Anti-intellectualism in cartoons?

[JOKER23]

Why do some cartoons seem to send the message that it's bad to be smart?

The Smurfs might be the best example. Besides maybe Jokey, who is the most annoying character? Brainy, of course. And when he starts to bore our little collective, what do they do with him? They throw him up and the air and make him land on his head, obviously trying to damage his brain and the source of their discomfort.

Many cartoons also used to feature lovable, kinda dim, losers that often had a smarter friend that saved their bacon, like in Inspector Gadget. But after Ren and Stimpy there were several cartoons where it seemed like the smarter characters were always put upon and the dumb ones, like Dee Dee, Cow, Heffer, Dog from Catdog, Spongebob and Patrick were always rewarded for their stupidity and were usually portrayed to be right while the relatively smarter characters such as Dexter, Squidward, Rocko and Cat are wrong and suffer.

The dumb characters often torment the smarter characters, but innocently, only through their innate stupidity. Despite their seeming simplicity, the dumber characters also often show a savant like ability to do anything needed in a much better manner than the smarter character if it serves a joke, like Spongebob's art being better than Squidward's.

Any more examples? Why is this? Is it an example of the romantic ideal of "primitivism" where the less sophisticated, noble savages are somehow superior because they are closer to an uncorrupted state and thus closer to nature/God?

[noiamnot(isbackagain)]

Isn't Dog the dumb one?

[Sgh]

Oh, yeah. I'll edit it.

[blood shedder]

Why? Take a look outside your window, and you'll see why. Anti-intellectualism is a plague. A real one, a serious one. It's why dreck like "Rise of the Silver Surfer" makes a profit and no one goes to see "A Mighty Heart".

Politicians run on anti-intellectualism, and appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Look at MTV!

The sad thing is, the people behind this are mostly not anti-intellectual, they are very smart, they just know how to package a product and make money off the dumb.

It's the culture.

[Hopieee]

Shonen anime is one of the worse offenders. I can only think of two such series where the hero isn't the genki, undisciplined, clueless sort except in Really Major Important Battles. Kiyo from Zatch Bell is cool, and handy in the battles because he's smart. Light from Death Note is a psychopath douchebag.

[Mariah (:]

...It's probably just because dumb people are funnier.

Keep in mind cartoons are unfortunately aimed primarily at children. Make the humour too intellectual and the jokes will fly over their heads. So you need dumb humour, and therefor dumb characters to pull off that humour.

Then again it could be a government conspiracy to put the idea that being smart is a vice into your head at a young age, making you easier to control later in life... You never know... *shifty eyes*

[jbob]

It has nothing to do with being against smart people; dumb people are just funnier. Someone who's always wrong is funnier than someone who's always right. It's not propaganda; we're laughing AT them. This is a strange theory to come up with; why would anyone think this?

[LiSA (:]

Jon Stewart is funnier than Larry the Cable Guy.

Frasier and Niles Crane are both funnier than... Homer Simpson

[truth hurts u]

I should note, Intellecuals can also decend into anti-intellecualism.

So were do I begin? The real threat of Psuedoscience is not in portraying the brainny guy as annoying (which ShawnHopkins I think you're reading in too much at this).

Instead, it is helping spread pesudoscientific concepts. Bigfoot, UFO's (not aliens, but rather the UFOlogy in real life), hollow Earth, conspiracy theories without subtancial evidence, pop psychologigy, and alot more stuff in cartoons in general. The worse offenders, ironically, is the anime and older audience oreintated cartoons.

[The Chrysanthemum]

Well that's debatable. Other than the fact that Frasier and Niles are at their funniest when they're being stupid or near-sighted.