Obfuscating Stupidity

Obfuscating Stupidity is a archive of the original Troper Tales entry that was first hosted on the TV tropes website.

Definition: "Also sometimes known as "playing dumb", a tactic whose effectiveness is predicated on characters convincing others they are complete oafs and therefore harmless."

- TV Tropes website

Archive
The trope is Deliberately acting stupid in order to mask your true intelligence. If you do this, or you know someone who does, feel free to write about your experience here. Entries that are not examples of the trope will be cut.


 * This troper grew up being called a moron/idiot/generally stupid by her father on a regular basis, so when I turned 14 it kind of turned into a 'Oh, you want me to be stupid? Fine, I'll be stupid.' kind of thing on my part, so I proceeded to pretend to be mute and incapable of performing any task more complicated then opening a door, feeding myself or bathing myself...no offense to any actual mute people out there. On the other hand, I got one of the highest scores in my district on a statewide test twice, and I've been known to rant about Freud and Voltaire during class. I'm an odd little girl.
 * Is your name [FruitsBasket Kisa?]
 * If it was, I think my Otaku friends would glomp me and never let me go.


 * This really comes in handy for me. My boyfriend is...not the brightest and I'm closer to the top of my class so occasionally I'll pretend I have no idea what he's on about. It gets a laugh out of him, thinking he's smarter.


 * This Tropette saw a guy playing Super Meat Boy at school. More specifically, the penultimate level, Omega. He didn't know this at the time (and still doesn't), but I had spent the morning before leaving school (and several days before) trying repeatedly to beat it, finally succeeding before leaving. I went up to him, and every time he made a jump, I was all "oh shit you're not going to make it", and "you're going to die, you're going to die!". After a while, he got annoyed, and said "If this is so easy, why don't you try?". After I started, I immediatly asked how to play, so he told me how to run and jump and stuff. I beat Omega on my first try, then immediatly added insult to injury by saying "This game is fun, what's it called?"
 * /StarePris: Occasionally does this.
 * CabbitGirlEmi: Me too! In fact, A LOT. :]
 * Angenesis: This Troper]] is pretty much the same, only male.


 * I do it because it's fun being a CloudCuckooLander, walking around class quacking and then quoting Shakespeare and acing spelling tests. And correcting people's grammar.


 * This troper developed this as a defense mechanism during her late elementary-early high school years, though now just does it out of fun/habit. One of my friends used to badmouth me behind my back because she was jealous that I had better grades than her. Since then, whenever I interact with others, I act like a mild version of Ralph Wiggum, as opposed to her real, Wide-Eyed Idealist, CloudcuckooLander, BunnyEarsLawyer personality.


 * This Troper (Xkun01).This is pretty much my default state of being.To most of the people I know I am the class clown/comedian,able to make people laugh,who seems more or less think i'm an idiot.The best example,was a time,where I was saying I hardly knew much about the world around me.Then during a political discussion with some friends of mine I brought out cold facts and details along with counter-arguments to their arguments.To this day,they still aren't sure if i'm smart,average,or dumb.Brilliant, but Lazy though.


 * This troper does this to one of her friends, only to keep the idiot/genius dynamic that we have. The best part? My friend knows it.


 * This troper doesn't act stupid, per se, but he acts generally less aware of the world than he actually is. He likes to go off on Cloudcuckoolander-esque tangents to keep up the facade. It's quite advantageous, really. Besides, there's nothing like awing a bunch of people who think you're a complete idiot.


 * This Troper does this primarily to disguise the fact he's a complete asshole. Remember kids, it's better that people think you're dumb than they think you're a jerk. Plus, you can scheme and they won't expect it.


 * This troper is exactly the same. I play dumb almost on instinct--when a person is floundering around for a word, for example, and I know what that word is, I often hold it back because it's more fun to watch them finally remember it on their own. Does that make me a sadistic bastard, I wonder.


 * This Troper is pretty much made of this, with a bit of Cloudcuckoolander thrown in. I plan out everything that I do in advance, but I'm known for never thinking before I speak and lacking common sense. I'm graceful, but known for being clumsy. I'm relentlessly observant, but I like to suddenly say, "Whoa! When did that river get there?" and look shocked. I do this most during school, though it's handy outside as well. I'm known for never studying, drawing turtles and zombies all over my homework, and raising my hand only to go off on a long story about some stupid thing that I did.

But apparently I'm really smart, since I'm acing my classes. I react to my grades by demanding shiny star stickers from the teachers and skipping around to show everyone my shiny hand. This is a very practical thing to do, though. If I acted my intelligence, I would be put in more challenging classes, and I don't want to be challenged, except in English, French, and German. If I'm challenged in my other subjects, I won't have time to write.


