Smart Jerk and Nice Moron

"Time heals all wounds, Pinky, except the one in your head."

"Everybody loves you [Stimpy]! People always love the stupid one, but nobody ever loves the jerk! Everybody hates me!"

— Ren Hoek, The Ren & Stimpy Show

A trope about a duo in which the smarter, more aggressive individual bullies their dumb but pleasant comrade.

They're usually in a commander-henchman type scenario, though this isn't mandatory, nor is the smart guy necessarily all that brilliant or successful. The important part is that they know they're the smarter of the two and mistreat the slower one. Their relationship holds because the less intelligent one is unaware that they're being treated unfairly and remains something of an Extreme Doormat, not always out of weakness, but ignorance.

Usually, the smart guy comes up with schemes (not necessarily evil, just very selfish) and ends up bumbling them, because the dumb guy tries too hard to help out, while the dumb guy doesn't really get that they're inconveniencing other people. Or, if they succeed, the dumb guy tries to stop the smart guy and explain to them that it's not nice to use people.

A relationship-based variety of Dumb Is Good, often overlapping with Vitriolic Best Buds. Often, the smart one is an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist (or an Academic Alpha Bitch in a school setting) and the dumber one is his Bumbling Sidekick. If they are a Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey, the dumber one is his Minion with an F in Evil. This dynamic is the heart of the Boke and Tsukkomi Routine.

Sub-Trope (child trope) of Kindhearted Simpleton and Insufferable Genius. Compare Brains Evil, Brawn Good which is a correlation between intelligence and morality, and Anti-Intellectualism. Compare and contrast Straight Man and Wise Guy and Comic Trio; this trope is distinguished from both by a lack of the Only Sane Man, as both characters generally contribute to goofy antics in different ways. Supertrope to Fat and Skinny and Big Guy, Little Guy, which have a similar dynamic emphasized by a physical difference between characters. Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick is a hero-specific variant that is not necessarily comedic. See also Nice Mean And In Between, which often has these two at either end of the spectrum of kindness.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Dragon Ball Z: Goku and Vegeta display this while teaming up to defeat Majin Buu. Vegeta often gets outraged whenever Goku does or says something stupid while Goku just remains nice and friendly to his arch-rival.
• Kill la Kill: Ryuko is a cunning, Hot-Blooded Blood Knight and Anti-Hero. Mako is quite airheaded and dimwitted, but she is also loyal and compassionate to a fault, serving as Ryuko's Morality Pet.
• My Hero Academia: Bakugo is an irritable Genius Bruiser who constantly pushes others away with his desire to be the best at everything, and is ranked third in the class on the midterms. His Morality Pet, Kirishima, is a Book Dumb Nice Guy who is one of the few people able to tolerate Bakugo's attitude and is ranked fifteenth on the midterms. This becomes a plot point when Kirishima is the only one Bakugo will willingly accept help from when Midoriya and the others are trying to rescue Bakugo.
• Reborn! (2004): Gokudera and Yamamoto has this dynamic. Gokudera being The Smart Guy that is really aggressive and suspicious of everyone except for Tsuna. Yamamoto is the Dumb Jock who has No Sense of Personal Space that is friendly to everyone and who doesn't mind the former's insults to him.
• Muhyo and Roji: Muhyo and Roji, respectively. The former is a Brilliant, but Lazy Insufferable Genius who nevertheless is also a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. The latter is a Nice Guy whose knowledge about many areas of magical law isn't exactly the best.
• Sailor Moon: Usagi has this relationship with three people:
  • Usagi's brother Shingo is a good student and likes to tease Usagi for being Book Dumb. Meanwhile, as lazy and irresponsible as Usagi is, she's a dim but sweet All-Loving Hero.
  • Usagi's Kid from the Future Chibiusa is a wise but rude and condescending Bratty Half-Pint who regularly messes with her, while Usagi is the textbook example of Dumb Is Good.
  • Same goes for her and Rei. Rei is an intelligent Jerk with a Heart of Gold who enjoys belittling Usagi, while Usagi, as stated above, is a Kindhearted Simpleton.

