History Main / FeigningIntelligence

** Brian as well. Brian is far more insufferable. He uses words he doesn't know, claims he reads books but is never seen reading one and is just a general all around {{Hypocrite h}}[[AuthorTract y]][[AuthorFilibuster p]]{{Jerkass o}}[[HollywoodAtheist c]][[KnowNothingKnowItAll r]][[CreatorsPet i]][[DesignatedHero t]][[UngratefulBastard e]].

** Brian as well. Brian is far more insufferable. He uses words he doesn't know, claims he reads books but is never seen reading one and is just a general all around [[Hypocrite h]][[AuthorTract y]][[AuthorFilibuster p]][[Jerkass o]][[HollywoodAtheist c]][[KnowNothingKnowItAll r]][[CreatorsPet i]][[DesignatedHero t]][[UngratefulBastard e]].

* [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Peter Griffin]] becomes convinced he's a genius, but needless to say fails at acting the part. (For example, he misapplies "shallow and pedantic," a phrase he heard two political pundits using, to criticize Lois's cooking.) Brian has also been known to do this on occasion.

* ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}''. Debate continues on whether Rumisiel is genuinely admitting FeigningIntelligence or displaying ObfuscatingStupidity to maintain his [[TheStoner image]] in [[http://www.misfile.com/?date=2008-05-16 this strip]].

* The player can become this in the original ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' by taking the Smooth Talker perk. Each level increases their effective level of intelligence for the purposes of dialogue choices only. So in other words, the player does not actually become smarter, they just ''sound'' smarter than they actually are when they talk.

* ''NininGaShinobuden'' has Onsokumaru, who pretends to be an expert ninja, despite obviously being one of the stupidest characters on the show.
* The main character in ''{{Mx0}}'' knows nothing about magic, but he's smart enough to fake being a genius in the field.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Thomas in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' to survive in his ''really'' messed-up family. While he plays ObfuscatingStupidity to the hilt for most of his relatives so they won't see him as a legitimate threat, his sister Lara saw through that. So he feigns intelligence ''only'' for her, making cryptic statements and hinting he has complex plans in motion, which holds her off while she tries to figure out what he's doing. Harry notes it's a good scheme, if there's enough paranoia. And in the White Court, paranoia comes '[[ParanoiaGambit bottled, on tap and in hot and cold running neuroses]]'.

* An unintentional example in the second ''{{Tremors}}'' movie, when the Graboids first mutate into Shriekers. For the first few scenes after they come into existence, they tear up several cars and the radio tower, convincing the protagonists that they had achieved human-level intelligence and had actually planned everything out to cut off their ability to travel and communicate with each other. Eventually, they find out that the Shriekers navigate by infrared, and were simply biting anything they came across that was hot, [[TooDumbToLive whether it was actually food or not.]]

** Clousseau doesn't pretend to be intelligent, he actually believes he's this massively skilled badass, though granted, when his beliefs betray him [[IMeantToDoThat he will try to play it off as on purpose.]]

* [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Peter Griffin]] becomes convinced he's a genius, but needless to say fails at acting the part. (For example, he misapplies "shallow and pedantic," a phrase he heard two political pundits using, to criticize Lois's cooking.)

* In [[FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed Equestria: A History Revealed]], the in-universe author and narrator, Loose Change seems to be a shining of example of this. It doesn't help that the fic is supposed to be her academic essay that's she's submitting to her University, and any hopes of her maintaining academic professionalism and integrity are gone by Chapter 2. She still maintains that she's "smarter than the rest of those traditionalist historians", despite clear evidence that she's not.

* Done as part of a GambitRoulette in the 2007 ''St. Trinian's''. It helps that they know some of the answers.

* Romy and Michele in RomyAndMichelesHighSchoolReunion, who attempt to pass themselves off as the inventors of Post-it notes. It doesn't work out so well.
* {{Dodgeball}} has Ben Stiller's character attempt to impress a woman... by pretending to read the dictionary.

* The main character in TheDeathOfTheVazirMukhtar is [[MaliciousSlander sometimes accused]] of writing or at least editing the correspondence of General Ivan Paskevich, his in-law and sort-of superior in the Caucasus, so as to make him seem smarter. That is apparently untrue, although Paskevich might be considered a mild example of this trope nonetheless.

* "Aaaaaah, Bach!" In an early episode of ''Series/{{Mash}}'', Radar pursues an intellectually-inclined nurse with a handful of bluffs provided to him by Hawkeye and Trapper.

