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Sandbox / Ditzy Genius And Genus Ditz Wick Check

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Ditzy Genius is supposed to be about a character of high intelligence who struggles in more mundane areas such as social skills or common sense. In contrast, Genius Ditz is about a character who is usually foolish, but is brilliant in at least one area. The two tropes are suspected to be used interchangeably and perhaps not distinctive enough. The wick check is supposed to show how the tropes are used.

Ditzy Genius wicks to check: 60/60

    open/close all folders 
     Correct usage (35/60) 
  • Mature Younger Sibling: Lisa is the most intelligent of the Loud siblings despite being the second-youngest and frequently uses Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, as opposed to her other siblings' more casual diction. She's also very calm, which makes her older siblings seem more immature, as they're all rather emotional (besides the similarly stoic Lucy). Played with to an extent, though, as there are several things she doesn't know how to do without help from an adult, given her young age. Potholde, but I'm familiar with the character and she struggles more with mundane things, which the entry makes clear, so I'm counting it as correct usage
  • Characters.Better Call Saul Los Pollos Hermanos: He's a really skillful and knowledgeable structural engineer who's all too aware of the difficulties of the job ahead yet stupid enough to think that the most punishment he would get for absconding would be a slap on the wrist.
  • Characters.Brooklyn Nine Nine Main Characters: Very Book Smart and without doubt a brilliant detective. But also a complete teacher's pet (despite being an adult) and often lacks social awareness.
  • Characters.Doctor Who Thirteenth Doctor: She's a brilliant Gadgeteer Genius who is fond of demonstrating her intelligence through teaching her companions fun scientific facts about things like spiders and anti-matter generators, and she has virtually zero social skills and a huge helping of Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!.
  • Characters.Doubt Academy Omega Roster: Incredibly book smart, but lacks all social skills and street smarts. If it can't be applied academically, it's safe to say he won't be privy to it.
  • Characters.Fire Emblem Awakening The Lords: Without a doubt a tactical genius, but they have some strange moments in support conversations.
    Female Avatar: Oh, it's all right. I know exactly when and where everyone sleeps. I made sure I wouldn't be spotted.
    Lon'qu: I honestly cannot tell sometimes if you are a genius or a complete dimwit.
  • Characters.Halo The Banished: Despite being a brilliant inventor with an instinctive understanding of Forerunner systems, he lacks the common sense needed to be a good military commander. Even after the Flood are released, he seems convinced Atriox will be pleased with him for vanquishing them.
  • Characters.IMGCM: Undeniably gifted and intelligent, but amusingly and/or endearingly lacking in courtesy and common sense.
  • Characters.The Adventures Of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius:
    • (under Jimmy's folder)He's undeniably smart, but has a lack of common sense and can be arrogant.
    • (under Judy's folder) Not ditz per se (she's certainly the intelligent one in her marriage with Hugh and more rational than he is) but she has her moments of ditziness. There are also numerous moments where she demonstrates it's definitely from her side of the gene pool that Jimmy gained his intellect.
  • Characters.Kaeloo: Aside from a few potholes and mentions of the trope:
    • (under Quack's folder) When it comes to academics, he's absolutely brilliant, but he couldn't even tell that a picture of himself with Stumpy's head taped onto it wasn't a picture of Stumpy.
    • (under Olaf's folder) He's good at building robots and machines, but he has zero common sense.
  • Characters.Kitsune No Ken Fist Of The Fox Uzumaki Naruto And Relatives: While he's significantly smarter than his canon counterpart thanks to artificially-implanted intelligence during his Kyuushingai training, Naruto still has moments of daffiness, one of the earliest examples being his surprise that anyone would suspect him and Ino of being in a relationship (which earns him a flattening punch from the irritated Ino for voicing it so loudly). Maybe
  • Characters.Lalaloopsy Original Eight: Likes inventing and astronomy, but spaces out easily.
  • Characters.Looney Tunes Major Characters: A genius capable of building roadrunner traps, but, if you think about it, wouldn't it be much easier if he just ordered food instead of ordering a bunch of supplies from ACME? Natter aside, he seems to count.
  • Characters.Ninja Ninja Tactics: Minato is this a little bit when it comes to teaching his team. He got used to Kakashi just picked stuff up so easily that when he got Obito and Rin he neglected teaching them as thoroughly as he should have. He's been called out on this though and has been working to fix his mistake. The description is a bit muddled, but he seems to count.
  • Characters.Phineas And Ferb Heinz Doofenshmirtz: After studying all of his various "-inators", OWCA's researchers still can't decide whether he's a genius or an idiot. See PhineasAndFerb.Tropes D To I for more context.
  • Characters.Please Tell Me Galko Chan: Ojou is labeled as a ditz, and the things Galko and Otako discuss tend to go over her head. However, she is at the top of the class and aces other extra-curricular and outside-school activities. She's even shown singing Indian songs fluently. Not entirely sure, though.
  • Characters.Pokemon Adventures Dex Holders
