History Main / ChestOfMedals

* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' Koopa's military uniform has tons of medals, as well as spikes.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'''s series 1 finale "[=Me2=]" depicted Rimmer as having earned four medals, which he wears with an exaggerated dress uniform. Surprisingly, each of these medals is a genuine award, though, a lot less surprisingly they're each awarded for every three years that Rimmer has served in the Space Corps.

* The typical [[TheGeneralissimo caudillo]] of a BananaRepublic does this. One of the most famous examples in Latin America is Porfirio Díaz, the authoritarian PresidentForLife of Mexico prior to UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution, wore his medals very often, and sometimes combined it with an [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Porfirio_diaz.jpg/1200px-Porfirio_diaz.jpg equally fancy]] NiceHat.

* In ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin'', Field Marshal Zhukov's ''torso'' is plastered with various medals, of which he's evidently extremely proud. This was actually not all the medals Zhukov was entitled to wear in RealLife, as he [[https://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_06_2012/post-6141-0-28366300-1339777603.jpg actually wore]] [[UpToEleven nearly twice as many]]. His actor noted in an interview that they were going to put even more on him, but he simply wasn't as broad up top as the real Zhukov and they ran out of room.

* In one episode of Creator/HannaBarbera's ''WesternAnimation/BreezlyAndSneezly'', Breezly the polar bear manages to sneak into a fancy dinner held at the Army camp by masquerading as a 10-star general [[UpToEleven (five stars being the highest possible rank)]]. He successfully pulled this off for a while wearing only [[HalfDressedCartoonAnimal the upper half of the uniform]].

* In ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin'', Field Marshal Zhukov's ''torso'' is plastered with various medals, of which he's evidently extremely proud. This was actually not all the medals Zhukov was entitled to wear in RealLife, as he [[https://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_06_2012/post-6141-0-28366300-1339777603.jpg actually wore]] [[UpToEleven nearly twice as many]].

* The standard in the Soviet military and political structure; if you wanted to be recognized within the high command or local Party chapter, then having more medals on your chest than a Christmas Tree has ornaments was ''essential''. Only became more common with the USSR's expanded influence after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, as best shown by the North Korea shot above. For an ideology that deplores personal glory in the wake of collective effort, the commies sure loved their medals. This was exacerbated by the Soviet uniform regulations that ''insisted'' [[ButThouMust that you must]] wear all your decorations at once, this making the "less is more" approach practically impossible (so you have people whose uniforms are [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Kulikov more medal than fabric]]) — you're allowed to wear only ribbons, but still only all at once. Also, Communist ideology, at least in its Soviet version, had absolutely nothing against personal glory, it was against [[SmallNameBigEgo putting oneself above the community]], which a lot of people ''did'' get away even with [[LoopholeAbuse through clever manipulation]]. It was also a result of the fact that most Soviet orders had no classes (it being a classless society and all that), so instead you could be awarded the same order or medal several times.

* In ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin'', Field Marshal Zhukov's ''torso'' is plastered with various medals, of which he's evidently extremely proud. This was actually not all the medals Zhukov was entitled to wear in RealLife, as he [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/3e0c49d8b2985d7dc3fe17c946ccf0aa/tumblr_p7p9q91RHP1rk0k4co1_1280.jpg actually wore]] [[UpToEleven nearly twice as many]].

# It's not that the person hasn't earned all those medals or that they are fake. It's just that on closer inspection they are for the military equivalent of being [[http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/milk-monitor.2766768/ Milk Monitor]] or for ordering other people to do heroic things. These are often found on TheGeneralissimo, which likely has something to do with real-life examples sometimes being described in American slang with the not-very-politically-correct term "Mexican General."[[note]]Likely in reference to General Santa Anna or President Porfirio Diaz, both who had chests of medals.[[/note]]

# It's not that the person hasn't earned all those medals or that they are fake. It's just that on closer inspection they are for the military equivalent of being [[http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/milk-monitor.2766768/ Milk Monitor]] or for ordering other people to do heroic things. These are often found on TheGeneralissimo, which likely has something to do with real-life examples sometimes being described in American slang with the not-very-politically-correct term "Mexican General."

