[[ShokojoSera http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/E4-5.jpg]]
[[caption-width:352:Don't judge her by her command of French.]]

->''"You know how Einstein got bad grades as a kid? Well, '''mine''' are even '''worse!'''"''
-->—'''Calvin''', ''CalvinAndHobbes''

Many main characters in children's shows (and in adult's shows featuring children) are explicitly shown as doing very badly in school, despite showing themselves to be of at least average intelligence in most other areas of life. This isn't inconsistency on the part of the writers, though. The kid is just Book Dumb.

Making your child character Book Dumb is seen as a great way to appeal to the masses (because YouSuck) without having to show them being outsmarted by other characters on a regular basis. A Book Dumb character will usually show excellent "street smarts" and is often very good at problem solving most of the time, but he ([[AlwaysMale and it is almost always a boy]]) is no good at functioning within the regimented learning system of our schools. Maybe he's just not good at that type of learning. Maybe he's clever, but can't resist an opportunity for mischief. In extreme cases, he may even be a [[TeenGenius genius]] or [[GadgeteerGenius inventor]] at home, but devolves into a functionally illiterate bad boy as soon as he enters through the school gates. Maybe he's just TooDumbToFool.

On the other hand, some writers will try the opposite rationale and use it as a criticism of the ''school system'', either claiming that schools are staffed by incompetent idiots who don't know intelligence when they see it, or that schools are deliberately designed to stifle innovation and free will in order to turn kids into mindless future wage slaves.

Some characters are book dumb due to having been denied a formal education for various reasons. They might not be in any way stupid or lazy but a lack of opportunity has simply restricted their progression.

His own attitude to his schooling varies considerably, often within the same series. One episode may call for him to seem to care about his problem, and try very hard to get the work done, whereas another episode may show him really not caring about schoolwork at all. This doesn't matter; as long as the writer gets across that this character isn't some kind of fancy intellectual at whom the audience should sneer, then the Book Dumb has done its job.

In shows with high school characters, Book Dumb overlaps with TroubledButCute.

This is also common among adults, who will be portrayed as not having done very well at school, even though today they may be a famous novelist, celebrated artist, top sportsman, or [[TheSimpsons nuclear safety inspector]]. If the character is doing a non-creative job, he will usually be just as ineffective in his job as he was at school (though always managing to avoid GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity), while displaying considerable intelligence in other areas of their life.

More or less the polar opposite of the stereotypical {{Geek}}, who does excellently in school but is shown as being almost completely incompetent in all other areas of life. Both can be very intelligent people, but only in certain circumstances. The different attitudes of most people to each type of character betray our society's mistrust of intellect.

This trope has quite a bit of TruthInTelevision. As any teacher can tell you, there is something about the school system that ''does'' alienate a certain portion of otherwise intelligent children, although the pervasiveness of this trope frustrates some students that are held to TeenGenius standards by their parents, wondering why nobody that actually does ''well'' in school is ever the main character. Also, YourMileageMayVary if you apply this to yourself in real life, since it's quite possible to be Book Dumb without being street-smart. [[UnfortunateImplications Most troublingly]], this trope is popular among [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism anti-intellectuals]], who argue that academic smarts are entirely worthless.

Contrast TVGenius, who ''only'' seems intelligent in the classroom. Compare BrilliantButLazy, which underlies this most of the time, and EverybodyHatesMathematics, the roughly mathematical equivalent.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* Tomo, Osaka and Kagura from ''AzumangaDaioh'' play this one to some degree. The three of them are pretty much as intelligent as any high school girl, yet their scores are so low, they once added them and got 104, or in American, an A++ (if Chiyo, Sakaki and Yomi did that, it would be roughly a 270 / AAA++++++). This is mostly justified, though, because Tomo is a GenkiGirl with the attention span of a squirrel, Osaka is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} with the attention span of a squirrel, and Kagura is a [[{{Bokukko}} Jock]] [[RuleOfThree with the attention span of a squirrel]].
** It's actually played with until the end of the series, where Tomo, Osaka, and Kagura all pass their entrance exams to college before the pseudo-Geek Yomi (complete with a ''LampshadeHanging'' from the teacher on how weird that is).
*** Perhaps Yomi was aiming too high, whereas Tomo et al aimed low and got it.
**** Nope. Tomo actually got into the same prestigious school Yomi was going for. It's mentioned in one of the last episodes that Tomo is capable of great intelligence and hard work, but her only motivation is competing with Yomi. That's how she also got into the same high school as Yomi.
* Yue Ayase from ''MahouSenseiNegima'' is one of the smartest girls in the class, not counting the MadScientist or the {{Time Travel}}ler. She adores reading, especially philosophy. It's just that reality is so incredibly pointless that she doesn't care to try at all, which places her in the lowest grade percentile of the class. (The so-called "{{Baka}} [[PowerRangers Rangers]].")
** When she starts studying ''magic'', however...
** Also, arguably fellow Baka Ranger Kaede Nagase, who actually seems to be a very wise girl for her age. Perhaps the {{Ninja}} training just gets in the way of her studies.
**Both Asuna and Ku Fei (also of the Baka Rangers) Have both shown impressive tactical skills and Asuna is very good at judging the emotions of others. Admittedly Ku Fei has to work with the handicap of a less than perfect grasp of Japanese (you try learning to speak language A taught in language B when C is your native tongue), and it is widely speculated that what ever spell keeps Asuna from remembering her past also interferes with her general memorization skills. In fact of the five only EnsembleDarkhorse Makie is arguably [[TheDitz just plain dumb]].
