"You never think of anything! You've just got an accent that makes us think you're clever, but you're not. You're just as much of a fucking idiot as these two."
— Simon Cooper to Will McKenzie , The Inbetweeners
Fiction has some universal shorthands to show the audience that a character is smart, such as: having them wear glasses or a labcoat, giving them a big brain, or a very verbose, and seemingly eloquent, speech pattern (probably with a posh accent to boot), or a quiet and dignified demeanour that implies a deep and thoughtful introspection. Maybe they have all this, and more.
Then, there is this character who ticks one or more of the above boxes... except for the fact that they're not actually smart. Maybe they're even stupid. Their bad eyesight is due to genetics or caused by playing too many video games, rather than studious reading. They're wearing the labcoat to serve as a substitute Badass Longcoat. Their enlarged cranium turns out to be more bone than brain. That introspective look they have? Well, they're just thinking about food or sleep.
The direct opposite of Smarter Than They Look, this trope is where a character is assumed to be smart — often due to their nerdy appearance — but turns out to be of (less than) average intelligence. They are frequently a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, and might even be deliberately Feigning Intelligence, just to mislead other characters and the audience to think that the character is supposed to be smart, before revealing that they actually aren't.
Note that the "dumb" aspect of this trope primarily refers to a lack of academic intelligence. An actually Book Smart character who otherwise lacks social graces or common sense doesn't count.
See also Mistaken for Profound and Seemingly Profound Fool.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Angel Beats!: As noted by Yurippe, Takamatsu is a dumbass despite how smart he looks. Not only that, Takamatsu has a very muscular body, which is hidden under his Clark Kent Outfit.
- Digimon:
- Digimon Adventure: Jou/Joe wears glasses and is obsessed with studying, but he is not a great student and is often afraid of failing his exams. He can't compare to Koushirou/Izzy, who is a computer genius despite being two years younger than Jou.
- Digimon Adventure 02: Miyako/Yolei also wears glasses, but while she's nerdy, she's not that smart. Like Jou, she is not assigned to the Crest of Knowledge, and while she has the most knowledge about computers among the new main cast, she is still learning from her senpai Koushirou.
- Encouragement of Climb: Kaede is a glasses-wearing upperclassman who has a smart, big-sisterly vibe about her. She knows a ton about mountain climbing and camping and is happy to take the younger girls under her wing and teach them all about the outdoors. Unfortunately, while she might be smart about outdoor activities, she's a terrible student; her friend Yuuka says it's because she has nothing but mountains on her brain. Aoi learns this the hard way when she makes the mistake of asking Kaede for help with some math homework.
- Flunk Punk Rumble has Hana Adachi, who is often mistaken by her classmates as the bookish Class Representative due to her spectacles and braided hair. However, her grades are even lower than the notorious "yankee" Daichi Shinagawa, which shocks the latter when he finds out.
- Kisaragi from GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class wears large glasses and looks like a bookworm, but is actually one of the lowest-performing among her group. This is alluded to in one flashback of her first meeting with Noda and the Professor: Noda asked Kisaragi for a particularly difficult school problem, assuming that Kisaragi is smart (likely due to her glasses), only for Kisaragi to tell her that she's equally clueless, and prompting the Professor to come to the rescue.
- Horimiya: Hori is under the impression that Miyamura was smart because of his glasses, but it turns out that all of his grades (barring Phys Ed and Health class) are, to put it mildly, pitiful. And when his grades start improving, he switches over to contacts.
- Ore Sama Teacher: Yui Shinobu zig-zags this. He's a bespectacled ninja-wannabe who is first introduced as a stoic and scheming Student Council Member who intends to infiltrate the Public Morals Club with the plan of destroying them from the inside. Once he joins the Public Morals Club, he's quickly shown to be a silly and hot-headed goofball with little common sense who frequently gets himself into trouble due to his rambunctious behaviour, and most of his knowledge only revolves around ninjas. Despite being a Butt-Monkey though, he's still smarter than Mafuyu, and he does have some moments of competence. Of all the Student Council members, he came the closest to destroying the Public Morals Club with his schemes, before he decides that he likes the group as friends and joins them for real.
Comic Books
- The Smurfs: Despite Brainy Smurf's English namenote and the fact that he wears glasses like the stereotypical smart guy, he's just a braggart who doesn't know nearly as much as he says he does. In "Salad Smurfs", he turns into a pea as a reference to the fact that he's a pea-brain.
