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== Anime & Manga ==
* Bulma from ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'' is a prime example. While a mechanical genius and heir to a huge scientific corporation, she has absolutely no sense at all when it comes to dealing with danger. And yet somehow she gets the idea to become a treasure hunter. She gets only slightly better at this over the course of the series, in the sense that she doesn't walk headlong into danger without thinking first so much.
* Lloyd in ''[[Code Geass]]''. Brilliant mecha designer, does not understand basic human interaction. The characters are shocked to hear that he is engaged. {{spoiler|It's an arranged marriage, since Lloyd is a Count}}.
* Kirino Chiba of ''[[Bamboo Blade]]'' is frequently behaving in a ditzy, overexcited manner. She is also ranked 20th in her year at school. Not genius level, but highly respectable nonetheless.
* ''[[Naruto|Naruto Uzumaki]]'' somehow shows this far and between in Part I when it comes to strategies and his ability to improvise under pressure. In Part II, it has come to the point where it is normally lampshaded by others.
* Lamia Loveless in ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' is a completely competent [[Super Robot]] pilot - calm, analytical and deadly in battle. During her normal life, however, she tends to act ditzy. This is [[Justified Trope|justified]], since she is a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]] who was created mere years ago, and had only recently discovered what it felt like to be human.
* Kotomi in [[Clannad (Visual Novel)|Clannad]] regularly tops or at least places in the top ten of national grade/test averages and studies incredibly advanced physics in her spare time. She also doesn't seem to see much problem with using scissors on any science book {{spoiler|that mentions her parents or their work}} and reacts... very... slowly... to things, plus [[Cloudcuckoolander|many]] [[The Wonka|similar]] [[Strange Girl|traits]] that become more obvious with time. Watching her 'tsukkomi lessons' with Kyou and Nagisa can be both facepalm inducing and hilarious.
* Miyako of ''[[Hidamari Sketch]]'' acts like she has a case of [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]], but her artistic and academic abilities are levels above the other characters-- she's one of the few people who is [[Brilliant but Lazy]] but not [[Book Dumb]]. That said, her use of [[Gratuitous English]] is also quite terrible...
* The writers of [[Tsukihime]] were apparently quite aware that the average reader was likely to dismiss Arcueid as an idiot. In truth, she's actually very intelligent and knowledgeable, she's just never had to pick up the skills that Shiki takes for granted. Which she points out. Plus, she's still a ditz.
* In ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]'', Maria and Nagi have both skipped grades and know multiple languages. When they are split up while on a train, Hayate is torn between protecting his master or staying with the maid until Hinagiku shows up for a [[Big Damn Heroes|less-than-fully-heroic rescue]] because they are completely clueless about the world.
* Tenpou in ''[[Saiyuki]] Gaiden'' brilliant strategist, but seems baffled by everyday life and would probably be buried under a pile of books almost permanently if it wasn't for Kenren.
* [[Teen Genius]] Hattori Heiji from [[Detective Conan]]. He's a brilliant detective who always keeps on par with Shinichi's deductions, but can't for the life of him remember to call Shinichi 'Conan' when they're in public. He also has a bit of a [[Hair-Trigger Temper]], particularly when talking to his [[Victorious Childhood Friend|childhood friend]] [[Belligerent Sexual Tension|Kazuha]].
** So much so that one [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3620272/4/An_Unprofessional_Opinion fanfiction] diagnosed Heiji with Asperger's Syndrome in a fictionalized psych profile.
* Tamaki in ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' is rather ditzy. He also has the second highest grades in his year without even trying, to the frustration of some.
* Harumi Kiyama in ''[[To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (Manga)|A Certain Scientific Railgun]]'' is a very intelligent scientist, but lacks even the most basic shred of common sense. For example, her thought process when it's hot essentially comes down to "It's hot, therefore I should take off some clothes." The fact that she's doing this in public doesn't occur to her. She actually becomes the source of an Urban Legend about a "Stripper Lady" because of this.
* [[Fairy Tail]] has had it's fair share of this:
** Natsu: Good at coming up with new attacks when needed (whether he's conscious about it or not, [[No Social Skills|very low social skill]] (a possible a side effects being [[Raised Byby Wolves|raised by Igneel]]).
** Erza, yes ''Erza'': Weaponmaster, is obsessed with [[Sweet Tooth|cake]] and lingerie and takes everything [[Serious Business|way too seriously]].
