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"Ass" in Ambassador

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The Mouth of Sauron: I am a herald and ambassador, and may not be assailed!
Gandalf: Where such laws hold, it is also the custom for ambassadors to use less insolence.

An ambassador's job is two-fold: to maintain healthy relationships with the country they are sent to, and to be well-versed in the customs and minutiae of their culture. The Ass in Ambassador forgets this. They're rude, they make no attempt to do as the Romans do, and they show little sign of being friendly (or even respectful) at all. Even attempts by their staff at Tactful Translation rarely undo the harm they cause. As a result the other ambassadors or representatives are forced to bend over backwards and take every insult or unreasonable request, because if they ever decide to resist for one moment, the ambassador will be immediately insulted and threaten to break all ties.

While it is often the case that the ambassador is just a jerk, this isn't always so. Sometimes the ambassador may actually be a nice guy personally, but has made a deliberate decision to act this way to ensure that everyone knows that they, and the nation they represent, aren't going to be jerked around. Whether or not this act is actually helpful, though, heavily depends on whether the nation behind the ambassador can actually back up his or her threats.

A variant on this is an ambassador who is friendly, but perhaps too much. They are eager to learn the customs of the new culture and are constantly asking questions. While not mean, they seemed to have skipped the chapter that teaches about personal space, privacy, and uncomfortable questions.

See Diplomatic Impunity for when ambassadors are outright criminals. A subtrope of Poor Communication Kills. When the Ambassador is trying to be good, but their government's spies are doing everything the diplomat says they wouldn't do, it's Right Hand Versus Left Hand. May overlap with Ambadassador if they can back the attitude up with personal ability.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • Fables:
    • Sinbad shows up as an ambassador; while he ends up being basically reasonable, he does start off insisting on being allowed to keep his slaves and refusing to speak with women. A more severe example is Sinbad's adviser, who tries to kill everyone due to the differences in culture... or just because he's an Evil Chancellor.
    • Later we meet Hansel (who was previously exiled for murdering his sister, Gretel) as the ambassador from The Empire. The mere choice of him as ambassador was a deliberate insult, but he then proceeds to be such a spectacularly Jerkass Smug Snake that he would certainly have alienated Fabletown even without his previous history with them. The fact that they soon discover he's been sent as an infiltrator actually makes the Fables' lives easier, as it frees them of any moral obligation to not screw with him any way they can, and they only need to rely on the letter of diplomatic immunity rather than the principles of negotiation and compromise.
  • Star Trek:
  • When Magneto takes over the island of Genosha in X-Men, he choses Joanna Cargill out of all his Acolytes to be his envoy. Cargill, for those not in the know, is a murderously violent mutant supremacist with a Hair-Trigger Temper. Knowing Magneto, he almost certainly chose Cargill as his envoy because of these qualities, not in spite of them.
  • Deathsaurus is Cybertron's ambassador to the planet Probat in Transformers (2019). He views the native organic aliens with thinly veiled contempt and tries to interact with them as little as possible during his visits. When he discovers that one of their leaders has been hoarding a secret stockpile of energon, Deathsaurus flies into a rage and murders him; and when he learns that the aliens’ excretions function like high-grade energon, he decides to kill them all and keep the resulting energon for himself. Fortunately, Cliffjumper stops him before he can carry out this plan.
  • Democracy: This trope is both played straight and inverted with Cleisthenis. When he first meets Antenor (who runs the Oracle in Delphi), he doesn't carry a holy and he straightup insults the Pythias right in front of them, only to instantly praise them the next moment. During his second meeting, he is far more calm and resistant and Antenor acts like he has never seen him before.

    Comic Strips 
  • In Doonesbury, Duke served as ambassador to China in the mid-1970s, where he introduced himself by saying that he had come "in the hope of fulfilling a life-long ambition — dropping acid on the Great Wall." During his stay, he was protected from causing any serious diplomatic incidents by his translator Honey's Tactful Translation.
    • A later strip, published during the George H.W. Bush presidency, features the new U.S. Ambassador to an unnamed African country at a diplomatic reception, who the local Minister's aide identifies as a "real estate developer who raised money for Bush." The Ambassador, a paunchy white man smoking a huge cigar, complains that "all the streets look the same", how no one he runs into speaks English, and how the staffers at the embassy treat him like an outsider, angrily declaring "Jealousy is what it is! I raised $200,000 for George Bush! I paid for this ambassadorship fair and square!" During his rant, the Minister instructs his aide to keep the Ambassador out of the loop and deal directly with the professional diplomats at the Embassy. He and his aide also agree to encourage the Ambassador's belief that he's been assigned to a "backwater" by arranging worker's strikes and power outages, and - when the Ambassador finally tries to make conversation - responding in a practiced form of Broken English, presenting themselves as rural bumpkins.
  • Legationsrat Kuno von Birnweich of the Auswärtiges Amt (German foreign ministry) in the Nick Knatterton adventure Veridium 275 combines this with Asshole Victim. He for instance is unable to provide a useful description of the man who attacked him because due to his profession as a diplomat he has a completely distorted image of reality.

