Hi all

I'm looking to create a character who is something of a posturing buffoon. Does anybody know anyone like that in their personal acquaintance and if so could they give some tips as to what traits he or she might exhibit. Especially if he or she is a bit rattled.

Thanks.

Pete

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My instinct tells me that this character might also be a bit unbalanced.

Pete, do you mean like an eccentric?

Katerina

Buffoon - blundering physically or mentally, bull-in-a-china-shop, no self-knowledge, physically clumsy, large gesturing, frequent big laugh, putting-foot-in-it, tactless, always says the obvious,

Posturing - doesn't know he's all those things above: uses fancy words wrong, talks elaborately as if full of knowledge about subjects but actually ignorant, perhaps self-consciously I'm-a-plain-man or hypochondriac or hyper-sensitive: 'I'm afraid I'm just a...'

Interesting combination to try to fit into one person... Worth looking at Dickens? - sounds like his kind of character.

Emma

Oh now I'm thinking immediately of a particular individual, and yes, Emma, sadly such people are not as fictional as we would like them to be.

So, the person I'm describing has many of the attributes you mentioned:

The "posturing" part of him would definitely involve lots of name-dropping of famous or important people or companies he is or has been involved with, plus a large portion of "talking himself up" by exaggerating his responsibilities and achievements.

The "buffoon" part comes from an unknowing propensity towards malapropisms (ie saying "Maradona" rather than "prima donna"), continually using big words and trendy vocabulary he doesn't really understand, and constantly misunderstanding the point of any discussion he is involved in.

He was, also, as it happens, physically huge and rather clumsy.

And while I remember, he also had the habit of inappropriately launching into sexual discussions at quite the wrong moment, for example telling a room full of work colleagues he hardly knew that it was a shame that such-and-such a girl was being made redundant because (launches into long salivating discussion of her physical attributes here while people stare at him in uncomfortable disbelief).

Would David Brent from The Office count as a "posturing buffoon" ?

Would David Brent from The Office count as a "posturing buffoon" ?

YES!

I think it's the posturing that leads to much of the rest - thinking more about trying to sound clever/sophisticated/earthy than actually what he's saying, or what others will think of it.

That's what made the David Brent character so convincing, I think: that the platitudes, the tactlessness, the glorious inevitability that he would make a prat of himself... it all stemmed from that total lack of self-knowledge and objectivity.

And I do think of buffoons as big - as in tall or broad, not necessarily fat. Probably unfair, I know. [pause to imagine small narrow buffoon...]

Emma

I've worked with a couple of posturing buffoons.

Posturing buffoon number one was hugely incompetent but clearly thought himself brilliant. I think he is pretty much as Griff has already described but I thought I would mention a couple of things.
- He had a mug with a wolf on which, I like to think, his wife had given to him in the shared delusion that this was his work persona.
- He would be useless at discussions of important issues but good at deciding when inconsequential things were suddenly important. For instance, he suddenly decided that changing the firm's logo was a really important issue and failed to pick up on the fact that it wasn't until somebody actually had to put it in writing.

I actually have a soft spot for posturing buffoon number two. I think he would be a very good friend to have even though he is largely an idiot at the workplace. He was given to grand public statements of self pity and over-defensiveness about his work performance 'I know you all hate me' and words to that effect. His moment of shining glory was during an interview in an in-house paper when he made a comment that clearly implied that he hated everybody he worked with. I think he may have thought he had actually made a joke because he repeated the line later on.

S

I have this mental image of a large monkey doing yoga positions.

- He would be useless at discussions of important issues but good at deciding when inconsequential things were suddenly important. For instance, he suddenly decided that changing the firm's logo was a really important issue and failed to pick up on the fact that it wasn't until somebody actually had to put it in writing.

Oh yes, you've nailed that point! Buffoons love that kind of thing. "My" buffoon once organised several lengthy meetings devoted to deciding exactly what email signatures everyone in the team should use...

Thanks everyone

That's given me as many laughs as ideas!

Pete