** Gildartz: strongest member of [[Fairy Tail]], he [[Curb Stomp Battle|defeated]] {{spoiler|Natsu}} [[Battle Aura|without touching]] him, is so absent minded that Magnolia has an [[For Doom the Bell Tolls|alarm]] and has to complete change the layout of the city in fear that he would absentmindedly [[Power Incontinence|walk/destroy into someone home]].
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== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|Princess Luna]] in ''[[Progress (Fanfic)|Progress]]'' manages to be a brilliant leader, improving irrigation systems and the tax code and much more (not to mention being a [[Physical God|Physical Goddess]]), and [[Hilarity Ensues|set the microwave to 27 minutes when making popcorn]]. Being a [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] helps.
 
 
== Film ==
* Zefram Cochrane from ''[[Star Trek: First Contact (Film)|Star Trek First Contact]]''. Inventor of warp drive, but also a heavy drinker.
* Brilliant physics-defying engineer [[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Montgomery Scott]], a man so brilliant he came up with trans-warp beaming. And a man so stupid, he decided to test the thing on Admiral Archer's dog, and promptly got himself [[Reassigned to Antarctica|Reassigned to Delta Vega]].
* [[A Beautiful Mind]] has John Nash, a mathematics wiz who will actually go up to a woman and say, "I don't exactly know what I am required to say in order for you to have intercourse with me. But could we assume that I said all that. I mean essentially we are talking about fluid exchange right? So could we go just straight to the sex. "
 
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== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[The Big Bang Theory (TV)|The Big Bang Theory]]'', Sheldon Cooper may be a brilliant theoretical physicist, but is insufferably arrogant, eternally confounded by social conventions, and almost completely ignorant of pop culture outside the sci-fi genre.
* The Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]''. He's eccentric, more than slightly manic, rarely compliments anyone's intelligence without mentioning his own, and has the ability to, without fail, sniff out and leap headfirst into any danger that his companion hasn't already stumbled into. Oh, and he's also a ridiculously competent Genius who's saved the Earth countless times, but that's nothing you'd be able to tell at first glance. Expecially not if you're glancing at his [[Insufferable Genius|sixth incarnation]]. Or [[The Wonka|the Fourth.]] Or [[Sophisticated As Hell|the Tenth.]] Or... [[The Nth Doctor|any version]] of him for that matter. But Six was expecially bonkers. Eight had a definite case of [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]] going on, too, both in the movie and the [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novels:
{{quote| '''Eighth Doctor:''' A meteor storm. The sky above us was dancing with lights. Purple, green, brilliant yellow. ''YES!''<br />
'''Grace:''' What?<br />
'''Eighth Doctor:''' These ''shoes''! They fit '''perfectly'''! }}
* Reid from ''[[Criminal Minds (TV)|Criminal Minds]]'' often qualifies, although he's working on it, in his odd Reid way. He's very good at numbers, statistics and abnormal psychology of all kinds, but no good at all, most of the time, at things like the unspoken rules of conversation and tact.
* Cordelia Chase from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.
* ''[[Bones (TV)|Bones]]''. Oh, Bones. So intelligent for solving crimes and yet so clumsy with social stuff...
* Kurt Hummel from ''[[Glee (TV)|Glee]]'' is very intelligent and a fluent French speaker, but prone to moments of ditziness, such as his belief boxes have four sides or his plan to feed the doves at {{spoiler|Burt and Carole's wedding}} glitter.
* Alex P. Keaton from ''[[Family Ties]].'' He's a hypercompetitive straight A student and math genius who was doing his parents' taxes when he was five years old and advised his parents on mortgage rates when they bought their house. Yet in everyday activities he often proves completely incapable. His little sister frequently beats him in sports, he fails at things like building kites, cooking or fixing cars even with extensive directions.
* Sherlock from, well, ''[[Sherlock]]''. Justified as Sherlock only keeps important information in his "hard drive," which does not include tact, common sense or the idea of [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness|heliocentrism]].
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* [[Recurring Character]] Professor Pepperwinkle in ''The Adventures of [[Superman]]''. Example: he brought his latest invention to show Perry White. It was an (untested) time machine. Perry didn't have time to look at it because he was busy with an Important Story involving a gangster who was about to turn himself in to The Authorities, and who was in his office at the time; so the Professor turned his time machine on and sent them all (himself, the gangster, Perry, Lois, Jimmy, and Clark) to prehistoric times. Success!
