Napoleon Bonaparte Was a TERRIBLE PERSON

About

Napoleon Bonaparte Was a TERRIBLE PERSON is a copypasta that originated from a historian appearing to express his concern that the 2023 film Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Ridley Scott, would glorify the deeds of the title character. The tweet, posted in mid-July 2023, was ribbed for making an objectively obvious point by many online, causing some to repeat the copypasta with other obviously villainous individuals or more humorous characters.

Origin

On July 10th, 2023, the first trailer for Ridley Scott's Napoleon released online (shown below).

On July 11th, 2023, Twitter user and Portsmouth University historian David Andress posted a series of tweets aggressively telling users that Napoleon was a "terrible person."^[1] The first tweet, which became the basis of a copypasta, read, "Napoleon Bonaparte was a TERRIBLE PERSON. He was a TYRANT. He betrayed every ideal he ever claimed to stand for. He was a shameless pathological liar who killed millions of people for his own insatiable vanity. He is literally one of the worst people in history." The post gained over 390 retweets, 4,200 quote tweets and 3,200 likes in one day (shown below).

Spread

As the tweet was ribbed online, some were inspired to turn it into a copypasta, using it to joke about other characters in pop culture. For example, on July 11th, 2023, user @thepwrofgod^[2] tweeted it in response to the announcement of the Wonka trailer, gaining over 320 retweets and 4,300 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Also that day, Twitter user @diawlectical^[3] did the same, gaining over 140 retweets and 1,800 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Other examples include a July 11th post by Twitter user @MaceAhWindu^[4] referencing Emperor Palpatine, gaining over 80 retweets and 1,700 likes in one day (shown below, left). That same day, user @derpo377^[5] posted another example referring to Paul Atreides from Dune, gaining over 60 retweets and 750 likes in the same time frame (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References