Smart People Build Robots: Difference between revisions

[[File:Lucca_and_Robo_1241Lucca and Robo 1241.jpg|link=Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|frame|right|You should see the one she built for a fair.]]

So your resident [[The Smart Guy|smart guy]] is already [[Smart People Wear Glasses|bespectacled]], [[Smart People Play Chess|a master chess player]], and [[Smart People Know Latin|fluent in Latin]]. How else can you show how brilliant he is? Why, by having him build robots of course! May be [[Justified Trope|justified]] (said smart guy has a degree in [[The Engineer|engineering]], etc.) or [[Hand Wave|not]] (said smart guy is a teenager [[New Powers Asas the Plot Demands|who just happens to, among his many other skills, be able to create from scratch a]] [[Double Entendre|fully functional robot]]).

This may be because [[Hollywood Nerd|all nerds are good with technology]], so building robots is the [[Up to Eleven|next logical step]]. In [[Sci Fi]] stories, expect the creation to be an [[Artificial Intelligence|Artificially Intelligent]] [[What Measure Is a Non -Human?|anthropomorphic]] [[Robot Buddy]]. Or [[Killer Robot|Evil]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Iron Man]]'', Tony Stark is kidnapped while visiting Vietnam ([[Live Action Adaptation|Afghanistan in the film version]]) and ordered to help develop weapons for his captors. But instead of rigging a McGuiverMacGyver style escape plan, he uses the equipment he's given to build a suit of [[Power Armor]] and break out.

* [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Henry Pym]] and [[Fantastic Four|Reed Richards]], two [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|Omnidisciplinary Scientists]]s who build robots in their spare time. Pym's are [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|plot-relevant]], Richards' just hang around as background detail.

* Anakin Skywalker in ''[[StarThe WarsPhantom Menace|Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace]]'' is shown to have a preternatural talent for all things mechanical, in particular robots. Used not so much to show smartness per se, but rather cleverness and precociousness.

* Averted with ''[[Megamind]]'', who stops short at mere [[Mo Cap Mecha]] instead, and a [[Powered Armor]] for his assistant Minion (who depends on it, being a limbless talking fish.)

* Dr. Morbius in ''[[Forbidden Planet]]''

* In the ''[[CHERUB Series (Literature)|CHERUB Series]]'' book ''People's Republic'', Ethan is a geek who is into chess and building robotics, though given that he is a kid and it is not a [[Science Fiction]] series, these are relatively simple robots and do not incorporate things like human-like [[Artificial Intelligence]] and speech.

* In an episode of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard, construct a robot named [[Fun Withwith Acronyms|M.O.N.T.E.]] for the [[Overly Long Name|Southern California Robot Fighting League Round Robin Invitational]], though end up battling Barty Kripke's robot "the Krippler" in a street fight.

** Also [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]]d: There were a few jokes about them being defensive about how nerdy they were perceived by Penny, all the while doing the most geeky thing Penny could possibly imagine.

* On ''[[Myth BustersMythBusters]]'', Grant, who formerly built robots for ''[[Battlebots]]'', is [[Lampshaded]] as this type of [[The Smart Guy]] by the others as a [[Running Gag]].

* Screech in ''[[Saved Byby the Bell]]'' had his own robot that just hung around his bedroom.

* ''[[Series/Riptide|Riptide]]'' (TV Adventure series, not [[Riptide (Literature)|the novel]]): [[Gadgeteer Genius]] sometimes-helper Murray "Boz" Bozinsky has a robot he calls the RoBoz.

* [[Magic: theThe Gathering|Tezzeret, the Seeker]] is one of the cleverest people in the series, and has a penchant for building automota, golems and clockwork constructs, among other things. His cards can even turn your artifacts into robots to fight for you!

* In [[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]], [[The Smart Girl|smart girl]] Lucca has the skills and knowledge necessary to repair and reprogram a robot from the distant future to be her friend and party member. Good thing the future still uses [[Plug N Play Technology|C]].

* Inverted with ''[[Ctrl +Alt +Del]]'', where Ethan somehow manages to make his X-Box and Gamecube into sentient Robots.

* Sean 'Dark Smoke Puncher' [[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic)|McNinja]] is the family computer nerd, and fills his free time by building robot super animals. His father does not approve unless the robots hurt someone.

* Kat in ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. Annie also does it at first, but she just pieced together parts of a disassembled robot.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': Homer & Bart try to build a robot for the [[Show Within a Show]] "[[Robot Wars (TV series)|Robot Rumble]]." But they can't get it to work, so Homer makes a "robot" that's just him in a metal suit. They make it to the finals, where they're matched up against 5 time returning champs Professor Frink and son. So, played straight (the Frinks) and Inverted (Bart & Homer, being dumb, can't build a robot).

* Dexter of ''[[DextersDexter's Laboratory]]'' does a lot of advanced robotics.