History Main / PlatoIsAMoron

* The murderous ghost in ''Film/TheFrighteners'' is obsessed in death, as he was in life, with racking up the highest body count of any serial killer in history. Whenever he passes one of their records, he crows with joy about it. His last words in life were "Got me a score of 12, sir, one more than Starkweather." Later on, his astral form brags about beating Gacy, and says he can't wait to break Bundy's record so he can rub it in his face.

* * PlatoIsAMoron: Three stories of ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius begin with the titular character quoting a famous intellectual and then proceeding to insult him.

This is a form of boast wherein Bob claims that he is the best at something by listing people who are well known for being good at that thing and then declaring them inferior to himself. It's generally a sign that Bob is a {{Narcissist}} or a SmallNameBigEgo character -- whose faith in his own superiority will be proven very false very soon -- or otherwise FeigningIntelligence, but sometimes Bob really ''is'' [[InsufferableGenius that good]].

** Reed Richards of is widely regarded as the smartest human in the universe. Even his enemies -- The Wizard, The Mad Thinker, The Mole Man and others -- have great respect for his intellect, if only because they think he is the one man on Earth capable of appreciating what they have done. But then we get Doctor Doom, the one man on the entire Franchise/MarvelUniverse who thinks Reed is a hack, a fraud, and a complete and utter moron, and is fairly fond of reminding everyone in earshot of his feelings Every. Single. Issue.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Calvin claims he's too smart for school, and as proof claims:

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': While boasting of his intelligence, Vizzini claims that he's much smarter than Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. While his long speech is just a ploy to convince the Man in Black that he's deduced which of the cups is poisoned, he does seem to believe that he's that intelligent.

* On one episode of ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', Charlie participates in a trial of intelligence-enhancing drugs. While riding high on superintelligence, he casually insists that, UsefulNotes/StephenHawking, while talented, is really more of a celebrity than a scientist. [[spoiler:This is especially funny when we learn that the drug was a placebo, which had no real affect on intelligence but skyrocketed Charlie's arrogance.]]
* One episode of ''Series/{{Profit}}'' has Jim Profit comment how a spider carefully weaves its web, an invisible inescapable trap... Before stepping on it, calling it an amateur.

* In Myth/GreekMythology, Arachne goes around claiming she is better at weaving than Athena. As in, the ''goddess'' Athena, who is ''not'' amused to hear about this. The two end up holding a contest to determine who is the best. Depending on the version, Arachne either loses handily, and gets turned into a spider for losing; or she actually ''wins'' and gets turned into a spider anyway because gods hate losing. In at least one take on the story, it was because what Arachne wove for the contest was extremely insulting to the gods. Either way, [[SmallNameBigEgo hubris]] is very dangerous in Greek myths; especially when she insults the gods with her work.

* Creator/AynRand was once quoted as saying that, in the history of philosophy, she could only recommend the "three As" of Creator/{{Aristotle}}, Creator/ThomasAquinas and herself.

* [[OverlyLongName Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim]] took this to its logical extent by naming himself as UsefulNotes/{{Paracelsus}}. Aulus Cornelius Celsus was a Roman encyclopedist who had written what had been one of the seminal tracts on medicine from Rome to his era, including such things as surgery, identification of fever as a defense mechanism, and cancer. The name "Paracelsus" literally meant that [[GratuitousLatin Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus]] [[MeaningfulName Bombastus]] [[InsufferableGenius von Hohenheim]] was "greater than Celsus." The annoying thing? "Paracelsus" was ''right''; he is today remembered as one of the primary forerunners of modern medicine, with his belief in the need to ground medicine in the physical sciences (particularly chemistry), his notion that diseases are entities unto themselves rather than states of being, and his emphasis on specific remedies for specific maladies all being foundational principles of today's medical science. He is more specifically known as the father of the discipline of toxicology; his maxim that "the dose makes the poison" is still taught in medical schools to this day. As for Celsus, he is mostly remembered for being the guy Paracelsus chose to compare himself to.

* Uwe Boll: ''"I'm not a fucking retard like Creator/MichaelBay or other people running around in the business, or Creator/EliRoth making the same shitty movies over and over again. If you really look at my movies, you will see my real genius, you know?"''

* Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer was known to denigrate the skills of previous champions, such as Emanuel Lasker, whom he called a "coffeehouse player", and even took shots at Jose Raul Capablanca, saying that much of his analysis on certain games was nonsense. He also accused many of the best Russian players of cheating by pre-arranging games with each other. Notably inverted with earlier American champion Paul Morphy, however, who Bobby Fischer said would probably have defeated him in a match.

->'''Vizzini:''' I can't compete with you physically, and you're no match for my brains.
->'''Man in Black:''' You're that smart?
->'''Vizzini:''' Let me put it this way--have you ever heard of Creator/{{Plato}}? Creator/{{Aristotle}}? Creator/{{Socrates}}?
->'''Man in Black:''' Yes.
->'''Vizzini:''' Morons.

