Dumb Blonde: Difference between revisions

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[[File:marilyn-monroe-glasses-colour.jpg|link=Marilyn Monroe|frame|Those glasses aren't fooling anyone, [[How to Marry a Millionaire|Pola]].]]
 
{{quote|''"For, though very beautiful, with large grey eyes and the hair the colour of ripe corn, the heroine of a thriller is almost never a very intelligent girl. Indeed, it would scarcely be overstating it to say that her mentality is that of a cockroach -- and not an ordinary cockroach at that, but one which has been dropped on its head as a baby."''|'''[[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]]''', "Do Thrillers Need Heroines?"}}
|'''[[P. G. Wodehouse]]''', "Do Thrillers Need Heroines?"}}
 
[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Blondes are dumb.]] Perhaps no more than a [[Foil]] to the [[Brainy Brunette]], but can also appear as [[The Fool]], [[The Ditz]], or even the [[Brainless Beauty]]. Extreme cases can make her the [[Cloudcuckoolander]]. Her character is otherwise flexible; the '''Dumb Blonde''' ranges from a [[Love Freak]], to a [[Hair of Gold|sweet, wholesome blonde]] whose [[Book Dumb|lack of interest in education]] only shows she is [[Dumb Is Good|more concerned about people]], to [[Blondes Are Evil|a vacuous, mean-spirited]] [[Alpha Bitch|and often lazy bimbo]], to [[The Vamp]].
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(When the blonde is ''innocent'' rather than stupid, the trope is [[Hair of Gold]].)
{{examples}}
 
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* [[Sailor Moon]] and Sailor Venus. (Sailor Moon manages to get [[Hair of Gold|blond-pure]] and blond-ditz in the same character.)
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* Averted for the most part with the titular character of ''[[Candy Candy]].''
* Averted with Lisa Gordon, a ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' secondary character. Her father was a scientist and she also was a perfectly competent scientist on her own. In fact, Professor Gordon bluntly stated he needed her help to upgrade Mazinger-Z into a machine capable to swim and dive.
* Takuya from ''Animerica'', whenever he's not being shy {{spoiler|or [[Badass]]}}.
* [[Naruto]], zig-zagged.
* [[Trigun|Vash the Stampede]] pretends to be this as [[Obfuscating Stupidity]].
* ''[[Cutey Honey]]'' is a borderline case, because she's blond only in civilian ID (and not in live action). Ditziness (and whether it's real or [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]) will also vary depending on the version of the character.
* Misa Amane from ''[[Death Note]]''. Then again, next to L or Light, pretty much ''anyone'' would look dumb by proxy.
** Also, she's not so much "stupid" as "completely [[:Category:Yandere|insane]]".
* Feliks/Poland from ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' is a perfect example...he needed someone to turn the table while he was standing on it to screw in a ligthbulb.
** Poland was still smart enough to {{spoiler|buy time for Lithuania to pull his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] in the Battle of Tannenburg, doing so and remaining more or less calm while ''Prussia was pointing a sword at him''}}. That, and the whole series pokes fun at stereotypes of all kinds; his supposed stupidity is actually [[Played for Laughs]], and nations with ''other'' hair colors can be just as dumb (re: Italy, a brunette (redhead in the anime) who's pretty much [[The Ditz]]).
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* ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' has Keith Goodman/Sky High, a superhero whose [[The Ace|skill and popularity]] is eclipsed only by his amazing [[Ditz]]iness.
* Averted oh-so-hard in ''Fushigi Yuugi'', where blond beauty Yui is the intellectual genius and brunette Miaka is the idiot who's [[Too Dumb to Live]]. Blond Nakago is also intelligent.
 
 
== Comedy ==
* This trope is endemic in [[German Humour|German-speaking comedy]]. This is possibly due to the fact that the German word for dumb, "blöd", is spoken very similar to the word "blond". And, of course, "blauäugig" (blue eyed) is used as a synonym for "naive".
** This casts an entirely new light on the plan [[Those Wacky Nazis]] had for the "Master Race"...
* Chanel West Coast from "Ridiculousness".
* [[Double Subversion]]: a ventriloquist is performing a routine with his dummy, telling a series of dumb blonde jokes. Suddenly, a well-dressed platinum blonde business woman stands up and says "How can you judge people based on their hair color? It has no bearing on intelligence!" The ventriloquist says, "Lady, please, I just—" The blonde snaps, "You stay out of this! I'm talking to that jerk sitting in your lap!"
 
