History Main / DumbIsGood

* [[Literature/TheBible The Book of Ecclesiastes]] muses over this and concludes that smart may be good but it sure is sad and it is temporary as we all die anyway.
* In [[Literature/TheBible The Book of Genesis]], the Original Sin was disobeying the very specific order to not eat fruit from the tree that gave knowledge of good and evil.
** Subverted in certain sects of UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}}, specifically the UsefulNotes/{{Gnostic|ism}}s, who believed not only that this knowledge allowed humans to appreciate God on more than a primal level, but that Eve did the ultimate noble act in sharing that powerful knowledge with Adam.
** Averted in Matthew 10:16 -- "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

* ''LuckyStar'': Subverted with the smart but sweet-as-pie Miyuki; played straight with her mother.

** Enel is more, capricious, omniscient and insanely powerful than intelligent. His so called Fairy Vearth he was supposed to conquer turns out to be [[spoiler: not the Earth that was right below him all along, but the Moon, so he flies into space with his ship, and is lucky enough that space apparently isn't void in One Piece.]]
** Actually, Enel ''is'' clever, and has shown himself to be such despite his insanity. For example, hearing about the Shandians and the Blue Sea travelers (the Straw Hats) does require you to be a {{Chessmaster}}. There's also the facct only ''he'' in all of Skypiea understands gold, and is willing to keep it to himself, and [[spoiler: he was able to read ancient hieroglyphs in a surely extinct language and understand the history of Fairy Vearth]].

This trope can also be applied to intelligence itself, with the BookDumb hero's {{street smart}}s and practical experience being shown as superior to academics whose knowledge is dusty, dry and doesn't work in the real world, another tenet of AntiIntellectualism. Indeed, it is always risky to assume that an uneducated character (or an uneducated person in RealLife, for that matter) will always be dumb. A character may become smart purely through private study, life experience, or just plain AwesomenessByAnalysis. Simply hanging around intelligent or cultured people can help, too.

** There's more than a little proof that Fighter was originally both intelligent and kind, but eventually just got tired of all the idiots in the world and pretty much turned off his brain.

* Inverted in ''Film/PainAndGain'', where the [[VillainProtagonist protagonists]] are greedy murderers...and also ''incredibly'' stupid, getting only as far as they did purely on sheer luck.
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* ''KamenRiderRyuki'' has a quite anti-intellectual vibe to it. The title hero, Kido Shinji, is an impulsive and idealistic fool and wants to protect everybody (even the evil Kamen Riders who are trying to kill him). The other heroes are a barroom brawler (Akiyama Ren), a tea shop waitress (Kanzaki Yui) and a fortune teller (Tezuka Miyuki). In contrast, many of the villains are educated types. The BigBad is WellIntentionedExtremist Kanzaki Shirou. His colleague teacher Kagawa Hideyuki is a sleazy StrawVulcan. Kitaoka Shuuichi is an AmoralAttorney. And college students Shibaura Jun and Toujou Satoru are both AxCrazy nitwits.

* Studies have found that people of high intelligence are actually ''more'' likely to fall for investment scams [[TooDumbToFool than the average person]]. The reason for this is arrogance; intelligent people often assume that they're "too smart" to fall for a scam and thus do not seek the advice of an expert. This is not a be-all, end-all however as other studies have either shown the exact opposite or have shown no real statistical variance.

* Inverted in the first of LarryNiven's ''Literature/TheMagicGoesAway'' stories. The hero is a wise, intelligent sorcerer who happens to call himself "Warlock"; the villain is a barbarian with a magic sword.

May be caused by the ThisLoserIsYou effect, since ViewersAreMorons; also closely related to BookDumb. Not to be confused with GoodIsDumb. This can extend to intellectual pursuits, leading to StrawVulcan, ScienceIsBad, or even ScienceIsWrong. Can also lead to an IdiotHero, and/or BrainsEvilBrawnGood. Often found with a MinionWithAnFInEvil.

* [[Literature/TheBible The Book of Ecclesiastes]] muses over this and concludes that smart may be good but it sure is sad and it is temporary as we all die anyway. Of course making philosophical speculations like that requires at least some smarts. So whatever.

