History Main / FamousFamousFictional

* ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'': When he first knew about him, Jameson was sure that Spider-Man would be the next O.J. Simpson.

** Vamshi is not elaborated on, but Grissom is debatble: he's either a reference to in-universe Jon Grissom, the first man to go through a mass relay and the commander of the alliance fleet during the First Contact War, or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Grissom Gus Grissom]], one of the Mercury Seven and the only one to die in-duty when Apollo 1 burned down.

* In Creator/HunterSThompson' ''Hell's Angels'', Thompson lists some 'outlaws' who were welcomed into the mainstream - Music/FrankSinatra, Alexander King, Creator/ElizabethTaylor, Raoul Duke. As anybody who has read (or seen) Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas, Raoul Duke is Thompson's own fictional alter ego, although interestingly, ''Hell's Angels'' was the first time that name was ever mentioned in his writing.

* In Creator/HunterSThompson' ''Hell's Angels'', Thompson lists some 'outlaws' who were welcomed into the mainstream - FrankSinatra, Alexander King, ElizabethTaylor, Raoul Duke. As anybody who has read (or seen) Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas, Raoul Duke is Thompson's own fictional alter ego, although interestingly, ''Hell's Angels'' was the first time that name was ever mentioned in his writing.

*** In "Charlie X", the title character uses his mind powers to force Spock to recite poetry from Creator/WilliamBlake's "The Tyger", Poe's ''Literature/TheRaven'', and what appears to be a 'future' poem.

** In "Charlie X", the title character uses his mind powers to force Spock to recite poetry from Creator/WilliamBlake's "The Tyger", Poe's ''Literature/TheRaven'', and what appears to be a 'future' poem.

->''"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 -- Creator/{{Socrates}}, Descartes, Xaxxix'x of Denobulon IV.')"''

----> '''Sybok:''' The people of your planet once believed their world was flat. Columbus proved it was round. They said the sound barrier could ''never'' be broken! It was broken. They said warp-speed could not be achieved."

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

[[folder:Film]]

* Creator/HPLovecraft was a master of it, even a possible TropeMaker, though his are more like "GeniusBonus, ContinuityNod, fictional," such as the following example from "The Nameless City":

* It happens a lot in ''Literature/EndersGame'' and its sequel ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead''.
* Creator/JohnBarnes' Thousand Cultures novels do this ALL the time. "For almost everyone, the Slaughter was like Rome Falling, the Crusades, or the genocide of the Americans -- unfortunate, vaguely remembered, nothing to do with the business of living now."
* In Creator/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''.
* ''Literature/ThisPerfectDay'' by Ira Levin has a nursery rhyme paying tribute to the four people who are considered the spiritual forefathers of the society in which the book is set. The pattern of the rhyme requires four names, so there's two past people and two future people:
-->Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei
-->led us to this perfect day...

* Used a few times in works by Creator/ArthurCClarke:
** ''Literature/RendezvousWithRama'', "Rama needed the grandeur of Bach or Beethoven or Sibelius or Tuan Sun, not the trivia of popular entertainment."
** ''Literature/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."
** ''[[Literature.TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey 2010 Odyssey 2]]'' (Published in 1982), "All this had been known since the Voyager flyby missions of the 1970s, the Galileo surveys of the 1980s, and the Kepler landings of the 1990s."
* In the third ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' 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.)
* There's a bit in a ''Series/RedDwarf'' novel, where Lister realised he's returned to Earth when he sees Mount Rushmore. The faces are Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and [[RushmoreRefacement "possibly America's greatest President, Elaine Salinger"]].

* Inverted in Creator/PercyJackson where the list of people who have entered Hades and returned includes Hercules, Orpheus, and Creator/HarryHoudini.

* A borderline example in Creator/WilliamGibson's ''Literature/CountZero'', where Bobby Newmark recalls his mother trying to make him watch holograms of religious texts, remembering them as "Jesus or [[Creator/LRonHubbard Hubbard]] or some shit", subtly hinting at a future where Scientology is considered a mainstream religion.

