Upper Class Twit: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
[[The Ditz]] with a trust fund. The
Usually used as a foil for [[The Jeeves]] or some other more intelligent character. The male
A popular recent subtype, and the female counterpart to the usually male
Of course, sometimes they're [[Obfuscating Stupidity]], and they may even be up to [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job|something far more interesting after hours]]. See also [[The White Prince]] for a royal version.
Interestingly there is a heroic variation called [[Stiff Upper Lip]] in which a character acts like an
A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[Idle Rich]].
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* In [[One Piece]], most of the nobles and every member of the World Nobles.
* The princes Meleagros and Atalantes in [[Heroic Age]] are
* Tamaki in ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]''. He has a truly absurd amount of money, [[Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense|is a bit... sheltered]], and also happens to be [[Idiot Hero|kind of an idiot]]. Unlike others, he has mostly good intentions.
* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', some, if not most, of Britannia's royal family. For half of her screen time in the first season, Euphemia is pretty ditzy, [[Rebellious Princess|but turns that around.]] {{spoiler|And then she dies ''horribly''.}}
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** In the [[Stephen Fry]]/[[Hugh Laurie]] TV adaptation, he's also an excellent piano player (mainly because [[Hugh Laurie]] is an excellent piano player). Too bad he's too stupid to make something out of it.
** To be entirely fair, however, Bertie is at least a ''sweet'' twit. He isn't intelligent, not by any means, but he's good-natured, generous and usually kind to the people around him, which makes him a damn sight better than most of the characters on this page.
** [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]] ''loved'' this trope. ''Anyone'' with money in his stories is unlikely to be intelligent, especially if they're the main character. Could be the reason that his stories also have an above-average percentage of [[Servile Snarker
* While several members of the nobility from the ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' are rich idiots, the dumbest has to be Lady Arymilla of House Marne, who plans to take over Andor in a civil war. The only problem is that she's a complete idiot, whose success is largely due to a senile old man, and the fact that members of the Shadow are helping her. She's largely oblivious to the world around her, and only cares about herself.
** Honestly though, the readers really knew she had absolutely no chance whatsoever when it was revealed that she planned to use the entire nation's coffers just to erase her own debt. Once that was out in the open, any [[Genre Savvy]] reader knew right then that she was gonna suffer from a massively [[Epic Fail]].
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* This appears to be the default state of being for all [[Hobbits]] above a certain wealth bracket in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', with rare exceptions (e.g., Bilbo and Frodo).
* Pavel Young, de facto [[Arch Enemy]] of one [[Honor Harrington]] for about four books, is an example of what happens when you combine this trope with [[Complete Monster]]. His pathological vindictiveness, cowardice, and utter inability to know when to cut his losses insured he was not around for book five.
** Captain Michael Oversteegan, of the same series, is a subversion. He is deliberately given just about ''every'' possible trait of an
* Mr. Toad of ''[[The Wind in the Willows]]'' spends most of his time wasting his esteemed fathers' wealth throwing himself at any and all [[Fleeting Passionate Hobbies]] that come along.
* Dorothy Sayers' [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] pretends to be one of these when necessary, as a form of [[Obfuscating Stupidity]].
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'''Graham Chapman:''' Oh, I suppose ''mater'' told you that while you were out ''ridin<nowiki>'</nowiki>''! }}
* The various incarnations of Percy and George in the ''[[Blackadder]]'' series. (The latter played by the same actor as Bertie Wooster; Hugh Laurie tended to play characters of this type quite a lot when he was younger, which tends to shock American audiences who only know him in his ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' incarnation.)
** While those who were more used to his
** In the first (medieval) series, Blackadder himself (the [[Rowan Atkinson]] character) was an Upper Class Twit, and his servant Baldrick <ref>better known as the [[Bumbling Sidekick]] he becomes</ref> was a [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]].