    Fan Works 
  • Subverted in A Familiar Void: Count Mott is quite prejudiced against the Insect people (though not quite to the extent of Reconquista), but he's also the royal messenger; when sent with a message to Insect leadership, he knows better than let any of his prejudices show: duty comes first.
  • Touken Danshi and The Order Of The Phoenix: Harry, who's a prince of Japan (while still being ethnically white British), his adoptive father the saniwa, and a handful of swords are under orders to head to Hogwarts so Harry can go to school there. They are basically national representatives, and their actions in wizarding Britain include:
    • Insulting Hogwarts and wizarding Britain.
    • Bullying Dumbledore for expecting Harry to finish his required schooling and worrying about his potentially becoming an outcast. The saniwa even threatens to send his entire Citadel on Hogwarts if Dumbledore doesn't agree to his requests, which can be seen as military action.
    • Rudely dismissing accepted British wizarding history to British people's face.
    • Threatening violence on and actually assaulting people for crossing them in the slightest.
    • Assert Japanese identity in tasteless and textbook "weeaboo" manners.
  • In the Ghost Trick fanfiction Twisted Fates, the Little Ambassador's generally a nice guy, but he also keeps his office full of spiders, snakes, and a live bear. Anything that's not poisonous (including the bear) is left to wander freely. The animals do seem tame enough that they don't hurt guests, but he tends to forget that they make visitors uncomfortable.
  • RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: Krystal Zati, apprentice to the archmage of Zaldia, is sent in his mentor's stead to meet with Trixie, and proceeds to insult her, then tries to call the State Sec on her just because she tried to give him a diplomatic gift. Then, when the guard does show up, he insults her further by telling the guard she barely speaks Prench (Trixie is fluent in it from growing up in Neigh Orleans). The guard's reaction suggests Zati does this sort of thing all the time. Note that Trixie is actually trying to put her best hoof forward (if only because Zaldians are typically paranoid nuts on their best days, and she doesn't want yet another pony coming after her and her friends with a grudge).
  • Earth's Alien History:
    • Aisha Clanclan, who serves as the Invincible Ctarl-Ctarl Empire's ambassador to the Terran Treaty Organization. She's a pompous and obnoxious Jerkass whom no one likes, who spends all her time talking about how honored TeTO should be that the Ctarl-Ctarl are gracing them with their presence, when she's not explaining how they'll inevitably be conquered. At one point, she conspires with an ally in the military to start a border war, in an attempt to annex a star cluster that TeTO colonized before the Ctarl-Ctarl could. When this results in the Ctarl-Ctarl losing badly, her superiors make it clear that her family connections are the only reason she's not being fired. She's later reassigned to a leadership post on one of the Arks being sent to the Andromeda galaxy, just to get rid of her.
    • Rentuv, the Vinn who serves as the Shield Alliance's ambassador to Trillus, becomes obsessed with the idea that the Vinn and the Trill symbiotes are related, and keeps insisting on studying them in order to prove it, ignoring how offended the Trills are by this. Ultimately, he resorts to trying to steal some, getting himself branded a criminal and renounced by the Alliance. After he's arrested, it's made clear that he was acting entirely on his own authority, and is left to hang by the Alliance.
  • In Farce of the Three Kingdoms, not only is there the obvious example, Mi Heng, but Zhuge Liang also manages to insult most of the Southlands. Although he is actually successful.

    Film — Animated 
  • Justice League: War: Wonder Woman, of all people, is this. She bails on meeting the president because she didn't want to wait, cares little to nothing about the customs of the Nation she is in, and constantly thrusts her sword at people which clearly terrifies them. It has gotten so bad that at the beginning of the movie there is a protest group wanting her gone.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Parodied in the closing minutes of The Pest wherein Pestario "Pest" Vargas manages to pass himself off as a German Ambassador to the police with a modest disguise, a shallow accent, and through displaying "perverse impudence" and a "lack of love for (his) fellow man".
  • In The King and I, some ambassadors show up from Britain. The king and even the Kralahome try to be nice to them, but they're still contemptuous of Siam.
  • The Persian Emissary in 300. Of course, he got thrown into a well. This was based on an actual historical event.
  • Avatar: Jake clearly couldn't care less about the Na'vi or their culture, at least until he falls in love.
  • In the Holocaust drama Conspiracy (2001), Martin Luther is the Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, representing Joachim von Ribbentrop at the conference. He's almost as obnoxious as the disgusting Klopfer, participates in a bunch of lurid jokes about forced sterilization and proudly declares that he would be willing to sign up for Major Lange's death squad if they needed someone to shoot women and children.
  • The Soviet Ambassador in Doctor Strangelove. The Americans who receive him are no more diplomatic, except the president, who has a very diplomatic discussion with the Premier himself over the phone, despite the Premier himself being drunk.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): The Kree ambassador very undiplomatically refuses to denounce Ronan's terrorist actions. Nova Prime even calls him a prick as soon as the transmission is ended.
  • The Last Samurai: Swanbeck, the American ambassador to the Meiji government of Japan, is solely concerned with getting the Emperor's signature on documents guaranteeing that the U.S. will get ahead of the British and Prussians in supplying weapons to his new army.
  • Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations Valerian Zorin in Thirteen Days - Kenny O'Donnell notes Zorin's scrambling reaction after the US's ambassador Adlai Stevenson pulls out the U2 photographs suggests he was doing so on instruction from the Soviet foreign ministry. The Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin is rather more competent, diplomatic and sympathetic.
  • Sir Jonathan Tutt, British Ambassador to the United Nations, in In the Loop. His over-friendliness with spin doctor Malcolm Tucker just comes across as really inept flirting. On the other hand, he does manage to get the UN Security Council to re-schedule its debate on the invasion of Not!Iraq, at Malcolm's behest, something he assured Malcolm was totally impossible. Twice.
  • The Klingon ham-bassador seen in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (although he mellowed out a little by the latter one.) This is even lampshaded in the former film.
    President Hiram Roth: Admiral Kirk has been charged with nine violations of Starfleet regulations.
    Ambassador Kamarag: "STARFLEET REGULATIONS"? THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS! Remember this well: there shall be no peace as long as Kirk lives!
    Crowd Member: YOU POMPOUS ASS!
  • In Wag the Dog, Conrad Bream (Robert De Niro) offers Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) an ambassadorship as a reward for his efforts to salvage the President's reputation, indicating the appointment will be entirely political and Motss does not need, nor is he expected to have, any qualifications for the job.