 * This troper is still unsure whether a girl he knows is this, a Cloudcuckoolander or a GeniusDitz. She often seems rather naive and has a tendency to be rather impulsive, as well as coming up with ideas that don't always make much sense. However, this troper has had complex discussions with her about various (admittedly usually strange) subjects such as the effect of chocolate on brain chemistry, and she did score rather well in most subjects. Overall her behaviour suggested that she either was very knowlegeable on some fields, yet completely clueless on others, or that she was just pretending to be less intelligent that she actually was.


 * This troper's friend sometimes pretends not to know what sexual terms mean for fun. Considering that she swears like a sailor, it's a jarring contrast.


 * This troper also likes to pretend she doesn't understand all the dirty jokes her friends are telling her, because she knows they all think of her as TheIngenue. But every now and then, it's fun to surprise them.


 * This troper likes to use this to mess with people - the long blonde hair and large chest make people think she's a dumb blonde, which is reinforced by a smiley demeanor and a tendency to giggle a bit. The big thick fantasy books, habit of referencing anything to either computer tech, psychology, or [=DnD=], and the sadistic sense of humor tend to confuse anyone who takes her for an idiot. It's fun!


 * This troper plays the Obsfucating Stupidity to such levels that he is a, yet people are surprised whenever he says something intelligent.


 * This troper will often act oblivious if he guesses something before being explicitly told.
 * This troper does the same thing. It's pretty much the only way he's been able to maintain some of his friendships.


 * This troper has used this trope to its fullest since childhood, especially with his family, to avoid pointless/needless trouble and work. It's always priceless to do the reveal in a classroom where everybody thinks you're slow, though, just to watch the look on their faces.


 * This troper's parents claim that in the general vicinity of second grade, his IQ tested out as somewhere around 130 (just short of the generally accepted baseline for genius status). No one believes this. I find it convenient to be part of this group, because it allows me the delusion that people's expectations are lower (which they are, unless you're my parents, which really hacks me off because those are the important expectations). Even so, I do have to admit that I am a fairly smart guy even though I tend to Cloud CuckooLand a lot.


 * I deliberately play up the stupider aspects of my personality, partly because it's funny, and partly to cover up when I actually do act stupid. Although it frustrates me when people don't get it.


 * This Troper finds it a very useful tool online as well as in real life. I'm an admin at a forum and have been for over a year, yet on [=MSN=], [=IRC=], and in a lot of my posts I come across as an idiot (and, as a bonus, StereotypeGay quite frequently.) So when I actually do bring the smackdown on errant assholes, it stuns them more that it's me who's doing it than anything else.


 * This trooper has slipped out of household chores AND crashing the boss's car by playing dumb, because everyone in the office underestimated me.


 * On the subject of George W. Bush: When he was running for election in 2000, this troper's family was at a political function where Bill Frist, among others, was in attendance. At the time Frist was a Senator and was also running the local Bush campaign, and the question came up as to whether Dubya was really as dumb as he sounds on TV. Frist, who knew the man personally, said he isn't and hinted that some of Bush's rivals had failed because they underestimated his intelligence and cunning. So there may be something to this allegation of TruthInTelevision Obfuscating Stupidity.


 * This troper has been doing this for years. It's better to let people think you're extremely forgetful when you're really BrilliantButLazy.


 * Ditto here. It's quite hard to be lazy when all of your partners expect to give you all of the work and have you finish it all by yourself because "they would just mess it up". Better to pretend that you're barely focusing on the assignment and get a proportionate share of the work. Leaves more room for naps.


 * When this troper realized her best friend had been doing this for months, regarding (of all things), she just about had a heart attack. Finding out your fifteen-year-old friend (who you thought was a prude) reads the same 18+ yaoi manga as you is... well... a bit awkward.


 * Most of the time ThatWackyGerman I'm acting like a scatterbrained stupid lazy stoner with a very exaggerated german accent. I may be a stoner, but my accent isn't that strong, I remember things quite well, had quite good grades in school and I'm not as lazy as people think. Playing dumb makes many things easier.

Sigh Life is so much simpler when everyone thinks you're a dumbass.
 * @/ This troper tried to do this in High School. People were completely convinced. Then someone figured out the student ID system, and consequently, figured out everyone's grades. Even then, people were not convinced, until some nosy bitch got into my backpack, and looked at the tests.