* Inversion: Despite being an apparent [[{{Delinquents}} Delinquent]] and ''{{shonen}}'' lead, Ichigo Kurosaki of ''{{Bleach}}'' has one of the highest grade point averages in the school, to the chagrin of his [[ThoseTwoGuys normal friends]] who are upset that he betrays his stereotype. He replies that he gets enough flak from the teachers for getting into fights and his strange hair colour, so he studies hard to make sure that at least they can't complain about his grades. However, in battle he tends to [[IndyPloy charge in without a plan]], and [[LeeroyJenkins ignore his allies plans]].
** It's the same with Chad (who gets a higher score than Ichigo), except he's not so much of a delinquent anymore.
** Then there's Orihime, who, despite her [[CloudCuckooLander space-case]] tendencies, manages to get at least 3rd in their entire grade.
* ''{{Naruto}}'' routinely comes up with winning strategies for his squad, yet placed dead last in the exams (the [[AllThereInTheManual databooks]] give his intelligence score pre-TimeSkip as ''1.5 out of 5'') and one scene implied that he is ''barely literate''. It seems he can only think properly under life threatening danger, but has apparently [[CharacterDevelopment grown out of this]] after the TimeSkip (said score has gone up to 3).
** Sakura's something of an inversion in Part I, as she aces every test in the academy, but rarely puts her intelligence to practical use in the field (for example, she doesn't see through either of the fake Narutos in the Forest of Death before Sasuke, who has 1.5 fewer intelligence points in the databook, pointed them out).
* Despite being in a school practically ''designed'' to take advantage of his abilities, Yuki Judai from ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'' is perpetually stuck in the lowest dorm of Duel Academy due to his low scores...at least, with any of the ''written'' or ''studying'' parts; during the actual field exams, where he actually gets to duel, he excels greatly. This does appear to be partly by choice, as he's turned down promotion at least once on screen. Perhaps the writers just think he'd look horrible in Yellow or Blue...
** Sho was also like this for a while, being a fairly competent duelist and student whose fear of failure always sabotaged his efforts in season 1. By season 3, he is temporarily promoted to Blue, but goes back to Yellow because he doesn't believe himself worthy yet. In season 4, though, he accepts the promotion.
* Slightly altered in ''{{Code Geass}}''. Lelouch Lamperouge purposefully does worse than he could and skips school...but only because he's an exiled Britannian prince secretly plotting an underground war by manipulating the resistance groups in Japan to overthrow Britannia, and he would rather not have his would-be excellent grades attract unnecessary attention.
** Suzaku Kururugi, on the other hand, just isn't terribly bright (Might be a JustifiedTrope since he's a ''deconstruction'' of the typical shounen hero). To compensate, however, "Spinzaku" got the CharlesAtlasSuperpower, whereas Lelouch is very much the incarnation of a NonActionGuy.
*** While Suzaku thinks more with his very convoluted feelings ''and'' is stuck in a world full of {{Magnificent Bastard}}s, ThisTroper dopesn't remember him shown as ''utterly'' BookDumb in the Ashford circle.
*** If anything Suzaku is BookSmart. He and Kallen both get excellent grades in school. However they aren't very cunning or politically savvy, and they tend to look straight foward at situations rather than around it 3 ways. This means they are constantly outsmarted by the various Chessmasters in the series.
* Jotaro Kujo from ''[[JojosBizarreAdventure Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' is an outright delinquent who skips school regularly (although this may be due to the fact that all of the girls at his high school can't stop fawning over him), but at the same time has incredible intuition and detective skills (which, in a rather odd ShoutOut, he attributes to his obsessive watching of ''{{Columbo}}'' as a child). Jotaro actually ends up being a marine biologist (of all things) later on, which goes to show he isn't as dumb as he seems.
* Kyon from ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' is clearly intelligent and knows a ''lot'' for his age, as displayed by his continual references to widely varied aspects of culture, history, mythology and advanced scienctific concepts, many of which a high schooler would have no reason to know, but is barely average as a student, possibly due to his cynical and apathetic personality. In the novels, he ends up needing Haruhi's help on at least one assignment.
** Lampshaded by Kyon himself: "Why is it that I can be so smart when it comes to reading Nagato's facial expressions or Koizumi's hidden clues, but fail to answer every single test question?"
** In addition to knowing a lot, he has a damn sharp mind, as evidenced by his deduction of what ''really'' happened on their summer trip at the end of book 3.
* Tsukasa from ''LuckyStar'' is a hopeless lazy ass capable of sleeping from 10:00 PM to 2:00 PM, while Konata is so {{otaku}} she actually forgets to do her homework. In fact, Konata admits in one particular episode that's she perfectly capable of achieving high marks, but her obsessive and procrastination habits just fill in more than academics. The minor character Misao is similar to Konata, but she'd more inclined towards ''outdoor'' activities.
**Konata got into this locally prestigious high school by the lure of a PS2 ''and'' a PC.
*** In one episode she demonstrates her ability to cram for a test with a single all-nighter; she manages to get the same good score as Kagami, despite of that the latter studied for the same test well over a week.
**** That was before the author's proclaimed [[CharacterizationMarchesOn characterization change]] of Konata.
* ''YuYuHakusho'' features Yusuke, who is ''incredibly'' BookDumb. He once got a ''twelve'' (yes, twelve out of 100) on a test. However, on the battlefield, he's a fairly competent strategist, and in one episode, he correctly applies the principle of light reflection to defeat Hiei. There's also Kuwabara, who starts out BookDumb (he got a ''seven'' on that same test; Yusuke was bragging that he was smarter), and, as part of CharacterDevelopment, studies hard and gets into a prestigious high school.
