Ping-Pong Naivete: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Stewie''': (angry) That's not the point! Don't change the... [[Is It Something You Eat?|it's a kind of cake]]?|''[[Family Guy]]''}}

 

 

* Besides his famous [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a series of humorous adventure stories about [[Large Ham]] Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard. While in some stories, Gerard is rather clever and appears competent despite his inflated opinion of himself. On the other hand, he is a dolt in others and very much an [[Unreliable Narrator]].

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Vala Mal Doran's knowledge of popular culture in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' is inconsistent in the first few episodes of season 10.

* Summer Roberts from ''[[The OC]]'' swings wildly back and forth between being a clueless, uniformed airhead and a savvy student who aced her SAT scores and got into Brown.

* The 'bots on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' do this on purpose to mess with Joel and Mike.

* In ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'', the aliens' knowledge of Earth. One particular example is a second-season episode in which it's mentioned that Sally is going bowling. A fourth-season episode had her going bowling for the first time and not even knowing what it was. For the first two seasons, the Solomons were terrified of Jell-O (thinking it was a dangerous alien entity) yet in a first-season episode Sally mentions making "Jell-O with cheese." Dick is sometimes supremely sarcastic, but at other times he doesn't seem to be able to recognize sarcasm and interprets everything literally.

** A particularly severe example is the episode when, very late in the show's run, and after hundreds of scenes in restaurants, the aliens finally figure out what "tipping" is.

*** Perhaps justified in that, especially by his Eleventh incarnation, the Doctor has a fantastic quantity of knowledge about the universe and just like is often the case with even normal humans, the more you know in general the harder it is to at least immediately recall specific pieces of information.

* The titular character from ''[[Sherlock]]''. In one episode he's so oblivious John has to explain to him what a date is, while in another he is able to successfully manipulate another character by appealing to her romantic feelings for him. And then in another episode he correctly deduces that this same character is in love with someone, but is very surprised to find out that it's him.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

 

* Also might apply to the many wrestlers who underestimate [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.]] ''after'' he has already beaten them! [[John Bradshaw Layfield]] definitely counts (and, in fact, this trope ultimately cost him his entire career), but, shockingly, also [[What the Hell, Hero?|perennial babyface]] ''[[Shawn Michaels]]'', who once taunted Mysterio to go back to the locker room because "Hornswoggle isn't out here yet!"

 

** Maybe she's just really bad at Sense Motive, and thus easily fooled by Bluff checks. She's pretty smart otherwise, with the minor exception that she's not real clear on the differences between humans and sprites.

*** [[Fish Out of Water]] is the explanation that is invoked with her. It works better than you might think; she looks extra-foolish from our point of view since we know what she's getting wrong, but that's from ''our'' point of view. Of course, this is not to say it doesn't get done in an exaggerated way as well.

*** Elan does this pretty often; he usually isn't competent at much besides [[Pungeon Master|punning]] and tends to [[Idiot Hero|miss obvious things for the sake of humor]], but he occasionally [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0816.html picks up on things that flew over the heads of his smarter friends] for no apparent reason.

* The cast of ''[[Homestuck]]'' are all thirteen years old or about that age. Sometimes they act in extremely adult ways, but other times they remind you that they are children. John watches R-rated action movies and has a huge crush on Liv Tyler (and arguably [[Nicolas Cage]]) but when Karkat implies Vriska likes him, he freaks out and says he's never felt that way about anyone before.

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'', due to being a 10-year-old boy, Bart fits the trope when it comes to things like sex, but that doesn't stop him from constantly making crude jokes and innuendo. In one episode, Homer sat him down and they had [[The Talk]], yet in a later episode, this exchange occurred:

'''Darcy''': Wow, you really are 10. }}

** Also,

** While this trope often applies to Bart, it should be noted that the episode where Homer gives him "the talk" takes place two years in the future. It wouldn't affect his knowledge of sex in the current day.

** Likewise, Lisa switches between world-weary cynicism and childlike naivete as the plot demands. In one instance, within seconds - she hurls a bucket of red paint at Krusty (who's wearing a coat made from some kind of animal skins), screams "Fur is murder!" then follows it with "When's the Krusty movie coming out?"

* Starfire from the animated version of ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]''. On occasion, it seems like she's learning and adapting to earth culture, only to be as naive as ever about it the next episode.

** Hilariously played with in one episode with a blatant example of [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]:

'''Starfire''': "Your Earth ways are strange to me. Please, what is this 'so-fa' of which you speak?" }}

** "What's to understand? You get a boner, slap her titties around, stick it inside her and pee."

** In "Marjorine" the boys thought the girls' paper fortune teller could actually predict the future, yet they were able to build and operate hi-tech machinery to study it with.

* Ickis of ''[[Aaahh Real Monsters]]''.

* Otto and Twister from [[Rocket Power]], with Twister being more the naive one. One particular episode [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this in effect; the gang convince Eddie (Prince of The Netherworld) to skate in his empty pool as long as they keep it to themselves and leave before his parents get home. Twister, for his part, keeps quiet, even when his brother Lars comes to make mischief. Otto on the other hand, kept bragging about it to strangers like it was a party, even to Lars. Reggie's [[What the Hell, Hero?]] one liner sums it up perfectly.

* ''[[Animaniacs]]'' has Skippy Squirrel, who switches between an innocent [[Foil]] to his Aunt Slappy and a companion to her shenanigans whenever the episode calls for one or the other.

* Sector V from ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]''. Justified, as they're all 10.