Grand Poobah

Grand Poobah is a term derived from the name of the haughty character Pooh-Bah in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado". In this comic opera, Pooh-Bah holds numerous exalted offices, including Lord Chief Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Master of the Buckhounds, Lord High Auditor, Groom of the Back Stairs, and Lord High Everything Else. The name has come to be used as a mocking title for someone self-important or high-ranking and who either exhibits an inflated self-regard, who acts in several capacities at once, or who has limited authority while taking impressive titles.

In popular culture

The expression "The Grand PooBah" is believed to have first been introduced on television in the show "The Flintstones". Fred Flintstone and his friend Barney Rubble were members of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes Lodge No. 26. A high ranking elected position within this organization is Grand Poobah or Grand Imperial Poobah.

The character Howard Cunningham on the TV series "Happy Days" was a Grand Poobah of Leopard Lodge No. 462 in Milwaukee.

In an episode of the hit TV series The Golden Girls entitled "Old Boyfriends", Rose Nylund informs her roommates that she had many boyfriends as a teenager much to the chagrin of the oversexed Blanche Devereaux, who has had many 'gentlemen' friends all her life but apparently not as many as Rose. To this Dorothy Zbornak declares Rose as "the Grand Poobah of Slutdom" which of course causes Blanche to get jealous, as she prides herself as being "the biggest slut".

In the "Darkwing Duck" episode "The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck", the title character's nefarious uncle attempts to blackmail his planet into making him "Grand Poo-bah of the World" with a giant laser.

Mokey, a primary character in the Jim Henson TV series "Fraggle Rock", wishes to join "The Secret Society of Poobahs" in an episode of the same title.

At various times in the 2008 Democratic Party primary season, Senator Barack Obama has referred to his party's superdelegates as poobahs.

In the "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode "Karate Choppers," Squidward asks SpongeBob if he has mopped the bathrooms, and SpongeBob responds, "Yes ma'am. I mean sir. I mean boss. I mean poobah!"

Maxwell Dixon, a 90's hip-hop artist belonging to several hip-hop groups including "Brand Nubian", referred to himself as Grand Puba.