History Main / AbstractScale

* Thanks to the exploits of ''Fanfic/OldManHenderson'', the tabletop RPG community has created [[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Henderson_Scale_of_Plot_Derailment The Henderson Scale Of Plot Derailment]], which measures [[OffTheRails how much a given action by a player has derailed the plot]].

** Grace refers to "Seymours", [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-02-11 a unit of measure for sadness]] using the "[[TearJerker Jurassic Bark]]" episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' as a baseline.

* Certain fans on the internet have made the [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Henderson_Scale_of_Plot_Derailment Henderson]], a unit of [[OffTheRails plot derailment]], particularly of [[TabletopGames tabletop RPGs]]. Its creation was inspired the story of FanFic/OldManHenderson, the man who "won" TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu (which is practically impossible). Henderson was a highly eccentric (and slightly psychotic) PlayerCharacter devised to get back at a particularly agitating GM in the most imaginable ways possible. His exploits include: burning a Shoggoth, stealing a yacht from a Hastur cult, dropping said yacht on a Cthulhu cult's penthouse (and starting a cultist gang war), ''The'' tanker truck incident, and "Hell on Ice". Henderson's exploits included a surprising number of counts of arson, most accidental, and accidentally killing a lot of people, including the every other player's characters at least once, and incidentally, everybody who could link Henderson to a crime.

* In ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', terrorist acts are measured in multiples of the [[TheWarOnTerror September 11 World Trade Center attack]]. One upcoming terrorist event, if not stopped, would be "Nine Eleven times a hundred" ("basically all the [[FireAndBrimstoneHell worst parts]] of Literature/TheBible"). Another is "Nine Eleven times a thousand." Kim Jong-Il described his ultimate plan, which involves simultaneous terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction across the world as "Nine Eleven times 2356."

* Thanks to the exploits of ''Fanfic/OldManHenderson'', the tabletop RPG community has created [[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Henderson_Scale_of_Plot_Derailment The Henderson Scale Of Plot Derailment]], which measures how much a given action by a player has derailed the plot.

* Not new: Creator/Stendhal wrote "''De l'amour''" in 1822. He considered the following situation: "Alberic meets on a stage a woman more beautiful than his lover"; in the comparison Stendhal gives a strict mathematical evaluation of the beauty of the women, with units of happiness, but in the sequent calculations he inserts TheLove that changes the conclusion of the evaluation. Creator/ItaloCalvino notes that his mathematics are not so obvious.

* Not new: Stendhal wrote "De l'amour" in 1822. "Alberic meets on a stage a woman more beautiful than his lover"; in the comparison Stendhal gives a strict mathematical evaluation of the beauty of the women, with units of happiness, but in the sequent calculations he inserts TheLove that changes the conclusion of the evaluation. Creator/ItaloCalvino notes that his mathematics are not so obvious.

* Not new: Stendhal wrote "De l'amour" in 1822. "Alberic meets on a stage a woman more beautiful than his lover"; in the comparison Stendhal gives a strict mathematical evaluation of the beauty of the women, with units of happiness, but in the sequent calculations he inserts TheLove that changes the conclusion of the evaluation. Italo Calvino notes that his mathematics are not so obvious.

** Lem appears to be found of this trope. In "Let Us Save the Universe (An Open Letter from Ijon Tichy)", a tale from The Star Diaries (''Dzienniki gwiazdowe'') he describes an alien skunk that has the power of 500 olfat (unit of olfaction). In ''Cyberiad'' the narrator speaks of a femmefatalatron, which power is measured in "erotic units".

* An archon in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' measured evil in terms of [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0489.html kilo-nazis]], with a baseline of a hypothetical offspring of [[Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Cruella de Vil]] and [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]] clocking in at an average of 5 (that means as evil as '''5000''' nazis). The person being discussed, Belkar, for comparison had his worst at around 3400 nazis before meeting his new friend and boss Roy.

* Early on in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', there is frequent mention of an absolute system of measurement for pain in [[JustForPun Kill-o-Hurtz]]. Various medical instruments are rated according to how much pain they inflict, as measured by the [[PunnyName Ouchdammitometer]]. The concept hasn't been mentioned in a long time, however, as the ''Schlock Mercenary'' universe (if not the actual story) has [[CerebusSyndrome become somewhat more "serious"]].

