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| 4 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 8 | %% NOTE: When writing examples, note that the "Fictional" name(s) must be someone who is regarded as a famous non-fictional figure in-universe. E.g. Dracula would not count unless, in the work, he was real and well-known. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | ->''"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.')"'' |
| 11 | -->-- '''Mark''', ''Webcomic/AMiracleOfScience'' [[http://project-apollo.net/mos/mos084.html author's commentary]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | When several examples of something are being listed in SpeculativeFiction, a couple of them will be from our time (or timeline if it's AlternateHistory), and the final one will be one from the future (or post-divergence AlternateHistory). |
| 14 | |
| 15 | The most common variant is to list famous scientists -- [[UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton Newton]], [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]], Johannes Kepler, [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Werner Heisenberg]] and [[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. The most common inversion is one where the person lists off several fictional figures and then tosses in a real-world one--the implication being that the real-world one is just as silly as the fictional one. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Usually the trope serves only as an antidote to SmallReferencePools, to remind us that it is, in fact, the future and people haven't stopped thinking and discovering things in between our time and story's setting. It would be odd if there hasn't been any new discoveries or geniuses worth mentioning, especially if the story involves something like FasterThanLightTravel. When someone or something we already know is used as such, then the author is just making a point: say, if [[Creator/StephenHawking Hawking]] is mentioned, that means people of the future in that verse think he is a genius equal to Newton and Einstein, meaning that readers also should. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | '''Extremely''' prone to RuleOfThree -- meaning we go far enough into the future to see a new example, but not far enough that those we know currently aren't still on the short list. 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. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | A variation occurs when it's alternate reality: say, when someone mentions [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat Alexander]], [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Bonaparte]] and [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Stalin]] as world dominators who failed, it means that in this reality the changing event is somewhere between the mid-18th century and the early 20th century, which made Stalin and not [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] start UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | A subtrope of CrypticBackgroundReference. Sometimes overlaps with BreadEggsMilkSquick. A form of TheTriple. Contrast with PlatoIsAMoron, in which the fictional character usually personally boasts of being in the same range (or more likely being better) than the famous people. |
| 24 | ---- |
| 25 | !!Examples: |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 30 | * ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': The [[spoiler:Chainsaw Devil]] has the ability to eat abstract concepts, and anything it eats [[RetGone is retroactively erased from existence, including every person's memory of it]] (although [[RippleProofMemory some Devils can still recall them]], vaguely). Things it has eaten include AIDS, World War II, nuclear weapons, and Nazis, as well as stranger entities like a star that drove children insane, four things that happened to humans instead of death at the end of their lives, a disease called "Arnolone Syndrome", the eruption of "Mount Hio", and an unknown sixth sense. |
| 31 | * ''Manga/HonooNoAlpenRose'': When Martha recalls famous Austrian composers, she names Bach, Lizst and...''Aschenbach''. Aschenbach refers to Leonhardt Aschenbach, who's FamedInStory and said to be the second coming of Mozart. |
| 32 | * 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. |
| 33 | [[/folder]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 36 | * Used in ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' when a visitor from the 853rd century says how proud he is to be back in the 20th century, the time of such great scientists as Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Ayo Sotinwa. He then corrects himself, realizing that Sotinwa would still be a child at this point. |
