History Main / BookDumb

Still, 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. [[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. Of course, being anti-intellectuals, their arguments lack a certain... something. Luckily some school systems are trying to do things to solve this problem, as it often makes learning easier for everybody anyway, and several systems have been in use since just after the TurnOfTheMillennium, although wide-spread adoption has yet to occur anywhere. Also, most book-dumb people in real-life often resort to [[LoopholeAbuse looking up the answers to their schoolwork online]] -- typically through the likes of Website/{{Wikipedia}} -- to put on an intelligent façade in pursuit of popularity (or at least not flunk out and get in trouble).

More or less the polar opposite of the stereotypical nerd, 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. Both, however, can be {{Geek}}s.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': [[Characters/AmphibiaAnneBoonchuy Anne Boonchuy]] is a lazy, unmotivated student who is actively adversarial with her teachers, but is shown to be quite intelligent and resourceful when she applies herself. [[spoiler: As an adult, this is no longer the case as she has earned a doctorate in herpetology.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Both [[Characters/GravityFallsMabelPines Mabel Pines]] and "Grunkle" Stan Pines [[spoiler:in contrast to their more bookish and academically talented brothers]]. Although he's not college-educated, Stan's shrewd business acumen and strength as a con man are second to none, [[spoiler:and he managed to fix the broken portal just by reading up extensively on physics despite his lack of experience in the field]]. Mabel is highly creative and socially gifted, to say nothing of her mean hand with a grappling hook.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Both [[Characters/GravityFallsMabelPines Mabel Pines]] and [[Characters/GravityFallsGrunkleStan "Grunkle" Stan Pines]] [[spoiler:in contrast to their more bookish and academically talented brothers]]. Although he's not college-educated, Stan's shrewd business acumen and strength as a con man are second to none, [[spoiler:and he managed to fix the broken portal just by reading up extensively on physics despite his lack of experience in the field]]. Mabel is highly creative and socially gifted, to say nothing of her mean hand with a grappling hook.

* The titular hero of ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' jokes that he only graduated of kindergarten due to seniority, and does tend to leave most of the research to his AI VoiceWithAnInternetConnection. He is, however, far from stupid, quick on his feet, and good at putting information into good use once he's been brought up to speed.

* ''Series/ModernFamily'': Haley Dunphy gets middling grades at best, often misuses words larger than two syllables, and altogether considers thinking to be a "nerd" thing to avoid at all costs. However, she's shown to have a very cunning mind when she puts in the effort, from the time she convinced the family she had a waitress job (and then tricked them into thinking her mom's outburst got her fired when Alex tried to expose her), continually sees through her parents' manipulations, and even started up a successful fashion blog -- though she also accidentally turned herself into a camwhore since she didn't know how to turn the webcam off, and was changing clothes in front of it.

-->-- '''Calvin''', ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' [[note]]For the record, [[CommonKnowledge this is a myth]]; Einstein got excellent grades (particularly in math and physics). He just didn't get along well with his teachers.[[/note]]

* Calvin of ''ComicStrip/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. It's also implied that Calvin, while intelligent, is simply [[BrilliantButLazy not motivated to apply himself]]. In one strip, for example, his father sits him down and ''asks'' him why he doesn't do better in school, noting that he's obviously smart because he managed to devour every dinosaur book he ever got his hands on. Calvin simply replies that they never study dinosaurs in school. He has shown considerable aptitude in school-grade subjects like math and reading comprehension in situations where the subjects, such as dinosaurs or time travel, were interesting to him. Calvin is a classic case of a gifted child in an education system that isn't engaging him properly.\\

* In ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed'', the LemonyNarrator seems to do well enough to be in university, as well as write in the structure of an essay, but her inability to understand simple logic, something which fuels her [[ConspiracyTheorist conspiracy theories]], as well as her ignorance of basic math fulfills this trope.

* Korra, as she's depicted in ''WebVideo/ProjectVoicebend'', is terribly uninformed about a lot of subjects a girl her age should know about. She's barely literate, she doesn't know how to do basic math, she has no idea what sex is or why [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence she feels all tingly whenever she gets into a fight]], among many other things. This is because the White Lotus taught her nothing besides how to bend the elements and beat people up. It's actually a very sensitive issue for her.

* In ''Film/TheArtOfSelfDefense'', Sensei is a smooth talker and incredible schemer, but requires a calculator to perform simple math.

* In ''Film/BlueIsTheWarmestColor'' Thomas can be easily seen as intellectually inferior to Adèle since he's not much of a reader but is actually good in Math. He is also reasonably talented in music and decided to learn on his own because he didn't like his music classes. He learned to play various musical instruments by listening and watching videos.

* ''Film/LadyBird'': Lady Bird is artistic, clever, and very bright, but she doesn't care much for schoolwork and as such gets pretty mediocre grades and is shown a few times to struggle with math. However, it's mentioned that she got surprisingly good SAT scores and she manages to get a scholarship to college.

