Basic Trope: A child or preteen genius.
- Straight: Billy is 10 years old, and already attending college.
- Exaggerated: Billy is 4 years old, and already holds 3 Ph.D's.
- Downplayed: Billy is 12 years old, and in the Gifted and Talented program at his school.
- Justified: There really are children who are very intellectually gifted.
- Inverted:
- Billy is 10 years old, and has been held back in the third grade...twice.
- Billy is an adult who hasn't even made it past the first grade.
- Subverted: Although Billy boasts very high grades, he's still only a 5th grader.
- Double Subverted:
- But then he gets a letter inviting him to be part of a program for gifted students.
- At parents' night, Billy's teacher raves about what a good student Billy is, and she recommends that he be skipped ahead a grade level so he can get more of a challenge.
- Parodied: Billy has been part of Mensa ever since his umbilical cord was cut. (He was barely out of the womb and already speaking coherently and doing complex math problems.)
- Zig-Zagged: Billy starts out as a genius, but then starts acting like The Ditz due to Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity. But then it turns out it was all Billy's act, because he's tired of people treating him differently than other children. Or maybe he really is stupid and is lying about it.
- Averted: Billy is no smarter or dumber, no more or less capable than any of his peers.
- Enforced: Token Mini-Moe, Free-Range Children.
- Lampshaded: "Our top student, Billy Troper..".
- Invoked: Billy is forced by his mother into all sorts of programs to try and boost his intelligence.
- Exploited: Charlie, Billy's friend, persuades him to always do his home work for him.
- Defied: Billy uses Obfuscating Stupidity, so that he won't be picked on or alienated for being a nerd.
- Discussed: "Billy could solve linear equations at age four? He sounds like one of those kid geniuses that always appear on TV".
- Conversed: "Children on these kind of shows are always ridiculously smart".
- Deconstructed:
- Billy has huge emotional issues because he is a Child Prodigy.
- Innocent Prodigy
- Reconstructed: Good thing he has friends to keep him from going into a downward psychological spiral.
- Played For Laughs: Billy uses his intelligence mainly to fool strangers into thinking he's older than he looks, and then shocking them with his real age.
- Played For Drama: Billy becomes a Broken Ace.
Back to Child Prodigy and you're... How old again?!