| 37 | * In the ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strip "Matildus", the Doctor placates the eponymous custodian of the GreatBigLibraryOfEverything after losing all the books he borrowed by offering her the first editions of ''Literature/TheIliad'', ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' and the diary of Empress Goozoo the Quanteenth. |
| 38 | * In the ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTitan'' Fourth Doctor miniseries ''Gaze of the Medusa'', the Doctor says they're in 500 BC: |
| 39 | -->'''Doctor''': The Romans have just driven out their last king, the Olmecs are busy building pyramids in Mexico, some clever chap in China may be about to invent ice cream, and the great and terrible Beast-Emperor of the Third Crimson Collective marries a plant. No, wait. One of those is wrong, isn't it? Probably the ice cream one. How disappointing. |
| 40 | * 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 ... Website/{{Wikipedia}}. |
| 41 | * 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." |
| 42 | [[/folder]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 45 | * PlayedForHorror in ''Fanfic/DanganronpaParadiseLost'', when [[StrawNihilist Junpei]] lists off three infamous crimes committed by the Japanese to explain his worldview: first the murder of Junko Furuta, then the atrocities of Unit 731, before concluding with the Tragedy instigated by Ultimate Despair. |
| 46 | * Inverted in ''Fanfic/RedFireRedPlanet'' when Meromi Riyal lists off various martial arts she's studied. |
| 47 | --> "Klingon ''mok’bara''. Andorian ''shan-dru-shaan''. Human jujutsu. Any style relying more on finesse and leverage than brute force.". |
| 48 | * In ''Fanfic/TheWrongReflection'' Eleya has replica posters on her old bedroom's walls for ''Film/TheFifthElement'', ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', and something called ''Adrian's Curse''. |
| 49 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13249695/6/To-Date-a-Metamorph To Date a Metamorph]]'': Inverted when Johann lists off a number of wizard singers and ends with Beethoven. |
| 50 | -->'''Johann:''' I'm not a "pretty good musician", Tonks. I'm one of the wizarding world's best musicians. Someday, my music will be more popular than the Weird Sisters, the Hexen Meistros, Beethoven... just as soon as I finish my composition. |
| 51 | * ''FanFic/{{Anthropology}}'': Chapter 11, Lyra visits a book store and sees a rack containing a collection of various fantasy authors, including [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Robert Jordan]], [[Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen Steven Erikson]], and Thomas Michelakos. [[spoiler: Thomas is the important one, as he turns out to be Lyra's biological father]]. |
| 52 | * ''FanFic/GirlDays'' inverts this by having [[InsistentTerminology Loony]] Kenchuro Tojo protest insults to his self-designed [[InsaneTrollLogic martial art]] by bringing up Emilio Fernberster (Inventor of the solar-powered flashlight), Mao Khu Leng (A Chinese alchemist who attempted to take over China with an army of animated yams) and UsefulNotes/EmperorNorton. |
| 53 | [[/folder]] |
| 54 | |
| 55 | [[folder:Film -- Animated]] |
| 56 | * ''Westernanimation/CaptainUnderpantsTheFirstEpicMovie'': When delivering a boring lecture to the class: |
| 57 | -->'''Ms. Ribble:''' Memorize these elements: Oxygen, beryllium, [[ParodicTableOfTheElements boringorium]]... |
| 58 | * {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' when Hal tells his captive "There is no Easter Bunny, there is no tooth fairy, and there is no Queen of England." |
| 59 | [[/folder]] |
| 60 | |
| 61 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 62 | * ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'' opens with Rufus bringing important historical figures to the future as guest lecturers for his class, including historical figures from TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture -- one being a rock musician that was popular at the time, and the other being a futuristic historical figure. |
| 63 | * ''Film/Deception1946'': 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. |
| 64 | * Lampshaded in ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'', when Centauri brings up three people, but Alex doesn't recognize the last one. |
| 65 | -->'''Centauri:''' Alex! Alex! You're walking away from history! History, Alex! Did [[UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus Chris Columbus]] stay home? Nooooo. What if the Wright Brothers thought that only birds should fly? And did Galoka think that the Ulus were too ugly to save?\ |
| 66 | '''Alex:''' Who's Galoka?\ |
| 67 | '''Centauri:''' Never mind. |
| 68 | * ''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. |
| 69 | -->'''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.]] |
| 70 | * In the FilmOfTheBook ''Film/ASoundOfThunder'', Ben Kingsley's character is [[LargeHam hamming up]] a speech for the Time Safari tourists, with the last name a ShoutOut to ''Film/CapricornOne''. This also counts as a stealth gag, since the Mars landing in that movie is actually faked. |
