A non-GI friend of mine asked me this question and I thought it would be an
interesting one to ask the board.

Do you think Gilligan gets "smarter" as the series goes on?

A non-GI friend of mine asked me this question and I thought it would be an
interesting one to ask the board.

Do you think Gilligan gets "smarter" as the series goes on?

I never thought of it before. I think as the show progressed the humor his character created might have become based less on actualy stupidity (low IQ) and more a child-like ignorance (lack of information/learning).

My first instinct is to say he gets dumber, but that might not be totally accurate.

I know in the first season he carries himself much more maturely. He's all shy and bashful and naive, but he's not a moron. He uses the word "monotonous" in season 1. o.O

I think the writers latched onto the running jokes of him mispronouncing words and being generally more goofy and ran with them more as the series progressed.

I think rather than becoming smarter or dumber, he becomes more childlike and more of a caricature of himself as the series progresses. (All seven do, honestly).

But as Teobi has brought up in the past, he also becomes more knowing about Ginger's tricks and starts messing with her (in Mine Hero, for example). So it's an interesting shift. Personally, I found him much more appealing as a character in season 1. Not that he ever gets "unlikeable," but I'd have much less patience with season 3 Gilligan than with season 1 Gilligan.

Gilligan was never stupid. He just didn't have a lot of self-confidence and it was easy for other people to make him feel that way, especially Skipper who yelled at him even when he got things right.

Thurston Howell III displayed as much stupidity by fighting over leadership and always putting himself and his material gains before anything and anyone else (except Lovey.)

I'd say Gilligan just wised up and developed a thicker skin. He learned to answer back, confuse and confound. In the end Gilligan was nobody's fool.

How 'bout- 'did Gilligan get hotter as the series went on'? :lol: :grineyes: :eyes: :ladiesman