* ''FruitsBasket'' both subverts and plays this straight. Kyo is a subversion, he has the personality of a delinquent, is obsessed with fighting, [[HiddenDepths sort of]], and is, oddly, a good student. Played questionably straight with Tohru, who tends to struggle (though not due to lack of effort). And then there's Saki, who's smart, but simply doesn't give a damn (except when faced with the threat of summer school in non-air conditioned rooms, when she makes sure to avoid failing grades).
* Subverted by Miyako in ''HidamariSketch''. [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny She may have all ADHD traits]], but her junior high grades were so good that she entered Yamibuki with the academic part of the entrance exam exempted. (She still have to pass a drawing test though) Just that others would rather believe her "I came in through the backdoor" joke.
* A ''SlamDunk'' episode features ''four'' members of the Shohoku FiveManBand failing their exams with ''ridiculous'' results. They had to stay up stufying in Captain Akagi's house all night long. HilarityEnsues there.
* Luffy in ''OnePiece'' is a textbook example. He's a complete idiot most of the time, yet he's extremely good at coming up with the best ways to use his Devil Fruit powers to their fullest in various situations. One that particularly sticks out in this tropers mind is when [[spoiler:he out-smarts Eneru's Mantra mind-reading ability... by out-''dumbing'' him. He intentionally thinks of nothing (The name of said technique translating to "Rubber Rubber Idiot"), then starts bouncing punches off a wall so that he has no idea of what they'll hit, making it impossible for Eneru to dodge them by reading his mind.]]
**[[spoiler:Gear 2 and 3. End of story.]]
* One of the rare female examples is Maya Kitajima from ''GlassMask'', who is able to memorize full scripts and acknowledges lots of acting techniques, but is barely average at school. She lampshades this by thinking she's just not interested in academic prowess.
* [[{{Meitantei}} Hajime]] of ''TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' is a great detective and has the IQ of 200, yet he has no interest in schoolwork and his chance of getting into a college is precarious, to say at best.
* Inverted with Firo from ''{{Baccano}}!'' who, while having over two-hundred and fifty years of scientific and alchemical knowledge locked away in his head after [[spoiler:consuming Szilard]], insists that he's too stupid to understand or make any use of it.
* Keiichi of ''{{Higurashi}}'' has an interesting case of this, it's revealed that whilst his grades are standard to mediocre, he has a rather good to great understanding of the real life implementations of whatever is being done.
* Kagome Higurashi from ''{{Inuyasha}}'' is a female example - at least when it comes to Math, a subject that she's always shown to be struggling with. Apparently not a complete BD [[spoiler:as she manages to graduate from high school at the end of the manga]]. However, it doesn't seem like she has the usual over-the-top excellent battle skills that most [=BD=]s have; her heroicness seems more [[PluckyGirl emotionally based]], even after she ''does'' [[TookALevelInBadass take a badass level]].
* Sawada Tsuna from ''KatekyoHitmanReborn''. To an ''extreme''. In the beginning, he's pretty much the school's ButtMonkey that gets the worst grades. And for the longest time, it really ''did'' look like he was all-around useless. However, after [[GenreShift the series got more serious]], he's shown to not actually be stupid - when he's determined and ''tries'', he's very smart about fighting and utilizing his abilities in combat.
* Sagara Sousuke from ''FullMetalPanic''. He doesn't tend to do very well in school. Granted, it's not like he has a lot of street smarts in relation to [[{{Muggle}} normal people's survival and lives]] either, but... he [[{{Understatement}} sure is good]] at [[CombatPragmatist fighting]] and [[CrazySurvivalist surviving]] in the combat zone. Not to mention his knack for rescuing people.
* Miaka from ''FushigiYuugi'' is a borderline female example. You'd think that all the [[BigEater stomach thinking]] and [[MartyrWithoutACause putting herself needlessly in danger]] would reflect in dis-interest for studies, but her grades aren't abysmally bad ''and'' she's shown having an interest in studying so she can get in a good highschool, like Yui. This is even more accentuated in the manga, where it's explained as [[WellDoneSonGuy her way to seek for the approval of her]] EducationMama.
** Ends up subverted at the end of the TV anime series, when its revealed that Miaka passed the entrance exam to Jonan while Yui, who's more traditionaly smart, did not. They both end up going to a different high school together.
* A particularly interesting case is [[PokemonSpecial Odamaki]] [[WildChild Sapphire]] - the girl is almost illiterate to the point she had to ask an assistant how certain words sounded during the intellectual portion of Roxanne's qualification exam, but due to certain aspects of her upbringing she's much smarter than she appears. Roxanne lectured her on learning how to read after the test was finished... only for her brain to crack when she realized the girl scored the ''highest'' of everyone in the room! [[http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/pokemonadventure/0/190/5 The look on Roxy's face was priceless.]]
* Ermengarde in ''ShokojoSera'', like her [[ALittlePrincess original incarnation]], is portrayed as scatterbrained and scholastically backward; in a flashback, we also see that this may be related to neglect by her father, a university professor. However, she is also portrayed as good-hearted and generous, loyal to Sara even after she [[FallenPrincess loses both father and fortune]], and nurses Sara when she falls seriously ill. She also is the only person, apart from Sara, whom [[{{Kawaiiko}} Lottie]] can relate to, at least to some extent.
* Kotoko Aihara and the others in Class F in ''ItazuraNaKiss''.
* Ash from ''{{Pokemon}}'' inevitably ends up like this any time he's placed in a traditional school setting; A recent episode of DP has him failing miserably during a Pokemon quiz, leading another character to question how a trainer with such poor academic knowledge of pokemon could have earned 6 badges. The episode eventually leads to an Aesop about how learning theory in school doesn't necissarily make one good at actually doing something in real life.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* Chase Stein from ''{{Runaways}}'', despite being the child of genius inventors, has no scholastic aptitude whatsoever and is easily the dumbest member of the group (including the 11-year-old):
-->Chase: Hey, I may not be book smart, but I am street smart!