| 71 | -->'''Charles Hatton:''' Today you stood shoulder to shoulder with Columbus discovering America. Armstrong stepping on the moon, Brubaker landing on Mars. |
| 72 | * ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' |
| 73 | ** The pictures of scientists at Peter's school include [[Film/TheIncredibleHulk2008 Bruce Banner]], [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger Howard Stark, and Abraham Erskine]] among several real ones. |
| 74 | ** In a practice quiz during the trip to D.C. for the Academic Decathlon, Peter answers one question "strontium, barium, [[Film/BlackPanther2018 vibranium]]". |
| 75 | * 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. |
| 76 | * ''Film/StarshipTroopers'': When the 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 UsefulNotes/NavySeals. |
| 77 | [[/folder]] |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 80 | * Used a few times in works by Creator/ArthurCClarke: |
| 81 | ** ''Literature/RendezvousWithRama'', "Rama needed the grandeur of Bach or Beethoven or Sibelius or Tuan Sun, not the trivia of popular entertainment." |
| 82 | ** ''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." |
| 83 | ** ''[[Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries 2010: Odyssey Two]]'' "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." The book was published in 1982, when the Galileo probe was still being developed; due to delays it didn't arrive at Jupiter until 1995. |
| 84 | * 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": |
| 85 | -->"To myself I pictured all the splendours of an age so distant that Chaldaea could not recall it, and thought of Sarnath the Doomed, that stood in the land of Mnar when mankind was young, and of Ib, that was carven of grey stone before mankind existed."[[note]]Chaldaea was real.[[/note]] |
| 86 | * 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. |
| 87 | ---- |
| 88 | * 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". |
| 89 | * ''Literature/AuroraCycle'':[[note]]The series is set in the 24[-[[superscript:th]]-] century, for reference.[[/note]] Tyler Jones studied the famous generals Sun Tzu, Hannibal, Napoleon, Eisenhower, Tankian, Giáp and Osweyo. |
| 90 | * 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. |
| 91 | * ''Literature/{{Diaspora}}'' by Creator/GregEgan is a story of exploration and discovery by our virtualised descendants. It has physicists front and centre. The real-world Planck and Wheeler are joined in 2055 by Renata Kozuch. Wheeler suggested the vacuum is made out of a maze of microscopic quantum wormholes. Kozuch takes this idea and tranforms it into the foundation of particles physics: all ''particles'' are wormhole mouths. This is a rare example where the future member of the trio explicitly builds on the work of the real-world pair. |
| 92 | * 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. |
| 93 | * 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." |
| 94 | %%* It happens a lot in ''Literature/EndersGame'' and its sequel ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead''. |
| 95 | * [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Harry Potter's]] famous wizard cards have figures from mythology (Merlin, Circe), history (Agrippa, Paracelsus), and also characters unique to the ''Harry Potter'' universe, such as Alberic Grunnion and Hengist of Woodcroft. |
| 96 | * In ''Literature/TheHauntingOfDrearcliffGrangeSchool'', Knowles' collection of true crime books includes works on Jonathan Wild, Eugène François Vidocq, and Colonel Clay. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Wild Wild]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Fran%C3%A7ois_Vidocq Vidocq]] are real people (who each inspired several famous fictional characters), and Clay is a fictional conman created by Grant Allen. |
| 97 | * Multiple examples from Creator/RobertAHeinlein: |
| 98 | ** ''Literature/FarmerInTheSky'': "...the first California settlers starved, [[UsefulNotes/TheLostColonyOfRoanoke nobody knows what happened to the Roanoke Colony]], and the first two expeditions to Venus died to the last man". |
| 99 | ** ''Literature/StarmanJones'': "Bees have cities, ants have cities, challawabs have cities." And from that same conversation: "Just like ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'', or ''Literature/SwissFamilyRobinson''--I can't keep those two straight. Or the first men on Venus." |
| 100 | ** ''Literature/TunnelInTheSky'': "...Cowpertown is safe in history, along with Plymouth Rock, Botany Bay, and Dakin's Colony." |
| 101 | * In ''The Literature/HyperionCantos'', Hegemony CEO Meina Gladstone is said to be often likened to UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill or Alvarez-Temp. |