    Literature 
  • The novel The Ugly American, which has a number of characters who act like this, including an ambassador. Not, however, the title character, who's called that because of his appearance, not his actions.
  • One book in the Tom Clancy's Net Force series subverts this. The antics of the usual types at an embassy are used as cover by the intelligence agents there. A covert intelligence agent's dearest wish is to be dismissed by opposing counter-intelligence as a drunken fratboy. So the trick at an embassy party is determining who's a real drunken lout, and who is just pretending to be one.
  • In the Discworld books, Vetinari keeps using Vimes as a diplomat knowing full well that Vimes doesn't care for niceties. Tends to be the first kind but manages not to be horrible at it.
    • For example, at a meeting with the Istanzian ambassador Vimes indicated that further military indiscretions across the Slipnir River (notably not toward Ankh-Mopork itself) would result in the ambassador, as Vetinari quoted, 'going home in an ambulance'. After which the forces pulled back so far they were almost in the next country. Vimes did apologize to Vetinari, who claimed Vimes's opinion complied only with the general thrust of his own view but had at least been effective, claiming it had been a very long day and all, but Vetinari says plain speak confuses the diplomatic corps, which is as he likes it.
    • Or there's the time he's sent as ambassador to a very fundamentalist Uberwaldian Dwarf kingdom during The Fifth Elephant, taking as his attaches a hulking unlicensed troll and a visibly female dwarf, both deliberately chosen to raise hackles. This is the rough equivalent of visiting Iran with a Mossad agent and a transvestite. In the same mission Vimes also manages to (unintentionally) insult a dwarven bigwig through his somewhat limited grasp of the Dwarven languagenote , and (again, unintentionally) alienate parts of the dwarven religious caste by jokingly appending "blackboard monitor" to his already overly long list of titles (fundamentalist dwarves believe erasing words is sin — or rather, the most fundamentalist dwarves do. The country he is sent to apparently tends to regard it as a terrible and important responsibility). On the other hand, some dwarves are impressed by this title, the implication being that only the most trustworthy of individuals would be allowed to erase words.
  • Most Terran ambassadors in Keith Laumer's Retief stories are pompous, ignorant of the societies to which they're accredited, and overbearing or obsequious depending on whether you're weaker than or equal to/more powerful than they are. In one historical preface, Laumer uses phrases like "fearlessly cowardly, uncompromisingly venal, and deviously sincere" to describe them.
    • And then in some cases, Retief arguably took this role in order to get something done while his superiors are too busy trying to not upset the people in power in any way to do their jobs. These incidents were intentional, deliberately calculated, and got results (for which his superiors promptly took credit).
    • It is worth mentioning Laumer was a member of the diplomatic corps for several years. Most of the stories are supposed to have some reality behind them...
  • What Maltsev and the Persian government portray Griboyedov to be at the end of The Death of the Vazir Mukhtar. They are not entirely incorrect - he has allowed himself some shockingly reckless behavior on both trips to Persia, though that was more of a calculated gambit than a product of stupidity or ignorance. He has allowed himself to be entirely polite and helpful in other, less seemingly critical matters.
  • Star Wars Legends:
    • In Starfighters of Adumar, Wedge Antilles maneuvers around this trope. He's sent to Adumar to try and bring it into the New Republic purely because Adumarians love great pilots, and he's the best. But he will not kill the terribly unskilled Adumari pilots in practice combat. He outright refuses. That makes his diplomatic liaison bring this trope up; by not respecting their traditions, he's making the New Republic look bad, and the Imperial ambassador looks better. Wedge still refuses. He hates a lot of aspects of this society, like their bloodthirstiness, their readiness to kill each other, and their concept of honor; he'll respect their other traditions, but not these. It does work out better in the end.
      • The real ass in the book is the liaison himself. After Wedge refuses to play the Adumari's game, he tries to have them killed by telling the Cartann ruler that Wedge, Tycho, Janson, and Hobbie want to die in order to restore some lost honor.
    • Young Jedi Knights Book 4 Lightsabers has Ambassador Yfra, who tries to have Tenel Ka and her grandmother Ta'a Chume assassinated several times. With Tenel Ka's parents gone from the planet she would have no problem taking power, and she assumes power when she mistakenly believes she's succeeded.
  • Invoked in Romance of the Three Kingdoms; Cao Cao sends Mi Heng as an ambassador to Liu Biao because he's an ass: Cao Cao wants Mi Heng dead for insulting him, but doesn't want to sully his reputation by killing as reputable of a scholar as Mi Heng was. Cao Cao figures that Mi Heng will do something that will get him executed by Liu Biao while acting as ambassador. Mi Heng quickly manages to offend Liu Biao, but he responds by sending him off to one of his subordinates, to show he understood Cao Cao's intentions. The subordinate ended up executing Heng over the following insult:
    Mi Heng: You are like a god in a temple: You sit still and receive sacrifice, but the lack of intelligence is pitiful.
  • The Mouth of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings. Justified in that he didn't actually need to establish good relations with the heroes, Sauron fully intended to conquer and subjugate them all anyways. Nevertheless, he doesn't hesitate to invoke diplomatic immunity when his arrogant first speech fails to cower Aragorn and Gandalf.
  • The Star Trek Novel Verse:
    • Ambassador K'mtok of the Klingon Empire. He's introduced in Star Trek: A Time to... as a particularly hawkish diplomat, appointed as a replacement to the far more reasonable Ambassador Lantar. When Federation President Zife went over Lantar's head to talk directly with Klingon Chancellor Martok, Martok's political rivals on the Klingon High Council used the opportunity to force their man into the ambassadorship, claiming Lantar had been proven ineffective. However, K'mtok gets better over time, showing President Bacco some degree of genuine respect in Star Trek: Articles of the Federation and Star Trek: Destiny. By this point, Ambassador Tezrene of the Tholian Assembly has taken over as the biggest Ass in Ambassador.
    • In Star Trek: Vanguard, set over a century before K'mtok and Tezrene's time, the Klingon and Tholian diplomats also love being this (especially the Klingons). Federation Ambassador Jetanien sometimes acts this way too, partly to throw it back in the Klingons' faces. Funnily enough, he and Klingon Ambassador Lugok end up in Vitriolic Best Buds territory.
    • In the novel Sarek, Klingon Ambassador Kamarag (identified as being the same ambassador as seen in Star Trek IV and Star Trek VI, who was never canonically named) attempts to start a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, with the intention of returning as a conquering hero and usurping the current Chancellor. And it turns out that a another ambassador, Taryn of Freelan, had his agents telepathically manipulate Kamarag into doing this, because the "Freelans" don't actually exist as a people; they're really just disguised Romulans.
    • Discussed by Picard and Riker in Peter David's novel Imzadi when a small child mistakes the Cordian ambassador for an actual accordion and asks him to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on himself. Fortunately, the ambassador takes it in stride (being used to it) and decides "to learn how to play the smegging thing."
  • Honor Harrington:
    • The Honor of the Queen features The Honorable Reginald Houseman, a self-righteous asshole who not only assumes that his professorship in economics makes him a superior diplomat, but also deigns to lecture two professional Naval officers (Harrington and Admiral Courvoisier) on military policy. When he insists on suggesting to the officials of Grayson that their mortal enemy Masada (an entire planet of religious fanatics intent on wiping out Grayson with nukes, if they ever get close enough) can be pacified through economic overtures, the Graysons are not only incredulous, but begin to have serious doubts about whether the Manticorans are taking the proposed alliance seriously. Courvoisier has to talk fast to assure them otherwise, which includes slapping down Houseman in private.
      • To no one's surprise, Houseman is also a Dirty Coward who insists on being evacuated from Grayson immediately after the Masadans annihilate the Grayson Space Navy and are poised to deliver their planned nuclear strikes.
    • In the later books, the High Ridge administration, and in particular Foreign Secretary Elaine Descroix, handled the diplomatic relations with Erewehon so badly that they switched sides, and it was mainly their refusal to negotiate a peace with Haven that created a situation in which President Eloise Pritchart felt justified in resuming hostilities against Manticore. Several characters note that they couldn't have done a better job of alienating Manticore's allies if they'd tried.
      • Which is probably because they did try; Descroix at least is a secret agent for the Mesans, who really want Manticore and Haven to destroy each other.
    • Crown of Slaves features the ambassador responsible for bungling the Erewhon alliance, one Countess Deborah Fraser. Her cousin, Captain Michael Oversteegen, is less than impressed with her (lack of) diplomatic finesse:
    Oversteegen: I will leave out of all this the petty consideration that we're talkin' about the life of a teenage girl. I realize that's a matter beneath your contempt. I will just take the opportunity t' tell you, since I don't believe I've ever done it before at one of our family gatherin's — not precisely, I mean — just how brainless you are, Deborah. Truly brainless. Not simply stupid. Bar-ain-less. As in: brains of a carrot.
    Fraser: You can't—!
    Oversteegen: You imbecile! First of all, the entire inhabited galaxy will most certainly hold us responsible for our own actions—or inaction—in this episode. But it really doesn't matter, Deborah. It certainly won't matter t' you, that's for sure. Because if Anton Zilwicki decides you were responsible for his daughter's death, I can assure you that the man won't be in the least impressed by your official lack of responsibility. He's a rather notorious fellow, don't you know? Not given, so far as I can see, t' much in the way of respect for his betters.
    This conversation is ended, since it was obviously pointless t' begin with. I will remind you, Madam Ambassador, that as the senior naval officer in the system, I am obliged to 'coordinate' with you but am in no way under your authority. So, Deborah, consider us havin' 'coordinated' — you are a cretin and I told you so — and I will attend t' the Queen's business.
  • Nahuseresh in The Queen of Attolia tried to seduce the eponymous queen while subtly being condescending towards her for being a woman, executed her loyal barons behind her back, used his leverage to plan an coup/invasion of her country, and used an offensive amount of hair oil.
  • Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold:
    • Sealer Greenlaw is a mild example. While she claims long diplomatic experience she has clearly never dealt with an interstellar crisis before, makes a hash out of what is really a harbor brawl that got out of hand, and wastes time on petty self-righteousness. Still she does have enough to be angry about.
    • A worse example from the same book is Admiral Vorpatril, who sends a security patrol onto sovereign foreign territory to apprehend an AWOL, and messes things up when said patrol beats up a dancer and renders her unable to perform in the process of said apprehension. Which in turn forces The Emperor to send an Imperial Auditor (Miles) when a little tact might have gone a long way toward solving a problem that was reasonably similar to normal jurisdictional difficulties with local police that an admiral should be used to.
  • For the Emperor, the first Ciaphas Cain novel, has an aide to the Tau ambassador Cain suspects of having a death wish. After the ambassador is murdered, he starts accusing every human in sight of doing it and attempts to kill the governor due to sheer paranoia. Later, when the Tau are being smuggled back to their embassy through a hostile part of town, he jumps up at a mention of a Tau conspiracy, forcing Cain to order the PDF roadblocking them shot. Cain notes no small amount of irony when, half a book later, it turns out the governor he tried to shoot was the assassin.
  • Temeraire: Ambassador Hammond owes his meteoric career to equal parts sheer luck and singleminded dedication to his job, both in his own efforts and in his willingness to do nearly anything in the name of a diplomatic mission. He hopes that people remember him as an atrocious man who gets the job done.
  • The Worm Ouroboros: The Witchland Ambassador in the first chapter. After delivering his message and being given a response, he could have said goodbye politely and left without further comment. Instead, he chooses to taunt the Demonland Lords.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The 100: In season 3, the Ice Nation has become belligerent and intends to break the Grounder Coalition. Their ambassadors are condescending and hostile to the other Grounder tribes and the Sky People. One of them gets himself thrown off a balcony for his arrogance, but that has no tempering effect on the others.
  • Babylon 5:
    • Centauri ambassador Londo Mollari starts out as an example of this Played for Laughs, being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold comedy relief who uses equal parts jokes and cynicism to cover up his inner bitterness at being part of a Vestigial Empire (this ends up making him more friends than enemies). He later on got Played for Drama, after making deals with the Shadows and setting the Centauri on a new path to conquest and overcompensating for it publicly so no-one would suspect how much this bothered him privately (at which point everyone except Vir abandons him).
    • Narn ambassador G'Kar, especially during the Pilot Movie and first season, was a giant Smug Snake very good at stepping on pretty much everyone's toes (though especially Londo's, due to the Narn/Centauri feud). He mellows down significantly after the events of the first season and ends up becoming a Messianic Archetype to his people. After leaving his post as ambassador G'Kar tells his successor to check the records about some of his early misadventures, and that those records would be amusing.