** Similar example: a major tenet of the Chinese Communist movement was, for a while "kill all the intellectuals" almost in so many words. Then they realized that they'd killed the majority of their scientists and engineers and they needed roads and bridges, which is why most of Chinese infrastructure is now designed by contract labor from other nations.

** Usagi is not so much as stupid as she is lazy and ditzy. However, her dub counterpart Serena '''is''' stupider then the original, complete with ValleyGirl speech.

** ''8-Bit'' pretty much nails this trope. There are only a few characters which can be considered intelligent: Sarda, who is as much as a {{Jerkass}} as one can be. White Mage, who started out with a kind, patient and gentle personality which eroded massively over time thanks to the idiots she has to suffer. Princess Sara is very definitely evil and is also more competent then every other official villain in the series. And Thief as well as Drizz'l are borderline cases: they carry the IdiotBall more then once and are just smart enough to act as the OnlySaneMan for their teams. Also, both are evil.

** Though this same episode averts the trope as Gunter was not being "so stupid I tried to wear a hat on my butt." It could be considered more a case of StatusQuoIsGod as Gunter hate being stupid and hated being smart.

* Invoked on ''FamilyMatters'' when Eddie and Laura set Laura's friend, Maxine, up with Waldo Geraldo Faldo. She was initially put off by his stupidity, but in the end, she found him at the same time to be a charming and sweet guy. The continued to date until Waldo was eventually PutOnABus.

* Invoked on ''FamilyMatters'' when Eddie and Laura set Laura's friend, Maxine, up with Waldo Geraldo Faldo. She was initially put off by his stupidity, but in the end, she found him, at the same time to be a charming and sweet guy. The continued to date until Waldo was eventually PutOnABus.

* A fairly mild example in ''{{Barbershop}}'', where all the characters who work in the titular shop are generally "good." But the one college educated barber who defines himself by his brain is also the one who's closest to a JerkAss. He's treated as something of a ButtMonkey by the other barbers, and when the somewhat thuggish character Ricky takes him down a peg the whole shop considers it a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* In ''Tommy Boy'' Chris Farley plays a lovable dunce while his counterpart, David Spade's character, is referred to as "a smug unhappy little man [who treats] people like they're idiots."

* A fairly mild example in ''Barbershop'', where all the characters who work in the titular shop are generally "good." But the one college educated barber who defines himself by his brain is also the one who's closest to a JerkAss. He's treated as something of a ButtMonkey by the other barbers, and when the somewhat thuggish character Ricky takes him down a peg the whole shop considers it a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* ''Heavily'' averted in ''{{Primeval}}''. All the main characters are typically extremely intelligent, if not in terms of their education then in common sense at least.

** Ned Flanders is this trope heavily. Ned isn't smart like Lisa, but he always sticks to his Christian values in doing the right thing and being a good neighbor to everyone, which gets him labeled as an extremely boring guy and Homer is constantly annoyed by him. Even when Homer or someone else tries to show Ned how to have a good time, Ned doesn't know how to relax or let loose because he fears doing something un-Christian may get him condemned to Hell or the like.

* The title character of ''{{Naruto}}''.
** Obito is the Dumbest Uchica that has existed, but it is also one of the kindest. [[spoiler:Subverted]]

* ''{{Series/AllInTheFamily}}'' loved to play around with it: At first, the [[BookDumb somewhat ignorant]] Archie is [[GrumpyBear decidedly cynic]] and rude, while his intellectual son-in-law Mike is very idealistic and nice. But as the show progressed, we see that Archie [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold is not as abrasive as he seems]], as well the "Meathead" proves that he's [[ItsAllAboutMe rather selfish]] [[{{Hypocrite}} and condescending]] towards the same minorities he supposedly supports.

** This has happened in many, many dictatorships over history. I suppose that because intelligent people are less likely to believe government's propaganda.

** Entertainingly, this has actually been verified by science: statistically, people with minimal knowledge of a subject are much more confident in their opinions regarding that subject than people that actually have any real level of understanding. This is named the Dunning-Kruger effect after the scientists that verified it, though whether they 'discovered' it is an open question since many cynical people have made the observation in a less-scientific contexts throughout history.