History Main / InsufferableGenius

* ''ComicBook/IronMan'': Tony Stark has been like this since his conception, though the actual strength of it depends on the writer.

* ComicBook/LexLuthor might not be the smartest man in the DC Comics continuum, but he's close. And he's going to let you know it, any second now.

* ComicBook/{{Loki}} of ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' usually ventures here when his plans are working (especially against Thor, since intelligence and magic are the only places he can outclass his older brother). Seeing as how he's often shown to be the Marvel Universe's resident master of the whole spectrum of ThePlan, he sometimes deserves it.

* Damian Wayne, the fourth (or fifth, depending on the continuity) ComicBook/{{Robin}}, is a bonafide genius who claims to have written doctorate-level papers before he finished growing baby teeth. By the time he's thirteen, he's already a skilled surgeon, a master of hand-to-hand combat, a keen detective, among many, many other skills. However, his spoiled and amoral upbringing with the League of Assassins made him arrogant and self-entitled, bringing him to blows with his adoptive brothers on multiple occasions when he insists that he's Bruce's rightful heir. Years of CharacterDevelopment have made him far more tolerable (and sometimes even cute) but he still won't hesitate to rub his skillset and intelligence in other people's faces when given the chance.

** ComicBook/DoctorOctopus is particularly bad about this, especially when gallivanting around as ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan''. Notably, he scoffs at Peter's lack of scientific advancements, despite knowing he invented the advanced web shooter tech when he was fifteen and has been too busy saving the world since then (often from Ock himself) to do much research. But nope, Ock's still "superior" to all other scientists. It gets so bad that, after he is told by Spidey about his HeelRealization and HeroicSuicide at the end of the ''Superior'' saga, he comes to the conclusion that the only reason he would do such a thing is that Peter's brain couldn't handle his genius and it affected him.
** ComicBook/{{Mysterio}} is a bit of a snob when it comes to his expertise in practical effects when the movie industry he was a part of has started to veer towards computer-generated visuals.

* ''ComicBook/XMen:'' On his worse days, Beast will fall into this category. As of the 2010s, he's been here more and more.

* ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' never gets tired of explaining his genius, but since he's only ever failed to solve ''one'' case in a thirty-year-plus career, one might consider cutting him a little slack. Even Creator/AgathaChristie thought Poirot was an insufferable know-it-all and grew tired of writing him. Perhaps this is the reason that Poirot admits to that he too finds his own arrogance obnoxious, but explains it away as part of his facade of ObfuscatingStupidity.

** Mr. House of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' doesn't bother to hide his condescension for... well, anybody and has a clear disdain for the other factions out to rule New Vegas. He is, however, a genius of several stripes, who not only earned his fortune before he was thirty but was also responsible for preserving what remains of Vegas through the nuclear apocalypse through IfMyCalculationsAreCorrect. If you choose to betray him, either for the NCR, Legion, or for yourself, he'll ask you why you did it. You can declare your allegiance to the faction of your choosing... or you could bluntly tell him, "I don't like you." After you do the deed, his obituary, entitled "A Tragedy Has Befallen All Mankind", states that he was a man of incredible vision and genius that will likely never be replaced, recognizes him as the best hope for a prosperous future, possessed incalculable knowledge of several key subjects, and generally talks about him like he's a MessianicArchetype. It all sounds like a WhatTheHellPlayer until you realize from the note at the end that ''House wrote the obituary himself''. Several characters mention reading the obituary and all dryly comment that whoever Mr. House really was, he was a guy who had a ''very'' high opinion of himself.
** ''New Vegas'' also has the BigBad Caesar, a WickedCultured {{narcissist}} who believes that other people only exist to serve him. When the Courier asks him what [[WordSaladPhilosophy Hegelian dialectics]] is, he responds that the simple explanation is that it's something that they would know about if they read books ([[CommonKnowledge while ironically mixing Hegel up with Fichte]]).

