# Most ridiculed individuals in history? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2017, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952 "2017-03-24T20:08:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/21 "2017-03-25T01:27:59Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > ?? The man wrote “Close to You.” ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/22 "2017-03-25T02:07:35Z")
Doubting Thomas. Brutus and Cassius. Caiaphas and Annas. Pontius Pilate. Herod Antipater. The Captain of the Titanic. The guys who invented New Coke and the guys who built the Edsel. William Jennings Bryan. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/23 "2017-03-25T02:14:20Z")
Fill in the blank in this phrase: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_'s Folly Seward’s Folly I’d expect most students of American history would know this. Or change this to the _person’s-name b\_l\_a\_n\_k_ and they would probably fill in the _folly_ portion. That’s a high-level of ridicule. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/24 "2017-03-25T02:55:55Z")
My first choice was Richard Nixon, who was impeached shortly after winning the 1972 election by a landslide. For a better answer, I think you need to look at history and literature. Dante skewers a lot of people in The Divine Comedy, so those folks have been humiliated for _centuries_. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/25 "2017-03-25T03:50:12Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Carrot Top? As soon as I read the OP my first thought was Nixon. But since you mention it ------ Yahoo Serious. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/26 "2017-03-25T03:52:45Z")
The various Kims that have led North Korea, each more ridiculous than the last. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/27 "2017-03-25T05:02:49Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > How many millions of casualties is Trump responsible for ? Define “casualty”, and let’s come back in 3 years to discuss this. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/28 "2017-03-25T05:32:11Z")
Kaiser Wilhelm II ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/29 "2017-03-25T05:43:07Z")
Death or wounding. That’s how casualties are defined in warfare. Entirely personally I would include having one’s home destroyed or being forced to flee. I don’t care for Trump, but he seems rather less reckless than W. or Hillary. And warfare doesn’t give him income. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/30 "2017-03-25T11:19:16Z")
Benito Mussolini. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/31 "2017-03-25T11:39:19Z")
> [@Trancephalic](#): > > When logic and proportion. Have fallen sloppy dead. And the White Knight is talking backwards. And the Red Queen’s off with her head. Remember what the dormouse said. Feed your head. Feed your head. But the dormouse didn’t say “FEED your head;” he said “KEEP your head.” ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/32 "2017-03-25T11:52:20Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > George W. Bush You know, for George’s with a similar governing capacity to His Trumpiness, you really can’t beat “The Third” ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/33 "2017-03-25T13:25:00Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > I don’t care for Trump, but he seems rather less reckless than W. or Hillary. And warfare doesn’t give him income. Trump is reckless virtually every time he posts his aimless stream of consciousness on twitter. How has W or Hillary profited from warfare? ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/34 "2017-03-25T14:01:05Z")
General Custer has a healthy mix of hate and ridicule. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/35 "2017-03-25T14:35:18Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I don’t think that Carter is particularly ridiculed today (or even in the last decade or two). But, during his presidency, and immediately afterwards, he was widely seen as an ineffectual, weak president. It’s the work he’s done after his presidency, his statesmanship and grace, which has changed opinions of him. Gawd, this. I was young and foolish then, as well as a Pub, and Jimmy was seen as the height of foolishness. We mocked the interview where we said he had committed adultery in his heart as well as his perceived weakness in dealing with Iran. Then there his brother Billy, the living stereotype of all things Southern white trash. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/36 "2017-03-25T14:51:41Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Jimmy Carter? Really? Jimmy Carter is a great man, and few Presidents, or even common men, can hold a candle to him. As a man and a human being, yes. As President he was… ridiculable. Too good for the office. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/37 "2017-03-25T15:18:32Z")
So far, at least, Trump has not done anything as abysmally stupid–or with as serious long-time consequences–as invade Iraq. Give him time of course. Neville Chamberlain was deeply ridiculed in his time. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/38 "2017-03-25T15:19:27Z")
Neville Chamberlain didn’t have too many choices. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/39 "2017-03-25T15:26:43Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Trump is reckless virtually every time he posts his aimless stream of consciousness on twitter. Twitter is not an Iraq nor a Libya. > [@](#): > > How has W or Hillary profited from warfare? Never said they did, just that Trump, seeing no personal profit in an enterprise, would have no interest in pursuing it. [ However, there are other profits for warmongers, non-pecuniary — for those two, such spiritual pleasures include being strong and ‘patriotic’: ‘The toughest SOB in the House of War’. There’s a reason Obama was at war every single day of his administration. ] ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/40 "2017-03-25T16:11:14Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > The man wrote “Close to You.” I’ve never heard anyone ridicule Burt Bacharach. Are you sure you’re not conflating him with the Carpenters (who recorded the biggest-selling version of “Close to You”)? The Carpenters were ridiculed for being “square”, but even that was mostly limited to young adults who considered their musical preferences superior to the Carpenters’ middle of the road genre. (_Rolling Stone_ is supposed to have run a concert review that focused more on their unhip clothes than their music). And even that ridicule ended with Karen’s death, when people realized the pain she was hiding, which led a lot of people to reconsider her singing. But Burt Bacharach? Can you give me an example? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952.md?page=3)