From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Illeism is the act of referring to oneself in the third person.

Well-known illeists

Real

• Conan O' Brien, although he often does this as a joke.
• Roland Burris
• Julius Caesar, the first and perhaps best-known illeist, in The Gallic War.
• Norman Mailer refers to himself in the third person throughout The Fight, explaining why he has chosen to do so at the beginning of the book.^[1]
• Bob Dole frequently referred to himself in the third person during the 1996 United States presidential election campaign.^[2]
• Pelé^[3]
• Charles de Gaulle^[4]
• Joe Biden has been known, in some debates and speeches, to have referred to himself in the third person.
• Some Biblical scholars believe Jesus refers to himself in the third person (as the "Son of Man") through much of the Gospels.^[2] (This interpretation of that phrase is disputed. See son of man for a full discussion.)
• Former WWE wrestler, The Rock, referred to himself in third person during his wrestling career.
• Geraldo Rivera is a well known illeist.
• Baseball's all-time record holder for stolen bases, Rickey Henderson, often refers to himself in third person.
• Former NBA star Karl Malone often referred to himself in the third person during interviews.
• Boxers Roy Jones, Lennox Lewis and Floyd Mayweather occasionally lapse into illeism.
• Joseph Stalin often referred to himself as "us", "we", or "Stalin".
• John Smith, famous for helping settle Jamestown colony, referred to himself in the third person in his books.
• Paulo Maluf ^[5]
• Andrzej Lepper
• Saddam Hussein
• Anthony Garotinho ^[5]
• Richard Nixon often referred to himself as "The President."
• Shaquille O'Neal refers to himself by his numerous nicknames.
• Bobo Newsom, Major League Baseball pitcher from 1929-1953 referred to himself, and everyone else, as "Bobo."
• Public Enemy rapper and reality TV personality Flavor Flav
• Tyrone Willingham College Football coach
• Billy Davies football manager, currently of Nottingham Forest, formerly of Derby County and Preston North End ^[6].
• Gregg Easterbrook, sports journalist, refers to himself as "TMQ" throughout his weekly Tuesday Morning Quarterback column.^[7]
• Chad Kroeger, lead singer of Nickelback is known by referring himself as "Chad" in concerts.
• Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, rapper
• Fidel Castro
• Nastia Luikin, Olympic American gymnast

Fictional

• Kimi Todo from Fruits Basket refers to herself in the third person. It is revealed in a flashback that she has apparently been using illeism since middle school.
• Yuiko Hawatari from Loveless (manga) refers to herself in the third person, until Ritsuka taught her how to refer to herself as "I", "me", and "myself".
• Gregory from The Tale Of Despereaux
• Elmo from Sesame Street refers to himself in the third person. In response to the challenge that this will not teach children proper English usage, the Sesame Workshop states that this behavior "mimics the behavior of many preschoolers".^[8]
• Tarzan
• Cerebus the Aardvark is a well-known independent comic book character who usually refers to himself in the third person.
• Dracula from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
• Duffman, Gil, Groundskeeper Willie and Disco Stu from The Simpsons all refer to themselves in the third person.
• Scrubs character Todd refers to himself as "The Todd".
• Friday Night Lights character Smash Williams refers to himself as "The Smash."
• Foxxy Love of the animated series Drawn Together frequently refers to herself in the third person.
• Comics character The Hulk is famous for referring to himself in the third person in well-known phrases such as "Hulk smash!"
• DC Comics character Solomon Grundy, who often repeats the line"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday" and other lines from the nursery poem of the same name.
• Russell Northrop from the video game Bully frequently refers to himself in the third person with phrases such as "Russell smash!", which is probably a reference to The Hulk.
• Golden Sparrow from "The Forbidden Kingdom" always refers to herself as "she" (until the moment before her death when she said "I thank you").
• The supervillain Dr. Doom is famous for almost always referring to himself in the third person (one of the few exceptions being when he introduces himself with the line "I am Doom.") This trait has been mocked by superheroes such as the Human Torch and Spider-Man.
• House-elves in the Harry Potter books, refer to themselves in the third person. Dobby, who is one of them, almost always refers Harry in the third person.
• Rolf from Ed, Edd n Eddy sometimes speaks in 3rd person. This may be because of his lack of English knowledge.
• Numbuh five from Codename: Kids Next Door, an American animated children's cartoon, refers to herself in the third person on multiple occasions
• Jeff Bridges's character in the movie The Big Lebowski, Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, refers to himself as "The Dude".
• Fictional columnist Smoove B from The Onion refers to himself in the third person and sometimes turns his name into a verb to inform women that they will be "Smooved."
• Jimmy from "The Jimmy" episode of Seinfeld refers to himself in the third person, causing Elaine Benes to mistake him for someone else. George Constanza later followed Jimmy's example a number of times, often exclaiming "George is getting upset!"
• Gollum from The Lord of the Rings
• Count Bleck from Super Paper Mario
• Mordac, a character from the Dilbert comic strip
• Hesh, a character from Sealab 2021
• Hercule Poirot, at least in the contemporary television adaptations Agatha Christie's Poirot
• Kenny Powers, from the television show Eastbound & Down
• Waspinator, from Beast Wars, always refers to himself in the third person.
• Damian Spinelli, from U.S. soap opera General Hospital, refers to himself as "The Jackal"
• Petrie from The Land Before Time occasionally refers to himself in the third person.
• George of the jungle refers to himself in the third person.
• Atchan from Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi constantly refers himself in the third person.
• The Rock
• Ormus, "The Mad Poet of Kurast", a minor character from video game Diablo II.
• The Flea from Mucha Lucha.
• Ermac, from the Mortal Kombat video game series - albeit he refers to himself as "we" instead of "I", since he is an amalgam of countless Outworld long-dead warriors' souls fused into a single entity.
• Candice from Pokemon

Military Usage

In the United States Marine Corps, during boot camp recruits are told to refer to themselves as "this recruit". This removes any individual identity the potential Marine has and encourages unit cohesion.

References