** [[TokenEvilTeammate Myron]] of ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' is a brilliant teenager responsible for the creation of [[FantasticDrug Jet]], one of the most potent and addictive drugs available in the post-apocalypse. However, he's more or less designed to be a HateSink as he's annoying, amoral, condescending, and has a SmallNameBigEgo.
** Mr. House of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' doesn't bother to hide his condescension for... well, anybody and has a clear disdain for the other factions out to rule New Vegas. He is, however, a genius of several stripes, who not only earned his fortune before he was thirty but was also responsible for preserving what remains of Vegas through the nuclear apocalypse. If you choose to betray him, either for the NCR, Legion, or for yourself, he'll ask you why you did it. You can declare your allegiance to the faction of your choosing... or you could bluntly tell him, "I don't like you." After you do the deed, his obituary, entitled "A Tragedy Has Befallen All Mankind", states that he was a man of incredible vision and genius that will likely never be replaced, recognizes him as the best hope for a prosperous future, possessed incalculable knowledge of several key subjects, and generally talks about him like he's a MessianicArchetype. It all sounds like a WhatTheHellPlayer until you realize from the note at the end that ''House wrote the obituary himself''. Several characters mention reading the obituary and all dryly comment that whoever Mr. House really was, he was a guy who had a ''very'' high opinion of himself.

-->-- '''Bedman''' to... [[MirrorMatch himself]], ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear: Xrd''

* [[TokenEvilTeammate Myron]] of ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' is a brilliant teenager responsible for the creation of [[FantasticDrug Jet]], one of the most potent and addictive drugs available in the post-apocalypse. However, he's more or less designed to be a HateSink as he's annoying, amoral, condescending, and has a SmallNameBigEgo.
* Mr. House of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' doesn't bother to hide his condescension for... well, anybody and has a clear disdain for the other factions out to rule New Vegas. He is, however, a genius of several stripes, who not only earned his fortune before he was thirty but was also responsible for preserving what remains of Vegas through the nuclear apocalypse.
** If you choose to betray him, either for the NCR, Legion, or for yourself, he'll ask you why you did it. You can declare your allegiance to the faction of your choosing... or you could bluntly tell him, "I don't like you." After you do the deed, his obituary, entitled "A Tragedy Has Befallen All Mankind", states that he was a man of incredible vision and genius that will likely never be replaced, recognizes him as the best hope for a prosperous future, possessed incalculable knowledge of several key subjects, and generally talks about him like he's a MessianicArchetype. It all sounds like a WhatTheHellPlayer until you realize from the note at the end that ''House wrote the obituary himself''. Several characters mention reading the obituary and all dryly comment that whoever Mr. House really was, he was a guy who had a ''very'' high opinion of himself.

* Albert Mouse in 'WesternAnimation/TwasTheNightBeforeChristmas'' believes strongly that there is no Santa Claus and isn't shy about voicing his opinions. He also seems to know quite a bit about how clocks work -- although maybe not as much as he thinks since the first time he visits the clock tower it ends in disaster. He does fix the clock later, and also learns about the importance of both humility and having faith.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': [[spoiler:Stanford Pines]], who was a child prodigy and the author of the 3 Journals has a whole helluva lot of pride, and definitely looks down upon [[spoiler:his brother, Stanley, due to him costing Ford his dream college and being a con artist]]. When he asks [[spoiler:Stanley]] to take one of his Journals and bury it so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, he tries to [[StatingTheSimpleSolution simply burn it instead]], but the author gets into a fight with him because the Journal contains his research and he can't bear to see it actually destroyed despite how dangerous it is. [[spoiler:This trait nearly costs the good guys the final battle with [[BigBad Bill Cipher]], as Ford condescendingly correcting a grammar error by Stan causes the latter to snap and attack him, interrupting the ritual they were attempting and distracting the group long enough for Bill to arrive]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Twilight Sparkle, the main protagonist, has some elements of this. In the pilot, she's forced to work alongside the other Mane Five because together they are the Elements of Harmony, but at first, she was rather rude towards them and her prideful attitude is one of her flaws, since she is the student of Princess Celestia and Twilight views herself as the OnlySaneWoman. She almost died by Nightmare Moon's hooves because of it. As the series moved on, she became [[CharacterDevelopment much more humble]] but still sometimes acts like this unintentionally thanks to her somewhat poor social skills. For example, she flat out told Pinkie Pie that she couldn't handle babysitting on her own (and ''thoroughly'' insulted her), but was actually only trying to offer assistance rather than offend her.

