He's the former tutor to Prince William who smoked opium, walked across Afghanistan and unconvincingly denied being a spy.
But Rory Stewart trumped all that last night with an even more bizarre entry on his record.
The surprise star of the Tory leadership race stunned a 5million-strong TV audience last night by...
Twitter users were left baffled by the act of bravado, individualism or simple neck comfort.
And what's even odder is that, since then, Mr Stewart has come up with a number of excuses - none of them matching up with each other.
So, in the name of valuable public interest journalism, we present to you... 3 excuses Rory Stewart gave for taking off his tie.
1. To 'get back to reality'
Asked by BBC Newsnight - because we remain a serious country - Mr Stewart explained.
He said: "I thought maybe if I took my tie off we could get back to a bit of reality.
"I was beginning to feel on those strange BBC white bar stools that we were moving off into an alternate reality."
2. To stop being a 'stiff middle-aged man'
The Old Etonian Tory elaborated in, you might say, unnecessary detail on Sky News.
"I think I just wanted to take my tie off," he mused.
"I was getting pretty frustrated in the corner of the room not learning anything.
"So I thought maybe if I take my tie off I can turn this around."
Asked if, because he had his mic on his lap rather than on his tie, he was planning it Mr Stewart added: "Firstly absolutely I had it there so I had the option of taking it off.
"There is a whole Twitter conspiracy around my tie that I thought I could trend on Twitter if I took it off.
"I am not that subtle."
He added: "I actually wondered before I went on if I should wear a tie or not.
"I went into the bathroom and looked myself in the mirror and I thought, my father - who was a very strong Conservative Party member and died at the age of 93 - would he want me to have a tie on?
"I thought absolutely he would want me to have a tie on.
"But then about halfway thorugh I thought, 'this is a bunch of stiff middle-aged men shouting at each other'"
3. Because... 'I wanted to take my tie off'
This one is almost poetic in its simplicity.
Mr Stewart told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I took off my tie, I think, because I wanted to take my tie off.
"And, it seemed like a good idea at the time."
