History Main / FamousFamousFictional

*** [[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.

The most common variant is to list famous scientists, [[UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton Newton]], [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]], Johannes Kepler, [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Werner Heisenberg]], [[Creator/LeonardoDaVinci Da Vinci]] being quite popular, followed, finally, by a scientist from the future. Occasionally their inventions are also listed: Newton's mechanics, Einstein's relativity, [[Franchise/StarTrek Zefram Cochrane]]'s warp drive.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' #400 (1984), there is a vision of a future where Superman remembered as a legendary American hero alongside Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and "Kuhan Pei-Jing, who slogged through the ricefields of Asia negotiating to head off a third World War in the 1990s."
* Inverted in ''ComicBook/ExMachina'': a traveler from an AlternateUniverse arrives in the comic's universe (which is mostly identical to ours) and attempts to gather information by ordering his suit AI to connect to "gharity.com" and "skyvann.com". When both fail, he connects to ... {{Wiki/Wikipedia}}.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''{{WesternAnimation/Megamind}}'', where Hal tells his captive "There is no Easter Bunny, there is no tooth fairy, and there is no Queen of England."

* ''Film/TheProphecy'' used it rather well when they had their villain [[OurAngelsAreDifferent the]] ArchangelGabriel explain his motives. The first two are taken straight from Literature/TheBible, the third one is the plot of the movie.
-->'''Gabriel:''' I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence [[BlueAndOrangeMorality is never understanding why.]]
* In ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' the pictures of scientists at Peter's school include Bruce Banner, Howard Stark, and Abraham Erskine among several real ones.
* A show business example in ''Film/{{A Star Is Born|1937}}''. When Esther Blodgett checks out the footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater she sees the footprints of Creator/JeanHarlow, Creator/HaroldLloyd, and Norman Maine, the fictional actor played by Creator/FredricMarch in the movie.
* ''Film/{{Deception|1946}}'': When asked in an early scene what composers he admires, Karel the concert cellist names Strauss, Stravinsky, and Hollenius. The first two are real while the third is the antagonist in the film, the former sugar daddy to the woman that Karel just married.

* In ''{{Literature/Ringworld}}'', Louis Wu describes the voice of a Pierson's puppeteer as like "[[UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII Cleopatra]], Helen of Troy, Creator/MarilynMonroe, and Lorelei Huntz, rolled into one."

* 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 knows, 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.

* The novels for TabletopGame/{{Battletech}} usually quote "Judas, Adolf Hitler and Stefan Amaris" as the worst traitors in human history. In the backstory of the series, Amaris tried to usurp the throne of the Star League, a huge empire ruling all of mankind. He caused a massive civil war that led to so many succession wars that mankind has been reduced to five warring houses using schizo tech(fighting in giant mecha while rediscovering the fax kind of schizo tech). Except for the defense forces of the Star League, who fled the fighting to avoid being destroyed and devolved to a group of marauding warrior clans that want to take over those houses.

* In a rare example where the universe is entirely fictional even though references to the real world are present, the city of Anor Londo in ''{{VideoGame/Dark Souls}}'' is strewn with real-world Renaissance portraits, engravings, and architecture. One of the few exceptions is a portrait of Princess Gwynevere, which is taken straight from her concept art. While the portrait itself is beautiful and doesn't clash too badly with the setting, Gwynevere has [[GagBoobs certain attributes]] which make her painting instantly distinguishable from the real ones.
* 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. There's also Hong as OddNameOut, most likely being named after the People's Republic of China's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dong_Fang_Hong_I first satellite]].
** Vamshi is not elaborated on, but Grissom is debatable: 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 on-duty when Apollo 1 burned down.
* A variation with only two examples. Dr. Catherine Halsey in ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' mentions that the [[spoiler:[[{{Precursors}} Forerunner]] artifact under the Babd Catha ice shelf]] might be a discovery on the level of the conical bullet or the [[FasterThanLightTravel Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]].

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

[[folder:Film — Animated]]
* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''WesternAnimation/Megamind'', where Hal tells his captive "There is no Easter Bunny, there is no tooth fairy, and there is no Queen of England."
[[/folder]]

* An example that may not even be found anymore, but when the ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' 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 UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar, [[UsefulNotes/PolesWithPoleaxes the Winged Hussars]] and the Navy Seals.

