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    A-K 
  • Action League NOW!. Every character is Too Dumb to Live. Even Thundergirl and Bill the Lab Guy have their moments.
  • Adventure Time: Finn, by his very own admission. Though he's more impulsive than outright dumb — he occasionally wins challenges through craft, for example ("The Limit," "It Came from the Nightosphere," "Memory of a Memory"). However, when asked why he's missing some teeth, Word of God said "he bites trees and rocks and stuff. He's stupid."
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: Gumball Watterson played this straight in the first season, making stupid decision after stupid decision in order to achieve his desires. From the second season onwards, though, this becomes downplayed as he does become more self-aware and abstract, leaning more in the Cats Are Snarkers trope and even being the Only Sane Man on occasion. Nevertheless, he can still be impulsive, careless, and ignorant when the plot calls for it.
  • American Dad!: Stan Smith may be a classified member of the CIA, but he is otherwise a complete idiot, which is best demonstrated in "Hurricane!" where he ends up getting everyone injured from his attempts to "save" them from disaster.
  • Ben 10: Ben Tennyson in both the original series and the 2016 reboot, though this case is heavily justified: after all, he is a 10 year old kid using a highly advanced alien weapon he barely understands himself, and he's teamed up with a ridiculously precocious cousin (who in the Classic Timeline has an innate talent for magic); anyone in such a situation and with such allies would look dumb in comparison, unless you are a genius yourself. By the time he's a teenager in the Classic Timeline, he has grown out of this for the most part and is revealed to be much smarter than he seems, though later installments (Ben 10: Omniverse in particular) would have him still occasionally engage in such behavior due to narcissistic tendencies following him becoming a Living Legend.
  • Bordertown: Bud, a bumbling Butt-Monkey cop who would let others push him around for making poor choices.
  • Brickleberry: Steve Williams is the main hero (technically speaking), and yet he is so stupid and thoughtless that he puts himself and others at risk.
  • CatDog: Cat and Dog, with Dog definitely the worse of the duo.
  • ChalkZone: Rudy Tabootie is downplayed a little. While he's not outright stupid, he's naïve and Book Dumb, being around a C-student in school. He also causes a lot of the problems he has to solve, like in "Gift Adrift" (though Snap kind of made it worse), "Waste Mountain", "The Wiggies", "Hole in the Wall", "Power Play", "Draw and Let Draw", and The Big Blow Up.
  • One has to question the logic of these so called "child geniuses" like Dexter, Jimmy Neutron, or the Test sisters who resort to mundane efforts of acquiring money such as lemonade sales or selling candy despite the fact that their technology would be worth a fortune, or could make far more valuable products. They probably have the technology to replicate whatever they could want to buy. However, come FusionFall, both Dexter and his rival, Mandark, have started their own technology businesses with now publicly known laboratories.
  • DuckTales (1987): Launchpad McQuack, who in many episodes, saves his friends, or even the whole world while remaining a certified idiot. He's even admitted it on more than one occasion. In the new comics, his search for a job since Darkwing Duck went out of the vigilante business is displayed by but a single panel from his interview with the Rescue Rangers. No, Launchpad, you cannot, in fact, fly the Ranger Wing.
  • Dudley Do-Right wants to be an Ideal Hero, but he usually can't see through the criminals' schemes — even ones as brazen as taking over Dudley's Mountie post — and instead saves the day by accident.
  • Earthworm Jim: The titular character veers well into this territory more often than not; when he's not a Cloudcuckoolander.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: Downplayed with Eddy. He isn't stupid (especially compared to Ed) so much as reckless and thoughtless, which is the reason his schemes tend to fail. He also can be rather gullible in episodes like "Here's Mud in Your Ed", is a shameless underachiever at school, and cannot spell "respect" correctly.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: Timmy Turner barely passes in school, and never, never learns to Be Careful What You Wish For, yet he saves the Earth and Fairy World multiple times. Granted, he causes many of the problems himself, which happens so much that Jorgen, in the later seasons, has become savvy enough to know that a typical world disaster is just another day in the life of Timmy Turner.
    Jorgen: (During "Fairy OddBaby) There has been a disturbance in the fairy force! Someone was just about to wish for the B word! (poof in Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda) Ah, Turner. Biiiig surprise.
    Jorgen: (During the second Christmas special) It's the day AFTER Christmas! Where is all this wishing coming from?! (Scanner show the magic is being pinpointed to Dimmsdale) Turner. Of course.
