History Main / DeliberateUnderPerformance

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In the episode "Lawnmower Dog", Summer offhandedly mentions that she chooses to get C's in school out of the belief that smarter people are always meaner.

** In season one, Doctor Bashir admits that he intentionally missed a question on his final exam at the Academy, which dropped him to second in his class. [[spoiler:A season five episode reveals that he underperformed to avoid drawing attention to his superior brainpower, which is the result of illegal BioAugmentation, as well as a form of rebellion against his parents for giving him the augmentation in the first place since he felt they cared less about him than his grades.]]

* ''Series/{{Blue Mountain State}}'': Alex has the skills and athletic ability to easily become the Quarterback for the BMS football team. Instead he remains content as the backup QB, as he would rather spend his college years drinking, partying and sleeping around. Best shown during the first episode when Alex runs a perfect maneuver during practice. Coach Daniels tells him if he keeps it up, he's a guaranteed starter. Come next round, Alex deliberately botches the same maneuver. This attitude ends up biting him in the ass when his lack of drive ends up getting him demoted to the third string team.

* ''VideoGame/BugFables'': Delilah and Stratos, a.k.a. "Team Slacker", can easily solve any problem with barely putting any effort as their BonusBoss fight proves. However, it results in them taking no joy from completing their missions, so they prefer to slack off instead and let others finish the job for them.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Summer says in "Lawnmower Dog" that she chooses to get C's in school out of the belief that smarter people are always meaner.

* ''VideoGame/WarThunder'': happens when there are tasks like "get a certain amount of assists". You force yourself to not kill the enemy, but only critically damage him/her, hoping that someone else will finish the job. Easier with airplanes, particularly in arcade battles, possibly with machine guns but not cannons. Harder with ground vehicles, mostly because if you don't kill immediately an enemy, it's likely that you will soon receive a counter-shot, or at least reveal your position to other opponents.

** In ''Literature/MovingPictures'', student wizard Victor Tugelbend aims to fail his Final Exams every year - but only just. His aim is to fail by the slightest and most narrow of margins - so that he gets to remain a student in perpetuity. But he can't fail so completely that the University can then throw him out. His reason is that he has a trust fund allowing him to live in some comfort - provided he remains a student. The moment he graduates, the money goes. The moment the university throws him out, the money goes. Therefore he has to avoid getting a pass mark of 88% but not let his mark drop below the threshold of 80% that triggers expulsion. It's a fine line.

* In the first ''Literature/SpySchool'' novel, CynicalMentor Murray Hill ''could'' be a brilliant student if he wanted to, but as he explains to the narrator, students with high grades are sent into the field and are always at risk of dying horribly, while students with middling grades are instead given (safe, well-paying) desk jobs. As a result, Murray makes sure to deliberately and conspicuously fail every class that he has. The entire school (save the narrator) are completely taken in by his facade, until the end, when [[spoiler: It turns out that Murray is TheMole and was also deliberately failing so he’d need tutoring from the RA and have the access to steal all of her files about the students and the school]].

* ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'': Eddie admits he skips 15-20% of his classes- it's just enough to maintain his reputation, but not to be kicked out of school.

* Stephen from ''Webcomic/WeakHero'' is usually ranked around the 20s when it comes to exams- however, when he wants to make a point to Gray, he immediately shoots up to first place to demonstrate his hidden genius.

* ''LightNovel/TheAsteriskWar'': As a fighter, Saya Sasamiya is approximately on a par with Seidoukan's #5 rank, Julis von Riessfeld, but is completely unranked because the rankings don't interest her. She only enters the Phoenix Festa tournament on [[ItsPersonal a bet to make a rival engineer apologize for insulting her father's memory]].

* In ''Idol Manager'', your business partner Fujimoto schedules for you to appear on a ''[[Series/TheNewlywedGame Newlywed Game]]''-style game show to get some publicity for your new idol group. After clearing the first round, you go head-to-head with your rival for a chance for the winner's group to appear on a local variety show. However, Fujimoto tells you that if you win, you'll miss out on a contract that could potentially get you even greater exposure, and advises for you to lose on purpose to get the more lucrative job. Unfortunately, your rival also knows about this bigger opportunity and sabotages themselves to avoid winning the game show. [[spoiler:Win or lose, it turns out that the whole thing was a CandidCameraPrank, and ''neither'' prize is real.]]

