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Genius Ditz: Difference between revisions
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*** Or perhaps that was simply due to having access to a Death Note. Sure, L discovered the existence of such a thing, but who would think that there'd actually be ''two'' at work in one setting? Not getting caught with a death note isn't much of an accomplishment, given it's a notebook that can magically give anybody a heart attack, and leaves no trace behind.
*** Well, L didn't really discover the Death Note at all, certainly not alone. Light was the one who set up the trail of bread crumbs for L to find it. Also, who was it that secured the evidence that Higuchi was Kira, thus aiding L in the procurement of the notebook? None other than the 'ditzy' Misa Amane. She's certainly more than just a pretty face, and her acting ability is only really surpassed by Light, who's so good at ''everything'' that he doesn't really count.
*** All things considered, L is the biggest Genius Ditz, as he was stated by the author of Death Note to be the most intelligent character in the series, and yet, he still lost. Though of course, while Light is certainly exceptional in just about everything, the "match" was never fair to begin with, especially considering that he got control of the idiosyncratic Rem, who was willing to die so that Misa's safety be assured. If it wasn't for Rem's affection for Misa, L might have pulled it off. And, if Light hadn't become arrogant (and thus made a few mistakes), Near should never have won, at the very least, in the manner that he did.
* The version of Professor Moriarty from ''[[Meitantei Holmes]]'' (US name ''[[Sherlock Hound]]'') is capable of devising brilliant criminal schemes and performing remarkable feats of engineering, but has trouble with common-sense issues like checking the pressure gauge on a steam press so it doesn't explode, ensuring that the river he's using for a [[Hostage for Macguffin]] exchange is actually deep enough to be any sort of obstacle, or not following a small child out onto an aircraft wing that's made out of paper and can't possibly support his weight.
* ''[[Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]'' causes ceaseless debate, in the series and amongst the fans, over whether his happy-go-lucky, lecherous, impulsive and often moronic antics are the real him and he's simply ''just that lucky'' (perhaps '''because''' [[The Fool|he's such a moron]]), or if he's a [[Magnificent Bastard]] who finds [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] to be the perfect disguise. Or he could be a mixture of both; genuinely smart at core, but also either somewhat crazed or just lacking in common sense, so he isn't faking his antics in the slightest.
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* Sakura Shishidou in ''[[Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo]]'' is a [[Child Prodigy|twelve year-old]] [[Gadgeteer Genius]] who more frequently speaks in sound effects than with actual sentences.
* Where ''is'' [[Naruto]] in all this?? he may be your usual [[Idiot Hero]] but when in battle, he shows his ingenious talent at formulating tactics.
** His mother, Kushina is also implied to be this as {{spoiler|she admitted that her Ninjutsu grades in the Academy sucked, but she is apparently talented and knowledgeable in the art of Fuuinjutsu (Sealing Techniques) as it is her clan's specialty and apparently taught ''Minato'' the Uzumaki-Fuuinjutsu style which played a huge part in him becoming a legend}}
* [[Saiyuki]] might have the most genuinely ditzy of any ditz who ever did ditz in [[Cool Teacher|Koumyou]] [[Eccentric Mentor|Sanzo]]. He acts at times exactly like a valley girl, sleeps through his classes when he's in training, uses slang words he is FAR too old for, seems to misunderstand questions and situations a lot... and is also the youngest Sanzo priest ever before [[Big Bad|Ukoku]] and [[The Hero|Genjo]] come along, was a mentor figure to both of them, and also the only person both of them actually acknowledge as worthy of respect, was so powerful they bequeathed him two sutras, something never before done, and generally is one of the biggest badasses in the series, albeit one who died before it started. Is in interesting case in that his Genius is not really divorced from his Ditziness, and a lot of his incites come from that aspect of himself. But thats because Minekura is a good writer.
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* In ''[[Doom Patrol]]'', Flash Forward is [[The Smart Guy]] and a [[Deadpan Snarker]] who often shows a greater capacity for lateral or existential thought than his teammates. He's also a poor kid from rural Alabama who dropped out of school in the 7th grade.
* Miss Martian from the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' comic has pulled some rather impressive stunts like disguising herself to infiltrate a underground super fight league to free a bunch of trapped superheroes and working with a resistance cell in Final Crisis. She also threw a pie in Ravagers face and cried when Rose yelled at her.
* Every once in a while [[Harley Quinn]] will remind you that she ''is'' a certified psychologist. Interestingly, she seems to have been ditzy even ''before'' [[Love Makes You Crazy|going insane]], though.