  • Futurama: Fry is a Cloudcuckoolander whose 'lack of a Delta Brainwave' is the one thing that allows him to save all life in the universe from annihilation on more than one occasion.
    Nibblonian: There is but one being that can resist them. A child of destiny whose bizarre brain wave pattern makes him immune to the Brain Spawn attack. He is the hope of the universe. The fate of your world — perhaps all worlds — rests in his special mind.
    Leela: Now, when you say "special"...
  • George of the Jungle:
    • The titular character is normally portrayed as this.
    • Tom Slick, a parody of the original Tom Swift, only wins his races because his True Companions aren't morons, and the villains make Dick Dastardly look rational.
      Tom Slick: Fear? I don't know the meaning of fear!
      Granny: He also doesn't know the meaning of 'broccoli'.
  • Gormiti: The Lords of Nature Return!: Toby. He's courageous, selfless and a Determinator, but also quite frivolous, impulsive and Book Dumb, and has a tendency to pull pranks at the least appropriate moments, such as during a battle. Which becomes especially apparent when compared to his one-year-younger brother Nick. Ironically enough, Toby is the Lord of Water, and Water Gormiti — especially Carrapax — are usually depicted as calm and wise.
  • Hong Kong Phooey, though calling him a hero is a stretch, since it's always his Hyper-Competent Sidekick who actually saves the day. Most of the time HKP's idiocy proves to be a hindrance.
  • Inspector Gadget: The titular character regularly bumbles around getting himself in trouble, being unable to put two and two together, and flat out being Too Dumb to Live while his ten-year-old niece Penny and their dog solve every case for him and lead him to the bad guys, while he takes the credit for it.
  • It's Pony: Pony, who is portrayed as impulsive, destructive, and naive is prone to this. Though he can prove to be useful in certain situations.
  • Jimmy Two-Shoes: The titular character is dumb (or at least extremely naive), yet he remains the only person Lucius can't break.
  • Johnny Test: The titular character. Especially in the episodes that has Hugh as the Big Bad.
  • Justice League Unlimited: Most people would be forgiven for thinking that The Flash fits this trope. (He fits a bunch of others normally associated with this trope, too. His name is Wally, for goodness sakes.) It came as something of a surprise for many fans when he turned out to be a forensic scientist in his day job. Plus there's the fact that he's one of the most powerful members of the League under the goofiness and whenever you push him that little bit too far things tend to get broken. An example of this is faking his own death, on camera, while hooked up to a heart monitor. He speeds up his heartbeat so the monitor can't sense it and flatlines. Even Batman is impressed.
  • Kaeloo: While she's certainly not as stupid as Stumpy, Kaeloo is still pretty dumb.
  • Kappa Mikey: Mikey Simon is prone to being this trope.

    L-Z 
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Avatar Korra is far from stupid, but she is portrayed as completely oblivious, hot-headed, and impulsive. Usually, her strokes of idiocy stem from narcissistic tendencies developed from early childhood. At best, Korra is perfectly capable of being smart, but lacks the maturity and patience to bother doing so. By the end of Book Two, though, she's grown out of it almost completely.
    • Korra's friend Bolin. The Foolish to his brother Mako's Responsible, Bolin isn't stupid per se, but he's gullible, naive and a Horrible Judge of Character.
  • The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: Flapjack. Especially in "I'm a Believer".
  • Megas XLR: Coop fits this to a T. The guy might know how to customize a giant robot, but no one ever said he knew how to pilot it. Or pilot it enough that it didn't level Jersey City more times than your typical Power Rangers episode!
    Evil Coop: You know you don't have a chance.
    Coop: I don't know NOTHIN'!
  • Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug can fall under this, mainly due to her inability to quell her obsession towards Adrien, which more often than not leads to disastrous results.
  • Molly of Denali: In "Home Made Heroes," Tooey thinks that the In-Universe fictional character, Mighty McMann is not very bright. He points out how he's wearing a leotard in a blizzard.
  • Mr. Bogus occasionally falls into this territory Depending on the Writer.
  • Mr. Pickles: Tommy Goodman is portrayed as the show's Fat Idiot and the protagonist (despite the title).
  • My Gym Partner's a Monkey: Jake Spidermonkey is a perfect example of being a protagonist and being a total moron.