| 102 | * In ''Jubilee – 200'' by Creator/KirBulychev, the founders of the experiment to create a sapient ape are listed as "Darwin. Mendel. Pavlov. Sosnora. Jacobson. Sato". |
| 103 | * In ''Literature/MaroonedInRealtime'', the background music at the Robinsons' party ranges "from Strauss waltzes, to the Beatles, to W. W. Arai": two real musicians from the 19th and 20th centuries, followed by a fictional one from the 21st. |
| 104 | * In ''Literature/TheNightMayor'', the new form of public entertainment is a kind of hyperreal virtual reality. Susan notes that it is still waiting for a pioneer to really showcase its potential as an artform the way D. W. Griffith and Sergei Eisenstein did for film in the 20th century, or Chillmeister Freaze did for ice sculpture in the 21st. |
| 105 | * ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' inverts it, where the list of people who have entered Hades and returned includes Hercules, Orpheus, and Creator/HarryHoudini. |
| 106 | * 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"]]. |
| 107 | * 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. |
| 108 | * 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." |
| 109 | ** He does it again in ''Ringworld's Children'', where he describes the [[ForeverWar potential future]] of the Fringe War as akin to the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, and "Avenge Mecca". |
| 110 | * In ''Literature/TheSecretsOfDrearcliffGrangeSchool'', a tract on reshaping human society along purportedly scientific lines is said to have drawn favorable critical notice from Creator/HGWells, Creator/GKChesterton, Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw, and [[Literature/JeevesAndWooster Roderick Spode]]. |
| 111 | * ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'': In "The Eleventh Voyage", among the media [[spoiler:allegedly]] absorbed by the Calculator, there are the texts of the stone steles (apparently those from Earth), then there are fictional books that have a HistoricalDomainCharacter as the author (e.g. three fiction Creator/AgathaChristie murder mysteries) or the subject (e.g. the biography of UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper), and finally there are gems such as "the meeting protocols of the cannibals' section of the Neanderthal writers' union". |
| 112 | * ''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: |
| 113 | -->Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei\ |
| 114 | led us to this perfect day... |
| 115 | * 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." |
| 116 | * 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''. |
| 117 | * 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.) |
| 118 | [[/folder]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 121 | * ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Inverted in Wolfram & Hart's introductory video, which explains it had a hand in the rise of two fictional companies ([[Film/TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossThe8thDimension Yoyodyne]] and [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Weyland-Yutani]]) and one real one (News Corp). |
| 122 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'': |
| 123 | ** In the episode "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E04Infection Infection]]", it's mentioned that Dr. Franklin aspires to become one of the great names of medicine, alongside Fleming, Salk, Jenner, and Takahashi. This may be a subversion, as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiaki_Takahashi Takahashi]] did develop the first Chicken Pox vaccine, but never achieved great fame for it. |
| 124 | ** In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS02E18ConfessionsAndLamentations Confessions and Lamentations]]", the Markab plague Drafa is compared by Dr. Franklin to earlier such plagues -- Black Death, AIDS, Chalmers' Syndrome. |
| 125 | ** In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E20AndTheRockCriedOutNoHidingPlace And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place]]": |
| 126 | --->'''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... |
| 127 | *** Although notably, the nuclear terrorist attack on San Diego had been mentioned on the show several times before and the ruins of the abandoned city had been shown on screen in a previous episode. (This was a production in-joke; series creator Creator/JMichaelStraczynski disliked San Diego, so he wrote in its destruction as a TakeThat.) |
| 128 | ** In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS04E16TheExerciseOfVitalPowers 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... |
| 129 | ** In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS05E01NoCompromises No Compromises]]", Sheridan is threatened by someone who lists past Presidents -- Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kyoshi of the Eastern Bloc. |
