# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/61 "2017-03-31T11:04:19Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > As a Hoosier by Choice, definitely Dan Quayle. > > Also, Ed Wood, although I think since the movie came out, people have a soft spot for him. I remember how he was ridiculed before the movie, though. Wow. > > Burt Bacharach. Jeff Altman of _Pink Lady and Jeff_. Fred Silverman of NBC, the man who came up with such hits as _Pink Lady and Jeff_. > > Also, for the long-time-gone, but not forgotten, award, Colley Cibber. I’ve never thought of Fred Silverman as an object of ridicule. To be fair to him, he’s also produced such shows as _In the Heat of the Night_ and the _Perry Mason_ movies of the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/62 "2017-03-31T12:12:18Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Emperor Nero Gets my vote. Thanks in part to the historian Tacitus, the name ‘Nero’ is synonymous with incompetence two millennia later. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/63 "2017-03-31T19:14:12Z")
I originally read the OP’s question as Most Ridiculous and thought immediately of Trump. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/64 "2017-03-31T22:25:12Z")
> [@DLuxN8R-13](#): > > Not in any version of that song \*I \*ever heard, he didn’t. I think he’s referring to Lewis Carroll’s manuscript, which say “Keep your head”, as opposed to G.Slick’s song lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/65 "2017-04-01T00:16:11Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The most ridiculed Civil War leader is probably General Braxton Bragg, who had an uncanny ability to inspire contempt and loathing. I would go with George McClellan, with special mention going out to Joseph Hooker who made his own name synonymous with whores. ---
**Author:** ![bobo\_blesinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecae2f/32.png) [@bobo\_blesinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobo_blesinger)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/66 "2017-04-01T02:07:38Z")
> [@DLuxN8R-13](#): > > Not in any version of that song \*I \*ever heard, he didn’t. I prefer to hear BLEED your head. We all could use a good head-bleeding every now and then. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/67 "2017-04-01T02:35:45Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > As soon as I read the OP my first thought was Nixon. But since you mention it ------ Yahoo Serious. Ed McMahon, reading from contents of envelope: _“Name the two stages of sex.”_ Carnac the Magnificent: _“Yahoo, serious.”_ ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/68 "2017-04-01T02:58:26Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > 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_. So maybe Richard III? ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/69 "2017-04-01T03:08:37Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Jimmy Carter? Really? Jimmy Carter is a great man, and few Presidents, or even common men, can hold a candle to him. Your problem is that you live in the real world. In the Fox News world, Carter is a weakling who dragged the US down to such depths that only Reagan could save it. He has been the epitome of a weak, ineffective man in the fact-free world of that network since the day it went on the air, and remains so today. It was especially ironic during the Iraq invasion, when they gushed over draft-dodging, AWOL, Bush 43 as a great War President, while in the same segment referring to Annapolis grad Carter as someone who knew nothing about the military. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/70 "2017-04-01T10:38:14Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Burt Bacharach. WTF??? I can think of thousands of songs that are worse than his worst. > [@Sefton](#): > > My first choice was Richard Nixon, who was impeached shortly after winning the 1972 election by a landslide. Nixon was never impeached. He resigned before that could happen. But speaking of impeachment… Monica Lewinsky was ridiculed relentlessly. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2017, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/71 "2017-04-01T11:00:41Z")
If we’re talking about head-slapping stupidity - and politicians - then I guess GWB and Trump have to be up there, and the second of those hasn’t been in power for 100 days. I guess inherited wealth carries it own burdens. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2017, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/72 "2017-04-02T04:27:28Z")
**Edward Bulwer-Lytton**. If you don’t recognize the name you’re sure to know of the ridicule he’s been getting for many years. He’s the author of the book that begins _“It was a dark and stormy night.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/73 "2017-04-03T07:18:13Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The top seven pitchers, ranked by losses, are all Hall of Famers. > > I agree. Most ridiculed might be a person who’s much complimented. Napoleon is much ridiculed. Not so much ridiculed himself as people who think they are, from jokes about crazy ones who really believe they are the Corsican to little bossy guys being labelled as having a “Napoleon complex”. Same as people who speak of themselves in the third person are asked “what, are you Caesar, Gaius Iulius, now?” Cesar could speak of himself in any person he wanted: people who haven’t conquered Gaul can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/74 "2017-04-03T23:07:44Z")
Midgets! No seriously. Have you ever worked with a midget you could take as an equal adult? Could you handle working for a midget boss? That you had to struggle NOT to tell a short joke? Come one. Be honest. ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952/75 "2017-04-05T09:14:52Z")
Indirectly, there’s theologian-philosopher **John Duns Scotus** and Naturalist **George Louis LeClerc, Comte de Buffon**. Their names, in the words “dunce” and “buffoon” have now become synonymous with stupidity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-ridiculed-individuals-in-history/782952.md?page=3)