Films — Live-Action
- The Spanish film Brain Drain has a "nerd pursues hot girl" plot, except that the nerd is not very smart. Emilio is actually Book Dumb, despite being a nerdy loser with glasses, while Natalia (the hot blonde girl) is a very intelligent student. So when Natalia is admitted to Oxford University, Emilio needs to use a fake grant to follow her, along with his equally Book Dumb friends.
- In the 2016 all-female remake Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, the ghostbusters Erin, Abby, and Jillian meet their newest recruit Kevin who's applying for the receptionist job. He's tall, attractive, good-looking, and looks smart, but he quickly demonstrates his lack of intelligence by doing stupid things like covering his eyes so that he couldn't "hear" them talk privately, covering his eyes when he bangs a loud cymbal and the noise hurts his ears, suggesting logos for the ghostbusters that are already in use and copyrighted like the 7-11 symbol. He admits to wearing glasses without the lenses just so he could clean them less and look smart. Erin, Abby, and Jillian are hesitant to hire him at first and Erin only hires him due to his good looks but give Kevin the job position of receptionist anyway because there's nobody else applying.
- Snatch.: Avi the Jewish American gangster certainly acts and dresses a lot smarter than his clueless partner Doug the Head — knowing that letting his friend Frankie Four Fingers gamble is a bad idea — but when it comes to actual criminal work, he doesn't have a clue what he's doing. He actually has to ask where Boris the Bullet Dodger got his name from, addresses Boris as a Russian repeatedly, despite people telling him that Boris is from Uzbekistan, and once a dog eats the expensive diamond he's after, he starts firing a gun furiously in every direction without looking at where he's shooting, which leads to him shooting Tony by accident. And then there's this lovely exchange between him and Bullet Tooth Tony:
Literature
- The Count of Monte Cristo: Mock Millionaire Major Cavalcanti is mentioned as seeming to be the very image of a well-educated Italian nobleman, as long as he isn't spoken to or asked to do math.
- The Saga of the Ynglings: As part of their peace treaty with the Vanir, the Aesir send Hoenir and Mímir as hostages to Vanaheim. Hoenir is tall and "most handsome", and the Aesir claim that he is "very suitable to be a ruler". Accordingly, the Vanir instantly make Hoenir a lord. However, soon they find that Hoenir only ever does what Mímir tells him to do, and is unable to make any decision without Mímir. Realizing that Hoenir is just a good-looking idiot, the Vanir feel cheated and behead Mímir in retaliation.
Live-Action TV
- Family Ties: Alex's friend Skippy looks and acts like a Stereotypical Nerd (socially inept, nerdy clothes, Nerd Glasses), but he has no academic intelligence. Alex considers him even less intelligent than Mallory, Alex's Book Dumb superficial sister. In "Designated Hitter", it's revealed that Mallory is Smarter Than She Looks, while Skippy has an Improbably Low I.Q. that can't even be calculated.
- In Season 1 and the Season 2 premier of The Good Place, Kindhearted Simpleton Jason Mendoza is mistaken for a Buddhist monk who took a Vow Of Silence, so a lot of his non-verbal reactions are Mistaken for Profound.
- Maggie & Bianca: Fashion Friends: At first glance, Nausica looks like an Academic Alpha Bitch, since she wears glasses, dresses like a preppy schoolgirl, and acts like a Competition Freak with her classmates. In reality, she's not good at anything, has no real academic interests, and often resorts to cheating. When she interacts with Eloise, a Teen Genius who often talks about science, Nausica doesn't even understand her and finds her boring.
- The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers: Several characters believe that Nick is an excellent student because of his somewhat geeky personality, but he admits that he's actually an average student whose grades average around "B-".
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney: Hugh O'Conner is regarded as the top student of his school and has the nerdy appearance and smug personality to match. However, his excellent grades are only due to his parents bribing his teacher to fake his test scores. Hugh's lack of good sense is exposed when the judge summons him as a witness: Though he tries to incriminate himself to protect the defendant, his testimony is so riddled with logic problems it causes the Prosecutor to leave the court out of exasperation.
- Cooking Companions has Anatoly, a young man who is Feigning Intelligence. Anatoly has the appearance befitting of a studious nerd (crisp collared shirt, Nerd Glasses, etc.), which stands in contrast to his companions' more down-to-earth gear. However, we later learn that he's so illiterate, he can't even do basic arithmetic.