    • (under Black's folder) He is incredibly diligent and smart when it comes to Pokémon battling and his goal but he tends to lose focus and forget important things if they are about another subject.
    • (under Shieldmilia's folder) She's a bonafide Gadgeteer Genius and a talented Pokémon trainer, but her hyperactivity and tendency to bull rush everything gets her into a lot of trouble. She also has trouble reading the room at times and it takes her some time to realize that she can ask for help in looking for her missing Pokémon.
  • Characters.Pokemon And Digimon RP: He's highly skilled in electronics and programming, but he has a big mouth, and prone to say the wrong things around the wrong people...
  • Characters.Signs: They have engineering skills far more advanced than ours, enabling them to build highly advanced spaceships capable of turning invisible and traveling far greater distances than our best rocket ships, but they are stupid enough to attack a planet that is roughly 70% Kryptonite for them by running around on foot with no weapons or protective clothing.
  • Characters.Sponge Bob Square Pants Sheldon Plankton: He may be a scientist and have all sorts of gadgets, but is incompetent overall. For example, he believes that baby powder is made from actual babies in "Goo Goo Gas", and in "Komputer Overload", he has to be reminded to blink.
  • Characters.Suits: He appears to be awkward and completely inept but was apparently a brilliant student at Harvard, much to Mike's surprise. Maybe
  • Characters.Superboy Enemies: She's incredibly smart but she sometimes has trouble sorting out social clues and can make others feel uncomfortable with some of her lines of questioning and bubbly loud personality.
  • Characters.Super Mario Bros Z: As mentioned in the trope above, although he is undoubtedly a genius, he is woefully lacking in common sense. The trope above is Absent-Minded Professor, which is a type of Ditzy Genius.
    • When the Emerald Radar is stolen by the Koopa Bros, he reveals that he created a Radar-Radar to track the Emerald Radar. Sonic questions whether it would have been simpler to build another Emerald Radar, to which the Professor immediately agrees, to everyone's chagrin.
  • Characters.Voltron Legendary Defender Allies: Played with. Most of the time, she's a human calculator, but occasionally when Griffin asks for a status report or something similar, she takes him at his literal word, going so far at one point to give him a weather report when all he wanted was a rundown of the battlefield.
  • Characters.Yamada Kun And The Seven Witches The Main Couple: Despite how clever she is, she seems oblivious to certain everyday things, possibly because of her Parental Neglect and Friendless Background. Examples include not knowing anything about fireworks, not realizing that you can get carsick from reading, and thinking going to the supermarket equals a date. And like any major character in the series, she has had her thoughtless moments, e.g. looking at her own panties while being in Yamada's body.
  • JustForFun.Wisdom: To put it in other terms, The Philosopher will always have remarkably high wisdom, independent of what his other stats might be, a Book Dumb character usually has decent wisdom, but average to below average intelligence, while a Ditzy Genius will have high intelligence, but remarkably low wisdom. Correct.
  • Literature.Malory Towers: Irene. She's a math and music prodigy but scatterbrained and helpless when it comes to daily activities.
  • Manga.Yuyushiki: Yui sees Yuzuko as such; while the latter performs reasonably well academically, Yui remarks that:
    "She really is pretty smart. It's her ideas that are dumb."
  • PhineasAndFerb.Tropes D To I: Doofenshmirtz. When it comes to mad science he's usually quite brilliant, as some of his -inators are clever enough to stand right up there with the boys' creations, and at least SOME of his Evil Plans have been great ideas. Then he fails to understand expressions like "carbon footprint" and "green thumb", or fails to see a flaw in his plan that would be obvious to a middle-school student.
  • Recap.Criminal Minds S 8 E 12 Zugzwang: Diane is brilliant. She can make Garcia's job hard. But she also has some weird fixations that make her seem stupid, though it is left up to the viewers whether she just underestimates everyone else's intelligence. Seems to understand the definition of the trope, although it looks like a partial-context example because I don't understand what makes Diane brilliant.
  • Sandbox.Age Of Calamity Characters: Genius Eccentric Two characters have this title. Looking at their folders, they seem to fit the smart part. If tropes are flexible, being Mad Scientists might qualify them for the ditzy part.
  • Sandbox.The Office Dwight Schrute: While he is an intelligent salesman, he's still a naive, impulsive and socially oblivious Manchild that's gullible to many of Jim (and Pam)'s classic pranks.
  • Series.Two Of A Kind: (under Book Dumb) Mary Kate. She is not good at studies and needs a tutor, but she has more common sense than her book-smart but shallow sister Ashley.
  • TheSmartGuy.Western Animation: Mr. Cat from Kaeloo is the only actual smart character on the show, the other "smart" characters being Ditzy Geniuses. He's a pretty good inventor and a Mad Scientist, and he constantly comes up with schemes to trick other people. He averts the "weak" part though as he's actually a very good athlete. The characters subpage makes it clear at least some of the characters in question qualify for this trope.
  • WesternAnimation.Wolverine And The X Men 2009: Forge is the tech-wizard who keeps the X-Men's more advanced gear running, including the Blackbird and the Danger Room, but he's also a total ditz. Doesn't explain how he is a ditz, but at least it seems to understand the trope.

