Not really; if you ask a brass player, violists have more than enough to do. I meant it more like a standard viola joke that there is nothing going on in their heads :P
The violin is a lot more prestigeful and has more difficult parts than the viola, so violinists kind of see them as those who wanted to play the violin but weren’t good enough. I guess it actually has to do more with the fact that nobody ever notices the viola since they are awkwardly in the middle, and that they therefore have less motivation to bother to count bars or play correctly in general. Either way they do tend to either forget to play or play the wrong notes every once in a while.
Mind explaining that one? I came to the comments specifically to see why violinists would say that.
I think it’s a joke about how there are never parts for the viola.
violist, ah, I misread the op as violinist.
Not really; if you ask a brass player, violists have more than enough to do. I meant it more like a standard viola joke that there is nothing going on in their heads :P
edit: fixed typo
Why are they known for being dumb?
The violin is a lot more prestigeful and has more difficult parts than the viola, so violinists kind of see them as those who wanted to play the violin but weren’t good enough. I guess it actually has to do more with the fact that nobody ever notices the viola since they are awkwardly in the middle, and that they therefore have less motivation to bother to count bars or play correctly in general. Either way they do tend to either forget to play or play the wrong notes every once in a while.
More information at Wikipedia.