Illeism

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

In The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine argues that Moses did not write the Pentateuch on the basis that all of the books refer to Moses in the third person. (See also the documentary hypothesis.)

Well-known illeists

• Julius Caesar, the first and perhaps best-known illeist, in The Gallic War.
• Norman Mailer refers to himself in the third person throughout The Fight, explaining why he has chosen to do so at the beginning of the book.
• Bob Dole frequently referred to himself in the third person during the 1996 United States presidential election campaign.
• Charles de Gaulle
• Elmo from Sesame Street refers to himself in the third person. In response to the challenge that this will not teach children proper English usage, the Sesame Workshop states that this behavior "mimics the behavior of many preschoolers".
• Tarzan
• Some Biblical scholars believe that Jesus Christ refers to himself in the third person (as the "Son of Man") through much of the Gospels. (This interpretation of that phrase is disputed. See son of man for a full discussion.)
• Cerebus the Aardvark is a well-known independent comic book character who usually refers to himself in the third person.
• Former WWE wrestler, The Rock, always referred to himself in third person during his wrestling career.
• Geraldo Rivera is a very well known illeist.
• Duffman, Gil, Groundskeeper Willie and Disco Stu from The Simpsons all refer to themselves in the third person.
• Baseball's all-time record holder for stolen bases, Rickey Henderson, often refers to himself in third person; in his 2002 stand-up album, "Shut Up You Fucking Baby", comedian David Cross expounds for a length of time on Henderson's illeist habits.
• Scrubs character Todd refers to himself as "The Todd".
• Friday Night Lights character Smash Williams refers to himself as "The Smash."
• Foxxy Love of the animated series Drawn Together frequently refers to herself in the third person.
• Former NBA star Karl Malone often referred to himself in the third person during interviews.
• Comics character The Hulk is famous for referring to himself in the third person in well-known phrases such as "Hulk smash!"
• Russell Northrop from the video game Bully frequently refers to himself in the third person with phrases such as "Russell smash!", which is probably a reference to The Hulk.
• The supervillain Dr. Doom is famous for almost always referring to himself in the third person (one of the few exceptions being when he introduces himself with the line "I am Doom.") This trait has been mocked by superheroes such as the Human Torch and Spider-Man.
• Dobby, the house elf in the Harry Potter books, refers to himself in the third person.
• Boxers Roy Jones, Lennox Lewis and Floyd Mayweather occasionally lapse into illeism.
• Joseph Stalin often referred to himself as "us", "we" or "Stalin".
• Rolf from Ed, Edd n Eddy sometimes speaks in 3rd person. This may be because of his lack of English knowledge.
• Gerald Porteus III, of the Old Man Club commonly refers to himself in the third person as well as using "he" and "him" in the place of "I" and "me".
• Omar Little
• John Smith, famous for helping settle Jamestown colony, referred to himself in the third person in his books.
• Andrzej Lepper
• Saddam Hussein
• Gollum
• Grimlock, Waspinator for Transformers and its spinoff Beast Wars say "Me Grimlock no bozo, me king!" or "Waspinator kills Catbot."
• Fez from That '70s Show talks in third person so much, that when he wonders out loud what it would take for him to finally get some, Hyde tells him that he needs to cut out the "third person crap", even reminding him, "You are Fez!"
• Richard Nixon often referred to himself as "The President."
• Numbuh five from Codename: Kids Next Door, an American animated children's cartoon, refers to herself in the third person on multiple occasions
• Jeff Bridges's character in the movie The Big Lebowski, Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, refers to himself as "The Dude".
• Rickey Henderson, Major League Baseball record holder for stolen bases and runs scored.
• Terrell Owens
• Shaquille O'Neal
• Jimmy from "The Jimmy" episode of Seinfeld refers to himself in the third person, causing Elaine Benes to mistake him for someone else and influencing George Costanza to follow his example.
• Bobo Newsom, Major League Baseball pitcher from 1929-1953 referred to himself, and everyone else, as "Bobo."