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'''[[The Ditz|Brick]]:''' Stand down, Corporal Burgundy. I'm running this show now. Affirmative, a-ffir-ma-tive? - Affirmative. I'll take point. Champ, right flank. Gator Dirty Teacup. We will fan out, to a cobra double-helix formation. If we encounter any hostiles, silent throat cuts only. On my... mark.<br />
'''Ron Burgundy:''' Looks like the captain's back. }}
* Barbie in the third ''[[Toy Story]]'' movie, aside from being more of an [[Action Girl]] than you might expect, seems to have a bit of a knack for political science when the heroes confront the [[Big Bad]].
{{quote|'''Barbie:''' Authority should derive from the [[wikipedia:Consent of the governed|consent of the governed]], not from threat of force!}}
* Cleverly played with in the film ''[[Fools Gold|Fool's Gold]]'' with the character of [[Upper Class Twit|dim heiress]] Gemma. The female lead has been (impatiently) coaching Gemma she is smarter than she acts, so when Gemma has a sudden brainwave as the heroes return to their yacht the audience naturally expects some amazing insight that will find the treasure they have been searching for while confirming Gemma is more than just an airhead. Actually it turns out to be that Gemma has only just realized that the name of her father's ship ('The Precious Gem') is, get this, similar to ''her'' name.
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** Mr. Tulip in ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]'' is a [[Dumb Muscle|hulking bruiser]] who could probably be outsmarted by Detritus on a warm day. He's so dumb, in fact, that his efforts to cultivate a drug habit have resulted in him snorting baking soda, washing powder, powdered chalk, etc. and never knowing the difference. He doesn't even swear properly; he just drops an "-ing" three times in the average sentence, and it's not a euphemism for anything. Show the man a work of art, however, and you'll suddenly have a giant, slurry-mouthed, red-nostriled ''expert'' on your hands.
** Owlswick Jenkins in ''[[Discworld/Making Money|Making Money]]'' is clearly suffering from some sort of mental illness, including paranoid delusions of being followed by "Them", and so removed from reality that he he can't even comprehend the illegality of forging government stamps. But put him in front of a canvas and hand him some paints and he'll produce artwork so intricate that it's impossible to forge. [[The Igor|Igor]] tries to fix him by transferring his insanity [[It Makes Sense in Context|into a turnip]], but he loses his artistic abilities in the process and is forced to switch back.
** Leonard of Quirm shows flashes of this in his appearances. He's not so much "pure ditz" as he is absent minded and unbelievably naive, but he's also probably the most brilliant, and potentially dangerous, inventor on the Disc.
* Neville Longbottom in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' novels can't seem to cast even the simplest spell without a critical fumble... until he discovers that he's crazy skilled at Herbology.
** And of course, those [[Took a Level In Badass|badass levels he took]] around the 5th book helped a bit.
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* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'' Donna Noble was constantly self-defeating at her own brilliance, and yet her training as a temp has got her out more than one scrape.
** Jo Grant. She's a [[Plucky Girl]], skilled escapologist who once managed to dig her way out of her cell with a spoon. She's also [[The Ditz|thicker than a plank]].
*** She's also possibly the only character in the entire series (at least out of the John Pertwee era) to resist being hypnotised by [[The Master]] through ''sheer willpower'' alone.
**** To be fair, Jo can be said to have "matured" over the course of the series, starting off as this before gradually getting smarter.
** And Zoe Heriot, who was a whiz at physics--but didn't know her history (c.f. ''The Wheel in Space'' part 6, "The Stolen Earth") and had a hard time disregarding what she saw when she needed to (c.f. ''The Mind Robber'').
* Constable Turnbull of ''[[Due South]]'' is eccentric even compared to Fraser (the [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] series lead), is easily flustered, [[Cloudcuckoolander|sometimes clearly isn't operating on the same wavelength as the rest of the cast]], and doesn't perform very impressively at his actual job most of the time, but shows skill at cooking, art, and country music trivia.
* Doug from ''[[Scrubs]]''. Bonus points because it's his inadequacy (in being a doctor) that makes him such a genius in the morgue at figuring out what killed patients.
** Don't forget The Todd, who's a great surgeon, but is well...
* Reese from ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' is almost [[Too Dumb to Live]], but an amazing cook.
* Lulu from ''[[True Jackson, VP|True Jackson]]'' is a math wizard and very intelligent but she is also very ditzy and airhead.
* Kelly Bundy from ''[[Married... with Children]]'' has, on a couple of occasions, shown herself to have a few shining moments of competence. Such as figuring out the correct way to assemble a work desk that her father and neighbor had worked on for a day in a matter of seconds, and piercing an apple off the head of her brother with a bow and arrow when angered by her competitor.
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* Fletcher from ''[[ANT Farm]]'' skipped several grades due to his artistic ability, but he thinks snow angels are dead snowmen.
* In ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'', Bertie is an [[Upper Class Twit]]...but he sure can play the piano.
