History Main / DumbJock

** Defied in an episode where a star high school football player is given a pass on all his classes just so he can play; it's taken as a given that he couldn't pass the classes on his own merits. He doesn't realize that this is happening though, and once he finds out, he's upset and offended that nobody aside from Peggy had any faith in his learning abilities -- including ''his own mother'', who [[JerkAss played him off as developmentally disabled to trick Peggy and Hank]]. He then tries to succeed on his own with their help and proves himself to be a perfectly capable student.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': Lynn is the sports star of the Louds. In "The Butterfly Effect" Lincoln predicts that if Lisa doesn't tutor Lynn, she'll flunk miserably in all her classes.

* ''Anime/SailorMoon'': Minako Aino. Though not exactly dumb, she is [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} very loopy, airheaded]], and [[BookDumb an academic underacheiver]]. She is also a professional volleyball player at school.

* In ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'', Yotsuba is the most athletic among her sisters, with both the basketball and track teams wishing to recruit her full time, but she has also the worst grades of all.
* Minako Aino (Sailor Venus) from ''Anime/SailorMoon''. Though not exactly dumb, she is [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} very loopy and airheaded]]. She is also a professional volleyball player at school.

* While decidedly a [[LovableJock nice guy]], Mitch of ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' is not the brightest bulb in the box. Throughout the film, he remains utterly oblivious of the affections of Norman's sister. [[spoiler: Of course, this might also be because [[StraightGay he has a boyfriend]].]]

** Wayne and Raj from the 2023 soft reboot are both hockey players who, while capable strategists due to their sports experience, are hilariously BookDumb. At one point, they have to have it explained to them that not everything they see on TV is real.

A [[JerkJock jock isn't always a jerk]]. Sometimes he is instead (or as well) BookDumb (at best) or is TooDumbToLive at worst. Much like his girlfriend, a cheerleader of the BrainlessBeauty variety, he's more concerned with [[PopularIsDumb his image]] than school work. If he's not a jerk it might be because he's too dumb to realize he's supposed to be (though the Jerk Jock can also be incredibly stupid like the [[OneMillionBC caveman]] mentality of the DumbMuscle). Often times the better he is at his respective sport, the dumber the jock is like a GeniusDitz and the more valued he is by his team and the facility who will make sure that he maintains his position regardless of his apparent mental incompetence.

* ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'':

* Moose from ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' fits this trope to a T. And he ''knows'' it.
* In ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'', one of Captain Haddock's many, many technically-insults is "complete athlete!", meaning someone who practices many different sports suffers in his intellectual development.

* Wes in ''Film/TheDuff'', whose football scholarship will be lost if he doesn't pass chemistry. He doesn't seem to have a very good grasp on any intellectual activity or even the English language but is very competent in a field of [[PopularIsDumb popularity]].
* Paul in ''Film/TheHalfOfIt'' is a downplayed example. He's a popular football player and doesn't seem very bright. But his main problem is that he's inexperienced and out of his depth when it comes to talking to Aster, the girl he has a crush on. That's why he [[PlayingCyrano hires Ellie to write love letters]] to her. But even he quickly realizes that Ellie ''also'' has a crush on Aster, resulting in an awkward friendship/LoveTriangle.

* ''Series/OurMissBrooks'' has Stretch Snodgrass. Snodgrass is a basketball, baseball, and football star. He's good-natured but dimwitted to the point of being TooDumbToLive.
--> Miss Brooks: Stretch has always been a puzzle to me. I've never understood how a mind that can remember so many complicated football plays has so much such trouble spelling the word cat!

* ''Series/{{Glee}}'' has football players Finn and Puck, but is inverted with Mike, who is a straight-A student.
** Probably because he's Asian.
* There is an episode of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' where Sabrina writes an article for the school paper exposing the preferential treatment given to school athletes and gets the star pitcher for the baseball team benched until he finishes his assignments. She goes to help him and he has doodled that he hates her and wrote her names with three "n"s.
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': "Steve Holt!"
* In the Canadian tv movie ''Net Worth,'' Gordie Howe is the best player in the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL]] and not too bright. This is played both for laughs (ComicallyMissingThePoint several times) and [[PlayedForDrama for drama]] (being manipulated into betraying a players union). Apparently, the real Gordie Howe was not very happy with the film for that reason.

* Barbarian-type characters in roleplay games don't usually ''have'' to be this, but they can definitely turn out that way, particularly when the player thinks it will be funny.

* Averted with the protagonist of ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework''. He was a good student before the Barbarossa incident.

* Jeremy from ''Webcomic/OzyAndMillie''.

* Dash and Kwan from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''.

** Joseph Gribble was eventually {{flanderiz|ation}}ed into his.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'''s Kevin Thompson is easily a finalist for the dumbest living organism in Lawndale. While not a bully, he's a little narcissistic, dumb as a box of rocks, wears his uniform ''everywhere'', and is generally bad at everything that isn't football. At least he's sweet to his head Cheerleader girlfriend, Brittany, [[LovableJock genuinely friendly to his teammates, and amicable towards everyone else, even the unpopulars]].
* Meat in ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan''. He's not a JerkJock though, he's actually quite fond of the nerdy Newton.