Comedy

• Abbott and Costello. Bud Abbott's character is always portrayed as more intelligent than Lou Costello's, and often talked down to him and complained about him as well as slapping him. Lou Costello was almost always nice and friendly, but not very bright.
• Laurel and Hardy is the Trope Codifier in film. Every other variation in comedy pays lip service to them. Though it must be said that Hardy isn't that much brighter than Laurel; he just assumes he is.
• The Marx Brothers: Chico and Harpo are usually paired up together, with Chico as the scheming leader, while the mute Manchild Harpo just tags along. Nevertheless, Chico often scolds Harpo for being stupid and not understanding him.

Comic Books

• In the Supreme Power universe, brilliant sociopath Emil Burbank frequently finds himself stuck working alongside Shape, a developmentally-disabled ex-janitor. Everyone else in the Squadron Supreme gets along fine with Shape, while Burbank is so despised and distrusted that the government takes him out of the field and puts him in charge of devising contingency plans for taking down his teammates.
• In Super Sons, Jon and Damian have this dynamic. Jon is an open and friendly Nice Guy while Damian is an Insufferable Genius. While they both hate school, Jon is more Book Dumb (but he isn't quite stupid and can sometimes be more reasonable than his partner) while Damian is bossy and constantly uppity towards others.

Comic Strips

• The core duo in Pearls Before Swine, Rat and Pig. Rat is the jerk, and he is smarter than Pig, though not quite as smart as he thinks he is. Pig is genuinely dumb and genuinely nice. The title describes Rat's attitude towards their relationship (by way of a Biblical reference): Rat believes that he has all these "pearls of wisdom" that he's wasting on a dummy like Pig.
• Whenever Garfield and Odie cooperate, this is invariably the result, since Garfield, cruel and self-absorbed as he is, is leagues beyond Odie in terms of intelligence. On those occasions when Garfield gets in over his head, however, Odie usually retains enough common sense to leave him hanging.

Fan Works

• In Incorrect Smash Bros Quotes, Galeem is a highly intelligent Only Sane Man, but he's also a Jerkass Deadpan Snarker with a Hair-Trigger Temper. His Arch-Enemy/boyfriend Dharkon is considerably more pleasant but is also one of the biggest ditzes in the entire Mansion, which Galeem never hesitates to criticize him for.