| 130 | ** In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS05E10ATragedyOfTelepaths 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. |
| 131 | * ''Series/Batwoman2019'' does a "famous, fictional, fictional" variation when Julia Pennyworth tells Kate she tracked a hitman from Jakarta to Metropolis to Gotham. |
| 132 | * The OpeningNarration of the first-ever episode of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', "[[Recap/BlackadderS1E1TheForetelling The Foretelling]]", does this: |
| 133 | -->History has known many great liars. Copernicus. Goebbels. St. Ralph the Liar. |
| 134 | * ''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. |
| 135 | * ''Series/{{Lewis}}'': Episode "[[Recap/LewisS3E4 Counter Culture Blues]]" revolves around a FakeBand, The Midnight Addiction, which is [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether getting back together]] after 35 years. When Robbie Lewis the superfan is explaining to Hathaway just who these people are, he cites "[[Music/JeffersonAirplane Airplane]], [[Music/TheGratefulDead the Dead]], the Addiction!" (It turns out that Hathaway is familiar with The Midnight Addiction and was just screwing with his supervisor.) |
| 136 | * ''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.]] |
| 137 | * 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: |
| 138 | --> '''Sheppard:''' 1643 is the year Isaac Newton was born; 1879, Einstein; 1968--\ |
| 139 | '''Teyla:''' The year Rodney was born.\ |
| 140 | '''Sheppard:''' ''Never'' underestimate the size of that man's ego. |
| 141 | * Many from the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe. Given Trek's deep backstory, a number of the Fictional names are actually recurring references to well-developed characters or events, unlike most instances of this trope where the specific name chosen is essentially meaningless. |
| 142 | ** Examples using references to established figures: |
| 143 | *** ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'': |
| 144 | ---->'''David:''' Well, don't have kittens. Genesis is going to work. They'll remember you in one breath with Newton, Einstein, Surak. |
| 145 | *** In ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'': |
| 146 | ----> '''Sybok:''' The people of your planet once thought their world was flat. Columbus proved it was round.[[labelnote:*]]No, he didn't.[[/labelnote]] They said the sound barrier could ''never'' be broken! It was broken. They said warp-speed could not be achieved. |
| 147 | *** In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E15Threshold 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). |
| 148 | *** Inverted in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E22TheSavageCurtain The Savage Curtain]]", in which 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. |
| 149 | *** 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]]..." |
| 150 | *** 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. |
| 151 | *** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed Space Seed]]", Lt. [=McGivers=] has several portraits of historic conquerors in her quarters, including UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and Khan Noonien Singh. |
| 152 | *** In one ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode, Picard lists (only) two infamous men in history: UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Khan Singh]]. |
| 153 | *** Benjamin and Jake Sisko play holographic baseball with all the greats, like Tris Speaker, Ted Williams, and Buck Bokai, in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E16IfWishesWereHorses 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. |
| 154 | *** [[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]]. |
| 155 | *** In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E14Memorial Memorial]]", when ''Voyager'' later encounters a memorial to the victims of a massacre, Janeway compares it to "the obelisk at Khitomer[[note]]The Klingon colony that was the site of the peace agreement between the Federation and the Klingon Empire in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', and was also attacked by Romulans; the victims included Worf's parents[[/note]]... the fields of Gettysburg". |
| 156 | *** 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"). |
| 157 | *** The opening credits sequence for ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' is a visual example, presenting a montage of real historic advancements in human exploration -- sailing, flight, undersea, near space -- culminating in the fictional invention of next-generation orbital shuttles, warp drive, and the launch of the titular starship. |
| 158 | *** In an early episode of ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', Lorca asks Stamets if he wants to be remembered like UsefulNotes/TheWrightBrothers, UsefulNotes/ElonMusk, Zefram Cochrane. [[note]]As Musk's star has fallen, it's become HilariousInHindsight to note that [[spoiler:this Lorca is from the [[EvilCounterpart Evil]] MirrorUniverse.]][[/note]] |