* In ''[[Survivor]]'''s 21st season, Nicaragua, contestant Jud [[Only Known by Their Nickname|Fabio]] Birza is revealed to be this. The early episodes show him doing some ''unbelievably'' stupid things like getting the fishing hook caught in his thumb, apparently not knowing crabs can pinch, annoying the hell out of other contestants, and asking Kelly B if she can move her prosthetic leg. He revealed later on that while he honestly is kind of this way in real life, he pretty much exaggerated this in the show specifically so people would underestimate him and he could pull a [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]. And boy did it work, as he {{spoiler|won the season}}.
* [[Glee|Brittany Pierce]] may think the square root of four is rainbows, but put the girl on a dance floor and prepare to be blown away. (Also, she knows an unbelievable amount about feline diseases.)
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* Largo from ''[[Megatokyo]]'' is a pretty good example. He has, at best, [[Cloudcuckoolander|a tenuous hold on reality]], but he's a genius when it comes to assembling and programming computers.
** Ping also qualifies, being an incredibly complex artificial intelligence system, combat droid and medical diagnosis unit that has been programmed to be a dizzy [[Shallow Love Interest]]. The other characters continue to express surprise when she suddenly displays detailed knowledge of her internal make up, no matter how often it happens.
* Fighter in ''[[
** Fighter was a genius for a few comics but then {{spoiler|[[Stupid Evil|Black Mage]] stabbed him in the head}}. He actually managed to store his genius persona in a part of his brain, unfortunately he stored it next to the part that knows everything about swords. The problem being that he really, really, ''really'' likes swords.
* Similarly, Mega Man in ''[[Bob and George]]'' is an idiot most of the time, but when he's fighting a Robot Master (or even ''thinks'' he is), he comes up with effective winning strategies. This can be explained in that his functions are 1. defeat the robot master and 2. be an idiot, so he always does the second except when he can't since he has to do the first.
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** For that matter, Elan, who is so [[Genre Savvy]] that he could probably recite the entire rest of the comic's plot if he focused hard enough on it. Of course he can't, as Intelligence was most probably his dump stat...
** The Monster in the Dark is obviously as dumb as toast. Except that [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0700.html here], it instantly sees that she's working with only half a ritual.
*** Well, the Monster isn't so much ''dumb'' as "lets other people do all his thinking for him because it's easier". He's also quite possibly a child by the standards of his species, but we can't know that for sure until we find out ''what'' that species is (he could just be an [[Adult Child]]).
* Several RPG-based comics seem to use a combination of Fighter and Gourry as a template: Hero of ''[http://www.rpgworldcomic.com/ RPG World]'' and Karn of ''[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/ Adventurers!]'' come to mind.
* Mei Ling is portrayed this way in ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]''.
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* ''[[Homestuck]]'': [[The Hero|John Egbert]]. In the beginning he was always goofing off, pulling pranks and acting like a kid, but he used his knowledge of programming and data structure to figure out [[Item Crafting|the alchemization system]] very quickly, and at this point is easily [[Physical God|the strongest]] of the protagonists... though he came into that status unintentionally and pretty much by accident. Similarly, his sister Jade Harley is a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] [[Strange Girl]]... who happens to have a working knowledge of robotics and nuclear technology, is successful at selectively cloning and breeding frogs to create a perfect god-frog in less than 24 hours, and is the one who both formulated and is about to execute the plan to save both the kids and the trolls from their impending doom.
** Jade has likely since passed John as strongest character, now being a combination of {{spoiler|an entity with deep knowledge of the game world, an omnipotent dog, and and a God with powers over space itself.}}
* Gawaine in ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'' seems to be the classic [[Dumb Muscle|Dumb Warrior]] in the Fairytale Arc, but in the Space Arc, he's the ship's engineer ... and ''still'' often comes across as a Dumb Warrior. According to Fairytale!Arthur "Gawaine's not stupid. He just hasn't any retention for what's outside his field of interest." This is engineering in the Space Arc, the roll of arms in the Fairytale Arc, and computer science in the Contemporary Arc.
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* [[Meaningful Name|Melody]] from ''[[Josie and the Pussy Cats]]'' is a [[Genius Ditz]] whose talent is music.
* In one episode of ''[[Daria]]'', Brittany shows herself to be a tactical genius in a game of paintball.
** She's actually not really that stupid, but [[Obfuscating Stupidity|acts it]] to fit in. She knows a lot about cheerleading and happens to be a little more streetsmart than booksmart.
** From the same vein, Stacey from the Fashion Club. The members of the fashion club look almost completely ditzy with Sandi being all their brains. However, when Sandi and Quinn temporarily quit the fashion club, Stacey steps up and is the only one willing to actually ''do'' anything with the club, but is frustrated by [[Cloudcuckoolander|Tiffany]] and the lack of members otherwise. During "Is it Fall yet?" the tutor mentions that Stacey isn't as dumb as she thinks she is. Honestly, Stacey just has some problems with self-esteem.
