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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"You don't even need them! You just think they make you look a bit clever."''|'''The Doctor''', to '''himself,''' ''[[Doctor Who]]'', "[[Doctor Who/Recap/2007 Ci NS Time Crash
Usually, only people with [[Blind Without'Em|vision problems]] go to the trouble of getting a pair of glasses. But sometimes, we have a character who dons a pair of spectacles even though they have perfect eyesight. The
A sort of sister trope to [[Goggles Do Nothing]].
{{examples}}
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* A [[McDonald's]] commercial shows two men, wearing glasses and sitting at an intellectual coffee shop, somehow found out that [[McDonald's]] also serves coffee. They immediately rebel against the pseudo-intellectual front they had been putting up to get their coffee, and yes, one of them was pulling this trope. The other one [[Blind Without'Em|was not]].
* Miu from ''[[
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* Miu from ''[[Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi]]'' wears these to make herself stand out less, and although she's still a head-turner, she's not as much of one. That said, when she finally ditches them and decides to be more open, it does not go unnoticed.
* ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'': Yuki Nagato's glasses seem to be simply an aesthetic feature, and she stops wearing them after Kyon tells her she's cuter without them.
** She uses them for "magical" purposes in some novels (such as The Disappearance) but they don't correct her vision. Except in the spinoff, where she's [[Blind Without'Em]].
* ''[[Angel Beats
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]''
** Though people read into it for different reasons, [[Love Freak|America]] doesn't need his glasses. They represent Texas (rather, he puts them on after annexing Texas) but really seems to exist soley for looking [[Moe Moe|cuter]].
** Something similar happens with [[Team Dad]] Austria, who's said via [[Word of God]] to be more or less [[Generic Cuteness|plain, looks-wise]].
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
* It's implied in ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' that neither [[Evil Genius|Aion]] or [[Mad Scientist|Shader]] need their glasses. In Shader's case she's probably wearing them because it makes her look brainy, in Aion's case it might be that, or it might be to make him look [[Scary Shiny Glasses|more intimidating]]. In Aion's case, they're probably also there to hide from the audience that {{spoiler|Chrono and Aion are identical twins}}.
* In ''[[D.N.Angel]]'', Satoshi doesn't actually need his glasses, and admits it to people when they ask. However, it's implied they might function as a way to {{spoiler|hold back his alter-ego, Krad.}}
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* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', Gokudera Hayato aquires a pair of glasses half way through the series for no apparent reason, aside from the fact that they make him [[Estrogen Brigade Bait|look even cuter]]. Well, he does seem to use them whenever he reads things. When studying Sistema CAI, when teaching Tsuna to swim, when trying to learn how to properly cook... Looks like it can be deduced that Gokudera has a little vision problem when it comes to reading things up close. He seems to have no problem in school without his glasses, however. He doesn't care about school, though.
* Jin from ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' wears designer glasses which are completely pointless, expressly for the purpose of looking sophisticated.
* {{spoiler|Firo}} of ''[[Baccano
* Azuma from ''[[Bamboo Blade]]'' got herself (fake) glasses in the hopes that they would help improve her marks.
* Used by
* Dentaku, of ''[[Litchi Hikari Club]]''. Suitably, his epithet is "Science Boy".
* When the master assassin ''[[Golgo 13]]'' needs to infiltrate a chemical warfare lab by posing as a skilled chemist, his disguise consists of... a pair of glasses. It's arguable whether they make him look smarter, but they actually DO make him look less intimidating somehow, which is an accomplishment in itself, considering his [[Perpetual Frowner|face]].
* Ginnosuke from ''[[
* Ninamori wore lensless glasses over contacts during the school play in ''[[FLCL]]'', instead of just wearing normal glasses, because she doesn't want the other students to know she has imperfect vision.
* ''[[
** When he first grabs a pair in the anime he punches out the lenses in them so he can actually see as they originally belonged to someone else (presumably his father
* An unanimated chapter of ''[[
* Sebastian in ''[[Black Butler]]'' puts on glasses whenever he is acting as a tutor, even to Ciel who knows perfectly well that Sebastian has no need for those. Apparently it's an image thing.
▲== Comics -- Books ==
* In the [[Marvel Universe]], Jeanne-Marie Beaubier a.k.a. Aurora of the Canadian team [[Alpha Flight]] wore fake glasses when assuming the [[Split Personality|persona]] of a straight-laced schoolteacher.
* In the same universe, some versions of [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] claim that Peter Parker never needed glasses at all, but his Aunt May feared he would strain his eyes by reading without them. They were broken in an early strip, and after that he has never worn them again. The gag shows up again every couple of years, where after seeing something supernatural/incredible, Peter will muse that maybe he needs to go back to wearing glasses.
* [[Superman|Clark Kent]], of course, whose glasses mainly serve as [[Clark Kenting|his disguise]]. In some versions his glasses do have something special about them.
