to instantly recognize that [[VillainProtagonist Zim]] is an alien ([[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation and suffers for it]]). {{Downplayed}} by the art style, since his glasses function as an ExpressiveMask and are oddly drawn without temples, making the bridge the only way to notice them visually.
330* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'' episode "[[Recap/KaelooS2E20LetsPlayStumpysIQ Let's Play Stumpy's I.Q.]]", [[TheDitz Stumpy]] is granted intelligence by a spirit after [[TooDumbToLive his stupidity causes him to die]]. Immediately after he rises from the grave, having been brought BackFromTheDead, he dons a pair of glasses.
331* Lisa Loud in ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' is a ChildProdigy with EyeGlasses.
332* Dr. Woolly from ''WesternAnimation/MonsterFarm'' wears glasses and is the most intelligent of the monster animals, though he doesn't wear them when he turns into his monstrous alter ego Mr. Ewwe.
333* ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks'': Amaya and Newton both wear glasses in their daytime identity, and are among the smartest characters on the side of the heroes (Newton in particular, as he spends most of his time studying anything space related). However, [[TheGlassesGottaGo they loose them]] when transforming into their superhero identities.
334* Shy Violet from ''WesternAnimation/RainbowBrite'' wears glasses. She is the most science savvy of the main characters and uses large words often.
335* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': Plenty of smart people in the show wear glasses, like the scientists Dr. Rafferty and Dr. Bergs, and WiseBeyondHisYears Mitchell.
336* Gretchen in ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' is a ChildProdigy and a {{Meganekko}} to boot.
337* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': {{Invoked}} when Rocko's idol (a professional jackhammer-er) says that he wears contacts while on the job, but prefers glasses when off because they make him look like an intellectual. Cue a FanGirl approaching and asking him questions about Creator/FriedrichNietzsche. Heffer then that claims he needs glasses because he doesn't know who Nietzsche is.
338* ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': Mr. Peabody is likely the smartest being in existence, being an OmnidisciplinaryScientist who built a TimeMachine. And he wears glasses.
339* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryInc'': In [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo every incarnation of the series]], Velma Dinkley is the group's resident genius.
340* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
341** Professor Frink, Data, and Waylon Smithers are all among the smartest characters on the show and wear glasses.
342** Inverted with Milhouse who is nerdy and wears glasses but isn't particularly intelligent.
343** Homer Simpson attempts to exploit this trope when he finds abandoned glasses in a bathroom. He recites a version of the Pythagorean theorem (quoted verbatim from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'') when he looks in the mirror, but it backfires when someone points out that his version is incorrect. However, the trope still saves his job when during a random firing, Mr. Burns decides not to fire him when he sees him wearing glasses and believes him to be smart.
344* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': Chloe is a ChildProdigy who is in college and wears large glasses.
345%%* ''WesternAnimation/WilloTheWisp1981'': Carwash the Cat, by far the most intelligent and sarcastic of the cast.%%Fits how?
346[[/folder]]
347
348[[folder:Real Life]]
349* [[UsefulNotes/{{Cambodia}} Pol Pot]], the infamous Communist dictator, PersecutedIntellectuals so his followers killed people simply for wearing glasses.
350* Myopia actually does correlate with IQ. #4 of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20332_5-unrealistic-movie-cliches-that-are-scientifically-accurate.html 5 Unrealistic Movie Cliches That Are Scientifically Accurate]] points out a study finding that intelligence and education are somehow correlated with nearsightedness in real life. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-sightedness#Correlations Confirmed]] by Website/TheOtherWiki as well. Contact lenses, laser correction, and fake glasses can still throw this trope off, however.
351* Defense lawyers apparently use this trope to make their clients look smarter and less intimidating, according to [[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/may/30/glasses-smarter-study-intelligence-bad-eyesight-link-health-benefits an article in]] ''The Guardian''.
352* In 2014, then-Texas Governor Rick Perry [[InvokedTrope invoked]] this trope for a time.
353[[/folder]]

Top