In TV land, it seems, intelligence isn't just a matter of being able to learn quicker, reason better, and understand more easily. It carries along a whole host of strange behaviors, taped together as part of a package deal. While intellectuals often do have interest in obscure topics, a TV Genius has No Social Skills: no idea how to act in public, or at least have the ability to stay quiet, and often carry him/herself with a sort of overbearing arrogance. Sometimes, he will also be The Spock.
There's also a chance that this character will be used in An Aesop, where one of the main characters wishes s/he had this person's intelligence, only to learn of their inner unhappiness.
Touching up on the trope description: archived for convenience.
An unintelligent person's idea of how an intelligent person acts. This is especially obvious when the lead character is a "normal" person, inasmuch as being clever but not actually very smart.
In TV land, it seems, intelligence isn't just a matter of being able to learn quicker, reason better, and understand more easily. It carries along a whole host of strange behaviors, taped together as part of a package deal. While intellectuals often do have interest in obscure topics, a TV Genius has No Social Skills: no idea how to act in public, or at least have the ability to stay quiet, and often carry him/herself with a sort of overbearing arrogance. Sometimes, he will also be The Spock.
A TV Genius will never use a short word when a long one will do, and is inexplicably amazed that other people have different interests than themselves. Their only pastimes will be reading thick tomes and playing chess. The will frequently know (and rattle off) statistics to implausible degrees of precision (a sure sign of intellect!)
If a character becomes smarter, for instance through a Transformation Ray, they'll instantly acquire all sorts of knowledge that they never actually learned at any point. This could easily be explained by saying that he'd learned it all before at some point, but not remembered or understood it until now, but it never is. Someone who becomes suddenly smarter may also suddenly acquire a lab coat, Nerd Glasses, and start speaking like Mr. Spock, though this is usually limited to the more comedic examples.
There's also a chance that this character will be used in An Aesop, where one of the main characters wishes s/he had this person's intelligence, only to learn of their inner unhappiness.
The Teen Genius, Mad Scientist, and The Urkel all contain aspects of this. This trope often contains an impossibly or immeasurably high IQ.