-->Gert: Which street? Sesame?
** Yet when on his own, he was clever enough to come up with a simple plan to deal with the Gibborim; find and threaten those smart enough to help. His "anonymous white van" idea also shows some he has some degree of cleverness.
*** Worth mentioning that in recent books, Chase shows a skill with fixing and using tech devices close to his parents, and is as skilled with the Staff of One as Nico, the resident spellcaster herself.
* Batgirl III (Cassandra Cain) is one of the top martial artists in the DC Universe, but barely able to speak and illiterate.
** [[DisContinuity/ComicBooks That is correct]]. The thought of her being able [[DragonLady to monologue]] [[CharacterDerailment in Navajo code]] [[WallBangers/ComicBooks is just ridiculous]].
*** Yep although unlike most it's not because she's 'dumb' it's because due to her upbring her brain doesn't work the same like ours, think a frag harddrive.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Bill and Ted in ''BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'' will apparently mature into musical geniuses, display a high degree of creativity, and have a surprisingly sophisticated vocabulary. However, they are failing history and clearly have not paid much attention in school.
** They also get a quick grasp on manipulation of events via time travel.
* Jean-Baptiste Grenouille of ''{{Perfume}}'' displays a high level of intelligence in addition to his brilliance in perfume making. However, he was raised as a simple tanner's apprentice and has no education at all. At times he must ask simple questions like, "What's a legend?"
** This could be accounted for more readily than instances of this trope set in modern times if we consider that in 18th-century France the educated were a very small segment of society and many, many intelligent people born of working-class origins would slip through the cracks.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]
* Huckleberry Finn from ''TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'' is the EPITOME of this trope. He's able to come up with elaborate plans on-the-spot to turn the tables around in a bad situation but he can't even spell his own alias correctly.
* D'Artagnan from Dumas' ''TheThreeMusketeers'' is very perceptive and good at {{Indy Ploy}}s, but "had never been able to cram the first rudiments of [Latin] into his head, and [...] had by his ignorance driven his master to despair".
* In William King's {{Warhammer 40000}} SpaceWolf novel ''Grey Hunters'', Sven's marked lack of interest in history and the archives makes a {{Foil}} for the more studious hero, Ragnor. At one point he drags Ragnor away from the hologlobe for beer.
*Julia from ''[[NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'' is barely literate, yet able to guess the Party's innermost goals almost intuitively, and evade capture by a fascist regime for ten years.
* TerryPratchett loves this trope as much as any of them.
** In ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'', Granny Weatherwax is described as "grudgingly literate but keenly numerate".
*** Though in an early book, she initially couldn't comprehend the un-reality of a local play.
** Cohen the Barbarian is illiterate, though he loves books (they make for good lavatory paper), but he's got so much cunning and guile it doesn't matter.
*** It is a trait he respects in others, though. He had a Geography teacher as part of his retinue and trusted adviser in ''Discworld/InterestingTimes''.
** Leonard of Quirm, despite being possibly the most well-read and brilliant man on the Disc when it comes to what we Roundworlders would call "actual" science, seems to think that an excess of education or training can be a bad thing, leading to a flaw he calls "learning the limits of the possible"--i.e., a failure of imagination. He failed the Alchemists' Guild exam due to doodling complex devices in the margins and absently correcting the questions.
** Could Rincewind possibly qualify? Always failed exams, dreadful at magic, but he does have a certain cunning. Of course, his main problem appears to be not that he has trouble with studying as such, but rather that he is to magic as a bumblebee to a bicycle, to paraphrase.
** Perhaps the finest example of this in {{Discworld}}, however, is Harry King, who like Cohen tends to use certain kinds of paper for lavatory use (his wife likes newspaper when it's recycled, but King himself prefers to "cut out the middleman"). He was born a poor street kid and eventually came to be ''the'' waste management consultant in Ankh-Morpork. William de Worde, by no means stupid and possibly the most well-read person in Ankh-Morpork outside of the Patrician, had the "uncomfortable moment when an educated man realizes the illiterate person sizing him up could probably out-think him three times over".
* Ronald Weasley of ''HarryPotter'' fame relies heavily upon Hermione's help with schoolwork to keep from failing but is an excellent chess player who has come up with some extremely clever ideas in a pinch. Similarly, his older brothers Fred and George do abysmally in their exams and drop out of school in the fifth book but are capable of developing extraordinary magical products and run a proper shop by the sixth book. Harry himself also qualifies, he's not interested in schoolwork and relies on Hermione almost as much as Ron, and admits to not having paid attention to his books or his teachers on several occasions, but is intelligent and can think quick on his feet.
** Of course, according to WordOfGod, Harry becomes an Auror after school, which requires several high marks on their exit exams/[=NEWTs=].
*** Actually, does WordOfGod ever say if Harry went back to school to complete his seventh year? I mean, after everything he's done in his life, and in the last book in particular, the guy could just go to the Ministry of Magic and say "I want a job" and they'd have to be idiots to not hire him.
**** WordOfGod states that Harry joined the Auror Department at age 17. He was already 17 at the end of the book, and if he'd gone back to school he wouldn't have graduated until he was 18. So it can be assumed that he didn't bother going back.