     Actually Genius Ditz (3/60) 
  • Characters.B Daman Crossfire: Kaito appears to be a Idiot Hero but he’s actually a lot smart than he lets on. His showy attitude boosts his confidence and he’s able to use a barrage of rapid fire shots while confusing his opponents, and he also invented his own grip, allowing him to control his rapid fire shots even more accuracy and precision. He even schooled Basara of all people during the latter’s first Break Bomber match. Sounds more like Genius Ditz to me, if even that.
  • Characters.Duck Tales: He shows a surprising amount of clever thinking at times, mostly when in his Gizmoduck persona, suggesting that he might be smarter than he himself realizes. If the "clever thinking" is surprising, he might fit Genius Ditz better. It's also a partial-context example because I don't understand what makes him ditzy.
  • Characters.Fire Emblem Genealogy Of The Holy War First Generation: The Oosawa manga portrays her as one to an extent, as she can come across as a tad clueless outside of combat. She might fit Genius Ditz instead, if even that.

     Other misuse (0/60) 

     Unclear (3/60) 
  • Characters.For A Diamond Is A Marveled Thing: Her curiosity makes her impulsive. Case in point, in Like A Word, A Sound, A Song she sticks her hand into Steven's mouth after seeing his semi-retractable fangs. It's a partial-context example since it doesn't explain the genius part, but since the character in question is Connie, who is a bookworm in canon, it's likely she's smart in the fanfic, too. In that case, she might count.
  • Characters.Hidamari Sketch: She may be the most exaggerated airhead in the entire cast but she's a one-woman sweatshop. Not sure if she's this trope or Genius Ditz.
  • Characters.Super Robot Wars Advance: A real pro-pilot with a no-nonsense personality when it comes to battle/war. However, it's really hard to expect her not to be a clueless girl in daily life when it's been six months after she realized her humanity. Seems to fit, but not exactly sure. Might be Genius Ditz instead.

     Potholes and ZC Es (19/60) 

  • Correct: 58.33%
  • Actually Genius Ditz: 5%
  • Other Misuse: 0%
  • Unclear: 5%
  • Potholes and ZCE: 31.66%

