Playing Dumb: 10 Classic Idiots in Film
There are stupid movies and movies about stupid characters…and these are some of the absolute stupidest. A few of these movies might cause you to lose some brain function and some of them may not offer anything insightful to the viewer but laughs, but they are pretty big laughs. In case you’re wondering, yes, Idiocracy could be on the list, but every single person is stupid in that movie so what is the fun in that?
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Harry and Lloyd (Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels), Dumb and Dumber
Two hapless idiots who just want a little love and sun..so they go to Aspen. There are few funnier opening minutes in a movie than the introduction of these two dummies. Tthe road trip scenes (especially their in depth conversations about nothing) are classic. Not only is this one of the Farrelly Brothers funniest movies (plot is obviously not that important with these two characters) but the performances (especially by classically trained Jeff Daniels-the same year Speed and Gettysburgh came out) are brilliant.
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Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubins), Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Every boy loves the freedom a bike allows and Pee Wee is still a child at heart whose all consuming love is his bike. When it’s stolen, his search for the bike becomes an epic journey. For pure laughs, it hard to find better scenes than the pet shop with the snakes or Pee Wee’s interrogation of Amazing Larry. Paul Reubins and Phil Hartman created one of the most unusual, brilliant, oddly likable characters ever, and Tim Burton’s visual style is the perfect compliment for this unusual little movie.
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Navin Johnson (Steve Martin), The Jerk
He’s the perfect idiot. The rube. He doesn’t know anything. The movie opens with his character confiding, “I was born a poor black child” and sets off on a mission to find himself. Along the way he finds a job at a gas station, get his name in the phone book, and invents a device which earns him millions. But he also finds a dog named shithead, is almost killed several times, gets sued, and discovers the power of his penis. Based on Steve Martin’s stand-up, the movie was ironically praised by critics in 1979.
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Carl Spackler the Groundskeeper, (Bill Murray) Caddyshack
When a rodent is smarter than you, you’ve got a problem. Yes, the gopher is pretty smart, but still, Carl is pretty stupid. He hits the head off of all the flowers (remember, he’s the groundskeeper who planted them), threatens a teen with a pitchfork, lusts after an old woman, and eats the Babe Ruth. But is there anything sadder than when we see Carl’s home at the golf course and we learn he doesn’t even have a shower? Bill Murray quickly moved into smarter more sarcastic characters, but we’ll always keep a special place for his dumbest character– Carl.
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Ron Burgundy, (Will Ferrell) Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
They are all stupid in their own way, and while Brick (Steve Carrell) might be mentally challenged, it’s Ron’s mix of self-confidence and stupidity that lands him on our list. Ferrell is perfect as the cocky, sexist, egotistical moron with a mix of his signature likability and clueless confidence. At least he has Baxter, the best dog in the world, to keep him on the up and up. In a lot of ways, Ron and Baxter are like the story of The Artist, and that movie won the Oscar. It bombed when it came out, but developed such a huge cult following, they’re currently planning a sequel.
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John and Dean Solomon (Will Arnett and Will Forte), The Brothers Solomon
Probably the most optimistic idiots on the list, the constantly smiling Solomon brothers are searching for women. Home schooled by their way-too-supportive father (Lee Majors) all they want is to grant him his dying wish and find a woman they can impregnant with a grandchild. With whitened teeth and a killer artificial tan, Arnett and Forte are delightfully weird (especially their dressing up montage) and director Bob Odenkirk added quite a bit of his sensibility to the movie (if you like Mr. Show, you’ll probably like the movie).
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Spicoli, (Sean Penn) Fast Times at Ridgemont High
The basic lesson from Fast Times at Ridgemont High…pot is probably bad for your brain. But we don’t really know if Spicoli was actually stupid or it’s just the head full of smoke. Some of his ideas were pretty smart, and his life’s ambition is to save someone and be a hero, even if it’s just ultimately to land a supermodel. Sean Penn rarely plays comedy anymore, but don’t we all want him to give serious drama a break and tap back into his talents for brain dead comedy?
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Bluto, (John Belushi) Animal House
Some of the animals were cocky, some were naive, but Bluto, the American History challenged college student with a 0.0 GPA, the most likeable idiot on campus. His one word answers and tendencies to cause anarchy among the squares made him the favorite member of Delta House by far. And everyone’s happy to see him drive off into the sunset with a pretty blonde. It is the late John Belushi’s iconic character, and he couldn’t have asked for a better role.
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Brennan Huff and Dale Doback (Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly) Step Brothers
As we mentioned before, Will Ferrell has made a career out of playing cocky idiots, and in Step Brothers, he has a partner. The ultimate exaggeration of the man child, these guys are literally playing their characters like children. They originally hate each other, the way all step-children do, until they discover they share many great qualities– like having no job, fearing women and being completely dependant on their parents. Alone Ferrell and Reilly are brilliant comic actors, but there is something about seeing them together that sells Step Brothers, even when the movie lags.
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Dignan, (Owen Wilson) Bottle Rocket
Bottle Rocket isn’t a stupid movie, but Dignan is a dumb character. He not only make the criminal life his goal– he has a 50 year plan based on this goal. Eager beaver Dignan has a short fuze and can be pretty dark, but he’s also wonderfully clueless (“no, I just have short hair”) who is so hopeful, it’s hard not to like him despite his criminal tendencies. This was Owen Wilson’s breakthrough film and it would be hard to find a better performance in his filmography.
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