History Main / IdiotSavant

Under virtually all circumstances, they seem to be so stupid and [[NoSocialSkills socially awkward]] that they likely have a mental disorder. But put them in the right kind of situation, and they'll demonstrate outstanding brilliance.

* Morty Smith from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is alleged to be stupid to the point of having a disability according to his parents and struggles quite a bit with basic math and schoolwork. When it comes to his knowledge of ''anything'' Rick, however, the guy reveals himself to be a quick and even ruthless thinker and planner capable of grasping advanced concepts about infinite realities and even disarming neutrino bombs. He also has a real penchant for understanding and utilizing technology developed by Rick, and has on several occasions helped himself to weapons and tech from Rick's lab and never once struggled to use such weapons. He also manages to fool Rick on at least a few occasions. [[spoiler:Rick even implies, correctly so if Evil!Morty is any indication, that Morty is fully capable of becoming a BigBad level EvilGenius if he gets the chance]]. Rick himself is later revealed to have HollywoodAutism that contributed to his status as an ImpossibleGenius, at the cost of crippling his ability to relate to others and making him a HeroicComedicSociopath.

%% Image moved to AttentionDeficitOohShiny per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1437141697043180200
%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to suggest an image.

%% * [[Manga/SoutenKouro Xu Chu]] can predict the weather based on the moon's phases. Xu Chu doesn't know that there's only one moon.
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%% Is this actual mental disability or just ditziness?
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%% * Stella Loussier of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' is a BrokenBird with mental damage and emotional stunting so severe that she arguably counts as mentally handicapped. Put her behind the controls of a Gundam though, and slaughter ensues.
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%% "Arguably?" Examples are not arguable. I don't know the work, so I'm not sure if she's just ditzy or actually mentally ill.
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* Mashiro Shiina in ''Literature/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'' is an internationally famous painter by high school age, but she clearly has zero skills in anything else -- she doesn't know how to put on her shoes, or that she has to pay for items in a store, etc., etc., together with a long list of oddities (like NoSocialSkills or [[EmotionlessGirl having a flat affect]]) to the point that the speculation of her being autistic has become a rather universally accepted {{Fanon}}.

* Cassandra Cain, the third ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'', is a dark example. She's essentially a combat savant who's quite possibly ''the'' best martial artist in the DCU... but she became this way because [[AbusiveParents her father]] refused to teach her ''anything'' that wasn't fighting, not even ''how to talk''. It took psychic intervention in her teens for her to even begin to understand English, and she can still barely read or speak. Her predecessor Barbara Gordon notes that the language centers of her brain are wired in such a way that makes it extremely difficult for her to learn spoken language, meaning she essentially has a learning disability.

* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'': Despite being mentally handicapped, [[ComicBook/TheFlash Flash]] foe and member of the Injustice League Big Sir is a genius at card games and was able to break the bank at Justice League Casino.

* Common in the ''FanFic/TriptychContinuum'', in the form of ''falling into the mark'', a mental disorder among ponies that causes their cutie mark talent to consume their life. Nearly every pony goes through a touch of it after cutiesynthesis, becoming just a little bit too interested in their new skills. Far too many ponies exist in its early stages, simply never really developing a true interest in anything outside the range of their talent. But for those who ''fall'' furthest, the condition can approach this trope: A single field in which they are supremely competent... and total incapacity in any other.

%% * ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet's'' B.E.N.
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%% Zero-Context Example.
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* ''Film/RainMan'': Raymond suffers from extreme autism and is usually restricted to a home. However, he has savant abilities with numbers, allowing him to count with lightning speed, do complex calculations in his head, and count cards.

* The ''Film/{{Cube}}'' film series:
** The first ''Cube'' has Kazan, a severely mentally handicapped man who, to the rest of the people trapped in the Cube, is a nuisance at first, constantly banging his head against the walls, making weird honking noises, and babbling about gumdrops. But later on, it's discovered that he could find the prime factors of huge numbers in his head, and he ends up as their savior. [[spoiler: Or more accurately as his [[RayOfHopeEnding own savior]].]]
** In ''Film/CubeZero'', this is creepily hinted at with [[spoiler:Wynn]] as having become this at the end. He's lobotomized, thrown back in the Cube, and found by some other prisoners, mirroring Kazan's introduction. The last shot of the film settles on his tapping fingers as a computer interface is softly heard in the background...
* White from ''Manga/{{Tekkonkinkreet}}'' plays this trope straight. He saves Black's life, perhaps more than once, and is eerily perceptive about some of the people around him: at the same time, he can't tie his own shoes or dress himself without help.
* Zen, star of the Thai film ''Film/{{Chocolate}}'' is an autistic girl and [[ActionGirl martial]] [[WaifFu arts]] [[LittleMissBadass savant]].

