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[[quoteright:342:[[Anime/{{Voltron}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/space_explorers.jpg]]]]

Usually a boy who is much younger than the rest of [[TheTeam the group]], [[TheSmartGuy but is technically the smartest]]. This kid always has a plan (''and'' a back up plan) when it comes down to it. Often wears green for some reason. Can be TheRuntAtTheEnd.

Compare {{Bookworm}} and LiteralBookworm, who both also tend to be short and studious. See also ShorterMeansSmarter. Potentially overlaps with BespectacledCutie, especially when the character is female.

Not to be confused with [[Website/ChannelAwesome That Guy With The Glasses]].


!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* Advertising/TheBurgerKingKidsClubGang had I.Q., a shorter and presumably younger kid who wore thick rimmed glasses. The Gang was a [[FiveTokenBand band of tokens]], I.Q. being the token smart[=/=]nerdy kid.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
%%* Megane from ''VideoGame/{{Gatekeepers}}'' ("Specs" in the North American dub), as seen [[MeaningfulName by the name]].
* Negi Springfield in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', [[AdorablyPrecociousChild among]] [[CheerfulChild other]] [[ChasteHero roles]].
* ''Anime/{{Voltron}}'' had Pidge (Hiroshi Suzuishi from ''Anime/GoLion'') and Chip (Yasuo Mutsu from ''Anime/DairuggerXV''). Naturally, the {{Frankenslation}} makes the above characters brothers.
%%* Minoru Kokubunji from ''Manga/{{Chobits}}''.
* Kyōju and Emily from ''Anime/BakutenShootBeyblade'' are the shorty with glasses of their respective teams. They're the smartest of their teams and while Kyōju is heavily associated with green due to his association with frogs, Emily leans more towards yellow, though still accessorized with green. Kyōju's franchise predecessor is Rokumaru from ''VideoGame/JisedaiBeigomaBattleBeyblade'', who's also the smart one with glasses in green.
* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire'': Max, May's brother, is shortest member of Ash's group in this series and wears glasses to signify his booksmart knowledge of Pokémon since he's too young to be an official Pokémon trainer himself. He is also tutored by Brock, the group's oldest and most experienced trainer, and often acts as a sanity leash on his mentor whenever he falls for another girl in their travels.
* Narusawa Kazuma from ''Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ''. He even has the green clothing going on, although he is not the smartest character in terms of pure intelligence among his peers - Kyu holds that title. He is, however, a tech-savvy [[GadgeteerGenius Gadgeteer Genius]].
%%* Sho Marufuji/Syrus Truesdale from ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' wins this trope.
* Rekuta from ''Anime/DuelMasters'' is practically the same character. With a few more MegatonPunch sequences.
* Albert Pitt from ''Manga/{{ARIA}}'' fits this trope to a T. He's short enough to make those who don't know him personally think that he's almost four or five years younger than he actually is.
* ''Manga/CaseClosed'''s Conan Edogawa. He (as a 6-year-old) is ''very small'' for his age, even smaller than the girls. But this is subverted as a teen, as his glasses are only a [[ClarkKenting disguise]], and as Shinichi Kudo his height is appropriate for a teenage boy.
* Partially subverted with ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'''s Kain Fuery -- he fits the description and is the Communications expert, but Vato Falman and Heymans Breda are the smarter ones in Col. Mustang's group.
* Marucho in ''Anime/{{Bakugan}}'' fits this trope to a T, as he's the only brawler who wears glasses, he's shorter than the others and [[OlderThanTheyLook looks much younger than them]], despite being only one year younger. Throughout the series, he doesn't grow an inch (his hair grows, though), despite being 17 in the last season. He's TheSmartGuy of the Team.
* Insector Haga/Weevil Underwood from ''Anime/YuGiOh'' is a minor IneffectualSympatheticVillain who nonetheless fits this perfectly; he is very short with NerdGlasses, is a cunning schemer, and always wears green. He's also younger than most of the major duelists, starting the series at [[AllThereintheManual age 14 and ending it at age 15]].
%%* Mariya from ''Manga/CageOfEden''.
* Dai'chi Muroto from ''Manga/KotouraSan''. He is, however, merely OlderThanHeLooks. Per the trope he also acts as TheSmartGuy to at least Yuriko[[spoiler:, if not the massage wand as well]].
* ''Manga/ChibiMarukoChan'': Nagayama, the book-smart kid in Maruko's class.
* Els Tasmin of ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', the bespectacled StudentCouncilPresident of her school and the shortest one amongst the group of veteran tourney fighters.
* TheSmartGuy and youngest of the ''Anime/CombattlerV'' team, Kosuke Kita, is also the shortest and uses OpaqueNerdGlasses to boot.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Dilton Doiley from ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' is the resident glasses-wearing TeenGenius and distinctly shorter than all the other boys.
* Linus Van Pelt of ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' is slightly younger and shorter than most of the other kids, but generally the smartest, and he wore glasses for a brief period in the early '60s.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:FanWorks]]
* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11886910/1/Gankona-Unnachgiebig-Unità Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità]]'': Although Japan only wore hexagonal glasses with his [[Anime/DeathNote Teru Mikami]] cosplay, he still is a ''very'' smart person. He also happens to be the shortest of the former Axis Trio.
