Feigning Intelligence: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"When in doubt, look intelligent!"''|'''Garrison Keillor'''}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Ninin ga Shinobuden]]'' has Onsokumaru, who pretends to be an expert ninja, despite obviously being one of the stupidest characters on the show.

 

 

Wanda: Oh, right! [[Insult to Rocks|To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!]] I've known sheep that could outwit you. I've worn dresses with higher IQ's. But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape? <br />

Otto: Apes don't read philosophy. <br />

* Done as part of a [[Xanatos Roulette]] in the 2007 ''St. Trinian's''. It helps that they actually know some of the answers.

* An unintentional example in the second ''[[Tremors]]'' movie, when the Graboids first mutate into Shriekers. For the first few scenes after they come into existence, they tear up several cars and the radio tower, convincing the protagonists that they had achieved human-level intelligence and had actually planned everything out to cut off their ability to travel and communicate with each other. Eventually, they find out that the Shriekers navigate by infrared, and were simply biting anything they came across that was hot, [[Too Dumb to Live|whether it was actually food or not.]]

{{quote| '''Grady''': You mean they're acting so smart because they're so stupid?}}

* [[Dodgeball]] has Ben Stiller's character attempt to impress a woman... by pretending to read the dictionary.

 

* Owl in ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]''. When faced with a note that contains more than three words, none of which are his own name or "Thursday", he first tries to trick Rabbit into reading it for him, and then considers pushing Rabbit out of his tree rather than admit he's having problems.

** Rabbit is another example of this trope, to a lesser extent.

* ''[[The Number of the Beast]]'' by [[Robert A. Heinlein]] features a main character who not only passed himself off as an expert, but managed to get a degree by writing a paper that catered to all of the reviewers' prejudices and pet theories. Of course, he was actually doing this to prove a point instead of trying to fit in with educated society.

* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] by [[Hercule Poirot]] as his standard method of [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] - he is boastful in order to make his opponents think he is feigning intelligence, when in fact he really ''is'' that smart.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* In a ''[[Friends]]'' episode, Joey memorized details about all the artwork in a gallery, then messed it up as he got left and right confused.

** And in another episode whilst writing a letter to an adoption agency, he uses a thesaurus to increase his vocabulary. Hearts become "Aortic pumps" and so on.

** Incidentally, the book ''[http://www.ovalbooks.com/bluff/Music.html The Bluffer's Guide to Music]'' recommends that exact phrase.

* In ''[[The Muppet Show]]'', Sam the Eagle may constantly seek some culture in the show, but considering he thinks [[Ludwig Van Beethoven|Beethoven]] was a playwright, it's obvious he doesn't know the first thing about culture.

** It has also been theorized that the Tenth Doctor, who frequently claims himself to be clever, is double-[[Feigning Intelligence]]-[[Obfuscating Stupidity]], or something. (See the Poirot example above.)

** The Doctor has been getting into trouble by pretending to be more knowledgeable than he actually is since ''The Aztecs'' in 1964.

* The borderline mentally disabled Randy in ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' seems to be really good at this, once befriending a bunch of business men, getting a job and earning a lot of money in less than a day with just the help of a second-hand suit.

* [[Ted Baxter]] used to pull this one off with regularity - one instance in particular stands out.

{{quote| '''Ted's son:''' Mother, I ''abhor'' you!<br />

'''Ted:''' Now son, I'll have none of that language in this house! }}

 

 

* [[Touhou Project|Cirno]], particularly as depicted in fandom (''[[Ear Worm|Cirno's Perfect Math Class]]'' is a well known example).

** In canon, it's not intelligence she feigns, but strength. Of course, knowing [[Word of God|ZUN]]'s [[Ascended Fanon|usual]] [[Running the Asylum|response]] to the fandom, it's not too unlikely that this will become canon.

** Similarly, there's Ricky in the beginning of the ''Honest Hearts'' DLC, who brags about how awesome he is. With sufficiently high skills, you can not only point out how his Pip-Boy is broke, but that he's obviously a drug addict and how the details of his stories are completely inaccurate (for example, having an "11mm SMG" and having killed "Deathjaws"). You can either get him to scram or blackmail him into carrying more of your stuff.

* It is an effective method to cover up limited computing power. Do something and correct the decision later if it turns out to be a bad move.

** Example: Starting to move directly towards the destination while scheduling the time consuming path finding for later.

* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in ''[[Bob and George]]'': Mega Man did this by making up a totally random and [[Techno Babble]]-filled solution to the series' [[Timey-Wimey Ball|major time-line issues]], and, totally by accident, made a discovery worthy of a Nobel prize. He thought everybody else was just making fun of him.

* ''[[Misfile]]''. Debate continues on whether Rumisiel is genuinely admitting [[Feigning Intelligence]] or displaying [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] to maintain his [[The Stoner|image]] in [http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=992 this strip].

 

 

Sarge (towards Simmons): Is that right?<br />

Simmons: Yes. }}