Ranking the Greatest People in History

[@cmcn6831]

My favourite one is Portugal: they did both a Greatest Portuguese contest and a Worst Portuguese contest, and Salazar won both 😂

[@8sins236]

Salazar is such a mixed bag of a person. Did an equal amount of good and bad things for Portugal.

[@ShayNoMore1]

@@8sins236 well he is a dictator without contest but some of his actions mainly before and during WW2 were still today a bug thing for the country

[@ScottJB]

Haha he's a very polarizing figure there. When I lived there a decade ago, many older people still loved Salazar. Most of the people younger than 40 (the oldest of whom would now be 50) disliked him from what I could gather. I'm sure that might have changed with the rise of the far right in the last decade.

[@josearaujo8616]

@@8sins236 I'm Portuguese and can't think of a single thing Salazar did good. His aura nowadays is still the product of old state propaganda. Salazar was a rural, agrarian, religious, ancient regime dictator, his solution for the 26 crisis was brutal, hardly mentioned in any history book apart from the official version. Portugal was under his government, on par with Albania, the most poor country in Europe, there is nothing good about him.

[@notroll1279]

@@josearaujo8616 I don't want to come across as a defender - but how was his solution "brutal"? I understand that he balanced the budget by an almost ridiculous control of public spending (legend says, to the point of any single bill going across his desk) and by raising taxes. Since the poor hardly paid any tax (before or after) and the old military government probably didn't so much spending on social issues, either - what damage did Salazar do right then?

[@meisterlert5650]

I'm surprised germany didn't pick Einstein, Beethoven, Bach, Willy Brandt, Bismarck or sm. And the USA not Georg Washington, Lincoln or JFK

[@lts3248]

yeah, i was surprised washington wasnt at least number 2

[@dinamosflams]

This is mostly a contest o popularity not academic importance, though

[@meisterlert5650]

@@dinamosflams idk, kinda feel like my picks are also more popular, but guess I'm wrong

[@dinamosflams]

@@meisterlert5650 they are, but the Memories of Reagan's death were fresh in the people's mind at the time. If this was done today, probably Washington would have been first

[@wolvernight206x8]

Yeah you’d think Bismarck at least, given the fact that he kinda made Germany as one nation a thing. Who knows though.

[@tktru]

Top Ten Greatest Thais 10: The King 9: The King 8: The King 7: The King 6: The King 5: The King 4: The King 3: The King 2: The King 1: The King (He is currently living in quarantine in Germany with a harem of women)

[@kaiserteddie9564]

tktru lol

[@jaojao1768]

Isn't the previous king still very popular there?

[@cellceair8772]

Don't talk shit about the Thai king (they are watching) but no joke you can be arrested in Thailand for shit like that kind weridchamp

[@jakubpociecha8819]

@@cellceair8772 I see you watchd RLL's video as well

[@yeyo8457]

@@jakubpociecha8819 I see you're a man of culture as well

[@rattis]

Sweden held a similar contest in 2000. The winner was childrens author Astrid Lindgren, best known internationally as the creator of Pippi Longstocking. That probably sounds like a joke to some non-swedes, but here in Sweden the results were actually quite obvious. EVERYBODY here loves Astrid Lindgren, to us she is basically Walt Disney and Mother Theresa rolled into one.

[@alfredoalfaro5000]

Whoa! I'd thought it'd be Gustavus Adolphus or even the Ikea guy.

[@eduardochavacano]

norwegians are more beautiful

[@realnova7429]

I loved Pippi when I was little, it was very popular in Italy to

[@robertharris6092]

@@alfredoalfaro5000 same.

[@blitzblix9455]

it is also very popular here in norway

[@ducklord8819]

In the U.S.S.R. there was a very famous movie released, detailing Alexander Nevsky's battle. It was scored by Prokofiev and overall ended up becoming an icon for Russian patriotism and even to this day is remembered fondly, resulting in Nevsky's popularity.

[@marijnr6821]

That is one of russians best movies

[@gabe75001]

Name of movie?

[@RandomDudeOne]

@@gabe75001 Alexander Nevsky, you can watch it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqG5paKLe7CNbdk

[@GeographRick]

That’s nice to know. I’m American and was only familiar with Nevsky Prospekt , which is a major street in St Petersburg

[@oblakovshtanah1]

Richard Nevskiy prospekt was in fact named after a major Saint-Petersburg river called Neva and Alexander Nevskiy got named after it too :)

[@TheQueen-ie5nv]

I think the love of medieval kings is similar in a way to how America still looks up to the founding fathers. They lived in a vastly different time as well and we don’t have that modern connection to them, but the stories and legends about their character and the things they did for their country end up lasting long after their death. They end up as symbols of patriotism and bravery and as models for how good citizens should be, and as a result they are still very admired even by modern citizens. The context of their time period is temporary and disconnected, but qualities like bravery and selfless public service are timeless.

[@Little-Dude]

I definitely understand this comparison but I don't think there's some big differences. Someone like Alexandar Nevsky is difficult to scrutinize up into the modern day because their lives usually consist of one or two great deeds and not much else can be said about them. They've reached the status of legendary national heroes. Though the founding fathers are certainly still very popular, the nuances of their lives and their characters are easier to scrutinize and the veneer of their reputations starts to rub off.

[@johndododoe1411]

Notably, Scandinavians revere medieval warrior kings that are otherwise dubious. Denmark reveres King Christian IV, who had a long reign and lost many wars and territories. Sweden reveres King Charles XII, who won many wars and conquered so much territory, he has since been chosen as a symbolic hero of neo-nazis.

[@dusan_4047]

Its cuz that was the only time we were important. Like now news arent about the unfifcation of poland and lithunaia but about how much france gets form yearly sales.

[@cristobalcosta1132]

"And who was elected the greatest Russian of all time: Josef Stalin!" (chuckles) "No I'm kidding" (camera cuts) "He came in 3rd"

[@tktru]

👀

[@rogink]

Georgian?

[@oftheriver_]

i feel like its understandable, he may have been a paranoid authoritarian, but russians still hold him up as a hero for saving the country from the nazis, then defeating most of nazi germany’s forces and liberating the concentration camps, as well as making the soviet union the second most powerful country in the world, i don’t see why he wouldn’t be held up in high regard

[@nkanyezihlatshwayo3601]

@@oftheriver_ like surely, it's like what i guess FDR must mean to people States'-side, or Nelson Mandela is for us... like not unambiguously awesome, and arguably terrible, but unquestionably a supremely big deal

[@daerdevvyl4314]

Matthew De La Riva Well, there was the whole issue with starving, torturing and murdering millions of people. Also, I don’t think he “saved” Russia from the Nazis. I think that he threw unarmed peasants at the Nazis until they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers in the same manner that a group of soldiers will be overrun in a zombie movie. In other words, the soldiers deserve the credit, not their leaders.

[@discomacabre1]

I'm Australian and I learned Alexander Fleming as the discoverer of Penicillin. also Steve Irwin got robbed.

[@MrYossarianuk]

Which was correct, he was (as the person in this video stated.)

[@Elitist20]

I don't remember the Australian one but it must have been done by a panel - Florey's name isn't hugely well-known, though he arguably saved more lives than any other Australian. (He was on the Australian $50 note from the 70s to the 90s.) If there had been a popular vote I suspect the winner would have been the legendary cricketer Don Bradman, with a strong showing by the bushranger Ned Kelly, and possibly also by the racehorse Phar Lap! Now they're dead there would also be appearances by Steve 'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin and (the only politician with a chance) the charismatic, hard-drinking Prime Minister Bob Hawke - when Australia won the America's Cup he said: 'I tell ya, any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum!'

[@mabamabam]

@@Elitist20 I was just about to say Warnie. But maybe Bradman would edge him out, only just though. Exactly zero chance Steve Irwin would win. Everyone thought he was a flog. "OH WOW LET ME WHORE MYSELF TO AMERICANS, MATE"

[@Rowlph8888]

Fleming was the discoverer and 1 of the 3 people to monetise the discovery.Basically he was A shrewder form of Tesla, who was not naïve enough to lLet Edison take advantage of his discovery

[@oleksandryakovyshyn1881]

Hey JJ, greetings from a Ukrainian, living in Poland :D 🇺🇦🇵🇱 I believe Eastern European countries do it because a lot of people here feel that because their nation was not on the map for so long (Poland was partitioned in 1795, Ukraine lost its struggle for independence in 1921, etc), they are seen as rather new historical formations and that, feeling as degrading to a lot, makes people wanna dig up the old historical figures as a sort of trying to tell the world "hey, we've been here as long as (i.e.) France or Brittain" 🤔

[@jerrell1169]

Привіт from the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada and I definitely agree with you, much of my family which came here due to the civil war often glorify the Cossacks and the Kyiven-Rus’ to try to make Ukraine seem much greater than it is in the terms of world history.

[@johnmikucki1146]

I would also say that in Poland there is a lot of pride for the fact that Poland was a very progressive state in the terms of the Middle Ages. Things like Casimir's tolerance of the Jews or the religious and political freedom of the Commonwealth are widely held up as national achievements. You need only look at the fact that in Polish terms the Commonwealth despite its king is called the 1st republic.

[@michakaczor840]

As a pole I wold say that this is definitely a thing. Polish education system puts a lot of effort to convey the message that Poland isn't some creation of the XX century but state that culture and identity can be found in much farther history.

[@alexandrub8786]

@@nojuzzkietazz3654 to be fair Poland was the more populated part,in the union the Lithuanian part ceded lands to the Polish,(idk if this is true but i heard about lithuanian families taking polish familise coats of arms and even names) also pretty sure the poles would have just assimilated the lithuanians given enough time.

[@horseshoeisacircle]

Jerrell 2 Agree with your point, but what is happing in Ukraine right now (since 2014) is not a civil war (that’s the one you’re talking about?).

[@joelvr101]

Dutchie here: Pim Fortuyn is still seen as a major character in politics and a figurehead of mostly right-wing parties, who see his point of views as an inspiration to work toward. I don't think he would be #1 on the list anymore, but top 5 definitely.

[@larrybxl5406]

who do you think would win for NL today? In my opinion Dutch painters, not politicians, are FAR more important and well known globally, so someone like Rembrandt or Van Gogh would be a more appropriate choice for NL.

[@achmedaan]

I don't think young people know that much about him though? All I really knew about him before this video is that he was the first Dutch politician to be openly very islamophobic, and that he was assassinated which caused controversy because of the effects that has on the idea of free speech. I personally would never have thought of him as a 'great' person, just someone who was killed for his political views.

[@daanwillemsen223]

@@larrybxl5406 As a Dutchie I think that Van Gogh and Rembrandt would be a good choice as Greatest Dutchman. Also Admiral Michiel de Ruyter would be a good contender.

[@vonelle9122]

Larry Bxl Anne Frank, Willem van Oranje, Johan Cruijff, Erasmus & van Leeuwenhoek are also great options

[@niekmarsman2104]

@@larrybxl5406 When i saw the video i was sure that we would have chosen William the Silent as our greatest person, but apearantly not. To be honest i completally forgot that Pim even existed and that he was this important, but that is probably just because i am 18 and didn't really experience his death.

[@AdventClippah]

FUN FACT: An Indonesian publisher once published “The most influential/greatest people ever”. The publisher put Prophet Muhammad at 11th place, the head of the publisher was put in jail shortly after.

[@jonnathan1869]

But he's not Indonesian tho 😭

[@AdventClippah]

Jon Nathan I said the most influential/greatest people ever. The book contained people from many places at many different times.

[@yes9880]

@@WoogleWimpy not every Muslim is like that, the government are really different than the people. Let me give you a short example. 1 Team Owner let's say of a football team was found corrupt, will the fans of the team be called corrupt too? Some people are extremist and you can find that in any religion but sadly these extremists are sometimes people of power and the issue with that not only bring extreme they also are major people so people think that every person who is related to then is also extreme so that's breaks everything... I don't want to force you into believing but just take a look about any video about islam and you will learn from it what islam is really is, learn about it mainly and what it is about? The issue also with having alot of followers is that they will be more extremists so that's why you see more muslim/hindu or christian extremists than the smaller followed religions... hopefully you read all of this and have a good day 🙏 Also Stay home Stay Safe.

