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Dumb Is Good
"Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man."
— Bertrand Russell
Here's how it plays out:
Smart People are mean, Dumb People are nice. Geniuses are psychotic and high-strung, idiots are nice and sweet, because Ignorance Is Bliss. In comedy pairs the genius will smack around the idiot.
The smart character will be mean because he is arrogant and literally doesn't suffer fools gladly. In more sympathetic portrayals, the smart character is good underneath, but made cynical and bitter by his keen intellect, which allows him to see that the world sucks. Inversely, the dumb character has no reason to be continuously happy, other than to provide a foil for the smart character, to show that being all smart all the time makes you unlikeable, miserable, or both, and why would you choose to be that way if ignorance is bliss?
This trope can also be applied to intelligence itself, with the Book Dumb (who doesn't show himself to be that dumb) hero's street smarts and practical experience being shown as superior to academics whose knowledge is dusty, dry and doesn't work in the real world, another tenet of Anti-Intellectualism. Indeed, it is always risky to assume that an uneducated character (or an uneducated person in Real Life, for that matter) will always be dumb. A character may become smart purely through private study, life experience, or just plain Awesomeness by Analysis. Simply hanging around intelligent or cultured people can help, too.
This is a pretty common trope in many films, especially Oscar Bait. Intelligent and rational people are portrayed as emotionally unfulfilled, neglectful of their family and friends, mean, or corrupt, and contrasted with a simple-minded, often mentally-delayed character with a heart of gold.

Cass wrote:oh and my local newspaper's online content....

retired crotetchy people with no hobbies apart from writing to the newspaper combined with the tin foil hat brigade and small town politics makes for some really hysterical reading.......while also being slightly worrying in some respects

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Cass wrote:oh and my local newspaper's online content....

retired crotetchy people with no hobbies apart from writing to the newspaper combined with the tin foil hat brigade and small town politics makes for some really hysterical reading.......while also being slightly worrying in some respects

Quite a bit of fun! I used to cover stuff like that in my job; it will make you crazy if you stay around it too long

victorisnotamused wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Cass wrote:oh and my local newspaper's online content....

retired crotetchy people with no hobbies apart from writing to the newspaper combined with the tin foil hat brigade and small town politics makes for some really hysterical reading.......while also being slightly worrying in some respects

Quite a bit of fun! I used to cover stuff like that in my job; it will make you crazy if you stay around it too long

we've noticed Ben.......

eddie wrote:Snopes and buzz feed are great
I also admit to liking TMZ

And erm, ebay and Amazon feed my insatiable appetite for shopping

Ben_Reilly wrote:

eddie wrote:Snopes and buzz feed are great
I also admit to liking TMZ

And erm, ebay and Amazon feed my insatiable appetite for shopping

I have to say, Amazon is pretty amazing as a company and as a phenomenon. They've had their hooks in me since 1999 when I needed a book for work and got it two days ... now I buy and sell stuff there, plus use their payments service. I'm also going to be looking into publishing the Renard story as an e-book there when I finally finish and edit it.

Ben_Reilly wrote:I might mention that beard, elevating me to heights of awesomeness that I hadn't expected existed

eddie wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:I might mention that beard, elevating me to heights of awesomeness that I hadn't expected existed

Darn tooting.

Ben_Reilly wrote:

eddie wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:I might mention that beard, elevating me to heights of awesomeness that I hadn't expected existed

Darn tooting.

Thanks for saying you'd buy it too, that means a lot

Ben_Reilly wrote:

eddie wrote:Snopes and buzz feed are great
I also admit to liking TMZ

And erm, ebay and Amazon feed my insatiable appetite for shopping

I have to say, Amazon is pretty amazing as a company and as a phenomenon. They've had their hooks in me since 1999 when I needed a book for work and got it two days ... now I buy and sell stuff there, plus use their payments service. I'm also going to be looking into publishing the Renard story as an e-book there when I finally finish and edit it.

Ben_Reilly wrote:And now I have the idea for a beard-rubbing playmates service. You know somebody out there would be into it ...