    • Vorlon ambassador Kosh, a Sufficiently Advanced Alien who barely attends diplomatic functions at all and when he does appear speaks entirely in Cryptic Conversation, Koans and Mathematician's Answer. He ends up becoming The Mentor to Sheridan, but the rest of the station still find him very distant at best. We later learn he is one of the most alien-friendly Vorlons in existence, and his replacement Kosh II (Ulkesh) is downright malicious and views the younger races as flawed tools at best.
    • As an inversion, Vir Cotto makes an honest attempt in being a proper ambassador to Minbar, but to his dismay, Londo insists on "correcting" his report to the Royal Court. It turns out that the Royal Court is tired of sycophants and would have preferred Vir's original version.
    • In the episode "Acts of Sacrifice", Ivanova had to deal with the Lumati ambassador. A Social Darwinist elitist race believing in "survival of the fittest", the ambassador wouldn't even talk to Ivanova, letting his attaché speak for him, until he is certain that humans are worthy, which happens when he misinterprets Down Below as a human scheme to separate the inferior members of their race from the rest of them. This leads to one of B5's Crowning Moments of Funny/Awkward: Awkward, because the Lumati seal treaties by having sex; funny, because of how Ivanova gets out of it.
    • We also meet several Earthdome diplomats over the course of the series, usually sent from homeworld to negotiate some background deal or another. Almost all of them are short-sighted jerks, except for a kind old man who turned out to be Head-in-the-Sand Management.
  • Becoming Elizabeth: In Episode 7, the Spanish Ambassador arrives and starts throwing his weight around and talking down to everyone, including Princess Mary. He very nearly convinces Mary to flee England, which would have been tantamount to renouncing her claim to the throne.
  • Cory in the House: Raum Paroom, the Bahavian ambassador to the United States, and father of the title character's best friend/love interest, smugly asserts the superiority of his own culture while disparaging American culture. He also forces his daughter to stand out like a sore thumb and restricts her relationships in the name of maintaining her cultural identity and not getting too assimilated in American culture. He mellows out somewhat, but still has his moments.
  • Doctor Who: In "Marco Polo", Tegana spends most of the serial attempting to murder Marco and undermine Kublai Khan's court.
  • Los Espookys: U.S. Ambassador Melanie Gibbons doesn't speak a word of Spanish despite being ambassador to an unnamed Spanish-speaking country, and she doesn't know anything about local politics. When a reporter asks her about a border crisis, she's dumbfounded because she thought the interview was going to be a puff piece about what she keeps in her purse. She treats her position like she's judging a reality competition, with her employees vying for her approval so they can take the position of ambassador once she's done with it.
  • Horatio Hornblower: Mr Tapling joins the Navy in order to act as a diplomat, helping to establish contact with Muslims and buy food from them. He's demanding and rude and constantly complains about conditions on naval vessels, and his attitude towards said Muslims is not very understanding either. He improves after Horatio puts him to work with the steward as cooks. They are on a quarantined ship and everybody must lend a hand. Later he even owns that seeing people content with his work gives him a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. At the end of the episode, he admits that he did no more than his fair share of the work, and thanks Horatio for providing him with valuable knowledge, including how much more productive and happy the crew are when they're well fed.
  • JAG: In "War Cries", Ambassador Bartlett, though only when dealing with the other Americans at the Embassy. She is a model diplomat when dealing with the Peruvian authorities.
  • John Adams, as portrayed in John Adams. "Obnoxious and disliked" in his own words, his somewhat puritanical opinions and bluntness make him wholly unsuited for the position of Minister to France; he is later sent to the Netherlands, who like his style better but are too cautious to act.
  • The episode "My Life as a Dog Lawyer" of Night Court features an ambassador from a small nation next to Switzerland who feels free to abuse his powers because the U.S. needs them to spy on the Swiss. Of course, part of the reason that he is so irritable is that his people have nothing better to do than watch the Swiss.
  • The Venezuelan ambassadors who visit their sister city Pawnee on Parks and Recreation are only really interested in two things: insulting and degrading Americans, and trying to sleep with Donna (or, in one case, April).
  • Inverted in Servant of the People. The diplomats are all nice and competent, it's the minister of internal affairs who receives them who is a walking disaster.
  • Star Trek is in love with this trope, especially if the planet has a hat. They will go around rudely asking random questions, or sometimes just throw the hat in the face of the crew and expect them to deal with it. As often as not, however, they have legitimate reasons behind their behavior.
    • Star Trek: The Original Series:
      • In the episode "Journey to Babel", they fill the Enterprise with ambassadors — and one of them ends up dead. It also turns out that one of these ambassadors is none other than Spock's father, Sarek, and the two have been estranged for many years — it turns out that Sarek was even an Ass in Ambassador to his own son.
      • High Commissioner Ferris from "The Galileo Seven" was the earliest example. He had a legitimate reason (the Enterprise had to deliver urgently needed medical supplies), but that still didn't stop him from being a total Jerkass and even seeming to relish news of the shuttle and all hands being lost.
      • There's Robert Fox from "A Taste of Armageddon", who was also completely incompetent at his job and seemed to have a total lack of intuition. If it hadn't been for Scotty, the Enterprise would have been blown to smithereens. In the end, he's left behind to help negotiate the peace treaty between two planets that have been warring for centuries! Yeah, good luck with that. In justice to Fox, the subtext is that his mistake was trying to usurp the duties of a Starfleet officer. Once he focuses on his proper job, diplomacy, he becomes effective and even likeable. Heck, he was even getting effective in the gap between doing his job and usurping Scotty and Kirk's job, which was spent wielding a disruptor and being ready to use it. Definitely a cut above most TOS Federation officials, if only because that's not much of a contest.
      • In fact, the only vaguely nice one was Nancy Hedford in "Metamorphosis", and it took a shuttle crash, a terminal illness, and merging with an Energy Being to finally defrost her.
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
      • Counselor Troi's mother, Lwaxana Troi, is a Federation ambassador from Betazed. She's incredibly overbearing, constantly ignoring the obvious social cues (and empathic signals) that should be telling her how uncomfortable her behavior makes others. She is, however, a perfectly skilled diplomat when on the job, making her something of a Bunny-Ears Lawyer.
      • While there are technically no ambassadors in "Code of Honor", the episode represents the spirit of this trope very well. A planet of barely civilized aliens has a vaccine for a deadly illness happening in the Federation, and so the Enterprise crew put up with tons of crap from them, including their leader kidnapping Chief of Security Tasha Yar. Picard even mentions that this qualifies as an act of war, but that doesn't mean he'll attempt a rescue.
      • The episode "Lonely Among Us" ends with Antican delegates requesting a reptile dinner...and it seems one of the Selay delegates (who happen to be reptilian) has disappeared under suspicious circumstances...
      • Seemingly subverted in "The Mind's Eye" by a Klingon ambassador, of all people, who comes across as quite amiable and cooperative. Then it's double subverted when it turns out that he's in on a Romulan plot to assassinate a Klingon governor and pin it on The Federation.
      • "Man of the People" features an ambassador who would come across as a level-headed Nice Guy if not for the fact that he uses women as a dumping ground for his negative emotions, resulting in them becoming increasingly malicious while also suffering from Rapid Aging and then dying, at which point he chooses another woman to use as his next victim.
      • In "Liaisons", the ship hosts two delegates from a alien species as part of a cultural exchange. One of them is extremely insulting and condescending, causing Worf to bristle with rage at every interaction. It turns out that the species is investigating various emotional concepts they've learned about, and that delegate was assigned to research antagonism.
    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
      • In "Move Along Home", we meet a race whose hat is Games. Upon traveling through a wormhole and meeting their first alien species, the ambassadors... decide to go to Quark's. After proclaiming that all of his games are too dull (apparently, they're not a fan of most gambling games, but rather board games), they start their own game, which puts all but one player in hazardous situations inside the game, while the other makes decisions as to what they should do. It isn't until the end that we are told this is all harmless.
      • One of the subplots of "The Forsaken" involves Dr. Bashir getting stuck escorting a group of Federation ambassadors on the way to the Gamma Quadrant around the station; they are so annoying that he finally snaps to Sisko: "NOTHING MAKES THEM HAPPY! They are dedicated to being unhappy, and spreading that — UN-happiness wherever they go! They are — the AMBASSADORS of unhappy!" The only one who isn't driving Bashir up the wall? Lwaxana Troi, who's busy driving Odo up the wall — at least, until the two are trapped in an elevator for a while, and end up getting to know each other better.
    • Zig-zagged in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Living Witness", involving an historical simulation of Voyager dealing with two warring species, the Vaskans and Kyrians. Voyager and the Vaskans are given the Historical Villain Upgrade treatment, with the Vaskan ambassador contracting the Voyager crew as mercenaries to help his people conquer the Kyrians. The Doctor, however, shows the truth: the ambassador was reasonably amiable and proved himself an Ambadassador when the Kyrians attacked Voyager.
    • Star Trek: Enterprise
      • "Vox Sola" introduces the Kreetassans with them storming out of a diplomatic meeting with the Enterprise crew. It is later revealed that this was because they consider eating in public to be taboo, and are easily offended. One would think that if they've had any meaningful contact with other planets before then, they'd have learned that eating is a social activity for many cultures.
      • "A Night in Sickbay" has both sides acting like this. Archer brings his dog down to a planet known to be populated by the Kreetassans — a species that's very hung up on tradition and ritual who had been established as being easily offended. The dog proceeds to pee on a sacred tree, greatly offending the aliens. He then spends the rest of the episode behaving like a petulant child over both the fact that the aliens got pissed off and the fact that his dog contracted a disease on the surface of the planet — and only gets worse when the aliens demand an elaborate ritual of apology.
      • Ambassador Soval of Vulcan is a bitch until the fourth season. He starts to mellow even before Admiral Forrest dies while saving his life.
      • The Tellarites literally have this as their Hat. The above-mentioned "Journey to Babel" shows that this has not changed at all a century later, as that episode's Tellarite ambassador is the biggest ass of them all.
      • "Precious Cargo" guest-stars an alien princess who was on a diplomatic mission when she was captured. She then shows no diplomacy towards Trip, even though he's trying to save her life.
  • The West Wing:
    • The British ambassador, Lord John Marbury, is a practically insane womanizing alcoholic, with no sense of social propriety; he has the job because he's a foreign policy genius who actually provides valuable counsel. He asks the First Lady if he may fondle her breasts. While she's standing next to the President. He insists on calling Chief of Staff Leo McGarry "Gerald" - just because he thinks it's funny. He does, as he himself says, "have lucid moments," and he usually delivers the lesson for any episode he's in, and is always friendly.
    • The US Ambassador to Bulgaria, Ken Cochran, slept with the Prime Minister's daughter. The President knew Mrs. Cochren. Ken ended up very fired. Cochran also is a jerk to Charlie about the fact that the ambassador had been a member of an all-white club, which leads to a very funny moment with the president.
      Cochran: I'm sorry to do this, but I'd like to speak to your supervisor.
      Charlie: Well, I'm personal aide to the President, so my supervisor's a little busy right now looking for a back door to this place to shove you out of. But I'll let him know you'd like to lodge a complaint.
    • The Iranian Ambassador to the US was also a jerk.
    • Bartlet also considers the Indian ambassador this, although it appears to be more personal dislike rather than any inherent failings on the ambassador's part. The Pakistani ambassador also has some strained meetings with the President in the episode they both appear, although that's probably more to do with the increasing and potentially war-creating tensions between India and Pakistan at the time than ineptness on his part.
    • Another episode made a small subplot out of the relatively minor but very real problem of UN diplomats parking willy-nilly in New York and relying on their immunity to get out of paying the tickets. The diplomats complain to the Secretary-General, who wants to complain to the president, except that Leo asks Charlie to make sure he doesn't take the call because he knows it'll piss him off. The Secretary-General manages to get through at the end of the episode, by which time Bartlet is in no mood.
      Bartlet: [yelling into phone] THERE ARE BIG SIGNS. YOU CAN'T PARK THERE. They should get towed! I hope they get towed to Queens, and the Triborough is closed, and there's a big craft show at Shea, a flea market, or a tractor show! [hangs up]
      Charlie: Well, that was probably his secretary.
      Bartlet: Damn it.
      Charlie: You can bet she'll be parking in a garage, though.
  • One of Barry Humphries' comedy personas, the rude and loud-mouthed 'cultural attaché' Sir Les Patterson, is this to a tee.