** Floating on the internet somewhere is a (probably Photoshopped) picture of Alabama Coach Nick Saban posing with his championship rings like the page image on DrunkWithPower.

* ''L'ami retrouvé'': The narrator's father, a Jewish UsefulNotes/WW1 veteran living in Germany, wakes up to find a Nazi thug hammering anti-Semitic posters on their front door. He changes into his full uniform (including the many medals he won), and plants himself at attention next to the thug. Intimidated, he leaves.

* A variant shows up in ''WesternAnimation/{{Animalympics}}'' with swimming champ Mark Spritz, a veteran athlete who wears a vast number of ''Olympic''-style gold medals around his neck. Based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Spitz a real person]], incidentally.

* Gen. Patton was an interesting aversion in that he had a huge quantity of medals from his service with Gen. Pershing's expedition to Mexico, and his service in WWI and WWII (the top ranking officers got a lot of bling from various countries afterwards), but he hated putting all of them on at once. There's supposedly only [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNkvemDYDFo/S8zHgY1FvaI/AAAAAAAAAv8/y9ls2MlhMd0/s1600/8patton_in_color.jpg one picture]], taken in his own backyard at the insistence of his wife, showing Patton with all his medals.
* Creator/AudieMurphy, who earned every decoration for valor that America could grant plus several French and Belgian decorations, and was often described as America's most decorated soldier of that war. He was [[HumbleHero uncomfortable with the fame this brought him]], but did believe that the Army was entitled to use him for promotional and recruiting purposes. ''However'', Murphy rarely wore all his decorations at once and most photos of him in uniform only show him with a fraction of the awards he was entitled to[[note]]the famous publicity shot that's used as his page image here was hastily thrown together when the uniform he meant to wear didn't arrive in time, hence the awkward positioning of the medals on his chest[[/note]]. The ones he did wear grabbed the attention of everyone who knew what they were looking at.
* Notably averted by the British military.[[note]]Except for very senior officers and uniformed Royals. Who drip with golden bling when the State occasion calls for it. Regard description of Lord Mountbatten below.[[/note]] It gives out medals for campaigns and exceptional acts during battle, so most British servicemembers only wear one or two campaign medals/ribbons on their uniforms and even those with several years of service will only have one row compared to the chestful of medals their American counterparts can accrue even in a short career. Any British servicemember who has a chest full of medals is certain to have had a truly eventful career and be a certified badass[[note]]or a member of the Royal Logistical Corps or Royal Army Medical Corps, whose personnel are frequently seconded to other units and get bounced around from theatre of operation to theatre of operation, thus accruing multiple campaign medals in a short time[[/note]].

