History Main / FamousFamousFictional

* Inverted in a {{Simpsons}} halloween episode when Homer explains: "Vampires are fictional creatures. Just like fairies, elves and eskimos."

* In DavidBrin's ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' saga, it is mentioned that, as any animal may possibly become intelligent at some point in the future, making species extinct is a serious crime in galaxy, akin to genocide. Humanity managed to clear up their biology and history textbooks to prevent aliens from knowing what they did to lamantines, dodos and ''orangutans''.

** In the fourth season episode "The Exercise of Vital Powers", William Edgars asks Mr. Garibaldi how many people actually ''belonged'' to the Nazi Party, the Communist Party, the Jihad Party. He then almost immediately goes on to list historical examples of when "the people" have handed over power to people they thought could settle scores: the Germans in 1939, the Russians in 1917 and 2013, the Iraqis in 2025, the French in 2112

** The nuclear terrorist attack on San Diego had been mentioned several times and the abandoned city seen once, so it was simply keeping in step with that.

** In the fourth season episode "The Exercise of Vital Powers", William Edgars asks Mr. Garibaldi how many people actually ''belonged'' to the Nazi Party, the Communist Party, the Jihad Party.

** In the third season episode "War Without End Part One", Sinclair tells Sheridan he thinks they'd work well together, like Butch and Sundance, Lewis and Clark... Lucy and Ethel.

* In the FilmOfTheBook ''Literature/ASoundOfThunder'', Ben Kingsley's character is [[LargeHam hamming up]] a speech for the Time Safari tourists, with the last name a ShoutOut to ''CapricornOne''.

A variation occurs when it's alternate reality: say, when someone mentions [[AlexanderTheGreat Alexander]], [[NapoleonBonaparte Bonaparte]] and [[JosefStalin Stalin]] as world dominators who failed, it means that in this reality the changing event is somewhere between mid XVII and early XX, which made Stalin and not [[AdolfHitler Hitler]] start {{WWII}}.

** The video regarding the ancient history of {{Atlanta}}, and how all of its greatest citizens fled as it sank: "Ted Turner, Hank Aaron, JeffFoxworthy, the man who invented Coca-Cola, The Magician ..." [[hottip:*:While this is mostly a parody of the New Age folk song "{{Atlantis}}" by Donovan, there is the flippant implication that in this world The Magician is real and as important as the other real-life figures... or just another example of ''{{Futurama}}'''s FutureImperfect.]]

* ''Film/TheProphecy'' used it rather well when they had their villain [[OurAngelsAreDifferent the]] ArchangelGabriel explain his motives. The first two are taken straight from TheBible, the second one is the plot of the movie.

* Used a few times in works by ArthurCClarke:
** ''RendezvousWithRama'', "Rama needed the grandeur of Bach or Beethoven or Sibelius or Tuan Sun, not the trivia of popular entertainment."
** ''TheFountainsOfParadise'': "Having first made his name with a new cosmological theory that had survived almost ten years before being refuted, Goldberg had been widely acclaimed as another Einstein or N'goya."
* In the third ''WarAgainstTheChtorr'' book by David Gerrold, "The screams got louder, sounding like Auschwitz, Hiroshima or Show Low." (The Show Low incident isn't simply a CrypticBackgroundReference; it was discussed in detail in book one.)

->''"I note that Benjamin's taste in music essentially obeys the Science Fiction Law of Threes. (As in, 'For lunch we're serving chicken, mashed potatoes, and Betelgeusean laser squash' or 'I'm familiar with all the great philosophers -- {{Socrates}}, Descartes, Xaxxix'x of Denobulon IV.')"''

* An example that may not even be found anymore, but when the ''[[Film/StarshipTroopers Starship Troopers]]'' film was released, the accompanying website which contained a lot of character bios and historical information listed the Mobile Infantry alongside historically [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous prestigious military units]] such as TheKnightsTemplar, [[PolesWithPoleaxes the Winged Hussars]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the Navy Seals]].

* In the third ''WarAgainstTheChtorr'' book by David Gerrold, "The screams got louder, sounding like Auschwitz, Hiroshima or Show Low"
** Although, to be honest, the Show Low incident was discussed in detail in book one.

** Although the nuclear terrorist attack on San Diego had been mentioned several times and the abandoned city seen once, so it was simply keeping in step with that.

** Zefram Cochrane, inventor of the first warp drive, frequently gets name-dropped along with scientific pioneers and explorers from the 20th century and earlier.

* In the ''{{Babylon 5}}'' episode "Infection", it's mentioned that Dr Franklin aspires to become one of the great names of medicine, alongside Fleming, Salk, Jenner, and Takahashi.

-->--'''Mark''', ''AMiracleOfScience'' [[http://project-apollo.net/mos/mos084.html author's commentary]]

* In the FilmOfTheBook ''ASoundOfThunder'', Ben Kingsley's character is [[LargeHam hamming up]] a speech for the Time Safari tourists, with the last name a ShoutOut to ''CapricornOne''.

'''Extremely''' prone to RuleOfThree -- meaning we go far enough to the future to see a new example but not far enough to not remember those we know currently. It is much harder to find an example which doesn't follow a "present, present, future" (or for added symbolism, "past, present, future") scheme. When there is a long list of examples, expect a third of them to be from the future. Particularly when the work is from the 1950s or 1960s, the third future example will often have a East Asian (or less commonly African or Indian) name, indicative of the the idea that these parts of the world would have a bigger part to play in the future in what at the time were still considered mostly European- and American-dominated fields like the sciences.

* BuffyTheVampireSlayer had the one in the season 6 where there is a banner celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice and "Garthak's Ascension".

* In ''Literature/TheHyperionCanton'', Hegemony CEO Meina Gladstone is said to be often likened to Lincoln, Churchill or Alvarez-Temp.

* In ''Literature/TheHyperianCanton'', Hegemony CEO Meina Gladstone is said to be often likened to Lincoln, Churchill or Alvarez-Temp.