One of the best comedy movies of all time makes light of the fact that we all want to be seen as smart by our peers. Sure we want them to think we’re good-looking too, but intelligence is more permanent and has a special prestige to it. When we are dumb we feel awful.
What’s more, unlike your looks, you can hide your real intelligence level in many ways. In the movie, Otto goes to great lengths to seem smart but underneath it all he knows he’s stupid. Anticipating that others will also think he is stupid, whenever they are about to call him on his he threatens “don’t call me stupid”!
A Fish Called Wanda