Is Brian a Genius--or an Idiot?

Brian has always been one of my favorite Family Guy characters. I’m not much of a dog person, but if I had a dog I would probably want him to be a martini-drinking liberal who walks on two legs.

Though he always appears to be this intellectual, forward-thinking dog who scoffs at (or pants after) other mutts, Brian has definitely showed his dark, and perhaps stupid, side on occasion. For example…

• Remember how Peter found Brian in the first place? If he’s so damn smart, why was he homeless and begging for money? Not to bash homeless people, but most of them lose their jobs, have a mental illness or, in the case of children, run away from an abusive home life. Brian just doesn’t seem to fit any of these scenarios. Instead, as we’ve seen in his non-progress on his novel, he might just be a bit lazy instead. But couldn’t he have at least made some money tutoring kids or selling term papers or something? If he can date human chicks and drive a car, I’m pretty sure he could have kept a job. (Or maybe his alcoholism was to blame…?)
• Brian has exhibited some major racism, which is simply one of the many opposites of intellectualism (alongside stupidity, ignorance and plain old dumb***-ity). Surely someone who considers himself so cultured and progressive wouldn’t be a closet racist? Hmm…
• He’s Peter’s friend. Um, ‘nuff said. Okay, I’m sure we all have that idiot friend that we just keep around to see what the hell he’s going to do next, but we don’t live with said friend. We wouldn’t be able to sleep at night for fear of our home being burned to a crisp, or our babies being sold for a George Foreman grill.
• He went Republican for a little while just because he has nothing to complain about. That’s like a gay man going straight for a little while because they were out of purple shirts at the Gap.
• He dated Gillian, the biggest dwindle head since Sarah Palin. Of course, like Sarah, Gillian was smokin’, which may not serve as evidence for Brian’s complete idiocy—only for his maleness.

Attending Brown university and keeping your family sane, after all, aren’t necessarily qualifications for MENSA. Then again, for Stewie to pick you to be his partner in crime (no matter how much he professes to loathe you), you’ve got to have some cranial appeal. So the question remains…is Brian really a genius, or an idiot at heart?