History Main / DunceCap

* The GameShow ''Series/WinBenSteinsMoney'' featured Ben placing one of these on any contestant who phrased their answers in the form of a question, a la ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''.

* This is referenced by [[Disney/{{Pinocchio}} Jiminy Cricket]] in a classic Disney safety song called "Stop, Look and Listen/I'm No Fool (As a Pedestrian)", now available on the ''Pinocchio'' Legacy Collection set. "Any fool gets out of cars / The wrong side only once / And if he lives to tell the tale / He's crowned a stupid dunce."

** Professor Farnsworth gets a holographic Dunce Cap in the episode [[Recap/FuturamaS6E5 TheDuhVinciCode"The Duh-Vinci Code"]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker", Mr. Crocker, who is more {{sadist|Teacher}}ic]] than usual today, tortures Timmy by putting a cap on him and seating him in a corner surrounded by rabid dogs.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker", Mr. Crocker, who is more [[SadistTeacher sadistic]] than usual today, tortures Timmy by putting a cap on him and seating him in a corner surrounded by rabid dogs.

* Hans gets made to wear one and sit on a stool in ''Disney/EducationForDeath'', because he ''dared'' to empathize with the rabbit in the teacher's parable about a fox eating a rabbit. The intended moral was "[[TheSocialDarwinist The world belongs to the strong]]".

* [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0014.html This]] ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]]'' strip.

* In a ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' short, his sailor's cap mutates into a dunce cap when Olive goes into SarcasmMode for his being completely wrong about his prediction of a sunny day!
** Another short had Popeye and Olive attend an adult education class. When Popeye can't even get what 5 plus 4 is, he is made to wear a dunce cap and repeat "Five and four are nine" over and over. He falls asleep and goes into a DreamSequence where he's lauded as a genius and then captured by spies.
* Professor Farnsworth gets a holographic one in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Duh-Vinci Code".

-->'''Eddy:''' What a DUNCE!! *Kevin headbutts Eddy*
-->'''Nazz:''' Boy Kevin, that was stupid.
** In a later episode when Eddy is walking home from school there is a dunce cap on his head.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': Back when he was a kid, Professor Utonium was a prankster who once put a whoopie cushion at another boy's chair. The teacher forced the other boy to wear a dunce cap with "Class Clown" written on it as punishment while young Utonium became a KarmaHoudini.

** Blossom has a dunce cap on during her nightmare sequence of "Power-noia" as she appears to be taking in school. But once she finds out Him is behind things, Blossom puts on her game face.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': Back when he was a kid, Professor Utonium was a prankster who once put a whoppie cushion at another boy's chair. The teacher forced the other boy to wear a dunce cap with "Class Clown" written on it as punishment while young Utonium became a KarmaHoudini.

* In "Never Too Late To Loon" on ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', Plucky has to wear one after he is put in detention for failing his math test. (He had asked Shirley to "channel Einstein" for him, not realizing that Einstein was a dunce at basic math as a child.[[labelnote:Note]]A myth.[[/labelnote]])

* Fozzie is forced to wear one of these on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' after interrupting Baby Piggy's lesson plans in (make-believe) school with one of his many jokes.

[[folder: Web Comics]]

'''Clyde''': [Puts DunceCap on his head] Does ''this'' answer your question?

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'', the gang enters an old school house and Rudy finds one of these, saying that he'd be wearing it all the time if Mr. Wilter had one.

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dunce-cap2_8945.png]]

* The third season of ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' featured an infamous incident in which Heather and Eve took a taxi to the Pit Stop for the leg, even though the clue clearly said to proceed on foot. Following this, they tried to make some sort of lame excuse about why they thought it was okay, leading one fan to create a graphic with host Phil Keoghan holding a book titled ''Reading for Dummies'' and one of the two writing "Walk means on foot, not take a taxi" on a chalkboard and the other wearing a dunce cap.

* [[ComicBook/TheFlash Bart Allen]] often thinks in {{Rebus Bubble}}s; sometimes, when he (or anyone else in the immediate vicinity) says or does something stupid, or he simply does not understand what the hell is going on, a bubble will appear with the person of scorn wearing a dunce hat.

* On the old Creator/ComedyCentral game show ''WinBenSteinsMoney'', whenever a contestant would begin an answer with "What is__?", Ben Stein would slap a dunce cap on them and shout "This is not ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''"

Dunce (earlier, "dunce disciple") was derived from the name of John Duns Scotus (from Duns in Scotland), the Franciscan Scholastic philosopher, by the 16th century [[TheRenaissance Renaissance]] and Protestant opponents of Scholasticism.

* One of the new additional powerups in the ''Afertbirth'' DLC of ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac: Rebirth'' is a dunce cap that gives the player character permanently crossed eyes.

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Yankee Doodle Bugs]]'', WesternAnimation/BugsBunny helps his nephew Clyde study U.S. history for a test, but unfortunately Bugs [[YouFailHistoryForever fails history forever]]. After Clyde gets home:

* If you try to summon an "Idiot" on ''{{Scribblenauts}}'', you'll get a kid wearing one of these. He loves eating bugs.

* Mentioned in an episode of FreemansMind: "I'm going to make a dunce cap, and you're going to wear it."

* ''PetesDragon'' has the titualar character Pete get a dunce cap put on his head, among other things, by his teacher when he gets in trouble for things that Elliot (the dragon) has actually done as well as [[CassandraTruth his seemingly farfetched claims that "It was Elliot!"]]