Nobody's perfect, but some people aren't even close, and that includes some of the most beloved figures in all of history. Sure, they look great at first glance, but a closer look reveals that these respected historical figures were actually terrible people.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Nobody's perfect, but some people aren't even close, and that includes some of the most
00:05beloved figures in all of history.
00:06Sure, they look great at first glance, but a closer look reveals that these respected
00:10historical figures were actually terrible people.
00:14Screen legend John Wayne's reputation as an upstanding man's man gets tainted real fast
00:19once you hear his views on anyone who wasn't white.
00:22In a 1971 interview with Playboy, he actually said,
00:26I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.
00:31I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible
00:35people."
00:36Wayne also railed against black people getting too many opportunities, complaining that Hollywood
00:40studios were, quote, taking their tokenism a little too far.
00:44The actor also had a problem with Native Americans.
00:46In that same Playboy interview, he said that white people grabbing America from the Native
00:50Americans was good.
00:52As he put it,
00:53There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying
00:57to keep it for themselves.
00:58There shouldn't be so much whining and bellyaching.
01:02Comic book artist Bob Kane is known as the creator of Batman alongside co-creator Bill
01:06Finger.
01:07While The Caped Crusader debuted in 1939, Finger had to watch as his more influential
01:11friend took all the credit, belittled Finger's own claims of creatorship, and left him to
01:16die in obscurity.
01:17You can take almost any Batman book off the shelf and open to the title page, Batman created
01:24by Bob Kane.
01:25It's true that Kane came up with the concept for a character called Batman, but his version
01:29would wear a red suit, have wavy blonde hair, and fly around using a pair of bat wings.
01:35But Kane also conscripted Bill Finger to flesh out the character.
01:38Finger then created the Batman costume we know today, removed the character's superpowers,
01:43and made him a detective.
01:44Finger also created Catwoman, Robin, and the Joker to boot.
01:48Kane, meanwhile, used his own creative powers to invent ways to secure a contract with DC
01:53that forbade the company from crediting his friend.
01:56While Kane would make money off Batman from day one, Finger wouldn't get a creator credit
01:59until 2015.
02:01Unfortunately, Finger died in 1974.
02:03And for that, there is no forgiveness for Bob Kane.
02:09While there are plenty of presidents who cheated on their wives, John F. Kennedy is probably
02:13the most famous for it.
02:14He slept with movie stars and secretaries, and it was absolutely terrible for the pain
02:19it caused his wife.
02:20Jackie Kennedy is famous for being the picture-perfect first lady and the ever-dutiful spouse.
02:24But Jackie was aware of many of Jack's affairs.
02:27In fact, she considered divorce at least twice.
02:30The first time was in 1956, when JFK left his pregnant wife at home to go on a Mediterranean
02:35cruise.
02:36When she gave birth to a stillborn daughter, he couldn't even cut his vacation short and
02:39come home to her.
02:40But every time she thought of ending it, her family talked her out of it.
02:44JFK might have been a great president, but he wasn't exactly the best husband.
02:48South Carolina native Strom Thurmond was the longest-serving senator in U.S. history.
02:52But even though plenty of his constituents loved him, he had some terrible views about
02:56race.
02:57When Thurmond ran for president in 1948 on a states' rights and segregationist platform,
03:02he managed to get over a million votes.
03:04And he continued his fight against equality when he got to the Senate.
03:08In 1957, President Eisenhower proposed some basic civil rights laws, but Thurmond filibustered
03:13against them for over 24 hours, still the longest speech in Senate history.
03:18But what makes Thurmond much worse than almost any other racist was that he was also a hypocrite.
03:22When he was 22, he impregnated a 16-year-old black domestic worker.
03:26He completely ignored his daughter, S.E.
03:28May Washington-Williams, until she was 16, after which he started giving her money from
03:32time to time.
03:33This was partly to keep her quiet, as he knew exposure could ruin his political career.
03:38Nelson Mandela's marriage with his wife Winnie survived nearly three decades of his imprisonment,
03:43but it fell apart in 1996 when it was revealed that she cheated on him with her younger bodyguard.
03:48Winnie was a fighter, like her husband, and earned herself the title Mother of the Nation.
03:52But she was involved in some seriously controversial activities.
03:55If she suspected someone of being a traitor to the cause, she might order a necklacing,
03:59putting a gasoline-soaked car tire around someone's neck and lighting it on fire.
04:04Winnie Mandela was eventually convicted of kidnapping, assault, and fraud.
04:07And when she became part of the government as a deputy minister, she ended up getting
04:11fired for insubordination.
04:13He needed the blood of those who loved him, is what Pablo Picasso's granddaughter Marina
04:17once said about her artist grandfather.
04:19One of the most famous artists who ever lived, Picasso completely changed what modern art
04:24could be.
04:25But as he scaled these dizzying heights, he displayed a distinct penchant for misogyny.
04:29Picasso himself wasn't shy about these views.
04:31He's on record as calling women machines for suffering.
04:34He ensured his children and their wives depended on him for money.
04:37When Marina's parents broke up, he kept her and her alcoholic mother in poverty to teach
04:42them a lesson.
04:43Being one of Picasso's women also meant watching as he slept with hundreds of people.
04:47He once said he thought women were either goddesses or doormats, but he often only treated
04:51them more like the latter.