* In Myth/GreekMythology, Arachne goes around claiming she is better at weaving than Athena. As in, the ''goddess'' Athena, who is ''not'' amused to hear about this. The two end up holding a contest to determine who is the best. Depending on the version, Arachne either loses handily, and gets turned into a spider for losing; or she actually ''wins'' and gets turned into a spider anyway because gods hate losing. Either way, [[SmallNameBigEgo hubris]] is very dangerous in Greek myths; especially when she insults the gods with her work.

!!Examples

[[folder:Comics]]
* The {{Chessmaster}} in the ''[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD 2000 AD]]'' strip ''ComicBook/CaballisticsInc'' is one Ethan Kostabi, an eccentric 1970s former rock star [[FictionalCounterpart strongly resembling]] Music/DavidBowie. Whenever Kostabi's success as a musician is described, comparisons are always made to Bowie, and Bowie is always described as having been greatly inferior—having sold fewer albums and having "scavenged a career out of the discarded fads and influences that Ethan left in his wake".
* Reed Richards of ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' is widely regarded as the smartest human in the universe. Even his enemies -- The Wizard, The Mad Thinker, The Mole Man and others -- have great respect for his intellect, if only because they think he is the one man on Earth capable of appreciating what they have done. But then we get Doctor Doom, the one man on the entire Franchise/MarvelUniverse who thinks Reed is a hack, a fraud, and a complete and utter moron, and is fairly fond of reminding everyone in earshot of his feelings Every. Single. Issue.

--->"It's on, ''[[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch]]''."
* According to Senator Rector of {{Comicbook/The Nightly News}}: "Chomsky's a fucking retard."

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': While boasting of his intelligence, Vizzini claims that he's much smarter than Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. While his long speech is just a ploy to convince the Man in Black that he's deduced which of the cups is poisoned, he does seem to believe that he's that intelligent.

* At one point in the film adaptation of ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', Adrian Veidt of [[MegaCorp Veidt Enterprises]] boasts to the heads of major corporations that he's worth more than all of them combined and can "buy and sell them all three times over". At least one of the other corporate representatives Adrian is addressing directly is a RealLife figure—[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Iacocca Lee Iacocca]], who is known for having revived the Chrysler Corporation in TheEighties.

* In ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'', when preparing for an impressive sniping feat, [=MacManus=] mumbles to himself, "Oswald was a fag."
* According to the killer in ''Film/{{Mindhunters}}'', John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy are "tired old hacks."
* The murderous ghost in ''Film/TheFrighteners'' is obsessed in death, as he was in life, with racking up the highest body count of any serial killer in history. Whenever he passes one of their records, he crows with joy about it. His last words in life were "Got me a score of 12, sir, one more than Starkweather." Later on, his astral form brags about beating Gacy, and says he can't wait to break Bundy's record so he can rub it in his face.

* In Creator/PGWodehouse's "The Clicking of Cuthbert," Russian novelist Vladimir Brusiloff opines: "No novelists any good except me. Sovietski—yah! Nastikoff—bah! I spit me of zem all. No novelists anywhere any good except me. [[SelfDeprecation P.G. Wodehouse]] and [[Creator/LeoTolstoy Tolstoy]] not bad. Not good, but not bad. No novelists any good except me."
* In ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'', Dr. Watson praises Literature/SherlockHolmes by comparing him to Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's Literature/CAugusteDupin and Emile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq. Holmes counters that "Dupin was a very inferior fellow" and "Lecoq was a miserable bungler."
* When Deep Thought from ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1'' mentions that it is the second most advanced computer, its operators name some other advanced computers that exist in the universe, but are casually dismissed with comments like "A mere abacus; mention it not" or "That computer could talk all four legs off a donkey, but only I could persuade it to take a walk afterward."
* ''Literature/WyrdSisters'' has an instance where this is used, but the character in question is being described by the narration rather than doing the bragging himself.
-->''Compared to the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, [[Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli Machiavelli]] couldn't have run a whelk stand.''

* Series/{{House}} has occasionally referred to other respected members of the medical community as "idiots". A rare example of this being [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as House usually ''does'' turn out to be smarter than they are (at least in that he's able to solve some puzzle they can't, House himself does some pretty stupid things for a guy as smart as him).

-->I am very smart. I went to the best Med-Acad in Osiris, top three percent of my class, finished my internship in eight months. "Gifted" is the term. So when I tell you that my little sister makes me look like an idiot child, I want you to understand my full meaning.

* [[Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock from the Sun]]
-->'''Dick:''' I made the front page of ''The Daily Badgerian'' again.\\
'''Tommy:''' What's it say?\\
'''Sally:''' ''[reading headline]'' "Physics professor calls [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]] idiot; proclaims self much smarter."
* [[InsufferableGenius Sheldon Cooper]], the brilliant but highly egotistical theoretical physicist from ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' once agreed that he wasn't like UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton, because..."Gravity would have been apparent to me without the apple!"
* [[Series/StargateAtlantis Rodney Mckay]] considers himself the smartest person in two galaxies and believes his own [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2qu8oB3Bq4 birthday to be as significant as Newton's and Einstein's.]]
* One episode of ''Series/{{Profit}}'' has Jim Profit comment how a spider carefully weaves its web, an invisible inescapable trap... Before stepping on it, calling it an amateur.