Films — Animation

• Disney's The Emperor's New Groove has the wicked, scheming high priestess Yzma engineer a coup d'etat, assisted by her muscular but moronic henchman Kronk. Yzma is described in-universe as "scary beyond all reason" and shows no sympathy to anybody, while Kronk is a Minion with an F in Evil, who even fills in as a line cook to keep a diner running.
• Flushed Away: Spike tends to take great pleasure in the pain and suffering of others and tends to be the smart one when compared to his partner, Whitey, who is a Minion with an F in Evil and considered to be the nicest guy in the film.
• Pixar's Finding Dory: A cranky, seven-armed octopus Hank and a memory-forgetful blue-tang Dory are teamed up near the middle of the movie.
• Disney's Lady and the Tramp has Lady's neighbors: Scottish terrier Jock and bloodhound Trusty. Jock is an irritable and temperamental ankle-biter, but quite rational; while Trusty is much more genial but notably scatter-brained. The dichotomy gets spotlighted during the effort to rescue Tramp from the dog catcher's wagon. Jock disparages the effort, as the streets are soaked with rainwater, dissolving the scent, and tells Trusty bluntly, "You've lost your sense of smell." Though stung to the core by this, Trusty makes no reply, instead redoubling his effort, which succeeds in unerringly attaining the wagon.
• The LEGO Movie has the Deadpan Snarker Jerk with a Heart of Gold Wyldstyle^note or "Lucy" and the Idiot Hero Nice Guy Emmet.
• The Lion King (1994): The frenetic and bellicose meerkat Timon is paired with genial but dim warthog Pumbaa, though the trope is ZigZagged in that Timon, while savvy, isn't as smart as he thinks he is whereas Pumbaa has some Hidden Depths. Timon leads the pair on the theory that smarter equals louder. Never better demonstrated than in the scene where Simba introduces Nala to them.
  Pumbaa: Pleased to meet you.
  Nala: The pleasure's mine.
  Timon: Hold it, hold it! You know her. She knows you. And she wants to eat [Pumbaa]. And everybody's okay with this? DID I MISS SOMETHING?!
• Corvax and Thimbo from Muzzy Comes Back. Corvax is an Evil Genius Smug Snake who brags about his intelligence and uses advanced technology, kidnapping the King's baby granddaughter to usurp the throne. The latter is a dim-witted thug who Never Learned to Read but is very kind with said baby and unlike Corvax, he genuinely cares for her.
• Cruella DeVil's henchmen from Disney's 101 Dalmatians are Horace and Jasper. Jasper is the tall, lanky one, who takes the lead and seems to enjoy being a criminal. Horace is the short, hefty one that follows Jasper because he can't think of anything better to do.
• Shrek: Shrek is a wise but grumpy Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Donkey is rather dimwitted, but he is much more friendly and sociable than Shrek.
• In Toy Story, Rex often plays the Likable Moron to both Hamm and Mr. Potato Head's Smart Jerk on occasions, although this is played straighter with Mr. Potato Head. Rex can be something of a Cloudcuckoolander but is more of a Gentle Giant and Hamm is a Deadpan Snarker and Mr. Potato Head is quite a Jerkass.
• Among Charles Muntz's battalion of servant dogs in Pixar's Up, Alpha the Doberman is a Drill Sergeant Nasty that leads them. Alpha tends to heap abuse on dimwitted but determined Dug. This mistreatment is a huge catalyst in Dug's Heel–Face Turn in siding with Carl, Russell, and Kevin.

Films — Live-Action

• Good Burger: The smooth-talking Dexter initially treats the dimwitted Ed with nothing but disrespect and then tricks Ed into giving Dexter most of the profits made from Ed's secret sauce. Dexter eventually realizes he's taking advantage of the incredibly good-natured Ed, and they're better suited to teaming up to take down Mondo Burger.
• MouseHunt: Downplayed with the brothers Ernie and Lars Smuntz. Lars wants to keep the promise he made to their father to keep the family string factory running even though it only causes more financial issues and troubles for them, while Ernie isn't as scrupulous but comes up with better solutions to their problems.
• Rags: Andrew and Lloyd, Charlie's stepbrothers, have this dynamic. Andrew comes off as much smarter than Lloyd, being a schemer who helps his father take down Charlie; however, he's also a Big Brother Bully to both of his brothers and is more than happy to join Arthur in abusing Charlie. Lloyd, meanwhile, isn't the brightest bulb in the bunch — but he's sweet to Charlie in every scene, and reforms for real at the end.
• Tommy Boy: Richard Hayden and Tommy Callahan. Richard's the right-hand man to Tommy's father, Big Tom Callahan, but comes off as an Insufferable Genius who routinely disparages other people, especially Tommy. Tommy is a bumbling ditz, taking seven years to finish college, but he's willing to do whatever it takes to keep his family's company afloat, even giving up his inheritance. After spending most of the movie struggling to make sales, Richard realizes that Tommy has street smarts when he sees him successfully talk a waitress into giving them a special, and after Tommy learns to stop trying to emulate his father and act naturally, they finally meet their sales goal.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Eddie Valiant is smart and wisecracking, but he is also quite sullen and abrasive. Roger Rabbit is rather bumbling and clueless, but he is also very friendly and outgoing. Their whole dynamic in the first half is Eddie constantly treating Roger with disdain.
• Zombieland: Double Tap: Witchita and Madison. The former is a cunning Jerkass with a sour attitude, while the latter is a bumbling yet sweet-natured Dumb Blonde.