Genius Ditz wicks: 64/64

     Correct Usage (35/64) 
  • Asian and Nerdy (also in the last folder):
    • Kin Kujira from Grojband is The Smart Guy of the band and a Gadgeteer Genius, although his kooky, childish personality means that he more frequently leans into being a Ditzy Genius. Subverted by his twin brother Kon, who is more of a Genius Ditz and an even bigger Cloud Cuckoolander than Kin. Seems to understand the difference between the two tropes.
    • Amy Wong, though she's often shown to be dense and clumsy. She seems to be more of a Genius Ditz than a straight-up Asian Airhead, and she's introduced early on as a graduate student in applied physics and an intern working for Professor Farnsworth . now that she's finally got her doctorate degree. In "That Darn Katz!", her research even managed to both doom and save the Earth! 'Possibly correct.
  • By the Power of Grayskull!: In Cutie Honey: THE LIVE, Honey transforms by touching two fingers to a little heart charm on her neck and calling "Honey Flash!". Her transformation is a naked/sparkle scene a la Sailor Moon, but the catch is that the people around her can see her naked and sparkling. This goes for all animated incarnations too; she's a more tech-based Magical Girl-like character; her transformation is caused by a device in her body that disassembles things on an atomic level and reassembles them, similar to the replicators in Star Trek. In the seconds that her clothes are temporarily vapor, she is very much naked in the real world and every character can see it all (camera angles mean you see enough to make it Fanservice instead of an outright X-rated affair.) When it comes to how she feels about this, it depends on the portrayal: the early semi-ruthless, rebellious, and pragmatic Guile Hero typically couldn't care less if you saw her butt for five seconds, and if you were a male opponent, getting Distracted by the Sexy would prove painful. However, Go Nagai couldn't resist putting in the odd Accidental Pervert moment with Butt-Monkey detective Seiji Hayami. The more recent portrayal, including that seen in the live action version, is a Fun Personified Genki Girl Genius Ditz who can calculate Pi to the zillionth digit but is like a child personality-wise, which makes her hilarious, but makes the darker moments truly tragic because of who they're happening to - you will cry. She doesn't even seem to notice that people react quite differently to her when she's without clothes than when she's in them. Possibly correct, Wall of Text aside.
  • Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Aiz Wallenstein from Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?. She's 16, yet a ten-year veteran dungeon delver and one of the strongest and most famed adventurers in the city of Orario. Fighting in the dungeon from such an early age, however, has left her knowledge base focused almost entirely on combat and dungeoneering. Outside of her particular skillset, she's a bit of an airhead, has next to no people skills, and has difficulty understanding people and her own emotions. Pothole, but it seems to use the trope correctly.
  • Characters.Artonelico II Melodyof Metafalica: She can't actually read the Pira Theory volumes you bring her, but she can interpret what you're supposed to do from the pictures alone and alter the designs to make other functional equipment.
  • Characters.Back At The Barnyard: As foolish as he can be, he has a lot of clever ideas on how to fix the mistakes he's made and Mrs. Beady's spying.
  • Characters.Bobs Burgers Belcher Family Friends:
    • (under Teddy's folder) Despite his stupidity and lack of social tact, Teddy is a genuinely skilled contractor and babysitter.
    • (under Skip's folder)) Downplayed; he's not outright dumb, but outside of cooking he tends to think things through very poorly (such as assuming an ATV could pass through deep water and not realizing his mistake until he's sinking). That said, when he is cooking he's unrivaled by even the best chefs out there.
  • Characters.Born To Be Wilde Other Crime Lords: However, it’s implied they may be smarter than they seem, since it’s them who explain the science behind why busting a window on the underwater Sea Train would be a very bad idea. After which, they go right back to cuddling Jimmy. The trope is in a sub-bullet relationship with theDitz, but is correct.
  • Characters.Boy Meets World: Eric is so ditzy, it's a wonder he can feed and bathe himself. However, the series is full of episodes where it turns out Eric possesses hidden insight and depth, and that his behavior is more a result of his combined eccentricity and inability to apply himself and reach his true potential. And then everyone feels bad about underestimating him. Lampshaded by Jack in Girl Meets World:
    Jack: You're still an idiot genius, aren't you? Maybe
  • Characters.Bunnicula: He may be an not-so-bright goofball, but he is capable of performing tons of skills whenever cooperative or not and can communicate what unintelligible dialouge Bunnicula is saying to Chester and the viewer.
  • Characters.Earth Twenty Seven Maple City: For the most part, he's a ditzy dork who needs his friends' help or advice on most matters. However, he is still the best fighter in the province and a talented cook.
  • Characters.Empire: He lacks common sense, and has very poor tact, but he's a very talented rapper, quick on his feet, and as Season 2 demonstrates a capable leader of a music band and record label when he wants to be.
  • Characters.Eternal Senia: She can be a airhead, but her skills as a bishop are the real deal, as Seti assures the group.
  • Characters.Homestuck Pre Scratch Trolls: She's incredibly ditzy but also apparently a very good shipper. Minimal context, but she seems to count.
  • Characters.Im The Evil Lord Of An Intergalactic Empire: He's an incompetent swordsman, can't handle money at all and just barely ekes out a living as a con artist, but consistently delivers excellent results as a swordsmanship teacher. Liam and his two other chosen disciples go without saying as they're all talented freaks, but regular knights and even petty thugs end up becoming extremely competent with minimal training. There's also a pothole on the page.
  • Characters.The Magic Flute: Given how out of his element he is for much of the story, it’s easy to forget that he’s a highly accomplished bird catcher, bringing in his wares on a daily basis. Maybe
  • Characters.Nijisanji En Luxiem:
    • He doesn't know what E.Coli is and according to this tweet didn't even knew that cheese was made of milk, yet despite that he's still a professional detective.
    • Adding to The Ditz side of things, during one moment on the Operantion Tango collab with Petra, he begins a conversation by asking if penguins can swim, then while Petra tries to get him to understand by drawing on the paralels LazuLight and OBSYDIA have as a Similar Squad, he forgets that Pomu exists as a member of the former, then forgets that his current collab partner exists as a member of the latter.
    • On the "genius" side of things, he's demonstrated a good prowess in puzzle and mystery games (fittingly enough) and has very good memory and observational skills when he focuses, with one example being during his collab of We Were Here with Ike where he basically re-completes the game by himself because he remembered all the puzzles.
  • Characters.Raising Hope: Burt is dumb as a brick in most respects, but he often shows a high degree of emotional intelligence and insight into human nature.
