Intelligence Tropes

"The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find ;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas ;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade."

— Andrew Marvell, "The Garden"

Exactly What It Says on the Tin; this is an index of tropes pertaining to intelligence and intellectuals.

Contrast with Anti-Intellectualism and Stupidity Tropes. See also Gambit Index, Indexed and Nerdy, and Logic Tropes. If you are looking for tropes related to "intelligence" in a military context, see Espionage Tropes. Tropes that deal with broad-based knowledge may fall under Tropes of Wisdom instead, although there is considerable overlap since expansive knowledge is often used as a way to demonstrate intelligence.

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Tropes:

• Absent-Minded Professor: An intelligent person who tends to be oblivious of their surroundings.
• Academic Alpha Bitch: The head of the cheerleader team is skilled in academia.
• Academic Athlete: The jock is skilled in academia.
• Acting Your Intellectual Age: Intelligent children behave a lot like adults.
• Adaptational Intelligence: A character who wasn't smart in the previous source material is given greater intelligence in the adaptation.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: An Alternate Universe version of an intelligent character uses their intelligence to improve the world.
• Alternative Turing Test: A puzzle that a synthetic but sentient or near-sentient being must navigate in order to be deemed "conscious" or self-aware.
• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Animals with human intelligence.
• Artificial Intelligence: A sapient, self-aware computer system capable of independent thought and reason.
• Artificial Brilliance: Video games programmed in a way that shows that the game is noticeably aware of player choices and actions and/or can adapt to rarely occuring gameplay scenarios in a way that a human would.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Using observation and calculation to succeed.
• Badass Bookworm: Geeks can kick ass.
• Blue Means Smart One: In a group, the character wearing blue is usually The Smart Guy.
• Book Dumb: Incompetent when it comes to academics, but skilled in street smarts.
• Bookshelf of Authority: Posing a character in front of a bookshelf to show that they're smart.
• Book Smart: A character is shown as being very academically competent.
• Brain Chain: Intelligence that ranges from the dimmest to the smartest.
• Brain Critical Mass: When 90% of Your Brain is justified through My Brain Is Big.
• Brains and Bondage: Portraying philosophers or intellectuals as being into bondage.
• Brains Versus Brawn: Intellect and strength are portrayed as opposites and contrasted against one another.
• Brainy Baby: A very intelligent infant.
• Brainy Brunette: A brunette character shows signs of intelligence.
• Brainy Pig: A very smart pig.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: A character who's smarter than they let on, but is too caught up in more trivial topic areas to apply their knowledge.
• Calculus Is Arcane Knowledge
• Celibate Eccentric Genius: Eccentric geniuses who have other pursuits other than sexual interests and/or romantic love.
• Cerebro Electro: Electricity is associated with knowledge in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.
• The Chessmaster: Skilled manipulators at making misdirection in events.
• Child Prodigy: Children between 3 and 13 that are geniuses.
• Clever Crows: Crows or Ravens have wisdom or intelligence.
• Crossword Puzzle: A puzzle where one has to utilize their pop culture knowledge.
• Cunning Like a Fox: Foxes are tricksters.
• Cunning People Play Poker: People who are Street Smart play poker.
• Cute Bookworm: Bookworms are adorable!
• Deadpan Snarker: Responding to nonsense with sarcasm.
• Ditzy Genius: An intellect who nonetheless has areas in which they are inarticulate.
• Dumbass No More: A dumb character becomes smarter over time.
• Elite School Means Elite Brain
• Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Sophisticated people who know all kinds of knowledge.
• The Engineer
• Erudite Orangutan: Orangatuans are the geniuses and wisemen of the great ape world.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Moment of getting a clue that gives a character the inspiration they need to solve a problem or mystery.
• Evil Genius: A villainous prodigy.
• Feigning Intelligence: A character pretends to be smart.
• Gadgeteer Genius: A prodigy who has created many scientific gadgets.
• Game of Nerds: Intelligence and sports.
