At this point, we certainly don't need any additional evidence that people get VERY worked-up about assholes, but I can't resist this fantastic post on SF Gate (the San Francisco Chronicle website) by Harmon Leon on "Who are the meanest bartenders in San Francisco?"  The best part is the comments, a whopping 468 for a rather sleepy part of blogging universe.  This post is brilliant and very funny.  For example, consider this excerpt:

The award for the all time meanest bartenders in San Francisco has got
to go to the crew at the Zeitgeist.
Besides scowling things like, "F-ing yuppies," if someone with a shirt
with buttons orders a drink, there is always an unpleasant sort of
life-has-kicked-them-in-the-nuts, unhealthy tweaker vibe when you when
you try to order a drink.

One time the bartender threw my change at me because I left her 4
quarters as a tip for a beer. (That still equals a dollar, right?)
Serious issues. Extra points for the bouncer always doing my favorite
non-ironic, closing time speech: "Last call! Drink `em up! You don't
have to go home BUT YOU CAN'T STAY HERE!"

I love this, it reminds of a now long dead but famous San Francisco waiter Edsel Ford Fong who was the star attraction at rather mediocre Chinese restaurant.  You went there for his brilliant and funny insults.. I once asked him for a fork, which he turned into a public shaming ritual as he made me walk and get it myself while he taunted me for my disrespect of him, his restaurant, and all Chinese people on the planet.  He is immortalized  at the San Francisco Giants lovely ballpark, where there is a Chinese restaurant named Edsel Ford Fong.

Under the right conditions, a professional asshole can be a lot of fun.