History Main / SmarterThanYouLook

* Akira from ''Manga/FamilyComplex'' has doe eyes and a laidback demeanour that makes him look rather slow, especially when compared to his more charismatic older brother. When he starts attending his older brother's alma meter, Harumi's former school mates immediately judge him as plain and slow. However, he turns out to be [[TheAce very intelligent, athletic and is good at managing people]], and by the time he shows up in the SequelSeries, ''MAnga/PrincessPrincess'', he's one of the most respected students of the school, with even the seniors referring to him as Sakamoto-''sama''.

%%** ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': Dream Girl in the original and Post-Infinite-Crisis versions. Like many story elements in the Legion, this was based on a throwaway reference from UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}: she changed Light Lass's powers using Naltorian Science. She's the smartest Legionnaire after ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} 5, Franchise/{{Superman}}, and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, at least if you believe the RPG, and is one of the few who have been able to use Brainiac 5's force shield belt. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; missing the "Than You Look" part; why wouldn't you expect her to be smart?)

** The Rookie Crusher looks like a unpleasant overweight man, but he is a clever trainer whose been crushing rookies at the Indigo League for twenty years without losing to a single rookie before Ash defeated him. He's also the only person to cotton on to the idea that Ash isn't a InstantExpert prodigy trainer without any context that Ash might be a [[PeggySue time traveler]]. While everyone else thinks he's a SoreLoser, Ash and Pikachu are well aware he's not wrong and admit it to themselves.

* While generally applicable to [[FanFic/TheInfiniteLoops loopers]] due to the sheer time scale available to them, both Yang Xiao Long and Sun Wukong of ''Fanfic/TheRWBYLoops'' deserve special mention. While they outwardly portray themselves as fun-loving [[BrainlessBeauty brainless beauties]], both of them are quick to pick up on emotional distress, have had philosophical ponderings on the nature of looping and personality, and have taken full grasp of the chance to improve their skills -- notably, Yang is a fully capable ''surgeon''.

* "John Doe" of ''Videogame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'' is childish, playful, spiteful, and irreverent to any serious consequences. At the same time, in true [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker Joker]] fashion, he's a GadgeteerGenius, can plan and manipulate people on the fly, and [[spoiler:easily deduces both Lady Arkham and ''Batman's'' true identities from very disparate clues]]. He's also much [[StrongerThanTheyLook stronger than he looks]], and Bruce even gravely warns Catwoman at one point to ''not'' underestimate him for even a second.

* ''[[PlayerCharacter You]]'' will find yourself on the receiving end of this [[DudeWhereIsMyRespect quite often]] In Creator/{{Bethesda}} games such as ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. No matter how much of a genius your character is, a lot of [=NPCs=] tend to treat you as if you were a complete moron and using the trope by name is the closest you'll get to them complimenting you.

-->'''Defender Morgan:''' Huh? And here I thought we had the only remaining copy of that...

* In ''Videogame/TheWitcher2AssassinsOfKings'', Letho of Gulet is a massively muscled Witcher described as a "mountain of meat" that is generally seen as another brute. However, he proves to be legitimately cunning and capable of competent schemes that outplay various other characters. Assuming he survives to be in [[Videogame/TheWitcher3WildHunt the third game]], Geralt once again gets embroiled in another one of his schemes (though this time he's just trying to survive).

* Tojiko in ''VisualNovel/KaraNoShoujo'' looks pretty dumb and is rather easy to tease, but she actually gets good grades and is a publishing author.

* In order to remain active in human space, Sam Starfall in ''WebComic/{{Freefall}}'' got shoved into a cartoony-looking spacesuit to hide his EldritchAbomination features (and give him a way to breathe). This is to the detriment of the humans on Jean, who have since learned that he's a very ''intelligent'' menace to society, albeit more playful than harmful.

* Used for a gag in ''WebComic/GrrlPower'', where an extremely DumbBlonde-looking porn actress squees at [[https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-770-reactions-are-mixed/ the thought of alien hunks watching her work]]. And then gives a summary of how the substantial increase in audience will impact the industry.

* Reynir from ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'': He's a stowaway who has lived a quite sheltered life by the cast's standards, which results in him being quite naïve and lacking the self-confidence to put his foot down about anything. However, when tagging along with the crew's two scholars making a technically unauthorized investigation of an abandoned fort, he's the only one who notices signs of animals avoiding the building that the two others entered a little earlier (there is a small layer of snow on the ground, and it brutally moves from being covered with overlapping tracks to completely undisturbed a few meters away from the building), and becomes hesitant to approach. Later, he manages his first functioning anti-ghost rune from switching things around from a rune used to keep sheep close to the farm he remembered seeing in his home. The ghosts for whom the rune is intended are a previously unheard of phenomenon, and Reynir has nobody actually teaching him runic magic.

* Despite being somewhat of a cheerful {{ditz}}, Mira of ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'' is genuinely very knowledgeable about astronomy, especially as the series goes on, enough that she gets accepted into the very competitive Shining Star Challenge. Yuu comments on this during the thirty-third chapter, when she [[GeniusDitz goes on for several in-universe minutes on the fundamentals of asteroid discovery]]. Since she always has a ditzy image around her, Yuu is so thrown off balance that the latter says Mira's being "sneaky".