* [[Franchise/DragonAge Varric]] is explicitly stated to be the shortest of the male teachers at [[Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook Skyhold Academy]] (as a nod to the fact that he's a dwarf in canon), and wears reading glasses. He's also often shown to be the one coming up with a plan, a scheme, or just a really good story.
* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'': In Belladonna's group, Vedia is the shortest member and the only one who wears glasses, as well as the most tech-savvy of them (being the one who hacked into the Gringy City Power Plant's security systems to facilitate their infiltration).
* ''Fanfic/GuysBeingDudes'': Arlo is described as short, wears glasses, and is the most book-smart of the Team GO Rocket leaders. Of course, his glasses are [[PurelyAestheticGlasses purely aesthetic]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* Glasses, the smallest and youngest crow in ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'', and the one that supplies the MagicFeather (from his tail!), wears large rose-tinted glasses.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/MurderByNumbers2002'' has the delightful Justin Pendleton. Admittedly, he only seems to need the glasses when he's reading (or when [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic he's trying to act a teeny bit more like an emo Nathan Leopold]]) but there you go. Smarter, shorter, primmer, but probably not younger -- and, of course, in possession of an Evil Plan. A shared Evil Plan, but nevertheless.
* In ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', Bruce Banner is recruited for his brilliance as a nuclear physicist; he needs thick glasses to read and is the physically smallest of the main male cast. [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk His alter ego on the other hand...]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheQuestForKarla'': George Smiley. Short, chubby, bespectacled, soft-spoken, and [[TheSpymaster arguably the greatest case-officer to ever work for]] [[UsefulNotes/SecretIntelligenceService British intelligence]].
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Ponder Stibbons is younger and smaller than most of the other wizards and is considered by most people to be "the only one who does any work in the university."
* Barsamin, one of the POV characters in ''Literature/GloryInTheThunder'', is short and bespectacled and enjoys novels. He even wears green.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Coroner Waldo Butters is Harry's go-to man for both medical care and (eventually) computer science.
* Scobie in ''Literature/DontCallMeIshmael'' is the shortest of the debate team and the leader. He's the best debater on the team and also the [[ShorterMeansSmarter smartest]], as well as [[OnlySaneMan keeping the others in check]] and planning their strategy for the debates. He needs glasses and seems to be BlindWithoutEm.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Classic GameShow [[GameShowHost emcee]] Creator/BillCullen, of such shows as TheFifties' ''[[Series/ThePriceIsRight Price Is Right]]'', ''Series/ToTellTheTruth'', and ''The $25,000 Series/{{Pyramid}}''. Notable for being a real DeadpanSnarker.
* Corporal Walter "Radar" O'Reilly on ''Series/{{MASH}}'' was very short (if only because his actor, Gary Burghoff, was short) and was BlindWithoutEm. He wasn't necessarily TheSmartGuy, but had excellent organizational skills, could predict whatever his commanding officer was going to ask for before actually asking, and had the uncanny ability to know helicopter ambulances were approaching before anyone else. He was also much younger than the other main characters.
%%* Hiro on ''Series/{{Heroes}}''.
%%** It helps that Hiro's actor Masi Oka is an actual genius, with an IQ of about eleventy-billion.
%%* Lex on ''Series/Flight29Down'', definitely.
%%* Reid, in flashback to his kid genius days on ''Series/CriminalMinds''.
* George from ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' is the biggest subversion of TheSmartGuy part of the trope, as he's not the brightest of the ensemble, and often makes thick-witted or mean-spirited mistakes that snowball humiliatingly. While on occasion he does have a clever scheme that actually works, it somehow or other blows up in his face. He's out-schemed by Newman, the Other Short Guy With Glasses who plays the trope a little straighter, but it's less due to 'smarts' than a cunning more vicious than the others are willing to get.
%%* Charlie Eppes on ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}''.
%%* Simon Tam on ''Series/{{Firefly}}''.
%%* Blair Sandburg, sometimes on ''Series/TheSentinel''.
%%* Leonard on ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' fits the trope to a tee, but also subverts it in that he's one of the main protagonists rather than a sidekick. Plus, he gets the girl.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
%%* Basil from ''VideoGame/SteambotChronicles''.
%%* Zack from ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce''.
* {{Boys Love Game}}s and {{Otome Game}}s usually have one of these as an option to end up with, since girls find them {{Moe}}.
%%* Jeff from ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound|1994}}'' and Loid from ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings''.
%%* Shinra from ''VideoGame/{{Final Fantasy X2}}''
* Bottles, who teaches all the moves in ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', wears thick coke bottle glasses. His SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute in ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'', Jamjars, wears CoolShades instead.
* Lester from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' is not only short, balding, and wears glasses, but is crippled and walks with a cane or confines himself to a wheelchair.
* Nevan's glasses in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' cover most of his face. Fanart generally puts him next to DumbMuscle Carver to make him even shorter.
