History Main / SimplemindedWisdom

* Nijimura Okuyasu from ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure:'' ''Diamond is Unbreakable'' is often like this. For example, he convinces himself that Yoshihiro Kira, the ghost Stand user, doesn't actually need to breathe because if he did, in his words, "all the dead people would suck up the air and we'd all suffocate". Well, he's technically correct, right?

->'''Pinkie Pie''': The Elements of Harmony: A reference guide.
->'''Twilight Sparkle''': How did you find that?
->'''Pinkie Pie''': It was under EEEEE!

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* Not a perfect example, but [[DumbMuscle the Rhino]] in ''SpiderMan'' does this occasionally, much to the surprise of other villains.
* In ''ComicStrip/TwistedToyfareTheatre'', Mego Spider-Man seems to totally lack his signature super-powers, but also happens to be the only person in Megoville apart from maybe Dr. Doom who has a single lick of common sense.
* Obelix in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}''. He's a bit socially awkward and only seems to have a vague idea what's going on most of the time, but because of this is able to see contradictions and strangeness in cultural behaviour everyone else sees as being normal. His CatchPhrase - "these Romans are crazy" - represents this about half of the time (the other half of the time, he is just mistaken about what the Romans are thinking).

[[folder:Film]]

-->'''Anna''': I don't even know what love is...\\
'''Olaf''': That's okay, I do. Love is... putting someone else's needs before yours, like, you know, [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy how Kristoff brought you back here to Hans and left you forever]].\\
'''Anna''': [[LoveRevelationEpiphany Kristoff... loves me?]]\\
'''Olaf''': Wow, you really ''don't'' know anything about love, do you?

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''

* Samwise Gamgee of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' has plain good hobbit-sense, even more than the other three hobbits because he's a simple gardner and not in the gentry. When forced to carry the Ring himself for a time, It naturally tempts him and chooses to do so with visions of Mordor as a beautiful garden. Sam considers it and then shakes his head because he could never manage a garden that vast on his own.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]
* Sheriff Carter, from ''{{Series/Eureka}}''. It's the whole point of having him as the sheriff in a town of full geniuses with too much brains and not enough sense.
* Jack O'Neill of ''Series/StargateSG1'' often falls into this.
* Merlin from Series/{{Merlin}} is a subversion. Everyone thinks this of him, but he's actually TheSmartGuy.

-->'''Sera''': What, just lop off the top? What does that do, [[FullCircleRevolution except make a new top to frig it all up?]]\\
'''Solas''': I... forgive me. You are right.

* Patrick Star from ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''. Before {{Flanderization}} kicked in, anyway.

* While usually the CloudCuckoolander, Pinkie Pie sometimes has shades of this in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' (see above quote). This is actually a recurring element of her character, where her friends (and others around her) write off a lot of what she does as simply being goofy and silly, only to be surprised when they see the stroke of genius in her madness (such as when she lead the Parasprites out of town by using the Pied Piper routine on them that the rest of the cast didn't think to or wrote off as being too outlandish).

* [[VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead Cyril The Zombie]] proved himself to be one in Disney/WreckItRalph.
-->'''Cyril:''' ''Ralph, Zangief saying, labels not make you happy. Good! Bad! Errgh! You must love you.''

* Nug of the Urpney squad in ''TheDreamstone''. He's rather vacuous, but he usually can point out the simplest (and often correct) solution to problems, which Blob [[GladIThoughtOfIt usually steals credit for]]. He also has a [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant slightly more unnerving savviness for potential morbid fates they can suffer]].

* While usually the CloudCuckoolander, Pinkie Pie sometimes has shades of this in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' (see above quote). This is actually a recurring element of her character, where her friends (and others around her) write off a lot of what she dies as simply being goofy and silly, only to be surprised when they see the stroke of genius in her madness (such as when she lead the Parasprites out of town by using the Pied Piper routine on them that the rest of the cast didn't think to or wrote off as being too outlandish).

This would seem to derive from Cervantes' ''Literature/DonQuixote'', where the archetypically "simple" Sancho Panza occasionally produces statements of great wisdom (although in that case the main character, Don Quixote, often fails to notice or credit that wisdom). TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons players will lecture, in great detail, that [[TropesOfWisdom Wisdom]] and [[IntelligenceTropes Intelligence]] are not the same thing.

This would seem to derive from Cervantes' ''Literature/DonQuixote'', where the archetypically "simple" Sancho Panza occasionally produces statements of great wisdom (although in that case the main character, Don Quixote, often fails to notice or credit that wisdom).

* While usually the CloudCuckoolander, Pinkie Pie sometimes has shades of this in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' (see above quote). This is actually a recurring element of her character, where her friends (and others around her) write off a lot of what she dies as simply being goofy and silly, only to be surprised when they see the stroke of genius in her madness (such as when she lead the Parasprites out of town by using a PiedPiperPloy on them that the rest of the cast didn't think to).

* While usually the CloudCuckoolander, Pinkie Pie sometimes has shades of this in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' (see above quote).

[[folder:Real Life]]
People with low latent inhibition are jot simple minded, but they have the gift of noticing the obvious when everybody else misses it.

* In ''TwistedToyfareTheatre'', Mego Spider-Man seems to totally lack his signature super-powers, but also happens to be the only person in Megoville apart from maybe Dr. Doom who has a single lick of common sense.

* Pinky, from ''PinkyAndTheBrain'', on those rare times when he ''is'' [[AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering pondering what Brain is pondering]].

* In the first ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you get questions to see what kind of Jedi you'll be:

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'''s protagonist, Bartz, is described in the manual as a "simple wanderer." He has some BookDumb traits, but he also has a very uncomplicated and un-angsty outlook on saving the world. For instance, when Lenna's wind drake will die if not treated with a plant that only grows in a place so dangerous no one has ever returned from it, it sends the party into a brief despair, until Bartz breaks it with these words:

* Patrick Star from ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''.

* Darwin of ''TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''. Though still very dippy, he sometimes shows more awareness and concern of the dumb antics they get caught into. On rarer occasions Gumball himself can apply.

See also: AchievementsInIgnorance, TooDumbToFool, WhoopiEpiphanySpeech, InfallibleBabble, HanlonsRazor. Contrast DitzyGenius, which is in many ways the diametric opposite of this trope, and SeeminglyProfoundFool, in which other characters detect this falsely.

* Obelix in ''{{Asterix}}''. He's a bit socially awkward and only seems to have a vague idea what's going on most of the time, but because of this is able to see contradictions and strangeness in cultural behaviour everyone else sees as being normal. His CatchPhrase - "these Romans are crazy" - represents this about half of the time (the other half of the time, he is just mistaken about what the Romans are thinking).

* Sheriff Carter, from ''{{Eureka}}''. It's the whole point of having him as the sheriff in a town of full geniuses with too much brains and not enough sense.

* In ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'', this is very nearly Bob's most prominent personality trait.

* In ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', the child-like [[{{Snowlems}} living snowman]] Olaf is surprisingly insightful about the nature of love, and gives Anna some advice on the subject.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Not a perfect example, but [[DumbMuscle the Rhino]] in ''{{Spiderman}}'' does this occasionally, much to the surprise of other villains.

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* Merlin from {{Series/Merlin}} is a subversion. Everyone thinks this of him, but he's actually TheSmartGuy.

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Pinky, from ''PinkyAndTheBrain'', on those rare times when he ''is'' [[AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering pondering what Brain is pondering.]]