History Main / PlatoIsAMoron

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 -- but sometimes Bob really ''is'' [[InsufferableGenius that good]].

* As indicated by the page quote, Vizzini from ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' thinks that he is smarter than Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. (Unless all three of them could also be so easily outsmarted the same way he was, he was proven wrong.)

* In ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'', when preparing for an impressive sniping feat, [=MacManus=] mumbles to himself "Oswald was a fag."

* Thrax, an anthropomorphic virus, in ''OsmosisJones'': "Ebola is a case of '''dandruff''' compared to me!"

* Aristotle was kind of an idiot when it came to science, believing many easy to disprove theories that people believed for centuries because they came from his mouth. Most scientists involved in the fields he dabbled in can safely say he didn't know jack about optics, or gravity, or dentistry for that matter. For instance, having observed that mares have fewer teeth than stallions, he proclaimed that women also have fewer teeth than men without bothering to examine any human volunteers.

* On ''Disney/TheSwordInTheStone'', Madame Mim brags about being a better wizard than Merlin, "The world's most powerful bungler."

* The Creator/JamesThurber short story "Something to Say" is built around Eliot Vereker, a supposedly great author whose reputation is based entirely on disparaging really great authors, ''e.g.'', "Santayana has weight: he's a ton of feathers. Proust was sick. If Voltaire did not exist, it would not be necessary to invent him, ''etc., etc.''"
* 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 Tolstoy not bad. Not good, but not bad. No novelists any good except me."

-->''Compared to the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Machiavelli couldn't have run a whelk stand.''

For the even more outrageous claim that Bob is better than ''God'', see BlasphemousBoast. For ''actual'' anti-platonism (which is the position that "abstract entities" don't exist) see MeaninglessMeaningfulWords.

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 -- but sometimes Bob really 'is'' [[InsufferableGenius that good]].

This is a form of boast where a person claims that he is the best at something by bringing up the names of people who are well known for being good at that thing and then claiming that all of those people are second rate compared to him. May be a type of behavior found in the {{Narcissist}} or people with the SmallNameBigEgo trait, who naturally believes that he's the best at everything.

Note that the insulted person does not have to be someone who is well known for the trait in RealLife. It could be a person who is known for it in-universe. In this case, [[FamedInStory his fame]] will be established beforehand.

For even more outrageous claims, see BlasphemousBoast. For ''actual'' anti-platonism (which is the position that "abstract entities" don't exist) see MeaninglessMeaningfulWords.

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

-->''"[[ForgottenRealms Elminster]] ''this!'' [[{{Badass}} Elminster]] ''that!'' Give ''me'' [[WizardsLiveLonger 2,000 years]] and [[NiceHat a pointy hat]], and I'll kick his arse!"''

* In ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'', Dr. Watson praises Literature/SherlockHolmes by comparing him to 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."

* The {{Chessmaster}} in the ''[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD 2000 AD]]'' strip ''Caballistics, Inc.'' 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".

* In ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'', Dr. Watson praises Literature/SherlockHolmes by comparing him to EdgarAllanPoe's Auguste Dupin and Emile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq. Holmes counters that "Dupin was a very inferior fellow" and "Lecoq was a miserable bungler."

-->[[spoiler:GLaDOS]]: Yes.

* The {{Chessmaster}} in the ''[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD 2000 AD]]'' strip ''Caballistics, Inc.'' is one Ethan Kostabi, an eccentric 1970s former rock star [[FictionalCounterpart strongly resembling]] 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 SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom, 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.

* 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..."

* In ''A Study In Scarlet'', Dr. Watson praises Literature/SherlockHolmes by comparing him to EdgarAllanPoe's Auguste Dupin and Emile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq. Holmes counters that "Dupin was a very inferior fellow" and "Lecoq was a miserable bungler."

* 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 DoctorDoom, the one man on the entire Marvel Universe 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.

* [[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 the fever as a defense mechanism, and cancer, and the name "Paracelsus" literally meant that [[AltumVidetur Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus]] [[MeaningfulName Bombastus]] [[InsufferableGenius von Hohenheim]] was "greater than Celsus." To be fair, in the time of [[RunningGag Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus]] *gasp* [[RunningGag von Hohenheim]], the primary method of medical treatment was purging and bloodletting stemming from the "humourism" and traditional ancient treatments from the golden era of Rome and Greece passed down from Hippocrates and Galen, so he may have had some reason to buff his already-copious ego. PATB von Hohenheim is currently credited with inventing the field of toxicology.

* Aristotle was kind of an idiot when it came to science, believing many easy to disprove theories that people believed for centuries because they came from his mouth. Most scientists involved in the fields he dabbled in can safely say he didn't know jack about optics, or gravity, or dentistry for that matter.
** Though modern scientists have thousands of years' worth of accumulated knowledge which Aristotle didn't, his largest flaw as a scientist was the fact that he rarely used experimentation or even just... Checked. For instance, having observed that mares have fewer teeth than stallions, he proclaimed that women also have fewer teeth than men without bothering to examine any human volunteers.

->'''Vizzini:''' [[TropeNamer Morons.]]

* According to the killer in ''Film/{{Mindhunters}}'', John Wayne Gacey, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy are "tired old hacks."
* The murderous ghost in ''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 ''A Study In Scarlet'', Dr. Watson praises SherlockHolmes by comparing him to EdgarAllanPoe's Auguste Dupin and Emile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq. Holmes counters that "Dupin was a very inferior fellow" and "Lecoq was a miserable bungler."

* [[ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock from the Sun]]

'''Sally''': ''[reading headline]'' "Physics professor calls [[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 Isaac Newton, because..."Gravity would have been apparent to me without the apple!"

* Inverted in ''CalvinAndHobbes'':

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

This is a form of boast where a person claims that he is the best at something by bringing up the names of people who are well known for being good at that thing and then claiming that all of those people are second rate compared to him. May be a type of behavior found in the {{Narcissist}}, who naturally believes that he's the best at everything.

** Though modern scientists have thousands of years' worth of accumulated knowledge which Aristotle didn't, his largest flaw as a scientist was the fact that he rarely used experimentation or even direct observation.

** To be fair though, modern scientists have thousands of years' worth of accumulated knowledge which Aristotle didn't.

* In ''TheUsualSuspects'', when preparing for an impressive sniping feat, [=MacManus=] mumbles to himself "Oswald was a fag."

* ''BaldursGate'': [[InsufferableGenius Edwin]] gives us this if you [[StopPokingMe repeatedly annoy him]]:

* Mr. Mechanical from ''FreedomForce'' is a [[MadArtist disgraced architect]] with an army of [[HumongousMecha giant robots]] trying to destroy a city both because of its "inferior designs" and because they "sabotaged" one of his buildings (in truth, the building collapsed on its own). In his final rampage, he makes insulting remarks about Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright.

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