[@vianabdullah2837]

Who was it?

[@AdventClippah]

John Smith Oh sure, when its about bad thing, blame the person. When its about good thing, it’s all because of the religion isn’t it?

[@damducc1599]

I think the “obsession” with medieval kings/princes in Eastern Europe comes down to them representing their country’s independence before the modern era. Let me explain… I think it’s safe to say most people in Eastern Europe are fed up with the current bureaucratic bs and general stagnation that’s why no one was chosen as #1 from the current era. Turning back the chapter reveals the USSR era which is not exactly revered by anyone unless your Russian. Looking back even further we see the Russian Empire and other Germanic kingdoms/orders that controlled the land. And finally we get to the medieval age and the Golden Horde where many independent Slavic kingdoms exist which many modern day countries in Eastern Europe draw their origins to. So obviously the people that led these kingdoms are liked for the independence from foreign powers they provided.

[@thymeepis126]

I also feel that in Eastern Europe folklore is much more prevalent in culture with poetry and cartoons that come from old legends and tales and what not, I as a Russian myself know this. In school we even had to memorize poetry for classes. I think that this is because the countries are much older and a lot of the history is still prevalent, as opposed to nations like the US which gained independence recently and thus don’t really have folklore, as the folklore that they’d know would be British and they want to distance their identity from that. But yeah I think the intactness of the culture and the prevalence of folklore gives makes Eastern Europeans more in touch with old historical events that to outsiders would seem random

[@thepagecollective]

My feeling is similar. In this period, Eastern European nations were most relevant, or on an equal or better footing with the West.

[@ryanjofre]

Interesting. Thanks for your insight.

[@jimmyneilson6145]

If there was a greatest Scots it would almost certainly be someone medieval as well

[@Thurgosh_OG]

@@jimmyneilson6145 You've got that right pal.

[@VictorSchmits]

as a Dutchie, a few remarks on Pim Fortuyn and the "greatest dutchie": - after the broadcast, it was revealed that the counting of the votes was not done when they announced the winner. and that the actual winner of the poll was Willem van oranje (William of Orange, also known as William the silent) a resistance leader during the eighty years war against spain. - after the assasination of Fortuyn, his party won a lot of seats and was included in the coalition, but without Pim fortuyn, his party was fractionated and within 100 days the goverment already fell because of this. and in the subsequent election they lost a lot of seats because of this.

[@nilswettlin2012]

May I ask where Wilhelmina was on the charts?

[@sebbasbaoz8314]

tbh I'd vote him too trouwens ik ben nederlands dus ik mag dat soort shit doen

[@hendrikdependrik1891]

Pim Fortuyn is the godfather of the alt-right. He was a hardcore communist, but because the liberal-left establishment didn't accept his ideas, he became a hero for the right. Some people in the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD, which can best be described as right-wing LibDem) wanted to follow in his footsteps and left the party. One of them was Rita Verdonk which failed twice. She lost the competition for the next leader of the VVD which was won by Mark Rutte, the current Dutch prime minister for 10 years in three different coalitions. Rita Verdonk also was not successful with her "Trots op NL party". Another one was Ayaan Hirsi Ali which had to go to America, because her safety couldn't be guaranteed anymore. The third one, Geert Wilders, is the most successful one. He is the guy that exported the ideological legacy of Fortuyn to other countries such as the USA. Geert Wilders is also having very close relations with Israel. On fact, before the establishment attempt of silencing him by banning foreign aid and thus also foreign security for politicians, Wilders' security was done by the Mossad and he had regularly talks at the Israeli embassy. In America, the Fortuyn ideology was sugarcoated with humor and Russian trolling and that's how we've the alt-right we've now that was exported back to Europe. Poland, Hungary and Italy were the countries adopting that stuff. Meanwhile, in the VVD universe interesting things were happening. The Forum of Democracy (FVD) was being formed which would fill the gap between the VVD and PVV combined with a bit of alt-right and Five Star Movement. It is essentially an updated version of the Pim Fortuyn party. Its leader Thierry Baudet with his wingman Theo Hiddema had time to shine, but due to internal party struggles and Baudet being a sort of creep licking the boots of Johnson and Putin the party is going to the background. Now only Mark Rutte is left. A real establishment figure with right-wing liberal optimist pragmatic politics, but he isn't ignoring the alt-right.

[@hoi6694]

michiel de ruyter/ abel tasman/johan cruyf/wilhelmina/willem van oranje/tromp/eise eisinga

[@pimfreeke5971]

the two most fav dutch person where both assasinated. dutchies realy love there murder drama's

[@shad0weee987]

I love how they ranked Princess Diana better than Isaac Newton, the dude discovered how gravitation works, and Diana is known for how she died.

[@EhThisIsAGoodName]

hate to break it to you but she *was* known for supporting a lot of humanitarian work before she died if I am thinking of the same person, I am not british so I am not to sure, but I think I'm right

[@TheRealSU24]

Bruh Issac Newton was literally the worst person to exist. We would be able to fly if it weren't for him

[@tlaloc6885]

@@TheRealSU24 you got a chuckle from me

[@CountScarlioni]

I've never been able to grasp the love among my fellow Brits for Diana. An over-pampered airhead whose great accomplishment was being paid vast amounts of state cash to go on staggeringly expensive world tours and occasionally hold some sick kids' hands in hospital. Yet me saying that in public would have me branded as a blasphemer against a sacred icon. She had admirable qualities in her humanitarian roles but nothing warranting a place on the top ten...or probably even top 100. I'd have swapped her out for any number of far more worthy figures... Charles Dickens, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Alan Turing, Edward Elgar, Bertrand Russel, Owen Chadwick, George Stephenson and so on.

[@MMGAMERMG]

@@CountScarlioni same

[@TKinfinity01]

I can’t get over the fact that J.J. Used to be a ginger.

[@Edkahmed]

what the actual fxck?

[@SirShanova]

Same

[@areosmithwagon9890]

thank god he got his soul back now

[@BradyPostma]

As a ginger, I gotta say he's faking. He has a soul, but hides it with hair dye!

[@Wes-g2l]

Wait what?

[@MellonVegan]

The fact that Diana ranks above Darwin shows how seriously one is to take these ^^

[@ub3rfr3nzy94]

Hawking wasn't even on there wtf.

[@lukepearson4611]

She was a good person to be sure, but the fact she ranks above Victoria or Darwin or Newton who literally all revolutionised the world in their own ways is ridiculous. She she shook hands with sick people and died that’s about it

[@ricardocorreia7962]

@@lukepearson4611 She was an egotistical gold digger

[@HHh-ug4oe]

Her death was still fresh in peoples memories wouldn't get in the top 20 today

[@MrVice101]

There was a lot of coverage of her death. It was absolutely insane. The country had a collective meltdown. Attlee should have been in the top 10.

[@VeelkiEllää]

Here in Finland there is a clear top choice. Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. He lead the victorious side in the Finnish civil war which made him a very controversal figure in some parts of the country. In my home town of Tampere he is sometimes even refered to as the bloody baron. He went on to lead Finnish military in the 2nd world war in the fight against the Soviet Union. The main defensive line was named the Mannerheim line after him. The survival of the country was largely credited to him and his leadership. In the last weeks of the war he was appointed as the president by the Finnish parlament. He ended up resigning because of health problems and passed away shortly after resigning. Mannerheim won the Finnish version of this show and is widely regarded as the greatest Finn of all time.

[@bobbemis8911]

The only thing I can say is that was he a Swedish Finn since that name sounds very Germanic

[@VeelkiEllää]

@@bobbemis8911 That's the craziest thing. Even though he is one of the greatest Finns of all time, he never learned to speak finnish like a native. He spoke swedish as his mother tongue and learned russian, german, french and english. I have heard that he needed a translator to fix some of his texts when he was president and had a noticable accent when speaking.

[@DouglasEdward84]

@@VeelkiEllää There is an interesting video on youtube of him having an informal chat with Hitler. He appears to have spoken German quite well.

[@VeelkiEllää]

Man, I got waaay too into this... I decided to go through the rest of the Finnish top 10. Here is a short summary on each of them and some funny facts to go with them. 10. Elias Lönnrot. He wrote Kalevala, the Finnish epic, by collecting old tales from Karelia region in the East of Finland. Lönnrot is considered one of the most influencal people in the development of the Finnish laguage and he appeared on the old 500 Markka bill. J. R. R. Tolkien was reportedly a huge fan of Kalevala and it has influenced the LoTR books. 9. Aleksis Kivi. He wrote the book "Seitsemän veljestä" (seven brothers). This book has become one of the most beloved pieces of Finnish literature. It follows a family of seven brothers from childhood to adulthood and all the funny scenes along the way. Almost every child reads this book in school or hears the stories from it at least. There is also a cartoon illustration of this book with dog versions of the caracrers. 8. Jean Sibelius. He is a world renoun composer. He composed some of the most well known Finnish patriotic symphonies such as Finlandia and the national anthem Maamme. There is also a famous monument to Sibelius in Helsinki which is surprisingly popular with tourists. There was also a music production software that was named after him, but apparently it was incredebly bad and was discontinued. 7. Mikael Agricola. He is the father of the Finnish language. He traslated the Bible into Finnish and created the first ABC-book. If I remember right he changed his last name to Agricola when he was studying in Wittenberg, Germany. Agricola is Latin and means something like a pesant or a farmer. 6. Arvo Ylppö. He was a doctor who invented maternity clinics. He found out that most premature babies died from treatable illnesses and not from being born too soon like most doctors thought at the time. I personally had not herd of this man before, which was surprising since he must have saved millions of lifes with his research. 5. Tarja Halonen. She was the first female president of Finland and was in office when the show aired. She represents the Social Democratic party and has a masters degree in law. She was a minister in three different governments and was a very popular president having a 88% approval rating. She also happened to look a lot like Connan O'Brien and Conan made a special episode of his show where he visits Finland and meets Halonen. 4. Adolf Ehrnrooth. He was a general in the Finnish army during the Winter War and the Continuaton War, but is most well known for representing the war veterans after the war. He was awarded the Mannerheim cross (Finnish equivelent of the Medal of Honor). I had not heard of this man either, but it seems like he was in the media quite a lot during the filming of the show. 3. Urho Kekkonen. He is the longest serving president of Finland. He was the president for over 25 years in a row from 1956 to 1982. He was incredebly popular. People jokingly call this era of Finnish history "Kekkoslovakia" , since he was getting dictator-level 90% shares of the vote every time he got re-elected. He was known for being incredebly close to high ranking Soviet officals and calling them over to his summer cottage, where they got drunk together and went to the sauna to talk about politics. He was also known for "drawing the Moscow card" which ment shooting down an idea just because it would not please Moscow. "You don't want to anger the Soviets now do you?". Kekkonen is credited with keeping Finland intependent through this era and avoiding a Soviet invasion which was seen as likely back then. 2. Risto Ryti. He was president during the Continuation war. He is known for taking the blame for allying Nazi Germany during the war and abdicating so that Finland would be able to sign a peace treaty with the Soviets. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Finnish War responsibility trials (Finnish version of the Nürenburg trials) but was pardoned seven years later. I have heard that he also tricked Hitler into sending Finland grain by saying something along the lines of If you give us food, Finland will stay in the war as long as I am president. And then when the grain arrived he abdicated and took Finland out of the war.

[@VeelkiEllää]

@@DouglasEdward84 Yes! Hitler decided to visit Mannerheim on his 70th birthday to try to keep Finland in the war. Some sneaky Finnish sound engineer decided to put mics into the train cart they were going to talk in. The result is one of the only recordings of Hitler speaking with his normal voice. It is facinating.

