Insufferable Genius: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Dick''': I made the front page of ''The Daily Badgerian'' again.

'''Tommy''': What's it say?

 

At first glance, the '''Insufferable Genius''' appears to be exactly the type who's doomed to learn [[An Aesop]]: he's very talented, ''knows'' he's very talented, and doesn't mind ''telling you repeatedly'' what a talented person he is. But the difference between him and your standard loudmouth is that he ''really '''is''' that good'', and when placed in a difficult situation he can actually work his way out of it—so maybe he ''does'' have a right to brag.

 

{{noreallife|Calling real-life people "insufferable" is a bad idea.}}

{{examples}}

* Ryoma Echizen from ''[[The Prince of Tennis]]''. At twelve, he beats high school players with ease, before revealing that he's [[I Am Not Left-Handed|really left-handed]], and, if you watch the anime, also defeats professional players in the US Open. Frequently taunts his opponent with "Mada Mada Dane" ("You still have lots more to work on"). A prick, really. Made all the more obvious by titling the chapters as 'Genius #'.

** Keigo Atobe is quite like that, being a mix of [[The White Prince]] with [[Magnificent Bastard]] ''and'' [[Large Ham]]. And what makes it worse is that he's the biggest [[Draco in Leather Pants]] within [[Portmanteau Series Nickname|Tenipuri]] fandom.

* Sergeant Major Kururu from ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' has a mischievous streak a mile long, and seems more interested in amusing himself than completing the invasion of Earth. However, he's still a (technically senior) member of the Keroro Platoon, and the group's "ideas" guy.

* Skuld from ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' practically ''oozes'' this trope, and never receives anything to cut down on her massive ego. In order to balance this out, the writers had to have her fail constantly at her main goal in breaking up Keiichi and her sister Belldandy.

** Though this is only from the audience's perspective. Light would never let another human being know he felt that way - though it leaks out more and more towards the end.

** L is this too, at least as far as Aizawa is concerned.

* Hiko from ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' loves bragging and calling himself a genius, but he really is much stronger than any other character in the series.

* Toru Muhyo of [[Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation]] is the youngest Executor in history, has an incredible amount of tempering and can use highly advanced magical laws to sentence dangerous spirits. He also frequently talks down to other MLS agents, belittles Roji, and mocks people who try to get ahead through hard work alone (which is a personal issue for him, since his best friend struggled to become an Executor to support his mother, then turned evil after he lost his mother and was passed over for the position almost simultaneously).

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[Lex Luthor]] might not be the smartest man in the DC Comics continuua, but he's close. And he's going to let you know it, any second now.

{{quote|'''Lex Luthor''': [[Superman (film)|Lex Luthor, the greatest criminal mind of our time!!]]}}

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Young Frankenstein]]''. Frederick has his moments.

* Matt Damon's character from ''[[Good Will Hunting]]'' can be this at times, particularly when explaining to Stellan Skarsgaard's character how frustrated he is.

* Jude Quinn, the [[Bob Dylan]] [[Expy]] played by [[Cate Blanchett]] in [[I'm Not There]], has shades of this.

* Duncan from ''[[Mystery Team]]'' fakes the genius part, but gets the insufferable down pat. He spent his childhood memorizing bits of trivia, and assumed this was enough to make him a "Boy Genius."

 

== Literature ==

* Lily Moscovitz from ''[[The Princess Diaries]]'' is [[Informed Ability|said to be brilliant]] but has absolutely no people skills. Whatsoever.

* Hercule [[Poirot]] never gets tired of explaining his genius, but since he's only ever failed to solve ''one'' case in a thirty-year-plus career, one might consider giving him a little slack. Even [[Agatha Christie]] thought Poirot was an insufferable know-it-all and grew tired of writing him. Perhaps this is the reason that Poirot admits to that he too finds his own arrogance obnoxious, but explains it away as part of his facade of [[Obfuscating Stupidity]].

* Kirsty from ''[[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy]]'' is a recognized genius and tends to win absolutely everything. However her constantly explaining to everyone just how stupid they are tends to drive most people away from her, which she assumes is a character flaw in everybody else.

* [[Sherlock Holmes]] very seldom brags about how smart ''he'' is, but he is always ready to snarkily disparage the intellect of anyone who fails to keep up with his deductive leaps. Watson is really a paragon of self-restraint considering the verbal abuse he takes from Holmes. Resentment toward this conceited attitude is probably why it takes so long for the Scotland Yard detectives to (grudgingly, at first) admit that he really ''is'' as brilliant as he thinks he is.

{{quote|'''[[Sherlock Holmes]]:''' You mean well, Watson. Shall I demonstrate your own ignorance?}}

* [[Dragonlance|Raistlin Majere]] is another arrogant [[Tall, Dark and Snarky]] magician who is ''really'' that good. He managed to defeat all the gods of Krynn and achieve godhood in an alternate time line, after all.

** From memory he was only beaten with his own assistance, too...

** Gandalf, for those not familiar with Tolkien's 'verse, is basically a ''demi-god'' working for [[The Powers That Be]].

* T'Passe from ''[[The Acts of Caine]]''. She's very much philosophically inspired by Caine, the series' protagonist. She meets him in prison, and is proud to discover Caine could hear her lecturing the other prisoners from his separate cell - until Caine explains that he was desperately waiting for someone to knife her.