* ''Film/TheProfessional'': Leon has no social skills and he doesn't even know how to read, but you won't find a man more apt at mowing down enemies with extreme prejudice. A lot of the movie centers on contrasting his ineptitude with normal life to his aptness at his hitman job.
* The film ''Film/TheWizard'' features a young autistic boy who is fantastic at video games.
* In ''Film/ABoyCalledPo'', the titular autistic boy could read at age three, follows the stock market in the paper, and can do math that's way more advanced than anything his classmates can do, but he can't tie his own shoes.
* In ''Film/TheInnocent1994'', the autistic and intellectually disabled nine-year-old Gregory can produce highly detailed sketches of everything he's ever seen. When Barlow discovers this fact, he tries to get Gregory to draw the men who committed a mass shooting he witnessed.

* Tony from ''Film/JourneyOfTheHeart'' is an autistic piano savant who can't tie his shoes, tell up from down, or understand abstract concepts, but he can effortlessly play complicated pieces after hearing them only once.

* ''Literature/AlCaponeDoesMyShirts'': Natalie is moderately to severely autistic. She's somewhat verbal, but not fluent, and few skills in most areas. She also has two classic "autistic" skills.
** Calendar calculations
--->'''Moose:''' When's your birthday, Piper?\\
'''Piper:''' November sixteenth.\\
'''Moose:''' 1922?\\
'''Piper:''' Yep.\\
'''Moose:''' Natalie, what day of the week was Piper born?\\
'''Natalie:''' Thursday.
** Math
--->'''Theresa:''' Numbers Nat, we need you!\\
'''Piper:''' Three dollars and twenty cents split [...] three ways.\\
'''Natalie:''' One dollar six cents, two cents left over.
* One book in the ''Literature/BabySittersClub'' series had Kristy sitting for a girl with autism. The girl, Susan, was mostly non-verbal and was generally not able to take care of herself, but was a brilliant piano player ''and'' could do the "identify the day of the week" calendar trick.

* ''Literature/TheElenium'': [[TheBerserker Adus]] is an [[AxeCrazy evil]] [[TheBrute example]]. A mentally handicapped, barbaric savage, Adus can barely speak, doesn't bathe, is almost illiterate, and frequently eats raw meat. He's also a combat savant, with a talent not only for physical fighting but small unit tactics. Give him an axe and a manageable number of troops, and no one is more dangerous.

* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', book seven, ''Literature/ReapersGale'': Beak has an incredible natural magical ability that would've put him on the fast track to High Mage rank, if not for a combination of an unspecified disorder, childhood traumas, and a Film/{{Forrest Gump}}ish mental state -- which combine to give him NoSocialSkills and a mental handicap in understanding the world around him unless it has to do with magic. Even that he simplifies to a great degree. While other mages see magic as a complicated net of cause and effect, Beak simply sees differently colored candles. And while other mages can use one, maybe two of the [[FunctionalMagic Paths of Magic]], Beak can use ''all of them''. The other mages usually take a whiff of his magical potential, hear him babbling on about something and just give him a hug before they walk away crying.

* In ''Literature/MySweetAudrina'' by Creator/VCAndrews, Audrina's sister Sylvia is born with a severe intellectual disability which means that she can't speak, walk properly, close her mouth or control her bodily functions. Despite this, she is presented as preternaturally wise and has powers of telepathy which allow her to communicate with Audrina, ultimately leading to her coming up with a very clever solution to [[spoiler:save the comatose Audrina from Vera, who was about to switch off Audrina's life support machine.]]

* ''Literature/TheTommyknockers'': smart enough to create DC-powered anti-gravity, dumb enough to never think of buying an AC-DC converter so they don't have to power it with batteries.

