Napoleon Delusion: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:JeSuisNapoleon 3687.jpg|link=Futurama|frame|All these other guys thinking they're Napoleon, when ''I'' really am!<ref>[[Subverted Trope|"I'm just trying to get through a difficult time using humor."]]</ref>]]

 

{{quote|'''Patient A''': ''I am Napoleon!''

 

Compare [[A God Am I]]. Contrast [[Thoroughly Mistaken Identity]]. See also [[Daydream Believer]] and [[Otherkin]], for people in real life or otherwise who believe they are reincarnations of fictional characters.

 

* In ''[[Asterix]] and the Big Fight'' our Roman-era heroes go to see a druid who specializes in treating mental problems. One of the people in the queue is dressed as Napoleon. The receptionist's comment: "No-one knows who this one thinks he is."

** Also, see below.

* ''[[Achille Talon]]'' has a guy claiming to be ''admiral Nelson''. If you think this belong to Non-Napoleon Examples, check what Nelson is famous for.

 

* This is [[Older Than Television]]; it was used in movies as early as 1922's ''Mixed Nuts'', starring Stan Laurel.

* In ''[[Highlander III the Sorcerer]]'', Connor is strapped to a bed in the psych ward of a hospital, and uses his first-hand knowledge of the Napoleonic Wars to convince a Napoleon to free him.

* At the end of ''[[Batman Forever]]'', the now-institutionalized (and insane) Riddler claims to know Batman's true identity. When pressed, he insists that ''he's'' Batman. From somewhere else inside the asylum, we hear another patient respond, "And I'm Napoleon!"

* There's a film titled ''The Emperor's New Clothes'' in which Ian Holm plays Napoleon himself, and the premise is that he escaped St. Helena and an [[Identical Stranger]] took his place. However, once he gets back to France, he is treated as one of these, and ultimately settles into a happy but mundane life.

* In the animated ''The Twelve Tasks of [[Asterix]]'', one of the people who just left "the place that sends you mad" is wearing a paper hat and his hand in his shirt.

 

* [[Fredric Brown]]'s "Come And Go Mad", a rather complicated sci-fi novella from the seventies, involved a man who had once been institutionalized for believing he was Napoleon. He returned to the asylum to uncover a conspiracy, and discovered that he was, in fact, Napoleon—body-swapped through time by a conspiracy of red and black ''ants'' who secretly control all of human history. (Not to be confused with the historical novel ''The Red and the Black''.) The revelation drives him to violent insanity; he undergoes electroshock therapy and returns home "cured", believing himself to be a salesman.

* Invoked in [[Poul Anderson]] and [[Gordon R. Dickson]]'s [[Hoka]] stories. While the wildly imaginative Hokas love taking on roles, so that a Hoka can be [[Sherlock Holmes]], Queen Victoria, the Lone Ranger, the Duke of Wellington, etc. -- only when speaking of a Hoka who is Napoleon does Alex feel the necessity to explain that a Hoka can be perfectly sane and still call himself Napoleon. (Well, by Hoka standards.)

* In the [[Horatio Hornblower]] short story ''The Last Encounter'', a stranger calls on the retired main character (a veteran of the Napoleonic wars) claiming to be Napoleon and begging the loan of a carriage so he could return to France in time to run in the upcoming Presidential election and reclaim his rightful position. {{spoiler|The stranger turns out to be Napoleon III}}.

 

* ''[[The Prisoner]]'' episode "The Girl Who Was Death" was an oddly loopy adventure set outside the Village, where No.6 is out to stop a mad scientist who fancies himself Napoleon (complete with a Josephine) who is plotting to blow up London. {{spoiler|It all turns out to be a bedtime story No.6 is telling a nursery full of children, where he'd cast No.2 as Napoleon.}}

* A ''[[Night Court]]'' episode has Harry end up in a holding cell for the mentally ill. 'I'm in here, with the Napoleons.' Bonus points: all of them growl when Waterloo is mentioned.

 

* "They're coming to take me away, ha haa!" is a song from [[The Sixties]] about a man who will be soon taken to the asylum. Its author is Napoleon XIV. {{spoiler|The guy's sane, only playing the image of Napoleon-wannabe loonie.}}

* [[Flanders and Swann]] had a song, "The Elephant", in which an elephant claimed to be suffering from this. It makes marginally more sense in context.

 

 

 

* In the game ''[[Psychonauts]]'', one character in an asylum claims to be Napoleon. In fact, he's a direct descendant [[Split Personality|fighting off]] a [[Genetic Memory]] of his ancestor. Unlike his diminutive ancestor, Fred Bonaparte is tall and has no particular love of victory {{spoiler|although losing repeatedly to inmate Crispin Whytehead at a board game conveniently named "Waterloo" was enough to drive him over the edge and cause the aforementioned [[Genetic Memory]] to take over.}} He wasn't even a patient initially, he was the head ''orderly'' until his slide into semi-madness.

* There was a BBS door game way back in the days of the Internet called ''Sanitarium'' in which the weapons salesman was Napoleon. Or at least he said he was - given the name of the game, you can obviously guess where it took place, and the state of its inhabitants.