** He played a [[Crosscast Role|female one]] in an ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]'' sketch, opposite [[Stephen Fry]] as the Duke of Northampton. And the [[Black Comedy|very dark]] "Jack and Neddy/Teddy" sketches from the show, in which Fry manipulates him into acts like planting a bomb in a restaurant, have been described as what ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' would have been like if Jeeves used his powers for evil.
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** Actually, all the Banks children could qualify. Not their parents Phillip and Vivian though, as both of them came from common origins and [[Self-Made Man|achieved success by dint of hard work]].
*** Interestingly enough, Will started out as being the streetwise guy who was totally unlike the rest of the family... but the show hinted in at least one episode that Will became more like the Bankses after living with them for a while. Will's reaction when this dawns on him can only be described as hilarious.
* In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Dr. Julian Bashir starts as a bit of this. Class is downplayed in the Trekverse, but he is the {{spoiler|genetically enhanced}} son of a prominent family on Earth, which in ''Trek'' is the paradisiacally well-supplied and well-run centre of [[The Federation]]. He loves to expound on how he's excited to be doing "frontier medicine" with primitive equipment -- [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOWQnX6VOyo in front of people for whom the "frontier" is their homeworld.] Luckily, he undergoes [[Character Development]]
* ''[[Nathan Barley]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s eponymous protagonist. The character was created by Charlie Brooker and first appeared in his [[TV Go Home]] book, which revealed Barley lived off cheques from his parents and spent his days working out "which job to pretend to do next". In the series he spends his parents' money on an office full of video editing equipment and gives himself the job title "self-facilitating media node".
* Thurston and Lovey Howell from ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' are a rare married example.
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* As mentioned above under Literature, Bertie Wooster (and most of his friends and relations) in ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'', the TV adaptations of the [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]] stories. Played admirably by a young [[Hugh Laurie]].
* In ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' Leslie's opponent for city council, Bobby Newport, is the son of the man who employs half the town. He is so used to being given everything in life that he has difficulty comprehending someone competing with him. When she runs a mildly negative ad, he complains that it hurt his feelings and asks her to abandon her campaign so he can win. He doesn't understand why she refuses. That's not him getting mad at her for refusing, mind you. That's him ''failing to comprehend the concept'' of someone not wanting to please him.
* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', it's revealed that before becoming a vampire, Spike was once known as William Pratt, a meek, effete young Victorian Gentlemen and [[Momma's Boy]]. His sobriquet of "William the Bloody" actually derives from the fact he wrote bloody awful
* Rachel in ''[[Friends]]'' is presented this way in the beginning of the series. After running out of her own wedding (which was most likely funded by her wealthy parents), Rachel moves into an apartment that her best friend, a working middle class woman, lives in. Rachel is initially shown to be completely clueless in the most basic tasks, such as taking out the garbage or knowing who ordered what in the coffee house. Rachel does get better over time and manages to shed most, if not all, of her twit.
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** [[Suikoden IV|Snowe Vingerhut]] actually ''wants'' to contribute by joining the Gaian Marine Knights. Sadly, he's made captain by virtue of daddy's money and nothing else, and [[Minor Injury Overreaction|doesn't deal well]] [[Never Live It Down|with his first major crisis]]...
*** Have we FORGOTTEN about Schtolteheim Reinbach III!? Like Snowe, he wants to help people. However, he at first simply asks daddy for help. However, he quickly realizes his father to be useless and leaves him, joining you in your quest. While a bit foppish and narcissistic, he is a truly good character and will fight with you, being skilled in sword fighting and magic.
** And ''[[Suikoden V]]'' gives us Euram Barows, a textbook
*** Technically he wasn't always like that. When his brother died he began acting like that to try and cheer up his mother.
* Nobles in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' are mostly useless in gameplay, and make often difficult or impossible demands. [http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Unfortunate_accident Finding ways to kill them off] solves many problems.
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* Milo Taylor of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]''. Dear god, Milo. Let's just say that to call him [[The Ditz]] would be an understatement
* In the story "Heart of the Lion" from ''[[The Wulf Archives]]'', an
== Western Animation ==
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