Cloudcuckoolander/Real Life
- John Lennon was famous for this.
- Possibly Andy Kaufman, given his taste in jokes.
- Zooey Deschanel, sexiest Cuckoolander alive.
- David Lynch. An article once described him as "Jimmy Stewart from Mars," and his interviews contain such gems as "I'm a real thin pancake! I'm right on the edge!" It does not make sense in context. He also wanted to make a sitcom about the sunken continent of Lemuria.
- The late Graham Chapman is always described by the other Pythons as being "in his own world"- clearly a very peculiar man to fathom.
- Eric Idle relates in one book the story of a woman who declared that, what with Graham being gay and all, he should be stoned because she'd been reading the parts of the Bible that appealed to her xenophobia. So the Pythons took him out and got him stoned. "Of course, Graham was pretty stoned most of the time anyway..."
- Terry Gilliam will quite often come off as this during various interviews.
- In the Fine Bros' series of "Kids React", the little girl Morgan seems to be the walking embodiment of a young Cloudcuckoolander. Will she ever grow out of it? We shall see.
- Rube Waddell, baseball Hall of Famer from the first decade of the 20th century. He'd randomly run off from games to go chase fire trucks, accidentally shot a friend through the hand, forgot to divorce his first wife causing him to be arrested on bigamy charges, and would even be distracted by puppies and toys by opposing players and fans. This can also be considered a Bunny Ears Lawyer example, since he was considered – when not in trouble – the hardest thrower and arguably the best pitcher of his time (his record for most strikeouts in a season would not be bettered for 61 years).
- Similarly, Jimmy Piersall, a former center fielder for the Boston Red Sox. He once went up to bat wearing a Beatles wig while air-guitaring with his bat, and once got in trouble for acknowledging an opponent's home run by squirting home plate with a water pistol, among others. A tragic case, though: his antics sprung from his years-long battle with bipolar disorder.
- Megan Fox. Read the following quotes and tell me you don't see it.
 |
You eat Chinese food, your farts come out like Chinese food. If you eat Mexican food, your farts come out like Mexican food. And milk, it's like-you can smell the warmth in the fart. My wardrobe on Transformers always smells like farts, and I have no idea why." -GQ, October 2008 |
 |
- Misha Collins. Just take a look at his twitter. And then there's all the crazy shit he likes to pull at cons... Take a look at this article "It frequently seemed like Collins was living in his own universe, and everyone in attendance were merely guests."
- Adolf Hitler: A summary (from this page) of Erwin Rommel's views on the Atlantic Wall: "[I]n his words, "a figment of Hitler's Wolkenkuckucksheim."
- Maybe some of it is put on for television, but British TV presenter Claudia Winkleman comes off as... odd, to say the least.
- Ludwig von Mises used the term "Cloud-Cuckoo lands" explicitly in one of his essays to refer to the utopian societies proposed by certain economic thinkers of the early 1900s.
- Esa Tikkanen, a former professional hockey player with the Edmonton Oilers and New York Rangers, fits into this category very well. He was best known for his unusual mix of Finnish, English and sometimes gibberish, which was frequently referred to as "Tikkanese". He seemed to enjoy speaking in the language quite a bit, very seldom did anyone, teammates or not, understand what he was saying. This was only additional to his relatively... odd behavior off the ice as well.
- Manny Ramirez, most recently of the Tampa Bay Rays. He's done a laundry list of strange things, though he also borders on Jerkass in some respects too. His two time team mate Julián Tavárez could count as well.
- Mark Whitacre, the real-life whistleblower whose life is dramatized in the movie The Informant, is depicted in the movie as being prone to non-sequitur inner monologues and compulsive lying. Whitacre was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during the course of his career, and the real Whitacre says the movie's a pretty accurate depiction.
- Jason Mewes. His character, Jay, from the View Askewniverse was based on him.
- Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, Detroit Tigers' pitcher back in the late '70s is absolutely this. He used to play with the dirt on the mound, talk to himself, talk to the ball, and had various odd routines that made him a curiosity back in his day. He also led the AL in ERA and was second in the Cy Young Award voting as a rookie (winning Rookie of the Year) and pitched a complete game in over half his career appearances in an era where relievers were already becoming prominent. Sadly, his career was cut short by injuries, to the point that said outstanding rookie year constitutes more than half of his career starts.
- Dan Quayle. Some of his (alleged) quotes:
- "You take the UNCF model that-- what a waste it is to lose one's mind, or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."
- "Mars is essentially in the same orbit [as Earth]... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
- "The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history... No, not our nation's, but in World War II. I mean, we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century, but in this century's history."
- "It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
- At least once during the 2000 election, some alleged Quayle quotes were attributed to Al Gore, leading to the suspicion that some quotes were fabricated against Quayle as well.
- James Rolfe, a.k.a. The Angry Video Game Nerd, as proven in his Childhood Comics and his short films.
- Brandon Dicamillo, of Jackass and CKY fame. The various Cloudcuckoolander characters he portrays aren't too far off from how he actually is: when production was beginning on Jackass: The Movie, he was asked about his availability, and stated that he wouldn't be able to be in the movie too much because most of his schedule for the forseeable future was reserved for playing video games. He then showed the producers a Day Planner which showed his video game regimen for the next several months! He also shows this off in Viva La Bam, where they're taking cars apart in the junkyard for some quick money, while Dico does this by slamming the car with a sledgehammer, while screaming like a madman.
|
Scrapyard Guy: "That guy's a psycho." |
|
- Autistic people tend to verge into Cuckoolander territory, often spouting non sequiturs. This can frustrate those who are not used to them and entertain those who are. Higher-function autistics (such as those with Asperger's Syndrome) can take their self-awareness of this and make a killing off of it.