When being graded or ranked on anything, it's typically better to be at the top. You get the satisfaction and validation of being one of the best, the people around you know you worked hard, and it can lead to better opportunities in the future. What's not to like about being in first?

* ''WebComic/PennyArcade'': Taken Up to Eleven by Gabe who claims he's been faking a ''learning disability'' since he was 7 just so his family wouldn't have any kind of expectations of him.
--> '''Gabe''': If I wear ''pants'', that's a good day for them.

* Variation and possible inversion in ''Literature/Animorphs''. Marco complains that the Chee impersonating him while he’s on missions is doing too well in one of his classes. It gets noticed and now he feels too much pressure to turn in similar results.

* Variation in ''Literature/Animorphs''. Marco complains that the Chee impersonating him while he’s on missions is doing too well in one of his classes. It gets noticed and now he feels too much pressure to turn in similar results.

* The ''Literature/RedDwarf'' novel ''Backwards'' opens and starts with Arnold Rimmer's school sports day, headed "The Difference". In the first one, Rimmer desperately wants to win the race, and nearly manages it, until another student fouls him. In the second, the future Ace Rimmer, having been held back a year, is winning easily, until he realises another boy needs it more than he does and falls back on purpose.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': The Z-Fighters occasionally hold back to not stand out among normal people, but they always fail miserably because they are that much stronger. And can fly. In particular, Gohan is very proud of himself for holding back to appear as any other student when he goes to high school. He is oblivious to the fact he is the center of attention repeatedly for really not passing as an ordinary person.

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': Tim intentionally does significantly worse than he easily could in gym, even failing certain exercises, to help maintain his secret identity.

* ''LightNovel/TheAsteriskWar'': The twelve top-ranked fighters at the six schools of Asterisk get special privileges from the administration, but it naturally comes with the requirement to defend their positions from challengers. Saya Sasamiya is approximately on a par with Seidoukan's #5 rank, Julis von Riessfeld, but is completely unranked because the rankings don't interest her. She only enters the Phoenix Festa tournament on [[ItsPersonal a bet to make a rival engineer apologize for insulting her father's memory]].

* ''Manga/DrRamuneMysteriousDiseaseSpecialist'': This is the source of Takaharu's problem in “Chilli Pepper Fingertips”. He is actually TheAce, but he deliberately underperforms (e.g. wearing FakeGlasses to hide his good looks, submitting test papers with wrong answers to get a lower score, and runs slower than he could have because he doesn't want to outshine his best friend, Bungou, and hurt his feelings. He stops holding himself back when he realizes that Bungou would rather be taken seriously as a rival and lose on that terms than win a pity victory.

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* The titular character of ''Manga/TheDisastrousLifeOfSaikiK'' knows that he could ace every test with his nigh-infinite PsychicPowers, but doesn't want to draw attention to himself and just wants to live a quiet life -- so he uses his powers to get grades that are just high enough to keep him in the middle of the rankings.

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic''. Sousuke Sagara and Kurz Weber did this during basic training for Mithril because neither of them trusted the organisation they had joined. However, when the other recruits get captured during an apparently routine mission, they're required to show just how good they are.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Dash's parents encourage him to finish second in a school race, because his ability to easily finish first would give away their secret super-hero identities.

* ''Literature/MyTeacherIsAnAlien'': Played with; Peter informs the kids in school that aliens are going to kidnap 5 students: the best, the worst, and the three most average. This causes immediate chaos, with the top students deliberately trying to get in trouble or flunk tests; the worst students and troublemakers suddenly sucking up to the teachers, and mediocre kids paralyzed by uncertainty not knowing how to avoid being one of the three most average.
* In ''Literature/TheReportCard'', Nora is a child prodigy but hates the attention it brings and so aims for earning average scores on her school assignments. Unfortunately, her usual tactic of "get 70% of the answers right" doesn't maintain her cover when taking an IQ test.
* ''Literature/EndersShadow'': Bean is just a little bit smarter than Ender, the top student at the Battle School, but performs averagely in classwork because his harsh homeless upbringing has conditioned him to view attention as too dangerous. He eventually starts performing better once it becomes clear the teachers are still finding his behavior suspicious and aren't going to be fooled by what would fool a street bully.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/{{Friday}}''. The title character is a genetically engineered woman with supergenius intelligence. She says that in school, she was taught to answer questions on IQ tests to hit a pre-determined score in order to not show off her intelligence.

