The following short video is a classic example of the literary device, hubris. Can you tell what the meaning of hubris is just by watching the video? I'll give you a hint--it's what brings the bad guys down in the end. And it's hilarious.
In case you thought the guy bouncing around with some smooth moves (just used ambiguity!) was humble, I'll gently correct you. He's displaying over-arrogance, which is commonly used as a method of giving the "bad guy" his just deserts (ambiguity again, and deserts is the original wording, but desserts also is not wrong) at the end of a story.
We see this a lot in movies. Take our beloved Raiders of the Lost Ark. Remember when the guy with the sword put on his showy display of speed and agility, then Indiana Jones rolls his eyes, pulls out his gun, and just shoots the guy? Hubris. By the way, that scene was unscripted. The script actually had Indiana countering with a whip display of his own.
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| The sword guy displaying his prowess. |
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| He's like, "What?! I'll just shoot him." |
Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films is the epitome of hubris, and is portrayed especially cleverly when he asks for "One mill-e-on dollars." Hubris and hilarious (and dumb, too, but the kind of dumb that makes you laugh). Actually, now that I think about it, Austin Powers is kind of unique, because I'm not sure who is more arrogant, Austin or Dr. Evil. And yet the overly-arrogant Austin Powers still comes out on top.
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| Just after asking for his million dollars. Does he look arrogant, or hopeful? |
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| Someone else who likes to ask for money. Definitely hubris. |
Poor Macbeth was too big for his britches, wrongly thinking he could get away with murder untouched. Hubris.
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| Oh, Macbeth! Your crown doesn't fit! |
And me, too. My over-arrogance made a fool out of me at least once in the past. I was on the junior high basketball team. It was the last minute of the game, and I found myself with the basketball, and literally no one around me. I had a straight path to the hoop, and I broke for it (ambiguity!), thinking the lay up would be insanely easy, and we would at least not be shut out (we weren't very good). Well, maybe my bangs blocked my sight, because I went up for the lay up...and missed. Talk about slamming back down to Earth. Stupid hubris.
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| Me, acting a little hubris-ly. |
The opposite of hubris is what gives Frodo (played by the super blue-eyes Elijah Wood) the edge in The Lord of the Rings. His humility grounds him to the grim reality of his circumstances, and he realizes there is no "I" in "team." As a result, Frodo and his team of unlikely heroes save the world.
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| Frodo looking resolute yet scared and adorable. |
So, just about every movie or book ever made has at least one character displaying hubris, which can lead to either the character's downfall, or his/her realizing that they aren't so great after all. I wonder why?
The dance in that video looks like Capoeira... there's a really interesting history of its development and why it was used amongst liberated slaves and their captors, as well as in Brazil to this day. Really neat stories are told in the dance, as this video illustrates. I had to watch it a few times myself- talk about a possible twist on hubris!