* Combined with an InspirationNod as well as possibly PersonAsVerb in ''Literature/RedRising'':In reference to famous military geniuses and conquerors: "So this kid is what? A predestined Alexander? A Caesar? A Genghis? A Wiggin?" (Wiggin being the protagonist of ''Literature/EndersGame''). It's particularly funny/odd because the people of the series seem to otherwise know that fictional works are fictional.
* Twice in the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel ''The Drosten's Curse'' by A.L. Kennedy. The Doctor thinks to himself that his tendency to run off and think in strange places annoyed Einstein, Feynman, Leonardo and Zogg the Remarkable. Later Putta's plan to help the Doctor is described as not the kind of plan Napoleon, Genghis Khan or Thraxtic would have thought of.
* From ''Sisterhood of Franchise/{{Dune}}'': "The Discussion Chamber was one of the Mentat School's largest classrooms, an auditorium with dark-stained walls covered in statesmanlike images of the greatest debaters in human history, ranging from famous ancient orators of [[EarthThatWas Old Earth]], such as Marcus Cicero and Abraham Lincoln, to Tlaloc who had instigated the Time of Titans, to speakers from recent centuries, such as Renata Thew and the unparalleled Novan al-Jones."
* In ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown,'' when Paul lists civil rights leaders from Earth history, he mentions [[UsefulNotes/SusanBAnthony Anthony,]] [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi,]] [[UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr King,]] and... Stephenson, who was apparently involved in a civil rights movement for "biological androids."

::Examples using references to established figures:
** ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'':
--->'''David:''' Well, don't have kittens. Genesis is going to work. They'll remember you in one breath with Newton, Einstein, Surak.
** In ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'':
---> '''Sybok:''' The people of your planet once believed their world was flat. Columbus proved it was round. They said the sound barrier could ''never'' be broken! It was broken. They said warp-speed could not be achieved."
** In "Threshold" Janeway tells Tom that by being the first man to [[LudicrousSpeed breach the Warp 10 barrier]], he'll be joining the ranks of Orville Wright, Neil Armstrong, and Zefram Cochrane (first human inventor of the warp drive).
** Inverted in the original series episode "The Savage Curtain," where a battle between good and evil has "good" represented by Vulcan sage Surak, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln. Evil, in turn, is represented by future warlord Colonel Green, MadScientist Zora, the Klingon warrior Kahless, and UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan.
** From the ''Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch'' novels: "He had learned all he could about Earth's eminent explorers -- Leif Eriksson, Ferdinand Magellan, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Neil Armstrong, [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Jonathan Archer]]..."
** Averted when the Doctor is thinking of adopting the name of a famous doctor. He considers [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galen Dr Galen]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk Dr Salk]], or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock Dr Spock]], though the last is also a StealthPun regarding the famous Franchise/StarTrek character.
** In "Space Seed", Lt. [=McGivers=] has several portraits of historic conquerors in her quarters, including UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and Khan Noonien Singh.
** In one episode, [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Picard]] lists (only) two infamous men in history: UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Khan Singh]].
** [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Benjamin and Jake Sisko]] play holographic baseball with all the greats, like Tris Speaker, Ted Williams, and Buck Bokai, in "If Wishes Were Horses". Bokai's name pops up a few times during the series and it's clear he's one of the most accomplished players in the (now several-hundred-year) history of the sport.
** [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Captain Janeway]] mentions [[GodzillaThreshold The Omega Particle]] in the same breath as the most dangerous creations of [[UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons Albert Einstein]] and [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Carol Marcus]].
** [[Series/StarTrekDiscovery Captain Lorca]] places pressure on [[ReluctantMadScientist Lieutenant Stamets]] by asking if he wants to be "Alongside the Wright brothers, Elon Musk, Zefram Cochrane?".
** In at least one novel, a character compares HardboiledDetective heroes like Creator/RaymondChandler's Literature/PhilipMarlowe, Creator/DashiellHammett's [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon Sam Spade]], and Tracy Torme's Dixon Hill (Hill being Picard's favorite, and Tracy Torme being the real-life creator of the character for "The Big Goodbye").

