Southern-Fried Genius: Difference between revisions

{{worktrope}}

[[File:half-life-2-orange-box-20070523011359219_385920070523011359219 3859.jpg|link=Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|frame|Has eleven doctorates. Builds automated turrets, teleporters, and strength-enhancing prosthetic limbs with 1960s technology. Enjoys cornbread and cream gravy.]]

This character may have the same down-home sensibilities or otherwise act like a [[Good Ol' Boy|good ol' southerner]], but is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|very, very smart]]. Maybe they exhibit [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]] alongside their [[Sophisticated As Hell|Southern vernacular]], maybe they have a teleporter in their garage, [[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|maybe they have 11 Ph.Ds]], who knows.

{{examples|Examples: }}

* Due to [[Accent Adaptation]], Bill tends to display this in the translation of ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' as a substitute for the original's [[Kansai Regional Accent|Kansai-ben]] - which was, much like this trope, presumably intended as a subversion of [[The Idiot From Osaka]]. Or maybe not — while [[The Idiot From Osaka]] is a trope that for some reason has really caught up in the West, the larger Japanese stereotype portrays Osakans, who come from a merchant city, as sharp, witty and moneygrubbing. And this is actually the reason for the idiot trope — the inhabitants of the [[Tokyo Is the Center of Thethe Universe|more samurai-dominated Edo]], who valued reserve and dignity, considered brash and loud Osakans rude and uncouth and thus below themselves.

* The students at Yezo High in ''[[Silver Spoon (Manga)|Silver Spoon]]'' may not do well in traditional academics, but many of them are prone to going into lengthy, university-level discussions on such subjects as the mechanical specs of farm equipment, food processing chemistry and biotechnology.

* One issue of ''[[The Tick (comic)|The Tick]]'' had the characters run into this, when a town full of hillbillies got their hands on [[The Monolith]] from ''[[Two Thousand and One A Space Odyssey|2001: A Space Odyssey]]''.

* Herschel Clay in [[PS 238PS238]] is more or less a redneck Tony Stark, with a business empire, power armor -- andarmor—and a gimme cap.

* Brad Whitaker from ''[[The Living Daylights (Film)|The Living Daylights]]'' is something of a whiz at both history and military technology.

* Atticus Finch from ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'', though he certainly doesn't exhibit any real southern stereotypes, at least no negative stereotypes. He's sort of the genteel southern elite, an erudite, upper class southern gentleman. Fortunately for his children and his client, he also displays an educated, liberal tolerance and gentility as well.

* The main character of ''[[The Killer Inside Me]]''. Too bad he's [[Ax Crazy]].

* Calvin Whitlock from ''[[Co DominiumCoDominium|Falkenburg's Legions]]''.

* Andrew Jackson Libby from [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s future''Future History'' stories and historynovels is a boy from the Ozarks who, among other things, discovers artificial gravity and hyperspace travel. Even a thousand years later, Lazarus Long comments that Libby was the only man who ''ever'' understood the mathematics of hyperspace: not only is every other pilot who claims to understand Libby's "imperial numbers" a liar and a menace to his passengers, but Every.Single.Computer that can navigate through hyperspace is ''a copy of Libby's unique mind.''

* [[Star Trek: Enterprise|Trip Tucker]]. This depends on the episode though, sometimes he's presented as an engineering genius and others he can't do grade school math.

** And earlier in the series, [[Star Trek: theThe Original Series|"Bones" McCoy]] did his undergraduate studies in Mississippi (although his accent wasn't quite so noticeable as Trip's). His birthplace is only defined as "somewhere in the South." Common [[Fanon]] puts it in Georgia like [[DeForest Kelley|his actor]].

* Sheldon from ''[[The Big Bang Theory (TV)|The Big Bang Theory]]'' is from [[Everything Is Big in Texas|Texas]], but this trope is [[Double Subversion|subverted]] in that he doesn't have the stereotypical Texan accent.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'''s Ash, from season 2. And in season {{spoiler|5, he's able to hack ''Heaven'' itself, easily, and for shits and giggles}}.

* Lindsey MacDonald from ''[[Angel]]''.

