Obfuscating Stupidity/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

** While many other Buffy characters can be guilty of [[Obfuscating Stupidity]], one of the most glaring examples is "Comfortadore" Xander Harris, a bright, resourceful young man with all the potential in the world. He was also lazy and spent the first five seasons making stupid mistakes. Thankfully, [[Badass Normal|he grew out of it]].

*** It's instructive to note that Willow, the brightest student in the entire school by a wide margin, and Xander, the alleged slacker, were always in the same classes. If Xander could consistently place into every AP course in high school, then even the part where he's struggling in them doesn't change that he's still above average.

** Buffy herself also personifies this trope. She's got the vapid California blonde act down to perfection and uses it quite frequently as part of her arsenal to get her enemies to underestimate her. However, as one of the longest-lived slayers in history and a combined SAT score of 1430, she's definitely more than a pretty face.

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'' The Doctor, particularly in his second and fourth incarnations, often used to play the fool to lull his enemies into a false sense of security ("Would you care for a jelly baby?"). Most recently, in 'Family of Blood' whilst pretending to be still human, his blundering nervousness lulls the Family into such a state of arrogant superiority that they don't notice that the buttons he's 'accidentally' pushing will destroy their ship until it's much, much too late. This was occasionally subverted, as well, with the enemies realising that this was what he was doing - most notably in 'City of Death', in which Count Scarlioni's [[Genre Savvy|understanding of the Doctor]] prevents him from being deceived.