[@jachymbalas4260]

The Czech one is actually very interesting: When the Czechs got to pick their greatest man, they chose Jára Cimrman, fictional hero, philosopher, writer, composer..... who is a sort of a meme here - every one speaks of him as if he had existed which isn't true, obviously. So, as Cimrman was to become the winner, the organizers elimininated him from the list (arguing he's fictional and therofore not eligible to compete) and gave the title 'greatest Czech' to the aforementioned Charles IV who originaly ended up second :D en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1ra_Cimrman

[@Milbrandt]

I went to the Jára Cimrman museum under the Petrin Lookout Tower in Prague in 2005. There were all sorts of his silly inventions showcased there. I had no idea it was fake at first, and it was fun coming to the realization that this was just too crazy to be true.

[@notribadsvault]

I actually have a tourist mug from Prague with a little cartoon drawing of Charles IV. I actually really like it.

[@LordDavid04]

What, the greatest Czech isn't Janek Rubeš?

[@firstnamelastname-uw6vq]

I mean you could've chosen Jan Hus or Jan Žižka.

[@noeswantra2295]

Having lived in Czech Rep. and having my wife from Serbia, this phenomenon of Central-East European prefering old heroes of medieval era is easy to explain, 1. Most of those old kings/heroes represented a time of either unity in face of danger or peak civilization/history for these nations 2. The apathy towards and at times, loathing of their corrupt contemporary politicians (I say since after WW2 - because there's actually a lot of interesting personalities during the interwar period especially for the new republics like Czechoslovakia and Poland) 3. ...because of reason #2, it's far easier than to feel "romanticized" and long for such a "glorious" time as represented by figures that represent point #1

[@tomasvrabec1845]

I would also add to thins that Eastern/Central Europe does tend to have a lot of historical tourist attractions such as castles. I mean, taking Czech Republic, Slovakia or Hungary for example... the amounts of castles are something that may shock many people who visit the country. Plus... the folklore. There is almost always something folk happening somewhere. And on the more personal note, this could be just the people I have met, People discuss history a lot more. When it comes to History and Geography, those are the subjects parents can help their kids the most and so it just stays more relevant.

[@freddiemercury8625]

@@tomasvrabec1845 I agree, history is very well preserved in Eastern Europe. Even though we (Polish people) got shat on for the entirety of the 20th century, we were still able to preserve so many great Medieval buildings, take for example, the Malbork Castle which is the largest castle in the world (had the pleasure of visiting it, super tiring), despite the fact that the Germans and the Soviets had a pitched battle with a tank in the sieging Soviet army terrorizing the walls and that the castle was meant to be deconstructed to fix Warsaw after WW2. Still survives though.

[@RedbadvanRijn-ft3vv]

As a north European,we stil have a huge respect for Vaclav Havel.

[@hc0nv454]

This is probably it. Kings from hundreds of years ago who defended the country from some invasion/ruled in a period of prosperity aren't controversial//polarizing and serve as a rallying point for an entire culture.

[@martinmendl1399]

Redbad van Rijn Czech here. Yea, even though Havel has become a bit controversial in some parts of our society, polls still show he’s still generally viewed as the most important person and the greatest politician (no big competition there) of the post-revolutionary age. However figures like Charles IV., Rudolf II. (medieval monarchs), Jan Hus, Jan Žižka (a Hussite preacher and and a Hussite general), Jan Amos Komensky (pretty much inventor of modern education) and Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (the first president) are probably just as popular.

[@makennahughes5580]

With regards to Reagan, lots of people who remember him when he was in office remember him very fondly whereas younger Americans are much more critical of his presidency

[@jacobchacko3171]

Most younger people blame him due to the wealth gap which widened during his presidency (which has continuously been proven to be untrue) as well as his handling of AIDS (which any president would probably not have handled any differently) just goes to show how much of a grip left wing ideologies have on the younger demographic

[@robertharris6092]

@@jacobchacko3171 he said that aids was a punishment from god upon the gays... it was literaly caught on tape.

[@jacobchacko3171]

@@robertharris6092 Which president before trump was not homophobic? most people thought that during the time including many liberal politicians. why single out reagan? he was a good president for his time

[@EddieReischl]

@@jacobchacko3171 Agree completely, a side effect of having Democrats running education in the USA for the last 75+ years. That being said, as much as I love Reagan, he should be in the second five with Roosevelt. My top five are Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton.

[@jacobchacko3171]

@@EddieReischl Yup. Back then even democrats loved him. With this new era where leftists control media, education systems and institutions they rewrite history to fit their deranged viewpoints

[@reporterblue6987]

In South Korea, the #1 pick for “Greatest Person” would go to either Sejong the Great (credited for creating the entire Korean alphabet) or Yi Sun Shin (who fought of the Japanese with only 12 ships)

[@kevingonzalez9191]

@Reporter Blue I think the list would be more predictable up North.

[@daerdevvyl4314]

Kevin Gonzalez I wonder what place Sun Myung Moon would come in.

[@kyokyodisaster4842]

It had to be the two of them, both are national hero's and both show the power of Korean enginuity and loyalty and wish to the state (a Korean idea that both Koreans have) North would likely be the Founder of the Kim dynasty.

[@daerdevvyl4314]

KyoKyoDisaster! *heroes, not hero’s. Apostrophes are not used to pluralize words, even though you will see people do that in KZbin comment sections constantly.

[@jerrythepolishmouse]

Kim Koo will also be high up the list.

[@Lazarosa.]

U.K: A variety of historic people USA: 7 presidents

[@fossilfountain]

Martin Luther king has to at least be in the top 3 in my opinion

[@blueisacolor8747]

I as an American think it should be... 1. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (president) 2. Abraham Lincoln (president) 3. Martin Luther King Jr. (civil rights activist) 4. Thomas Jefferson (founding father) 5. George Washington (founding father) 6. John Adams (founding father) 6. Siting bull (Native American tribe leader) 7. John Kennedy (president) 8. Albert Einstein (American/German/Prussian/more stuff but most importantly a scientist) 9. Rosa Parks (civil rights activists) 10. Theodore Roosevelt (president) I can’t believe Ronald Regan was #1 he wasn’t the best president although he was pretty inspiring.

[@michaelh13]

@@blueisacolor8747 I'd replace Albert Einstein in your list because he's technically German with Jonas Salk, and maybe find a place in there for Henry Ford or Thomas Edison. I'm from the UK so I have less cultural understanding about the US than you, this is just an outsiders perspective

[@lowlsqwid]

@@michaelh13 those two would be cancelled today. I'd suggest for a similar science role being J. Robert Oppenheimer. He was the lead behind the manhattan project.

[@Bsknten]

COP2006 Thomas Paine needs a place i cant remember if i read Samuel Adams but him and i don’t believe fdr is at all a top contender teddy Roosevelt is much better than him

[@eltostado3304]

As a zoomer, mother Teresa's name has kinda brought down a bit in recent years due to some her practices

[@Warpwaffel]

She hasn't aged well. :P

[@sOOpAhSCHIEFEL]

@Benson Kid there is a lot of controversy about how much of the tons of money that she received was actually put into charity, since the structures that ran under her were far too often just slums with very poor services (and we're talking bad for third world countries); overall, it seems that her system's goal was just to spread Christianity and not to rehabilitate and better the conditions of those who seeked help from it, which is what most Christian charities who operate in such countries do.

[@simon4476]

she stated herself that her #1 priority was to spread christianity

[@thelonegunman2622]

K her life was dedicated to god, so you can’t blame her for trying to get people closer to him

[@Sunshine-su7jj]

With regard that spreading Catholicism was her goal and she was in a 3rd world country at a time and as a fellow Catholic. Mother Theresa's intentions to help the poor were good, but how she did everything was horrible. Something to look at was how she recieved a lot of money, but that money wouldn't go to her charities (Although If I'm right she had to give everything to the Church rather than her own charities). I think she reused unreusable medical items like needles for instance which basically caused a lot of harm to the people in her care. Overall things that could've have been prevented with the resources she had, but didn't choose to use.

[@alexandrzarezin7765]

I'm from Russia and I thank you for pointing out such an interesting trend about our Eastern European culture and mentality. A lot to think about. I know why it's like this. Our recent past and the present are very controversial to say the least and as a result the venerated heros of the past gain mostly unanimous positive attitude

[@teresadaly7210]

I think this happens in countries as well like Greece Italy and Ireland

[@Groggle7141]

@@teresadaly7210 I understand Greece and Italy, but Ireland?! I need to know more.

[@dragoe6481]

The deadpan "he came in third" when referring to Stalin absolutely killed me lol

[@kyokyodisaster4842]

Hey, he killed Hitler! Err, rather, made Hitler kill Hitler...to be exact. But seriously, that was funny...

[@SpidermanandJeny]

No, it wasn't the deadpan. It was Stalin that killed you. Seriously, the guy was a psychopathic mass-murderer.

[@jmasters7515]

He was also Georgian not Russian

[@wasserruebenvergilbungsvirus]

@@caterpillar1936 Under his rule the Nazis were defeated and the USSR was turned into a superpower. It seems reasonable for modern Russians to like him.

[@artman7780]

@Lord Farquaad Churchill also murdered and starved millions of people of British colonies, and yet, the British elected him the greatest Briton.

[@isaacwaterhouse4790]

In the UK we had to watch these documentaries in our history lessons when we were 13 and make projects about them. But our teachers added Margaret Thatcher and everyone just argued about her the whole time 😂

[@coolnuke6969]

I thought Thatcher would actually be in the top 10

[@corg_9939]

As a fellow Brit, I feel bad for you

[@GeneralNuisance00]

Yeah, that checks out.

[@donalobrien9422]

The poll I think was confined to the dead, and she was alive at the time.

[@oj59]

Thatcher's almost like Britain's Reagan (or the other way around). Think about it, they're bot Conservative, anti-Communist, 80's-era leaders that have become very controversial in recent years.

[@awesomeboy4353]

JJ Alexander nevsky youngest son Daniel of Moscow founded the grand duchy of Moscow which is the predecessor state of modern Russia as Ivan the terrible is the last grand prince of the grand duchy of Moscow he declared the tsardom of Russia and Peter the Great declared the tsardom of Russia become the Russian empire and the Russian empire become the USSR and USSR become the Russian federation . This is the pathway shows that the grand duchy of Moscow is the predecessor state of modern day Russia. Daniel of Moscow is another great Russian as he gain his father least valuable state and made it to a strong state. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_of_Moscow

[@command_unit7792]

He was also technicly to me at least the last ruler of a United Rus until Tsar Alexy 1st when he captrued Kiev. He was the Grand Prince of Kiev and Vladimir and the Prince of Novgorod at the same time.

[@raitiC1]

Okay great, but that's not the real essence of that show! If so every country would just name their first ruler and case closed! It was meant to be for naming a more modern political figure or at least be more creative!

[@chamber0461]

@@raitiC1 no it was meant to be the greatest member of their country, not a modern person

[@rogink]

I've no idea about the guy, but I assume Nevsky Prospekt was name after him?

[@nwalsh1]

Alexander Nevsky is also honoured here in Bulgaria. He is a saint of the Bulgarian orthodox church and his name was given to the main cathedral here in Sofia as a thanks to the Russians for their help against the Turks!

[@ub3rfr3nzy94]

Imagine putting princess Diana in the top 10 and not even including Stephen Hawking. Diana is famous for marrying a prince and dying in a car crash, Hawking is famous for being a world renowed physicist who inspired millions and was regarded as one of the most if not the most brilliant people alive at the time.

[@cshaffrey3438]

Diana's humanitarian work with AIDS patients, showing that the disease was not contagious was incredibly famous at that time, and she brought a human face to the monarchy. Plus, as with the Dutch pick, she'd recently died. Nowadays she'd be lucky to make the top 20, but she did do some good charity work tbd to her

[@thecaynuck4694]

Alan Turing should probably be on Britain's list as well. I'm sure Princess Diana was a good humanitarian, but her royalty and death are the only things that really got her there. She didn't really have to work for her success unlike other people.