• Geek Physiques: Geeks and nerds are either fat or skinny.
• Genius Book Club: A common portrayal of showing that a character is exceptionally smart is having them read classical literature or something technical and science-related.
• Genius Breeding Act: Breeding smart people with each other to create smart babies.
• Genius Bruiser: A physical fighter with plenty of brains.
• Genius Burnout: A high intellect but finds themselves going nowhere.
• Genius Cripple: A handicapped genius.
• Genius Ditz: A dumbass has one expertise in which no one can beat them.
• Geniuses Have Multiple PhDs: Fictional geniuses get more than one PhD to quickly tell the audience they're a very smart expert.
• Genius Serum: Applied Phlebotinum that makes a character more intelligent.
• Genius Slob: A genius who is unhygienic and lazy.
• Genius Sweet Tooth: A genius has an especial craving for sweets.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: Highly intelligent, educated, and friendly.
• Gibbering Genius: Geniuses that think and talk fast.
• Good with Numbers: Mathematic proficiency.
• Guile Hero: The Hero relies on their quick wits to save the day.
• Hopeless with Tech
• Hot Librarian: An attractive librarian, an occupation associated with books.
• Hot Teacher: The educator is sexy and attractive.
• Idiot Savant: An idiot has savvy knowledge in one particular topic area.
• Immortal Genius: An immortal character seems to know everything worth knowing.
• Impossible Genius: A genius's intelligence that transcends the normal and is able to succeed at the impossible.
• Improbably High I.Q.: An IQ level that is so high that it's (probably) not possible for this person to actually act like the way they are in real life.
• Ingesting Knowledge
• Instant Cultured: Insanely sophisticated geniuses.
• Insufferable Genius: A character who smugly looks down upon those with a lower IQ.
• Intellectual Animal: An animal has human-level intelligence, but still behaves and lives like an animal.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: Intelligent people are loners with no friends.
• Intelligent Gerbil: Sapient aliens that resemble non-sapient Earth animals.
• Intelligent Primate: Smart non-human primates.
• Inventor of the Mundane: Masters of inventing mundane material.
• It Can Think: Objects or animals are implied to have smarts and prudence.
• Jeopardy! Intelligence Test
• Little Professor Dialog: A little kid with sophisticated vocabulary.
• Loon with a Heart of Gold: An eccentric and unhinged genius who is otherwise a decent person.
• Manipulative Bastard: A character who is a genius at manipulating people.
• Motherly Scientist: A scientist who views their creations as being their children.
• Mouthful of Pi: Geniuses showing quick intelligence through the digits of Pi.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: Kicking ass when it is necessary and not out of impulse.
• Mr. Fixit: A handyman/mechanic.
• My Brain Is Big: A character has a huge head to indicate their intelligence.
• Nerves of Steel: Levelheaded characters are able to think and reason while under pressure.
• Nobody's That Dumb: A dumb character turns out to be aware of their lack of intelligence and states that even they have limits to how stupid they can be and are.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: An intelligent character manages to fake an idiotic ego and/or persona to fool others.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: A scientist who is knowledgeable in every field of science that the plot requires.
• The Omniscient: The literal know-it-all, and not like the arrogant ones or clueless ones.
• Only Smart People May Pass
• One-Man Industrial Revolution: Inventions and tech made by only one genius.
• The Owl-Knowing One: Owls are stereotyped as wise and intelligent.
• Pair the Smart Ones: A couple consisting of two geniuses.
• Persecuted Intellectuals: Smart people are discriminated against.
• The Philosopher: Super-intelligent character who discusses an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other.
• Prescience by Analysis
• The Professor
• The Proud Elite: An elitist that has a Hidden Heart of Gold.
• Renaissance Man: Talented characters.
• Ranked by I.Q.: The use of intelligence quotients that are qualifications or 'proof' of having a superiority complex.
• Rich Genius: A person who becomes rich from their knowledge.
• Robot Master: Characters use robots for their orders, demands, and advantages.
• Robots Think Faster: A.I.s can think very quickly.
• Rubik's Cube: International Genius Symbol
• Sapient All Along: Living species are sapient.
