History Main / ImprobablyHighIQ

* The person who formerly held the Guinness World Record for highest recorded IQ (now a retired category) is Marilyn vos Savant. The official number varies, according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, but it has been said to be 180s, 190s or even 200+, depending on the test. However, there has been some controversy surrounding this claim, due to the questionable authenticity of the "Mega Test", which was used to find her score for the book.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'': In one episode, Astro is [[GoalOrientedEvolution artificially evolved]] by one of Elroy's inventions and becomes a super-genius. He claims to have an IQ of 4237 in his evolved form.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'': WordOfGod states that Chao Lingshen's IQ is 300. Of course, the comment was qualified with "maybe even seriously", so it's probably an exaggeration.

[[folder:FanFic]]
* The creator of a Literature/HarryPotter Mary Sue gave her heroine an IQ of 490, and argued that this was ''too'' possible because she, the writer, had a friend whose IQ was 520.

* Literature/RamaII: Wakefield's score of +5.58 on an intelligence test indicates he is one in 10^5.58, that is, in a group smaller than one in 100,000 of the population. Sabatini is 1 in 10,000, and so is Brown. Though such people exist in a population which is large (assuming the validity of the measure), they are gonna be hard to come by.[[note]]Converted to IQ, those would be scores of 168 for Wakefield, and around 158 for Sabatini.[[/note]]

* In ''Mutation'', a medical thriller by Robin Cook, a scientist genetically modifies his son VJ to be a supergenius. VJ is said to have an IQ of 250, although the narration adds "as far as they could determine", implying it's only a rough estimate. And then [[BroughtDownToNormal the kid loses most of his intellect for mysterious reasons]]; his IQ then drops to a "smart but not a genius" score of 130. [[spoiler:Or so VJ wants everybody to believe.]]

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' :

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' :

* ''{{Series/Eureka}}'' gives [[TheHero Jack Carter's]] IQ as 111, averting the 'always extreme' part of the trope. It's pretty realistic, considering Carter is slightly BookDumb but fairly clever. His daughter Zoe tested a 155, putting her in competition with the rest of the town (all geniuses shipped in from across the country). This is [[JustifiedTrope somewhat justified]] in that Eureka, of all places, would use an IQ test equipped for extreme high outliers.

* ''[[VideoGame/Persona4Arena The 2000 IQ]] [[InsufferableGenius Killjoy]] [[PrivateDetective Detective]]'', [[WholesomeCrossdresser Naoto]] [[SamusIsAGirl Shirogane]]!

** There were also the crew of the holoship ''Enlightenment''. The captain had an IQ of 212. The rest of the crew were assumed to be at super-super-genius level too, so presumably they had enough people to establish a decent results curve for their admission test.

* After becoming the [[AGodAmI ultimate life form]], Cars from the second part of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has an IQ of 400.

** The novel treats this a shade more realistically -- the Charlie's IQ gets as high as 185, but another character comments that Charlie's intelligence "can't really be measured", higlighting how unreliable IQ tests are at the extreme ends of the scale.

** A few paragraphs later, it mentions [=IQs=] of 3,000 and 10,000. The clanger is the idea that the intelligence or mental abilities of multiple species could naturally be ordered along a single dimension (it's hard enough trying to do that just for humans).

* ''The Little Black Bag'' by Cyril Kornbluth never specifies an I.Q. for any character, but runs into this anyways when a genius is described as having "six times" the I.Q. of a clinically retarded character. Assuming that retarded character has an I.Q. of 50 (seemingly lower than the intelligence he demonstrates in-story), the genius would have an I.Q. of 300. (Then again, there are people in this setting who've developed PsychicPowers out of sheer intelligence, so maybe he ''is'' that smart.)

* Literature/RamaII: Wakefield's score of +5.58 on an intelligence test indicates he is one in 10^5.58, that is, in a group smaller than on in 100,000 of the population. Sabatini is 1 in 10,000, and so is Brown. Though such people exist in a population which is large (assuming the validity of the measure), they are gonna be hard to come by.[[note]]Converted to IQ, those would be scores of 168 for Wakefield, and around 158 for Sabatini.[[/note]]

** In an earlier episode, Q's IQ (no pun intended) is given as 2,005. Of course, he's [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien essentially a demigod]]...and is known on at least one planet as [[TricksterGod the God of Lies.]]

* In ''Series/QuantumLeap'', Sam Beckett's IQ was said to be around 200. [[spoiler:So is his daughter's.]] This goes in line with the other ridiculously capable intellectual abilities he seems to have - like the seven doctorates, Nobel Prize, ability to speak seven languages, read Egyptian hieroglyphics, beat computers at chess by the age of 10, perform advanced calculus by the age of 5... and, of course, inventing time travel. The show at least gave a semi-plausible explanation for any time he came across as less than the smartest person in the world (i.e., any time it was obvious the show was written by people with [=IQs=] below 200): the time travel process gave him partial amnesia (and exactly which parts he could and couldn't remember could change each time he "leaped").
* Dr. Spencer Reid of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' says his IQ is 187, as well as possessing an eidetic memory and the ability to read 20,000 words per minute. He qualifies that statement by saying that he doesn't believe that intelligence can be accurately measured. Every single time that he brings it up. In an early episode, the team goes to the CIA headquarters and is given a quick background on each agent worth investigating. One agent has an IQ of 192.

* In ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', where at 165, the titular character has the highest IQ of all...until in comes Barton, who skipped grades to be in the Krelboyne class, had an IQ over 280, and was apparently going to work for NASA immediately after the episode ended. Unfortunately, probably because of the other genius characters being at the very top end of realistic IQ scores, most of his intelligence was shown by having Malcolm haul around the IdiotBall for the day.

