Writers can make a character smart or kind without being being smart or kind themselves, but they cannot make a character funny without actually being funny. amirite?

Have you ever read a character that's smart that was written by someone who isn't? It seriously shows.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

"She's the smartest person I've ever met"

by Anonymous 10 months ago

"She always wins at chess (off screen), and leaps to wild conclusions that happen to be correct."

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Not like there's much other choice. You cannot write someone smarter than yourself without "cheating" in some way.

by Lucius79 10 months ago

You can kinda reverse solve a problem, i.e. think of some answer no one could have guessed and then come up with ways to justify it. It's difficult, but it can be done

by Anonymous 10 months ago

You have some good cheats at your disposal. For example you often have way more time to think about stuff than your character would have. And you can use your omniscience and omnipotence over the world you are creating to create situations for the character to show how smart they are. The biggest issue is that many writers don't understand how smart people act, they only know how they appear to others. So they try to replicate that instead. Which usually ends up entirely unconvincing

by Anonymous 10 months ago

My least favorite written smart people are those with an encyclopedic knowledge. That just has no relation to reality.

by Lucius79 10 months ago

I can already see her taking off her glasses...

by ZealousidealEase5940 10 months ago

Smart characters written by dumb people will be convincing to dumb people because they'll act how dumb people think smart people act like.

by bradlymayer 10 months ago

IMO Big Bang Theory vs Futurama

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Smart characters written by dumb people vs dumb characters written by smart people.

by Positive-Bicycle-815 10 months ago

It's easier in movies, they just have to play chess.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

If death note was written by somebody dumb that would be wild

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I always get a laugh out of non-engineers writing engineers. The absolute non-understanding of just how damn long things actually take. Especially if you are working with a company. And especially the delay between designing parts or materials and actually getting parts in your hands. So many fictional engineers are just somehow able to compress weeks, months, or years of work into hours or days.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

A good writer can definitely write someone smarter than them if they do some research (the character solves instantly something that takes hours to the average person), or if they have enough test readers ("are my clues enough without being obvious?") Though by that logic OP is wrong still, being funny is easier when you also write the setup for the joke and don't have to be fast

by Additional-Bill5955 10 months ago

A lot of "smart" characters written by less smart people aren't intelligent, they're just magic. They just know things or make wild guesses that don't have much actual logic behind them but are correct anyway because they're being written that way.

by Such-Progress1557 10 months ago

Sheldon?

by Iangusikowski 10 months ago

The further from your personal experience you go, the less believable the character is. If you are average and try to write someone very smart, it won't come off well. In the same vein, it is hard for very smart people to write characters who are of below average or sometimes even average intelligence well, as one doesn't understand the way in which they function. Kind is a little easier because no matter how awful you are, you usually have been kind at least a few times in your life unless you are an utter monster. Evil can be harder actually for those who are kind. Writing good villains is difficult for those who have not experienced that side of things, making them often coming off as unbelievable. Charismatic characters can be especially hard for those who do not have a lot of charisma themselves. Humor is hard for EVERYONE.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Ever since i lost my arms in that tragic unicycling accident I haven't had a humerus bone in my body.

by Iangusikowski 10 months ago

I think tyrion from GOT is a perfect example of why this isn't true. The moment the source material ran out he became an idiot

by Anonymous 10 months ago

The premise is wrong. Dumb writers cannot write convincing smart characters.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Could it be that it's just meme plane image bias? Have you considered that your favourite good "smart" characters might have been written by average people? I mean, writers who can fully relate to their characters probably have an easier time but i wouldn't go to absolutes right away

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I feel this pain so much watching shows...

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I'm reminded of Aaron Sorkin's TV show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip with Matthew Perry. It was essentially the Sorkin version of 30 Rock, where we see the people producing a sketch comedy show. The characters kept saying how Sarah Paulson's character was the funniest person ever, but that character was never shown on screen being funny in any way. I damn near strained my eyeballs rolling them so much at all the telling without showing.

by wilbert59 10 months ago

Are you saying the writers of murder mysteries aren't always murderers themselves? Got it.

by Mpfeffer 10 months ago

Comedy is a gift that only few can write well perfectly

by Anonymous 10 months ago

They can make a character funny... Unintentionally. "Oh hi Mark" -Johny, The Room.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

You can use zingers you've heard in a book. As such, a funny charachter in terms of his barbs and wittiscims. But you can't fake an intelligent charachter. It'll come off weird and choppy.

by Darrelferry 10 months ago

They can imitate those things easier in the surface level...funny can be more obvious.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I guess imagination does have its limits based on living

by Pagacjaeden 10 months ago

what if they are smart but not funny? Can't they just find a way to make an audience laugh?

by tre61 10 months ago

But that'd make them funny

by Lwest 10 months ago

Rian Johnson is that you?

by Anonymous 10 months ago