[@cshaffrey3438]

@@thecaynuck4694 there's no way she's be on the list if it was made nowadays

[@johndododoe1411]

Hawking was an official successor to Isaac Newton, but still alive during the vote. Excluding the living and recently dead from such votes would improve fairness, but certain semi-recent figures are so dominant they become unavoidable winners unless the limit is raised to 70+ years dead with no family members in power, in which case some countries will have to exclude their entire history of royalty.

[@MSCCA]

That's what happens every schmuck gets a vote

[@olgas9970]

Having Czech heritage, my understanding as to the emphasis of generalized Eastern European obsession with medieval figures (with the exception of Russia maybe) stems from much of Eastern Europe being subjugated by Austrians, Russia, Ottomans, Germans etc for the better part of 400 years, so they favor figures from times of autonomy.

[@anonymousbloke1]

Nevsky was a Knjaz back when there wasn't autonomy.. same for Yaroslav in Ukraine In fact Russia proper came into existence in 1478, while Ukraine proper came into existence in 1917 (there was a small period of "autonomy" of the Cossacks in the 17th century but I doubt it counts as an independent Ukraine)

[@phosphoros60]

I think for Russians it's just the fact that things in general have just sucked for them for as long as anyone alive and their grandparents can remember...

[@TheRedKing247]

@@anonymousbloke1 I think most people would consider Kievan Rus a Ukrainian state though for sure

[@future9252]

@@TheRedKing247 The idea of "Ukrainian" as a nationality only appeared in the late 19th century. Before that all the people in the region were called Ruthenians and seen as some kind of Russian regional identity along Byelorussians. The Kievan Rus was a common Eastern Slavic so to be fair it was as Ukrainian as russian

[@Alexis-pg8do]

Russia choosing Nevsky fits with that: he was portrayed as an icon during the Communist era of someone defending Russia from Western aggression, and preserving a distinct Russian culture.

[@ishanbajpai6940]

2:45 You become probably the greatest Physicist of all time, develope mathematics for hundreds of years to come, Change the course of Humanity literally and you get 6th position behind a popular princess. Ohh the humanity!!!

[@reesehendricksen1871]

Imaging transforming England to a global power and establishing peace in Britain, as well as saving your people from the largest sea invasion in history, only to place behind “The People’s Princess”.

[@MaggotDiggo1]

I guess Princess Di is recency bias but who the hell is I.K Brunel. I'm not British but none were surprising to me except except Brunel.

[@conorcrowley6256]

@@MaggotDiggo1 he's generally regarded as one of the most famous engineers in history and symbolises the industrial revolution and British economic dominance for many. As somebody who finds him quite interesting I wasn't too suprised tbh.

[@MaggotDiggo1]

@@conorcrowley6256 Fair enough. I guess he just doesn't have the international prestige of the others. It's probably worth me searching up the documentary made about him. He sounds like an unsung hero (relative to the others).

[@tadhgknight3484]

MaggotDiggo1 I think it’s because the British educational system usually has you learn about him quite a bit, whereas he’s basically unheard of in global popular culture. Therefore most British people know and admire him, but nobody else does.

[@gimlet7]

That photo of young JJ is the most shocking thing to have ever been shown on this channel and I don't think we are talking about it enough.

[@Will-vt1rf]

Fr

[@ThinWhiteAxe]

Lil punky looking kid

[@noidea2568]

If he didn't say it's him in the photo, I would have NEVER guessed it's him. How is that the same person?!

[@brogis2]

The hair... Who let him

[@GaryLePleb]

Strikes me as a bit like a young Johnny Dep

[@imvineprexde]

2:22 Great Brittain 3:50 Germany 4:36 India 5:55 Australia 6:41 South Africa 7:57 Netherlands 10:04 Canada 11:43 France 12:09 USA 13:22 Russia

[@haywardhummus8777]

14:06 Czech Republic, Romania, Ukraine

[@cakepigs]

15:20 , a yes the greatest people of the world. Reagan, luigi, king dude, generic scientist, Churchill, lex luther and the elderly trio

[@generalgrievous2202]

Best description

[@TheMbmdcrew]

OMG yes. This made me laugh so hard

[@johnthegreat97]

You tempting me to make another youtube profile so I can like this twice

[@rensypoo]

Bruh thats no ordinary king... he's the Burger King

[@tomcombelles6419]

If de Gaulle is luigi, then who would be mario?

[@e0o9kii]

Choices for Greatest Russian 2020: #1: Vladimir Putin #2: Death

[@gamermapper]

Not funny. But actually in the version of this show in Russia Stalin had like 2nd place to something, an in other places less controversial people like Pushkin

[@wildfire9280]

@@seanclough5822 4. John Trump Donald

[@chickenkyiv4999]

5. Gulag if not Putin

[@swirlmapping7778]

#6: Some random babushka

[@sjsbviufvibwvuspi]

@@swirlmapping7778 7 mitch mcconnel

[@sokkavanlijssel1632]

Hey, dutchie here. So two things: Firstly, I think you used the flag of Luxembourg instead of our flag. The difference is that they use a lighter variation of blue in their flag and our blue is darker. Secondly, the poll that you referenced later revealed a flaw in their top ten, because of a miscount. The real winner was our 'Vader des Vaderlands' (loosely translated 'father of the nation'): Willem van Oranje (William of Orange), whose descendants are still the royal Dutch family. Thus, officially our head of state right now is still a descendant of this man (our current king is named William Alexander of Orange). So kind of an interesting twist, considering your observation that their is a contrast between Eastern countries, with medieval kings as their number ones, compared to Western countries, who tend to vote more on post-second World War politicians. Because in essence, we as a Western country also voted for a guy who has been death since 1584. However, you could ofcourse say that his legacy is still tangible today, considering the influence the royal house has on our culture. Nonetheless, great video.

[@MrROGER1903]

I'm part luxembourgish and yep i can confirm he used the wrong colours, but this happens from time to time so i'm not surprised

[@rsantana389]

As a Spanish lefty living in the Netherlands, I can say that I don't like none of them

[@carlin6493]

you forgot one: thirtly, DONT CALL OUR COUNTRY HOLLAND IT IS THE NETHERLANDS

[@knappedennis]

@@carlin6493 klopt.

[@knappedennis]

No gotta be Michiel de ruyter

[@suorastas1]

In Finnish the word for great is the same as the word for big so naturally we voted the guy who was literally the tallest Finnish person as number 12.

[@sarasamaletdin4574]

I mean he was tall but the tallest?

[@dwaynecarswell41]

As a Canadian I actually was shocked by how often I noticed his accent. I wasn't even looking in the background until it hit me. He has the stereotype 'About' pronunciation. It is not as emphasized by general media stereotypes, but was certainly noticeable and had a natural feeling.

[@itsjustme4848]

I thought his “ou” pronunciation was so stereotypically Canadian , at first I thought he was doing a parody of a Canadian accent.

[@scottyrobot]

@@itsjustme4848 its a parody

[@lucasoheyze4597]

He's a hoser

[@ezakustam]

@@scottyrobot If it's a parody, he's doing it tirelessly through every one of his videos that I've seen.

[@scottyrobot]

@@ezakustam nobody says "aroond" though, its isn't even a Canadian stereotype

[@Waldzkrieger]

as we all know, the best Canadian is Ted Cruz

[@richlisola1]

I think renouncing his Canadian citizenship is pretty disqualifying

[@HelloHello-vk5ob]

Ew

[@NyalBurns]

The best Kenyan is Barack Obama

[@blew1t]

@@komencanto gonna cry?

[@boomdigity1028]

@@komencanto Obama is my favourite president, and don't get me wrong he's awesome. But his family was from Kenya so it's not totally false to say that Obama, on a basic level, was Kenyan- or at least Kenyan-American. There's nothing "bad" about poking fun at it.

[@DaFrancc]

JJ: “One of the greatest US presidents to ever live was Roosevelt” Americans: Which one? Theodore Roosevelt or Franklin Delano Roosevelt? They are both revered as two of the greatest presidents

[@DaFrancc]

terrance kerr I mean, you don’t see drake rapping about us history do you now? No way you were supposed to know that

[@DaFrancc]

terrance kerr and if you’re wondering, they are related. They’re fifth cousins

[@GH-oi2jf]

Vi_P - And the greatest first lady was Roosevelt. A great American family to have so many great leaders.

[@buuhan6808]

@@DaFrancc Tbh, here in Germany we actually get to learn history from all around the world even tho the lessons are still based on Germany. I guess that Germany just did shit everywhere around the globe xD

[@resist1581]

Theodore Roosevelt is the best president the USA has ever had and probably ever will have. He's is also in the running for the most badass manliest human that ever lived.

[@ionabab7274]

“In tenth place they had Oliver Cromwell” Ireland: ... ;_;

[@KlayAli-]

I guess when you wanna remember your past, but your most recent history is of brutal dictators and foreign occupation, you need to look back into the good OLD times.

[@noajpetrowski-anchick9395]

Hehem our profile pics.

[@noajpetrowski-anchick9395]

That was very c o m m u n i s t of you.

[@KlayAli-]

Epic

[@corg_9939]

Therapist: Lil' JJ doesn't exist, he can't be cooler than you. Lil' JJ: 1:55

[@chadistan4790]

I'm literally crying and shaking rn

[@peyuko5960]

He kind of looks like a mobster's spoiled brat... still a lot cooler than any of us.

[@command_unit7792]

Portugal is weird: 1.António de Oliveira Salazar-longtime right-wing dictator (1933-1968) 2.Álvaro Cunhal-Communist Party leader. Exiled dissident and later post-Salazar cabinet minister

[@trlacr1781]

Well Salazar kinda stabilized portugal and revived the economy? Also wasn't he unique among dictators and politicians in general in his extreme modesty and the fact that he never profited from the state to enrich himself? Really interesting though that he is n°1

[@truelocomax2804]

Sounds like Salazar was a great leader

[@ruiadrmartins]

That only happened because the only people that cared about the contest were right and left wing extremists. Also Salazar only "stabilized the economy" with extreme censorship, imprisonment of political disidents and harsh economic measures while his population was extremely poor and starving. Doesn't sound like a "great leader" to me.

[@ViJoker1]

Let's not forget Salazar's colonialist fervor as he fought to control Angola and Mozambique. It wasn't that stable and the "revival of the economy" was not that much in terms of industrial development and a lot of it came from, well, colonialism (not even neo-colonialism, those colonies have been under Portuguese control for centuries).

[@joaquinclavijo7052]

@@trlacr1781 The Salazar "cult of poverty" reached an extreme point where the government would censor news of the existence of color TV in other countries of Europe to hide the technological stagnation of Portugal to their own citizens.