| 159 | ** Examples using one-off references: |
| 160 | *** The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E14WhomGodsDestroy Whom Gods Destroy]]". |
| 161 | ---->'''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! |
| 162 | *** Lee Kuan is also mentioned by Spock in an almost identical context in the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS]]'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E21PatternsOfForce Patterns of Force]]": |
| 163 | ---->'''Spock:''' Earthmen like Ramses, Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Lee Kuan. Your whole Earth history is made up of men seeking absolute power. |
| 164 | *** In the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS]]'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E2CharlieX 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. |
| 165 | *** [[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. Later on, he takes it a step further and actually summons up several great thinkers for a chat on the holodeck, including Gandhi, Lord Byron, Socrates, and T'Pau of Vulcan. |
| 166 | *** The Doctor also refers to great Alpha Quadrant artists: "Verdi, da Vinci, T'Leel of Vulcan..." |
| 167 | *** [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Picard]] mentions [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Pearl Harbor]] and [[NoodleIncident Station Salem One]] as stages for bloody preambles to war. |
| 168 | *** Data, considering Shakespeare, planned to study the performances of [[Creator/LaurenceOlivier Olivier]], [[Creator/KennethBranagh Branagh]], Shapiro and Kullnark. |
| 169 | *** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E20CourtMartial 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. |
| 170 | *** In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E21TheMuse The Muse]]", 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). |
| 171 | *** The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer The Ultimate Computer]]" shakes up the RuleOfThree by using only one real person: Einstein, Kazanga, and Sitar of Vulcan. |
| 172 | *** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E2TheEnsignsOfCommand The Ensigns of Command]]", when the captain tells Data that 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." |
| 173 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S2E6 The Convict's Piano]]", the notorious 1920s UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} gangster Mickey Shaughnessy is compared to Dutch Schultz and UsefulNotes/AlCapone. |
| 174 | [[/folder]] |
| 175 | |
| 176 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 177 | * Creator/DuaneElms: ''Dawson's Christian'' uses this when listing GhostShip legends from the future -- the list starts with the FlyingDutchman and the ''Mary Celeste'', before naming ''Barnum's Pride'' and "the ''Horseman'' and the ''Lady'' at his side", implicitly future ghost ship myths. |
| 178 | [[/folder]] |
| 179 | |
| 180 | [[folder:New Media]] |
| 181 | * This is #5 of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17392_6-sci-fi-movie-conventions-that-need-to-die.html 6 Sci-Fi Movie Conventions (That Need to Die)]], the example being "Newton, Einstein, [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Surak]]". |
| 182 | * 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]], [[Franchise/TheIncredibles Mr. Incredible or Elastigirl]], [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Iron Man or Captain America]], [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader or Rey]], and... Creator/JeffGoldblum! Fans of the quirky actor were quite amused. |
| 183 | [[/folder]] |
| 184 | |
| 185 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 186 | * 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. |
| 187 | * In ''Android: TabletopGame/NetRunner'' there are four [=ICEs=] (one per corporation), currently unreleased, that are named after a famous scientist. NBN (focus on information) has Gutenberg, Haas-Bioroid (focus on artificial intelligences) has Turing, Jinteki (focus on genetic modification) has Crick, and Weyland (focus on spatial colonization) has Meru Mati, the fictional engineer who made the space elevator possible. |
| 188 | * A sample advertisement in the ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' sourcebook ''Home of the Brave'' claims that by going to Bram Jhonson New Life Clinic, the woman depicted in it gained better legs than Creator/BettyGrable, a better figure than Creator/MarilynMonroe and a prettier face than Bes Isis; the last of the three is a famous in-universe musician. |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 | |
