Basic Trope: Someone who holds a position, possibly made-up, that has no authority or power.
- Straight: Bob is the self-proclaimed "Emperor of the Neighborhood". He tries to boss his neighbors around, but he holds no actual power.
- Exaggerated: Bob calls himself the "Supreme Dictator of the Universe", but he doesn't even have any power over himself... somehow.
- Downplayed: Bob's self-proclaimed title is Just the First Citizen.
- Justified:
- Bob is a Cloud Cuckoolander.
- Bob is the 'crown heir' to an island nation that sank centuries ago, but he, like his ancestors, makes no mention of the fact that it is sunken.
- Inverted: Bob rules Tropeland from the shadows, not having any official title.
- Subverted: Bob's title turns out to be real.
- Double Subverted:
- This is a lie made up by Bob's prankster neighbor, Charles.
- 'King' Bob refuses to acknowledge that he no longer has a nation to rule over.
- But it only denotes him as Master of Ceremony of Carnival.note
- Parodied: Bob claims to be "King of the French Republic" and wears a silly costume.
- Zig Zagged: Bob is not taken very seriously, but now and then he reveals that he has real authority.
- Averted: No made-up positions are shown to exist.
- Enforced: Rule of Funny
- Lampshaded: "Why do you insist on calling yourself Emperor? No one's ever going to follow the crazy rules you made up."
- Invoked: Bob wants to boss his friends around, so he makes up a title and hopes that some of them will fall for it.
- Exploited: Bob attempts to make Alice marry him.
- Defied: Charles locks Bob into a closet, preventing him from imposing his made-up rules on the neighborhood.
- Discussed: "No, I really am the Emperor. I certainly didn't make it up just so I could make the neighborhood kids stop playing in front of my house."
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Drama: Bob is the Puppet King of an authoritarian regime, and although he's supposed to have the ability to reign in his Evil Chancellor, in practice he's powerless to stop them from running roughshod over the people.
- Played For Laughs: David obeys Bob's every command; he's either Too Dumb to Live, or just playing along as part of Bob's act.
- Deconstructed: Bob makes his claims to the wrong person, and ends up arrested by the repressive government of his country.
- Reconstructed: The dictator of Bob's country thinks that it's Actually Pretty Funny, and pardons him.
Bob, the Emperor of Tropeland, commands you to go back to Authority in Name Only! ...okay, he can't actually order you around, but perhaps you could humor him?
