History Main / SeeminglyProfoundFool

* ''Film/{{Teachers}}'': Mr. Gower, a harmless schizophrenic whose bizarre antics make him the best teacher in the school. His presence is a scathing dramatization of the old adage, "You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps."

* In ''Theatre/TheInspectorGeneral'', a lazy, good-for-nothing officer, Khelastakov, travels to a small Russian town which is expecting the arrival of an Inspector General from St. Petersburg. He is mistaken for the Inspector General and treated like royalty, despite his boorish behavior.
** The mostly InNameOnly Creator/DannyKaye film adaptation differs considerably in the details, but still largely fits the trope. Georgi (Kaye's character) may not be a "fool" exactly, but he's certainly naive.

* Pinky of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' would fall under this trope whenever he interacted with the general public.

* The main theme of the ''Literature/ChampionIsPlaying'' series. Because his plans keeps working out perfectly, dispite only barely understanding the games rules, everyone assumes Dan is some kind of super genius. The truth is he's actually of below average intelligence, but nobody even considers that and they jump to wild conclusions trying to explain why he's doing things that only ''seem'' stupid.

If he is mentally challenged, unlike IdiotSavant, GeniusDitz, and TheRainman he will have nothing that serves as "compensation" for his disability, and InspirationallyDisadvantaged won't apply to him because the others don't know he's disadvantaged. May overlap with ManChild and/or MistakenForBadass. In extreme cases, he may become a FakeUltimateHero, purely as a consequence of how other people react to him. May well result in OneDialogueTwoConversations.

* ''Manga/SangatsuNoLion'': Nikaidou, Matsumoto and Yokomizo spy on Shimada and Gotou from some bushes afar, thinking that they are emitting a sort of sophisticated, intelligent aura that's expected of A-Class players as they get ready for their next game against each other. However, a few panels before show that their conversation is far from profound, and they're really just slugging childish, idiotic insults at each other, with Shimada being accused of looking old for his age and Gotou being accused of narcissism.

** He manages to make a career out of this as Assistant to the Traveling Secretary of the New York Yankees. When he resolves to take "the opposite" of his normal approach to life, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is won over by his oddball confidence and [[HonestAdvisor blunt approach]], and he enjoys three years of UltimateJobSecurity due to everyone's misreading of his characteristic ZanyScheme absurdities as displays of valuable outside-the-box thinking. (He can't even turn it off long enough to [[SpringtimeForHitler get fired on purpose]].

** He manages to make a career out of this as Assistant to the Traveling Secretary of the New York Yankees. When he resolves to take "the opposite" of his normal approach to life, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is won over by his oddball confidence and [[HonestAdvisor blunt approach]], and he enjoys three years of UltimateJobSecurity due to everyone's misreading of his characteristic ZanyScheme absurdities as displays of valuable outside-the-box thinking.

* Jaune goes through this again in ''Fanfic/ARabbitAmongWolves''. [[AccidentalMurder After accidentally killing Adam Taurus]], Jaune [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt unwittingly becomes the leader of Vale's White Fang sect]]. Jaune sets about trying to reform the White Fang to prove to the public he isn't a cold-blooded monster. His greatest weapon isn't just his own plans and charity. It is the fact that he is a genuinely {{Adorkable}}, timid, and inexperienced person. His bumbling and shy behavior [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse makes him far more endearing to the public]] than [[AxCrazy Adam]]. This causes everyone, from his minions to [[HeroAntagonist Team [=RWBY=] ]], to think that Jaune is a [[SheepInSheepsClothing brilliant [=PR=] mastermind whose deliberately chooses to act like a shy goofball]].

* Jason in ''Series/TheGoodPlace''. When he's introduced, he's having to pose as a Buddhist monk who took a vow of silence, and people interpret his actions as lessons, but it's revealed before long that he's just a [[StupidCrooks petty criminal with the IQ of a cheesegrater]] from Jacksonville, Florida, and his actions generally have no actual thought behind them. Several episodes after the audience learns this, he pricks his finger on a cactus because he impulsively poked it, and Michael managed to convert that into some sort of proverb within seconds. [[spoiler:Revealed in the final episode to be a subversion. Only the main characters were ever fooled; Michael and the residents are all demons who knew well in advance who Jason really was, and were only pretending that they thought he was wise to keep the charade going.]]

* Jaune goes through again in ''Fanfic/ARabbitAmongWolves''. [[AccidentalMurder After accidentally killing Adam Taurus]], Jaune [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt unwittingly becomes the leader of Vale's White Fang sect]]. Jaune sets about trying to reform the White Fang to prove to the public he isn't a cold-blooded monster. His success comes not from his own wits, but the fact that he is a genuinely {{Adorkable}}, timid, and inexperienced person. His bumbling behavior makes him far more endearing to the public than Adam. This causes, from his minions to Team [=RWBY=], thinks he's a brilliant [=PR=] mastermind whose deliberately chooses to act like a shy goofball.