* In a likely unintentional inversion, most online ads for Creator/DisneyPlus that highlight each of the studios/franchises represented -- in order, Disney, Pixar, Marvel, ''Franchise/StarWars'', and National Geographic -- have the following serving as respective mascots: [[WesternAnimation/{{Moana}} Maui]], [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Mr. Incredible or Elastigirl]], Iron Man or Captain America, Darth Vader or Rey, and Creator/JeffGoldblum.

*** 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.

* The BigBad of ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' lectures the eponymous character on the history of computers, elaborating on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush Vannevar Bush]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Lilly John C. Lilly]], and, since ''Lain'' is set in an AlternateUniverse of some kind, concludes with Masami Eiri, the creator of the Most-Definitely-Not-the-Internet and an evil {{Expy}} of Creator/SteveJobs or Bill Gates, [[spoiler: [[AndThatLittleGirlWasMe who is, in fact, the]] BigBad [[AndThatLittleGirlWasMe himself]].]] The trope is {{lampshaded}} by the art style: photographs of Bush and Lilly exist on-screen while the image of Eiri is obviously drawn in the same style as all the other fictional characters.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' #400 (1984), there is a vision of a future where Superman remembered as a legendary American hero alongside Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and "Kuhan Pei-Jing, who slogged through the ricefields of Asia negotiating to head off a third World War in the 1990s".

* Inverted in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13249695/6/To-Date-a-Metamorph To Date a Metamorph]]''.

-->'''Narrator:''' Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok...WesternAnimation/QuickDrawMcGraw??

* A ''WesternAnimation/HuckleberryHound'' cartoon where Huck was a noted gunfighter prefaced his appearance running down a short list of famous gunfighters...topped off with WesternAnimation/QuickDrawMcGraw, much to the narrator's bafflement.

* A ''WesternAnimation/HuckleberryHound'' cartoon where Huck was a noted gunfighter prefacds his appearance running down a short list of famous gunfighters...topped off with WesternAnimation/QuickDrawMcGraw, much to the narrator's bafflement.

* A ''WesternAnimation/HuckleberryHound'' cartoon where Huck was a noted gunfighter prefacds his appearance running down a short list of famous gunfighters...topped off with WesternAnimation/QuickDrawMcGraw,much to the narrator's bafflement.

* In a likely unintentional inversion, most online ads for Creator/DisneyPlus that highlight each of the studios/franchises represented -- in order, Disney, Pixar, Marvel, ''Franchise/StarWars'', and National Geographic -- have the following serving as respective mascots: [[Disney/{{Moana}} Maui]], [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Mr. Incredible or Elastigirl]], Iron Man or Captain America, Darth Vader or Rey, and Creator/JeffGoldblum.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' #400 (1984), there is a vision of a future where Superman remembered as a legendary American hero alongside Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower,and "Kuhan Pei-Jing, who slogged through the ricefields of Asia negotiating to head off a third World War in the 1990's".

* In a rare example where the universe is entirely fictional even though references to the real world are present, the city of Anor Londo in ''{{VideoGame/Dark Souls}}'' is strewn with real-world Renaissance portraits, engravings, and architecture. One of the few exceptions is a portrait of [[EverythingIsBetterWithPrincesses Princess Gwynevere]], which is taken straight from her concept art. While the portrait itself is beautiful and doesn't clash too badly with the setting, Gwynevere has [[GagBoobs certain attributes]] which make her painting instantly distinguishable from the real ones.

* In a likely unintentional inversion, most online ads for Creator/DisneyPlus that highlight each of the studios/franchises represented -- in order, Disney, Pixar, Marvel, ''Franchise/StarWars'', and National Geographic -- have the following serving as respective mascots: [[Disney/{{Moana}} Maui]], [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Mr. or Mrs. Incredible]], Iron Man or Captain America, Darth Vader or Rey, and Creator/JeffGoldblum.

* ''Series/[{Batwoman}}'' does a "famous, fictional, fictional" variation when Julia Pennyworth tells Kate she tracked a hitman from Jakarta to Metropolis to Gotham.

** The robot actor Calculon inverts the trope when he reveals that he was all of history's great acting robots, including Acting Unit 0.8, Thespo-mat, and David Duchovny.