  • Characters.Reborn 2004 Free Agents And Other Characters: Implied to be this. She goes to a private school that's supposedly difficult to get into. While it's mostly a ZCE, the rest of her folder seems to add to the ditzy part.
  • Characters.The Ricky Gervais Show: For all his gaffes, it's noted a few times that Karl does have several profound and interesting thoughts, and that he's generally a bit more clever than Ricky and Steve give him credit for. Unfortunately, he's constantly defeated by misremembering or misinterpreting the information that fuels those thoughts, or by lacking the linguistic skills to properly articulate them, leading Ricky and Steve to frequently dismiss what he says regardless of how much insight or truth lies behind it.
  • Characters.The Simpsons Bart Simpson: He's a terrible student, and usually does no better than a D- in classes, but he's shown many different skills over the course of the series. Exactly what skills he has and how this contrasts his dimwittedness depends a lot on the episode.
    • When he actually uses it, he's a crack-shot with his slingshot.
    • He's a natural for picking up languages, often doing so with great ease.
    • As Lisa puts it "When there's cruelty involved, Bart knows his history".
    • Similarly, in "Boy Scoutz in the 'Hood", Bart memorizes every single kind of knot in his junior camper handbook, just so he can move to the next rank and get a knife to play with.
    • He is decent to gifted in almost every artistic discipline, drawing being his most consistent.
  • Characters.Sponge Bob Square Pants Patrick Star: He has his moments of brilliance. In "Boating School", he was shown to be perfectly accurate behind the wheel, as he could give perfect instructions to SpongeBob simply via a large telescope, sometimes while barely paying attention, and in another episode, he even GOT a boating license despite not knowing everything there is to know about boats. There is also a pothole in his description and a mention of the trope. Overall, Patrick is a correct example.
  • Characters.Sonic The Hedgehog Recurring Characters: Implied to be, considering he can pilot the Tornado 2 without wrecking it as well as Eggman's mech in multiplayer mode for Sonic Adventure 2. Partial context example, but other entries explain the "ditzy" part.
  • Characters.South Park Eric Cartman: Can easily manipulate people and appears to be able to speak fluent Spanish and German at age 9, but is otherwise completely clueless about a lot of things.
  • Characters.Taskmaster Series Eleven: Lee was definitely not a cerebral contestant, but he was the only one in his series' line-up who thought of a (relatively) scientific and precise method of weighing Alex's head and feet in the finale. He weighed pots full of water on the scales, had Alex dip his body parts in each of them to displace the water, then weighed the emptier pots. Most of the rest of the cast basically tried to guess. Alex revealed on the podcast that Lee had an advantage over the other contestants in that he had once performed a similar task on the show Duck Quacks Don't Echo which he himself presents.
  • Characters.Ar Tonelico II Melody Of Metafalica: Andi Garcia, Jessica Alba's character from Little Fockers is permanently perky, peppers her speech with Valley Girl like expressions and would come across as just an immature party-girl airhead if it wasn't for her demonstrating that she is also a highly skilled nurse in a couple of early scenes. I think I misplaced the wick, but I don't remember from which work it comes from.
  • Fanfic.New Perspective Evangelion: Noriko has the lowest IQ score out of all the pilots and does subpar to terrible in school, specifically History, which she has an F in. However, she is extremely good at math, and was an engineer in her previous life. It's to the point where she managed to shock both Asuka and Ritsuko during Mr. Langley's presentation of his railgun.
  • Funny.Asobi Asobase: When Kasumi asks about the English exams, Hanako says she did "okay" and only got a 92 because of some careless mistakes. Pothole in the quote.
    Kasumi: Wait, Hanako-san's smart?
  • Literature.Graceling Realm: Clara may seem silly at first meeting, but she's actually one of the Dells' highest-ranking spymasters.
  • Manhwa.Demon Diary: Raenef. He is the living personification of ditzyness... but he is actually very powerful. This is part of the problem, considering the kind of damage he does if he gets distracted in the middle of doing something magical and leaves it hanging in the air. Maybe.
  • PsychopathicManchild.Anime And Manga: Misa Amane is an endearingly naive Kawaiiko who has a very childish demeanor that persists well into her 20s, obsesses over fashion like any young girl, is completely boy-crazy, and was able to translate her Moe appeal into a successful career as an actress/model. All this is likely because her parents were murdered while she was still a child, trapping her in a perpetually immature state. Unfortunately for the world, this apparently happened before the Amanes had the chance to explain to their daughter that human life has an intrinsic value beyond being useful to Misamisa-chan, who latched on the man who used his Death Note to kill the burglar years after the actions that shattered Misamisa's mind. The results weren't pretty. Pothole, but it seems to use the trope correctly.
  • RagtagBunchOfMisfits.Live Action TV: Hogan's Heroes are a ragtag bunch of multinational soldiers who are probably one of the most powerful Allied sabotage and espionage forces in all of Germany. Even the oblivious and childish Carter is a Genius Ditz when it comes to explosives. The trope is mentioned in the description, but it seems to be correct.
  • Series.Brooklyn Nine Nine:
    • Gina seems like an incredibly self-centered and shallow idiot, but she has some people skills as a civilian that the cops, too immersed in their jobs as they are, lack. She also passes her astronomy final test after studying for a single night and is the only one that immediately perceives Holts' homosexuality after meeting him.
    • Peralta spends most of his time messing around, thinking up Bond One-Liners, placing stupid bets and generally acting like an idiot—and he's also a genuinely brilliant detective.
  • Series.Kenan And Kel: Kel, despite being a orange soda loving idiot, gets a 96 (Later then corrected to 98) in an (marked out of 100) IQ test. He also got a 98 on the written part of the driver's test.
  • WMG.Firefly: Mind that this troper(the one that believes Jayne is poorly educated) subscribes to the theory of multiple intelligences, and believes that intelligence shows itself in different ways. Jayne's aptitude is more in line with firearms and combat and likely has a more bodily-kinesthetic inclination than the rest of the crew. Mind you, I'm not saying he's a Genius Ditz or anything, just saying that he's more intelligent than his crude nature and lack of any sort of formal education lets on. Not as smart as Simon, Book, Inara, or Kaylee(in no particular order), but on a comparable level to Mal, Zoe, and Wash. He just has the rotten luck of having the least amount of schooling for anyone on the crew, which is why his competence only shows in his areas of experience; fighting. Seems to be correct.
  • YMMV.RL Yoshi: (under Alternative Character Interpretation) It could even be interpreted as him being good at the puzzles themselves, but just dense the rest of the time, seeing as how a majority of the problems in Ocarina stem from him just not putting two and two together. His tendency to get the solution correct, but fail the execution and as a result thing he was wrong and start trying other incorrect methods, also supports this. Correctly-used pothole.

