Tropes for Dummies



The For Dummies series of books is a popular way of learning just about anything, from C++ programming to Divorce Law to African-American History, achieved by simple explanations.

As a result of their popularity, these books are often parodied, and fictional entries to the series are often conjured into existence. This is often done to show that a character knows next to nothing about a subject but is now trying to find out.

Works created before the "For Dummies" series was started will use titles like "How to Do Tropes in N Easy Steps" or "You, Too, Can Trope!" or "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Tropes But Were Afraid to Ask." Often, titles may also parody the "Complete Idiot's Guide to _______" series as well.

Compare Correspondence Course, its brother in self-education.

Film

 * Evan Almighty: God presents Evan with Ark Building for Dummies.
 * The Waterboy used the rival learning series "Complete Idiot's Guide" with "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Football" being read by the incompetent football coach, who is then mocked when the rival competent coach is seen reading the exact same book and laughing.
 * Bride of Chucky has Tiffany resurrecting Chucky from the dead through knowledge from a "Voodoo for Dummies" book.
 * The Master of Disguise
 * Looney Tunes Back in Action has Bugs Bunny fighting Marvin the Martian with lightsabers while Bugs reads "The Force For Dummies".
 * Inspector Gadget 2 had "Quantum Physics for Dimwits."

Literature

 * One full book-length parody of both series was called Compleet Idoit's Guide for Dumies - misspellings theirs, and presumably intentional.
 * In Wintersmith one village of anti-witchcraft fanatics get their information from the Maganevatio Obtusis, which a footnote helpfully translates as Witch-Hunting For Dumb People.

Live Action TV

 * In A Very Merry Muppet Christmas, Daniel is given the book Performing Miracles for Dummies.
 * Eric of Boy Meets World defeats the witches who want to sacrifice the Hunters with the help of Witchcraft for Dumb-dumbs.
 * In Cory in The House Cory procures a copy of "Horses for Numb-Nuts" (but with the stylized cover identical to the Dummies series).
 * JD in Scrubs reads "The Iraq War for Dummies"
 * "I just reached 'mission accomplished,' but there's still like 400 pages left!"
 * In Charmed season 6 episode "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father" Elder Gideon presents a page in a book titled "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Portals But Were Afraid to Ask."
 * The Investigation Discovery channel has a commercial for their week of specials about Black Widows that has a woman at the register with normal Thanksgiving stuff, but the last thing the cashier scans is a book called "Killing Your Husband for Dummies".

Newspaper Comics

 * Roger in FoxTrot tries to buy an actual For Dummies book, but can't bring himself to pronounce the name and admit himself a "dummy", instead asking for a book for "college-educated professionals who majored in the humanities before computers existed."
 * In Dilbert, when the company produces a product that doesn't work and its instruction manual is complete fiction. The Pointy-Headed Boss's reply: "Ship it and hope someone publishes a 'For Dummies' guide."

Tabletop RPG

 * Dungeons and Dragons worlds bless dummies with the following literature:
 * Forgotten Realms has something close -- canonically, Volo's Guides are an awful mix of brilliant investigations and silly hearsay. The most infamous was "Volo's Guide to All Things Magical", the "second edition" of which claimed that v 1.0 contained a lot of recipes how to kill oneself in a funny way -- and so much of sensitive information that Volo hesitated to introduce himself in a hearing range of other wizards ever after, and Elminster had to personally hunt down and destroy every last copy.
 * Arcana SRD from Infinite Dreamers cover art has a horned greenish lad reading "", with a readable annotation traditional for this sort of literature on its back cover.

Video Games

 * The somewhat free MMO Roblox once had a hat for sale with the title Quantum Thermodynamics for Dummies. It was, indeed, a "For Dummies"-style book that could be worn as a hat (just a mesh, though, so you couldn't read it or anything...).

Web Comics

 * Homestuck has "Data Structures for Assholes", which parodies many of the elements associated with programming manuals that bill themselves as accessible to the novice: lengthy explanations of simple topics, clip art, diagrams...
 * Rose also mentions getting Knitting for Assholes after getting her yarn and knitting needles from John as a birthday gift.
 * In The Order of the Stick, Vaarsuvius is looking for a way to regain spellcasting power without sleeping, due to a recurring nightmare. The rules of the OOTS universe says a spellcaster needs to rest rather than sleep to regain spells, so Vaarsuvius needs something not mentally taxing that would still help his/her ongoing research into finding Haley. Finding Plot Holes for Dummies does the trick.
 * Also, Xykon's line from Start of Darkness: "This magic is in my bones, not cribbed off of Magic for Dummies."
 * Eight Bit Theater has Necromantic Arts for Dummies.
 * Slackerz has a great example. One of the characters attempted to program his own game called Matt's Kickass Game for Winners (a reference to Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People) However, he knows absolutely nothing about programming. So he consults a regular programming book, a For Dummies book, and a book called Grover's Magical C++ Garden. (He even denounces that as too difficult.)
 * User Friendly - Evil Geniuses for Dummies. Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell later became the title of the second print collection.
 * Girl Genius presents: "Advanced mechanics for the mad".
 * El Goonish Shive once had Grace reading "Untying Knots For Squirrels" as a gag in a storyline cover.
 * Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic has "Dimensional Doors for Dummies".
 * DOS For Complete and Utter Morons, Like You, Fuckhead
 * Sinfest has "War for Dummies" in its bestseller list. Also, Lil' E used "Black Magic for Dummies" to summon a savage demon Hell Hound (for dummies).
 * Bug has "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Musical Belching".
 * What's New With Phil and Dixie got "Gothic Romance For Dummies".

Western Animation
"Bart: Call me Ishmael, Dummy!"
 * An episode of Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends has a whole bookstore shelf full of "...for Blockheads" books.
 * Mickey Donald Goofy the Three Musketeers has Goofy reading a Complete Idiot's Guide.
 * On The Simpsons: Moby Dick for Dummies.


 * Fridge Brilliance: For Dummies and Cliffs Notes have the same publisher.
 * One episode has Homer going to a book fair, with an entire library of Books for Dummies where he is quite at home.
 * Megas XLR with The Complete Moron's Guide To Picking Up Space Chicks.
 * Shrek the Halls with "Christmas For Village Idiots".
 * "Astrophysics for Morons" from the "Shelf Life" episode of The Fairly Odd Parents.

Web Original

 * The Emperor's New Clones, the second Star Wars parody from Backyard Productions, features Vader reading "The Dark Side for Dummies", and Han Solo's father checking "The Star Wars Guide to Techno-Babble".
 * One of the naughty-scene-re-enactors in The Nostalgia Chick's review of Showgirls was reading Opera for Dummies throughout the whole thing.
 * Fredrik K.T.Andersson, the author of Pawn, in his equally NSFW gallery on Elfwood presents Censoring for Dummies.
 * In Suburban Knights, Ma-Ti showed up with a book to help 8-Bit Mickey's problem. It's "Goatf*cking for Dummies".

Fan Fiction

 * In "The Trouble With Timelines", Suzumiya Haruhi goes searching for a missing jigsaw puzzle using techniques taken from a Dowsing for Dummies.