• Sapient Eat Sapient: One animal wants to eat another, even though they are of equivalent, sapient intelligence.
• Sapient Pet: A pet intelligent enough to be considered as much a person as their owner is.
• Sapient Ship: A ship that can think intelligently, and even interact with the other characters.
• Sapient Steed: Modes of transportation who are as intelligent (or more so) as their riders.
• Science Foils: A pair of contrasting characters who function as the team's The Smart Guy together.
• Science Hero: Scientists are The Protagonists and/or The Heroes
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Using advanced vocabulary to establish your high intellect.
• Sherlock Scan: A character notices a few simple clues and then quickly reaches an impressive logical conclusion.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Short-statured people are portrayed as smarter than those bigger than them.
• The Short Guy with Glasses: A short-statured male who wears glasses.
• Self-Made Superpowers: Scientifically gifted characters give themselves natural powers with intention.
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: The levels of A.I.: not sentient, animal-like sentience, sentient but without emotion, sentient but without emotion and a genius, and godlike.
• Smart Animal, Average Human: In a duo consisting of an animal and a human, the animal is the smarter one.
• Smart Ball: An idiot is given a notable level of intelligence in an episode or more.
• The Smart Guy: The intellect of the Five-Man Band.
• Smart Jerk and Nice Moron: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. An intelligent yet cold-hearted and cruel character is paired with a kinder if stupider character.
• Smart People Build Robots: Geniuses create robots.
• Smart People Know Latin: Geniuses can speak good Latin.
• Smart People Play Chess: Geniuses play chess.
• Smart People Speak the Queen's English: Intellectuals that speak overly posh (even if they aren't from or have never been to the United Kingdom).
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Glasses are worn by a character to highlight their intelligence.
• Sneaky Spider: Spiders are often intellectual schemers and/or witty tricksters.
• The Social Expert: Characters that are graceful at social skills.
• Southern-Fried Genius: An intelligent person with a Southern accent.
• The Spock: Characters who make logical and practical decisions that might be considered ruthless or cold.
• Steampunk Gadgeteers: Characters that are skilled at the structure of either Steampunks and/or Gaslamp Fantasies.
• The Strategist
• Street Smart: Someone who isn't fooled by the many dupes they encounter on the street.
• Sudden Intelligence: A character is abruptly given an IQ boost.
• Super-Intelligence
• Super-Speed Reading: Similar trait of intellect as superpowers, but with reading.
• Surrounded by Smart People: An idiot, a crazy guy or an everyman in a group or place filled with people smarter and/or more skilled than them.
• Techno Wizard: Characters that are very competent and skilled with computers.
• Teen Genius: Teenagers who are knowledgeable, tech-savvy brainiacs.
• They Just Dont Get It: People that understand things more than others that simply don't.
• Thinking Wheels: An intelligent character is shown to have wheels or gears turning inside his head.
• This Ain't Rocket Surgery
• Tools of Sapience: Creatures using accessories such as tools are intelligent enough to be considered "people".
• Turing Test: A test to determine whether a computer or robot demonstrates human-like intelligence and self-awareness.
• TV Genius: Stereotypical geniuses.
• Uplifted Animal: A creature is given the ability to think and communicate with people.
• Varying Competency Alibi: A character is proven innocent when they're shown to be too competent or incompetent to do what they're accused of.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: You thought that all Viewers Are Morons? That isn't the case here.
• Warrior Therapist: A warrior who can understand and affect their opponent's psychology.
• We Want Our Idiot Back!: A formerly idiotic character becomes smart, and their peers want to change them back for one reason or another.
• We Will All Be History Buffs in the Future: People in the future are well-educated about History.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Not only are these children and teens have the gift of being Teen Geniuses, but also children who are a lot more mature (emotionally, intellectually, and/or philosophically) than their typical or more ignorant counterparts.
• World's Smartest Man

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