     Actually Ditzy Genius (9/64) 
  • Characters.The Apprentice UK Season 3: She has a doctorate in quantum physics, yet somehow failed to realize that milk froths up when you heat and stir it. On top of that, she really had no clue about how the world of business really works. Sounds more like Ditzy Genius to me, yet even that is doubtful.
  • Characters.Evil Genius Evil Geniuses: Evil Genius 2 depicts him as a savvy inventor and multi-billionaire, but one who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'research' and who frequently overlooks things obvious to his minions. Fortunately for them, he doesn't mind being corrected as long as they're polite about it. Sounds more like Ditzy Genius to me.
  • Characters.Kamisama Kiss: He's very good with magic, but not so much with planning or even interacting with other people. Some of the stunts he pulls, like the attempted Shotgun Wedding, are pretty damn dumb.
  • Characters.Sword Art Online Abridged: She's an excellent fighter and strategist who has never played MMOs before. This leads to things like having no idea what "XP" is or how to open the menu. This doesn't last past her first episode, as she learns these things later. Sounds more like Ditzy Genius to me.
  • Characters.Truberbrook: Very odd and even more brilliant. While the Genius Ditz entry has minimal context, the rest of his folder suggests he fits Ditzy Genius more.
  • Literature.Welcome To Autumnport: Doctor Jensen has some traits of this in her neurotic, caffeine-jolted nature, but is otherwise an authoritative expert on robotics. Sounds more like Ditzy Genius to me.
  • Literature.Cats Cradle: Dr. Felix Hoenikker. A scientific genius, he worked on the atom bomb and created ice-nine, but for life outside science his wife looked after him the same as their children. Sounds more like Ditzy Genius to me. Or Manchild.
  • VideoGame.Scooby Doo Night Of 100 Frights: Despite being an accomplished inventor, Professor Graham shows shades of this. An example is when he is falsely revealed as the Mastermind and asks, "it was me?" Possibly Ditzy Genius.
  • WebAnimation.Dog Judo: Rexley can design quite elaborate contraptions and has even managed to harness the power of plutonium rods, but he's incapable of using his gifts for anything useful.