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'''s titular character is a scientific and engineering genius, repeatedly showing himself capable of building devices beyond even those of his own species, such as a nigh-invincible nanotech exoskeleton, a time machine, a device capable of turning house pets into civilization-destroying abominations, and a monster capable of extracting energy from devouring ''anything''. Zim could probably have destroyed Earth in a day, had he not been utterly incapable of common sense -- his inventions always [[Bungling Inventor|blow up in his own face]], usually [[Hoist by His Own Petard|through no-one else's fault but his own]]. He's also more than capable of using the gullibility and general idiocy of humans to his own advantage in certain cases.
* The members of the band Dethklok in ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' are completely incompetent at anything not related to music, partying, or contract negotiation.
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** Or that he's a good Machiavellian politician, somehow uniting the Democrats and the Republicans in Springfield's presidental election by staying politically independent, and drove some effective campage to get the majority of Springfield's votes.
** Considering Bart had been in France for quite some time with no one speaking English to him, it's not all that surprising he learned it. The easiest, best, and quickest way to learn a language is to be completely immersed in it.
*** Bart also mastered Spanish on short notice for a family trip. That their destination was [[Critical Research Failure|Brazil]] made the feat only slightly less impressive.
*** Throughout the series, Bart has also been seen speaking Japanese and Cantonese. He also seems to have at least some proficiency with Latin.
*** Bart may have inherited this from Homer, who has been seen speaking Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and [[Beyond the Impossible|penguin]]. He also seemed to be well on his way to understanding Hindi while eavesdropping on an argument in that language.
** "The Boys Of Bummer" revealed that Lenny is an author of mystery novels that a praised by ''[[Stephen King]].''
* Sewer Urchin from ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' is ineffectual, annoying, and smelly, but when The Tick and Arthur need his help to do crimefighting in the sewers, he proves to be the "apotheosis of cool".
* Wally from ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]''. Robin says that they need a dumb, illogical idea to find Red Tornado. Cue everyone turning to Kid Flash:
{{quote|'''Kid Flash''': As a matter of fact...}}
** He's probably more of a [[Ditzy Genius]] in general, though--he's a science prodigy who purposely gave himself superpowers, it's just that he's also the [[Plucky Comic Relief]].
* Philly Phil from ''[[Class of 3000]]'' has, at best, average intelligence. However, he can't be beat when it comes to building devices at the drop of a hat.
* Skeeter from ''[[Doug]]'' is a ditz in day-to-day interaction through and through, and he has a phobia of taking tests. When he ends up taking a standardized placement test ''without realizing it was a test'', he gets a ''perfect score'', and it's revealed that he's actually amazingly skilled in mechanics. This goes unmentioned for the rest of the Nickelodeon run, but it gets brought up now and then in the Disney run.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* High functioning autistic savants such as Kim Peek and Daniel Tammet while significantly lacking in social skills and maturity are geniuses. Daniel managed to learn <s>fluent</s>stilted but comprehensible Icelandic in under a week and Kim Peek would be able to answer virtually any question pertaining to historical dates, statistics or any obscure trivia.
** Kim Peek didn't actually have autism, but rather, an unnamed developmental disability due to brain damage.
* Hikari Oe, son of the novelist Kenzaburo Oe, is developmentally disabled and autistic, and the inspiration behind his father's prizewinning novel A Personal Matter. He is also a very talented musician who expresses himself through music imitating bird calls.
* [[Kanye West]] is a talented producer and musician in the studio. Outside of the studio, he is so lacking in common sense and basic social graces one gets the impression that he's not all there and-
** [[Interrupting Meme|Yo article]]! Imma really happy for you and [[Memetic Mutation|Imma let you finish]], but [[Kanye West]] has some of the [[Kanye West/Memes|best memes of all time]]!
* In the antiques trade, someone who instinctively recognises a genuine antique without any training is a "divvy", probably short for "diviner". Divvies are stereotyped as not very bright (because they often don't actually ''know'' anything about antiques, beyond "Yes, that's valuable"), which had led to the term entering general British slang for a stupid person, with or without [[Genius Ditz]] qualities.
* Truth in television as many people do find that while they are incredibly sharp in one aspect of their lives they may be incredibly incompetent in the other. Like the Maths genius who cannot make people listen to him or the eloquent actor who has failing grades.
* [[Britney Spears]] during her glory years. Offstage and during interviews she seems a bit flaky, but when she gets onstage she's a great dancer and performer (or used to be) and one of the most successful pop stars ever.
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