::Examples using one-off references:
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Whom Gods Destroy".
--->'''Garth:''' All the others before me have failed. UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, Lee Kuan, Krotus! All of them are dust! But I will triumph! I will make the ultimate conquest!
** Lee Kuan is also mentioned by Spock in an almost identical context in "Patterns of Force":
--->'''Spock''': Earthmen like Ramses, Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Lee Kuan. Your whole Earth history is made up of men seeking absolute power.
** [[Series/StarTrekVoyager The Doctor]] lists some of the greatest performers of ''Theatre/LaBoheme''. The first two pairs are real people, the other is a pair of Vulcans.
** [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Picard]] mentions [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Pearl Harbor]] and [[NoodleIncident Station Salem One]] as stages for bloody preambles to war.
** Data, considering Shakespeare, planned to study the performances of [[Creator/LaurenceOlivier Olivier]], [[Creator/KennethBranagh Branagh]], Shapiro and Kullnark.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Court Martial", SimpleCountryLawyer Samuel Cogley invokes Literature/TheBible, the Codes of Hammarubi and [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Justinian]], the Magna Carta, the U.S. Constitution, the Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies, and the Statutes of Alpha III.
** In "The Muse" episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', an alien named Onaya lists artists she's "influenced" over the centuries such as Catullus, Creator/JohnKeats, and Phineas Tarbolde. [[ContinuityNod Tarbolde was identified as an author]] in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" of the original series (but did not receive significant development beyond these mentions).
** "The Ultimate Computer" shakes up the RuleOfThree by using only one real person: Einstein, Kazanga, and Sitar of Vulcan.
** In "The Ensigns of Command," when the captain tells Data his violin playing is "quite beautiful," Data responds, "Technically speaking, Sir, it is not ''my'' playing. It is a precise imitation of the techniques of Jascha Heifetz and Trenka Bron-Ken."

* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** In the episode "Infection", it's mentioned that Dr Franklin aspires to become one of the great names of medicine, alongside Fleming, Salk, Jenner, and Takahashi.
** In the second season episode "Confessions and Lamentations", the Markab plague Drafa is compared by Dr. Franklin to earlier such plagues -- Black Death, AIDS, Chalmers' Syndrome.
** In the third-season episode "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place":
--->'''Sheridan''': When we've had wars back home sometimes one side would leave a few areas of enemy territory undamaged. That way you'd get maximum results when you finally hit them with something big. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, San Diego...
*** 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. 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....
** In the first episode of the fifth season, Sheridan is threatened by someone who lists past Presidents -- Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kyoshi, of the Eastern Bloc.
** In the fifth season episode "A Tragedy of Telepaths", this trope is first used, then stretched WAY out by Garibaldi when he points out we divide up our history by the wars -- the Hundred Years War, the War of 1812, the first three World Wars... the Dilgar War, the War of the Shining Star, the Minbari War, the Shadow War. Of these "future" wars, only the third World War and the War of the Shining Star were not previously described in-series -- the Dilgar War was mentioned first in "Deathwalker", and the last two were actually ''depicted'' in-show.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In one episode Giles hangs up a banner in the Magic Shop reminding customers that Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and "Gurnenthar's Ascendence" are coming up.
* At one point in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', John Sheppard needs to get into Rodney [=McKay's=] computer account. The password is a long, seemingly-random string of digits, but fortunately he knows the mnemonic:
--> '''Sheppard''': 1643 is the year Isaac Newton was born; 1879, Einstein; 1968—\\
'''Teyla''': The year Rodney was born.\\
'''Sheppard''': NEVER underestimate the size of that man's ego.
* Played for laughs in ''Series/{{Lucifer}}''
-->'''Lucifer:''' This is patricide! A tale as old as time! Oedipus, the Menendez Brothers, [[Literature/HarryPotter Voldemort!]]
* ''Series/{{Scorpion}}'' does a variation, listing two real Central American countries followed by a fictional one when listing potential landing places when the team finds themselves kidnapped and taken to a Spanish-speaking country, knowing that they've only been knocked out for 3.5 hours. Naturally, it's the fictional one [[spoiler:that they're told they've been taken to. In reality, they never left the United States, and were only knocked out for one hour, during which time Sly's watch was reprogrammed.]]