** [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MarshalGeorgyZhukov_8757.jpg Marshal Georgy Zhukov]], said to be the most decorated officer in all Russian history, who earned all but one of his medals[[note]]His last Hero medal, which he received for turning sixty (which Brezhnev later adopted), as well as Operation Whirlwind, [[KickTheDog sending tanks against "counterrevolutionaries" in Hungary]][[/note]] due to FourStarBadass-worthy accomplishments not only against [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the Wehrmacht]] in the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Great Patriotic War]], but also against Japanese forces during the 1930s invasion of Mongolia. [[note]]Not the least of which is forcing Japan to stay away from Russia by leading the Russians alongside the Mongolians at Khalkhin Gol to beat the Japanese in 1939, and (through no actual intention of his own) convincing the Japanese generals that '''all of Russia's generals are as much of {{Four Star Badass}}es as he proved himself was against them'''.[[/note]] Did we mention that he did all of this with a Soviet military that was more or less at its ''weakest'' in its entire 70 years of history, the ranks of its experienced officers (many of whom were UsefulNotes/WW1 veterans) having been so devastated by Stalin's Great Purges in the '30s? And mostly against Stalin's ([[VetinariJobSecurity who envied him, but could not risk touching him]]) personal desire?.
** In the 1970s and 1980s, Soviet leader UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev was the punchline of countless [[RussianHumour Soviet jokes]] ridiculing his love for medals, due to him being perhaps the [[MilesGloriosus most notorious Type 3 in the Soviet Union]]. He even awarded himself with the Order of Victory that was only given to the greatest WWII military leaders[[note]]That's a platinum star covered with diamonds and five TreasureIsBiggerInFiction sized rubies which, by law, was only to be awarded for strategic scale critical victories. It was awarded -- legitimately -- only 19 times, 14 of those times to Soviet figures (Zhukov, Vasilevski, and Stalin himself were given two awards of the medal) and 5 times to other Allied generals (specifically Montgomery, Eisenhower, King Michael I of Romania -- he was the last living recipient, dying in 2017 --, Michał Rola-Żymierski, and Josip Broz Tito). All of these awards occurred in the summer and early fall of 1945. Brezhnev awarded himself the Order, making the number of awards an even 20, in 1978.[[/note]], despite his own modest WWII record.[[note]]Despite gemostrating genuine bravery, he served the whole war as a PoliticalOfficer, not a field commander, and was discharged at the end of the war as a Major General, certainly not entitled to such a lofty award.[[/note]] Like Georgy Zhukov, he had four Hero of the Soviet Union stars and a star of the Hero of Socialist Labour, as well as dozens upon dozens of other decorations that he, to put it mildly, [[BlingOfWar didn't entirely deserve and wore very prominently]]. After he died, [[ObviousRulePatch the rules were changed so you couldn't get awards for things like birthdays]], and his Order of Victory was specially posthumously revoked from him. In spite of all this, he's still well-regarded today. Some of the jokes include:

---> "Brezhnev is studying possible ways to receive the two medals he doesn't have: Mother Heroine[[note]]A medal awarded exclusively to women who had raised [[MassiveNumberedSiblings at least 10 children]][[/note]] and Hero City[[note]]awarded to cities for outstanding heroism during World War 2[[/note]]."

* [[http://i.imgur.com/pkG0tYm.jpg Admiral of the Fleet Louis Mountbatten]] wore 13 rows of service ribbons that rose so high that his dolphin badge was practically on his shoulder. [[http://www.mylusciouslife.com/wp-content/uploads/galleries/post-20868/full/Admiral%20Lord%20Louis%20Mountbatten.jpg When wearing his decorations as medals]], the bar actually extended off his chest enough to get in the way of his left arm. Plus, he wore the badges of four chivalric orders, the Garter sash, and a number of medals around his neck. As a professional naval officer in two world wars with exceptional service in combat in many areas, and as an extended member of the royal family with all the ceremonial awards that typically come with it, he is likely entitled to wear more awards than anyone else in British military history.

* [[TheGeneralissimo Generalissimo]] UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek ''really'' [[http://totallyhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Chiang_Kai-shek.jpg liked this trope]]. As so did Qing general and one-time Emperor [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/YuanShikaiPresidente1915.jpg Yuan Shikai]] and Manchurian warlord [[http://totallyhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Zhang_Zuolin.jpg Zhang Zuolin]].

** For your information, images of Kirk and Data's awards (among others) can be found [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Starfleet_decorations here]].

** Tom Brady of the New England Patriots/Tampa Bay Buccaneers can claim to have a fist of medals, since as the end of the 2021/22 postseason, he is the only person to ever have seven Super Bowl Champion rings, along with nine AFC Champion rings, one NFC Champion ring and ''sixteen'' division championships (including winning ten in a row, making the Patriots the first NFL team and only second American professional sports team to pull that off - the first was the Atlanta Braves in baseball).

** Tom Brady of the New England Patriots/Tampa Bay Buccaneers can claim to have a fist of medals, since at the end of the the 2020/21 postseason, he is the first person to ever have seven Super Bowl Champion rings, along with nine AFC Champion rings, one NFC Champion ring and ''fifteen'' division championships (including winning ten in a row, making the Patriots the first NFL team and only second American professional sports team to pull that off - the first was the Atlanta Braves in baseball).

