The Degeneration of Idiots

D

Davey E

New member
This is inspired by the Why Do People Dislike Cosmo? thread, in which I mentioned what I called an "idiocy progression syndrome". Every show has it's dumb character(s) and while they can just be comic relief, they often are or can become much more. In the past however people have mentioned that characters like Homer Simpson, Cosmo, Patrick Star, and others, while never the brightest flames in the candelabra, over the course of their respective shows became rather mindless and unlikable. Homer was a dumb father who did dumb things which might upset his family but in the end would rethink things, figure out right from wrong and make amends. Since then he's gotten more stupid and felt less guilty. As for Cosmo, to quote myself, he "became more stupid, annoying and ignorant instead of remaining the wacky, dimwitted fairy with a heart from seasons past." Then there's Patrick who was also brought up recently. I always thought he was one of the best written dumb characters of all. He was generally without a sensible thought in his head, but he would have the occasional idea or observance that could be momentarily smart, even borderline genius. Even when completely oblivious he was confident in his brilliant stupidity. In more recent outings, Pat's just different, or to quote garfield15, a "dumb buzzkill". Why does this befall so many characters? In order to develop a dumb character, can you only make them more idiotic until it isn't funny anymore? It takes a smart person to write a dumb character, so I guess the writers just aren't very bright.
 
Johnny Bravo suffered from this as well during the seasons without Van Partible. He became very immature, stupid, and weak (despite looking like he's been juicing up).
 
A cynical response would that mainstream audiences like dumb characters because it makes the viewer feel superior.

Also, writing clever comedy is much harder than relying on crude slapstick. Who's going fit into a model with crude slapstick at the center? A caring, intelligent person, or a borderline sociopath with a single digit IQ?

Another possibility is that TV execs are afraid that smart, intricate plots and characters will be ignored by "today's youth" as too hard to understand and appreciate.
 
I've seen many characters go through this Spongebob, Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin etc. I think Fry from Futurama is the perfect level of stupid. He starts off dumb and he stay consistent throughout, plus he doesn't act like a jerk like some of these characters do as they grow more dumb.

Your just able to get more jokes if play with their IQ over the course of the show.
 
If only the dumb characters were more like Goofy. Of all the toon stars that are idiots, I've never gotten the sense of being too stupid with him. And I do feel studios are over doing it with these dumb characters.
 
I agree that characters like Fry and Goofy are that exception that manage to stay the right amount of stupid. SpongeBob's idiocy is a shame though, because he started out as a naive character, not a dumb one, but he became pretty stupid. I guess they thought Pat was funnier so they made Bob more like him and dumbed down Pat even more to keep it proportional which resulted in a far less interesting pair of characters.
 
Does Owen in Total Drama Island/Action/World Tour could fit in the same category? His farting is overused and it's a bit cliche but on the other hand in TDWT, his friendship with Noah bring some character development and I feel the duo of Noah and Owen was a sort of Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello in the Total Drama series.

And in South Park, Randy Marsh seemed more naive then before over the years.
 
As soon as I saw this thread title, I was like "I bet I'm gonna get quoted in this." :p

It's really sad what happened to Cosmo really. I remember thinking he was legitimately funny until at some point, I just started barely tolerating his existence.
 
In the middle seasons of King of the Hill Dale was guilty of this. Granted, he was always a paranoid conspiracy nut, but it soon overtook his entire character. Thankfuly they were able to develop him more in the shows final seasons as a more well-rounded, even sympathetic character.
 
Fry's stupidity can be a bone of contention for me sometimes, though. The pre reboot had a good mix of stupidity and common sense/flashes of brilliance, but had its "...?!" moments too (like doing it with a heater in "The Lesser of Two Evils").

This new season has been a bit hit and miss for me. "The Duh-Vinci Code" went way, way overboard on his stupidity in places. I mean, unable to know his own name, eating rocks AND giggling about reflections in shiny buttons? Please.

*Hi from Manhattan, BTW. ;)
 
While not exactly an idiot I feel the need to bring up Blooregard Q. Kazoo from Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. When Foster's first started, especially in the pilot movie, Bloo was actually a likable character. He was friendly, kind, and watched out for Mac. But as the series went on he became mean, bitter, selfish, and an all around jerk. He couldn't care less about Mac or any of the other friends. He only cared about himself. His intelligence took a pretty major hit too.

He pretty much became completely unlikable.
 
Aaaaaargh... Bloo is the reason I gave up on Foster's. I could feel my teeth grind when he got that smug look on his face/tone to his voice.
 
Noah and Owen always had a David Spade/Chris Farley duo vibe to me. The quick wit and sarcasm paired with big, physical comedy couldn't be anything else.
 
To be fair, Bloo got his just desserts a majority of the time, especially in the final few seasons. And I would disagree that he deteriorated over time; more like that Bloo from the pilot movie and Bloo from the series are completely different characters. Maybe he wasn't so much of a jerkass in season one, but that tendency was still there IMO.

As far as the topic itself goes, I think it's not so much a degeneration of idiots as it is a degeneration of wit and skill on the part of the writers. Idiots can (and should) be just as funny and entertaining as their smart/savvy counterparts, regardless of how low their IQs are. The problem with Homer/Cosmo/Peter/SpongeBob/Patrick/etc is that the writers for all these shows simply forgot how to make them funny. They believe that their stupidity itself is what's funny, instead of using that trait as a starting point for crafting legitimately entertaining situations and gags. It gets worse when their stupidity is used as an excuse to make them unbearably obnoxious and cruel (which is exactly what happens with most of these examples).

To me, great idiot characters are types like Pinky (sweetly naive) or Ed (so off-the-wall crazy in a hilarious way).
 
This doesn't only happen to intelligence. Over time characters traits get more...exaggerated. It could happen with anything.
 
Back
Top