Webcomics
- Little Nuns: In a subversion of Smart People Wear Glasses, Glasses Nun is decidedly in the middle of the academic pack at the convent. If she loses her glasses, she can actually end up scoring worse than Clumsy Nun.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Carl Wheezer, despite having the big glasses, portly physique and breathing problems of a prototypical nerd, is only marginally smarter than resident Cloudcuckoolander Sheen. Lampshaded on "Birth of a Salesman" when Jimmy's robot salesman says that Carl looks like a smart guy, and Carl remarks, "Nuh-uh, it's just the glasses."
- American Dad!: In "Killer Vacation", Steve meets a handsome boy with a British accent who promises to take him to a nude beach. Several times the duo encounter obstacles on their journey, with the kid counseling Steve to make the dumber decision while backing said decision up with nonsense. While suspicious at first, Steve goes along with the advice, inevitably winding up getting hurt. It's when his new friend attempts to use live bees to soothe Steve's cuts that Steve realizes that despite the other boy's cultured, calm voice and handsome features, he's just a lucky dumbass.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Irwin is the resident nerd, in both appearance and behavior, but is not an intelligent character. At best, he's barely smarter than his friend Billy, at worst he's just as dumb as him. He even tried cheating off of Mandy's answers on a test.
- Hey Arnold!: Brainy, despite his nickname and him being a Sickly Neurotic Geek with glasses, he has never shown any kind of intelligence, and doesn't seem to be that bright. He's very scatterbrained as he has no capability whatsoever of delivering coherent speech and is oblivious to Helga's distaste for him, always following her even if he gets punched every time.
- The Replacements: Shelton Klutzberry looks and sounds like a stereotypical nerd with his scrawny physique, poor posture, and huge Nerd Glasses. However, as the series goes on it becomes clear that Shelton is actually an incredibly dim and gullible individual, and never shows any signs of being prolific in academia or any sort of intelligence. In "Truth or Daring", Todd manages to trick him into agreeing to challenge a professional wrestler to a fight (keep in mind Shelton isn't even strong enough to crush an egg). After he's been viciously defeated, Todd tries to trick him into a rematch by lying the wrestler has a fear of Crabs and raspberries. Shelton not only agrees but hopelessly misinterprets Todd's advice.
- Schoolhouse Rock!: Implied in the song "Unpack Your Adjectives". The camper places the adjectives "dumb" and "brainy" on two boys — a big and tall one, and one who wears glasses and a well-trimmed suit, respectively. However, when the big boy starts spouting complex mathematical formulas, the camper switches the adjectives to indicate that the average-looking boy is actually the brainy one, while the well-dressed boy is actually the dumb one.
- The Simpsons: Millhouse Van Houten, despite looking and behaving like a stereotypical scrawny nerd, overall lacks any of the academic or other form of intelligence, being just an extremely immature, naïve, gullible, and socially awkward loser. He even denies being a nerd on the grounds that "nerds are smart."
- The Smurfs: Despite Brainy Smurf's English name, the fact that he wears glasses like the stereotypical smart guy, and has a house full of books written by him, he's just a braggart who doesn't know nearly as much as he says he does, and all his books are completely useless. In "Salad Smurfs", he turns into a pea as a reference to the fact that he's a pea-brain. In fact, his original name is "Schtroumpf à lunettes" meaning "Smurf with Glasses", nothing to do with him being actually "brainy", though he considers himself such.
- South Park: Sergeant Harrison Yates. He first appears as a member of the FBI and is later formally introduced as the head detective of Park County Police Force. Compared to the stupid and oafish Officer Barbrady, whom Yates obviously outranks, Yates seems like a serious and no-nonsense officer. Unlike Barbrady, who often insists that "nothing is happening" despite obvious crimes taking place, Yates is more proactive in trying to solve cases. For all his drivenness, however, Yates is actually less competent than Barbrady. For example, when trying to find a Serial Killer who cuts off his victims' left hands, he consults advice from Cartman, whom he believes had developed psychic powers, rather than doing any actual investigation himself. He proceeds to arrest several innocents based on Cartman's "psychic visions" even though the actual, Obviously Evil killer is always hanging out near the crime scenes. Later, he is led to the killer's house by Kyle but fails to notice anything suspicious because he thought the hand collection displayed on his wall are right hands instead of left. In addition to his stupidity, Yates is also bigoted and corrupt, which leads to him frequently wasting a lot of time trying to frame minorities for a crime so that he can arrest them.