*** Well the [[TooDumbToLive Ministry of Magic]] isn't famous for making smart decisions.
**** But [[spoiler: the wizard being appointed as Minister of Magic at series' end is quite competent.]]
* The world of ''{{Temeraire}}'' features several people like this, though it certainly wouldn't be uncommon as public schooling was all but unthought of during the Napoleonic wars. Laurence forced himself to cram the necessary mathematics to be a sailor into his head when he was a boy, but was not much skilled beyond that, and had little love for books. Laurence, though, is not a slow man by any means. However, it's subverted when Temeraire's love of books and joy in reading and knowledge infects Laurence. Laurence also insists that his adolescent ensigns and cadets do their schoolwork, when he's not so busy he forgets, and though they perform their duties ably and, as children and youth are wont to do, pick up languages faster than the adults in the crew, they show great resistance and dislike of it. Similarly, uneducated dragons, even from breeds not particularly renowned for thinking, prove quite capable of debating advanced mathematics with Temeraire. The trope is also inverted in a minor character, a lieutenant who, "If ships could be sailed by figures could sail around the world without fear" but when called to order others around habitually gives the wrong order.
* Claudia Kishi from the [[BabysittersClub Babysitters Club]] series ''is'' this trope. Basically her entire personality, and many of her plotlines, revolve around the fact that she does poorly in school despite being talented at art and having generally good judgement and social skills. In the early books she's just uninterested in school, but she seems to [[{{Flanderization}} get dumber]] as the series goes on, even going so far as to be sent back to a grade she had ''already completed''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* ''ArrestedDevelopment'': High-school age Maeby Funkë is able not only to con her way into a job as a film executive, but to actually execute it competently, despite only getting a crocodile in spelling and a daisy in arithmetic.
** Although it appears that most of the films she makes are ''terrible''. How much of this is her fault is unclear.
* Both averted, used, and inverted several times in the [[BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffyverse]].
** Buffy, though not hopeless with basic schoolwork, doesn't do great (possibly due to the extra pressure of Slaying, though in college she starts to come into her own), though she's an excellent tactician, intuitive thinker, and kills on her SATs.
** Inverted (as in people who test above their level) with Cordelia and Oz. Though no one could call her stupid, Cordelia's ability to do extraordinarily well on standardized tests is something of a surprise to the others: "What? I can't have layers?" Finally there's Oz, who's also not dim but just doesn't care ("It could lead to jobs"), and is the only person aside from Willow sussed out by Microsoft at a job fair, because he "tests well".
* The Doctor in ''DoctorWho'' is portrayed as an incredibly brilliant scientist, one of the most intelligent people in all of time and space. Nevertheless, in "The Ribos Operation" it is revealed that he barely passed his graduation exam (at the Time Lord academy on Gallifrey) on the second attempt.
** At the start of the 2007 episode "The Shakespeare Code", in the TARDIS Martha remarks "Blimey! Do you have to pass a test to fly this thing?" and the Doctor replies "Yes and I failed it!"
** Barely passsing at a Time Lord accadamy is probobly what most humans would consider Book Genius.
* ''{{Eureka}}'''s protagonist, Sheriff Jack Carter, is a perfectly average IQ in a town full of [[TheSmartGuy supergeniuses]]. This makes him the local BookDumb, but his ''street'' smarts, not shared by the majority of [[GeniusDitz brainiacs]] in town, end up saving the day and his job security at least once an episode.
* Emma Norton in ''GenieInTheHouse''. Interestingly, despite being the [[TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry more popular and seemingly girly of the Norton sisters]] she is also the character with most of the stock sitcom ''male'' characteristics; laziness, {{Ted Baxter}}ism, a tendency towards get rich quick schemes, and comedic lechery.
* Cappie, the president of Van Wilderesque fraternity Kappa Tau on ''{{Greek}}'' is shown to be extremely smart, to the point of being able to converse freely in Latin and figuring out what the point of a psychological experiment was that the research assistant didn't realize, but he's also shown to completely not care about school, such as showing up to a class for the first time two months after it started.
* Matt Parkman on ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', although he's no genius, is streetwise enough to have been a cop and cunning enough to have ''literally'' thought his way through some nasty situations. He's also dyslexic, hence BookDumb through no fault of his own.
* Reese of ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'' was shown, more often than not, to be an ingenious planner - Malcolm himself [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade on it]] by saying:
-->"It's weird. Reese is one of the worst students at school, but he's invented like fifty games, and they're all fun."
* Kelly Bundy from ''MarriedWithChildren'' began the series as a snarky, BookDumb teenage girl before [[{{Flanderization}} turning into]] TheBrainlessBeauty essentially overnight.
* The writers of ''TheOC'' seemed unsure whether Summer Roberts was merely BookDumb or TheDitz. She seems to vary with different episodes, and at least one episode hinted she was more ChanceTheGardener ("what is a Jihad?").
* David Lister in ''RedDwarf'', at least in later seasons, is Book Dumb but can be a reasonably intelligent guy. In "The Inquisitor", where he is put on trial to justify his existence (before himself as Judge), he fails because he could have been a better person than he was, whereas both The Cat and Rimmer (who are easily just as, if not more, a waste of DNA) get off by their own low standards.
* Darlene Connor from ''{{Roseanne}}'' is a D student more interested in sports than useless studying. However, she's quick-witted and a talented writer, and becomes the first person in her family to go to college, presumably doing well when she's studying something that matters to her.
* Turk from ''{{Scrubs}}'' was a C student in high school, but managed to get into medical school and eventually makes head surgeon.
* Dean Winchester, the elder brother in ''{{Supernatural}}'' ''is'' this trope. He almost never reads unless he has to while researching a case, and he chose not to go to college (mostly to please his dad, but ''still''). However, he is a great mechanic, managing to keep his beloved [[CoolCar 1967 Chevy Impala]] in great shape and even rebuilding it by himself after he semi crushes it in the first season finale. He also made an electromagnetic frequency (EMF) meter out of a busted Walkman. And his knowledge of pop culture (mostly horror movies) has come in handy a couple of times. Not mention he's a great liar and fairly smooth talker.