[@torpedokvyat9042]

This contest was ran in Brazil in 2012 by our second largest broadcaster, SBT. There was a preliminary round to rank positions 100 to 13, and the 12 top people advanced to an eliminatory round, in which they were put in a tournament-like bracket and faced each other on head-to-head contests. The top 3 would contest a final runoff. Silvio Santos, an immensely popular TV personality and owner of SBT, was the only inelegible person as he was running the show himself. If the entered the contest, he would be one of the top candidates without a doubt. In the first round, football supporters rallied to vote for notable players of their teams, and some pretty unusual names popped up in the final list - one of them, Dedé do Vasco, even became a famous meme for making it to 63th place. There were also many evangelical preachers and singers, some of them mostly unknown to non-evangelicals. The head of the largest evangelical church in Brazil came in 13th, very close of making the final rounds. The top 12 were Ayrton Senna (3 time Formula One world champion), Chico Xavier (spiritist medium and writer), Fernando Henrique Cardoso (president 1994 - 2002), Getúlio Vargas (dictator from 1930 to 1945, president elect from 1951 to 1954), Saint Dulce (first Brazilian saint, although she was not yet canonized at the time), Juscelino Kubitschek (president 1956 - 1961), Lula (president 2002 - 2010), Oscar Niemeyer (architect), Pelé (greatest footballer of all time), Princess Isabel (daughter of Pedro II, known for signing the bill that ended slavery in Brazil), Santos Dumont (inventor of the self-propelled airplane) and Tiradentes (martyr of the struggle for Brazilian independence). SBT did the same series of documentaries about them and even made a "characteristics of greatness" report for each candidate, a RPG-like stats distribution in which the personality was measured by abstract concepts such as "courage", "leadership" or "compassion". The eliminatory draw placed the two religious figures against each other, and Xavier beat Saint Dulce by a 1% margin. The two living presidents, FHC and Lula, were expectedly beaten by Princess Isabel and Ayrton Senna, respectively. Pelé was defeated by Kubitschek, which may sound surprising, but many people in Brazil dislike Pelé as an individual (although putting Pelé down became a quite unfair and somewhat racist common place for people that like to sound "edgy" here). Tiradentes was beaten by Santos Dumont and Niemeyer was defeated by Vargas. In the semifinal round, there was a major upset when Xavier defeated Senna, who was largely favoured to win. Spiritism is quite popular in Brazil, and there was some true mobilizing among followers to put Xavier in the final. Also, he was well liked even beyond kardecists, since Brazilian christianity is historically very syncretic (although hardcore fanaticism is on the rise). Santos Dumont narrowly beat Kubitschek, and Princess Isabel past through Vargas, who has a big reputation as a great leader and modernizer in Brazil, but also has a tainted record of authoritarianism and state violence in his first presidency. The final setup of Xavier, Dumont and Isabel was pretty unexpected. If the contest wasn't run on tournament format, I guess Senna would have won. Not only he is the only Brazilian sportsman comparable to Pelé, he also died in an accident in 1994 during the San Marino Grand Prix at the peak of his form and fame, and was seen as a humble, hard-working and religious individual, all of which are characteristics praised by average Brazilians. Senna's heyday also coincided with a very hard period of economic crisis in Brazil, and his F1 wins and titles were a glimmer of hope for his impoverished coutrymen. Although his place among the greatest athletes in Brazil is more than well deserved, his near cult-like worshipping is very exaggerated here. Xavier was elected the greatest Brazilian with 71% of votes in the final. Spiritists mobilized to vote, but he was truly more popular than his opponents. While Isabel signed the bill to end slavery in Brazil, she and the Brazilian royals were always hesitant to do so, and it only happened in the waning years of their monarchy. She is only known for signing the bill, actually. Santos Dumont was an amazing inventor and deserved more credit, but the popularity contest structure wasn't meant for his low profile personality. Chico Xavier was a peaceful figure and only faced resistance from hard-line evangelicals, but was very well positioned to win among the majority of religious but mostly tolerant Brazilian christians at the time.

[@arvidpersson9668]

Very interesting thanks for the write-up.

[@johndododoe1411]

Questions on some candidates from your list: 1. When you wrote "president elect", did you mean "elected president in actual power" or "elected president not yet in power" (the US meaning of the phrase). 2. When you quoted someone as inventing the self propelled airplane, how early was he compared to globally known aviation inventors da Vincy (design but not build), Whitehead (flew in straight line) and Wright (could control the direction and make turns)

[@johndododoe1411]

@Kevin Mousinho To me, "acting president" is a temporary situation, typically when the real president is dead, sick or otherwise unavailable, it's someone performing the presidential powers without claiming to being the real president. When I wrote "elected president in actual power", I meant the phrase "elected president" with a clarification that the person was not robbed of ever getting their power by any circumstance. Your historical figure fits that description (according to what you wrote so far). So did Harrison who was US president in 1841, but died in the presidential palace after just one month.

[@nobrakes7892]

Ayrton the GOAT

[@Rafael_Peixoto]

@@johndododoe1411 i know this comment is 1 year old, but Santos Drummond's self propelled plane, "14 bis", could take off without any external aid, unlike the wright brothers' Also he is considered the true inventor of the plane by us, Brazilians. (France too, because he tested it there) Idk when he invented it though. But I'm almost certain it was before the wright brothers

[@barrybatholemewbenson2350]

Russian greatest person JJ:Stalin Me:Panik JJ:just joking Me:Kalm JJ: He came third Me:Panik again

[@artman7780]

It’s time to panic more when Churchill is Britain’s greatest person, considering that the British are supposed to be educated people.

[@henrylister5530]

Art Man believe me, although people in the south love him a lot (hence why he won), a lot of northerners hate him, meaning he would probably be voted as one of the most hated people in Britain at the same time

[@LionKing-ew9rm]

And he wasn't even Russian!

[@wildfire9280]

@@artman7780 If Churchill was truly as popular in his time, he'd have been re-elected. Thank God they elected Attlee in the end, but by then the damage was done and Churchill had left his mark, already fitting quite neatly in the "glorious" wartime leader persona we humans tend to make out of those who committed atrocities, which makes his memorialization as such inevitable.

[@henrys5291]

If it were held today he might get first. Stalin is still a very popular figure in Russia because, for all of his faults, he still developed the country from a backwater into a superpower and defeated the nazis. Its hard for us in the west to understand, but look at Churchill winning the British vote despite having the blood of millions of innocent Indians on his hands. I'd say those are fairly similar situations. Basically every nation, rightly or wrongly, idolizes the people who led their countries through times of great crisis and came out on the other side even if these leaders were flawed and did some very bad things

[@maltron1472]

The image of little JJ looks like a pop punk lead singer

[@chanceDdog2009]

JJs manerisims have me wondering if he is actually a transgender woman. I watch a lot of KZbin and have gone deep in learning about this. I might be terribly wrong. But his gender seams off to his personality. .. there is nothing wrong with that. Just a TMI observation...

[@maltron1472]

Chance the dog I don’t think that’s so

[@vfsdm]

Chance the dog you’re just terribly wrong and have bad instincts (.__.)

[@vfsdm]

Chance the dog and even if he was he would be t man not a woman, something that makes me question your learning capabilities...

[@selahanany5645]

@@chanceDdog2009 i dont get it. are you suprised that there exist people with personalities outside of gender roles?

[@Jeremyeatscows]

The idea of Reagan beating Washington and Lincoln in the US is crazy to me. The guys won us our independence and the Civil War

[@valdamirlebanon4508]

If it helps I would imagine the show probably had a fairly decent bias towards older Americans, who would have likely remembered Reagan as the person who defeated communism, even though in hindsight that honor should probably go to gorbachov himself with the Reagan not playing much of a part at all. The reason I say this is because they probably only asked viewers of the show, and didn't really make any attempt to carve out any kind of representative sample size seeing if they aren't actually a polling agency. With this in mind I wouldn't be surprised if he average Discovery Channel viewer wasn't probably much older and wealthier then the average American.

[@blew1t]

washington: defeats the british lincoln: defeats southern rebellion reagan: defeats the aids epidimi-wait no he didnt wanna do that

[@declannewton2556]

Maybe attitudes presidents aren't as uniform as you'd think and winning wars isn't the only factor people take into consideration.

[@Jeremyeatscows]

@@declannewton2556 Washington also set some important precedents for the presidency like the cabinet, 2 term limit, use of force to enforce laws, etc. Lincoln freed the slaves which I guess was pretty cool

[@MrCrashDavi]

@@blew1t He defeated Communism ie. Freed millions of germans czechs, romanians , estoniaans ... and made the deaths america endured in the vietnam and korea wars meaningful.

[@Sombre_gd]

The reason why we keep our centuries old king and dukes in such high esteem is because without them, our countries wouldn't exist. Think of them like medieval Founding Fathers.

[@rowangamertv4348]

ty garfield

[@ДмитрийКудрявцев-т3ъ]

Russian here! This weird contest caused quite a fuss back than, as Russians pathologically love arguing about history. There is an unproven but popular opinion that the results were actually falsified so a non-controversial figure would win and that Stalin was an actual winner. Both France and the UK chose their WW2 leader as their greatest one, so it actually fits the overall picture. You said in the video that Churchill is the person most associated with "leading allies to victory", but Russians actually did like 70% of all the WW2 fighting, so most common Russian view is "we did all the job and then the westerners claimed our victory for themselves". Stalin is still quite popular, especially among the older folks, but he's also very polarizing: many people love him, but many hate him for all this being a murderous dictator thing. Monarchs of yore are far more unifying in this aspect (but we can argue about them as well, i.e. was Ivan the Terrible actually that terrible? a hot topic for a discussion). My explaination for the east-west divide when Western nations choose relatively modern politicians and Eastern europeans choose ancient kings is that the 20th century was a time of a total triumph of Western civilisation, while we mostly spent it, as well as most other centuries, living in shit.

[@AtaMarKat]

Alexander II and Catherine II were your two best people.

[@Squaretable22]

I've heard similar things from Chinese People - the Qing Dynasty is controversial, as is Chiang Kai Sek, Mao and well any communist leader... They have to look to their ancient history like Taizong or Qin Shi Huang instead

[@concommie4050]

@@Squaretable22 From what ive heard about china, they recognize Mao had flaws but still consider them to be the founder of their nation and he isn't really as controversial there. Deng Xiaoping said Mao was "seven good, three bad" and they are also pretty much indoctrinated to hate Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang. If a similar show happened in China Mao would probably be in the running honestly (of course, fuck mao) and the Qing dynasty is still widely associated with the century of humiliation. For their #1, it would be a tough call between Sun Yat-Sen or Mao tbh, and I wouldnt doubt Xi could make his way on the list.

[@Squaretable22]

@@concommie4050 oh god I think I got Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Sek mixed up. I know there's a lot of censorship around Mao, and he is still on the banknotes - China's never had a Secret Speech moment like Russia did. I honestly don't know if Mao would come up on top or not or whether that would be desired by the party, but I would expect much of the list to be dominated by ancient Chinese with a few Communists etc mixed in

[@concommie4050]

@@Squaretable22 yeah i could see that, considering how china is building statues of Confucius. Wouldn't expect any Kuomintang besides Sun Yat-Sen. Very well could be between Sun Yat-Sen and Mao, they might disqualify one of those as the obvious #1 and do competition as the 2nd greatest Chinese person too.

[@TheComedyButchers]

“Oh this looks like an interesting look into the culture about how-“ *Teddy Roosevelt didn’t win* “This is complete bullshit.”

[@cleanesthawk2128]

I thought FDR would win. I think if they redid this FDR would win

[@kenm4390]

Not gonna cap, I thought there was a chance Michael Jordan would b in the top3

[@delaneymarie9281]

@@cleanesthawk2128 or lincoln. definitely not reagan

[@duckdictator6531]

I like Reagan and FDR but hot damn if Theodore Roosevelt isn’t the most American American to ever live....

[@belzibubtom9546]

FDR below goddam Elvis and no teddy, these lists are arguments against democracy.

[@NathanS__]

You'll notice those eastern European medieval kings usually had something to do with defeating the Teutonic Order or some other Germanic peoples. That's some historical propaganda that used historical events to justify 20th century actions by those communist governments. "We've always been at war with the germans" "the germans were always the aristocratic oppressors to our noble native peasantry" and so on.

[@alexandrub8786]

14:05 The romanian exemple is (Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt)/Stephen the Great and Holy, he fight and won agains the otomans at the "Battle of the High Brige" or "Battle of Vaslui" while being outnumbered 5 to 1,there was literary 0 germans,Vlad Țepeș/the impaler or Mihai Viteazul/Michael the Brave would be better amti-german propaganda,brasonian germans told lies about him and wanted privileged and usurpe him and he raided their teritories as revenge(Vlad,or Michael after being promised his unified great kingdom after winning agains the turks was betrayed by the austrian generals at the emperor order while they were eating(Michael)

[@newtfigton8795]

We’ve always been at war with Eastasia. Eurasia is our ally.