** Igallery of rogues includes several mad scientists, including his creator, Neo Cortex. However, their exact IQ is unknown for sure, besides perhaps [[TimeMaster N. Tropy]], they're just comic relief.

* The late great Creator/StephenHawking was often cited as one of the smartest men in the world...but when asked what his IQ was, he replied [[AvertedTrope "I have no idea.]] [[TakeThat People who boast about their I.Q. are losers."]][[note]] Hawking would not have been able to take an IQ test later in life, anyway, as his ALS prevented him from speaking or using his hands, the computer he used to speak took a fair bit of time to say anything, and IQ tests are timed.[[/note]]

* Although [[GadgeteerGenius plenty smart enough already]] as a Pillar Man -- evident through him inventing the [[ArtifactOfDoom Stone Masks]] -- [[BigBad Kars]] from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' is stated to have an IQ of 400 (by human standards) after becoming the UltimateLifeForm through the Red Stone of Aja and one of said Stone Masks. This is at least partially through the form's SuperpowerLottery granting access to the DNA of every living creature that has ever lived or ''will'' live on Earth, thus allowing Kars to draw on their accumulated knowledge.

* It probably goes without saying since he's the Egyptian god of wisdom, but in the words of Thoth from ''Anime/OhSuddenlyEgyptianGod'':
-->'''Thoth:''' My IQ is ''infinity''!

* It goes without saying since he's the Egyptian god of wisdom, but in the words of Thoth from ''Anime/OhSuddenlyEgyptianGod'':

* Although [[GadgeteerGenius plenty smart enough already]] as a Pillar Man -- evident through him inventing the [[ArtifactOfDoom Stone Masks]] -- [[BigBad Kars]] from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' is stated to have an IQ of 400 (by human standards) after becoming the UltimateLifeForm through the Red Stone of Aja and a Stone Mask.

* After becoming the [[AGodAmI ultimate life form]], Cars from the second part of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has an IQ of 400.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Yoshi of ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'', introduced at age 10, has an IQ of 208, skipped three grades and is almost ready to graduate by the time of the To Thine Own Self arc. Averted with Fred (an intelligent slime mold), who gets an IQ of 139 on an IQ test he took in order to prove his sapience, although he claims they "dropped 70 or more points somewhere."
* In ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'', at various times it's mentioned that Artie the superintelligent gerbil has his IQ of 250, or "1.57 Stephen Hawkings". He was artificially created by Helen Narbon to do her income taxes.

* [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron Jimmy Neutron]] has an IQ of 210.

* Literature/RamaII: Wakefield's score of +5.58 on an intelligence test indicates he is one in 10^5.58, that is, in a group smaller than on in 100,000 of the population. Sabatini is 1 in 10,000, and so is Brown. Though such people exist in a population which is large (assuming the validity of the measure), they are gonna be hard to come by.

** Then there's ComicBook/{{Galactus}} who must have an IQ in the thousands, seeing as how Reed Richards can only being to comprehend his technology.

* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' shows that Brainstorm, one of Ben's transformations, has an IQ of 10^30, or '''one nonillion'''. And according to WordOfGod, Gray Matter's species is ''even smarter''.

* One chapter of ''Gag Manga Biyori'' involves a girl purchasing a CD which claims to give the listener an IQ of 500 million.

* The person who formerly held the (now nonexistent) Guinness world record for highest recorded IQ is Marilyn vos Savant. The official number varies, according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, but it has been said to be 180s, 190s or even 200+, depending on the test. However, there has been some controversy surrounding this claim, due to the questionable authenticity of the "Mega Test", which was used to find her score for the book.
* Anyone in UsefulNotes/{{Mensa}} is in the top 2% of the IQ range. The Omega Society turns this {{up to eleven}}, only accepting people with [=IQs=] statistically only occurring in one out of a million people. The (possibly tongue-in-cheek) [[http://www.gigasociety.com/ Giga Society]] turns this Up To Twelve, accepting only [=IQ=]s occurring once in ''a billion''. The (certainly tongue-in-cheek) [[http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/history.html#Exa Exa Society]] turn this Up To... well, a lot, accepting only [=IQ=]s occurring once in ''a trillion''.

* The late Creator/StephenHawking was often cited as one of the smartest men in the world... But when asked what his IQ was, he replied [[AvertedTrope "I have no idea.]] [[TakeThat People who boast about their I.Q. are losers."]][[note]] Hawking would not have been able to take an IQ test later in life, anyway, as his ALS prevented him from speaking or using his hands, the computer he used to speak took a fair bit of time to say anything, and IQ tests are timed.[[/note]]

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': Kevyn Andreyasn is generally considered the smartest human in the galaxy. At one point, Kathryn says he has a four-digit IQ. Thurl raises his eyebrow at that, and Kathryn admits she's prone to hyperbole.

The computer [=IRIS=] in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction'' is said to have an IQ of 3 billion, which would be equal to 170 Terachnoid sages (which would give each of them an IQ of 17,647,058.8) [[TakeThat or 3 billion Holo Net fanboys]].

* Anyone in UsefulNotes/{{Mensa}} is in the top 2% of the IQ range. The Omega Society turns this {{up to eleven}}, only accepting people with [=IQs=] statistically only occurring in one out of a million people. The (possibly tongue-in-cheek) [[http://www.gigasociety.com/ Giga Society]] turns this Up To Twelve, accepting only [=IQ=]s occurring once in ''a billion''. The (certainly tongue-in-cheek) [[http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/history.html#Exa Exa Society]] turn this Up To... well, a lot, accepting only [=IQ=]s occurring once in ''a million billion''.

* [[GreatGazoo Mr. Mxyzptlk]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFzTnnQJF-g apparently]] has an IQ score of ''211,041''. Not being bound by third dimensional laws, this might make sense and bordering on TheOmnipotent, this could make sense.