- Jude Law had a very cloudcuckoolanderish moment during a promotional interview for the recent Sherlock Holmes movie. When asked what his "detective name" would be, he replied: "Banjo Heywood." In this case, "what would your detective name be?" is a pretty cuckoolandy question to ask someone, so it's hardly surprising that the response would be odd as well. Especially since "Jude Law" would already be pretty awesome as a detective name. Or an Old West sheriff.
- In the past, ALL the Germans were said to be a bit like this. Author Jean Paul (German, despite the French pseudonym) stated: "In the beginning, the good God gave to the French the dominion of the land, to the English the dominion of the seas, and to the Germans the dominion of the clouds."
- Chad Ochocinco. He changed his surname to Ochocinco just so his name and jersey number would be identical. Ochocinco by the way, is Spanish for 8.5.
- Dr. Seuss. Don't deny it, just read one of his books. Any one of his books. The proof is in the pudding, boys and girls.
- In every sport, there's a stereotype that certain positions attract these. In ice hockey, goaltenders have a reputation for this, and baseball has seen enough left fielders (such as the aforementioned Manny Ramirez) demonstrate this that "out of left field" has become a euphemism for oddity. And apparently because there aren't enough roster spots for left fielders for the loonies to go, pitchers in general also have a bit of this reputation as well (Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean, Bill "Spaceman" Lee, Fidrych mentioned above are just a few examples).
- Pitchers, pitchers, pitchers. There's also Dennis "Oil-Can" Boyd. There was one minor-league pitcher who used infield dirt as a substitute for chewing tobacco, and became an expert on the flavors of various infields. And the whole Perez family, Pascual, Carlos, etc., who sometimes veered toward Ax Crazy. Pascual Perez' Montreal Expos manager responded to a question about Perez' habit of talking to himself on the mound by pointing out that he doesn't just talk to himself, he also talks to the resin bag and planes flying overhead.
- Yogi Berra, although he didn't say half of the things he said.
- Carl Everett, disbeliever in dinosaurs. Do the Red Sox collect these guys?
- Giants closer Brian Wilson is a cuckoolander and a possessor of a memetic beard. His antics include things like wearing a spandex suit to the ESPY.
- Casey Candaele, most fondly remembered for inventing Naked Batting Practice Sundays.
- Charlie Sheen, if the Tiger-Blood Warlock interview is anything to go by...
- Sleep talkers. No matter how normal they are in every day life, people who talk in their sleep appear to be relaying transmissions directly from Cloud Cuckooland. See [1]. Anyone who is the subject of a Non Sequitur Thud will produce something similar.
- Gary Busey. Supposedly, he was like this before a serious head injury from a motorcycle accident.
- His son, Jake Busey, as well. While not as weird, he does have his own quirks, like wearing skeleton gloves in public.
- Eiichiro Oda
- Remi Gaillard. What other word could describe someone who continued to pull pranks that usually ended up getting him either arrested, assaulted, chased, or any combination of the above; just For the Lulz?
- Fred Willard. His role in any movie he's in is to be a Cloudcuckoolander. In a Christopher Guest movie, his role is to out-cuckoo a cast of Cloudcuckoolanders. According to his various friends and collegues, he's very much this in real life as well.
|
Christopher Guest (being interviewed by Charlie Rose): "Fred Willard is a man who got into character twenty-five years ago, and never got out." |
|
- Anne Heche has a tendency for statements that reveal her to be farther from Earth.
- Judging by his site, Matthew Gray Gubler falls here.
- If his Old Spice commercials are any indication, Terry Crews.
- Charles Manson. It's difficult to tell whether he says the things he does just for attention, or whether he actually believes that he's Jesus, the Pope, and a box of wine, but the man is clearly quite insane.
- Singer/songwriter Anna Nalick. You may not think so from her music alone, but try reading some of her Tweets/Facebook posts/blogs and you'll see a whole other side. She admits that she lives in her own world, as she relates closely to Alice in Wonderland.
- Bai Ling - in her own words: "I'm not really in reality. I'm in my own universe and my mind is a million miles somewhere else." She also claims that she comes from the moon.
- Shigesato Itoi, and it shows in his work! His case regularly leads to The Cuckoolander Was Right.
- Legendary mathematician Paul Erdos stands out as an eccentric even in a field notorious for its eccentrics. For most of his life he lived as a guest of other mathematicians, collaborating on papers and moving on every few months.
- Matt Smith - he is more a Cuckoolander than the Doctor!
- Among athletes, ice hockey goaltenders living off in their own worlds is almost the norm but a couple names stick out even further above the clouds. Hall-of-Famer Patrick Roy, considered by many to be the greatest goalie of all time knitted before games, talked to his goal posts,[1] and refused to skate on the red and blue lines during pre-game warm-ups, among other things. But even he may have now been upstaged by current Philadelphia Flyers netminder Ilya Bryzgalov, whose personality quirks were already verging on Memetic Mutation before the Flyers were featured in NHL 24/7 on HBO and the world got a taste of his philosophical side.
- The entire human race to a certain degree. Everyone has their own personal quirks that make them who they are. We could take this further and apply it to other non-human lifeforms as well...
- Fran Drescher, who believes she was abducted by aliens.
- Hideaki Sorachi, a manga writer famous for Gintama. If the series doesn't convince you, try reading his omake comments.
- Friedrich Nietzsche once called Jesus an "idiot". On account of language shift (and translation issues), it's probable that he didn't think Jesus was stupid, but rather living in his own world—i.e. a Cloudcuckoolander.
- Lady Gaga has made a career out of this image.
- Buckethead. And how.
- ↑ has since become a common practice among modern goalies, many of whom grew up admiring him