** The concept of Dean being this might not be entirely accurate, however, as he apparently does not share his reading habits with Sam or with anyone, really. In Season 4, it's revealed that he's pretty much read all of Kurt Vonnegut's works. We can surmise from this that it's entirely possible Dean is also familiar with other similar literature.
* ''Wizards of Waverly Place'': Alex Russo regularly fails exams, but is the craftiest and most competent character in the series.
* Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond on ''TopGear'' -- not stupid by any definition but completely disinterested in the kind of engineering, mathematical, or mechanical trivia that fascinates their colleague, [[TheSmartGuy James May]].
* An episode of ''TheTwilightZone'' dealt with a girl who was mute and presumably illiterate, but with incredible mental powers (like [[{{Batman}} Cassandra Cain]] minus the whole assassin thing). When her teacher showed her a picture of a boat and asked what it was, the girl had a vision of the boat rocking at sea, and she felt very sad that she couldn't share this with the teacher. [[spoiler: The story ends with the girl's caretaker finding her, but she's been {{DePower}}ed to a normal child.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: {{Newspaper Comics}}]]
* Calvin of ''CalvinAndHobbes'' is shown to be very far behind his classmates academically, but is a loquacious philosopher in his spare time, showing a vocabulary and critical thinking skills far in advance of what you could expect from a normal 6-year-old. In this case, it's an explicit criticism of the school system.
** Bill Watterson has also said that he enjoyed having Calvin use big words to describe stupid ideas.
***Its also implied Calvin, while intelligent, is not simply motivated to apply himself.
* ''Dennis the Menace'' (the British version, at least) is an example of this being taken to a ridiculous degree. In the comics these days, Dennis even has a ''futuristic car that he designed himself'', with protective armour and water cannons, and yet is shown to be completely (and cheerfully) lost at school.
* In ''ForBetterOrForWorse'', one word: Gordon. While Gordon graduates high school with average grades, he is a gifted mechanic who turns out to have a decent head for business. He goes to work for a local outfit, and within ten years all but owns the place, it being sold to him when the owner retired; he then takes the store from a local landmark ("Oh, right, that place") to a thriving business which, the last time it was seen before the strip's conclusion, may well have been threatening to become a franchise.
* Peppermint Patty in ''{{Peanuts}}''. She would rather be playing sports than sitting in a classroom, compounded by not getting much sleep weeknights because she waits for her father to get home from work at night. On the other hand, any girl her age who could be capable of mistaking a dog obedience school for a human school to the point of enrolling in it, "studying" with the dogs, graduating and being so sure that she doesn't have to go to regular human school because of that "diploma" is on her own level of stupidity.
**That's nothing. She already thinks Snoopy is a 'little kid with a big nose' and treats him accordingly.
** Remember, with Patty, we're quite far into [[DumbMuscle Jock]] territory, too. As if she didn't have enough downward pressure on her grades.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* Lan (or Netto for you purists) in ''MegaManBattleNetwork'' has defeated evil organization after evil organization with MegaMan countless times, which obviously requires a lot of problem solving. However, he receives poor grades in school. Somehow [[spoiler: he becomes a scientist, just like his pop 25 years after the games]]
* Kyo Kusanagi of ''TheKingOfFighters'' may be an excellent fighter (having won the titular tournament at least 7 times), but because of this, he's been kept out of school for so long that he's at least 25 and has yet to graduate (not counting the time he was kidnapped and missing for at least a year). The problem being that, despite the successive year appellations, he hasn't aged—nor, for that matter, has the rest of the cast. No wonder they changed the sequel labeling style.
* Luke, the protagonist of ''{{Tales of the Abyss}}'' goes well beyond BookDumb to not knowing nearly anything, being completely ignorant about his own world or the way people live. While he is observant and resourceful and clearly fairly intelligent, having [[GameplayGuidedAmnesia lost all his childhood memories]] coupled with his belligerent attitude makes it difficult to teach him anything. Of course, this functions as a convenient way for the other characters to [[MrExposition explain even the most basic common knowledge about the game world to the player.]]
** ''TalesOfSymphonia'''s Lloyd Irving is like this, also. Starts off [[strike:seeming like he's]] ''being'' completely clueless, but by the time [[spoiler:Martel]] shows up you get the feeling that Lloyd has figured out ''exactly'' how to plow through the ThirtyXanatosPileup. ''Dawn of the New World'' pretty much confirms this, because even when you consider that [[spoiler:most of the evil deeds that Lloyd was blamed for were actually Decus in disguise, the real]] Lloyd is still pretty much running his own XanatosGambit, as evidenced by his demanding the cores and then running away when he realizes he's outnumbered by his former friends, rather than just joining up with them. Yet, despite now being in his twenties, academics-wise, he's still only managed to get around to memorizing his multiplication tables, as revealed in a skit with Raine.
** ''TalesOfVesperia'' has it's own protagonist, Yuri Lowell. Though he is the one that keeps the party steps ahead of the other groups throughout the game, he states outright that he has little patience for reading. While most of the others in the party tend to be experts in their (book) researched fields, they each end up relying on Yuri for his street smarts.
* While not strictly educationally relevant because of the world it takes place in, ''PhantasyStar IV'' has Chaz. Whenever he's presented with anything technically complex, it's mostly lost on him, and he's easily impressed and surprised by technology (a particularly dumb moment is when he's impressed that Demi-- who is an ''android''-- is adept at handling ''machines''). He even {{lampshade}}s this, pointing out that Rune has basically had to explain everything to him since he joined the party. However, his understanding of ''people'' is top-notch, and he's usually aware of other characters' feelings and thoughts before they express them; this also leads him to his CrowningMomentOfAwesome when he recognizes the hypocrisy inherent in his destiny and chooses to RefuseTheCall.
