Doogie Howser

Doogie Howser was a television character—a teenage genius who became a licensed physician at fourteen.

The name now serves as shorthand for any prodigy in a professional field, especially medicine: The new resident is like a Doogie Howser—she's only twenty-three.

The reference carries mild skepticism about whether youth and credentials can substitute for experience.

Related

doctor · physician · medical degree · Neil Patrick Harris · How I Met Your Mother · diary · journal · journal entry · hospital · medical · wunderkind · sitcom · TV show · stethoscope · white coat · scrubs · precocious · Vinnie

Categories
Opposites
intellectual precocity/age-competence relationship

Doogie Howserlate bloomer

One who matures slowly

Grandma Moses · Colonel Sanders · slow learner · underachiever · remedial student

fictional medical prodigy archetype

Doogie HowserHawkeye Pierce

quack · charlatan

earnest 80s/90s TV character type

Doogie HowserBart Simpson

Ferris Bueller · slacker · dropout · burnout · class clown

Familiarity
Top 500,000
Profile
Mostly American · Concrete · Positive · Everyday, not technical · Rated G