* Rick from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is the WorldsSmartestMan and views everyone else as inferior because of it with a condescending StrawNihilist attitude. Furthermore it's mentioned he has [[HollywoodAutism high-functioning autism]] which potentially contributes to his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold partial]] LackOfEmpathy.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' spoofed this in "HOMЯ", where Homer has a crayon removed from a brain and receives a dramatic surge to his intelligence, jumping up to an IQ of...105. He becomes a genius only in comparison to the rest of Springfield (minus Lisa), and insufferable only because he behaves like a somewhat normal human being. For example, he actually does his job at the nuclear power plant, reporting it to the Nuclear Safety Commission for its countless safety violations, which causes massive layoffs and gets the plant shut down until it could be brought up to code. Ironically, Homer is the safety inspector for Sector 7-G, which means that he's basically reporting all the safety violations that happened while he was on duty. Later on, he goes to a Creator/JuliaRoberts movie and gets thrown out because he's the only person in the theater who recognizes that the plot is an absolute ClicheStorm (everyone else thought Roberts was going to marry the [[DisposableFiance rich jerk]]). Eventually, he becomes so unhappy that he has Moe re-insert the crayon, [[StatusQuoIsGod returning to his normal dumb self]].
** Lisa herself often qualifies to this as well, in her worse moments. She longs to be challenged, but at times it's clear she enjoys feeling smarter than her peers.

* Patrick becomes one of these on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', where he becomes super smart and rejects Spongebob's childlike behavior, insults Squidward's clarinet playing, and calls Sandy an idiot. All of this is because Spongebob accidentally replaced the top of Patrick's head with [[{{Pun}} brain coral]].

-->''[the copy taps his foot in a way Jace recognizes all too well]''\\

* Edwin Odesseiron from ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' (both games). He spends most of the time calling everyone around him brainless monkeys -- his 18 Intelligence, however, is the highest of any NPC you can pick up, and in addition, he has a unique and non-removable magic item that further enhances his spellcasting. His arrogance (combined with his ''significantly'' lower Wisdom stat) gets him in trouble a few times, though it hardly prevents him from becoming a DracoInLeatherPants for the fandom, who seems really into it.
** That magic item? That was only included because they wanted him to be ''really really good'' at spellcasting, but the game code wouldn't let them apply the bonus directly to Edwin.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': [[ComicBook/DoctorOctopus Doc Ock]] is particularly bad about this, especially when gallivanting around as ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan''. Notably, he scoffs at Peter's lack of scientific advancements, despite knowing he invented the advanced web shooter tech when he was fifteen and has been too busy saving the world since then (often from Ock himself) to do much research. But nope, Ock's still "superior" to all other scientists. It gets so bad that, after he is told by Spidey about his HeelRealization and HeroicSuicide at the end of the ''Superior'' saga, he comes to the conclusion that the only reason he would do such a thing is that Peter's brain couldn't handle his genius and it affected him.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': [[ComicBook/DoctorOctopus Doc Ock]] is particularly bad about this in ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'', especially when gallivanting around as ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan''. Notably, he scoffs at Peter's lack of scientific advancements, despite knowing he invented the advanced web shooter tech when he was fifteen and has been too busy saving the world since then (often from Ock himself) to do much research. But nope, Ock's still "superior" to all other scientists. It gets so bad that, after he is told by Spidey about his HeelRealization and HeroicSuicide at the end of the ''Superior'' saga, he comes to the conclusion that the only reason he would do such a thing is that Peter's brain couldn't handle his genius and it affected him.

-->'''Lex Luthor:''' [[Film/{{Superman}} Lex Luthor, the greatest criminal mind of our time!!]]

* [[ComicBook/DoctorOctopus Doc Ock]] is particularly bad about this in ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'', especially when gallivanting around as ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan''. Notably, he scoffs at Peter's lack of scientific advancements, despite knowing he invented the advanced web shooter tech when he was fifteen and has been too busy saving the world since then (often from Ock himself) to do much research. But nope, Ock's still "superior" to all other scientists. It gets so bad that, after he is told by Spidey about his HeelRealization and HeroicSuicide at the end of the ''Superior'' saga, he comes to the conclusion that the only reason he would do such a thing is that Peter's brain couldn't handle his genius and it affected him.

-->'''Kanade:''' Peh! What a disappointment. I never expected you all to share a single-digit IQ like my sister. To think I could easily die if you halfwits vote wrong... Disgusting!