Literature

• In The Princess Bride, Vizzini is clever, but frequently verbally abuses Fezzik and Inigo. On the other hand, Fezzik is by no means smart but makes up for it in sheer friendliness.
• Of Mice and Men:
  • Played with. George appears to be more gruff, severe, and stern than mentally handicapped Lennie (who Does Not Know His Own Strength) who is a cheery, childlike person. However, he's doing this for Lennie's protection, since the latter is incapable of realizing the damage he causes. George also denies being very smart, saying if he was, he wouldn't be working as an unskilled farmworker.
  • It also comes up in the Back Story when George tells a story about making Lennie do stupid stuff just for laughs, and how he learned An Aesop not to do that anymore.
• Raistlin Majere often plays the smart jerk to his twin brother Caramon's nice moron in the Dragonlance novel series. Caramon's a good bit less moronic than many other examples though, it's just that his brother's genius is quite genuine.
• Percy The Small Engine of The Railway Series and even more so its Animated Adaptation, Thomas & Friends. While occasionally insightful, Percy is naive and childishly innocent, so often plays the Likeable Moron to several more experienced but arrogant engines such as James or Gordon (Thomas was also his most frequent Smart Jerk until having Took a Level in Kindness, and gaining enough Cloud Cuckoo Lander points to border him as a Likable Moron himself).

Live-Action TV

• A.N.T. Farm:
  • Chyna's two best friends are the brilliant but insensitive Olive and the kind but slightly slow-witted Fletcher.
  • Lexi is a devious Alpha Bitch who is always bossing around her much dumber sidekick Paisley. Unlike Lexi, Paisley is always cheerful and friendly.
• The relationship between Carrie and Doug in The King of Queens. Doug is a fairly kind everyman who is impulsive and - when being selfish - rarely thinks things through. Carrie is significantly more sensible than he is, but is also way more amoral and even more prone to doing things just for selfishness' sake. The result is that one or the other could be the "fool" in any given episode, while the other is the voice of reason.
• Blackadder: In the first series, Edmund Blackadder and Baldrick were an inversion; Blackadder was an Aristocrats Are Evil Upper-Class Twit, while Baldrick was (relatively) more intelligent. Subsequent seasons (which each featured a later descendant) had Blackadder as a snarky, scheming Jerkass who heaps abuse on his dimwitted, good-natured servant sidekick Baldrick.
• The two protagonists of Breaking Bad are an unusually serious take on this trope. Walter has an incredible knowledge of chemistry and is overall the more worldly of the two, but is shown to have had a manipulative streak and an easily-wounded ego even before becoming a criminal, whereas Jesse is highly Book Dumb, but has a much stronger moral compass.
• Inverted in Drake & Josh, in which Josh, the smarter of the two, is more level-headed and down-to-earth, and Drake, the selfish and rude one, is rather dull and intellectually challenged, though his intelligence varies from being a Brainless Beauty to simply Book Dumb.
• House of Anubis: The duo of Jerome and Alfie, who are best friends and pranking partners, has this dynamic. Jerome is intelligent, manipulative, and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at best, using his brains for trickery and amusement. Alfie, meanwhile, is a lot less intelligent by comparison, but also less mean, getting along more easily with the house members and being the one manipulated by Jerome rather than an equal partner.
• Glee: Santana (a cold and cunning Manipulative Bitch) and her best friend/Love Interest Brittany (a sweet and innocent girl who provides the page image for The Ditz). Although Santana shows more of her jerk side to other people than to Brittany, who is her Morality Pet.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Given that the smarter members of the Gang also tend to be the bigger jerks, this is natural when characters pair up (though the "smart" and "nice" parts tend to be quite relative). For instance, if Mac and Charlie team up, Charlie tends to be the basically well-meaning one who is also barely functional, while Mac is smarter than Charlie but also more malicious and greedy. If Mac and Dennis team up, meanwhile, Mac tends to come across as stupid but has a moral center, while Dennis is considerably cleverer but also a complete psychopath.
• Kenan & Kel: Kenan is a get-rich-quick schemer while Kel is a dimwitted friend who doesn't like getting in trouble.
• Oz has a rare serious variant with Ryan and Cyril O'Reily. Ryan is an amoral, narcissistic hustler who is completely fine with resorting to murder if it nets him an advantage, while Cyril is mentally disabled but a sweet, good-hearted man who is usually peaceful if left to his own devices. However, Cyril's disabilities and his violent rages make it extremely easy for Ryan to rope him into his schemes, which eventually causes Cyril to punch him out when Ryan tricks him into beating a man to death during a boxing match.
• Victorious: It's the dynamic between Jade (mean, snarky, and one of the smartest in the group) and Cat (childlike, ditzy, and sweet). In the spin-off Sam & Cat, Cat also serves as the Nice Moron to Sam's Smart Jerk.
• Young Sheldon: In the episode "The Yips and an Oddly Hypnotic Bohemian", rude Insufferable Genius Sheldon and Kindhearted Simpleton Billy are described this way by their respective parents:
  Brenda: Well, Billy ain't the sharpest pencil in the box, but he's the sweetest kid I know.
  George: Well, Sheldon is the sharpest pencil. Sometimes I'd just like to shove his head in that box.