[@reddykilowatt]

Eurasia, myasia, whatever...

[@yusufalraqi4903]

John Hume, the Northern Ireland civil rights activist, won the Irish version of the show btw :)

[@cleanesthawk2128]

I thought FDR would win in America. I did not realize how popular Reagan was in America and I live in America

[@SmokeyD_]

FDRs not even our best Roosevelt, I doubt he would be voted the Greatest American

[@cosinev1265]

The list for America is complete bullshit mainly because George W. Bush got 6th even though he's one of the most hated presidents in history. If it were purely my choice, I would pick George Washington.

[@porsche911sbs]

He just died before they made this show, at the time many people felt nostalgia for him

[@CityOfNashville]

@@SmokeyD_ I dont know, FDR was a pretty good guy

[@konstantin_d.m]

Honestly, I expected Washington to be No 1, although I wish it would've been ML King...

[@_saltyvinegar]

When Canada came up I was so sure it was going to be Terry Fox that I forgot politics existed.

[@DouglasEdward84]

He was in the top 10. I can't remember the exact order but I think the Top 10 was something like..... Douglas, Trudeau Sr., Fox, Banting, MacDonald, Cherry, Laurier, Pearson, Suzuki and I can't recall the 10th, maybe it was Borden.

[@trenthall8904]

It was Wayne Gretzky I’m pretty sure

[@SylviusTheMad]

@@DouglasEdward84 Amusingly, it was: 1. Tommy Douglas 2. Terry Fox 3. Pierre Trudeau 4. Sir Frederick Banting 5. David Suzuki 6. Lester Pearson 7. Don Cherry 8. Sir John A. MacDonald 9. Alexander Graham Bell 10. Wayne Gretzky Bell was a Scotsman who invented the telephone while working in America. He did spend some time here (convalescing), but he wasn't Canadian and he didn't do any work here.

[@vincentlefebvre9255]

Greatest canadian : William Stephenson " a man called intrepid". Greatest canadian hero airman William George Barker.

[@keirhardie2547]

JJ’s videos are some of the only things getting the through Quarantine

[@BOBofGH]

Mother Theresa's modern image is a lot less rosy. She's widely regarded as a sadistic fanatic. I'm surprised you didn't bring that up at all.

[@part-timebrock1126]

Babasaheb Ambedkar was greatest Indian.

[@footballsoccer9294]

I think raja ram Mohan Roy also have a good chance to be in top 10 atleast

[@digger053]

I'm not up on the news. What do you mean by sadistic fanatic?

[@sharktamer]

She had an obsession with suffering being divine, comparing the poor and sick in calcutta to the suffering of christ. So the homes she ran ended up just prolonging the suffering of the people in them since their misery was seen as a divine gift. Less an evil person and more an insane fundamentalist, but either way definitely not someone who should be deified.

[@ravinchowdhury5215]

I would nominate Rabindranath Tagore.

[@dm.usenko]

hey JJ as a Russian, I can talk a lot about the way my fellow Russians choose their hero. also, I have some doubts that the voting was somewhat close to fair. you know, we have some history of democracy troubles. although, it's easy to explain why that guy Nevsky won. Alexander Nevsky is a part of a global Russian patriotic myth. this myth mostly defines the way kids study history at school. this myth is a monstrous mix of pre-revolutional tsarist russian patriotism, soviet-style marxist-affected patriotism, and modern russian military based patriotism. thus, we have a bizarre set of national heroes. Alexander Nevsky comes from the early era - he is considered somewhat a defender of russian orthodox identity from catholic western aggression. fun fact: now it's pretty much an undoubted fact that the battle he is honoured for either has never happened or has happened in a much different way that we know it. I wouldn't be surprised if the winners were Minin and Pozharsky (some old rebels - they are pretty much well accepted in terms of class fight), 28 Panfilov soldiers (which never existed - and yet are the most popular example of soviet heroism), or, actually, Putin. this boy has a huge fanbase among the kind of people who watch TV reality shows. actually, Russia is so obsessed with heroism that it seems too difficult to choose just one of it's beloved heroes. personally, I would vote for Lomonosov, Korolev, Tsiolkovsky or Landau. or Dokuchayev - the founder of soil science, which I study :) also, I'm terrified and upset with Stalin's third place.

[@warwickeng5491]

What about Lenin, wouldn't be surprised if he took at least a top 3 spot

[@diavulo28]

It's almost natural to have a cult for the heroes given your history written in blood. You have definitely the best sense for Drama and are the most patriotic folk in the World so far i can see, but I'm relieved to note you are somewhat immune to the European tendency to turn it in rabid nationalism with a scent of colonialism. I now, you could argue about the Neo-Tzarist or other groups, but generally in western Europe only the right wingers are openly patriotic. I'm sad seeing such a mess in your political system, with oligarchs robbing the country and a gigantic corrupt bureaucracy who lives since the times Moscow it's called the 3th Rome looking away. I'm sad two times cause in the international arena your politicians have done miracles, no one would have bet a cent on Russia 20 years ago, we Westerners hoped you would break up in small Republics of Oilistan and Gasistan ready to plunge in debt and rob of their natural resources.

[@francomarianetti5859]

I remember "el gen argentino". José de San Martín won and it wasent a surprise even the the commentator said "Did you need a television program to know that San Martín is the best Argentine?"

[@estebancabrera8625]

@@sohopedeco Are they football players?

[@AtaMarKat]

Why not Evita?

[@willow9489]

"We in the west find it hard to understand such admiration/knowledge for people from over 500 years ago" The entire British monarchy: Am I a joke to you?

[@Sethslayer1147]

Funny how JJ also doesn't like the monarchy

[@correctionguy7632]

@@Sethslayer1147 JJ is a salty republican

[@JJMcCullough]

I don’t think Brits generally care about their medieval monarchs all that much.

[@rogink]

@@JJMcCullough At school we learn about William the Conqueror in 1066, but then skip to the Tudors in mid-16th century with Henry VIII and Elizabeth. The kings in between aren't that interesting. I guess unlike continental Europe we weren't under threat between those times - so you are right, we don't have any national heroes from medieval times. After good Queen Bess saw off the Spanish Armada in 1588 it wasn't until WW2 that we were under threat, which of course Churchill saw off single-handed. Hence the top spot!

[@willow9489]

@@JJMcCullough Speaking as a Brit we learnt about William the conqueror in school and Richard the Lionheart, and we also learnt about people from before then like Alfred the Great and Boudica. Although I'm sure you're right to think that there is more national identity thrown behind medieval leaders in Eastern European countries, the knowledge is still definitely there. Whilst she was only 400 years ago, Elizabeth I was in our top ten. Also in our top 100 were Alfred the Great (14th), Owain Glyndwr (23rd), Boudica (35th), Henry VIII (again only around 500 years ago but still 40th), King Arthur (51st), Henry V (72nd), Robert the Bruce (74th), Henry II (90th), and Edward I (94th). Almost all of these are monarchs from before 500 years ago that appeared in our top one hundred. Some are slightly more recent, but the point still stands.

[@zacharystevens2153]

The fact that Steve Irwin didn't win Australia's number 1 is a national tragedy

[@mcmasters1484]

I think almost every Zoomer who grew up in a practicing Catholic family knows who mother Theresa is and how she was the greatest. Wouldn’t be surprised if the same was true for other Christian families

[@generalcaesar3477]

Here in Ireland she was held pretty much with the same reverence we were to give Mary. Even Protestants here regarded her as a great humanitarian.

[@bjornaert6754]

@@generalcaesar3477 Protestant here. We learned a little bit about her in primary school, that she was an Albanian living in Yugoslavia and that she moved to Calcutta in India to help poor in the slums. I believe that a hospital in the city is named after her, showing how significant her influence on the city was

[@mateuszfranc1426]

@@bjornaert6754 Hospital in Tirana, Albania is named for Mother Theresa

[@peyuko5960]

I mean, I didn't go to catholic school but I still grew up learning about her... probably because I live in Mexico.

[@xander1052]

Catholic here too, she was mentioned a bit but not revered as super amazing, and I think that's a pretty fair way to treat her as she was not perfect.

[@chase-zl7wf]

Me waiting for America: It's definitely gonna be George Washington, he's like the most uncontroversial pick that every American loves Me seeing Ronald Reagan: WHAT??

[@kevingonzalez9191]

@chase yeah lol,I guess it’s 80’s nostalgia in general,and the fact Reagan was less controversial back then.After 2008 many saw him as having been the person who moved the US towards that financial crisis and that hurt his reputation.But from 1990-2008 many saw him as being the reason for the prosperity and the whole “defeating the Soviets” thing.

[@VV_PaVria]

@@kevingonzalez9191 That, and as JJ mentioned, the Greatest American poll was held a year after Reagan passed away.

[@notlikely4468]

Well they're not famous for attention span.... Kinda like a Beagle.....

[@krombopulos_michael]

Yeah Reagan really threw me off too. I know he was popular in his time, but in modern times he's really far more popular with Republicans, and even then he's kind of fading in importance as the party becomes more Trumpish. I guess 2005 was a different time.

[@kyokyodisaster4842]

@@skn9895 Exactly, you would think it would have been the actual runner up, Lincoln...who personally is a just a great human overall and had a sad as all things life.

[@brianhess1456]

Hey JJ so from what I see eastern Europeans generally have a greater cultural tie to medival kings because they were one the few patriotic figures that would be discussed under communism. Many more modern figures from before the Soviet ocupation were errased or maligned in the history books, the ancient ones were seen as less challenging to the party line.

[@AbeYousef]

Yeah in Hungary they also rewrote a fair bit of the history, it's amazing reading foreign texts and comparing it to what I was even taught in school even post communism (since most people learned the altered version, it got passed on). I think it also deals with the fact that eastern Europeans are still significantly more tied to their land, even if they are urbanized, so they share more of that history with their ancestors, that and there's not much positive to say about the 20th or 19th centuries for most eastern Europeans (beyond their revolutionary, musical, or scientific leaders, the latter two of which typically would adopt German or English names). Although in Hungary Admiral Horthy would likely be fairly popular now.

[@SamWickens]

Me: Oh cool, the thumbnail has the Luxembourg flag. I'm guessing either Grand Duchess Charlotte for her resistance radio work during the war or John the Blind for being a total medieval badass. Video: *uses our flag to represent the Dutch*

[@johndododoe1411]

Were there any flags in the video?

[@cyrildewaha]

I know right, as a Luxembourger I have also been disappointed XD

[@35volts52]

British ppl: "Voting in America is so complicated!" Also Brits: 0:44

[@ItalianGuy2357]

Brit's love taking the piss out of things, especially themselves, speaking as someone dating a British girl.

[@clickbait7396]

I swear if Rowan Atkinson Isn't the greatest British Person of all time I'll Lose it.

[@vulpes7079]

Nah David Attenborough deserves that win

[@donovanlocust1106]

@@vulpes7079 I second this notion

[@slishslash9202]

@@donovanlocust1106 I too agree with him.

[@notroll1279]

You really think he'll make it past John Cleese? This is typical...absolutely typical...

[@LoudaroundLincoln]

Can you hear that? That's the sound of Sean Bean sharpening his cavalry sword to ram through you, bastard.

[@mk14ist]

Amazing video! Dutchie here: Spinoza or Erasmus, two of the great western European philosophers Johan Cruyff, one of the best football players Willem of Orange, the father of our country

[@Jack-iv1ed]

MK 96 yeah im quite surprised cruyff didnt win

[@mk14ist]

@Alex Mercer ja that's solid a solid choice too

[@BoraCM]

William was also king of Great Britain and Ireland after the Glorious Revolution.