 * @/AcrossTheStars This troper acts like a giggly girl for much of her existence, and while everyone knows she's smart, they think of her as more of a GeniusDitz than anything else (she has a truly remarkable talent for history, biology, and religion, as well as vocabulary). During her senior religion class, she never revealed just how philosophical she truly is. When she dropped by (informally) to discuss her senior project with her teacher, that teacher looked her straight in the eyes and said, "Shame on you. You've been holding out on me!"


 * This Troper? Actually known as 'Idiot' at school, being dubbed so by her best friend. I tend to lose all common sense at moments, and so generally act that way most of the time to cover up such instances. I believe I even have certain teachers fooled. I look forwards to their faces when they see my exam scores...


 * This Troper does it so she doesn't scare little kids quite as much. Or other people in her typically not-exactly-genius fandom, for that matter... And also just does it because she's lazy.


 * This troper is known as 'Loser' among his friends at the video games club he goes to. I go off on random tangents, I make extremely awkward comments and I act like a most of the time. But when it comes to actually playing, I make crazy gambits, I predict constantly and I'm considered one of the best players there. I also do this with schoolwork, mostly to shove off responsibility because I'm excessively lazy.


 * This troper uses a combination of obfuscating stupidity and obfuscating CloudCuckoolander-ness handling annoying/sucky people at work. It kind of helps that she has a cane and most people in her area think physical disabilities mean there are mental disabilities involved as well.


 * This troper uses Obfuscating Stupidity to play into the commonly held belief that brawn = stupidity... Of course, when people realize you can speak three languages and keep near perfect grades in the first year of high school, the effect is essentially lost...


 * This troper had a high school science teacher that was something like this. Of course, being a science teacher, no-one thought he was completely stupid, but most of the students (and probably a few of the other teachers) didn't seem to realise that despite the fact he came off as a fat, eccentric Scot who seemed more like a than a teacher, he was a brilliant scientist- and teacher.


 * This troper always like to act a little more stupid than he really is, especially around strangers. In fact, it can get sometimes a little worrying how surprised even my close friends are when I come out with something intellgent or get high marks.


 * @/NeoSilverThorn This Troper is usually silent by choice, leading people to misjudge just how intelligent he truly is, to the point of scoring a small Crowning Moment of Awesome during an argument with his creative writing teacher by pointing out to her that YouFailLogicForever statistics can say anything if you fiddle with them enough, and that just because "statistics say every house in the US has a computer" doesn't make it fact.


 * This troper was known to be one of the smart kids and his elementary school, and was constantly besieged by requests for help due to it. When going to a High School out of town, my best friend agreed to keep the secret of my intelligence, and I projected a new persona. No one pestered me for help with their work any longer, and by not speaking out loud in class, I was seen as a quiet, somewhat strange student with average marks.

However, this was all shattered in my eleventh year of High School, when my English teacher refused to accept my reasons for hiding my intelligence. He "accidentally" let it slip that I had completed reading our novel for the next few weeks, as well as the forty assignments that came with it, by the day after the book was assigned. I was now once again besieged by help from people whom I had never considered friends, and forced to speak out loud when it came to class discussions. Although my English teacher was a fantastic person otherwise, I have never quite forgiven him for revealing my secret to the school at large.


 * I have known this girl since freshman year. She's been in a special behaviors classroom because of her self admitted habit of throwing fits (she got better though). She's kinda pudgy and loud... and more then a little obnoxious at times. But she's a pretty bouncy and (overly) affectionate girl. She often complains about being dumb and untalented (most of us are in advanced classes), and she asks for help on simple stuff. However, I believe she's actually very intelligent, she's managed to figure out quite a few things that we've missed (none math related though), and I've seen some of her writing. She writes on a level that would make a professional author cry!


 * @/SummoningDark This troper knows a girl who is either really good at ObfuscatingStupidity this stuff or a straight CloudCuckooLander. She can, when told to do something in a particular way (and often in a way that clashes with what she had in mind), cock her head and say "Aww, little [NAME]" and go and do it her way instead. It's confusing. And awesome.


 * This troper tries to play the idiot, but it doesn't always work. That is to say people know I'm smart, but they still sometimes treat me like I'm not because of my unreliable grades. I guess you could say I have ObfuscatingStupidity Selective Obfuscating Stupidity. Actually, people are surprised when I know how to do anything, really.


 * This Troper does this, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. I'm actually a variant; everyone in school thinks of me as the smartest kid in school, but I generally act innocent and naive when I'm not. Thanks to this, plus my sense of humor, This Troper sits next to the prettiest girls in my grade at lunch despite being only average-looking. However, I do have a horrible memory and simple things do confuse me a lot.


