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Literal stupidity-inducement to service the plot; has it been done?

There is a cycle of Polish jokes that some Jews used to tell about a city named Chelm, where everyone is an idiot. The plots of such jokes tend to be what Damon Knight, author of To Serve Man, calls a "second-order idiot plot;" you cannot by definition tell a Chelm story (whose modern day, American equivalent may or may not involve a Man from Florida) without everyone being an idiot.
Maybe there is a race of idiots, like Orcs. Maybe someone has an idiocy-inducing powers or wields an idiocy-inducing device like that one-hour Dexter's Lab special where Mandark makes himself the smartest man alive by making everyone else dumber. Maybe there's an idiocy-inducing substance that has been administered to a key character in the plot. I don't necessary mean low intelligence either; I've seen stories where certain actions cannot be conceived of by chosen individuals because of their programming. Has any writer out there ever noticed that their plot requires people to act dumb, and rather than "fixing" the plot, decided to double down and add a plot device that involves literally making the relevant parties idiots?
 

Gray-Hand

Minstrel
The movie Idiocracy is very much like that.
So is Dumb and Dumber.
Doctor Strangelove revolves around the characters making dumb decision after dumb decision.
A lot of classic tragedies involve the characters making a series of poor decisions, even though the characters probably wouldn’t be considered unintelligent generally.
 
A lot of classic tragedies involve the characters making a series of poor decisions, even though the characters probably wouldn’t be considered unintelligent generally.
You don’t see, they usually make one of the unoptimal solutions present to them one situation at a time.

Anyway, tragedies are a bad example. I’m looking for external factors causing abysmal internal reasoning. Tragic characters make reasonable, if flawed decisions, even if the cause is external; they don’t make stupid decisions.
Dumb and Dumber are good examples; those protagonists literally have low IQs.
 

Gray-Hand

Minstrel
Zoolander.
Dude Where’s My Car?
Billy Madison.
Talkedega Nights.
Step Brothers.
Anything by Will Farrell.
Many of the comedies by former SNL cast members would qualify.
 
Maybe I’ve made this too easy by not disqualifying straight comedies.
Also, this is a speculative fiction forum, hence the reference to orca and the Dexter episode.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
cult - specifically the constricted thought that comes with being a member of a cult. based on control of information (voluntary for many cultists), a tendency to unquestioningly accept bizarre claims, and the use of an 'in-group language' or dialect that is specifically intended to curb thinking about certain things except in very limited ways. These combine to make a group that is collectively very gullible...which is why churches are favorite targets of swindlers. That said, part from 'cultic matters' the typical cultist seems...quite normal.

Other example would be 'street criminals,' most of whom are...not very bright.
 

Gray-Hand

Minstrel
There are probably quite a few stories where characters get drunk and do something dumb that they otherwise wouldn’t do while sober.

Wolf of Wall Street has several such scenes. As does Breaking Bad. Martin Scorsese’s films usually have instances where characters act to their detriment while under the effects of alcohol or drugs.

The Sopranos has a lot of examples of dumb criminals dealing with situations sub optimally due to a lack of intelligence, either due to natural stupidity, laziness or the effect of alcohol or narcotics.

Westworld is a setting where the intelligence of the characters can literally be dialed up or down at the flick of a switch.

Scarface is a good example of a character making bad decisions as the result of frequent cocaine use.
 

Chasejxyz

Inkling
Every idea has been at some point, you just don't know of an example of it yet. Though you could probably argue that some really badly written stories happen because everyone involved in it is incredibly stupid (see: birdemic, the room). There's a lot of fables that happen because everyone except (whatever) is an idiot, too.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
For me, I dislike where one character is allowed to be "clever" because another is stupid. To me, that's just groan-worth, and it's like creating a strawman for a character to best. So, I avoid it like the plague.

Now, this isn't to say I dislike stories were characters make stupid decisions. Fargo the movie, which I really like, has characters that make some really stupid decisions.

For me, what makes a plot, where the character does something or series of somethings that's stupid, work is consistency and credibility. If a character is going to make stupid decisions the writer better establish why. Because if it's a smart character making a dumb decision without good reason, the book gets tossed across the room.

Also, not all stupid characters are low IQ types. For me, a stupid character's stupidity is independent of IQ and book learning. Stupidity and the resulting stupid decisions should, IMHO, come from a character flaw rather than a person being straight up low IQ. Now this doesn't necessarily apply when your intent is to be bonkers over the top like Dumb and Dumber. But in instances like that, things tend to head in the direction of the low hanging fruit and has a limited scope in what you can do with it.
 
I think 90% of the romantic comedies depend on a dumb plot twist to work: You're the love of my life, but you never told me you're the heir to the throne of a random Kingdom, so I never want to see you again!

I don't think being a cultist counts as making a dumb decision. It's in characters to follow your cult in everything. If you really believe X then you will act accordingly.
 

Mad Swede

Auror
No, never. But a believable character has to make mistakes, and that can be down to misjudging others, it can be due to not understanding something or it can be down to emotions or whatever. However you decide to do it there needs to be a credible reason for a bad decision, and it has to fit in the context of the plot, otherwise your readers won't accept it.. Bad decisions, like good decisions, also have consequences, and they can be good, bad or neutral. A character can be lucky, and a bad decision has a good result or they can be unlucky... To me, making a decision in a situation is a way of developing characters, and so I don't like using what you might call gimics (eg like a stupidity ray) to explain a bad decision because I feel its lazy writing.
 
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