** ...then he realized he didn't bring enough fuel to make a return trip.
* The Solomon's from [[3rd Rock From the Sun (TV)|3rd Rock Fromfrom the Sun]] are all advanced aliens who could make fools out of even the smartest human beings, yet, because they have never dealt with emotions before, they come off as utterly crazy and weird to everyone around them. Dick, in particular, is a pompous manchild who can't even teach a young girl to play hopscotch without turning it into an argument.
 
 
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** This is played [[Up to Eleven]] in [[The Last Days of Foxhound]], where Otacon is brilliant but has the innocence and naivete of a child in a world where everyone ''else'' is a sociopath or a [[Manipulative Bastard]]. [[Foregone Conclusion|It doesn't end well]]. Mai Ling is similarly played like a engineering genius with the mind of a giggly teenage [[Genki Girl]], but in her case it doesn't lead to anything but mild annoyance from the main characters.
* [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik]] is a genius who [[Improbably High IQ|has an IQ of 300]], capable of singlehandedly building entire fleets of airships and space stations as well as armies of killer robots. However, he usually dresses his machines in garish colors, tends to throw temper tantrums whenever he's on the losing side and has a tendency to paste his face on everything.
* Rita Mordio in ''[[Tales of Vesperia (Video Game)|Tales of Vesperia]]''. A prodigy mage at the age of fifteen, but possessing absolutely no social skills. She's rude, direct, [[Disproportionate Retribution|violently assaults those who bother her]] and cares nothing for other people. This can be chalked up to her young age and that she was raised (as an orphan) in a university town filled with self-absorbed scientists.
* Pascal in ''[[Tales of Graces (Video Game)|Tales of Graces]]'' is a lot more sociable than Rita, but she's so energetic that she's nigh-incomprehensible when she gets excited, and she can't read social situations: she doesn't so much break the tension in a room as much as crash through it head-first. She also has no concept of personal space.
* Harold from ''[[Tales of Destiny (Video Game)|Tales of Destiny]] 2'' is an eccentric, unpredictable, childish and sometimes downright psychotic young lady; yet, she is the genius behind the creation of the [[Empathic Weapon|Swordians]], and a magic expert. The writers of Vesperia seem to have taken a bit of her when making Rita; theory supported by a Harold mask usable by her (as an Attachment) and her Miska Doctoral Degree costume title, very reminiscent of Harold's garment.
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Luigi]] may qualify for this. When he's turned evil, he manages to build a giant killer robot that takes over two hundred hits with an alien space laser to go down in a couple of hours, owns his own airship (that he's implied to have built himself), is a master at card games, is explicitly stated to be the brains of the brothers, when Mario has a job which already requires someone to be very smart, and, yet, acts extremely childish when he's on adventures. On the other hand, [[Wild Mass Guessing|it might all be an act to make himself seem less capable]].
* Merrill of [[Dragon Age II]] is a brilliant mage and historian well noted for her talents. She's also extremely naive, very socially awkward, and has little in the way a common sense (for some time she considered muggings to be some form of greeting). This is both played for laughs and treated seriously.
* [[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Medic. Oh, Medic.]] He may look like [[Germanic Efficiency|he has it fairly together]] on the field, but look a little closer and [[Mad Scientist|you'll]] [[Mad Doctor|find]] [[Science-Related Memetic Disorder|out]] [[Indy Ploy|otherwise.]] For example, he apparently believes that the best way to talk to a patient during surgery (the patient being his [[Heterosexual Life Partner]], no less) is to regale him with the story of how he lost his medical license (it involved [[Beyond the Impossible|removing the entire skeleton from a man who lived to tell the tale]]). It's fairly obvious that the man is both socially inept and generally round the twist.
** Australium poisoning has this and [[Testosterone Poisoning]] as its main effects. Radigan Conagher (Engie's grandfather), after working with australium for years, became intelligent enough to make a fully functional prosthetic limb, and dumb enough to saw his hand off to be able to use it, and Australia, the main source of this metal, is the most advanced country in the entire world, yet they elect their king by kangaroo boxing.
 
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== Webcomics ==
* Molly in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' an [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]] with the personality of a child. Also Galatea, although these days Golly does a better job of at least ''looking'' worldly-wise, even if she's still incredibly naive.
* Palma from ''[[Mushroom Go]].'' She's an immature, loud mouthed teenager with a short attention span and poor grammar. She may also be the smartest [[Super Mario Sunshine (Video Game)|Pianta]] in the world, and has spent most of her life lost in books.
