Ranking the Greatest People in History 

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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" 🤔

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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*

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.

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 😂

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

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

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

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)

I’ve been binging your channel. I’m listening in my car rn as if it were a podcast. Thanks for the amazing content.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Always a great watch 💪🏼♥️

Stalin: kills tens of millions of his own people Russian people: nice

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

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

Very interesting video, good job

13:40 Wait, wasn't he georgian?

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.

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!!!

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.

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

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.

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

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

As an Australian I've literally never heard of Florey. Realistically it should have been Bob Hawke, because he can scull a beer like no other.

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

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

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.

i genuinely couldn’t believe that ronald reagan was the number one

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.

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

the Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars battle music had me gagged haha. great cameo there.

Little JJ is the most beautiful picture i have even see. I want a whole channel revolving around Little JJ.

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

as we all know, the best Canadian is Ted Cruz

I’m an Australian and I’m outraged that we didn’t have someone like Ned Kelly as the greatest person or bob Hawke

As an American, the whole time I was waiting for America's turn, I just assumed there was no way it wasn't Dr. King or Lincoln. You can imagine how big of a slap in the face the real result was.

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

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

Diana above the queen is hilarious

In relation to your Mother Theresa comment: Our education about her basically entails “she was a good, charitable woman” I had half forgotten she’s dead to be honest, she doesn’t get much coverage where I am

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.

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

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.

The small pause with the dead serious expression after saying Stalin came 3rd was hilarious lol

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

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

I think in Nevsky's case, a big part of his continued popularity was the fact that a highly-acclaimed epic film of him was made in the 1930s by Sergei Eisenstein.

7:28 I understand it’s incredibly challenging to get pronunciation correct but let me just say thanks for giving me a chuckle.

"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?

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?"

The link to all those lists doesn't work anymore :(

Lil' JJ. I'm dying!!

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

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

I’m really surprised that Reagan was number one over Lincoln

The Super Mario RPG music is perfect

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.

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

Maybe Amanda doesn’t have a love of mediaeval kings because Canada has only existed for 200 years

As a Dutch, I never even heard of Pim Fortuin

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

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

2:28 Cromwell? Are you fucking serious?

I was born in 2000 and went to memphis public school, never once learned about mother Theresa

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

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??

For me, the greatest Filipino ever live in the Philippines 🇵🇭 are : 1. Dr. Jose Rizal 2. Lapu-Lapu 3. Andres Bonifacio 4. President Manuel Quezon 5. President Ramon Magsaysay 6. Lea Salonga 7. Paeng (World Bowling Champion) 8. Efren Bata Reyes 9. Manny Pacquaio 10. Lorenzo Ruiz

Little J.J's picture from back then just screams 2000's. Love it.