* Ignatz from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' is one of the shortest male characters in the game, even after the time skip, and he's the only character to wear glasses. He also likes studying (he can be found gushing over the library's collection in an early chapter) and has an Authority boon, suggesting he likes tactical thinking.
* Arno from ''VideoGame/LearningVoyage'' is short, wears glasses, and is pretty smart, considering his vocabulary (although in ''Sand Trapped!'', he misheard "Put worm traps by the back door" as "Put trap doors back by the worms").
* Matt Bauer from ''VideoGame/CrossingSouls'' is the improbably clever TeenGenius of the team, is one of the shortest playable characters, has glasses, fights with a laser gun he invented and can hover by using propellers on his shoes. Kevin, main character Chris's younger brother, is shorter than him and also wears glasses, but he's more of a TagalongKid.
* Sheldon from ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' is a a short and enthusiastic horseshoe crab who both runs a weapon shop in Inkopolis and serves as a member of MissionControl in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''. He developed nearsightedness from staying up late studying weapon parts, so he wears a pair of thick glasses.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
%%* Nick from ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault''.
* ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'': Jyrras is definitely short, and he wears glasses, even though he doesn't need them; it's an image thing. He's also the one with the greatest technical aptitude.
* Tedd in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' is the shortest of the group, but isn't any younger. He admits that he doesn't need glasses, but {{Invoke|dTrope}}s the trope because he's an androgynous PrettyBoy and the glasses help avoid StupidSexyFlanders moments. As he gains more self-confidence and eventually comes out as [[{{UsefulNotes/Transgender}} genderfluid]], he stops wearing them. [[spoiler:And then he finds out he's actually somewhat nearsighted and could benefit from real prescription glasses, leading to their return in the Party arc.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'': Velma is a classic female example. The shortest of the Mysteries Inc. crew, TheSmartGuy, and BlindWithoutEm.
* Rafael, from ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''. He's the smallest human in the show by a significant margin.
* Albert, a.k.a. Presto, from the ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983'' cartoon fits the visual style and personality, but the magic item he received from Dungeonmaster was a magic hat from which he could pull anything he wanted. Unfortunately, the hat was something of a LiteralGenie with a trend towards [[RummageFail notoriously random interpretations]]; as a result, he ''never'' had a [[IndyPloy plan he could rely on]].
%%* Honker Muddlefoot in ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck''.
* Dexter of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' isn't usually part of a group, but he is a ChildProdigy, wears glasses, and is much shorter than most other kids on the show.
* Jeremie from ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', though admittedly he's only shorter than two-fifths of the main cast. (He ''is'' the youngest, though.)
** It's worth pointing out that, while he doesn't wear green, the towers that he controls on Lyoko are.
* Kevin French from the short-lived ''WesternAnimation/MissionHill''. In fact, his character was based on the afore-mentioned Dilton Doiley.
%%* Chester [=McTech=] from ''WesternAnimation/BeverlyHillsTeens''.
%%* Brainiac 5 from ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperheroes''. Amusingly, actually is green.
* Sam AKA Squid of ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'' is the shortest of his group of friends, wears glasses, and is frequently the one to come up with a plan during a predicament.
%%* Little Trouble from ''WesternAnimation/TeamUmizoomi''
%%* Chudd Chudders from ''WesternAnimation/{{Skatoony}}''
%%* Kin Kujira from ''WesternAnimation/{{Grojband}}''.
* Steve Smith of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' is almost half the size of his parents which is [[ShortTeensTallAdults unusual]] for a 14-year-old (they are frequently taller). He always has a plan when scheming with his friends about getting girls and is such regarded as the group leader. However his plans always go astray either due to bad luck or because he is hopelessly naive about it. Toshi is the only one to ever call him out on his idiocy, but of course he does it in Japanese, so no one can understand it.
* Odie is the shortest member of the team in ''WesternAnimation/ClassOfTheTitans'', and the only one who wears glasses. His designated role on the team is "The Brain," and BigBad Kronos even specifically calls him "the little one."
* Newton from the children's show ''I.N.K: Invisible Network of Kids'' is a perfect example. Several years younger than the other members of the group, but easily the most intelligent one, even smarter than almost any adult.
* Gretchen from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' is the shortest of [[ScoutOut the Fireside Girls]], wears glasses, and [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness tends to use long words]]. {{Iron|y}}ically, in the episode "[[Recap/PhineasAndFerbActYourAge Act Your Age]]" (which takes place ten years later), she has the biggest growth spurt of the group.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Invoked in one episode where Stumpy, the second shortest of all the show's characters, is granted SuddenIntelligence and starts [[SmartPeopleWearGlasses wearing glasses]].
* Mitchell Petersen from ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' is the the second shortest character (although he is taller than [[LoveInterest Mindy]]), and he wears NerdGlasses. He is quite smart for his age, as well.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{W}}'': William does not seem to have a lot of height.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': Gus is the smallest of the six main characters, and wears glasses. Averted with Gretchen, the second tallest of the group who also wears glasses.
* Darryl from ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' is short for his age, wears glasses, and is into math and video games.
[[/folder]]