It’s hard for me to watch “Jersey Shore” without thinking of the old line from George Orwell’s “1984”: “Ignorance is Strength.” But there is a complementary theme of propaganda on television. And it’s that to be smart is to be stupid.

MacGyver-like cleverness is acceptable, but overt displays of book learning are enough to turn one into a social pariah. And a life dedicated to academic pursuits is akin to mental illness. This lesson is a constant on reality television, where few college-age kids open a book. For most of them, their career goal is fame itself, an end worth pursuing no matter how low (or Lohan) one has to sink.

Scripted series are hardly better. At best, “Modern Family” has fun playing off the contrast between the book- smart Alex (Ariel Winter) and her more glamorous and devious sister, Haley (Sarah Hyland). And no character in television history has done a better job of bearing the cross of intellectual pride than Lisa Simpson.

But the pursuit of pure knowledge runs the risk of ostracism. Take the guys on “The Big Bang Theory” (7 p.m., CBS). Before Penny (Kaley Cuoco) entered their lives like Snow White, they toiled like social dwarves, adrift in a lonely dimension.

The notion of the intellectual as freak is also at the heart of “Bones” (8 p.m., Fox). Now entering its seventh season, the sexual tension between forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and her FBI partner, Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz), has come to its inevitable state, and Brennan is now having Booth’s child. Not to give too much away, but this delicate condition brings out the emotional side of the Spock-like Brennan. And that’s not necessarily a pretty sight.

Once a source of vague amusement for her many advanced degrees, her remarkable focus and her abject inability to learn or even appreciate pop culture, Brennan now seems to have gone off the deep end. It’s as if the prospects of motherhood and happy coupledom are completely at odds with her brainiac self, rendering her emotionally disturbed. Thus television’s constant refrain is reinforced. It’s really stupid — perhaps even dangerous — to be too smart.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Competition continues on “The X Factor” (7 p.m., Fox).

• A schoolteacher becomes a “Person of Interest” (8 p.m., CBS).

• Dwight addresses work efficiency on “The Office” (8 p.m., NBC).

• The documentary “Marathon Boy” (7 p.m., HBO) explores a poor Indian child’s pursuit of Olympics glory.

• The search for a hacker sends Michael and Fi to Puerto Rico on “Burn Notice” (8 p.m., USA).

• Jane encounters a serial killer-obsessed blogger on “The Mentalist” (9 p.m., CBS).

• Murder in the smut trade on “Prime Suspect” (9 p.m., NBC).

• “Independent Lens” presents the documentary “Deaf Jam” (9 p.m., PBS), which explores the culture of hearing- impaired teens.

• An annoying patron on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (9 p.m., FX).