* Brandi of ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' is beyond brilliant when it comes to planning, to the point where any unusual coincidence that worked to the favor of the protagonists can be attributed to her manipulations. She also fails to realize that flies drown when she flushes them down the toilet (she couldn't just shoo them outside because it was winter in Minnesota, and they would quickly freeze to death).
* In ''[[Sakana (Webcomic)|Sakana]]'', Taisei is incredibly smart and a talented [[Salaryman]]. He's also incredibly silly and childish (but [[Love You and Everybody|well-meaning]]).
* Link is this in ''[[Nintendo Acres]]'': Competent at being the hero of the [[Lo Z]] games, has an incredible knowledge of literature, and can't open a door without using a bomb or boomerang.
* Brian Fitzpatrick in ''[[Rhapsodies]]'' is a gifted polymath, economist and accountant who can pretty much make numbers do what he wants. He is however impulsive with an extremely abrasive personality and is so socially clueless most people think he's an idiot.
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== Web Animation ==
* So and So from ''[[Teen Girl Squad (Web Animation)|Teen Girl Squad]]''. She gets straight A's and prides herself on being an academic overachiever, yet is utterly devoid of anything resembling common sense.
 
 
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== Western Animation ==
* Forge is portrayed this way in both ''[[X -Men: Evolution]]'' and ''[[Wolverine and Thethe X -Men]]'', though in the latter it's more a case of [[Brilliant but Lazy]], while in Evolution he's energetic and brilliant, but somewhat foolish and lacking in foresight.
** Shadowcat from ''[[X -Men: Evolution]]'' also qualifies. She's portrayed as a very intelligent student, but could be easily excited over "typical" teenage topics (driver's license) and early on had the tendency to use the word "like" so much in a single sentence, [[Scooby Doo|Shaggy Rogers]] would take notice.
* [[The Mighty B|Bessie Higgenbottom]] can do anything that will earn her a badge - including creating cold fusion or building a working robot with limited AI - but that doesn't make her any less of a ditz.
* Minor ''[[Daria]]'' character [[Guy of the Week|Ted]] fits this trope. [[Homeschooled Kids|He was homeschooled]] for most of his life, which gave him both an [[Encyclopedic Knowledge]] of everything and a ditzy lack of social skills.
* Twilight Sparkle from [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]. A unicorn so smart, she knows most of the constellations by heart and was able to finish a race fifth place, ahead of a few dozen other, more athletic horses, simply by using her book smarts. She’s also a filly so silly, she needs to consult a reference book on something as simple as a sleepover. She even reads the book to find out what to do ''when a tree falls into her house,'' instead of just getting up and helping move it.
* The third season of ''[[Generator Rex]]'' gives us Cesar Salazar, the formerly absent older brother of the eponymous Rex. Among his many achievements are: Working on the nanite project alongside his and Rex's parents, building a mobile lab capable of traveling at relativistic speeds, sauntering into Providence and casually neutralizing everyone between him and his kid brother, and {{spoiler|creating the [[AI Is a Crapshoot|insane AI, ZAG-RS]], which has nearly succeeded several times in [[Apocalypse How|destroying all life on Earth.]]}} When not performing feats of scientific awesomeness, however, it's clear that, against all logic, ''[[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Rex]]'', not known for being the smoothest guy around, got all the social skills in the family.
* Gadget from ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Animationanimation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]''.
* Dr. Drakken and Professor Dementor from [[Kim Possible]].
* Brain from ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' / ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'' regularly produces plans that are ingenious and lack any kind of common sense.
* Jack Spicer from ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'', to the extent that the other characters tend to forget that he really ''is'' a genius.
* Roba from ''[[The Problem Solverz]]''. He's the smartest member of the team, is knowledgeable about many subjects, and has built his own radar scanner. However, he's also very socially inept and childish.
* Heinz Doofenshmirtz from ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]''. He's a genius when it comes to science, technology, math, and engineering, but he lacks just about everything else such as social skills and common sense. He puts self-destruct buttons in a convient location on just about every invention he builds, and he's never even recognized his nemesis, Perry the Platypus, in even the most transparent of disguises, and tends to assume Perry is just an ordinary platypus if he's not wearing his trademark fedora. To put all this into perspective, take his scene in the episode "Fireside Girl Jamboree": He was smart enough to build a machine that is capable of transforming metal into broccoli (A ''mineral'' into ''living matter''), but decided to make it ''[[Failure Is the Only Option|out of metal]]''.
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