Music

• 2D and Murdoc of Gorillaz, at least in Phases 1 & 2. Murdoc beat him up, stole his girlfriends, and regularly insulted and humiliated him, yet 2D still referred to Murdoc as his 'best mate' and often either aided in his antics or looked the other way from the more... dubious behavior. He finally seems to have sharpened up in the Plastic Beach arc, openly resenting Murdoc and his growing insanity.

Video Games

• In Baldur's Gate II, the hatred rivalry between Minsc (a kind-hearted, foolish warrior) and Edwin (an evil mage with the highest intelligence score of all recruitable characters in-game).
  • Could be also the relationship between the Big Bad, a powerful evil wizard, and the main character if the latter is of good alignment and has a low score in intelligence and wisdom.
• In Banjo-Kazooie, this sums up the title characters very well, with Banjo being a Kindhearted Simpleton who tries to help out the various characters they meet on their adventures, while Kazooie is a Deadpan Snarker Tsundere who usually ends up antagonising others so much they usually end up trying to fight the pair. Nevertheless, they're True Companions.
• In Crash Twinsanity, Crash Bandicoot teams up with his former enemy Cortex for the entirety of the game. Crash is an Idiot Hero and is often pretty friendly, so is the nice moron. Cortex, who was the Big Bad of most of the other Crash Bandicoot game and Evil Genius, is the smart jerk. The duo status ends after defeating the Evil Twins with Cortex attempting to kill Crash, only to end up in his head.
• Polar Opposite Twins Vilkas and Farkas, of the Companions guild in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, fall into this. Vilkas is the smarter twin, but also the more abrasive; Farkas is regarded as dumb muscle, but a complete sweetheart. Unlike a lot of these pairings, however, they love each other devotedly.
• Misako and Kyoko of River City Girls, respectively. Misako is blunt, aggressive, and rude. Kyoko on the other hand is bubbly and sweet but constantly distracted from the mission at hand, prompting Misako to remind her to keep her scatterbrain on track. Though unlike most examples, Misako treats Kyoko quite well and only directs her jerkness to other people.

Visual Novels

• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has this dynamic between Byakuya Togami and Aoi Asahina. The former is one of the most intelligent students, and one of the three main "point getters," but is also a callous jerk who initially thinks of the killing game as a contest to be won. The latter is one of the least intelligent students, but also one of the nicest. Unsurprisingly, they do not get along very well.
• Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony has Kokichi Oma and Gonta Gokuhara. The former is probably the most intelligent character in the cast, who's fond of manipulating others and saying and doing very cruel things, while the latter is a kindhearted Gentle Giant who can be a bit gullible and simpleminded despite being an expert on insects.