[@artifex2.080]

Bedoel je niet Stille Willem

[@jeannebouwman1970]

Willem III was king of great britain and stadhouder of the netherlands, not willem de zwijger

[@MomovskyChannel]

I can actually explain not the trend of eastern europeans choosing kings and princes, but specifically what is the case with Alexander Nevsky. Alexander Nevsky being so popular is actually just a product of soviet propaganda. Not many people really cared about him mere 100 years ago. But when Stalin came to power, he decided that for his totalitarian needs he has to show soviet people a distinctive link throughout all russian history from like IXth century all the way to Stalin himself. Thus he needed several history persons to portray himself as his successor. Stalin (or his own propaganda guys) chose several people representing the greatest persons of russian history, such as Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky. Then they started to appear more and more in history textbooks, they were promoted in culture (you must know director Sergei Eisenstein, who actually filmed the movie "Alexander Nevsky", released in 1938) and so on. That's why Nevsky is so popular. Now to why he was chosen as the symbol of strong Russia by propaganda. Probably because big part of russians always see themselves as "anti-western civilization" (to be more accurate, I'd correct myself into saying "big part of russians always see collective West as anti-russian civilization). Thus Nevsky, who fought Teuton knights to preserve Russia from westerners, and to preserve orthodox religion from catholics, is a perfect hero for propaganda needs. Nowadays Putin uses pretty much same propaganda technics, he tries to depict himself as a successor to great russian heritage, so Nevsky stays popular. I think Putin sees himself as a "Nevsky reborn" of a kind, and he broadcasts it to russians. That's pretty much why under the rule of Putin russians chose Nevsky. And that's also why you'll probably find other people mentioned in my comment in said rating. Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Stalin and so on - all are advertised as the embodiment of strong Russia compared to weak Russia in times of Yeltsin's or Gorbachev's rule.

[@basharkano9658]

I live in Hungary and I can confirm that Stephen I, the patron saint of Hungary and its first christian king is a big deal here. You see him all oven the place; on money, in paintings, churches, libraries, in front of government buildings, and in main squares all over the country.

[@alexandrub8786]

A funny coincidence that Romania and Hungary Stephens as the greatest of their people.

[@spazzohawk9591]

It's weird seeing Stalin being presented with cheerful music in the background. But it is also hilarious

[@aneesh2115]

You know the funny thing? Stalin wasn't even a Russian. He was a mix of mushroom kingdom and Georgia.

[@danielalmeida7382]

Aneesh Sahu just like how hitler wasn’t German he was Austrian

[@kaysas9686]

@@danielalmeida7382 But he was ethinically german

[@hanbanaroda]

Fun fact: The Czech version had to ban "Jára Cimrmman", a fictional character of universal genius, and one of the greatest Czech playwrights, poets, composers, teachers, travellers, philosophers, inventors, detectives, mathematicians, and sportsmen of the 19th and early 20th century, created in the 60s. Something like Gandhi or Mandela for Czechs. The rest was: 1.) Charles IV, Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor 2.) Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, first Czechoslovakian president (1918, sociologist, philosopher) 3.) Václav Havel (president after Velvet revolution, dissident and writer) 4.) John Amos Comenius (pedagogue, 17. century) 5.) Jan Žižka (general in Hussite wars. 14. century) 6.) Jan Werich (actory, playwright and writer, 20. century) 7.) Jan Hus (Theologian and church reformer, 14. century) 8.) Antonín Dvořák (composer, 19. century - you all heard "From the New World" symphony) 9.) Karel Čapek (writer, early 20. century, invenotr of word "robot") 10.) Božena Němcová (writer, 19. century)

[@jonassp3841]

What about Kafka though?

[@Marylandbrony]

It’s like if Rick Sanchez was elected “Greatest living American” by Reddit or something.

[@cheddarcheese089]

The ease at which he calls mother Teresa out for being ugly; slays me.

[@-gemberkoekje-5547]

I love how you call the Netherlands Holland and used the Luxemburgian flag in the thumnail to represent it.

[@rickycoker5830]

jj gets a pass...his mom's from Holland

[@chamber0461]

@@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan so are parts of Germany Eastern Europe?

[@wholelifeahead]

@@chamber0461 i guess, to be fair parts of Russia are in Asia. Geographic borders dont have to line up with political ones

[@DouglasEdward84]

@@chamber0461 East Germany is a very odd place historically. Historically the East Elbian lands were actually quite like Eastern Europe. Even currently East Germans have cultural differences with the West, different voting patterns etc.

[@alexandrub8786]

@@DouglasEdward84 maybe because those were slavic lands and you only assimilated some slavic tribes like Soarbs.

[@Rafael47936]

JJ: "A questionable choise could slip through aswell Me, a german: oh shit JJ: The first international knockoff was the german edition" Me: NOOOOO JJ: "They had a strict no nazi policy" Me: thank god

[@Cl-jp7ek]

I think, that even if they could have chosen a nazi, they wouldn’t have.

[@Rafael47936]

@@Cl-jp7ek That is true, Germany is a politically moderate country, especially back in the 2000s

[@ahab6969]

@@Cl-jp7ek wrong general Rommel might have made it as well as the guy who ran from stalingrad "saving" about a quarter million of soldiers and was executed for it ...

[@tasse0599]

@@Rafael47936 Adenauer was definitely not moderate seeing how he was a hardliner against German unification and didn't do shit to clean the nazi asylum that was the FRG

[@reptiloidtill]

@@tasse0599 not true

[@elsavic]

Hey JJ love the content. As an Eastern European I guess being great a long time ago and losing everything makes people look to the past for their past greatness? I mean no offence but when you come for a world leading country its kinda hard to care about anything other than current wealth and the present Even in Serbia where Im from, I guess Novak Djokovic would be number one, but Dusan the Great that formed the Kingdom of Serbia and ruled over the Balkans would make it in the top 5 guaranteed

[@JJMcCullough]

That’s fair!

[@jerrell1169]

Yeah, with Ukrainians it’s mostly either Cossacks that get the attention then it’s all downhill from their.

[@Imilmano]

Dušan the Great created the Serbian Empire not the Kingdom.

[@roy_for_real2674]

Yeah, I see that. A lot of misery and submission to other countries and not being very powerful and wealthy since a long time ago.

[@jjosephs6521]

@@JJMcCullough Not a criticism just my thoughts, by the west I think it's more accurate to say north America. I think this comes from the fact politically important and historically important people to the nation's of north America have a backwards time limit due to the age of the nation's, In my opinion you can't really understand the UK politics or institutions with out knowing how they came about, I also think this is true for the US because in large part the US's political system is modeled on the UK's of the 1700s. If you look at the full list for the UK it includes (using your 500 year rule), No.14 Alfred the Great, king of Wessex (871-899). No. 23 Owain Glyndŵr (1359 -1415) No. 35 Boudica (? - 60 or 61AD) No. 40 Henry VIII, king (1509-1547). No. 48 Sir William Wallace (1270- 1305) No. 72 Henry V, king (1413-1422) No. 74 Robert the Bruce, king of the Scots (1306-1329). No. 82 Richard III, king (1483-1485) No. 90 Henry II, king (1154-1189) No. 94 Edward I, king (1272-1307) And looking at the UKs top 10, 3 of the top 10 only miss your 500 year cut of by a very small amount of year's, No. 5 William Shakespeare (1564-1616) born 456 years ago. No. 7 Elizabeth I (1533-1603) born 487 years ago. No.10 Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) born 421 years ago.

[@WelcomeToDERPLAND]

Princess Diana and Burnell beating Shakesphere & Darwin & Newton is CRIMINAL

[@MrBasileus]

I want to see " The greatest German " TV uncensored version.

[@MrBasileus]

Fegelein would be in the top ten in my list.

[@helmutschmidt84]

I'm pretty sure such a show would be illegal here in Germany

[@lelaviation9869]

6. Goebbels 5. Rommel 4. Göring 3. Himmler 2. Hitler 1. *FEGELEIN!!!!!!*

[@firesparkles7203]

I coul imagine Rommel or Stauffenberg being in the top 20.

[@Alias_Anybody]

Even if you do it completely anonymously I highly doubt Hitler would make it into the Top 10.

[@jirafafious4103]

In Spain in 2007, we had a similar thing. It was called "El Español de la Historia" (The Spaniard of History) and the results were extracted from a poll that asked around 3,000 citizens. The Top 10 was: 1. Juan Carlos I, king of Spain after the Franco dictatorship. 2. Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. 3. Christopher Columbus, explorer (despite being Italian). 4. Sofía de Grecia, queen of Spain after the Franco dictatorship (she was born in Greece and was the daughter of the Greek king at the time). 5. Adolfo Suárez, president of Spain after the Franco dictatorship. 6. Santiago Ramón y Cajal, physican and Nobel Prize winner. 7. Felipe VI, prince at the time of the programme and the current king of Spain. 8. Pablo Picasso, painter and sculptor. 9. Saint Teresa of Avila, poet and nun. 10. Felipe Gonzalez, president of Spain, served for four consecutive terms.

[@hamilkarbarkas2071]

Phillip II not being in the top 10 ruined my day

[@warwickeng5491]

I'm suprised Charles V didn't make it to the list

[@balintvass4771]

3. Christopher Columbus, slave trader, tyrant and mass murderer (despite being Italian). I thought it needed to be fixed.

[@mikegibus]

They really do dislike Franco Cannot blame them

[@tothelimit9992]

@@balintvass4771 cool. lets not admire the pyramids because theyre build by slaves. just stfu

[@JamesTilsley1]

Jeremy Clarkson’s documentary on Isambard Kingdom Brunel for Great Britons is on KZbin and is well worth a watch.

[@lawrencian]

Do you know where to watch any of the other episodes? I've been scouring the internet for ages looking for them yet they are nowhere to be found

[@jacobseager4897]

emperor uriel septim vii if your British it’s on BBC iPlayer

[@MultiLiam24]

He is by far the greatest British person, forget the others

[@emanueldobos8452]

@@MultiLiam24 I agree. I don't understand why all of these figures are politicians. Surely all parts of society are important and we should have more figures from different sides of society. Especially when you consider how tainted the occupation is

[@JamesTilsley1]

Liam McIntosh Yesss 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@kiwwat4139]

The brits chose Cromwell in the top ten? That man was an utter monster!

[@sticks4632]

I mean its british history, most of them are monsters in some way

[@Dr._Heinz_Doofenshmirtz]

@@sticks4632 nales sense most royals were slobs and did not care much for their own personal health either

[@SteamboatW]

He would never get the Irish vote.

[@voiceofreason2674]

Cromwell sucks. Killed the true king and he did the siege of drogheda. America was largely started by everybody he ran out, except for New England which is where his supporters flocked after he fell.

[@mr.anderson2241]

They also put John Lennon and princess diana on the list, so it’s just filled with a lot of head scratchers

[@ronildoshi5998]

5:10 Jugoslavia didn't exist when Mother Teresa was born, rather interestingly, she was born an Ottoman subject, which still existed at the time.

[@iMonsieurAnthony]

Mother Theresa: “I’m Albanian by blood, Indian by citizenship” The only person that binds the Albanian countries with India.

[@boggerson3562]

I think that you mean Balkan countries

[@mooeminou]

A demon women

[@iMonsieurAnthony]

@@boggerson3562 Nope. I mean Albanian for Albania, Kosovo and recently North Macedonia are Albanian speaking and have Albanian peoples. Balkans is a region, like Scandanavia. And is predominantly Slavic, of which Albanians like Mother Theresa are not.

[@nervesinapattern7261]

She was a terrible person

[@SWNerd]

Devrnevr8 how

[@jjpki4654]

I'm surprised that Wayne Gretzky didn't win in Canada or that Napoleon didn't win in France. However, not at all surprised to see that in the United States the list is full of former presidents. Winston Churchill was a predictable and fair choice by the British.

[@LightKnight_Age_Of]

We have indeed a strong attachment for Napoléon, but he's still quite a controversial figure (obviously not as much as, say, Stalin, and I wouldn't be shocked by his presence), when on the other hand de Gaulle is kind of our modern nation father, and everyone claims his legacy (if you prove you're legit gaullist, that's an argument on its own), and there is very little controversy nowadays. Plus we tend to appraise our cultural and activists figures - even more true as of today!