| 191 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 192 | * 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/DarkSouls'' 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 certain shapely attributes which make her painting instantly distinguishable from the real ones. |
| 193 | * 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]]. |
| 194 | * ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' has several examples: |
| 195 | ** The Armstrong Nebula 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. These include Gagarin (first man to orbit) and Tereshkova (first woman in space), but also 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. |
| 196 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': Several systems in the Heleus Cluster are all named after famous explorers from the histories of the various species present in the colonization effort. These include human examples (Eriksson after Leif Eriksson, Pfeiffer for the Austrian explorer and ethnographer Ida Laura Pfeiffer, Pytheas after the Greek geographer Pytheas of Massalia, and Zeng He after the eponymous Chinese navigator) and a number of alien ones exposited on in-universe (Dar'hegah for the first batarian astronaut, Kindrax for the first turian to cross one of Palaven's oceans in a balloon, and Tecunis for the first salarian expedition to reach the Citadel). |
| 197 | * ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' has a slight variation with the four names of the ships that carried humans to the Koprulu Sector; each are named after a famous ship from the past: the Nagglfar (named after the Naglfar of Norse mythology, the Ship of Nails that carries barbarians to fight the gods during Ragnarök), the Argo (from Greek mythology), the Reagan (likely named after the modern aircraft carrier) and the Sarengo, which presumably is a ship from an unexplored part of ''[=StarCraft=]'' history. |
| 198 | * In ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', one of the audio logs contains a snippet where the speaker compares himself to the great killers of history. |
| 199 | --> Genghis Khan, Hitler, Sorabella... none of them hold a candle to me. |
| 200 | [[/folder]] |
| 201 | |
| 202 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 203 | * ''VisualNovel/SouthScrimshaw'': While discussing how Brillo Whales don't actually lay eggs, an optional tangent mentions four known egg-laying mammals: the Platypus, the Echidna, the Snorb, and the Ribbonsnaw. |
| 204 | [[/folder]] |
| 205 | |
| 206 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 207 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' |
| 208 | ** Prof. Farnsworth lists his influences as Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, Nicolaus Copernicus, Euclid, and Braino. |
| 209 | ** The video parodying "{{Atlantis}}" by Donovan regarding the ancient history of UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, and how all of its greatest citizens fled as it sank: "Ted Turner, Hank Aaron, Creator/JeffFoxworthy, the man who invented Coca-Cola, [[StageMagician The Magician ...]]" Leela is [[LampshadeHanging unimpressed]] by the last addition. |
| 210 | -->''"The '''Magician!?"''''' |
| 211 | ** 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 Creator/DavidDuchovny. |
| 212 | * A ''WesternAnimation/HuckleberryHound'' cartoon where Huck was a noted gunfighter prefaced his appearance running down a short list of famous gunfighters: |
| 213 | -->'''Narrator:''' Billy the Kid. Wyatt Earp. Wild Bill Hickok...WesternAnimation/QuickDrawMcGraw?? |
| 214 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 215 | ** A gag from "Sweets and Sour Marge" has Comic Book Guy buying Creator/LeonardNimoy's biographical books, ''IAmNotSpock'', ''I Am Spock'', and ''I Am Also Scotty''. |
| 216 | ** "Simpson Tide" mentions the films ''Blacula'', ''Blackenstein'' and ''The Blunch Black of Blotre Blame''. |
| 217 | ** In "Simpson Tall Tales", the episode's take on the legend of Paul Bunyan shows Paul (Homer) and his ox Babe [[BeenThereShapedHistory traveling across America and leaving their mark]], making the Great Smoky Mountains thanks to them smoking cigars, devastating a lush forest area into Death Valley, and also making the fictitious "Big Holes with Beer National Park" by drunkenly dancing, as well as an additional fictional moment of Paul and Babe battling Film/{{Rodan}}. |
| 218 | ** "Moe Goes from Rags to Riches" is supposed to be about the history of Moe's bar rag, and it tells the story of numerous historical events it lived through. However, it includes the story of 1001 Nights with Scheherezade, which is fictional. |
| 219 | ** In "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly", when Homer lists off several men that Maude could be dating in heaven, he lists John Wayne, Tupac Shakur, and Sherlock Holmes. |
| 220 | -->'''Ned:''' Sherlock Holmes is a character. |
| 221 | -->'''Homer:''' He sure is! ''(growls)'' |
| 222 | [[/folder]] |
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