* ''[[The Phantom (
== Fan Fiction ==▼
* In [[Dumbledores Army and The Year of Darkness (Fanfic)|DAYDverse]], Terry Boot had these when he was younger, to appear intelligent so the Sorting Hat would put him in Ravenclaw.▼
▲* In [[
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* Subversion: In the movie ''[[
* Played straight in ''[[High School Musical]]'' with Kelsi, completely averted with every other character in the movie.
* ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'': Tricia "Trillian" MacMillan, in her first scene has a pair of glasses to flag her character as clued-in.
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* In ''(Untitled)'' (yes, that's its name, parentheses and all), gallery owner Madeleine Gray has a whole collection of fake glasses she wears to look more sophisticated and hip, and she tries her hardest to prevent anyone from discovering that they're just for show.
* Joe wears glasses as part of the wealthy bachelor disguise he puts on to seduce Sugar in ''[[Some Like It Hot]]''.
== Literature ==
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* ''[[Harriet the Spy]]'' wears a pair of lens-less frames as part of her spy gear and sometimes to school because she thinks they make her look smarter.
* In one essay in [[Dilbert|Scott Adams']] book ''Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!'', he writes about how to appear smart. The first and most important tip he gives is to wear glasses, even if you don't need them.
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': The special episode "Time Crash", where the Doctor teases his own past self for wearing glasses he doesn't need in order to look "a bit clever". Ironically, the Tenth Doctor himself is practically infamous for his use of the brainy specs. The fact he has worn them in not only his fifth and tenth incarnations, but also, at least once in a [[Television Tie in Novel]], his eighth, which were pretty much his [[Older Than They Look|youngest-looking]] incarnations, rather suggests he might not really need them and just wears them to give himself more gravitas. Out of universe, [[David Tennant]] (the Tenth Doctor) has said that he wanted to have his Doctor frequently wearing glasses in order to give glasses-wearing kids a heroic role-model.
* On ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', in the flashback in "Arrivederci, Fiero," it's shown that Ted wore spectacles. When they accidentally break, however, he says they were merely "decorative."
* ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[Even Stevens]]'', [[Dumb Muscle|Donny]] watches a video on how to appear smarter. One of the video's suggestions is to wear glasses (Also, to use big words like "cornucopia, meaning 'bountiful' or 'a lot of'").
* In a recent episode of ''[[Better Off Ted]]'', Lem reveals that he has been doing this for the past ten years.
* Both Mulder and Scully are seen wearing glasses occasionally in the first season of ''[[The X-Files]]''. No explanation in-story for why both stopped using them after that. Mulder does make a passing reference to "need for corrective lenses" in the fourth-season episode "Home".
* In the ''[[
* ''[[
* On ''[[30
* ''[[
* Inverted on ''[[
* [[Spike Milligan]] in ''There's a Lot of It About'':
{{quote|
'''Spike:''' Because I have perfect eyesight, Doctor. }}
* In ''[[The Man
* [[Subverted]] on ''[[Dollhouse]]:'' in the first episode [[
* Ami in ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]''. She claims she feels awkward without them.
* Hugh Laurie, when hosting ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', was supposed to put on glasses at one point during a sketch, to make his character look smarter. Since he fumbled the [[Glasses Pull]] and couldn't get them on quickly, he just [[Throw It In|ad-libbed]], [[Lampshade Hanging|"Never mind, they're just an affectation."]]
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Worn by a character who was cut from ''[[GURPS]] [[Discworld]]''. Wilma is a hamster who was turned into a human, and now travels with [http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=2167 a strange group of adventurers]. Because she's so much smarter than she was as a hamster, she's convinced she's a genius. And because she's a genius, she should wear thick glasses. The fact said glasses ''impair'' her vision doesn't matter to her in the slightest.
== Video Games ==
* Charlie from the ''[[
* Emma plays this straight in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]''. When Raiden is about to escort her underwater, she takes off her glasses and he suggests for her to get contacts. Emma then admits that she can see perfectly fine and only wears the frames to look cuter.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'s'' [[Meaningful Name|Cerveau]] has glasses that are similar to [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Cyclops]]. But that didn't stop him from looking brainy.
* Scholars in ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' have two specially designed pieces of headgear that are mortarboards with built-in glasses. The lower-leveled one has Intelligence and augments their ability to regain MP. The higher leveled on has Mind (generally associated with wisdom in the game), elemental magic skill, and improves their spell-casting time. [[Fantastic Racism|But the amazing thing is that the mortarboards can even make Elvaans look smart!]]
* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'' and ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' most glasses do nothing (the lucky shades increase your luck), unless (in New Vegas only) you take the "Four Eyes" trait, which raise your perception with glasses and lower it without. Non-unique glasses are weightless, so if you think your character would look better with them, you can wear them without needlessly weighting yourself down.
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[
* Ping from ''[[Megatokyo]]'' does this once to try to get her classmates to like her. The plan fails, unfortunately.