** In the 1970s and 1980s, Soviet leader UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev was the punchline of countless [[RussianHumour Soviet jokes]] ridiculing his love for medals, due to him being perhaps the [[MilesGloriosus most notorious Type 3 in the Soviet Union]]. He even awarded himself with the Order of Victory that was only given to the greatest WWII military leaders[[note]]That's a platinum star covered with diamonds and five TreasureIsBiggerInFiction sized rubies which, by law, was only to be awarded for strategic scale critical victories. It was awarded -- legitimately -- only 19 times, 14 of those times to Soviet figures (Zhukov, Vasilevski, and Stalin himself were given two awards of the medal) and 5 times to other Allied generals (specifically Montgomery, Eisenhower, King Michael I of Romania -- he was the last living recipient, dying in 2017 --, Michał Rola-Żymierski, and Josip Broz Tito). All of these awards occurred in the summer and early fall of 1945. Brezhnev awarded himself the Order, making the number of awards an even 20, in 1978.[[/note]], despite his own modest WWII record. Like Georgy Zhukov, he had four Hero of the Soviet Union stars and a star of the Hero of Socialist Labour, as well as dozens upon dozens of other decorations that he, to put it mildly, [[BlingOfWar didn't entirely deserve and wore very prominently]]. After he died, [[ObviousRulePatch the rules were changed so you couldn't get awards for things like birthdays]], and his Order of Victory was specially posthumously revoked from him. In spite of all this, he's still well-regarded today. Some of the jokes include:

---> "Did you hear that Brezhnev survived an assassination attempt yesterday? His medals shielded him." "But I heard the assassin shot him for five minutes with a machine gun." "What is your point?"

** In another non-military example, the most decorated Olympian of all time, Micheal Phelps, occasionally poses with [[http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2016/0621/r94984_800x800_1-1.jpg many medals across his chest.]] Usually only those medals won at a single Games, however; if he ever tried to pose with ''all 28'' from his career, he wouldn't have enough body to hold them (and cutting it to only golds wouldn't help much, since 23 of those 28 are gold[[note]]Sports Illustrated once posted a picture of him wearing all his gold medals, which formed a solid rectangle of Olympic Gold which stretched from just inside each of his nipples widthwise, and vertically from nipple height to just above his navel[[/note]]). Other highly-winning Olympians like Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles [[http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/08/michael-phelps-had-to-teach-katie-ledecky-how-to-wear-multiple-medals also wear multiple medal stacks.]]

---> "Brezhnev is studying possible ways to receive the two medals he doesn't have: Mother Heroine[[note]]A medal awarded exclusively to women who had raised [[MassiveNumberedSiblings at least 10 children]][[/note]] and Hero City."

* In one episode of Creator/HannaBarbera's ''Breezly and Sneezly'', Breezly the polar bear manages to sneak into a fancy dinner held at the Army camp by masquerading as a 10-star general [[UpToEleven (five stars being the highest possible rank)]]. He successfully pulled this off for a while wearing only [[HalfDressedCartoonAnimal the upper half of the uniform]].

* In the BadFuture Knightmare at the end of ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', ComicBook/TheJoker is shown mocking this trope by covering his chest with police badges to go with the SWAT vest he's wearing. Then again given that it's the Joker, [[FridgeHorror he might well have got them the hard way...]]

* In ''Shiva 3000'' someone witnesses the [[BeastMan Baboon Warrior]], a national hero of India, and initially assumes he's wearing a glittering vest, until realizing he's actually wearing all the medals he's been awarded.

** Tom Brady of the New England Patriots can claim to have a fist of medals, since at the end of the the 2018/19 postseason, he is the first person to ever have six Super Bowl Champion rings, along with three AFC Champion rings and ''fifteen'' division championships (including winning ten in a row, making the Patriots the first NFL team and only second American professional sports team to pull that off - the first was the Atlanta Braves in baseball).