 * This Troper, (who was born Turkish, raised Londoner) sometimes pretends to not understand some Turkish words so she can listen to her loved ones complain (in Turkish) about people bothering them and tell said people to stay the heck away from my family/friend later on. She also, when talking to foreigners who don't speak English well, tones down her English so she speaks just as awkwardly as them so that they don't get embarrassed.


 * GwenStacyWannabe My best friend recently confessed to me that she's been doing this for years. She's actually very intelligent, but she's also CloudCuckooLander a little whimsical in the brainpan and has been known to respond to questions like "Are you hungry?" with "I forget."


 * This troper has been getting honors in class since sixth grade, is almost invariably the teacher's favorite, can dissect a person's psych just by texting them for a bit and predict everything they do and they have done, learn every little detail about everyone's personal lives (from who's going out with who to who's tried to commit suicide and is on antidepressants), memorize entire poems just by reading them once, and TheChessmaster manipulate her classmates like chess pieces, and no one suspects her of anything because she acts like she needs things repeated to her at least three times before she processes them. She's even fooled her family. People even try to fool her because she's 'so spacey' by doing things like hiding her stuff and talking about her when she's sitting right next to them just to see if she notices. She finds this immensely amusing.


 * This troper has been collecting rather rare marine corals, invertebrates, and fish for nearly ten years, but likes to play up the whole "Naive Newbie" facade in order to determine if a shop or supplier is trustworthy or not. Many a time he's walked into a pet shop selling a Panther Grouper (a very large predatory fish) and had the salesperson tell him he can keep it in a ten gallon tank with guppies.


 * This troper is really quite smart, but when you're in high school, it frightens most of your friends when you use big words they can't understand. And it makes people think you're a know-it-all... so it's better to pretend you don't know big words too. This troper also is very good at finding out things she isn't supposed to know (people really don't guard their secrets as well as they should) so when someone ends up telling her a secret, she has to fake the whole "(gasp)! Oooh! Nooo! Really?! Nooo! I can't believe it! I had no idea!"


 * This troper has been doing this since...always? His mother does not like people who are smarter or act smarter then her. I DO know a lot about things which she doesn't have a clue about and she doesn't want that, so I adapted.


 * This troper tends to act like a ditz around her friends. Then when they found out she was in the advanced math class, they thought the end of the world was near.


 * This troper can come across like this to an extent, but only until either (3rd-person deactivated) a) people ask me what I'm studying (Computer Science, Maths, Physics); b) someone says something or asks a question that prompts a weird-but-somewhat-interesting trivia outburst; c) people see that I'm just genuinely strange ("I wonder how these people (i.e. those in the 6th form common room at the time) would react if an Angel attacked right now? Who out of this lot would make the best EVA pilot? What things in this room could concievably be a TARDIS?").


 * This troper is often asked to do this due to his brother's/cousin's/nemesis'/visitor's constant antics. This would usually happen after a prank goes too far, and they have to hide it for whatever reason. Though I will usually only do it for the second and fourth people.


 * I use this to avoid unwanted social contact. While I am actually pretty oblivious to flirting (a guy once flirted with me for two years before I noticed, and by that time he had given up), on the rare occasions that I DO, it's usually because I really don't want this person to be hitting on me, kthx. On one occasion, a guy who thought I was 15 was hitting on me, and I just played the innocent country girl part as hard as I could. My oldest sister, who had been coming over to warn me about the slimeball, had to leave the room so she could laugh without blowing my cover. She told this story to many people, gloating over how completely I'd suckered him. I've also used this trope while working retail.


 * Acting idiotic is also, I've discovered, a good way to get information from people. If I act oblivious, people say things much more openly. MagnificentBastard And they never suspect me... EvilLaugh Muahahahaha!


 * This troper sat next to a completely inept friend in his computer class who seemingly had no idea what the hell she was doing. Myself and other friends would constantly just do her work for her, just so she would stop asking for help. On one of the last days, when the other people in our row weren't around and I was helping her with her newsletter, she suddenly turned to me and said, "You know, I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks I am. I've actually known what to do this whole time". She then proceeded to finish her newsletter before I was even half way through. I just sat there in complete shock for about five minutes.


 * This troper took an Economics class this semester. There was one student in there, an unbelievable stereotype of a redneck, was believed to be slightly mentally challenged by everybody else due to his inability to say anything that wasn't racist, sexist, ignorant, or just plain stupid. He made a higher grade than most of the class, leaving everybody (including the teacher) in utter disbelief.


 * One of this troper's best friend is really smart, she always makes people underestimate her though, especially in school. She tricks her teachers and her mother into doing all her work for her, when she can probably do it all and do it well.


