How do you write a dimwitted character without them eventually devolving into a complete mongoloid that can't figure...

How do you write a dimwitted character without them eventually devolving into a complete mongoloid that can't figure out 2+2?

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Make them low INT high WIS/CHA. The endearing kind of idiot who charges headfirst into adventure, is still capable of telling right from wrong (even if their definition of right and wrong is simplistic), picks up on things the smarter members of the team don't notice, treats everyone the heroes meet (even enemies) like a friend and calls out the other heroes when they're acting less than heroic.

So, Knuckles from "Sonic Boom".

Or Fighter from Eight Bit Theater, or Elan from Order of the Stick.

Make them comprehend things incredibly literal.

For some reason they made Ed more and more brain dead as the series went on. Was alot more different in the first season.

everyone was a little different in season one. that's how it is for most shows, not just cartoons. you slowly figure characters out. in my opinion he became a better character.

>alot more different
also
>alot

Season 1 Ed wrote this

That's true. Usually the shows get better or reach their peak around their second nor third seasons.

It happens to a lot of characters that aren't written to be smart. Look at season 1 Patrick from Spongebob. Sure he's not super bright, but he's nowhere near as violently stupid he becomes later. For a non-Yea Forums example, there's Joey Tribbianni, initially a street wise, but not college educated individual. By the end of the show's run, guy was a one step above being a drooling simpleton requiring homecare.

keep them energetic and optimistic

The first thing that comes to mind is actively editing and rereading materials with the character to try and make sure that they don't start to "dip", but otherwise a solution could be to actually try to make the character "smarter" with time whilst still leaving it obvious that they're a few cents short of a dollar. Give them moments where their intelligence shines, where they are more intelligent than the other cast, outwit opposition or bad situations whilst missing out on something most folks with common sense would, making lots of small mistakes, etc- generally, to always keep in mind that the character is "dim", not "dumb", and to hammer this attitude into the other staff of the show as well. That I think is especially important, because otherwise flanderization of some kind will inevitably take hold.

>How do you write a dimwitted character without them eventually devolving into a complete mongoloid that can't figure out 2+2?
You don't. If you're writing a "dimwitted character" you've probably failed already.

Most stupid characters in cartoons are way dumber than anyone in real life, at least of those who can form coherent sentences.

Now if you want to write characters who just aren't book-smart, that's a whole other story.

Make them sure of themselves and make them make decisions which follow a mixture of flawed logic, incomplete information, or a lack of awareness of consequences.

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Realistic stupid happens when people are mentally slow, ridiculously ignorant, or extremely distracted/hyper and don't learn basic knowledge, common sense and problem-solving. They're probably normal at everything else. Usually they have other talents they succeed at.

Sometimes Finn from the early seasons of Adventure Time

so, Mikey from TMNT's IDW comics.

best girl

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After watching far too much of the early seasons of trailer park boys, I say that the best way is to have them operate on flawed logic. Rocky, for example, throws his trash into the lake by the bag full. This is because the trash gets washed away into the ocean because rivers connect lakes to the ocean, and the ocean is huge and filled with salt, it breaks down the trash and keeps it away from everyone. Its nature's garbage dump and filter, all in one.
This is of course fucking stupid as all hell, but throughout the show he has moments like this where he sees the world through flawed logic, and funnily enough, sometimes he's right(wisdom from the mouths of idiots), like when he can correctly identify different types of gasoline by its taste from years of stealing gas from cars(diesel tastes pretty good).
Also, be sure to throw some quirks in there too that relate to "learning" the wrong way. People are natural learners, even stupid people, like how Ricky learned to read by reading the instructions on the back of microwave dinner boxes.

>Ricky from Trailer Park Boys
Now that's a great example of a believably stupid character. What he lacks in book learning and brain communicating he makes up for in his business sense and able to bullshit his way out of any situation on the spot.