** In the sequel ''FanFic/Professor Arc II: Headmaster Arc'', this trope continues to snowball and cause Jaune issues. [[spoiler: This trope becomes so heavily invoked that, in the minds of Cinder Fall, Winter Shnee, James Ironwood, and other major characters, any and all apparent idiocy is, infact, part of an unimagineably complex, manipulative, and strategic plan. This couldn't be further from the truth]].

* Subverted twice in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'', when Rincewind is claimed as the Great Wizzard, who will lead the Red Army to victory. Firstly, because Rincewind ''does'' understand the question and knows he doesn't have the answer, but can't convince anyone of this; and second, because the leader of the Red Army knows this as well, but thinks they need a symbol. And, of course, [[DoubleSubversion double-subverted]] when he does, though a combination of chance and cowardly cunning, lead them to victory.

[[folder:Theater]]

* In ''Theater/KingLear'', Lear, his fool, and Kent take refuge in a shack provided by Old Gloucester, where they encounter Tom O'Bedlam, who is actually Edgar in disguise and ObfuscatingInsanity. Lear believes that Tom has been brought to such a situation by his two daughters:

* ''Film/CitizenKane'': Subverted because the protagonist is not a fool, but at the beginning of the movie there is a scene where a CorruptCorporateExecutive reunion claims that Kane is one of the DirtyCommunists. It follows a scene where in a Worker’s rally Kane is declared a [[FascistItaly fascist]], and then we have Kane’s own declaration that he is [[PatrioticFervor an American]]. This shows Kane as a human Rorschach test: Other people project what they most fear onto him, and will insist on their interpretation of his words and deeds with a desperate will no matter how contradictories they are. The three interpretations are wrong, because the DirtyCommunists, [[FascistItaly the fascists]] and even the [[PatrioticFervor patriotic nationalist]] all they believe in something bigger than themselves. The movie shows us that Charlie Foster Kane is only [[ItsAllAboutMe for Charlie Foster Kane]].

** In "Last Exit to Springfield", Homer accidentally becomes the new leader of the union. Despite being woefully unqualified, events conspire to make Mr. Burns think he's a shrewd negotiator, and Burns doesn't realize Homer is just a lucky idiot until the very end of the episode.

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', This is the reason why Smith thinks Captain Caboose is at all fit to be a leader

* In one episode of ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'', two officers visit Volcott in order to discover how he run the squad, convinced that there must be some sort of secret behind the fact that they haven't been demobilized despite [[HeroWithAnFInGood all the trouble they cause]]. They keep interpreting any mundane action made by Volcott as if it was part of some complicated hidden plan.
* In the ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' episode "Dango Over Flowers", local homeless man Musashi is presented as a "famous gourmet" and the judge for a sweets-eating competition. The Andromeda team raises three objections, and Musashi's response each time - "You better eat while you can!" - is interpreted differently in each context.
* An episode of ''[[Anime/IrresponsibleCaptainTylor The Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]'' features this. Several of the ship's female crew members come in to ask for advice while Tylor is preoccupied and takes his comments regarding his task as the desired advice. In truth, all Tylor was doing was desperately trying to stop his VCR from recording over the porno tape the ship's marines had given him with explicit instructions to return intact... Or was he?

* Subverted (somewhat) on ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' - On several occasions Ash is asked to speak to aspiring trainers based on his legitimate successes. He is almost always muddled and confusing when he tries to give out profound advice - sometimes he fools them, usually he doesn't. However, he is always much more profound when he drops the pretense and can just talk about his friendship with his pokemon.
* In ''Manga/SangatsuNoLion'', Nikaidou; Matsumoto; and Yokomizo spy on Shimada and Gotou from some bushes afar, thinking that they are emitting a sort of sophisticated, intelligent aura that's expected of A-Class players as they get ready for their next game against each other. However, a few panels before show that their conversation is far from profound, and they're really just slugging childish, idiotic insults at each other, with Shimada being accused of looking old for his age and Gotou being accused of narcissism.

* In the ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' fanfic ''FanFic/ProfessorArc'', Jaune's glowing transcript leads him into being accepted into Beacon-as a teacher. The humor in the story comes from everyone seeing Jaune as an awesome hero-when he really escapes his various challenges through luck, bluff, and aid from criminal associates. [[spoiler: Even Cinder Fall sees him as a dangerous fiend with an agenda-when his whole agenda has been keeping himself out of trouble]].