 * @/ This troper admits to doing that sometimes, specially when people want me to become free technical support/training/consulting, or when people are talking about a subject he's not interested in (or interested in getting away from a FlameBait).


 * This troper Partakes in this sometimes, though, when it comes to math and the like I'm genuinely useless, I'm a genius when it comes to things that only come up in a conversation once in a blue moon...it's more useful than you'd think, actually, and, most of the time, I can trick people into doing my work for me through careful usage of words, all without breaking the facade.


 * A straighter example would be my grandmother, who tries to be humble, and makes herself looks foolish or doesn't catch things on purpose, in reality, she has a medical PH.D, and has over twenty years of medical experience, if you ask her something you think she doesn't know, she'd probably suprise you.


 * The Tropers/Dwessie does this! But I do this because I get really nervous around people, and then babble like an idiot. If I don't plan on possibly befriending them, they either get Stoic Dwessie, or this. And my BF has pointed out that I do this a LOT to avoid having to explain things, because that is my least favorite thing.


 * This troper is known to do this. So far, only one person in my entire school knows how intelligent I can actually be. To most, I appear to be DumbBlonde a true blonde, is a CloudCuckooLander cloud cuckoo lander, and never really lives up to my full potential, BrilliantButLazy even though if I wanted I could be skipping a grade or two. The only time at school when I actually get off my lazy butt is during tests, simply because I don't really want to be held back. I'm also very lazy when it comes to explaining, but that's mainly because I have this weird thing where I get sounds mixed up, sorta like dyslexia, but oral.And not to mention I have a lisp and talk very, very fast...Though I can talk perfectly "normal," however normal a southern accent might be.


 * This one does this because he feels it might get a cheap laugh... but it sometimes goes so well he starts fooling himself. That, or he's BecomingTheMask...


 * This troper is extremely guilty of this. She often puts on a facade that displays an academically impaired TheDitz ditz, when in actuality, she's one A short of being on her school's A/B Honor Roll.

on got read out to the class; or I named every episode of all five new Doctor Who series whilst being timed and beat every other person who tried it; or quoted long sections of Shakespeare word for word perfect. It's a lot of fun surprising people!
 * This troper is a CloudCuckooLander CloudCuckooLander, but I can also say I'm very intelligent. The reason I act so stupid and ditzy is so I can be constantly unpredictable. I love seeing the expressions on people's faces, like when an English essay I got an A


 * In a somewhat guilty example, this Troper once pretended that he couldn't possibly have done a little... PlayfulHacker Technical Tinkering to a familiar fan site out of curiosity. The administrator later questioned me about it but I acted as if I didn't have a clue. I'm really not sure how that worked because I was pretty much the only one who could have done it.


 * Everyone, even most of her closest friends, seems to assume that this troper is incredibly naive and oblivious (when in reality... CovertPervert not CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass so much). She's gotten so used to it that sometimes, she just TheChessmaster plays it to her advantage.


 * This troper does this very often. Most people who know me know that it's an act, since I have Honors everything and have a high GPA, so most of the fun is lost. Random people in public places however...


 * @/ This troper knows a couple people that do this. Notably, my best friend, due to his (usually correct) belief that people are uncomfortable around him when they realize how smart he is. Several times, I have been privy to that moment when people realizing that he is a lot smarter than he lets on, usually around the time they realize that he has a Master's in psychology at the age of 22, occasionally when someone lets him near a SmartPeoplePlayChess chess board. Seriously, the dude is vicious in a game of chess.


 * This troper sometimes does this, but only to a subtle degree. He has a ridiculously large vocabulary, but doesn't like to use all of it because it makes him sound pretentious and usually causes him to have to explain what he actually meant by what he just said. BuffySpeak Just saying things using very simple words simplifies things. Usually I temporarily stop doing this when someone has a word on the tip of their tongue and I know it.


 * Sometimes this kind of happens with me whether I like it or not. Due to the fact that I am small for my age,very very odd, shy and not much of a talker, the peoples I am friendly with will sometimes be slightly condescending to me (but to be fair, I don't think they realise this), or will consider me an extremely naive person who never swears. I have no choice but to play along.


 * This Troper acts like a WideEyedIdealist CloudCuckooLander to hide his depressing KnightInSourArmor self. Just because I am fatalistic and cynical doesn't mean that I should worry others about my issues. It works a bit too well as some of my family members think I am naive and innocent.


 * This Troper would play this for comedic effect often, just 'cause doing dumb things is hilarious. Although, there are some people who thought this Troper was actually dumb(some girl at work seemed surprised that I went to University, because she didn't think I was that smart).