The Smart Guy/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The smartest member of the Five-Man Band.

  • Straight: Brian is an expert in alien languages and booby traps, and leaves the tough stuff for the other four.
  • Exaggerated: Brian knows everything about the universe.
  • Downplayed: Brian is only slightly smarter than the rest of the members in his group.
  • Justified: Brian began his education at a very young age.
  • Inverted: Evil Genius
  • Subverted: Brian appears to be smart, but he's just a quack.
  • Double Subverted:...Or at least, that's what he wants you to think. Or maybe not.
  • Parodied: Extroverted Nerd.
  • Deconstructed: Brian's education was the result of one mean Education Mama whose regiment has left him emotionally damaged and continuously stressed.
    • Brian sees his worth as tied up in his intellect.
    • Brian eventually gets A God Am I complex as he begins his Face Heel Turn.
    • Brian has a mental condition that compels him to devour any and all information he can come across. He'll do anything to get more data.
    • Alternatively, the other four realize that Brian doesn't come up with anything much more useful than what any of the others come up with, and because he's The Load, the kick him out of the group.
  • Reconstructed: ... But The Power of Friendship that he experiences helping the team helps him little by little, and actually becomes proud of his smartness.
  • Zig Zagged: Brian starts out as the smart guy, but then reveals that his intelligence is a result of an Applied Phlebotinum and he is actually an idiot. But it turns out that Bob lied about the Applied Phlebotinum, he is really smart. But then it turn out that it was Bob's Evil Twin all along, and the real Bob is smart, just not as smart as he pretended to be in the first place. Or is he?
  • Averted: Everyone's smart so there's no definite Smart Guy.
  • Enforced: The actor playing The Smart Guy has made it clear in his contract that his character must be very wise and all-knowing.
  • Lampshaded: "I know a lot more than you about those glyphs. You need me."
  • Invoked: Brian's mom puts him in all sorts of programs at a young age to try to boost his intelligence.
  • Defied: Brian decides he doesn't want to be known for his intellect, and Obfuscates Stupidity, becoming Brilliant but Lazy.
  • Exploited: The villain kidnaps Brian, knowing that without his intellect, the Five-Man Band is helpless.
  • Discussed: "This is Brian. He's the brains of the operation."
  • Conversed: "See, they all call him smart all the time, so you know any clever plans are gonna come out of him -- don't expect to see him get physical, though."

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