History Main / UpperClassTwit

A SubTrope of IdleRich.

** ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'': Bertie Wooster -- so archetypal that this trope could have been named for him -- whose skills are limited to stealing policemen's helmets and claiming to actually have legitimately won the Bible knowledge competition in school. Most of his friends are fellow members of the idle rich and are even ''less'' intelligent. Thank goodness for [[TheJeeves his man Jeeves]]. 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. In the Creator/StephenFry / Creator/HughLaurie TV adaptation, he's also an excellent piano player (mainly because [[TheCastShowOff Hugh Laurie is an excellent piano player]]). Too bad he's too stupid to make something out of it. There is a catch about Wooster being stupid: He's the narrator of the stories. He is at least an extremely articulate idiot.

On the off chance that the Upper-Class Twit has a job, it will usually be a sinecure with no apparent duties, though some may get some sort of reasonably prestigious white-collar position handed to them, usually by someone who owes their family a favor. If this does happen, they may sometimes rise to the occasion, get their act together, and become a valued member of the organization, but they are more likely to crash and burn after a few months in and get unceremoniously fired for their incompetence (if their family does not have enough pull) or become a department-ruining scourge and pox on the organization who cannot be touched for fear of losing their family's favor (if they do have that kind of pull). A Twit in a position authority may become a PointyHairedBoss, but that is less common than one might expect: a PointyHairedBoss has responsibilities which he bungles, while a true Twit has no responsibilities at all. To become a ModernMajorGeneral is a more respectable career path for a brainless young aristocrat. An older one, [[GenteelInterbellumSetting especially in 1920s-1950s settings that involve murders in libraries]], may well be a retired Major or Colonel, being referred to by that rank. If this character actually ends up in an active military position they'll often end up as the EnsignNewbie, or worse yet a GeneralFailure. In some cases, the Twit might become a RemittanceMan, who is paid by his relatives to be a Twit somewhere else far, far away, where they may or may not make something of themselves.

** [[TropeNamers Named]] for the sketch [[https://youtu.be/VVYA3oTG8fg "Upper-Class Twit of the Year,"]] where five Upper-Class Twits compete in events like "Kicking the Beggar" and "Taking the Bras Off the Debutantes," finishing with the winner being the first to [[BlackComedy shoot himself]]. Funnily enough, second place is taken by one of the twits who was accidentally shot to death by another one, though the contestant who managed to die long before the others wasn't eligible for the winner's podium and only gets the accolade of the announcer's enthusiasm.

On the off chance that the Upper-Class Twit has a job, it will usually be a sinecure with no apparent duties, though some may get some sort of reasonably prestigious white-collar position handed to them, usually by someone who owes their family a favor. If this does happen, they may sometimes rise to the occasion, get their act together, and become a valued member of the organization, but they are more likely to crash and burn after a few months in and get unceremoniously fired for their incompetence (if their family does not have enough pull) or become a department-ruining scourge and pox on the organization who cannot be touched for fear of losing their family's favor (if they do have that kind of pull). A Twit in a position authority may become a PointyHairedBoss, but that is less common than one might expect: a PointyHairedBoss has responsibilities which he bungles, while a true Twit has no responsibilities at all. To become a ModernMajorGeneral is a more respectable career path for a brainless young aristocrat. An older one, [[GenteelInterbellumSetting especially in 1920s-1950s settings that involve murders in libraries]], may well be a retired Major or Colonel, being referred to by that rank. If this character actually ends up in an active military position they'll often end up as the EnsignNewbie, or worse yet a GeneralFailure.

* ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'': Reiko, the noblewoman Kyoshiro is hired to teach French to.
She's under the impression that Kyoushiro is in love with her because he told her "I love you" one day when they were studying. However, the event actually went like this.

** Also worth mentioning is Gino Weinberg, one of the Knights of the Round, who's somewhat reminiscent of ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub''[='s=] Tamaki, both in physical appearance and general cluelessness about the workings of "commoner life". However, unlike his fellow Britannians, he's cheerful about it and eager to learn more.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

A popular subtype and the female counterpart to the usually male Upper-Class Twit is the ''Airhead Heiress'' -- a young, brainless, fashion slave party girl heiress. [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Any resemblance to Paris Hilton or one of the Kardashians is purely coincidental]]. Less wealthy or successful examples are typically small-time would-be influencers living dysfunctional and/or outright pathetic lives (typically sustained by nothing but a trust fund and possibly an [=OnlyFans=] account, with a lifestyle that is typically far beyond their means) who are so deep in the depths of narcissistic self-delusion that they cannot see that most of their followers are there out of pity or amusement.

* Due to generations of being cared for by Awakened ({{Mummy}}) servants, human nobles of Vabbi in ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' are incapable of almost everything. For one quest in the Domain of Vabbi, you serve as a butler to them and teach them how to do basic household tasks like gardening and cleaning up after themselves, and amusing them by making [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible "art"]] out of mundane junk. One NPC has no idea how to empty a chamber pot, with [[ToiletHumor unfortunate results.]]

* Chloe from ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' is actively cruel to anyone she thinks is below her. Which is basically everyone except her classmate Adrien (a fashion model). She leans on her dad (the Mayor of Paris) to get basically whatever she wants, all while actively thinking that everyone loves her.