Web Animation

• Later episodes in Homestar Runner have this dynamic between Strong Bad and Homestar. Originally, they were enemies, but over time develop into something more like Vitriolic Best Buds. Homestar is a kind, loveable idiot who thinks he's Strong Bad's friend, while the schemer Strong Bad constantly tells Homestar he hates him, but the message never appears to sink in. Of course, Strong Bad tends to overhype his own cleverness, and Homestar is often Too Dumb to Fool, but the distribution of brains between the two is clearly unequal.

Web Comics

• The Order of the Stick: Mr. Jones and Mr. Rodriguez, who appear out of nowhere whenever the plot calls for a lawyer. Mr. Jones is a walking Evil Lawyer Joke, who throws legal impediments in the path of the Order (except when they retain his services; he's a professional). Phil Rodriguez is affable and dimwitted, regularly committing legal gaffes and Malapropisms. Whenever they lose a case, Mr. Jones manipulates the court transcript so that Mr. Rodriguez is listed as primary counsel, allowing Mr. Jones to maintain a "perfect" record at trial.
  Mr. Rodriguez: Aww, man! That means my record will fall to 0-147.
  Mr. Jones: Naturally, I remain perfect at 5-0.
• In Spacetrawler, Nogg's two main followers are Gurf, who's kind but dumb as a brick — and Krep, member of an alien species who bred stupidity out of themselves generations ago, which had the side-effect of making them all sarcastic jerkasses.
• 8-Bit Theater has Black Mage and Fighter, although Black Mage isn't so much a jerk as he is an Omnicidal Maniac who happens to be a jerk. After a little while, they team up with another Smart Jerk in the form of Thief and throw in Red Mage, who's sort of somewhere in the middle (albeit a very low, messy, and bloodstained middle; this is Eight-Bit Theater).