 

* [[Screwy Squirrel]] wore a Napoleon hat as a nod to this.

** At the end of his best-known cartoon, he finally confronts the dog about why he has been chasing him "all through the picture." The dog answers that it's 'cause he thinks he's Napoleon.

*** "Bonjour Y'all!"

*** "Je suis Napoleon! No, really, I'm not."

* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'': A Napoleon is in the insane asylum with Baxter Stockman in episode 6, voiced by [[Peter Cullen]].

 

* The origin of this trope is believed to have occurred when John D. Rockefeller had donated money to help restore the Eastern State Mental Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia. While there, he was walking the grounds and introduced himself to a patient. The patient did not actually believe he met Rockefeller and he sarcastically quipped that he was Napoleon Bonaparte.

* Semi [[Truth in Television]] - after going crazy from syphilis, the French playwright Georges Feydeau thought that he was Napoleon III.

** Also, Simon Bolivar, one of the great Liberators of South America, modeled himself after Napoleon, but he wasn't insane and actually met with some success.

* Gabriel of Sedona, cult leader extraordinaire, claims to be the reincarnation of Napoleon. Additionally, he's a reincarnation of Jesus and Abraham Lincoln, too ([[Fridge Logic|never mind that Lincoln and Napoleon were alive concurrently]]). "Either I am who I say I am, or I'm completely crazy," is a direct quotation. [[Hoist by His Own Petard|Well then.]]

 

 

* The ending of the anime ''[[Perfect Blue]]'' has this happen to {{spoiler|Rumi, Mima's manager, who has increasingly come to believe that she is Mima.}}

* An episode/chapter of ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'' involves a weird guy who thinks he's [[Gunboat Diplomacy|Mathew Perry]] and starts opening everything at the school.

 

* In [[The DCU]], there's also mobster Julie Caesar. Guess who he thinks he is.

* Charlie Caligula deliberately based his criminal "empire" and theme on both of the above, making him a borderline example; he doesn't actually think he's Caligula, but likes to pretend.

* In "The Goofy Superman!" first printed in ''Superman'' #163, Clark Kent, behaving erratically due to Red Kryptonite, is admitted to an insane asylum, where they believe him to be a lunatic who thinks he's [[Superman]]. There are several actual delusional patients, including a Napoleon. The most important is a "General Grant," who quickly realizes that Clark is the genuine Superman. (He's crazy, not stupid.)

* At the Cereal Convention from ''[[Sandman]]'', at least two of the serial-killer attendees considered themselves to be God. Their name tags designated them "God 1" and "God 2", presumably based on who'd gotten to the registration booth first.

* A [[Golden Age]] Batman story has a non-insane Joker (this'll tell you how old the story is) get himself committed to an insane asylum in order to pump an inmate for the location of a [[McGuffin]]. In order to find out what he's up to, Batman has himself committed in the disguise of a stereotypical mind-reading Eastern mystic (turban and all). The inmates include the mandatory Napoleon, an Issac Newton and... a Batman, complete with full costume. Hilarity ensues when the Joker captures the real Batman after seeing through the fake mystic guise, only for the fake Batman to turn up to rescue him—and then decide that Bruce (who has doffed his disguise in an attempt to confuse the Joker) must be the Joker! With the real Joker standing there watching, of course. In the end, the Joker is ''so'' confused that he has to explain that he's not really mad and it was all a plot, simply to convince himself that he's actually sane! Boy, they couldn't do that one these days...

 

* The play and movie ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace]]'' has a character who believes he's [[Theodore Roosevelt|Teddy Roosevelt]]. Another character notes that this is largely voluntary on his part; at some point in the past, when they suggested he be someone else, he sank into a week-long funk ("and refused to be anyone at all"). When he has to be intimidated, the best way to do it is to claim you're [[Woodrow Wilson]]. In the movie version, the asylum director complains that Happy Dale already has a surfeit of Teddy Roosevelts, and sadly, no Napoleons.

* ''The Ruling Class'' features Peter O'Toole as an heir to a noble title who believes he's Jesus. He's put into psychiatric treatment, {{spoiler|and ends up believing he's [[Jack the Ripper]].}}

* ''[[Miracle on 34th Street]]'' involves an elderly gentlemen named Kris Kringle who claims to be [[Santa Claus]]. The film [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|leaves open the possibility]] that he actually is, however.

* ''[[Airplane!]]'': "It's Lieutenant Hurwitz. Severe shell-shock. Thinks he's [[Ethel Merman]]." [[The Cameo|He is.]]

** In the sequel, air traffic controller Steve McCroskey (Lloyd Bridges) is said to have gone senile, and now "thinks he's Lloyd Bridges."

* In ''Revenge of [[The Pink Panther]]'', Clouseau, dressed in women's clothing, is dragged by the police to a psychiatric hospital. He insists that he isn't crazy, that he's Europe's greatest detective, and gets confronted by a patient who maintains that ''he'' is Europe's greatest detective - [[Hercule Poirot]].