* Rosie of ''ValkyriaChronicles'' finished her education (and therefore military training) at middle-school level. Nonetheless, she is one of Welkin's Sergeants and proves capable multiple times over.
* Just about the entire Investigation Team in Persona 4. The only characters that aren't constantly getting horrible marks on their exams are Yukiko and if your playing well the Protagonist. Especially Kanji who can barely follow the case your working on at times and more or less just asks for a target to go beat up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* Solange of the WhateleyUniverse is cunning, smart enough to see how to apply her father's business practices to ruling her [[SuperheroSchool high school]], but BookDumb because she's already a billionaire heiress who is never going to have to work for a living. There's nothing any teacher has to tell her that she sees any value in learning. Too much work.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* In ''TheFairlyOddparents'', Timmy Turner is incredibly resourceful and able to outsmart adults, fairies, pixies, snarky genies, aliens and all sorts of other beings many times his age, but the series goes out of its way to [[{{Flanderization}} ridiculously illustrate]] how bad he is with anything that involves language arts and math.
** Though given the asshole teacher he has to "Work" with, it's no surprise.
* Danny Fenton in ''DannyPhantom'', while similarly portrayed to be resourceful and clever in intense situations, is the standard C-student male teenage protagonist commonly seen in shows with HighSchool settings. Of course, this is at least [[HandWave partially attributed]] to the notion that fighting ghosts constantly interferes with his studies. Nevertheless, his attitude towards his studies was subject to much varying.
** However, it's been subverted once or twice, explaning why he didn't just do the obvious thing in a given situation (IE: Wishing a ghost who's playing genie into her containment) and instead spends the episode doing as he is want to do.
* With his exaggeratedly short attention span and prodigy for playing mindless video games, Yang of ''YinYangYo'' is almost a blue anthropomorphic rabbit version of Timmy, complete with {{Jerkass}} tendencies. This is especially apparent when compared to his [[PositiveDiscrimination naturally more studious and level headed twin sister]]. The three shows share writers and directors, so it's not much of a surprise.
* While the title character of ''{{Kim Possible}}'' is shown to be anything but BookDumb and able to maintain A-average grade (but not at TeenGenius levels mind you), Ron is yet another example of the typical C-student male protagonist.
** Yet Ron regularly assists in saving the world.
*** And is an amazingly talented chef.
**** And while evil was the best villain in the series, invented several doomsday devices. Also built one when kidnapped by Drakken using stuff lying around, and gave Senior Senior Senior the ideas to build traps.
* Subverted in the last episode of ''{{Fillmore}}'', where the main suspect in the kidnapping of a class tarantula seems to be a BookDumb kid who was often kept behind after class to look after it. [[spoiler:The character's BigSecret is that, against his image, he's an A student, and was looking after the tarantula because he wanted to.]]
* Will from ''{{WITCH}}'' is a rare female example. She appears at least as smart as anyone else the rest of the time, but her grades are so bad she tries to hide them from her mother.
* Pete, from ''GoofTroop'', could fit this trope. They make it clear a few times that he didn't even finish High School, yet he runs a successful used car lot, and would probably be considered upper-middle class in economic standards.
** That probably has more to do with his {{ConMan}} personality than actual intellect. Sales are about convincing people, not solving equations.
** But he's more than *just* a car salesman, he owns the whole business, and apparently runs it by himself. Selling the actual cars would only be one (although admittedly vital) part of the whole job.
* Jade Chan from ''{{Jackie Chan Adventures}}'' is generally Book Dumb on the basis that at times it could be argued if she even cares about school, for she would rather be on Jackie's adventures, see {{Adventure Rebuff}}. It doesn't help that at school she is often talking about said adventures instead of learning. Outside of school however Jade possess a smart and cunning mind and seems to be a very good problem solver, not the mention the ability to break into underground military installations. She is definitely street smart to the point that it scares Jackie how clever she is, at times it seems like he would have to be cunning himself to outsmart Jade. The leader of the super-spy organization Section 13 gave her a standing offer to join when she gets old enough. He was laughing at the time, but it is uncertain if he was joking.
** Well, since we see future Jade and she's the leader of Section 13, yes, it was completely serious. Also, there was an early scene (when she breaks into the military installations for the first time) where Captain Black said to Jackie, in all seriousness, that she could become an agent when she was old enough.
* Matt Stone and Trey Parker have admitted that Eric Cartman is a genius: the smartest character in ''SouthPark''. [[NeutralEvil He refuses however to care about anything that does not immediately help him]], especially school. He never pays attention in school and remains ignorant. Despite this problem, he forms [[TheChessmaster very detailed plans]], considers complex issues and is a [[ManipulativeBastard brilliant manipulator]]. Despite this, he demonstrates frequent belief in totally ungrounded assumptions (which, given the nature of the South Park 'verse, are sometimes proven ''true''.)
* Baloo and Wildcat on Disney's series ''{{Talespin}}'' are good examples of Book Dumb characters.
** Wildcat seems pretty unintelligent, but give him any mechanical task to work on and he shows his true genius. Give him a broken telephone and he can fix it in ten seconds flat.
** Baloo is revealed in one episode to be poor at spelling, and in a later one that he never even finished primary school. He is, however, a top-notch pilot and is capable of coming up with some cunning strategies when dealing with the various villains in the series.
***Not terribly uncommon in the 1930s when the show takes place (based on in-show dialogue and clues). Back then getting a HS diploma would be like getting a BA now, and getting a BA was very uncommon of outside of the brilliant or rich until the GI Bill.
* Todd Daring from ''TheReplacements'' is shown to be brilliant schemer, but seems to have an aversion to anything to do with schoolwork. At his most extreme, he replaces his German teacher with someone who ''only'' speaks German so his father cannot find out how badly he his doing.