* Simmons from RedVsBlue is zigzagging with this trope. While he is the [[SmartGuy Unofficial Science Officer]] of the series and good with computers, he's also been stated to be less intelligent than he thinks he is and will abuse the fact that the people around him are either too lazy, stupid or insane to call him out on making stuff up.

* [[http://www.xkcdb.com/?5414 This]] WebComic/{{xkcd}} quote demonstrating what a politician trying to get away with knowing little outside of rehearsed "hot topics" can run into.

* [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] chooses to wear a pair of nerd glasses that were dropped in the toilet by Henry Kissinger. Unbeknownst to Homer, Mr. Burns then assumes he's an egghead and decides not to fire him during a round of job cuts.

* Wheatley from ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}''. Highlights include [[PercussiveMaintenance "using a manual override on this wall"]], playing classical music to convince GLaDOS of his intelligence and claiming the "ace of fours" is the best hand of cards, among several others.

-->Otto: Don't call me stupid.
-->Wanda: Oh, right! [[InsultToRocks To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!]] I've known sheep that could outwit you. I've worn dresses with higher IQ's. But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?
-->Otto: Apes don't read philosophy.
-->Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it. Now let me correct you on a couple of things, OK? Creator/{{Aristotle}} was not [[UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} Belgian]]. The central message of UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} is not "Every man for himself." And UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground is not a [[LaResistance political movement]]. Those are all [[CriticalResearchFailure mistakes]], [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Otto!]] I looked them up!"

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Thomas in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' to survive in his ''really'' messed-up family. While he plays ObfusicatingStupidity to the hilt for most of his relatives so they won't see him as a legitimate threat, his sister Lara saw through that. So he feigns intelligence ''only'' for her, making cryptic statements and hinting he has complex plans in motion, which holds her off while she tries to figure out what he's doing. Harry notes it's a good scheme, if there's enough paranoia. And in the White Court, paranoia comes '[[ParanoiaGambit bottled, on tap and in hot and cold running neuroses]]'.

-->-- '''Garrison Keillor'''

* The oldest Steven sibling in ''EvenStevens'' is an airheaded DumbMuscle jock. In one episode he decides to act smarter to impress people, and watches a video to this end that recommends wearing glasses and using big words. Towards the end of the episode he meets a woman wearing glasses; they hit it off when they realize they both watched the video and are playing the same "pretending to be smart" game.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[TheNthDoctor the Tenth Doctor stated to his younger incarnation]] that he wore his glasses not because he needed them, but because it made him look clever. Of course, the Doctor is very smart to begin with, [[ThereIsNoSuchThingAsNotability but still.]]

** ''Social Text'' published ''Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity'' article (It claimed to be about using quantum theories of gravity to stick it to The Man) which turned out to be a parody made of statements specifically designed to be a solipsist nonsense and logically disconnected claims. [[hottip:*:They even managed to insult themselves further by rejecting an explanation text as not meeting their intellectual standards after publishing this mockery (it apparently didn't "Transgress the Boundaries" enough).]] [[http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/ Papers by Alan Sokal]] has a full story, papers and a simple recipe how to bake such a cake at will.

** [[http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/ Here]] you can get random Postmodernism texts online, and even permanent links [[hottip:*:randseed-based, obviously]] to the particular essay, if you liked it.

The opposite of ObfuscatingStupidity: A stupid character pretends (or tries to pretend) he or she is really smart or otherwise good at something. The stupid characters will either enlist a smart character to feed them lines, or bluff their way through with [[SeeminglyProfoundFool seemingly profound statements]] ("What is art? Are we Art? Is Art Art?") and TechnoBabble.

The opposite of ObfuscatingStupidity: A stupid character pretends (or tries to pretend) he or she is really smart or otherwise good at something. When done with pure romance in mind, the result is PlayingCyrano. The stupid characters will either enlist a smart character to feed them lines, or bluff their way through with [[SeeminglyProfoundFool seemingly profound statements]] ("What is art? Are we Art? Is Art Art?") and TechnoBabble.

Note: It is possible to feign greater intelligence than you actually have, if you are at least smarter than the people you are trying to convince.

* Done as part of a XanatosRoulette in the 2007 ''St. Trinian's''. It helps that they actually know some of the answers.

* It is an effective method to cover up limited computing power. Do something and correct the decision later if it turns out to be a bad move.