Possible merge with Ditzy Genius: Smarter Than You Look

I'm not really sure I see the difference from Ditzy Genius here. The bottom thing explains the difference between this trope in a way that makes it sound like it's talking about Genius Ditz instead. As far as I can tell both Ditzy Genius and Smarter Than You Look are about a seemingly airheaded character that actually happens to be really smart.

I think I might be missing something here, so can someone clarify? If I'm not missing something, then they're the same trope.

Ditzy Genius's examples dont quite know what the trope is. One is supposedly smart people just acting stupid in any department they arnt an expert in IE the first example on the page Bulma. Then there are the Smarter Than You Look examples.

Hmm, the description of Smarter Than You Look is a bit long-winded, and I'm totally sure what it's trying to get at, but I think it might well be Exactly What It Says on the Tin, in which case, it's definitely not the same as Ditzy Genius. A) You don't have to be a genius (or even all that smart), and B) you can appear to be other types of stupid. I'm pretty sure that the mention of The Ditz at the beginning of STYL is merely supposed to be an example, not a requirement.

Could do with a closer examination and maybe a little stylistic cleanup to be clearer (whatever it might actually mean). The laconic agrees with my intuition, although that obviously doesn't mean much.

^ Do you mean that Smarter Than You Look should be an instory thing and Ditzy Genius a character thing? I'd agree with that. However, the description seems to point to them being the same thing.

Actually, that doesn't appear to be what you're saying, but I think that maybe it's what it should be.

edited 12th Jul '11 2:04:39 AM by Arha

No, I'm simply saying that I don't believe STYL is supposed to be in any way limited to ditzes. I think that The Ditz is mentioned at the beginning as one example of a stupidity appearance/behavior trope. Other examples that might work include the hayseed or the yokel or the homeless bum or the garbage man.

In fact, two obvious examples that fit what I think Smarter Than You Look are: the garbageman from Dilbert, who invents time machines and whatnot in his spare time, and the main character from Good Will Hunting, who is a rough, poorly-spoken janitor at a university, and also turns out to be an astounding math genius.

Of course, Smarter Than You Look doesn't necessarily imply genius either. If you look like the town fool, being smart enough to read the daily newspaper might well qualify as Smarter Than You Look.

But that's just my take on it, and I admit that the description of STYL is too confusing for me to be sure I'm right.

In which case Ditzy Genius would be a subtrope?

This could probably use a move to Smarter Than They Look, as well(Smarter Than You Look might be good for a Character Reaction...).