[@LightKnight_Age_Of]

In any case, France has such a history that you can you can fill a top 100 with legit participants.

[@augth]

Napoléon probably came second. I’m French and I would choose Napoleon and de Gaulle in the first places, with Louis XI in third.

[@LightKnight_Age_Of]

@@augth Apparemment non, il suffit de consulter le lien donné par JJ en description. de Gaulle y est le seul homme politique. Ce top 3 "royal" est honorable et va dans le sens de "J'assume tout, de Clovis à Robespierre", mais il ne correspond pas à ce que pensent la majorité des Français. Je doute que Louis IX puisse apparaître en bonne position chez quelqu'un qui n'est pas catho (à la rigueur protestant), et à plus forte raison Louis XI (c'est un choix assez surprenant). Personnellement j'aurais dit...hmm… 1 de Gaulle 2 Victor Hugo 3 Coluche 4 Albert Camus 5 Descartes 6 Henri IV 7 de Coubertin 8 les Frères Lumière 9 Louis IX 10 la Fontaine Peut-être. Je ne mets pas Marie Curie parce que c'est quand même légèrement de la triche, même si c'est en tant que française qu'elle a fait ses travaux et obtenu ses 2 prix Nobel… Maintenant, si on insiste sur le mot "greatest", dans le sens "plus grands, majeurs…", alors ça donnerait plutôt, peut-être : 1 de Gaulle 2 Napoléon 3 Louis XIV 4 Victor Hugo 4 Henri IV 5 Clovis 6 Jeanne d'Arc 7 Robespierre 8 Descartes 9 les frères Lumière 10 la Fontaine C'est difficile à juger. "greatest", au fond, c'est très ambigu et flou.

[@LightKnight_Age_Of]

C'est frustrant ces tops, aucun ne convient vraiment. J'aimerais rajouter Pascal, et Jean Moulin, et...

[@ssgtblackmamba7991]

The difference between Canada en the USA not caring about people from more than 500 years ago is, in my opinion, the simple fact that you don't have any historical figures that go back that far. Let me use my own country as an example, there are a lot of people who are proud of our marine corps and the man that came up with the idea Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, national hero. This happened on 10-12-1667. A whole 202 years before The Dominion of Canada was officially born . It's hard to find national heroes from 500 years ago if your nation wasn't even a spark of an idea yet.

[@thorthewolf8801]

Exactly!

[@SeanA099]

I did learn about Mother Teresa in school in the late 2000s-early 2010s, but that was probably because I went to Catholic school

[@JJMcCullough]

Story checks out

[@jk59627]

@@JJMcCullough I'm Christian but don't exactly like mother Teresa since there's certain things she did that were hypocritical

[@benjamingonzalez5856]

Weird. I went to a catholic school in the early to mid 2010s and we never talked about her

[@rparl]

There was a throwaway joke in Murphy Brown where she was scolded for making one of her guests cry. "She deserved it." "That was Mother Theresa!"

[@syrialak101]

@Richard Jordan Samuelson This sounds made-up...

[@SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand]

I like how Australia’s greatest person literally was just 1/3rd of the achievement.

[@captain-chair]

Apparently we also invented Wi-Fi.

[@SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand]

@@captain-chair what no lol you certainly did not

[@arrgghh1555]

When you are directly responsible for saving 200 million lives and counting. 'Only' being 1/3 is kind of irrelevant. Also Fleming may have discovered penicillin but had next to nothing to do with it being made into a viable Drug.

[@popezosimusthethird269]

Two interesting things : - while the south-african show itself was cancelled, other surveys were made and the man who most often came first (or second when Mandela was included) was Christiaan Barnard who performed the first human heart transplant in 1968. - France had been running similar surveys in a semi-official capacity for much longer and still does before the TV versions came to be. The winners tend to be more current people. Main winners would be naval engineer and documentarian Jacques Yves Cousteau with 20 nominations in total, followed by the abbot Pierre, a WW2 resistant who then led a very visible and popular fight against homelessness and poverty in the 50s and whose charity organizations are still very active and present in the whole country and the world, mostly the Emmaüs society. The rest of these lists usually contain a lot more actors and singers currently under the public eye as well as athletes after recent victories.

[@Thndrstrike]

Your reaction to Stalin coming in third is exactly how I feel about Reagan coming in first

[@DarkLordOfSweden]

Hey at least Reagan was not the second greatest mass murderer in history, that is a plus X)

[@TheSpiralProgression]

@@DarkLordOfSweden but, unlike Stalin, he sold out his own people so corporations could make an extra dime

[@Anonymous-ot6hi]

And Churchill

[@ilyanwevers5784]

@@Anonymous-ot6hi churchill is a good man. If he wasn't there sure the famine wouldnt happen but india would just be either german or japanese. I believe if that would happen millions more would die.

[@jodepploro3783]

And mine about Mother Theresa

[@JackRackam]

How Isambard Kingdom Brunel took second place above Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare is a complete mystery to me. I'd blame it on the TV episode perhaps being especially compelling but the fact he made it into the top 10 at all is astonishing . ...But I'd be lying if it didn't make me happy that some obscure Brit I read about two years ago was actually so important, even if the poll did come in 2002

[@walruspanda8768]

I totally understand him being ranked in the top 10, but I am surprised that that many people would vote for him. Then votes like Princess Di are just a waste in my opinion, not that she's a bad person but I don't think her presence in the top 10 is justified

[@caiusofglantri5513]

Britain reached the height of its power and influence in the world during, and largely because of, its Industrial Revolution. And the Industrial Revolution was not a creation of politicians and leaders, but of engineers. They could have chosen James Watt, the father of steam, or George Stephenson, the father of Railways, but these people came early during the Industrial Revolution, before the true impact of their inventions was felt by society. Brunel came later and became the first celebrity engineer - as important to GB as Edison or Henry Ford was to USA.

[@mrwaverider5537]

Brunel was a genius!! Wtf are you on about??

[@u4tiwasdead]

@@mrwaverider5537 the issue is not so much whether he deserves to be that high, but more how he got so many votes. I'm pretty sure the majority of people in the UK have no idea who Brunel is, unlike pretty much everyone else on that list.

[@lauren6763]

@@u4tiwasdead The reason he got so many votes is because there’s an engineering university in his name in London and upon hearing of the Greatest Britons Poll, all of the students of that university mass voted his name haha.

[@joshistyping]

7:32 Look at this man's face and tell me he wasn't born to inspire outrage. I could have spit out my drink when I saw this photo.

[@DaFrancc]

Verwoerd: *Goes to take picture* Photographer: Alright, give me a good pose Verwoerd: *Gives the face of a villain* Photographer: Um, do you want to try again? Verwoerd: *Shoots photographer* HOW DARE YOU QUESTION MY FACIAL EXPRESSION

[@thattimestampguy]

2:30 The UK Top 10: Famous, Accomplished, Questionable 3:50 German: Konrad Adenauer 4:31 India: Mother Theresa (actually Yugoslavian at birth) 5:52 Australia: Howard Florey 7:56 Holland: Pim Fortuyn (Charismatic Politician, Critic, Gay) 10:00 Canada: Tommy Douglas (Democratic Socialist, Father of Canadian Medicare) 11:43 French: Charles De Gaulle 12:09 USA: Ronald Reagan (Anti-Communist) 13:22 Russia: Alexander Nevsky (Hero of The Past) 15:11 Win

[@アリス-h9t]

The Netherlands.

[@stratisgeorgilis7703]

The fact that Alan Turing wasn’t even mentioned with the likes of Brunel, Cromwell, and Churchill hurts

[@tkbennett1123]

I’m surprised how low Washington was on the US rankings. Would’ve thought he would’ve been first or second with Lincoln

[@octoberboiy]

I agree and after watching Hamilton on Disney + I gained a renewed level of respect for him. He should be number 1.

[@tlam3028]

Kinda upset Washington didn’t win America’s greatest, Regan was really cool but had nothing on Washington’s legacy and impact.

[@muricaforever2978]

I'd agree there. I love the Gipper, but I think Washington should have won. I'd also accept Lincoln.

[@selahanany5645]

well it was a year after he died. it was a respect thing ig.

[@BigSchmity]

Revolver Ocelot FDR shouldn’t even be in the top 10

[@declaniii6324]

Drew Schmitz I think he would make top 5

[@r.r.i.a.9904]

yea like wtf why would Reagan be number 1 i would've understood like him being like in like 4th, 5th or 6th but not 1st. That is super odd to me

[@horationelson1840]

Imagine John Lennon coming in ahead of me! Lol. I was at the Cape St. Vincent, the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar. My love for King and county kept me warm on my coldest nights.

[@justinian-the-great]

I absolutely agree. But, as it seems with many westerners in general, British came to be too ignorant about history.......... although, to be honest Horatio, what happened in Copenhagen isn't really for bragging, isn't it?

[@jerry3790]

@@justinian-the-great I think it’s the way he died that did it for a lot of people, but as a fan of the Beatles myself, I can definitely respect him being somewhere on the list.

[@ub3rfr3nzy94]

@@justinian-the-great If it helps, Mr. Justinian the Great, you'd probably make top 5 Greatest Greeks of all time which is a very tough list to get onto.

[@justinian-the-great]

@@ub3rfr3nzy94 Oh thanks, that's very nice from you. But I don't know if I could classify as a Greek, since technically ethnically I was either Thracian or Ilirian, but yeah it could be so.

[@davas5938]

@@justinian-the-great the battle of Copenhagen that nelson was involved in (1801) was a huge success for the Royal Navy.

[@aaronexponential4120]

Any Canadians surprised that Terry Fox didn’t get the top spot? He was an incredibly influential and generous person

[@emilywilkins5124]

Yeah for sure. I was also really hoping fredrick banting would be number one, because he saved the lives of all diabetic people from then on

[@TheSilentMajorityNation]

Just looked Fox up. Wow amazing story. RIP

[@forthrightgambitia1032]

2:56 I remember when this show was a thing. There was a show where a particular public figure made the case for each of the top ten. Brunel came second because the then main presenter of Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson did a very forceful presentation of Brunel and his life which captured the public attention and almost won it.

[@archiecroft7114]

Ferrusian Gambit I remember that to but I think Brunel is kind of underrated because the amount of world class construction projects he engineered was outstanding for instance he created the Great Western Railway which I used to use almost every day and took it for granted

[@forthrightgambitia1032]

@@archiecroft7114 Yes. And it was also satisfying an engineer got so much recognition in a country that seems to associate engineering with the guy who comes to fix your washing machine.

[@lunahlulah6772]

I love how you dig out these obscure memories I forgot I even had. The British list was definitely a product of its time, it had people like Robbie Williams and Tony Blair (of course this was pre-2003) on there. And Boy George.

[@sdepountis]

As a Greek, with 3000 years of personalities to choose from, I'm happy that the top 10 included more of our newer history ones. The fact that Dr Papanikolaou, a world renouned doctor and the inventor of the "pap" test came a close second to Alexander the Great was quite refreshing.

[@jx2729]

That's such a typical Greek comment XD

[@eac-ox2ly]

Was surprised at this

[@Gmackematix]

Dr Pap only lost because of a smear campaign.

[@finlaykusik4839]

The Eastern European idealization of kings, princes etc. is due in my mind to the trauma and tumult of recent Eastern European history, as under Stalin, Brezhnev, Hitler and so on there are very few leaders or admirable anti-authority icons, as the tyrannical regimes of the mid-century fell due either to foreign intervention or passive decay. Essentially, Eastern Europe has no modern heroes, so having such an extensive back catalogue of infallible archetypes is much more inspiring to many than say looking up to some obscure Polish war general who didn't do anything and was eventually defeated and or surrendered, or anything else of that breed.