* Brendan Small from ''HomeMovies'' is a parody: Everyone claims that he is very intelligent but in reality, he is egotistical, incompetent and a failure at everything.
* An episode of ''Ozzy and Drix'' (the spinoff show of the movie ''OsmosisJones'') emphasized the importance of book learning in a painfully {{Anvilicious}} way. After BookDumb Osmosis spends the entire episode berating Drix for not having any street smarts to offset his prodigious book smarts, it is ultimately Drix's book smarts that save the day. Ozzy, realizing [[ResetButton for the last thirty seconds of the episode]] that book learning can sometimes go a long way, asks Drix to educate him. Drix obliges by quoting well known sciency things ("Well, for example, [[EEqualsMCHammer E=MC2]]") without offering anything resembling context, to which Ozzy reacts with obnoxiously exaggerated excitement.
* TJ from ''{{Recess}}'' is perhaps the perfect embodiment of this trope. While his grades are notoriously average/below average, once on the playground he can pull off elaborate schemes from (quite literally) under his hat.
* Luanne Platter from ''{{King of the Hill}}'' did terribly in school but she is a gifted mechanic, a good example of this was in an episode where Hank's truck is taken apart for evidence when a delinquent broke into it and Luanne puts it back together in less than two days, however this side of her is rarely shown in the later episodes mainly due to {{flanderization}}.
* Most of the male characters in ''TheSimpsons'' fit either the child or adult versions of this trope to some extent, including Bart, Homer, Barney, Nelson, etc.
** Bart Simpson is clearly an excellent example of this - at school, he is falling behind everybody else, barely managing to stay in his own grade, whereas in his spare time he thwarts criminals and solves mysteries, often displaying intuitive thinking skills on a par with his sister Lisa.
** Even Ralph Wiggum, despite having a [[RalphWiggum trope on stupidity named after him]], could fit this. Although he's as Book Dumb as one could possibly get, numerous scenes have been dropped throughout various Simpsoncentric media from the comic, to the series itself that he's possibly creatively gifted. When his head's on somewhat straight(er than usual) anyway.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:RealLife]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4LIThTB8Ww This video]] shows an amazing, real example of this trope. A poorly educated Chinese man with no electrical training builds complex robots out of stuff from junkyards. His creations are amazing. Had he received better education and been recognized by the scientific community he might have been an amazing, world changing inventor. He is clearly ingenious and clever.
* A classic real-life example is Dave Thomas, the founder of the Wendy's restaurant chain: ridiculously successful restaurateur, philanthropist, advertising icon and high-school dropout. He finally got his GED in 1993 (at ''sixty-one'', mind) because he thought his success might encourage others to take [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop the wrong lesson]] and drop out like he did.
* Bill Lear - if his name sounds familiar it's because [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learjet he invented the personal jet that bears his name]] - and he never even had an opportunity to drop out of high school as he never went beyond the 8th grade. The Wright brothers themselves were simple bicycle mechanics who possessed what amounted to only a basic education for that era (which wasn't much).
* A real-life subversion - a common fact cited is Bill Gates' failure to complete college. Keep in mind he dropped out from an ''Ivy League'' university, and his reason for doing so was that he found it so boring and un-challenging that he decided tinkering around with computers was more worthwhile - and of course, the rest is history.
** From a study that was quoted on TheColbertReport: out of all the billionaires in America, 5% come from Harvard while '''35%''' come from "the college of No College Education".
* As quoted above, AlbertEinstein supposedly wasn't successful at school, and thus ended up as a clerk in patent office. Fortunately, this gave him plenty of time to daydream, and while Einstein wasn't a particularly fast thinker, he was a very deep one, which in turn led to his discovery of the ''theory of relativity''. This is, in fact, a 100% thoroughly debunked myth (except about the speed/depth of his thoughts--depending on his knowledge of trivia, he might have done very well on ''WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' but poorly on ''Jeopardy!''). Einstein did extremely well in school. Einstein was actually a child mathematics prodigy who was doing both differential and integral calculus by age 12. It is true, however, that he didn't ''like'' the then-very-militaristic German schools. The myth may have arisen because the grade rankings in Switzerland (where he was born and went to school) are opposite to the ones in Germany (where he lived later). In Germany, 1 is the best grade, 6 the worst. In Switzerland, 6 is the best and 1 the worst. It could be assumed some Germans heard that Einstein "only" got 6s and came to the wrong conclusion. Also, when he first tried to apply the ETH Zürich (a science and technology university) he did not pass the entrance exam, but he got exceptional marks in mathematics and physics.
* Especially talented and intelligent children may tend to get bored with school, because it is too easy for them. They could easily have good grades, but they don't care about it.
** To diverge along the "school sucks" route, there is [[http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/mi/dickinson_mi.html increasing consensus]] that intelligence manifests in many different ways. For example, a kid that has good tactile intelligence might not know addition from subtraction, but could assemble machinery in his sleep. A girl with good interpersonal intelligence can manipulate others to do those things which she is herself incapable. The implication is that teaching styles that only address certain kinds of intelligence put certain children at a disadvantage.
** Alternately, they simply already know this stuff. Which goes a bit further than it being too easy.
*** [[DungeonsAndDragons Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma?]]
*** Or for that matter [[{{Traveller}} Intelligence and Education.]]
** To diverge a bit further, there are people out there that retain and learn things on their own faster than they do in school, yet when it comes time to take the "dreaded test," they fail or barely pass due to this particular fear/discomfort.
* A lot of {{MySpace}} users, under the "Interests" section of their profiles, will enthusiastically list their favorite movies, TV shows, and bands, but under "Books" will be a little quip on how much they hate reading.
** Or it'll just be ''{{Twilight}}''.
[[/folder]]
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