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'' gives us the alp as a way of measuring belief (in reference to the notion that "faith moves mountains"). Most people are only able to generate millialps, while more passionate believers like Anathema Device able to raise about half an alp. [[spoiler:[[RealityWarper Adam's]] belief is measured in ''Everests''.]]

* Scouter readings for PowerLevels in ''Manga/DragonBall'' don't seem to just quantifying stored energy, but seems to be able to quantify fighting effectiveness, as evidenced by Goku's and Picolo's power levels registering higher after they take off their weighted clothing. The author states they ''are'' just supposed to be measurements of raw power, and thus an unreliable oversimplification for determining fighting ability, but what's shown in-series speaks to the contrary.

* [[http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Snapes_on_an_Astral_Plane "The epic insanity of Lady Darkness really needs to be memorialized, so I propose the creation of an official unit of batshit, named after her. One Ladark (a portmandeau -- don't want to use an existing word) is defined as the amount of batshittery necessary to believe a fictional character originating within the last 20 years is real and speaks to you. Most wanks can be measured in milliLadarks. This one hits about three."]]

* Certain fans on the internet have made the [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Henderson_Scale_of_Plot_Derailment Henderson]], a unit of [[OffTheRails plot derailment]], particularly of [[TabletopGames tabletop RPGs]]. It's creation was inspired the story of FanFic/OldManHenderson, the man who "won" TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu (which is practically impossible). Henderson was a highly eccentric (and slightly psychotic) PlayerCharacter devised to get back at a particularly agitating GM in the most imaginable ways possible. His exploits include: burning a Shoggoth, stealing a yacht from a Hastur cult, dropping said yacht on a Cthulhu cult's penthouse (and starting a cultist gang war), ''The'' tanker truck incident, and "Hell on Ice". Henderson's exploits included a surprising number of counts of arson, most accidental, and accidentally killing a lot of people, including the every other player's characters at least once, and incidentally, everybody who could link Henderson to a crime.

* ''Roleplay/DestroyTheGodmodder'': The OP Scale, a scale that measures something's power level. If something is too overpowered, it causes the scale to roll over back to 0 due to integer overflow. This, in turn, decreases the power level of the attack to nothing. Conveniently, the Godmodder is always at the very top of the scale, positioned just so that he never makes it roll over.

* Certain fans on the internet have made the [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Henderson_Scale_of_Plot_Derailment Henderson]], a unit of [[OffTheRails plot derailment]], particularly of [[TabletopGames tabletop RPGs]]. It's creation was inspired the story of FanFic/OldManHenderson, the man who "won" TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu (which is practically impossible). Henderson was a highly eccentric (and slightly psychotic) PlayerCharacter devised to get back at a particularly agitating GM in the [[CrazyAwesome most imaginable ways possible]]. His exploits include: burning a Shoggoth, stealing a yacht from a Hastur cult, dropping said yacht on a Cthulhu cult's penthouse (and starting a cultist gang war), ''The'' tanker truck incident, and "Hell on Ice". Henderson's exploits included a surprising number of counts of arson, most accidental, and accidentally killing a lot of people, including the every other player's characters at least once, and incidentally, everybody who could link Henderson to a crime.

* ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'': Doctor Insano built a device to measure gayness in giga-queers.

* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler used to joke: "Do you know what is the difference between [[Characters/NaziGermany a goering and a goebbels]]? A goering is [[ChestOfMedals the amount of metal a man could pin on his chest]] and a goebbels is [[PropagandaMachine the amount of nonsense man could say in an hour]]." He often said the joke with both Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering present, to their great embarrassment.

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' had the "shame-o-meter" for measuring the amount of shame emanating from washed-out actors in a 70s ''Series/CharliesAngels'' rip-off movie. It measured in (Peter) Lawfords. Jim Backus registered well into the giga-Lawford range.

* In ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', terrorist acts are measured in multiples of the [[TheWarOnTerror World Trade Center attack]]. One upcoming terrorist event, if not stopped, would be " Nine Eleven times a hundred" ("basically all the worst parts of the Bible"). Another is "Nine Eleven times a thousand." Kim Jong-Il described his ultimate plan, which involves simultaneous terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction across the world as "Nine Eleven times 2356."