History Main / NapoleonDelusion

* An ComicBook/ArchieComics story once had asylum employees mistakenly think that Jughead was an escaped mental patient and they brought him back with them. Jughead spends until the entire comic trying to prove his sanity or escape, until he finds out that the cafeteria there serves great food. In the end, Archie comes to try and free his friend, only to find Jughead deliberately pretending he's Napoleon in order to stay for the food. Interestingly, a reprint of the story years later changed it so that he pretends he's [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Dr. Eggman]] instead.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': In ''[[Recap/AsterixAndTheBigFight Asterix and the Big Fight]]'' our Roman-era heroes go to see a druid who specializes in treating mental problems. One of the people in the queue is dressed as Napoleon. The receptionist comments, "No-one knows who this one thinks he is" because of course Napoleon doesn't exist yet.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'': In "Insane in the Mainframe", Bender was put in a robot insane asylum and declared "''Je suis Napoleon!''"...[[SubvertedTrope but then reassured his friends that he was just using humor to get through a difficult time]]. Later on, after the non-Napoleon example listed below, Bender's praise for the asylum includes that "there are two Lincolns for every Napoleon".

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' had an episode where Leo gets hit hard in the head and starts thinking he's D'Artagnan and that Raph, Mikey and Don are Literature/TheThreeMusketeers. They're forced to play along (even dressing the part) until he comes to his senses.
* In the finale of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'', [[AlphaBitch Mandy]] goes through a HumiliationConga which forces her into a replica of a dress and wig worn by Marie Antoinette, before she receives a TapOnTheHead. When she wakes up, she's speaking in a French accent and insists on being referred to as "Marie-Antoinette'. (Oh and acting spoiled, but that's business as usual)

-->-- ''Series/LoisAndClark'', "Neverending Battle"

* ''Series/LoisAndClark'' had a woman who thought she was Mary Todd Lincoln. She ends up witnessing Clark using his powers, but then she starts calling him General Grant.

* Richard Lawrence believed he was King Richard the III, motivating his attempt to assassinate U.S. President UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson, who'd usurped Lawrence's domain in his mind. [[BullyingADragon It]] [[CurbStompBattle didn't]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown work]] (Jackson had to be stopped from [[AssassinOutclassin beating him to death]] after both his guns misfired), and he spent the rest of his life in jail or a mental institution.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'': In "Insane in the Mainframe", Bender was put in a robot insane asylum and declared "''Je suis Napoleon!''"...[[SubvertedTrope but then reassured his friends that he was just using humor to get through a difficult time]].
** In the same episode, Fry's guide shows him a robot that looks like Abraham Lincoln (in the manner of Disney's Hall of Presidents). Fry guesses that he's got this trope going on, but his guide points out that he's ''supposed'' think he's Lincoln since it's his job; the reason he was institutionalized is because he has [[SplitPersonality multiple personalities]], and they're ''all'' Lincoln ("I was born in 200 log cabins"). Later on when Bender is talking about how great the asylum is, he says there are two Lincolns for every Napoleon.

* ''Series/BarneyMiller'' had an arrestee who believed he was Jesus, as well. Since he had previously thought himself possessed by {{Satan}}, this delusion was kind of therapeutic.

* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' episode "The Girl Who Was Death" was an oddly loopy adventure set outside the Village, where No.6 is out to stop a mad scientist who fancies himself Napoleon (complete with a Josephine) who is plotting to blow up London. [[spoiler:It all turns out to be a bedtime story No.6 is telling a nursery full of children, where he'd cast No.2 as Napoleon.]]
** In an early draft, said mad scientist was going to believe he was ''Hitler'', but it was felt to be [[DudeNotFunny too soon after WWII]] for that.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E92PersonOrPersonsUnknown Person or Persons Unknown]]", one of David Gurney's fellow patients believes that he is UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill.
** {{Discussed|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E120TheBard The Bard]]". Julius Moomer tells his agent Gerald Hugo, the network executive Mr. Bramhoff and the sponsor Mr. Shannon that Creator/WilliamShakespeare is a cousin on his mother's side who believes that he is Shakespeare.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium", David Wong tells Mrs. Whitford that he met twelve people who claimed to be the Second Coming of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} and one who claimed to the reincarnation of the High Priest of Lemuria during his three year search for the Lost and Found Emporium.

* OlderThanTelevision The likely origin of the trope in media was a 1913 play ''The Misleading Lady'' by Charles W. Goddard and Paul Dickey. It was novelized in a 1915 book, and it was made into a silent film in 1920 and a pre-code talkie starring Claudette Colbert and Edmund Lowe in 1932. The 1913 original is obviously much earlier than Stan Laurel's 1922 ''Mixed Nuts'' (below), which has been previously cited as the earliest example (it isn't even the earliest film example). This seems to be confirmed in the book "The Shuberts and Their Passing Shows: The Untold Tale of Ziegfeld's Rivals," which tells the story of how the Napolean Delusion character from ''The Misleading Lady'' was recycled a couple of years later by another play (''The Passing Show''), and makes it explicit that the character originated from the earlier play. In the story and its remakes, a man kidnaps another man's fiancee, and takes her to his cabin in the woods. There is another man hiding out in the cabin who is recently escaped from a nearby asylum, and he claims to be Napolean Bonaparte (the character is referred to as Boney).

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': In "The Spaceship," Rhino's dementia among other things has him imagining he is someone other than himself, most notably the Carthagenian general Hannibal. Subverted when Bolt tells Mittens that [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] is the only famous general he ''hasn't'' claimed to be lately.

* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode ''A Late Delivery from Avalon'', we meet a passenger that is convinced that he is the reincarnation of King Arthur, returning in Earth's, and therefor Britain's, darkest hour. [[spoiler:It turns out that he is in fact the person who fired the starting shot in the [[HopelessWar Earth-Minbari War]] and has suffered a serious case of SurvivorsGuilt. He is healed when "The Lady of the Lake", or Delenn, retrieves his Excalibur, symbolising that she, and the Minbari Race forgives him.]]. It should be noted that this is ''[[{{Tearjerker}} not]]'' played for humor. The characters -- having met [[UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper another historical character]] [[HumanPopsicle preserved]] by the Vorlons -- seriously consider the possibility that he ''is'' King Arthur. Somewhat amusingly, [[spoiler:after being "healed", he keeps up the personality, and goes to help the Narn resistance.]]

* An old Creator/ECComics sci-fi story involves an alien invasion scout ship killing a man and stealing his brain, so they can scan it to learn of Earth's defenses. They see men on horses with swords and powder rifles, and cockily decide that their one ship can conquer this primitive planet. They launch an attack...and are immediately shot out of the sky with missiles. Cut to a horrified worker at the insane asylum who just found the brainless corpse of the inmate who thought he was Napoleon.