Western Animation

• Animaniacs:
  • Brain, a calculating and short-fused Villain Protagonist and his dopey but incredibly loyal Minion with an F in Evil Pinky. Such is Pinky's kind devotion to Brain that he led the latter to suffer a tearful Jerkass Realization midway through one attempt at world domination.
  • Rita is an arrogant and sarcastic cat who is always accompanied by dimwitted Big Friendly Dog Runt.
• As Told by Ginger has Carl Foutley and his best friend, Hoodsey, with Carl acting as the brains of the operation by coming up with various schemes like trying to make invisibility powder or make enough money to be a lie detector and is considered creepy and weird by the majority of the cast. Hoodsey meanwhile is Carl's sidekick who is something of a worrier and very gullible and naïve, but much nicer than Carl, though Carl is very rarely mean to Hoodsey and saves his tormenting for his favourite targets, Blake Gripling, Brandon Higsby, or some unlucky teacher.
• Downplayed with Beavis and Butt-Head: While they both act like brainless troublemakers, Butt-Head is the more aware and unrepentantly self-centered of the two. With Beavis, it's shown that he acts much nicer without Butt-Head's influence.
• Bob's Burgers has Louise and Tina. Louise is shown to be very intelligent, good at planning, and often manipulates other people for her own gain, while Tina is airheaded and doesn't think things through, but is very kind and selfless.
• CatDog has this with the titular two-headed creature, who has the head of both a sophisticated but elitist cat and also a simple-minded, easygoing dog. Naturally, Cats Are Mean and Dogs Are Dumb stereotypes abound. This is lampshaded in one episode where Winslow pulls out an anatomical chart of them, showing Cat with a large brain and small heart and Dog with a large heart and small brain.
• Danny Phantom: Jack Fenton, Danny's dad, is a Genius Ditz, who, despite his sometimes self-absorbed tendencies, loves his family very much and even thinks of Vlad Masters as an old friend. Unfortunately, Vlad is a Villain with Good Publicity who hates Jack for "stealing" the affections of the woman he wants to marry.
• Darkwing Duck: Though Darkwing is the primary protagonist of Saint Canard, he's also temperamental and snarky enough to meet Anti-Hero specs. Launchpad is less brainy than Darkwing but makes up for that with a more affable and generous demeanor. Launchpad tends to receive the brunt of Darkwing's irritation whenever he's mad about something, but the other duck does have a semi-concealed soft spot for him. Additionally, sometimes the dynamic gets flipped given that Darkwing can become Too Clever by Half or stupidly bold, while Launchpad proves himself wiser than his comrade or notices things he misses.
• Dexter's Laboratory: A sibling example. Dexter is a Child Prodigy and Insufferable Genius who has no patience for his sister Dee Dee's stupidity. Despite being Lethally Stupid to annoying levels, Dee Dee is cheerfully well-meaning and adores her brother no matter what.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • Eddy and Ed. Eddy calls him names, picks on him, and bosses him around constantly, and Ed cheerfully obeys his commands. Eddy is Book Dumb but he's still shown to be quite clever, coming up with various "scams" to try getting money from the cul-de-sac kids, while Ed is a Kind Hearted Simpleton who happens to be monstrously strong.
  • Sarah and Ed are a sibling example. In this case, Sarah is far meaner to Ed than Eddy is, as she is a horrible and abusive bully to Ed, while Ed is nice and caring to Sarah no matter how much she mistreats him.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Mandy is the Smart Jerk to Billy’s Nice Moron. Billy is a total idiot who only seems to have hard feelings towards the bully Sperg and his son Jeff (who is a spider). His best friend Mandy, however, is a straight-A (or rather, "A+++++++") student, who hates just about everyone else, and finds the idea of having a crush on someone to be repulsive.
• Hailey's On It!: Beta, the brash Deadpan Snarker, has this dynamic with Scott, a clueless and scatterbrained Nice Guy. Beta constantly mocks Scott for being a "buffoon".
• Inside Job (2021) has Reagan and Brett. Reagan has the intelligence needed to run Cognito Inc., one of the companies in charge of the world's Conspiracy Kitchen Sink, but her terrible childhood left her with No Social Skills. Meanwhile, Brett isn't very intelligent, but a lifetime of eagerly chasing the approval of others (as a result of his own terrible childhood) has given him all the people skills that Ridley lacks, if nothing else. Downplayed in that while Reagan is initially irked by Brett's presence, as he was brought in by a higher-up specifically to counter Reagan's jerkass behavior, the two of them find common ground and soon become best friends (and arguably each other's only real friend).
  Brett: The company can't run without you.
  Reagan: No, the company can't run without us. You're the charm, I get it now. I actually need a mediocre white man to act as a human shield and social lubricant, while I accomplish my real goals.
• Invader Zim: Zim is a Smart Jerk while GIR is a Nice Moron. Zim wants to enslave humanity, and while not really a genius per se in the eyes of the viewer, he still has far better technology let alone keener common sense than the human characters on his show (minus Dib). GIR isn't evil or hellbent on enslaving humanity like Zim is, he just wants to watch TV and eat pizza all day.