* On ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' there's a throwaway gag in one episode in which Shawn refers to himself as one after revealing he can speak French. This was during the period in the show where he got really dumb, which didn't stick as a character trait so this is never brought up again.
* Charlie Kelly in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' is not a very smart man -- he NeverLearnedToRead (although it's more like he tries and fails) and carries a general air of incompetence, but he's very adept at playing and creating music. When Mac expresses surprise that Charlie can play a keyboard, let alone with great skill, Charlie says, "Oh man, keyboards just make sense to me, man. I get 'em, ya know?" He also shows remarkable ImprovisationalIngenuity as seen in "Charlie Work," where he has to create a complex plan on the fly to dupe the incoming health inspector into giving the bar a passing grade while covering up a very messy "chicken and airline miles" scam the rest of the gang concocted while Charlie wasn't there.
* In ''ARG/TheLostExperience'', the Hanso Foundation uses autistic savants as human computers in the basement of a mental hospital.
* "Coach" Ernie Pantusso in ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' is implied to be TheDitz due to head injuries, but he's also a geography expert, even making up mnemonic songs about countries.
* One episode of ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}'' featured a very Rain-Man-like autistic savant character, right down to being able to count spilled toothpicks quickly and accurately. He was employed by a courier company to help track packages with missing or damaged bar codes, and when he was off work, they had to bring in at least ten people to do his job.

* Shaun Murphy, the main character of ''Series/{{The Good Doctor}}'' is a clear example of this trope, being a genius surgeon with autism and savant syndrome.
* Rom, a recurring Ferengi on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', goes far beyond basic idiocy. Somehow he is an extremely capable engineer and at one point, even able to spout technobabble on the level of Spock and Data. His skills seem to have been honed by the Ferengi's natural skill with mathematics and the years working as Quark's personal repairman for anything and everything.
%%* In ''Series/That70sShow'' Kelso is able to perfectly calculate how much money they'd make from a Kegger in relation to how many people showed up and paid for beer.
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%% You seem to be missing the "idiot" part. How does it apply?
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* One episode of ''Series/LawAndOrder'' had a suspect that could do quantum physics but couldn't remember a grocery list.

* Patrick, Series/{{House}}'s patient of the week played by Music/{{Dave Matthews| Band}} in season 3's ''Half-Wit'' was this due to a car accident he was in as a kid. He couldn't even button his own shirt, yet he was a brilliant pianist despite never having practiced it.
* ''Series/TheTick2001''. While he was always a ditz, the live-action television series plays up his ditzy traits so much that he seems barely capable of functioning in society. Notably, he doesn't even know his own real name or where he's from, he can't recognize other superheroes when they're out of costume (the other characters might have trouble at first, but The Tick never picks up on it even when it's explained to him), and at first doesn't even know what death is. When it comes to heroics, however, he's a genius: he's an expert fighter and shows a decent amount of philosophical thought. Notably, when he did discover that everyone (even potatoes) can die, he spent about 30 seconds thinking about it before giving Arthur a motivating speech that ''actually makes sense.''
* Melvin Potter in ''Series/Daredevil2015'' displays some very childlike behavior and is clearly mentally unbalanced, but he is also a savant when it comes to making armored combat suits. He takes an authoritative tone when he's in his element, but sounds like an insecure child the rest of the time. In Season 2, he acts more mature as a result of Fisk no longer being around to pressure him, taking medication against his mental disorder, and his parole officer/girlfriend acting as a stabilizing influence.
-->'''Leland Owlsley''': He's half an idiot.
-->'''Wilson Fisk''': It's the other half that counts.
* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': "Dead End Street" features a woman who is almost mute and regarded as an 'imbecile' (in the parlance of the era), but has total recall and a phenomenal ability in making models. When she makes a scale model of her street with a tiny figure holding a rifle at the window, Murdoch realizes she has witnessed a murder and reconstructed it in the model. However, because she cannot distinguish faces, Murdoch has no way of identifying the figure at the window and has to work out a means of communicating with her to discover what she knows.
* Reese from ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''. He is the dumbest person on the show but he is a genius in the kitchen and very naturally gifted. One example is him making an entire dinner for his family with a little help from Piama, Francis's wife, but he can't find the oven mitts. He then grabs the turnkey dish ''with his bare hands fresh out of the oven'' and tells Paima to move the oven mitts.

* ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'' shows Bucky to be one multiple times. The most famous example is when he fixed Satchel's broken watch. When Rob presses Bucky on how he knew how to fix a watch (remember, we're talking about a cat who thinks Ben & Jerry's Chunky Munky contains ''actual monkey''), Bucky responds that he just kinda...did.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': The Primordials are often referred to by fans and writers alike as idiot savants. This is directly enshrined in their powers; when acting within their defining themes, even the basic abilities of a Primordial are transcendentally incredible. In any area outside of their themes, they are utterly hopeless. The relevance of these matters is a bit bigger considering that they are [[EldritchAbomination the immense and barely comprehensible Titans who forged the world and created all mortal and godly races]]; since those tended to be group efforts, the Primordials were never really fully capable of grasping the consequences or possibilities of their creations. It did not work out well for them.
** However, [[EraSpecificPersonality this only applies to the period]] from ''Manual of Exalted Power: Infernals'' to the end of second edition. Outside of that period, they're still portrayed as vast and barely comprehensible, but they're not idiot savants.

** The Jokaero are basically space orangutans, in both appearance and intellect. Yet somehow, they are also mechanical craftsmen par excellance.

* ''Hoosegow'''s Muddy Charlie is a ditz of a criminal whose schemes always fail somehow. His entire plan for springing himself and Rick from the titular jail is to "break out". And yet when Rick reads a religious pamphlet which mentions a beast that has nineteen heads with twelve horns on each head, sixteen stalks on each horn and eighty eyes on each stalk...
-->'''Muddy Charlie:''' I don't get it. Why would anything need two hundred ninety-one thousand, eight hundred and forty eyes?\\
'''Rick:''' What? Are you kidding me? How could you figure that out?\\

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has a DLC side mission where Shepard takes on a rogue Virtual Intelligence that has melded to the mind of the project lead's autistic brother David. Through a series of holograms projected from David's mind, Shepard learns that not only was he a math genius, but he could actually imitate the geth language so accurately that the deactivated geth would respond to it. He's also shown calculating square roots in his head when stressed. Shepard remembers one of those square roots and uses it as a TrustPassword in the third game when he meets David again, who is under attack by Cerberus:
--> '''David''': The square root of 906.01 equals—\\
'''Shepard''': 30.1.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** ''VideoGame/Fallout2'': The NPC Algernon is an idiot savant with a talent for fiddling with weapons and upgrading them. The poor guy lives in the WretchedHive New Reno and lacks the character and social acumen to hold his own there, only capable of expressing himself verbally through onomatopoeia, so an unscrupulous gun shop owner hides him in his basement and makes him work for food. If the player meets him, Algernon will help them with their weapons for free.
** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'': One of the Luck perks is named this. It gives the player a random chance of getting hugely multiplied experience points from any action, said chance being higher the lower their intelligence is. Every time you get the boost Nate/Nora makes a goofy sound or laughs while a RimShot and a boink sound play along.
* ''VideoGame/{{Hoosegow}}'': Muddy is an inept criminal whose plans inevitably fail. However, when the player character reads a religious pamphlet describing a beast with twelve horns, sixteen stalks on each horn, and eighty eyes on each stalk, Muddy immediately asks why it would need 291,840 eyes.
-->'''Player character:''' What? Are you kidding me? How could you figure that out?\\
'''Muddy:''' Don't rightly know. Just something I do. Same way as I know there's 69,105 railroad ties between here and Muskogee. Ma said I was some kind of idiot savage.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': The [[DivineParentage Demiprinces]], a form of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent lesser Daedra]] born from the union of a [[HalfHumanHybrid Daedra and a mortal]]. Their dual nature gives them an ''odd'' [[CloudCuckoolander perception of the world and time itself]]. In addition to their eccentricities, Demiprinces have an extremely difficult time maintaining knowledge that lies outside their spheres of influence. However, they are the ''[[BunnyEarsLawyer undisputed masters]]'' of whatever lies within their spheres.
* ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'': Max Hass, a gigantic ManChild who can only [[PokemonSpeak say his own name]] due to having a third of his skull missing, proves to be this. With Wyatt, [[spoiler: he points out a paragraph in an ancient manuscript written by the Da'at Yichud to help him find the information he was seeking]]. While this might have been blind luck, he later beats [[TheSmartGuy Set]] at [[SmartPeoplePlayChess a game of chess]], sending Set into a RapidFireNo before [[RageQuit he flips the board and storms off]]... Max just quietly takes out a paper and starts coloring on the now-vacant table. And said coloring is eventually revealed [[spoiler: to be part of a larger mural on Max's wall depicting Klaus, his foster father who had died in the first game]].
* The Hodunk bandit clan from the ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series are a bunch of space hillbillies, with all the lack of intelligence that implies, but are unparalleled vehicle mechanics, and build and race cars on their own racetrack. It's implied that they don't even understand how vehicles actually work or know what any of the parts are supposed to do and operate purely on instinct. Scooter, Ellie, and [[spoiler:Moxxi]] are former members of this clan.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* Goku from ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' puts virtually all his brainpower towards fighting. Hence why he's good at fighting and fighting-related analysis (accurately and deeply explaining why Trunk's newer and bulkier form is bad by giving him power but makes him too slow to make good on the meager upgrade), and near-brain dead stupid at everything else. He is implied to have suffered brain damage as a child.
* From ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'':