  • The Owl House: Downplayed with Luz Noceda. She isn't stupid so much as careless and flaky. Even so, she saves the day in about every episode, culminating in her successfully ending the Day of Unity.
  • The Perils of Penelope Pitstop: The Ant Hill Mob certainly could fit the bill as while they try to save Penelope from the machinations of The Hooded Claw, they tend to trip over their own fourteen feet. Special shout-out must go to Dum-Dum, who twice came through on Penelope's behalf and scored a kiss from her each time.
  • Ready Jet Go!: Jet gives off this vibe at times due to him being incredibly naive about Earth, very forgetful, and often jumping into situations without thinking first. However, this is downplayed, as he is a Ditzy Genius rather than a full-blown idiot.
  • Recess: T.J. Detweiler, though his unintelligence comes more out of laziness than actual stupidity. He's a genius when it comes up to coming up with plans, but he's extremely Book Dumb.
  • Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby themselves, but Rigby more-so. His stupidity is responsible for most of the chaos in the park; it also turns out that he is a high school dropout. That being said, he does get better as the series goes on, especially when he finally gets his diploma.
  • Both Robot and Monster, Robot is the smarter of the two but he's Genius Ditz.
  • Rocket Monkeys: Wally and Gus. Gus is the more sensible of the two, but that's not saying much.
  • Sidekick: Eric and his friend Trevor.
  • The Simpsons: Homer Simpson is the main character and saves the day for the most part, but he is very dimwitted to the point of resulting in otherwise impossible scenarios. Flanderization has him become even stupider as time went by.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: The titular character. In the earlier seasons, he was more of a naive Cloudcuckoolander who lacked common sense and proper judgment, but he becomes more clueless and dense as the series goes on.
  • Steven Universe: Steven Quartz Universe is very much an example for the first half of the series. A small, naive child who is easily manipulated by the adults around him, he doesn't even realize his entire race is from another planet until the end of the first season. His childish antics frequently get him and the rest of the cast in trouble. However, as the series goes on and Steven learns more about combat and the minds of other people, he eventually (very gradually) grows out of this trait, and at this point in the series (Season 4) stands as a Badass Pacifist / emotional Chessmaster with only occasional moments of weakness.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): Arguably deconstructed by The Pulverizer, where his idiotic tendencies and desperate desire to become special leads him to not only join the Foot Clan, but deliberately expose himself to Kraang mutagen, despite the efforts of the turtles to stop him. This turns him into the 2012 version of Mutagen Man... aka, an amorphous blob of corrosive goo with his organs floating around inside of him.
  • ThunderCats (1985): Lion-O. A pretty justified case since he aged to physical maturity in a sleep capsule during the long journey to Third Earth; Lion-O is a kid stuck in an adult's body and is fairly naive at first. As a result, he has an inflated sense of responsibility as "Lord of the Thundercats", often charging recklessly into bad situations that the others have to bail him out of. He eventually becomes a good leader over the course of the series.
    • In ThunderCats (2011), it centers on Lion-O's coming of age travails. His Cloudcuckoolander beliefs alienate him from his own people, but endear him to the rest of Third Earth. He relies on the Indy Ploy and the fortunate intervention of magic stones for many of his successes.
  • Titan Maximum: Palmer and Sasha are this with extreme emphasis on the idiot part.
    • And the fact that Palmer is regarded as genuinely heroic despite being a gigantic moron who barely knows what he's doing is what motivates Gibbs into becoming evil.
  • Transformers: If they're the Kid-Appeal Character, they're most likely this. Examples include Hot Rod (until becoming Rodimus Prime), Cheetor (pre-Character Development), Hot Shot (grows out of it), Ironhide (mostly grows out of it), Hot Shot, and Bumblebee.
  • T.U.F.F. Puppy: Dudley Puppy. Despite having some intellect, he is generally a dimwitted, careless Manchild.
  • Wakfu gives us Sadlygrove, resident knight-errant and infamous Iop-head. Also puts the emphasis on the idiot bit, at least until episode 22. He is actually a Deconstruction, as he is aware he isn't very smart, and is frustrated by it.
  • Walter Melon. (Not that Walter Melon.) The ad for the show says "He knows no fear. He knows no danger. He knows... nothing!" And... he really doesn't. He's the ultimate mercenary: whenever a character needs to be replaced, he can replace them. And he gets the powers. (Whether he can USE them remains to be seen, he displays varying levels of ability every episode.) This being a comedy, he almost always relies on Dumb Luck.


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