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Upper Class Twit: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Prince_George2_378.jpg|link=Black Adder|
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Interestingly there is a heroic variation called [[Stiff Upper Lip]] in which a character acts like an [[Upperclass Twit]] in stressful situations to display composure and provide a sort of [[Badass Boast]]. The difference is that an [[Upperclass Twit]] is annoying though sometimes forgivable in a character you otherwise like, whereas a [[Stiff Upper Lip]] has the potential to make a CMOA. The same character can be both, of course.
A [[Sub
Compare [[Valley Girl]] (who doesn't have to be rich, among other differences), [[Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense]], [[Nouveau Riche]] (who starts out poor and strikes it rich, and is crass about it).
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{{quote| '''Weiramon:''' Excellent plan, my liege. Shall I charge at the opposing army?<br />
'''Rand:''' No, that's a corn field. }}
* Ippolit Kuragin in ''[[War and Peace]]''. A minor character compared to his siblings [[Casanova|Anatole]] and [[Hello, Nurse!|Helene]], whose one moment in the sun is during a soirée in which he has a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] moment:
{{quote| "The road to Warsaw, perhaps," Prince Ippolit said loudly and unexpectedly. Everyone turned to him, not understanding what he meant to say by that. Prince Ippolit also looked around with merry surprise. Like everyone else, he did not understand the meaning of the words he had spoken. In the course of his diplomatic career, he had noticed more than once that words spoken suddenly like that turned out to be very witty, and, just in case, he had spoken these words, the first that came to his tongue.}}
* The aristocrats in the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Jingo|Jingo]]!''. The city-state of Ankh-Morpork is facing a war with Klatch ([[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] to the Middle East). The Klatchian generals have lots of experience with war, while the Morporkian aristocrats have none, but the aristocrats wave that aside with the claim that the ability to lead war is ''hereditary'', and their ancestors were great generals. The Morporkian soldiers have neither training nor experience, while the Klatchian soldiers have plenty of both (and outnumber the Morporkians to boot), but the aristocrats wave that aside with the claim that the Klatchians are savages and won't stand against the superior Morporkians.
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* Sir Percy Blakeney uses this as an [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] disguise to hid the fact that he is [[The Scarlet Pimpernel (Literature)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]. That, and it really ticks off his arch enemy, Chauvelin...which he really, really enjoys doing.
* Many characters from ''[[Dead Souls]]'', esp. Manilov.
* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] periodically by [[The Saint|Simon Templar]] when he's baiting scam artists, since the ideal quarry of a scammer is a) rich and b) stupid. One such disguise was described as "an asinine young man [[High
* Oliver Rushton in ''[[Sorcery and Cecelia (Literature)|Sorcery and Cecelia]]''. His idea of riveting conversation is to discuss the knotting of a tie.
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** 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)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' would have been like if Jeeves used his powers for evil.
* Most of the members of the Bluth family in ''[[Arrested Development (TV)|Arrested Development]]'' fall into this trope to varying degrees, with Gob and Buster being the strongest examples. The show itself is largely based around exploiting this trope and how wealthy twits deal with being separated from their money (i.e. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|poorly]]).
* Tim Nice-But-Dim from the ''[
* London Tipton from ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' is a good example of the heiress subtype (a hotel heiress named after a European capital... hmm). If she was bit crueler and considerably smarter she might qualify as the [[Rich Bitch]], but her self absorption seems to stem more from being [[The Ditz|one of the stupidest characters on television]] than any intentional meanness.
** Well, [[Lonely Rich Kid|her father, Mr. Tipton]] is never shown on screen and will frequently be busy with business dealings instead of spending Christmas or other special occasions with her daughter. The fact that London also seems to have a [[Missing Mom]] does not help matters.
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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 Banks's 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 - in front of people for whom the "frontier" is their homeworld[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOWQnX6VOyo .] Luckily, he undergoes [[Character Development]]--but not until after an early episode gives him a perversely enjoyable [[No
* [[Nathan Barley|Nathan Barley'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 ''[[Gilligans Island]]'' are a rare married example.
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* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|Prince Blueblood]] is what happens when you combine this with [[Prince Charmless]]. [[Jerkass|Whimper]].
** If he was from "normal" royalty, that'd be bad enough. But Blueblood is the great-great-great-great-great-great(and so forth) nephew of [[God-Emperor|Princess Celestia]], Goddess of the Sun. So he is literally a divine being.
* Beamer and Coco Van Der Creame, aunt and uncle of the puppies, from ''[[
* From [[The Critic]], Jay Sherman's father Franklin can come across as an upper class twit, until he reveals himself as being a [[Cloudcuckoolander]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Upperclass Twit]]
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