* Lawson from ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}''.
* Kleet in ''WesternAnimation/DudeThatsMyGhost'' is a textbook example.
* In ''WesternAnimation/NerdsAndMonsters'', Stan - the only kid who is not a nerd - is the linebacker on the Beaverton Bulldogs team and stereotypical dumb jock. He has been known to put his pants on his head by mistake while getting dressed.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': Lynn is the sports star of the Louds. In "The Butterfly Effect" Lincoln predicts that if Lisa doesn't tutor Lynn, she'll flunk miserably in all her classes.
* In the Watsamatta U arc of ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'', upon learning that Bullwinkle is at college to play on the football team, his faculty advisor changes his course load so that his literature class features such classics as "Dick and Jane at the Seashore", and the most difficult course he has to take involves crotcheting. Of course, Bullwinkle was naturally that dumb even ''before'' he was recruited as an athlete.

** Overdeveloping your neck and shoulder muscles will restrict blood flow to the brain.

** Minamo, the school's gym teacher and Kagura's swim coach, is a generally intelligent woman but notably struggles in helping her students with their schoolwork. She claims that she was good at it when she was in school herself, but [[GeniusDitz Yukari]] takes every opportunity she can get to play into the stereotype that gym teachers are stupid, much to her dismay.

* In ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', Kagura is one of the most talented of the six main characters when it comes to athletics, but is one of "the three knuckleheads," whose combined exam scores barely exceed [[ChildProdigy Chiyo's]].

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[[folder:Roleplay]]
* Carlie from ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues''. Like her mother, Carlie has taken an interest in wrestling and general sportsmanship. She's also incredibly dumb, flunking so badly in school that she had to retake a year.

'''Aveline:''' All the time, touching fire? You're touching fire a lot when it's not shaped like a cute animal?\\

* In ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', Kagura is one of the most talented of the six main characters when it comes to athletics, but is one of "the three knuckleheads," whose combined exam scores barely exceed [[ChildProdigy Chiyo's]].
* In ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'', Yotsuba is the most athletic among her sisters, with both the basketball and track teams wishing to recruit her full time, but she has also the worst grades of all.

* Minako Aino (Sailor Venus) from ''Anime/SailorMoon''. Though not exactly dumb, she is very loopy and airheaded. She is also a professional at volleyball.

* UpToEleven on ''Series/BlueMountainState''. Most of the football team is barely literate and only pass classes because arrangements have been made for better students to do their classwork for them. When the nerds go on strike, the team finds themselves in serious academic trouble.

This trope is a derivation of BrainsVersusBrawn and can be rationalized in part by the idea that high school and college athletes are too busy training to do homework and talented athletes are given special treatment by the school system so that they don't need to study. There is some TruthInTelevision to that. This usually results in the athletes in question having a DegreeInUseless. Or perhaps because the physically-intimidating bully is more likely to turn to sports than [[GeekPhysiques the stereotypical nerd]]. Or it could simply be the concept of CompetitiveBalance being applied to real life. This trope is almost completely restricted to team sports and boxing or wrestling. Individual sports practitioners are likely to fall on its inversion: AcademicAthlete.

Can overlap with JerkJock, LovableJock and DumbMuscle, if he's part of the 'cool kids' crowd. Also the spear counterpart to the BrainlessBeauty and TheDitz when applied to [[PomPomGirl a cheerleader]] (who's usually his girlfriend). AlwaysMale because a girl is more likely to be somewhere between the GirlNextDoor or a LesbianJock who, while tough, is mentally competent.

This trope is a derivation of BrainsVersusBrawn and can be rationalized in part by the idea that high school and college athletes are too busy training to do homework and talented athletes are given special treatment by the school system so that they don't need to study. There is some TruthInTelevision to that. Or perhaps because the physically-intimidating bully is more likely to turn to sports than [[GeekPhysiques the stereotypical nerd]]. Or it could simply be the concept of CompetitiveBalance being applied to real life. This trope is almost completely restricted to team sports and boxing or wrestling. Individual sports practitioners are likely to fall on its inversion: AcademicAthlete.

Can overlap with JerkJock, LovableJock and DumbMuscle, if he's part of the 'cool kids' crowd. Also the spear counterpart to the BrainlessBeauty and TheDitz when applied to [[PomPomGirl a cheerleader]] (who's usually his girlfriend). AlwaysMale because a girl is more likely to be somewhere between the GirlNextDoor or a LesbianJock who, while tough, is mentally competent.

A [[JerkJock jock isn't always a jerk]]. Sometimes he is instead (or as well) BookDumb (at best) or is TooDumbToLive at worst. Much like his girlfriend, TheCheerleader of the BrainlessBeauty variety, he's more concerned with [[PopularIsDumb his image]] than school work. If he's not a jerk it might be because he's too dumb to realize he's supposed to be (though the Jerk Jock can also be incredibly stupid like the [[OneMillionBC caveman]] mentality of the DumbMuscle). Often times the better he is at his respective sport, the dumber the jock is like a GeniusDitz and the more valued he is by his team and the facility who will make sure that he maintains his position regardless of his apparent mental incompetence.

While TheCheerleader can easily be dumb, the word jock refers to a player of rather aggressive sports, primarily football.

->''Kurt Kelly. Quarterback. He is the smartest guy on the football team. Which is kind of like being the tallest dwarf.''