Cartman and Sarah Silverman’s character are two examples of characters that drive comedy by being narcisistic.
How far back does this trope go? Is it a recent invention? Or are there older forerunners of these characters?
Also, why are these characters funny?
-FrL-
Goes back at least as far as Shakespeare: Polonius in Hamlet, the guy in Twelfth Night who has the line “Some have greatness thrust upon them”… I strongly suspect you can find it right back to Aristophanes.
Uh, pompous, vain, self-centered jerks who need to be set back a peg? Folks have been making fun of them forever. The Narcissist is one of the basic characters of comedy, along with the Lecherous Drunk, the Battleaxe Wife, the Wise Fool, etc. The real question is “How many thousands of years do these characters go back?” and we can’t answer that because written history is only so old.
I’m not familiar with the Twelfth Night character, but how do you figure Polonius for a Narcissist?
-FrL-
Just as a frame of reference, the DSM says you have Narcissistic Personality Disorder if you have five or more of the following characteristics:
I think Cartman exhibits all of these, though maybe not 3 and 4 so much. On examining the list I have some more question marks about Silverman’s character than I realized–but on balance I think she exhibits all nine characteristics to some extent. Most are exhibited somewhat subtly, though.
-FrL-
Well, maybe what we view as narcissistic has changed. Polonius is more a pompous fool with an overestimated sense of self importance. I don’t have textual support right with me, but I have never seen him portrayed as anything other than that. Personally I would call it a variation on the theme.
Pantalone from Comedia del Arte would be another example of the pompous arrogant possibly narcisistic character type. That dates back to the 1400s at least, growing out of the *significantly *less comedic passion plays and mysteries.
Aristophenies, I am sure, had similar characters but I can’t think of any off the top of my head either. I know that he would frequently mock promonent political figures of the day using them as comic foils. I want to say the clouds had somthing like this in it. But I could be misremembering (damn my lack of research materials here at work).
On Preview: I would say Polonius fits a Narcisist. He absolutely can be said to have:
and depending on your interpritation
3. believes that he or she is “special” and unique
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
and
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
The same can potentially be said for Pantalone, but there is a lot that is open to interpritation with Comedia.
ETA: I think you can draw a direct line between Pantalone and Cartman though.
I would have said more Il Capitano…
I can see that. It’s not how I normally think of him, but like I said, there is a LOT of room for character interpritation in Comedia and Il Capitano is one of the characters that has more room than others.
Malvolio.
I’d say the earliest might be the Miles Gloriosus character, from Roman comedies. Basically a precursor of Il Capitano; doesn’t get more narcissistic than that.
Edited to add: Probably the earliest documented. There are some narcissistic characters in Greek plays, but I’m not sure if there were any played for comedic effect.
Curses! From my very own link, even:
Anybody know of any particularly braggy Jews in the Old Testament?