Obfuscating Stupidity/Oral Tradition
Examples of Obfuscating Stupidity in Oral Tradition include:
Folklore
- Folk legends of various European peoples speak of entire towns and villages of unusually smart folks who purposefully feign stupidity. This article on the Other Wiki sums it up pretty well.
- The story of Hamlet is based on the legend of the Danish Prince Amled, whose father was murdered by his Evil Uncle Fenge. Amled took to sitting near the fire and carving wooden hooks all day, telling everyone that he would use them to avenge his father. Fenge thought he was crazy - until the night where Amled used the hooks to pin down Fenge and his men under their sleeping blankets and burn down the palace over their heads before they could get free.
- A female version of the legend has a man kill his tribe's chief and take his place, shortly before lusting after the former chief's daughter. Said daughter knew full well who murdered her father, but pretended to not know anything. Then the murderer asked her to meet him in his tent one night, and she brought a knife with her...
- According to his legend, Saint Simeon the Holy Fool. He was a simple ascetic monk whom God himself asked to act like a madman so he could save souls, and lo did he make honor to that.
- One old story tells about a guy who owned someone else a big amount of money and would be thrown into debtors' prison if he couldn't pay. However, he found an Amoral Attorney who promised him to bail him out for four gold pieces, to be paid after a successful acquitting. So the lawyer advises his client: "When in court, say nothing but 'bleh!', whatever happens!" The process starts, and the client indeed answers nothing but "Bleh!" no matter what he's asked. Finally the judge has enough:
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Judge: "Why does your client say nothing but 'bleh!'?" |
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- So the judge comes to the conclusion that the defendant can't be condemned and lets him go. Now the Amoral Attorney demands his money. But the client, again, just says "Bleh!"
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Amoral Attorney: "Are you joking? You promised me four gold pieces! I want them now!" |
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- Now that's a lawyer Hoist by His Own Petard...
- The 16th-century Teutonic legend of the Schildbürgers says they were great sages who went far and wide to advise princes—until their wives got sick of them going far and wide and they needed to get the princes to stop seeking their advice.
Religion
- The Bible:
- God himself does it in Genesis - pretending to Adam and Eve that he isn't omniscient. They apparently never twigged, and neither did their son Cain. He also tends to talk to himself in the third person plural a lot, even when unobserved.
- In all fairness, He does that for man's sake, so we can understand what's going on in the mind of an omniscient being. If you knew everything, past, present, and future, you'd have to "dumb it down" too if you wanted to talk with someone who wasn't omniscient, especially when you knew they weren't going to listen to you anyway.
- God himself does it in Genesis - pretending to Adam and Eve that he isn't omniscient. They apparently never twigged, and neither did their son Cain. He also tends to talk to himself in the third person plural a lot, even when unobserved.
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