• Kaeloo has Mr. Cat, an Ax-Crazy, mean and sarcastic genius and Kaeloo, a goofy Nice Girl. This is occasionally downplayed, as Mr. Cat can be nice at times and Kaeloo has a dark side to her.
  • Inverted with Quack Quack and Stumpy. Quack Quack is a genius (albeit a bit ditzy one at times) who is one of the nicest characters on the show while Stumpy is really stupid and often acts like a spoiled, annoying jerk.
• Looney Tunes: Speedy Gonzales' debut cartoon "Cat-tails For Two" featured George and Benny, a feline expy of Tex Avery's George and Junior. The later cartoon "Mexicali Shmoes" featured two Mexican cats, Jose and Manuel, filling the roles.
  Jose: You no catch Speedy Gonzales with the feets. You gotta catch heem with the brains.
  Manuel: Brains? Where do we get these brains?
  Jose: You don't need the brains. I got the brains.
  • Another cartoon, "Two Crows From Tacos" had the title birds (one smart, the other not so much) in pursuit of a grasshopper. Similarly, a 1942 cartoon, "A Hop, Skip And a Chump" featured two bird caricatures of Laurel and Hardy chasing a grasshopper.
• The Loud House:
  • Valley Girl sister roommates Lori and Leni have this dynamic. The former is the Only Sane Man of the house but exhibits a colossally bossy attitude towards her younger siblings, while the latter is a Kindhearted Simpleton who is rarely, if ever, truly malicious.
  • In addition, Lori's lover Bobby has this relationship with his little sister Ronnie Anne, for whereas Bobby is also a Kindhearted Simpleton, Ronnie Anne is a Loving Bully to Lori's younger brother Lincoln.
• Making Fiends: Vendetta is a Mad Scientist who uses her Fiends to terrorize the town. She considers her enemy to be Charlotte, a cheerful, friendly, and very stupid girl who thinks Vendetta is her best friend.
• Ready Jet Go!: Mindy's two friends, Mitchell and Lillian, fall into this category. Mitchell is quite smart for a kid his age, and he's also very blunt and snarky, with a high-and-mighty attitude at times. Lillian, ion the other hand, is ditzy and forgetful but makes up for it with her politeness and sweetness. However, Mitchell is nice deep down, and, unlike most examples, he certainly doesn't go out of his way to bully Lillian.
• The Ren & Stimpy Show: Ren is reasonably intelligent but selfish, violent-tempered, and outright psychotic. Stimpy is dimwitted but kindhearted and perpetually cheerful. In many episodes (particularly in later seasons), Stimpy borders on being a slave for Ren and is verbally and physically abused on a regular basis. He rarely takes any of it to heart and thoroughly enjoys doting on Ren.
• Rick and Morty:
  • Rick is a foul-mouthed genius inventor who constantly puts Morty (and anyone else he doesn't respect, such as Jerry) down. Meanwhile, his grandson Morty, who serves as his Bumbling Sidekick assistant, is kindhearted and empathetic, but is much less competent than Rick and is implied to have some kind of intellectual disability. Rick heaps abuse on Morty, but secretly loves him. Meanwhile, Morty knows Rick is a jerk but repeatedly gets dragged into adventures against his will, where he then frequently needs Rick to fix his problems for him.
  Rick: Look, I'm not the nicest guy around, because I'm the smartest, and being nice is what stupid people do to hedge their bets.
  • Most versions of Rick throughout the multiverse are insufferable geniuses, if not outright tyrants. The only Ricks who are shown to be decent guys are either of average intelligence (Simple Rick) or treated as idiots by the other Ricks (Doofus Rick).
• Rugrats: Angelica is a 3-year-old spoiled brat who always bullies the nice and friendly "Dumb Babies".
• The Smurfs (1981): Brainy Smurf fancies himself as a genius and is so obnoxious that he's hated by almost everyone, except his friend Clumsy Smurf. Clumsy is a Kindhearted Simpleton who genuinely admires Brainy and likes being around him, despite Brainy's arrogance.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Squidward considers himself an "artistic genius" and has disdain for his stupid but well-meaning neighbors SpongeBob and Patrick.
  • Mermaid Man is a Scatterbrained Senior, his sidekick Barnacle Boy is more cranky and bad-tempered than him, and easily annoyed by Mermaid Man's absentminded behavior.
• South Park: Cartman is a calculating sociopath who regularly drags Butters into his schemes, or just casually bullies him for fun, but Butters is cheery, innocent, and usually friendly to Cartman (notably being one of very few to call him by his first name). Although it's zig-zagged with the "smart" and "moron" parts of the trope, as both of them can be quite clueless, and Butters is academically better than Cartman (Cartman is just more cunning).
• Tex Avery MGM Cartoons: George and Junior. George is the Schemer while Junior is the dimwitted Fat Idiot.
• Total Drama:
  • Owen is a dimwitted, fun-loving goofball who is kind to everyone, while Noah is a Brilliant, but Lazy Teen Genius who snarks and belittles everyone he comes across. Yet somehow, the two of them are best friends.
  • Heather is an Alpha Bitch who bosses everyone around, while Lindsay is a bubbly Dumb Blonde who gets ordered around. Eventually, though, Heather betrays Lindsay, prompting Lindsay to cut ties and give Heather a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.

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