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Ethan in ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', emphasis on [[TooDumbToLive idiot]] (he thinks the best way to deal with paperwork is to KillItWithFire). He claims he's intelligent for only a few seconds a day and created two [[SnarkyNonhumanSidekick intelligent robots]] without fully understanding how, since the only plans he could find were scribbled in sauce on a restaurant menu. [[spoiler:When one of them needs to be fixed, he gives a very technical explanation of why he can't do it. The next strip shows him wearing all his winter clothes instead of, y'know, putting them on a chair or something because he needed the storage space.]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Jeffy from ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' had a difficult time fitting a star block into a square hole, yet was able to paint the Mona Lisa on an Easter egg, and make almost uncannily accurate chicken noises. He even said his ABC's backwards. And in "Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Part 6", he somehow caught [[Series/SesameStreet Cookie Monster]] in a Pokéball and taught him Thunderbolt.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The male Simpsons can be classified as this at their worst. While being born smart, a gene causes that to deteriorate. However, both Homer and Bart have displayed excellent skills in multiple languages (Homer once speaking ''penguin''). To say nothing of musical talent. Bart showed great skill with the drums, and Homer has repeatedly shown himself to be capable at anything - literally anything - connected to music. Two hit bands, several successful songs both with those bands and independently - he even shows incredible skill as a music manager, for both Lurleen Lumpkin and Lisa.

* It's never directly addressed, but in ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'', Metalhead, Destro's lackey, is one of the dumbest characters around, but can apparently do complex artillery calculations for his rockets in his head. He also has one of the best accuracy rates of any Joe or Cobra, mostly because he only fires at vehicles.
* Subverted when Charmcaster calls Gwen Tennyson this exact name in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'', referring to Gwen's incredible but self-taught magical powers. "I've trained in magic my whole life, and you just pick up my spell book and you're instantly out-magicking me. You're not a ''real'' sorceress, you're an idiot savant." Gwen is a more realistic version of a TeenGenius and likely knows what an idiot savant is. Charmcaster was insulting her out of envy for her natural talent (due to being part anodite, a being of pure mana, the substance of magic).

* Fry in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' is this, having a handful of genuine talents peppering his otherwise frightfully idiotic "brain". This may be a result of his strange mind due to [[spoiler: [[MyOwnGrandpa being his own grandfather]] (which also provided [[DisabilityImmunity protection against the Brainspawn]])]]:

---> '''Leela:''' OK, my turn to tell a ghost story. Once, there was this woman driving--
---> '''Fry:''' Hook on the hand!
---> '''Kif:''' OK, I've got one. This family--
---> '''Fry:''' Man in the attic!
---> '''Leela:''' Fine, Mr. Know-It-All-About-Something-Finally, you tell a story!
** It turns out he's is a naturally-talented composer, at least for the Holophoner, though he lacks the dexterity to actually play it properly. In ''The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings'', he switches his hands with the Robot Devil's and becomes an overnight musical sensation.
* Morty Smith from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is alleged to be stupid to the point of having a disability according to his parents and struggles quite a bit with basic math and schoolwork. When it comes to his knowledge of ''anything'' Rick, however, the guy reveals himself to be a quick and even ruthless thinker and planner capable of grasping advanced concepts about infinite realities and even disarming neutrino bombs. He also has a real penchant for understanding and utilizing technology developed by Rick, and has on several occasions helped himself to weapons and tech from Rick's lab and never once struggled to use such weapons. He also manages to fool Rick on at least a few occasions. [[spoiler:Rick even implies, correctly so if Evil!Morty is any indication, that Morty is fully capable of becoming a BigBad level EvilGenius if he gets the chance]].
** Rick himself is later revealed to have HollywoodAutism that contributed to his status as an ImpossibleGenius, at the cost of crippling his ability to relate to others and making him a HeroicComedicSociopath.

