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Basic Trope: A dumb character usually not taken seriously actually brings up an excellent point to the astonishment of other characters.

  • Straight: Bob is usually slow to realize things that ought to be obvious and consistently makes foolish statements. However, in a moment of sharpness, even he finds what Dan is going to do so stupid he can present a really compelling reason for Dan to change his course of action.
  • Exaggerated: Bob only passed the comprehensive school by the virtue of his impatient father bribing a headmaster, has no social intelligence whatsoever, does and says the stupidest of things over and over again even after he's been told several times in a perfectly clear fashion not to repeat them and so on. However, in an extremely rare moment of lucidity, he presents at least ten compelling arguments for why what Dan is going to do would be stupid and better alternatives with solid justifications, to the point of philosophizing and stealing everyone's breath.
  • Downplayed: Although Bob wasn't certainly dumb, he was rather lazy in his international politics study, and didn't get as good a mark as his friends did. One day, one of Ben's friends, Dan, suggested a solution for a diplomatic incident, only for Ben to disagree, and with justifications and alternate solutions, which turned out to be completely valid. This was to the surprise of everyone else, as they least expected the party animal Ben to have such insight.
  • Justified:
    • Bob has secretly been becoming more intelligent. Others only haven't seen a glimpse of it until that moment.
    • Bob is under an influence of something that actually momentarily or permanently increased his intelligence.
    • Dan is in such a great emotional strain he can't think rationally. This prompts Ben, who has had some semblance of intelligence all along, to metaphorically glance at the mirror, making the moment his starting point of change.
    • Bob may be a moron, but what do you know, the current situation is the one for which he has some degree of knowledge.
    • Bob is Too Dumb to Fool.
    • Bob's observation due to being the only one not to have tunnel visioned onto solving only the, currently critical, internal factors, makes the rest realize there will still be external factors to deal with.
  • Inverted: Dan is usually incredibly intelligent, both in academic, logical and philosophical as well as emotional and social regard. However, at one moment, he says something so incredibly stupid everyone is mortified.
  • Subverted:
    • Bob is simply parroting what he heard earlier from Dan's friend Emmett, not actually understanding the content.
    • Bob asks a follow-up question that sounds like it would poke a hole in Dan's idea, only for Dan to provide an answer to it.
    • It turns out Bob isn't a dumbass at all and that's normal a smart decision to make, he was just in the middle of an Idiot Ball or pretending to be stupid beforehand.
  • Double Subverted:
  • Parodied: The team pet, Tropey the dog, gets so annoyed with the stupid suggestions his team mates make he breaks the fourth wall to complain to the author, and makes a good suggestion of his own.
  • Zig Zagged: The dumb Bob presents a sensible point, but it's simply him regurgitating what he heard earlier. However, he follows up on it with convincing arguments of his own - admitting soon he actually has had no idea at all what he's been talking about - then someone smarter states he still had a point to take note of and backs it up with stronger arguments.
  • Averted: Bob is none the wiser and never gets any flashes of insight.
  • Enforced:
    • "The viewers aren't watching the show because they find Bob overly-moronic. We need to show that he's capable of being intelligent to stop them from being alienated."
    • The writers are trying to set an An Aesop: "You should always listen to what people have to say, because wisdom can emerge from the must unexpected sources."
  • Lampshaded: "Where did that piece of wisdom come from?"
  • Invoked:
    • Susan suspects Bob isn't nearly as stupid as others seem to believe, so she stages a situation where she can see if her intuition is right.
    • Super genius Dr. Susan employs Bob to see where her projects fail due to Tunnel Visioning onto factors only the intelligent will consider.note 
  • Exploited: Evulz is the first to notice that Bob is right and asks him to repeat himself louder so his friends will be embarrassed.
  • Defied: "Please understand that while stupid people can have moments of wisdom, it's still usually rare. Don't expect him to be wise at the right moment."
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Deconstructed: Dan goes through with a plan that fails on a spectacular note that when Bob tells his idea, in a huge "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot.
  • Reconstructed: Dan actually tries his plan again with Bob's idea, hoping it will work this time.
  • Played For Laughs: Dan's reaction to Bob being right for a change is to stare at Bob to the point Bob has to yell out a Defensive "What?" and ask "Why Are You Looking at Me Like That?"
  • Played For Drama: The fact that Bob of all people is right about how much he or the situation in general sucks is what finally drives Dan over the edge.
  • Played For Horror: Bob told the group that it was a bad idea to enter the woods because they looked scary and there were a lot of scary stories about them. He told them repeatedly. They ignored him because, well, he is Bob the village idiot, when has he ever been right about anything? When the eventual slaughter ensues, they only have themselves to blame.
  • Untwisted: Bob is revealed to be much less intelligent then he seems given most of his wisdom is parroting phrases he doesn't understand. That doesn't mean he is incorrect given he is parroting the correct sources.

You might think the main page is dumb as hell - yet it raises so many great points for further reference. If you have time to spare, why not check it out?

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