     Other misuse (1/64) 
  • Characters.Puffin Forest: Inverted. He claims to have a high Intelligence (an 18, to be exact, which would give him a modifier of +4, which would make him almost as smart as Bill Nye the Science Guy), but in actuality, he isn't smart at all. That's Small Name, Big Ego.

     Unclear (5/64) 
  • Characters.Arrowverse Oliver Queen: Downplayed as he was never entirely The Ditz, but during the first few season 1 flashbacks, Oliver was The Load. Yao Fei had to save him from everything, he couldn't fight at all, and he got his ass handed to him on multiple occasions. All that said, after Oliver teams up with Slade Wilson, it is shown that Oliver is in fact capable of coming up with clever plans and ideas (some of which seem to impress Slade himself). Such as suggesting to lure Fyers' men into one location to ambush them. It was also his idea to take the circuit board to use as collateral against Fyers. Looking at the rest of the page, he seems to have been les intelligent in the beginning, but now he seems to be smart. I'm really confused.
  • Characters.The Simpsons Friends Neighbors Families - Genius Ditz:
    • In "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" we learn that even though Barney has a strange speaking voice, he has a beautiful singing voice. This was likely inspired by actor Jim Nabors (better known as Gomer Pyle from The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.), who despite his best-known character had a rich, baritone singing voice.
    • In "A Star Is Burns" he manages to create an independent film so moving that it drives the film festival judges to tears. Barney only acts like an idiot when he's drunk. Is he drunk when he does these things?
  • Characters.Sonic The Hedgehog Recurring Characters: Vector might seem like the Dumb Muscle, but he's still a great detective. In Sonic Heroes, he knew all along that Dr. Eggman was their client, and in Sonic Generations, he's the first to suspect that someone might be controlling the Time Eater, a hunch that later proves to be correct. However, he can be pretty silly and would rather listen to or make music in his free time. Not sure if Vector fits Ditzy Genius or Genius Ditz better.
  • Webcomic.The Handbook Of Heroes: Magus is an Intelligence-based class, which suggests that Magus used Wisdom as a Dump Stat, given her generally foolish behavior. Not sure which trope she fits better.
  • Webcomic.Oddity Woods: Marietta; she's good at analyzing things, but she lacks every other adventuring skill; common sense, diplomacy, stealth, survival, etc., which is kind of important as she's a detective in a Dungeon Crawl setting! Not sure which trope she fits better.

