Seemingly-Profound Fool: Difference between revisions

* Subverted twice in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel "Interesting Times", when Rincewind is claimed as the Great Wizzard, who will lead the Red Army to victory. Firstly, because Rincewind ''does'' understand the question and knows he doesn't have the answer, but can't convince anyone of this; and second, because the leader of the Red Army knows this as well, but thinks they need a symbol. And, of course, [[Double Subversion|double-subverted]] when he does, though a combination of chance and cowardly cunning.

* In ''[[That Hideous Strength]]'' by C.S. Lewis, the villains find a man they believe to be the reawakened Merlin. Since they want Merlin on their side as an ally, they treat him with great respect, addressing him stammeringly in Latin, which they believe to be his native tongue. They are unsurprised when he does not deign to answer them. Little do they know that he's actually a hobo who just happened to be wandering around the area where they thought Merlin was, and who knows better than to disabuse them of their illusions about his identity.

* Mr. Dick serves in this capacity to some extent to Betsey Trotwood in ''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]]''.

* In a book of Jewish Jokes there is this joke. An antisemitic priest was in charge of a town, and challenged the Jews of the town to a sign language debate with him, with a catch: if the person they pick to debate loses, all the Jews must leave. No one volunteers for the debate except a poor fool. At the debate, the priest draws a big circle in the air. The fool stamps on the ground. The priest holds up three fingers. The fool shakes his head and holds up one. The priest takes out bread and wine. The fool begins to eat an apple. The priest then declares that the fool had won the debate. The priest's explanation: "The circle meant that God was everywhere in the world. The stamp on the ground meant God was not in Hell. The three fingers represented the Trinity. Holding up one finger meant that God was one and indivisible. The bread and wine represented the blood and flesh of Jesus, but when he reminded me of the original sin, I knew he had won." The ''fool's'' explanation, on the other hand: "The priest pointed far away, meaning that all the Jews must leave. I stamped on the ground, to say that we're staying right here. The three fingers meant that we had three days to get out. The one finger meant that not one of us was leaving. Then, I guess he gave up, since he took out his lunch, so I took out mine."

== Web Original ==

 

* In the ''Time Squad'' miniseries of [[Blockhead]], the eponymous character is strung along on a time-traveling sci-fi adventure to stop a [[Mad Scientist]] from destroying time and space itself. As the series goes on, he inadvertently becomes [[The Heart]] in the [[Five-Man Band]] that is eventually formed as well as the [[Worthy Opponent]] and [[Arch Enemy]] of the [[Big Bad]], despite being nothing but a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] [[Talkative Loon]] throughout the entire series. He ultimately does save the universe, but even then it seems more like one of his random fits of insanity than anything.