Who was the most pompous jerk in history?

[Perfection]

I don't mean some crazy dictator or some scheming ne'er do well, I mean pompous self-rightious mean-spirited disagreeable jerk. Who was it?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I don't mean some crazy dictator or some scheming ne'er do well, I mean pompous self-rightious mean-spirited disagreeable jerk. Who was it?

Probably a Frenchman. I lean towards Nietzsche.

 

[bhsup]

Half right, Cheezy. Charles de Gualle.

 

[Arwon]

Herbert Spencer?

 

[citedon]

Pope Alexander VI (the Borgia pope) deserves consideration. He raised the bar very high for hypocrisy, greed, corruption, ruthlessness, nepotism and a lot of other negative words that I can't think of right now.

 

[Godwynn]

Jim Cramer.

 

[Azale]

I don't know how pompous J Edgar Hoover was, but he was a jerk.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

He was a transvestite, too, I don't know how that fits into your equations.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Probably a Frenchman.

When I saw the title I immediately thought Louis XIV

 

[Zardnaar]

Half right, Cheezy. Charles de Gualle.

he is good one. Maybe make a short list.

 

[Yeekim]

Pope Alexander VI (the Borgia pope) deserves consideration. He raised the bar very high for hypocrisy, greed, corruption, ruthlessness, nepotism and a lot of other negative words that I can't think of right now.

As far as popes go, Baldassare Cossa is probably pretty hard to trump. Career pirate? Both grandfather and father of his lover? etc etc...

 

[RedRalph]

Joachim von Ribbentrop was reknowned for his pomposity, apparently all the other Nazis despised him

 

[Brighteye]

Joan of Ark

 

[Cutlass]

Gen. Patton had his moments.

 

[aronnax]

Gen. Patton had his moments.

Yeah, but he was a self-righteous jerk. Not a pompous jerk.

Im leaning with Jean-Bédel Bokassa. It takes alot of nerve to dissolve a republic and declare an empire with you as king in the 20th century of a legitimate nation

 

[Verbose]

Churchill.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Yeah, but he was a self-righteous jerk. Not a pompous jerk.

Im leaning with Jean-Bédel Bokassa. It takes alot of nerve to dissolve a republic and declare an empire with you as king in the 20th century of a legitimate nation

He declared himself emperor, not king and his habit of eating human flesh and drinking blood puts him so far into crazy-territory that he should be disqualified.

 

[chad187]

Churchill seems like a pretty big jerk.

 

[privatehudson]

Churchill was certainly arrogant and pompous, not too sure about the Jerk part. I find it hard to dislike anyone who thought burning De Gaulle at the stake was a good idea.

 

[Verbose]

Churchill was certainly arrogant and pompous, not too sure about the Jerk part. I find it hard to dislike anyone who thought burning De Gaulle at the stake was a good idea.

Well, that's because sometimes a pompous jerk in your corner is precisely what you need.

Churchill and de Gaulle are like peas in a pod like that - two completely impossible personalities finding themselves in the same room, as one French historian put it.