** [[ClingyJealousGirl Minami]] is a [[JustifiedTrope justified example]] of this trope as [[HeritageDisconnect she was born in Japan but raised mostly in Germany]] leading to a LanguageBarrier. This leads to her [[NeverLearnedToRead being unable to read kanji]] causing her to appear to be this trope when in fact she is very intelligent. [[CripplingOverspecialization One class she does excel at is math due to the fact that it is one of the only class to not involve kanji]] as well as being GoodWithNumbers.

* Flox from ''Literature/FairyOak'' is hopeless at math. So much she is willing to break the Magical Law in order to scape a pop quiz.

* Scarlett O'Hara from ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'' is mentioned to have barely scraped by at the Fayetteville Female Academy, and never willingly opened a book since her graduation. However, this is purposefully cultivated because intellectual women found it harder to catch husbands in the antebellum South. She is highly skilled in wrapping men around her little finger and is also shown to have an instinctual knack for business and uncanny math skills. Frank Kennedy was appalled to find out that she even knew what a mortgage was. Melanie, on the other hand, is not afraid to discuss literature and philosophy with her fiancé.

** This is a major recurring motif among the street-level characters in the show. Many of the teenage characters are shown to struggle in school, while most of the adult dealers and hustlers have very little formal education--yet the show frequently shows that they're ''far'' from stupid, as it takes a great deal of cunning and intelligence (including math skills) to survive on the streets of Baltimore. Highlighted in one memorable scene where a boy named Cyril struggles with his math homework, despite having no problem keeping an accurate drug count while dealing on the corner.

** Nougat, the recurring tutoring student, is suddenly much better at math if she's using it for something hands-on or pertaining to everyday life.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': [[Characters/AdventureTimeFinn Finn]] doesn't have a school to do bad in, but he's terrible at math and doesn't understand [[EmperorScientist Princess Bubblegum]]'s science experiments. He's also quite impulsive and sometimes gullible. That being said, there are numerous episodes where he gets by through cleverness or subterfuge rather than just running at monsters with a sword. (Not that he doesn't do that too.)

* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'': Kevin Levin is a {{justified|Trope}} example in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' and ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien''; he's 17 years old, has spent most of his life on the streets, and hasn't gone to school since the age of 11. He's an utter genius at practical things like energy weaponry and mechanics (from cars to starships), as well as math due to managing his own finances and history from keeping track of who hates who and why, but is understandably lacking in most academic areas.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': Jane has more common sense than most people and she's a very skilled artist, but it's noted in a few episodes that her grades are middling at best, especially in math. Her academic performance in other subjects is never specifically mentioned.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Grojband}}'': Kon, as shown in the episode "Math of Kon" as he failed six years worth of math.

* ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'': Protagonist Virgil Hawkins was a below average student. He was formerly a good student, but being a super hero has interfered with his study time. Similarly, his best friend Richie (before gaining superpowers of his own) was shown to be a very poor student who excelled in engineering, making high-tech devices for Static to use constantly, but never passing a math test.

** Math teachers routinely expect students to show how they reached their answer, and reduce scores if they don't, regardless of how correct the answer is. Gifted students who can work out the answer in their heads see no need for the step-by-step procedure, so they suffer for it. On the other hand, this method of grading really is meant to help out students who aren't too good at math, as showing your work often gets you enough points to pass so as long as you've answered a handful of questions correctly.

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsXMan Nate Grey]] is an ArtificialHuman designed as a LivingWeapon by the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' version of Mr. Sinister, and prematurely aged to his late teens to that end. This, his escape, and his life with his FoundFamily of guerrilla fighters disguised as Shakespearean actors, before becoming effectively homeless in the main Marvel Universe means that for a long time he was UnskilledButStrong, utterly devoid of life experience outside of survival, and only really good at fighting. However, his impulsive nature, hot-temper, and usually justified paranoia meant that most people thought he was either dim or a brash hot-head. As it was, he learned ''fast'', developed some very unconventional uses of his powers, and displayed a level of tactical brilliance on par with [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops his father]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsNathanSummers older brother]] when he ran rings around [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Norman Osborn]], the ComicBook/DarkAvengers, and the Dark X-Men, in ''Dark X-Men'', nearly destroying everything he'd achieved in a matter of hours with a BatmanGambit he'd come up with on the fly (and in the end, Norman did exactly what Nate was planning shortly after, during ''ComicBook/{{Siege}}'': had mental breakdown and went full Green Goblin in public, destroying his power and reputation).

* Gail Simone's final arc of ''ComicBook/RedSonja'' shows that Sonja is only borderline literate. Her difficulty practicing her handwriting is depicted like a learning disability.

''Literature/{{Slacker}}'': Football hero String is smart enough to understand a playbook perfectly, but he's failing all his classes and thinks ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' author Creator/HarperLee is one of the stars of ''Series/DuckDynasty''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Ron is the typical C-student male protagonist. Yet Ron regularly assists Kim in saving the world, and while evil was the best villain in the series, inventing several doomsday devices. Also built one when kidnapped by Drakken using stuff lying around, and gave Senior Senior Senior the ideas to build traps.

* In ''VideoGame/PotionPermit'', Rue struggles with her lessons from her tutor Xiao, so he asks you for help in mentoring her.