    Tabletop Games 
  • After the Greyhawk Wars, part of the peace treaty required the creation of embassies in the city of Greyhawk to try and prevent such a massive disaster in the future by making sure each power bloc or great power had at least the ability to negotiate in good faith with each other at all times. Iuz, being an evil half-fiend demigod with a massively expanded empire thanks to said war, showed his contempt for the whole thing by sending as his representative the worst possible candidate: one of his clerics named Pyremiel Alexane, who looks like a mummified corpse and has a bevy of odious features and behaviors (he has wracking coughs that make him spit out black phlegm, smells terrible from his nonexistent hygiene, picks his claw-like nails in public specifically to gross people out, eats like a pig in a trough, etc...). And to top it off, the guy is a smug, smarmy jerkass toward everybody. In his game stats writeup, he actually has a Charisma stat of 3 (the absolute human minimum in D&D).
  • Magic: The Gathering has Ambassador Laquatus, the Big Bad of their Odyssey Cycle. He's a Manipulative Bastard extraordinaire and pretty much Tabletop Gaming's version of Paptimus Scirocco.
  • Warhammer 40,000: One of the Tau codices has a fluff piece concerning a diplomatic visit to a Tau world. While the diplomat himself is an Ordo Xenos inquisitor and quite polite, his bodyguard is a Space Marine Captain of the Imperial Fists, and considerably blunter (that the tour just happened to take them past an assault course looking remarkably like a gutted and plasma-blasted Imperial city didn't help).