* The Hideous Hog in the ''[[Bridge in The Menagerie]]'' series. While he is by far [[The Ace|the best bridge player]] in the group, he's all too quick to puff up his own importance. Themistocles Papadopolous, a.k.a. Papa The Greek, is just as bad about proclaiming his ability, though he usually [[Too Clever by Half|outsmarts himself]].

 

{{quote|'''Dayna:''' Don't you ever get bored of being right?

'''Avon:''' Just with the rest of you being wrong. }}

** In one episode, after Winchester has deftly saved a patient's leg from being amputated, Colonel Potter says that Winchester has "A silo full of smug", but definitely knows which end of a scalpel is up.

** Compare this with Hawkeye, Trapper and BJ, who use their mad surgical skills as a [[Weirdness Coupon]] rather than boasting about them, and contrast with Frank Burns, who is [[Ted Baxter|just as convinced of his ability despite having none]].

* When he was introduced on ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', Rodney McKay—prickly, whiny, and arrogant—continually got shown that he was not always right. In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', he doesn't have to worry about being upstaged since Carter, the one person possibly smarter than him, is at least two galaxies over, so his brains, and considerable courage under pressure, have been critical in saving the day so many times that his friends and the rest of the Atlantis team is willing to accommodate him. And, of course, he's always willing to brag about how he is the smartest guy in the world at the drop of a hat. In on scene, his password consisted of 3 birth dates: Newton's, Einstein's and ''his'', to which Sheppard mused "Never underestimate that man's ego."

* ''[[Combat Hospital]]'' has Rebecca starting out as one of these, but slowly getting [[Character Development]] over the course of the first season to mature out of it.

* ''[[Crusade]]'' had the Insufferable Genius archeologist/linguist.

* ''[[Leverage]]'': Hardison, Nate, and Sterling all have traits of this. [[Evil Genius|Chaos]], Hardison's [[Evil Counterpart]] is a full-on example, respecting absolutely no one but himself.

 

== Radio ==

* Eugene Meltsner of [[Adventures in Odyssey]], though he softens a bit over time.

 

 

* Lancelot's [["I Am" Song]] in ''[[Camelot (theatre)|Camelot]]'' brags about his prowess in battle and spiritual purity. Everyone at court finds him intolerable until the joust when he proceeds to do everything he says he can, up to and including bringing a man he (accidentally) killed back to life.

* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]: Cyrano invokes this, because his great intellect is used to humilliate everyone who is not his friend. This is not so much to show he is a genius, but to show Viscount De Valvert that [[Jerkass|Cyrano is truly Insufferable]]:

'''Cyrano:''' ''(still reciting):'' And an envoi

Of four lines... }}

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Halo]]'', 343 Guilty Spark is the ''embodiment'' of this trope. He brags about his own intellect, actually ''has'' said intellect, and '''never''' stops telling you (and ''himself'') so. He's also a backstabbing [[Jerkass]].

 

* Tohsaka in ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'' coupled with being [[The Tease]] for additional help making Shirou feel like a moron. Partially subverted {{spoiler|because while she is every bit as good as she says, that's ''only'' as good as she is. Shirou is not a genius like she is, but he tends to accomplish a lot more cool and supposedly impossible things because unlike her, he pushes his limits [[Determinator|and doesn't quit when that's not enough]].}}

* Yaginuma in ''[[Kara no Shoujo]]'' is a grade A jerkass, but he does have the reputation to back it up.

 

* Vaarsuvius from ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' is a brilliant spellcaster who has spent decades studying the craft and saved the team's bacon several times, and will never let them forget it.

** Although this eventually gets taken to the point of [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstruction]], as it [[Deal with the Devil|bites]] [[Fatal Flaw|him/her]] [[Pride|in]] [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|the]] [[Break the Haughty|ass]] ''[[Tragic Hero|big time]]''.

* Occasionally, Tycho from ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]''. The real Tycho [[Self-Deprecation|paints himself this]] [[Rule of Funny|way]], [http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/9/10/ at least]:

{{quote|[My mother] was made to endure much as I transitioned from absolutely insufferable teenager to an adult who had found a way to get paid for being insufferable. }}

 

== Web Original ==

* Jobe Wilkins of the [[Whateley Universe]]. In a [[Super-Hero School|school]] full of genius devisers and gadgeteers, plus the people smart enough to teach said inventors, he treats everyone else like they're a moron compared to him. He could be right.

* [[Chuggaaconroy]] is a rather mild (and likely unintentional) version of this, in regards to how to properly raise a team of Pokemon and use them in battle, if his LP of ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire|Pokemon Emerald]]'' is anything to go by.

 

== Western Animation ==

*** Though it's not the fact {{spoiler|Tarantulas betrayed him yet again}} that Megatron was angry with, but that he failed. "I can suffer your treachery, Lieutenant, BUT NOT YOUR ''INCOMPETENCE''!"

*** It is expected of Predacons to attempt to depose their leaders and take their place. A leader who allows himself to be betrayed doesn't deserve to be in charge.

** Lisa herself often qualifies to this as well.

** All the characters who make up the [[Mensa]] group of Springfield were this. Oddly, with the exception of perhaps Comic Book Guy, this was a break away from their usual characterizations.

* AJ from ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]''.

* Braniac 5 from the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' cartoon. He mentions his twelth level intelligence practically every episode. "You're good...but you don't have a twelth level intelligence." "A twelth level intelligence has no need for improvisation, Bouncing Boy." Gaaaah.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:Ego Tropes]]

[[Category:Intelligence Tropes]]

[[Category:The Jerk Index]]