* Sarin the Wizard of ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]'' wore a monocle in the first chapter (and ditches it right around the same time he gets permanently turned into a woman). It's later revealed in a flashback this was entirely an affectation; a kid said Sarin (a young, green-haired man wearing a grey hoodie) didn't look anything like a wizard. Sarin's response was to magically grow a (green) mustache, throw on a robe, and pop in a monocle, with the words, "Impaired vision equals smart!"
* Jyrras Gianna of ''[[Dan and
== Web Original ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Ask That Guy With
* In [[
{{quote|
''(NC and Linkara glare at Spoony)''
'''Spoony:''' ''(sheepishly)'' ... I need glasses. }}
** The other take of this was Spoony trying to cover his ass and eventually telling Critic that he'd do him. [[Black Comedy Rape|...he got his wish]].
* [[
** In the main cast commentary for ''[[
* [[James Rolfe]] doesn't need to wear glasses, as can be seen in some of his videos, but wears them in his persona as [[
* Halfway through [[Todd in
== Western Animation ==
* In an episode of ''[[
* On ''[[Daria]]'', noted [[The Ditz|ditzes]] Kevin and Brittany are convinced for one episode that glasses might make them smart. Brittany ''does'' say something intelligent and then declares, "Wow, these things really do work!" but Kevin gets a pair without lenses because he doesn't want to get ''too'' smart.
* In an episode of ''[[The Simpsons (
** Mind you Homer actually seems to be farsighted and has been shown wearing half moon spectacles while reading.
* It's been debated in ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' fandom whether or not Charles Foster Ofdensen's glasses are functional or just there to both accentuate his cleverness and make him seem more harmless than he really is (which isn't at all. He's the [[Badass Normal]]).
* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', during a [[Screw Learning, I Have Phlebotinum]] plot, Beezy dons a pair of glasses even though he has perfect eyesight. Heloise apparently needs hers to read, but in one episode she puts them on before giving advice, probably to appear smarter.
* Later episodes of ''[[
* On ''[[Family Guy]]'' Brian tries to show [[The Hills|Lauren Conrad]] how smart he is by taking out glasses to read. When she asks when he got reading glasses, he says he always wore them. She points out she knows they aren't real as she can see the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' logo.
== Real Life ==
* Drew Carey got laser surgery at some point, but started wearing a pair without lenses, because he looked weird without them. Not only that but he usually wears a specific ''style'' of glasses modeled after military-issue "Birth Control" glasses (so named because no one wearing them will ever get laid). This was lampshaded in one episode of ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'' where he addresses the audience wearing a slimmer, more stylish pair that he usually wears off camera before switching to his familiar ones right before the show starts.
* For a brief time, [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] wore these after he got laser surgery of his own, since his glasses were part of his iconic look. He quickly decided this was silly and simply ''altered his look'' instead.
* In his youth, [[Elton John]] played this trope straight when he started wearing glasses to copy his idol, Buddy Holly. Subverted, now that he can't see without them.
* This trope has its origins in Medieval and Renaissance Europe. The literate educated classes were often forced to read by candlelight, straining and eventually damaging their eyes. Therefore, intelligent people were more likely to need (and be able to afford) glasses than the ignorant masses, or those who earned their fortune in other ways.
** Reading in candlelight doesn't really damage your eyes. Growing old does, however, and if your job is to read and write, rather than farm, then you really need the glasses, hence the connection.
* Sadly believed to be played straight in real life by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which executed any "intellectuals" in their attempt to bring Cambodia back to a self-sufficient agricultural community, including [[Insane Troll Logic|anyone who wore glasses]].
* [[Canadian Politics|Stephen Harper]] started wearing glasses, seemingly for no reason other than to look smart. They
* Even people who don't need a vision correction (or only need a very minor correction, possibly unknown to themselves) are often advised to buy proper lenses anyway that correctly match the human eye and are of the same optical quality as lenses in prescription glasses. Because of the cost of those lenses some refuse and wear glasses with the demo lenses from the store still in the frame. Those lenses are often stamped with the name of the frame manufacturer on them, so as a result you can occasionally see people wearing aesthetic glasses whose lenses are half covered with a brand tag like [http://x35.xanga.com/b59e1714c7332278995702/w222246306.jpg Prada], [http://x65.xanga.com/456e1b1304135278995703/w222246307.png Vogue], etc.
* Anytime an actor who doesn't need glasses plays a character who does. For example, [[Daniel Radcliffe]], who has normal vision in real life, wears lensless glasses throughout the ''[[Harry Potter (
* Zachary Quinto has taken to wearing thick-rimmed glasses when he's in the midst of filming the Star Trek films because they help him hide his shaved eyebrows.
** The late [[Leonard Nimoy]] did the same during the filming of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]''.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Glasses Tropes]]
[[Category:Personal Appearance Tropes]]
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