    Theatre 
  • In the musical Leave It to Me!, Alonzo "Stinky" P. Goodhue, unwillingly appointed ambassador to Russia, invokes this trope in several Zany Schemes to get himself recalled.

    Video Games 
  • Possible in Tropico if your foreign affairs minister you hire is too incompetent. He or she can trigger a random disaster resulting in decreased relations with a particular country, triggering a rebel attack, or cutting of foreign aid if you don't fire them.
    • Ambassador Crane of the United States in Tropico 4 is the NPC side of this trope, constantly threatening with bringing freedom, democracy and free enterprise to Tropico unless you comply with his demands. Most notably, he's the one single character in the entire game that calls you "President" instead of "El Presidente".
  • In a traffic case of L.A. Noire, The Consul's Car, you have to investigate in a theft of an Argentinean Consulate vehicle (while not an embassy's, it still counts). As Argentina was a Fascist Dictatorship at the time, it is practically a given that her diplomats and consuls would have been Jerkasses. The Consul General himself even checks in at the police station for questioning (one officer comments on him wearing gloves and refusing to take them off at any point). He is not only snobbish and strong-headed, but there is also sufficient evidence implying that he is a pedophile.
  • The final case of Ace Attorney Investigations features two ambassadors. One is overly-enthusiastic, while the other is incredibly self-deprecating. The latter eventually turns out to be the Big Bad and a shameless troll.
  • Ambassador Donnel Udina in Mass Effect is at least equal-opportunity... he is abusive and arrogant towards both the other Citadel races and his fellow humans. He'll constantly insult and belittle you, whether you play the Renegade or Paragon, and at the end, he honestly thinks that you're gonna recommend him for a high post (humanity's representative on the Citadel Council) - thus making him both self-centered, arrogant, narrow-minded and stupid. However, Udina's actions are all consistent with his goals being to further human interests. Also, Renegade or Paragon, Shepard leaves death and mayhem in their wake and keeps going on about the Reapers. Udina plays the consummate politician, spinning each step of the way to make humanity look competent, independent, strong, cooperative, trustworthy, and sane.
    • Although in the third game he sells out the rest of the Council to Cerberus. Whether this is simple avarice and a selfish power grab, or desperation brought on by Earth being little more than rubble, is hard to figure out since you kill him before he can say anything.
    • A more minor example is the krogan ambassador from clan Nakmor. However, this is justified due to Deliberate Values Dissonance, as in krogan culture, the ambassador must represent the strength of his people.
    • The volus ambassador acts this way towards humans, resenting them for being on the fast track to the top of Citadel politics (earning a top-tier seat requires a major contribution to Citadel society; the Asari were the founders, the Salarians provided their intelligence network, and the Turians provided their military might and discipline), while his own people have been waiting for a seat on the Council for centuries. Of course, he forgets to mention that he doesn't actually represent a sovereign state but a protectorate and thus has no right to expect a seat. Meanwhile, you provide the justification for the Humans' entry into the top tier.
    • Mass Effect: Andromeda has Foster Addison, Director of Colonial Affairs for the Andromeda Initiative, causing a near-miss with an angaran delegation thanks to her foul temper. Mercifully, the angara appreciate emotional openness, so they didn't mind. Also, they found the swearing funny.
    • At the end game, Ryder can nominate Nakmor Morda, a krogan so bad-tempered even other krogan call her a hardass, as ambassador to the Initiative. She apparently spends her meetings being loud, rude and angry. Flipping the Table is mentioned to occur. Addison actually regards this as "Worth It" for the look on Jarun Tann's face (Tann hates krogan, and is partially responsible for Morda's crappy mood).
  • Luke fon Fabre in Tales of the Abyss once gets appointed as an ambassador, whereas he started abusing his 'given authority' like hell. Only natural when an actual spoiled and sheltered seven year old is given such a powerful position and then further aggravated by his companions keeping secrets.
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, this is Sorceress Edea's intended role when she's appointed ambassador of Galbadia; the Galbadian government plans to hold "peace talks" and use the sorceress's power to intimidate other nations in order to Take Over the World. Of course, she ends up taking over Galbadia herself.
  • Playing a Dark Side consular in Star Wars: The Old Republic lets you do some atrocious things, ostensibly on behalf of the Republic and Rift Alliance.
    • As diplomacy is a large part of the Consular's arc, The Consular tends to attract these. Squabbling nobles on Alderaaan? Yup. Half dozen of those and the Jedi Master sent to "mediate" is addled by a Dark Side plague. The head of the Rift Alliance starts as this, but eventually warms when you prove yourself. The Selkath ambassador shows up in the Imperial Agent's arc as part of the Star Cabal. Another few ambassadors are revealed as Manchurian Agents, and Zenith is made an "envoy" from Balmorra to get him on your ship and out of the way of the fragile, newly-installed government. Zenith is an unrepentant sniper and terrorist who doesn't see anything wrong with bombing civilian targets - hardly the guy you want anywhere near a negotiating table.
    • Ambassador Asara of the Republic-side Esseles flashpoint has her moments of this. Her job of convincing planetary leaders to support the Republic put a big target on her back, and the Imperials are willing to kill everyone on the ship you're on to get her. Asara is willing to fight for the ship, but she's also willing to suggest some ruthless actions like killing off everyone in the engine room in order to accomplish it, and the captain suggests leaving her behind to die (or much worse, as she's a Twi'lek female and would be subject to the worst of Imperial policy). Her fate is, of course, up to the players.
  • Elenwen of the Thalmor is this in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, as she's openly hostile to her Imperial allies while ruthlessly sending off her own subjects to be tortured. She attempts to meddle in a temporary truce conference you and your allies set up to stop the civil war long enough for you to deal with the dragon threat. And she helped start the civil war by using psychology to guilt trip Ulfric into believing that he had to "own up" to his mistakes, by making him believe he had given up intel that led to the fall of the Imperial City, when in fact it had been captured long beforehand.
    • Ancano is the mage equivalent of ass. It's obvious from the get go that his job is ambassador to Winterhold is to harass everyone (even the Altmer living there) and look for any opportunities for the Thalmor. Suddenly, a giant orb containing an intricate flux of pure magicka so strong that the first settlers caused genocide to prevent it from seeing the light of day. What does Arcano do? Call for reinforcements, kill everyone in the College, and use the orb to conquer Skyrim, and possibly Nirn? Nope! Worse! He programs it to self-destruct and does his best to make sure that no one intervenes, threatening to destroy all of Nirn in the process. You'd think that the Thalmor would ostracize him for almost killing everyone, but we're not sure. Given certain details about Thalmor philosophy, Ancano may very well have been doing what they wanted the whole time. They certainly don't appreciate the Dragonborn stopping him, as they send agents to kill them after Ancano's death.
  • Konrad Engel, an NPC in The Secret World was the former ambassador for the Templars to the Council of Venice. This trope is deconstructed as he had a 'Critical Debate' that left the Templars embarrassed enough to remove him from the position. It's why he's always drinking in a pub.
  • In Dwarf Fortress Elven ambassadors tend to turn up out of nowhere, insult you, tell you not to cut down many trees and threaten you if you do, crack a short joke and then leave again, without even discussing any trade deals or anything. Many players react to this by activating their entire military and telling them to feed said ambassador a variety of sharp objects.
    • You can return the favor to the elves by offering them wooden items in trade, despite knowing that elves consider killing plants an unthinkable act (much like how the other races react to cannibalism). It's rather easy to offend them by being careless, but given the aforementioned elven attitude, most players regard the subsequent Elf war as a bonus.
  • Stellaris allows you to do it on purpose, as your "Envoys" can be sent to improve relations or to harm them.
  • In Genshin Impact, the Fatui, representatives of the nation of Snezhnaya, are not only amoral, manipulative and more than willing to use violence to achieve their goals under the table, their ambassadors are frequently shown to be condescending, self-aggrandizing, and demanding, to the point that they have a public reputation as the most aggressive diplomats in all of Teyvat.