     Potholes and ZC Es (16/64) 
  • Asian and Nerdy (also in the first folder): Played completely straight by Chika, one of the characters in the Q&A segments. She's an analytical and level-headed Asian scientist, who plays the Straight Man to Amanda and Lisa. Pothole.
  • Anime.Valkyria Chronicles: Welkin is something of a Military Maverick with a few personality quirks, but was turned into a socially inept Genius Ditz. Just a mention of the trope.
  • Characters.Avengers Support Staff Just the trope name, commented-out.
  • Characters.Bloody Urban: According to her character dossier, she's really good at physics and math. Doesn't explain the ditzy part.
  • Characters.Lie To Me: Comes off like this at first, but has been getting less ditzy.
  • Characters.Paper Mario X: Often comes with the solutions to the problems the team encounters, often without meaning to. It's light on context and the ditzy part is not clear.
  • Characters.Scaredy Squirrel Just the trope name.
  • Characters.The Return: A shifty, lazy, self-centered Genius Ditz of a martial artist. Ranma's father and Nodoka's (ex)Husband. A more haunted and slightly wiser man than canon. More of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold than the Manga Jerkass. Just a mention of the trope.
  • Characters.Yureka Just the trope name, commented-out.
  • DarthWiki.Chrissie Versevs Trope Verse: Bobby hardly changed, except for a few key things. In the "Chrissie-Verse" he was set up to be a future Big Bad, so he showed a lot of Jerk with a Heart of Jerk traits. He also had a older (adopted) sister named Rose (no it isn't a reference. I didn't start watching Doctor Who until a bit after I made this character.) who was a Genius Ditz. Just a mention of the trope.
  • Fanfic.Lost In Time Series: Sid, who in chapter two is reading Plato. It's also implied that he was one of the first who took quickly to the idea of words and reading originally and this was confirmed in chapter six. Doesn't explain the ditzy part, though considering this is Sid we're talking about, it might be correct.
  • Fridge.Fire Emblem The Blazing Blade: Some archetype characters between The Binding Blade (which closely follows Archanea's standards) and The Blazing Blade are almost complete opposites. Elen is a sweet priestess, while Serra is a loudmouthed, bratty cleric. Clarine is spoiled but goodhearted, while Priscilla is ladylike. Rutger is super serious, while Guy comes across as a bit clumsy. Lugh is a cheerful kid who fights because he has to, while Erk is training hard to become a great mage. Raigh is cold and cynical, while Canas is a Genius Ditz. Dieck and Raven are both mercenaries, but Dieck is loyal to his bosses, and Raven intends to kill Hector as soon as he has the chance. Shanna is outgoing and all her mercenary companions are men, while Florina is terrified of men. Just a mention of the trope.
  • Funny.The Lego Movie Just a pothole under Benny's name.
  • Funny.Osomatsu San: The brothers finally come to the conclusion that they don't exactly know everything about each other as they leave for the bathhouse. Then they notice Jyushi's still in the house, so Totty goes to fetch him... while he's in the middle of a serious call about his stock falling. He then runs out of the house in his slippers, leaving Osomatsu to comment on how they really don't know everything about each other. Pothole that doesn't explain anything.
  • Literature.Phryne Fisher: Jane, one of Phryne's adopted daughters.
  • TooDumbToLive.Comic Books Pretty much everyone in the comics based off of Plants vs. Zombies, whether human, plant, or zombie, aside from Patrice, Mr. Stubbins, and Future Nate. Present Nate cycles between this and Genius Ditz, but he does very much have his moments. Just a mention of the trope.

  • Correct: 54.687%
  • Actually Ditzy Genius: 14.062%
  • Other Misuse: 1.562%
  • Unclear: 7.812%
  • Potholes and ZCE: 25%

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