** Even [[TheHero Twilight Sparkle]] strays into this trope at times, as she's strongly implied to have come from money and while she's academically brilliant, [[SociallyAwkwardHero her social and interpersonal skills left much to be desired]]. [[CharacterDevelopment She got better.]]

* Just about every character played by Penelope Keith is a likable but dim upper-class twitess.

** Lord Weiromon. He's the guy who always insists that the correct solution to any and all of life's problems, bar none, is a cavalry charge. [[BladeOnAStick Pikemen]]? Cavalry Charge! [[ProudWarriorRace Spear-wielding warrior race]]? Cavalry Charge! [[FunctionalMagic Spellcasters]] [[GiantFlyer mounted on giant pterodactyl things]] [[PlayingWithFire that can explode you from half a league away]]? Cavalry Charge! One main character, upon hearing one of Weiramon's suggestions in a later book, commented to the effect of "How are you still bloody alive?!?" Between this tendency and his miraculous ability to survive unscathed, it's been speculated that Weiromon is actually a Darkfriend whose purpose is to get as many soldiers as possible killed so that they can't stand against the armies of the Dark One. [[spoiler:''Confirmed'' (as of ''Towers of Midnight'').]]

* Arguably the case for Clayton Endicott III, Creator/ReneAuberjonois's snobbish character in ''Series/{{Benson}}'', though like Winchester on ''[[Series/{{MASH}} M*A*S*H]]'' he was periodically relieved of ButtMonkey duties and revealed as a solid friend. Auberjonois has been cast this way on other occasions, though notably not in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' where the trope was applied to Bashir instead (see above).

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': It's clear that Reginald Lannister has spent his life in easy comfort, acting entitled and irritable to the point of bitching to Tywin.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Dr. Julian Bashir starts as a bit of this. Class is downplayed in the Trekverse, but his manner as a freshly commissioned officer (with significant rank due to his medical field) is contrasted almost immediately against the enlisted-man character of Miles O'Brien. In his ''second scene'' he expounds on how he's excited to be doing "frontier medicine" with primitive equipment -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOWQnX6VOyo in front of his new executive officer for whom the "frontier" is her war-torn homeworld.]] Luckily, he undergoes CharacterDevelopment--but not until after an early episode gives him a perversely enjoyable NoHoldsBarredBeatdown. This is an interesting case because Bashir is ''not'' TheDitz, instead being an InsufferableGenius, but still fits the character type well because he's often lacking in ''social'' intelligence in the early episodes (putting his foot in his mouth at least once an episode).
** This ended up paying off both behind the scenes and in the series. Behind the scenes, Creator/AlexanderSiddig has said that he intentionally played up the twittiness of Bashir at first because he counted on a Trek series to be a LongRunner and wanted to give the character room to actually develop in a way his predecessors hadn't; this worked, as Bashir grew much more popular as the show went on. Within the story, the fifth-season revelation that [[spoiler:Bashir had been (involuntarily) genetically enhanced as a child]] cast his earlier actions in a new light, as [[spoiler:being an arrogant twit meant that people would tend to be more annoyed by than suspicious of Bashir's remarkable abilities]].

* In ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' 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.

* An American example can be found in Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher detective novels. Thatcher's immediate superior, the president of the Sloan Guarantee Trust, is Bradford Withers, and he is perfectly useless as a bank president. Fortunately, he's not particularly interested in banking, being far more concerned with spending money, rather than making it, on upper-class pursuits like yachts, ski-ing, professional sports, ''long'' holidays in far-flung resorts and just about anything else that the New England upper crust are into. When he does show up, especially at certain times of the year when he'd normally be far, far away from Wall Street, Thatcher and his subordinates start to worry and prepare for the worst -- and they're usually justified. Withers also has at least one nephew who looks to be taking after Uncle Prez...

** [[TropeNamers Named]] for the sketch [[https://youtu.be/VVYA3oTG8fg "Upper-Class Twit of the Year"]], where five Upper-Class Twits compete in events like "Kicking the Beggar" and "Taking the Bras Off the Debutantes," finishing with the winner being the first to [[BlackComedy shoot himself]]. Funnily enough, second place is taken by one of the twits who was accidentally shot to death by another one though the contestant who managed to die long before the others wasn't eligible for the winner's podium and only gets the accolade of the announcer's enthusiasm.

** There were many other examples, such as the family in the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gwXJsWHupg Tinny Words]]" sketch, who have nothing better to do all day than sit around classifying words as either tinny- or woody-sounding. From the other side, in the "Flying Lessons" sketch, the man [[ImplausibleDeniability claiming he's flying and not hanging from a wire]] avoids arguing the point by turning it into class warfare:

* Another Kojiro: the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' character [[{{Woolseyism}} otherwise known as James]] was this before [[RunawayFiance running away to escape]] an ArrangedMarriage. [[TheDitz Now he's just a twit]]. The 4Kids dub makes him something of a SouthernGentleman with shades of English aristocracy (he enjoys {{tea|LovingBrits}} and crumpets).

* Chase Brenton from ''Webcomic/Rain2010'' is a charismatic yet slimy and idiotic serial abuser. He does not have a set job, with his financial needs being covered by his rich family. He uses that wealth and power to come across as respectable in order to charm teenage girls into falling for him.