    Webcomics 
  • In Gunnerkrigg Court, neither the Court nor Gillitie Wood is particularly diplomatic. The Court tends to treat the Forest denizens like irritations, and the Forest tries to gain dominance by being aggressive and abusive. It's explained that the people running each organization have a Blue-and-Orange Morality problem regarding the others' way of thinking, and so it falls to the Mediums to be diplomatic for both sides.
  • Errant Story:
    • Lucian, the elves' newly appointed Tsuirakuan ambassador really gets off to a bad start being both aggressive, demanding and above all loud. But referring to the Councilman/Archmage's beloved half-elf granddaughter as an "IT" in his presence, really took the cake, as the resulting explosion can attest to.
    • Lucian's predecessor Rarune was complicit in a previous abduction and imprisonment of said granddaughter, who was also his biological daughter. Yes, he had knocked up a Councilman's daughter on a diplomatic mission. Needless to say, elves aren't very good at diplomacy with humans.
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, starfish alien Ahem is still hanging around on Butane as a "foreign dignitary'', despite the fact that he no longer has any legitimate business there. Voluptua has called him a freeloader, and he doesn't deny it.
  • The blue-skinned ambassador from Oglaf would fit the bill, being a hedonistic rapist. However, the ruler of the country he's posted to is much much worse and as such, really likes the guy.
  • Tesa, from The Meek considers her host to be a savage and a war criminal. As such, she is not particularly respectful. Her companion, Lethy, is much calmer and polite. Unfortunately for the two of them, their visit coincides with their host's wife being murdered. Lethy escapes relatively unscathed, but Tesa has half her face burned off.
  • Ozy and Millie had one of these visit Greater Llewellynland. He refused to believe in dragons, so he refused to speak to Llewellyn at all until Millie annoyed him into it.
  • Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger: The Empire of the Seven Systems averts, or perhaps inverts, this with the Space Rangers. Despite being the vanguard of interstellar exploration and thus the most likely to engage in First Encounter situations, Rangers are given little to no training in diplomacy—on the ground that the natives EXPECT the alien to act "alien", and the most common response to alien contact has historically been paranoia and mistrust of smooth talkers. A rough-spoken loner with a gun on his hip, paradoxically, calms people down because that is what they tend to expect and how they expect they themselves would act in a similar situation. Well-trained diplomatic envoys come much later, after the new race sees that the citizens of the ESS put their pants on one leg at a time, metaphorically speaking.