* Early in the ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series, Stile is careful to avoid performing too well in the Game, in order to avoid reaching the top five places on the ladder which would automatically enter him into the citizenship tournament.
* In the first ''Literature/SpySchool'' novel, CynicalMentor Murray Hill ''could'' be a brilliant student if he wanted to, but as he explains to the narrator, students with high grades are sent into the field and are always at risk of dying horribly, while students with middling grades are instead given (safe, well-paying) desk jobs. As a result, Murray makes sure to deliberately and conspicuously fail every class that he has. The entire school (save the narrator) are completely taken in by his facade, until the end, when [[spoiler: It turns out that Murray is TheMole and was also deliberately failing so he’d need tutoring from the RA and have the access to steal all of her files about the students and the school]].
* ''Krabat'' (Otfried Preußler version): The Master is a mage who gains his powers from the devil and as part of his contract has to sacrifice his best student every New Year's Eve. Juro is known as one of the worst students, but he is in fact the smartest. He knows very well what's going on and just how far the Master's magic reaches and purposely underperforms so as not to end up dead. The Master is vaguely aware of Juro's deceit, but that doesn't make Juro any more suitable for the sacrifice, and other attempts to get rid of him fail.

* ''Series/DogWithABlog'': Tyler is revealed to secretly be a math genius, but chooses to get lower grades in school out of fear it will upset his social status.
* ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'': "Teddy's Little Helper" has both Ivy and Teddy receive a B in class. To Teddy, this is TheBGrade, and she desperately tries to do better. For Ivy, it's at first a miracle, as she almost never gets a grade that high...until it happens ''again'', in which case, she starts to panic, realizing her parents will start to expect this from her.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''
** In season one, Doctor Bashir admits that he intentionally missed a question on his final exam at the Academy, which dropped him to second in his class. [[spoiler:A season five episode reveals that he underperformed to avoid drawing attention to his superior brainpower, which is the result of illegal BioAugmentation, as well as a form of rebellion against his parents for giving him the augmentation in the first place since he felt they cared less about him than his grades.]]
** Bashir also intentionally underperformed when he played racquetball with Chief O'Brien. O'Brien was a casual player, while Bashir was captain of the team back at Starfleet Medical Academy--and when he played down to O'Brien's level it infuriated the Chief to no end.
--->'''O'Brien:''' I don't need your charity! Next time, you either play your best game or you don't play.
* ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'': In the AlternateUniverse of "Girl Meets Scary World 3", Maya makes Riley do her homework. She threatens Riley with violence if she gives her any grade better than a C+, as she doesn't want teachers to pay attention to her or think she has potential.

* ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'': Eddie admits he skips 15-20% of his classes- it's just enough to maintain his reputation, but not to be kicked out of school.
* Don West of ''Series/LostInSpace2018'', who feels that the Robinsons are all a bunch of overachievers. He tells Penny at one point that his core principles include "never raise your hand," "always sit in the back" and "never, ever be too good at anything."
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': Caleb, who was very much a JuniorCounterpart to Finch, went out of his way to appear average. Finch catches on by the fact that his test scores fell exactly in the middle, not just near it.

* In the series ''WesternAnimation/MyGymPartnersAMonkey'', it's revealed that Adam Lyon's friends intentionally bomb any tests they take because if they were to achieve good scores, they would be placed with the spiffies, a group of super-nerds led by a particularly egotistical dolphin.

Well, not every character wants the spotlight of being at the top, the pressure of doing well, the expectations of others. They'd rather be average, or even below average. Often, as long as they can scrape by and fly under the radar, they don't care about doing better- and, if doing better would make them get unwanted attention, then doing worse is more beneficial.