We all grew up watching Nickelodeon, Disney XD, Cartoon Network, and the like, being schooled by some of the greatest animated minds of the 20th century and beyond. However, with the genius gene infecting many different television shows, we never stopped to ask, “who is the smartest of them all?”
There’s so many candidates to consider, so someone decided to place them all in a hypothetical situation: the school science fair. With all these brilliant minds in one room, the science fair would make for a fascinating and cut-throat environment, even for growing adolescents. It isn’t intentional that all the candidates are males, but children’s animation clearly ruled out any female characters as geniuses, despite the obvious sexism, but we won’t go down that rabbit hole.
Over on Twitter, a collage of boy geniuses sparked a controversial debate: who’s winning the science fair? As mentioned, there’s a lot of potential victors here. For the uninitiated, the competitors are Phineas and Ferb (Phineas and Ferb), Dib (Invader Zim), Jimmy Neutron (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius), Numbuh Two (Codename: Kids Next Door), Mandark (Dexter’s Laboratory), and Dexter (Dexter’s Laboratory). So, as you must be wondering, who does Twitter deem the smartest of them all? Let’s take a deep dive into the opinionated thread.
Right away, the votes came flooding in for Jimmy, whom fans have noted as having “the biggest head” and supposedly the biggest brain as a result. Whether or not that’s a viable argument is down to personal preference. Although it’s established that this thread is completely biased, there are some logical answers amidst the chaos. Maybe Jimmy’s giant head does house a giant brain, but we’ll never know for certain, so we have to guess.
Sadly, Invader Zim‘s Dib wasn’t favored so highly, being targeted as the weakest of the geniuses. Despite fans attempting to argue his case, Dib has been deemed “dumb” compared to some of the others. While he shows expertise and proficiency in technology, he doesn’t quite have what it takes to rival the other geniuses, who have always remained a notch above.
That being said, close contenders for Jimmy Neutron are Phineas and Ferb, the gifted step-brothers from Danville who are capable of making anything — literally. Although some other geniuses, like Dexter and Numbuh Two, have unrivaled skills when it comes to robot tech, Phineas and Ferb can be credited with building masterpieces such as rollercoasters, time machines, haunted houses, and more. Plus, they gave a monkey a shower, which is no small feat. It was also noted that Phineas and Ferb’s inventions are the only ones that don’t backfire, malfunction, or other explode spontaneously.
It doesn’t seem like any of the other geniuses really stand a chance. It’s neck-and-neck for Jimmy Neutron and Phineas and Ferb, with a few votes tossed in for Dexter and Numbah Two. As for Dib and Mandark, they’re barely in the running.