* In ''Literature/The Underland Chronicles'', Gregor’s sister falls into this category. She is very mathematically inclined but is regularly overcome by panic attacks that make it hard for her to function.

* In the Underland Chronicles, Gregor’s sister falls into this category. She is very mathematically inclined but is regularly overcome by panic attacks that make it hard for her to function.

* ''In the Underland Chronicles, Gregor’s sister falls into this category. She is very mathematically inclined but is regularly overcome by panic attacks that make it hard for her to function.

* The Jokaero of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' are basically space Orangutans, in both appearance and intellect. Yet somehow, they are also mechanical craftsmen par excellance.

* The RPG ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' allowed the player to take 'Idiot Savant' as a character trait. It gave a bonus to intelligence and gambling skills, but speech was limited to HulkSpeak.
* Sandal from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is a savant when it comes to enchanting weapons. However, if you talk to him all he'll say is "Enchantment!" and "Enchantment?", probably owing to the amount of [[ToxicPhlebotinum lyrium]] he's been exposed to. (Although the sequel reveals he is able to speak, he's just shy and inarticulate.) In the final dungeon at the end of the game, you also encounter him alone, covered in blood, and surrounded by heaps of slain monster corpses. So he would appear to be a bit of a savant when it comes to combat as well. That incident repeats itself ''twice'' in the second game.
--> '''Warden:''' "You're surrounded by darkspawn corpses! What happened here?"
--> '''Sandal:''' "Enchantment!"

** The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' NPC Algernon is an idiot savant with a talent for fiddling with weapons and upgrading them. The poor guy lives in the WretchedHive New Reno and lacks the character and social acumen to hold his own there, only capable of expressing himself verbally through onomatopoeia, so an unscrupulous gun shop owner hides him in his basement and makes him work for food. If the player meets him, Algernon will help them with their weapons for free.
** One of the Luck perks in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' is ''named'' this. It gives the player a random chance of getting hugely multiplied experience points from any action, said chance being higher the lower their intelligence is. Every time you get the boost Nate/Nora makes a goofy sound or laughs while a RimShot and a boink sound play along.
* Muddy from ''Hoosegow'' is an inept criminal whose plans inevitably fail. However, when the player character reads a religious pamphlet describing a beast with twelve horns, sixteen stalks on each horn, and eighty eyes on each stalk, Muddy immediately asks why it would need 291,840 eyes.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'', characters who survive a traumatic brain injury have a 12% chance of developing the "Trauma Savant" trait, which gives a 50% boost to the Manipulation stat used for technical work and melee combat at the cost of removing any and all ability to socialize.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series has the [[DivineParentage Demiprinces]], a form of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent lesser Daedra]] born from the union of a [[HalfHumanHybrid Daedra and a mortal]]. Their dual nature gives them an ''odd'' [[CloudCuckoolander perception of the world and time itself]]. In addition to their eccentricities, Demiprinces have an extremely difficult time maintaining knowledge that lies outside their spheres of influence. However, they are the ''[[BunnyEarsLawyer undisputed masters]]'' of whatever lies within their spheres.
* Max Hass, a [[GentleGiant gigantic]] ManChild who can only [[PokemonSpeak say his own name]] due to having a third of his skull missing, proves to be this in ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus''. With Wyatt, [[spoiler: he points out a paragraph in an ancient manuscript written by the Da'at Yichud to help him find the information he was seeking]]. While this might have been blind luck, he later beats [[TheSmartGuy Set]] at [[SmartPeoplePlayChess a game of chess]], sending Set into a RapidFireNo before [[RageQuit he flips the board and storms off]]... Max just quietly takes out a paper and starts coloring on the now-vacant table. And said coloring is eventually revealed [[spoiler: to be part of a larger mural on Max's wall depicting Klaus, his foster father who had died in the first game]].