 

* The Archangel Gabriel in Kathryn Hulme's ''The Nun's Story.''

** Averted in the case of the Abbess, whom Sister Luke thinks must be delusional (but isn't).

* A [[Larry Niven]] short story concerns an epidemic of people becoming convinced that they're [[Superman]].

{{quote|'''Dr. Felix Funck:''' He think's he's Superman, {{spoiler|and he's so crazy that he ''is'' Superman! ''This'' is a job for SUPERSHRINK! ... Wait for me, Superman, you pathetic neurotic, you, wait for me!}}}}

* In ''The Ball and the Cross'' by [[G. K. Chesterton]], the two protagonists realise they've broken into a lunatic asylum when the two men they've met claim to be God and the King. Since the protagonists are, respectively, an atheist and a Jacobite, they each take the opportunity to vent some steam at their respective hate figures.

* ''[[House of Leaves]]'' features a throwaway anecdote from Johnny Truant about a former landlord who woke up believing he was Charles de Gaulle.

 

* In the Adam West ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' TV series, there was a villain who believed he was King Tut; he's since been [[Canon Immigrant|introduced in the comics]].

** ''[[Barney Miller]]'' had an arrestee who believed he was Jesus, as well. Since he had previously thought himself possessed by [[Satan]], this delusion was kind of therapeutic.

* A teenage boy on ''[[Boston Public]]'' also became convinced he was Jesus after he saw a little boy run over by a bus and later received a nasty electrical shock from a projector. He managed to convince a few other people too.

** The characters—having met [[Jack the Ripper|another historical character]] [[Human Popsicle|preserved]] by the Vorlons—seriously consider the possibility that he ''is'' King Arthur.

* ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' had a woman who thought she was Mary Todd Lincoln. She ends up witnessing Clark using is powers, but then she starts calling him General Grant.

 

 

** They have a reason; the death of their [[Our Angels Are Different|angelic]] Primarch left a psychic imprint across the entire Chapter, permanently cursing them with that insanity, [[Our Vampires Are Different|and a thirst for blood...]]

 

* Arthur Kopit's play ''Chamber Music'' is about a group of women in an insane asylum who think they're various historical figures, including Susan B. Anthony, Gertrude Stein, Joan of Arc, Amelia Earhart, and Mozart's wife.

* There was a cabaret sketch with two guys speaking in [[Gratuitous Foreign Language|Gratuitous French]], only to be interrupted by a doctor:

"Frenchmen": [do not notice]

* The titular ''[[Elisabeth]]'' visits patients in an insane asylum while trying to distract herself from her unhappy life as Empress of Austria-Hungary and meets a patient there who believes herself to be Elisabeth. In a twist on the trope, the real Elisabeth envies the woman's ability to be happy in this delusion when she herself is so miserable. She has to consciously tell herself to stay strong and not give into the temptation to allow herself to go mad too, where they can "only bind your arms but leave your soul free".

 

* In the asylum levels in ''[[The Darkness]] II'' one of Jackie's mafia henchmen, Aldo, believes he is [[Adolf Hitler]].

 

* The above mentioned ''[[Futurama]]'' episode also features the following exchange in regards to a robotic [[Abraham Lincoln]]:

{{quote|'''Fry''': Let me guess, he thinks he's Lincoln?

'''Robotic Lincoln''': I was born in two hundred log cabins. }}

* The Batman comics and animated series also had Maxie Zeus, who was under the impression he was the Greek god—though sometimes the delusion seemed to be more playing a part than genuine insanity.

** There's also the episode where the family befriends a large, bald, white man... who insists he's [[Michael Jackson]]. The joke of this episode is that while Homer has heard of Michael Jackson from his kids, he has no idea who the guy is, and thus not understanding why this guy couldn't possibly be the Prince of Pop (for one thing, he's white). Though they did get the real life Michael to voice the impostor.

 

* Avatar of ''[[Supermegatopia]]'', a former archaeologist with multiple personalities, repeatedly assumes the identity of various deities, such as Quezalcouatl, Thor, Set and Jehova. (She also uses the ancient UFO she found to simulate divine powers.) Unfortunately she must not have been an attentive student, since she gets a lot of details wrong, such as referring to Thor's hammer as "Mitch". (Not to mention several of her divine identities are supposed to be male, and Avatar is very much a woman.)

 

 

* A surprising number of people suddenly declare themselves as a prophet, messiah, or Jesus returned on entering [[wikipedia:Jerusalem syndrome|Jerusalem]].

* Hong Xiuquan, the founder of the "Heavenly Kingdom of Transcendent Peace" and leader of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) in China, proclaimed that he was the younger brother of Jesus. The rebellion cost 20-30 ''million'' lives, making it distinctly [[Dude, Not Funny]].

** making this older than film, and older than the trope namer himself.

* Actor/director [[Billy Bob Thornton]] once declared he was the reincarnation of [[Benjamin Franklin]].

* George Patton claimed that he lived previous lives so that he could fight in every (major) war in history.

* Internet crackpot Archimedes Plutonium claims to be the reincarnation of Archimedes.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Madness Tropes]]