    Western Animation 
  • Chilly Beach: The local US consul is grossly incompetent and belligerent towards the local population, attempting to run over people in her limousine and referring to a Mountie as "that guy in the bellhop costume."
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek: The Animated Series: In "Bem" (a pun on the acronym for "Bug-eyed-monster"), the titular character starts off by spending weeks of his supposed ambassadorial tour of the Enterprise locked in his quarters, then suddenly insists (despite repeated gentle warnings against it) that he accompany them on their next away mission. And during the away mission, he steals their phasers and replaces them with duds, and harasses the local natives and gets himself caught at spear point. The planet itself needs to tell him to grow up before he starts acting tolerably.
    • Star Trek: Lower Decks:
      • "Envoys": The Klingon diplomat K'orin is a raging alcoholic who regularly steals things (including shuttlecraft). When Boimler and Mariner dump him on the embassy steps, a staff member isn't even surprised to find him barely conscious and vomiting on himself.
      • "The Spy Humongous": The Pakled diplomats never actually intended to do any peace negotiations, but have been leading the Federation on the entire time to learn their secrets. They also intend to bomb Earth.
  • The X's: Home Base briefs the X's on their next mission which requires the team to protect an ambassador from those who might wish him harm. When asked who might, Home Base replies, "Practically everyone. He's a real jerk."
  • Yogi Bear inadvertently becomes one of these when he travels to France as Jellystone's "goodwill ambassador", but gets mistaken for an actual ambassador from the country of Jellystone and quickly wears out his welcome with his bumbling.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Prince Rutherford of Yakyakistan from the episode "Party Pooped". Literally every attempt to entertain him made by Twilight Sparkle and her friends just causes him and his lackeys to get mad over some trivial mistake and start smashing things ("Cake not perfect! Yaks smash!"). He even threatens to start a war over his visit to Ponyville. Conversely, when Pinkie Pie visits their land in "Not Asking for Trouble", she is much more ginger about offending the yaks, even though they never offered her the same courtesy in her own town. Interestingly, the IDW comics have gone on to establish that Prince Blueblood has a surprising knack for working with Yakistani diplomats. Presumably, they see him as a kindred spirit.
    • In "School Daze", King Thorax is the only non-pony diplomat who doesn't do this, and only by virtue of his kind having effectively become Extreme Doormats after living such a violent existence for so long. The others respond to Chancellor Neighsay's accusations of being violent with threats of violence and they immediately begin threatening global war with each other if anything happens to their students, again adding a lot of merit to Neighsay's claim that allowing them to attend will threaten Equestria. It's a good thing Twilight was able to pull a Screw the Rules, I Make Them! and open her school whether the EEA likes it or not, because these diplomats really didn't make it easy for her.
  • The American ambassador to Australia in The Simpsons episode "Bart vs. Australia" is a subversion, as he's extremely accommodating to the Australian government and does everything possible to help resolve the diplomatic crisis Bart unknowingly started. He also does his best to smooth things over with the Simpson family despite trying to hand Bart over to the irate Australian government repeatedly.

 
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The Klingon Ambassador

The Klingon ambassador demands the extradition of Kirk.

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