* Astronaut scientist [[Farscape (TV)|John Crichton]] hails from the [[Only in Florida|Florida]]. This trope is taken even further with his "super-evolved" version who speaks with a clear [[Everything Is Big in Texas|Texan]] drawl.

* Abbie Carmichael, of the ''[[Law and Order]]'' Mother Ship, was a Southern Fried Legal Genius, with a dash of [[Blonde Republican Sex Kitten]] (OK, ''brunette'' Republican Sex Kitten, but really, does it matter?) and a bucket of [[Hello, Attorney!]].

** One of McCoy's opponents deliberately invoked this trope to appear simultaneously a down-home country boy, just one of us chickens to pair with his rapier wit and encyclopedic knowledge of the law.

* Overton the handyman on [[Living Single (TV)|Living Single]], he knows Hebrew for one.

* ''[[Bones]]'': Finn Abernathy, the [[Fan Nickname|squintern]] introduced in season 7, is initially teased by Hodgins for his Southern drawl (and [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|calls him out on it]]), and manages to impress Temperance Brennan with his forensic skills when they first meet(no mean feat there).

* The Engineer from ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]],'' a brilliant inventor from Bee Cave, Texas.

** [http://www.teamfortress.com/engineer.htm His profile] on the TF2 [[All There in the Manual|website]] indicates he likes "[[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|barbeque, guns, and higher education]]."

* Cid Highwind is [[Final Fantasy VII|Final Fantasy VII's]] version of a rocket scientist -- andscientist—and the first man in space, to boot. His accent was spotty in the original game, but comes through loud and clear in Advent Children and [[Kingdom Hearts]].

* Augustus Sinclair from ''[[BioBioShock Shock(series)|BioShock]] 2''. He's a cunning businessman, clever manipulator and by some accounts a great scientist.

* [[Punny Name|Eugene Ius]] from ''[[Oddworld]]: Stranger's Wrath'' is a very nerdy [[EverythingsEverything's Better Withwith Chickens|Clakker]] who studies ancient ruins and has a laptop that controls Buzzardton's power grid. Though he has a very negative opinion on the native Grubbs, considering them idiots, and destroys an ancient statue for a quick exit from the ruins.

* Pey'j from [[Beyond Good and& Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Beyond Good and Evil]], a [[Non -Human Sidekick]] who is also a [[Weekend Inventor]].

* All of the mages in [[What's Shakin']] speak with a southern accent, but are also highly intelligent.

* Clem from [[Sluggy Freelance]].

* One episode of ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' had Jackie and Co. meet an entire family of these, including two brothers who were a nuclear physicist and an archeologist, respectively, yet still worked on their father's farm. "''Doctor'' Buford McDonald? Your books are very insightful!"

{{quote| '''Buford''': Thank yee. *Punch*}}

{{quote| '''Hick''': ...aaaand that's about all there is to know about quantum mechanics.<br />

'''Paris''': [[[Beat]]] You're [bleep]ing stupid. }}

* Bulkhead from ''[[Transformers Animated (Animation)|Transformers Animated]]'' - really. He's lost the accent by the time the series starts, and he's not the sharpest tool in the shed most of the time, but he ''was'' raised on a farm (for energon) and he's an expert in space bridge technology.

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'''s [[Down Onon the Farm]] relatives.

* ''[[Captain Simian and& Thethe Space Monkeys (Animation)|Captain Simian and The Space Monkeys]]'': Splitzy.

* Sandy the Squirrel from ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]''.

* An episode of ''[[Kung Fu Dino Posse]]'' features a family of identical-looking cross-eyed buck-toothed idiot yokels... the last of whom speaks in a perfect Shakespearean accent, deplores the family business, and wishes he'd been an actor.

* ''[[Archer (Animation)|Archer]]'' gives us Ray Gillette, the top-notch intelligence analyst and, while [[Camp Gay|quite flamboyantly gay]], [[Agent Peacock|actually pretty badass]]. He is from a family of West Virginia backwoods rednecks. They don't seem to know all that much about his life.

[[Category:Southern Fried Genius{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:TropeIndexed States of America]]