 
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== [[FanficFan Works]] ==
* Chiara/Cure Vanilla in ''[[Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy]]'' is blond and described as being "just clueless" by her [[Redheaded Hero|redhead sister]] Chloe. However, she matures a little through the course of the fanfic, becoming less [[The Ditz|ditzy]] but still retaining her [[Genki Girl]] status.
* Bebe from ''[[South Park]]'' is often [[Flanderization|flanderized]] into this for [[Die for Our Ship|various]] [[Ron the Death Eater|different]] [[Het Is Ew|reasons]].
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* Subverted in ''[[Superman III]]''. Pamela Stephenson's character displays all the traits of a dumb blonde when other people are around. When she's alone, though, she likes to kick back and read philosophy. Interestingly, the actress herself tired of playing blond comedy bimbos and is now a psychologist.
* [[Nicole Kidman]] plays a rare outright villainous Dumb Blonde in ''[[To Die For]]''. Rarer yet, she is also the [[Villain Protagonist|main character]].
* [[The Rocky Horror Picture Show|Rocky Horror]] is a male example of this. He's also a nearly literal example of [[Brainless Beauty]] (he's only got half a brain, folks).
* [[Dead Set|"Do you even understand what is going on here, or is the whole world just colours and shapes and the occasional noise in your head?"]]
* Mia from ''[[Stan Helsing]]''.
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rNfZxgkH7k "Cause I'm a Blond"] from ''[[Earth Girls Are Easy]]'' sums up the the stereotype quite nicely.
* Parodied with Lt. Tawny Madison in ''[[Galaxy Quest]]''.
* Many of Sarah Jessica Parker's roles before ''[[Sex and the City]]'' consisted of playing airheaded blondes, including SanDeE* in ''[[L.A. Story]]'', Sarah in ''[[Hocus Pocus]]'', and Natalie in ''[[Mars Attacks!]]''.
** In her review of ''[[Hocus Pocus]]'', [[The Nostalgia Chick]] asks why she [[Typecasting|always gets the role]] of the "hot airhead".
* To show that this doesn't just refer to women, look at just about every role Owen Wilson has had.
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* Tatum Riley from the 1996 film ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]]'' falls into this category, {{spoiler|especially during her death scene}} - the prime example of this being that, {{spoiler|when confronted with the garage door as her only means of escape, she chooses to try and squeeze through the small pet-flap instead of simply lift the door and run away. And to top it all off, she doesn't even call for help until she's already trapped, with the garage door taking her upwards, moments from death}}!
* Kevin in the 2016 [[Continuity Reboot|reboot]] of ''[[Ghostbusters (2016 film)|Ghostbusters]]'' is an extremely rare male example of the Dumb Blonde who is ''so'' dumb that they shouldn't be allowed out without a minder.
* Cora Corman in [[Music and Lyrics]]. {{Quote|'''Cora:''' I'll show you the roof. It's upstairs!}}
 
== [[Literature]] ==
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* Hoku's "Another Dumb Blonde"
* [[Dolly Parton]] has been quoted as saying that dumb blonde remarks don't bother her, "because I know I'm not dumb...and I also know I'm not blonde."
 
 
== Recorded and Stand-up Comedy ==
* This trope is endemic in [[German Humour|German-speaking comedy]]. This is possibly due to the fact that the German word for dumb, "blöd", is spoken very similar to the word "blond". And, of course, "blauäugig" (blue eyed) is used as a synonym for "naive".
** This casts an entirely new light on the plan [[Those Wacky Nazis]] had for the "Master Race"...
* Chanel West Coast from "Ridiculousness".
* [[Double Subversion]]: a ventriloquist is performing a routine with his dummy, telling a series of dumb blonde jokes. Suddenly, a well-dressed platinum blonde business woman stands up and says "How can you judge people based on their hair color? It has no bearing on intelligence!" The ventriloquist says, "Lady, please, I just—" The blonde snaps, "You stay out of this! I'm talking to that jerk sitting in your lap!"
 
 
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Illumina in ''[[Sidekick Girl]]''
* Carol in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131015185848/http://www.suburbantribe.net/ Suburban Tribe]'' is actually a dumb ''redhead'', but because most of the comics are uncoloured, many new readers mistake her for a blonde. This has been [[Lampshaded]].
* Kim of ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131206160056/http://thinks.com/family-fun/kim-and-jason.htm Kim & Jason]'' may qualify, as despite being 4 years old, she once ran a presidential campaign — with a toy skunk as her running mate.
* Gertrude from ''[[The KAMics]]'', although [[Word of God]] is that if he knew she would end up that dumb, he would have given her another hair color.
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** She ''can'', however, cross over into [[Genius Ditz]] in some stories, given how she seems able to speak multiple languages and take to mathematics rather well.
** Bubbles appears to have gotten the short end of the subversion stick, as brawny Buttercup and brainy Blossom have hair to the opposite of their tropes...
** Bubbles' [[Distaff Counterpart]] Boomer is certainly a dumb blonde. Well, he's certainly a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] and designated [[Butt Monkey]], but he generally comes off as less intelligent to the other characters. Not that his brothers Brick and Butch are all-too smart either, seeing as in one episode they are fooled by Bubbles disguising herself as Boomer.
* Nazz from ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' is this. She's a bit smarter than she appears, but that isn't hard.
** And don't forget May Kanker from the Kanker sisters.
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* While not blond, ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' is yellow with [[Blue Eyes]], which makes him fit the stereotype. He's an [[Idiot Hero]] and [[Flanderization|got worse after the movie]]. Possibly averted, since every time he's shown with hair, he's a brunet.
* ''[[Johnny Test]]''.
* Averted with [[Harley Quinn]] on ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]''; by her own admission, she is ''not'' a real blonde. The "dumb" part is debtable. Whether she's truly a ditz or just faking it seems to be [[Depending on the Writer]].
 
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:Dumb Blonde]]
[[Category:The Ditz]]