Basic Trope: A duo consisting of an intelligent Jerkass and a Kindhearted Simpleton.
- Straight: Steve is an Insufferable Genius who is paired with the good-hearted, but slow-minded Pete. Steve regularly insults and abuses him while Pete is so benevolent that he treats him kindly and fondly in spite of his treatment.
- Exaggerated:
- Steve is the smartest person in the world and loves to point out how stupid everyone can be around him, especially his "friend" Pete who easily forgives Steve for everything he's done to him such as beating him to a pulp for every time he does something stupid.
- Steve is an Evil Genius who plots to take over the world and is terribly abusive to his doofus underling Pete who remains blindly loyal to him despite his abuse and insults.
- Brains Evil, Brawn Good
- Downplayed: Steve is smart and is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold while Pete is nice and while nowhere near oafish, he just lacks common sense.
- Justified:
- Steve is such an Insufferable Genius that only someone as stupid and nice as Pete can tolerate him submissively.
- Steve is Enraged by Idiocy, which Pete displays in abundance.
- Inverted: Smart Sweetheart and Mean Moron: Steve is a smart, friendly, and well-mannered young man who's paired with the slow-witted but meanspirited Pete. Pete regularly insults (albeit rather childishly and lamely) and abuses him while Steve is so amicable that he treats him rather kindly and fondly despite knowing how much of a dumb jerk Pete is.
- Subverted: It turns out that Steve isn't as smart as he thinks he is and Pete isn't as stupid as he seems.
- Double Subverted: ...Well, it turned out that Steve was Obfuscating Stupidity the whole time and Pete played along with his plan to get back at Emperor Evulz for his demanding presence and his mean-spirited behavior.
- Parodied: Steve and Pete are henchmen to Emperor Evulz that are ordered to rival Alice from a day to day basis. Steve is the Evil Genius and The Dragon to Emperor Evulz, Pete is a Stupid Good Minion with an F in Evil who is also friendly towards Alice while Steve aggressively forces Pete to attack her or Steve would even persuade him like its a good deed while being sly about it and regularly abusing him to do his deeds, and Pete just likes playing games with others (including Alice), much to the point that Pete would always screw up most of Steve's villainous plans unwittingly.
- Or, Steve and Pete are superheroes that have a Vitriolic Best Buds relationship, where Steve is snarky yet an resourcefully & highly intelligent hero. Meanwhile, Pete is goofy, air-headed, clumsy, and The Lancer who is yet friendly and affable who also contains a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass feature.
- Zig Zagged: Steve is a smart and usually friendly guy who insults his Kindhearted Simpleton friend Pete only when Pete says something stupid. When it comes to other people, Steve is even nicer than Pete.
- Averted: Steve and Pete are either both smart guys or idiots.
- Enforced: We needed a duo of an indifferent and unsympathetic genius character and a less intelligent yet kindhearted character to have them as side characters.
- Lampshaded: "You can tell Steve is the smart one because he always loses his temper whenever Pete says something silly and you can tell Pete is the dumb one because he considers Steve his best friend despite Steve's treatment of him."
- Invoked: Steve notices how dumb Pete is and befriends him to make himself feel smarter.
- Exploited: Jim "The Mastermind" observes how intelligent Steve is and how completely mean-spirited he treats Pete to an dramatic degree, and he tries to use Steve's weaknesses cleverly and tactfully in order to make sure that Steve realizes how cruel he treats him since Jim is actually kindhearted, informed & skilled when wanting to help Pete being treated more fairly by Steve by growing a Hidden Heart of Gold.
- Defied: Steve either learns to be nice to Pete or that Pete learns to become smarter.
- Discussed: "Geez, we knew Steve's antipathetic and snarky, but I didn't know he was this cruel and harsh to Pete. This makes me wonder how Pete is feeling with tolerating all of that abuse from Steve.
- Conversed:"Ah the well-remembered duo consisting of a violent if intelligent meanie and a well-mannered & large-hearted numbskull being one of those tropes I was interested in learning about different variations of them."
- Deconstructed:
- Steve abuses Pete for his lack of intelligence one times too many that this causes Pete to lash out at Steve and abandons him, leaving Steve feeling lonely.
- This starts an
Unfortunate stereotype about smart people. If being smart is mean and being Dumb Is Good according to the way Steve and Pete behave, then people will shun geniuses for being too smart.
- Reconstructed: Steve eventually realizes how awful he treated Pete and despite how he gets irritated by his stupidity, he begins to appreciate how nice he was to him despite his harsh treatment of him; he also realizes that Pete was the only person who was nice to him while others dislike him for his arrogance. Meanwhile, Pete realizes that while Steve was mean, the others were worse. The two meet again and reconcile. Steve tries his best to be a little patient with Pete while Pete agreeing to smarten up a bit.
- Played For Laughs: Steve and Pete are a comedy duo, Pete being the one who Steve loves slapping around a lot and also likes to call him names.
- Implied: Steve seems to be nice to Pete in public, but there are occasional hints that he may treat him less well when they're alone.
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