---> Sybok: "The people of your world once believed the world was flat. Columbus proved it was round. They said the sound barrier could never be broken! It was broken. They said warp-speed could not be achieved."

** Vamshi is not elabourated on, but Grissom is debatble: he's either a reference to in-universe Jon Grissom, the first man to go through a mass relay and the commander of the alliance fleet during the First Contact War, or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Grissom Gus Grissom]], one of the Mercury Seven and the only one to die in-duty when Apollo 1 burned down.

** Vamshi is not elabourated on, but Grissom is debatble: he's either a reference to in-universe Jon Grissom, the first man through a mass relay and the commander of the alliance fleet during the First Contact War, or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Grissom Gus Grissom]], one of the Mercury Seven and the only one to die in-duty when Apollo 1 burned down.

* VideoGame/MassEffect has several examples, but one clear one is the Armstrong Nebula, which is named after a famous astronaut - the first to walk on the moon - and each system is also named after other astronauts famous for firsts. Examples include Gagarin (first man to orbit) and Tereshkova (first woman in space), but also include Vamshi and Grissom.
** Vamshi is not elabourated on, but Grissom is actually a character in the backstory, the first man through a mass relay and the commander of the alliance fleet during the First Contact War. Captain Anderson notes the system is [[TakeThat cold, remote and inhospitable.]]

A subtrope of CrypticBackgroundReference. Sometimes overlaps with BreadEggsMilkSquick.

into Rodney [=McKay's=] computer account. The password is a long, seemingly-random string of digits, but fortunately he knows the mnemonic:

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' had the one in the season 6 where there is a banner celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice and "Garthak's Ascension".
* At one point in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', John Sheppard needs to get into Rodney [=McKay's=] computer account. The password is a long, seemingly-random string of digits, but fortunately he knows the mnemonic:

* In ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown,'' when Paul lists civil rights leaders from Earth history, he mentions [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi,]] [[UsefulNotes/SusanBAnthony Anthony,]] [[UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr King,]] and... Stephenson, who was apparently involved in a civil rights movement for androids.

* In ''Literature/AlienInASMallTown,'' when Paul lists civil rights leaders from Earth history, he mentions [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi,]] [[UsefulNotes/SusanBAnthony Anthony,]] [[UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr King,]] and... Stephenson, who was apparently involved in a civil rights movement for androids.

* In ''Literature/AlienInASMallTown,'' when Paul lists civil rights leaders from Earth history, he mentions [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi,]] [[UsefulNotes/SusanBAnthony Anthony,]] [[UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr King,]] and... Stevenson, who was apparently involved in a civil rights movement for androids.

* In ''Literature/AlienInASMallTown,'' when Paul lists civil rights leaders from Earth history, he mentions [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi,]] [[UsefulNotes/SusanBAnthony Anthony,]] UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr King,]] and... Stevenson, who was apparently involved in a civil rights movement for androids.

* In ''Literature/AlienInASMallTown,'' when Paul lists civil rights leaders from Earth history, he mentions [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi,]] UsefulNotes/SusanBAnthony Anthony,]] UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr King,]] and... Stevenson, who was apparently involved in a civil rights movement for androids.