Cultural depictions of Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, has become a worldwide cultural icon symbolizing strength, genius, and military and political power. Since his death, countless towns, streets, ships, and even cartoon characters have been named after him. At the same time, however, he has become a cliché and a comic figure in popular culture. Today this caricature of Napoleon often overshadows the real historical figure.

However during the Napoleonic Wars he was taken more seriously by the English as a threatening tyrant, poised to invade their island. A nursery rhyme warned children that Bonaparte ravenously ate naughty people. His contracted first name Boney became Bogey and then 'bogeyman'.

The stock character of Napoleon is generally comically short, indignant, and bossy; the literal embodiment of the "petty tyrant." He is often portrayed wearing a comically large bicorne hat, often with a big "N" badge, and shown with one hand tucked inside his coat as in the famous portrait of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David.

Books

 * Napoleon is a character in George Orwell's Animal Farm, who strongly resembles Joseph Stalin.


 * Bernard Cornwell's novel Sharpe's Devil features a meeting between Napoleon, and the fictional Richard Sharpe.


 * He is featured in the manga Eikou no Napoleon – Eroica, written by the manga artist Riyoko Ikeda.

Film and television

 * He appears as a character in the time traveling comedy film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, wherein he discovers a fondness for ice cream


 * Napoleon is a recurring character in Jack of All Trades.


 * The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX character Vice-Chancellor Bonaparte is based on the cliché Napoleon: he is short (a common misconception about Napoleon), pudgy, French, has a short temper, and dresses similar to Napoleon.


 * In the film Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon is a high-school student suffering from extreme social awkwardness. The name 'Napoleon Dynamite' is a pseudonym previously used by Elvis Costello. In the series Robot Chicken, however, Jon Heder (who played Napoleon Dynamite) voiced as Napoleon Bonamite, a cross between Napoleon Dynamite's personality and Bonaparte's outfit, life, and setting.


 * An animated caricature of Napoleon appeared as a semi-regular on the Warner Bros. series Histeria! Here, he spoke like Hervé Villechaize, who also was French and short in stature. Napoleon hates to be reminded of his short stature (in the episode "When Time Collides!", Miss Information mistakes him for a leprechaun), and he also likes to play the tambourine, which he keeps behind his coat (hence why he keeps his hand in it, as he states in "Great Heroes of France").


 * A famous Iranian Novel later turned into a successful tv show My Uncle Napoleon . The main character loves Napoleon so much that he starts to believe he is Napoleon.

Music

 * The Tori Amos song "Josephine" from her 1999 album To Venus and Back is sung from the viewpoint of Napoleon during his unsuccessful invasion of Russia.

Napoleonic delusions of grandeur
Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the most famous men in the Western world. As delusional patients sometimes believe themselves to be an important or grandiose figure (see Delusion), he was a notable object of such delusions. This idea has often been used in popular culture:


 * In the 1925 film Mixed Nuts, Stan Laurel plays a book salesman whose only volume for sale is a biography of Napoleon. When the character receives a blow to the head, he comes to believe is Napoleon and is subsequently admitted to a mental institution.


 * In Asterix and the Big Fight one of the druid Psychoanalytix’s patients has adopted Napoleon typical posture and hat of Napoleon. The nurse comments that no one knows who he thinks he is.


 * In 1966 Napoleon topped the American charts when recording engineer Jerry Samuels renamed himself Napoleon XIV for his record "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!", a song with a theme of mental illness which featured ambulance sirens in the background. He also wrote another less popular song titled "Doin' the Napoleon."


 * In the 1968 episode "The Girl Who Was Death" of the television series The Prisoner, there are several mad scientist villains who appear dressed as Napoleon.


 * In one episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, there is an insane asylum with wards of people organized by delusion--there's the Napoleon Ward, and the King Richard III Ward. In another episode, Napoleon was credited as one of many famous people (including Julius Caesar) who liked to pretend to be mice.


 * In the film Highlander III Connor MacLeod uses a patient who believes himself to be Napoleon to escape a psychiatric ward, MacLeod pretends to be one of Napoleon's soldiers to convince him to help him.


 * In the sci-fi cartoon Futurama, Bender pretends to be a singing, banjo-playing Napoleon in order to fit in at an insane asylum in the episode Insane in the Mainframe.


 * The video game Psychonauts features an inmate named Fred Bonaparte in an insane asylum who is a direct descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte and has multiple personality disorder. Half of him knows of his real identity and the other half thinks he is Napoleon.

Parodies of the cliche
This cliché has itself been parodied:


 * In the Bugs Bunny film Napoleon Bunny-part the actual Napoleon is dragged away by psychiatric attendants, who believe he is delusional.


 * In The Emperor's New Clothes Ian Holm plays Napoleon who stumbles into the grounds of an asylum and finds himself surrounded by other "Napoleons" - he cannot reveal his identity for fear of being grouped with the deluded.

"Napoleon" as a first name
While the popularity of "Napoleon" as a first name never equaled that of other famous conquerors such as "Alexander", it does occasionally occur - for example in the name of El Salvador president José Napoleón Duarte.

Fictional characters named Napoleon include Napoleon 'Bony' Bonaparte, an Australian aboriginal detective created by the writer Arthur Upfield, and Napoleon Solo, a spy from the novel, film and television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E..

Légende napoléonienne