* Fry in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' is this, having a handful of genuine talents peppering his otherwise frightfully idiotic "brain". This may be a result of his strange mind due to [[spoiler: being his own grandfather]]:

* Ton Ton in the novel ''Literature/HouseOfTheScorpion'' has trouble speaking and is regarded as a dumb ox by his peers, but can work almost any machine.
* Beak in ''Literature/ReapersGale'', book seven of ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', has an incredible natural magical ability that would've put him on the fast track to High Mage rank, if not for a combination of an unspecified disorder, childhood traumas, and a Film/{{Forrest Gump}}ish mental state -- which combine to give him NoSocialSkills and a mental handicap in understanding the world around him unless it has to do with magic. Even that he simplifies to a great degree. While other mages see magic as a complicated net of cause and effect, Beak simply sees differently colored candles. And while other mages can use one, maybe two of the [[FunctionalMagic Paths of Magic]], Beak can use ''all of them''. The other mages usually take a whiff of his magical potential, hear him babbling on about something and just give him a hug before they walk away crying.
* One book in the ''Literature/BabySittersClub'' series had Kristy sitting for a girl with autism. The girl, Susan, was mostly non-verbal and was generally not able to take care of herself, but was a brilliant piano player AND could do the "identify the day of the week" calendar trick.
* [[TheBerserker Adus]] of ''Literature/TheElenium'' is an [[AxeCrazy evil]] [[TheBrute example]]. A mentally handicapped, barbaric savage, Adus can barely speak, doesn't bathe, is almost illiterate, and frequently eats raw meat. He's also a combat savant, with a talent not only for physical fighting but small unit tactics. Give him an axe and a manageable number of troops, and no one is more dangerous.
* [[TheBigGuy Steapa Snotor]] of ''Literature/TheSaxonStories'' is so stupid that he's nicknamed "[[IronicNickname The Clever]]", and is reckoned by the hero to be completely lacking in imagination. He is uneducated, illiterate, and can spend hours wrapping his head around the simplest of situations. The exception to this is on the battlefield, where he is both a terrifying warrior and an extremely capable commander. Alfred the Great, a man who admires only learning and otherwise only trusts literate and intelligent men, promotes Steapa to command of his personal guard, which frequently means effective command of his entire army.

* Irene from ''Literature/MaloryTowers'' is forgetful and scatterbrained to a hilarious degree (often forgetting the classes she should be in and the like), but the narrative never fails to mention that she's also a genius in both music and maths.
* Flat Escardos from ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'' is a complete and utter moron who thinks that Qin Shi Huang and Godzilla wanted the Holy Grail. He enters the Holy Grail War as a tourist and is bent on befriending every Servant participating. At the same time, he's frighteningly talented at magecraft, [[PlayfulHacker playfully rewriting]] meticulously laid wards simply by touching them for four seconds. He also summoned his Servant, Jack the Ripper, completely by accident simply by fiddling with the residual magical energy in the air.
* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' was a self-inflicted version of this trope. He apparently managed to acquire and retain his encyclopedic knowledge of anything and everything to do with crime and detection in part by taking care never to learn anything that did not relate to crime-solving. In the first book, Watson is gobsmacked to find that Sherlock doesn't know that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
* In ''Literature/TheStand'', Donald Elbert, better known as Trashcan Man, is dubiously literate or numerate and has quite serious psychiatric problems, but can easily figure out the most complex machinery.
* In ''Literature/DolphinBoy'', six-year-old Dibs can't talk, but he can draw beautiful sketches of sea creatures and almost perfectly mimic a huge variety of sounds. Most people treat him like a baby, but his sister Amy realizes how intelligent he is before anyone else does.
* ''Literature/MeWhoDoveIntoTheHeartOfTheWorld'' has Karen Nieto, who is autistic. Tests have found that her intellectual abilities in most areas range from kindergarten to second-grade level, but she has savant skills in memory, spatial awareness, and concentration. She also has a unique understanding of the wants and needs of tuna, which allows her to become [[spoiler:the first person to successfully breed bluefin tuna in captivity]].