[[folder:Mythology & Religion]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Calvin claims he's too smart for school, and as proof claims:
--> "You know how [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]] [[CommonKnowledge got bad grades as a kid]]? Well, [[BookDumb mine are even worse!]]"
[[/folder]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater Tony Hawk's American Wasteland]]'', the main character says this in reference to a well-known badass named Iggy Van Zandt:
-->'''Main Character:''' "Iggy's a punk. I'm a freaking badass."

-->''"[[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Elminster]] ''this!'' Elminster ''that!'' Give ''me'' [[WizardsLiveLonger 2,000 years]] and a pointy hat, and I'll kick his arse!"''
* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', after being called a "[[BerserkButton moron]]" one too many times, [[spoiler:Wheatley]] decided to prove his intelligence by reading [[Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli Machiavelli]] (or [[FeigningIntelligence claiming to]], anyway) and commenting on how ''easy'' it was.
-->[[spoiler:Wheatley]]: Do not understand what all the fuss was about. Understood it perfectly. Have you read it?
-->[[spoiler:[=GLaDOS=]]]: Yes.
-->[[spoiler:Wheatley]]: Yeah, doubt it. Well, on with the test!

[[folder:Web Video]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' episode "Getting the Bugs Out", would-be [[TakeOverTheWorld world conqueror]] Mechanicles introduces himself as the "Greatest of the Great Greek Geniuses!" He immediately buttresses this pronouncement with "Archimedes? An amateur! Socrates? Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk..."

* Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer was known to denigrate the skills of previous champions, such as Emanuel Lasker, whom he called a 'coffeehouse player', and even took shots at Jose Raul Capablanca, saying that much of his analysis on certain games was nonsense. He also accused many of the best Russian players of cheating by pre-arranging games with each other. Notably inverted with earlier American champion Paul Morphy, however, who Bobby Fischer said would probably have defeated him in a match.

* Reed Richards of ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' is widely regarded as the smartest human in the universe. Even his enemies- The Wizard, The Mad Thinker, The Mole Man and others- have great respect for his intellect, if only because they think he is the one man on Earth capable of appreciating what they have done. But then we get Doctor Doom, the one man on the entire Franchise/MarvelUniverse who thinks Reed is a hack, a fraud, and a complete and utter moron, and is fairly fond of reminding everyone in earshot of his feelings Every. Single. Issue.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

-->'''Dick''': I made the front page of ''The Daily Badgerian'' again.\\
'''Tommy''': What's it say?\\
'''Sally''': ''[reading headline]'' "Physics professor calls [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]] idiot; proclaims self much smarter."

* On one episode of ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', Charlie participates in a trial of intelligence-enhancing drugs. While riding high on superintelligence, he casually insists that, UsefulNotes/StephenHawking, while talented, is really more of a celebrity than a scientist. [[spoiler: This is especially funny when we learn that the drug was a placebo, which had no real affect on intelligence but skyrocketed Charlie's arrogance.]]

[[folder:Mythology]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' episode "Russian About", one of the Soviet professors declares "Einstein-- fraud, phooey!", prompting Egon to argue with him.

* Creator/BertrandRussell in his work ''A History of Western Philosophy'' expressed his dislike for philosophers like Creator/{{Socrates}}, Plato, and Aristotle. In particular, he was dismissive of medieval philosophers like Thomas Aquinas, claiming that the medieval thinkers were primarily theologians and thus produced nothing of philosophical value.

* In ''VideoGame/TonyHawksAmericanWasteland'', the main character says this in reference to a well-known badass named Iggy Van Zandt:

* In ''Tony Hawk's American Wasteland'', the main character says this in reference to a well-known badass named Iggy Van Zandt:

* [[OverlyLongName Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim]] took this to its logical extent by naming himself as Paracelsus. Aulus Cornelius Celsus was a Roman encyclopedist who had written what had been one of the seminal tracts on medicine from Rome to his era, including such things as surgery, identification of fever as a defense mechanism, and cancer. The name "Paracelsus" literally meant that [[GratuitousLatin Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus]] [[MeaningfulName Bombastus]] [[InsufferableGenius von Hohenheim]] was "greater than Celsus." The annoying thing? "Paracelsus" was ''right''; he is today remembered as one of the primary forerunners of modern medicine, with his belief in the need to ground medicine in the physical sciences (particularly chemistry), his notion that diseases are entities unto themselves rather than states of being, and his emphasis on specific remedies for specific maladies all being foundational principles of today's medical science. He is more specifically known as the father of the discipline of toxicology; his maxim that "the dose makes the poison" is still taught in medical schools to this day. As for Celsus, he is mostly remembered for being the guy Paracelsus chose to compare himself to.