Brainy Smurf considers himself the most intelligent Smurf in the village and an expert on everything, although his actual knowledge is questionable at best; often, his attempts to help in a given situation lead to even more problems. He can be distinguished from the others by the large glasses he wears. He also has archived his self-perceived wit and wisdom in several volumes of books entitled "The Quotations of Brainy Smurf". The Smurfs most often respond to his self-righteous preaching by either tossing him out of the village or clobbering him with a club (usually off screen). Most of the time, the other Smurfs never listen to him. His original name translates to "Smurf with Glasses".

The Smurfs (French: Les Schtroumpfs; Dutch: De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small blue humanoids who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. The Smurfs was first created and introduced as a series of comic characters by the Belgian comics artist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) in 1958, where they were known as Les Schtroumpfs. There are more than one hundred Smurf characters, and their names are based on adjectives that emphasize their characteristics, such as "Jokey Smurf", who likes to play practical jokes on his fellow smurfs. "Smurfette" was the first female Smurf to be introduced in the series. The Smurfs wear Phrygian caps, which came to represent freedom during the modern era.