* Creator/TheBrothersGrimm wrote of "[[http://www.authorama.com/grimms-fairy-tales-54.html Doctor Know-It-All]]," who on the advice of a friend gave himself that name and pretended to be a very wise person. When a wealthy gentleman heard of this, he came to the 'good doctor' for advice about his servants. Doctor Know-It-All managed to completely bluff his way through a bizarre series of events in which he unwittingly revealed all of the plots being concocted by the servants. Because of this, he became very wealthy and continued to be celebrated as knowing everything... somehow.

* The [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes trope used to be named]] for the character of Chance the Gardener (Creator/PeterSellers) in ''Film/BeingThere'', an adaptation of Jerzy Kosiński's social satire. Raised and kept isolated from the outside world that he only knows through his incessant TV viewing, Chance is abandoned after his old employer dies and he wanders through Washington, D.C.in a daze. He ends up a major political figure -- under the name of Chauncey Gardiner -- without ever understanding what is happening to him (or so it seems: the movie-only TwistEnding leaves room for the possibility that he's really [[MessianicArchetype more than he seems]]).
* Mr. Gower in the film ''Teachers'', a harmless schizophrenic whose bizarre antics make him the best teacher in the school. His presence is a scathing dramatization of the old adage, "You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps."
* Elwood P. Dowd in ''Theatre/{{Harvey}}'' describes this as essentially his job. He goes to a bar, people sit down and tell him their worries, and he introduces them to [[NotSoImaginaryFriend Harvey]]. By the time they're done talking, the people walk away feeling better and never talk to him again.

* German movie ''Didi -- Der Experte'' by/with comedian Didi Hallervorden. Car mechanic Willy Schulze (an apolitical guy) is mistaken for the political expert Willy Schneider. They both have lost their memory in a car accident and Schulze starts successfully helping the mayor of Berlin with slogans like "We have to pull on the screws" or "Why change the engine?". Until Schneider regains his memory and decides to take revenge. This ends in a massive landslide loss for BOTH major parties.

* Creator/JohnCandy played exactly this character in ''Film/WhosHarryCrumb''. Harry (Candy) is almost in [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Ralph Wiggum's]] league. He was sent in by the CorruptCorporateExecutive because the executive wanted to send the worst possible detective in the world. Eventually, some characters do catch on to Crumb's stupidity, but by the end are wondering if it was ObfuscatingStupidity. It [[spoiler: probably was not.]]
* The driving concept of the comedy ''Film/TheManWithOneRedShoe'', in which a clueless musician (played by Pierre Richard in the original French film and Creator/TomHanks in the American remake) gets mistaken for a powerful and highly competent spy. Everything he says and does for the rest of the movie is spied, filmed, analyzed and dissected by real government counterintelligence agents who become more and more convinced of his [[InformedAttribute so-called cunning]] when he is in fact none of those things.
* Creator/BillMurray's character in ''Film/TheManWhoKnewTooLittle'' isn't a ''complete'' fool, but due to a mixup in phone calls he thinks he's involved in an elaborate variant of an audience-participation mystery theatre instead of an elaborate espionage plot. He thinks the spies and assassins he's encountering are all actors. And because he's clearly having a ''blast'' , they're all convinced that he's such a sociopathic assassin that he finds dead bodies ''funny''. The fact that none of them have ever heard of him before is taken to be just more evidence of how good he is at his job.

** An antisemitic priest was in charge of a town, and challenged the Jews of the town to a sign language debate with him, with a catch: if the person they pick to debate loses, all the Jews must leave. No one volunteers for the debate except a poor fool. At the debate, the priest draws a big circle in the air. The fool stamps on the ground. The priest holds up three fingers. The fool shakes his head and holds up one. The priest takes out bread and wine. The fool begins to eat an apple. The priest then declares that the fool had won the debate. The priest's explanation: "The circle meant that God was everywhere in the world. The stamp on the ground meant God was not in Hell. The three fingers represented the Trinity. Holding up one finger meant that God was one and indivisible. The bread and wine represented the blood and flesh of Jesus, but when he reminded me of the original sin, I knew he had won." The ''fool's'' explanation, on the other hand: "The priest pointed far away, meaning that all the Jews must leave. I stamped on the ground, to say that we're staying right here. The three fingers meant that we had three days to get out. The one finger meant that not one of us was leaving. Then, I guess he gave up, since he took out his lunch, so I took out mine."
*** A variant is sometimes told in which the priest thinks the stamp means "God is not only around us, but right here, with us" to the priest, and the one finger is a reminder that the Christians and Jews both share one common god. Similarly, the one finger may also be [[FlippingTheBird the fool's attempt at making a particular impolite gesture.]]

* ''Film/{{Bean}}'' toys with this trope when he has to give an impromptu speech on the Portrait of Whistler's Mother. Observations like how it's good that the painting is large because "if it were very small... microscopic... then hardly anyone would be able to see it," are taken by the attending crowd as the brilliant statements of a prominent professor of the arts. Subverted, however, in that several other characters quickly recognize that Bean is anything but a genius.