The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton[1], they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Wily: The world called me mad! Insane, Proto!
Protoman: Sounds right to me.

Mega Man animated series
Oh, mad, am I? Yes, that's what they all say, hee hee hee! But I'll show you who's mad! Yes! For when I rule the world, then you'll see who's mad! Yes!
Caractacus P. Doom, Avenger Penguins

Dr. Nefarious: "To think, they called me insane, Lawrence. We'll see who's insane when my mutant armies have exterminated all life on this planet!"
Lawrence: "Yes, that should clear things right up, sir."

"I wanted things I saw only dimly — fluids that glowed, and electricity that danced like a living thing. I wanted science inside of me, changing me, my body as a generator, as a reactor, a crucible. Transformation, transcendence. And so, of course, They Called Me Mad.
They laughed at me, and that I would never forgive and forget. I would, to use the old phrase, show them."


  1. Inventor of the first commercially successful steamship