[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Nikola_Tesla_at_wardenclyffe_laboratory_9227.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[MundaneUtility Nikola Tesla's reading light]].]]

->''"Genius, scientist, inventor,\\
penniless at death, yet ignored.\\
Nikola Tesla,\\
who remembers?"''
-->-- '''Music/JoyElectric''', "Nikola Tesla"

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American electrical genius, brilliant engineer, MadScientist, possibly UsefulNotes/{{asexual|ity}} (or just {{celibate|EccentricGenius}}, voluntarily or not), pigeon-loving weirdo, and exceedingly poor businessman.

Born to Serb parents in the village of Smiljan (Austrian Empire at the time, Croatia today) and immigrant to the United States, Tesla is best known for his eponymous electrical transformer, the [[ShockAndAwe Tesla Coil]], closely followed by his development of the first feasible alternating current power generator, ultimately built at UsefulNotes/NiagaraFalls. Other patents of his include the equipment for radio, vertical take-off and landing gear, fluorescent light bulbs, and a radio-control mechanism that contained the earliest practical example of a logic gate. He's also credited with a lot of early theoretical work on electromagnetic radiation that was later expanded into radar.

However, a combination of poor business decisions, economic trouble, and pressures from arch-rival (but not enemy) UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison eventually led to the end of his good fortunes, and he acquired obsessive/compulsive tendencies and other eccentricities. He ultimately died alone in a hotel room after failing to sell a giant DeathRay to the US government. It is safe to say that without this man, the 21st century would not exist as we know it. But for most of the later twentieth century, not a lot of people knew him (although the good news is that recently, he ''has'' been gaining more and more publicity).

Despite his relative obscurity later on, Tesla was well known in his own time. Examples include having things named after him, receiving multiple Nobel Prize nominations, being on the front cover of Magazine/TimeMagazine on his 75th birthday, and New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia reading a eulogy over the radio for him when he (Tesla) died. In recent years, his reputation has very much swung the other way as a new generation of writers and scientists rediscovered his inventions and research.

[[http://www.lardbiscuit.com/fancy.html This essay]] lists 4 reasons for Tesla's lack of public recognition.
# Tesla lacked marketing ability and business knowledge. He concentrated on science and ignored the need to build a network of contacts. An unfortunate tendency to make [[BadassBoast wildly enthusiastic claims]] about how every new invention would bring about world peace, provide limitless free energy or occasionally both probably didn't help.
# UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison had such ability and knowledge; he also made political connections and promoted his public image.
# The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_barons corporate leaders]] of the time were scared of Tesla’s objective to invent free energy and took advantage of his business naiveté.
# UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates government covered up his inventions during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII since they were scared that the German Empire or the Nazis would develop a superweapon from his designs.

These are the facts. Everything else is [[WildMassGuessing very, very much up for grabs]]. Artificial lightning? Never left home without it! (In fact, one of the highlights of any of his demonstrations was [[ShockAndAwe shooting lightning from his fingertips]].) EarthquakeMachine? Probably not. [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquer Faked his death and escaped to Soviet Russia?]] Doubtful. Assisted by an AncientTradition of [[Franchise/AssassinsCreed assassins]] reaching back to Biblical times? No. [[Literature/CallahansCrosstimeSaloon Rescued by an immortal time-travelling prostitute who took him away so he could continue his work?]] Say ''what''? Caused TheTunguskaEvent with the help of Guglielmo Marconi while testing an experimental {{antigravity}} [[TeleportersAndTransporters teleportation]] engine ...[[ConspiracyKitchenSink You're just messing with us now, right]]?

Conjecture and conspiracy aside, some of the things that we do know Tesla was either working on or had plans for are quite terrifying. Aside from the above mentioned Artificial Lightning, Earthquake Machine, and the Death Ray (a particle beam weapon, to be precise) he tried to sell to the Government, Tesla had plans (whether or not any were close to functional is up for debate) for Force Shields, Gravity Manipulation, Wall Phasing and Teleportation. You know what they say about "genius and madness"! Another famous incident in which he claimed to have received a 'message from Mars' may have been Tesla receiving the signal from a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar pulsar]], in which case he also accidentally invented radio astronomy.

Because of both his [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder behavioral and intellectual eccentricities]], Tesla is both the UrExample of the RealLife MadScientist (literally as some of the first depictions of the trope in film came from Thomas Edison's studios) and the fictional person to go to for all technological arcana and fringe science. The tesla, the [[TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay S.I. unit]] of magnetic field strength (defined as a field that applies a one-newton force to a one-coulomb charge moving orthogonally at one meter per second), takes its name from him, as does the Tesla Motors Company, a firm dedicated to building electric cars.

For examples relating to his most famous invention, see ShockAndAwe.

On a final, completely unrelated note, he was also [[OddFriendship close friends]] with Creator/MarkTwain. Here's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Twain_in_Tesla%27s_Lab.jpg a picture]] of them goofing around in Tesla's lab.
----
!!Tropes as portrayed by fiction:

* GentlemanAndAScholar: Despite being portrayed as a MadScientist in fiction, in RealLife, most people who met him described him as a polite, cultured, and educated individual.
* MadScientist: Considered to be the TropeCodifier, if not the UrExample, due to his crazy electric experiments.
* TheRival: His relationship with UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison is usually framed this way. It's more correct to note that Tesla ''worked'' for Edison's rival, George Westinghouse, after leaving Edison's company over a pay dispute,[[note]]Which Tesla didn't blame on Edison himself, but his business manager Charles Batchelor refusing to grant Tesla a promised raise[[/note]] and that the supposed personal animus between the two men tends to be exaggerated.
* SuperBreedingProgram: Tesla was an ardent eugenicist in real life, although he was an advocate of 'positive eugenics' (encouraging "the right people" to breed) rather than 'negative eugenics' (prohibiting the breeding of 'unfit people', sometimes by forced sterilization). Interestingly, he did not personally contribute to this; he was known to be polite and charming to women, but never demonstrated any romantic or sexual interest.
* TeslaTechTimeline: A genre of AlternateHistory and ScienceFiction in which Tesla somehow overcomes his lack of business sense and goes on to ''drastically'' change the world with his technology.

----
!!Appears in the following works:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''[[http://www.mangapark.com/manga/Henjin-Henkutsu-Retsuden/c0/all Chronicles of the Bizarre and Eccentric: Nikola Tesla]]'' (1989) by Hirohiko Araki of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''.
* ''Manga/RecordOfRagnarok'' lists Tesla as one of humanity's representatives in the tournament against the gods. He fights in Round 8 against {{Beelzebub}}, wearing a suit of PoweredArmor similar to that of ComicBook/IronMan which he had developed in the afterlife with a team of history's greatest scientists, including Thomas Edison. In addition to generating electricity, his armor also utilizes some of the more outrageous technologies that he allegedly designed, such as anti-gravity and teleportation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Eastern Animation]]
* ''Animation/WarOfTheWorldsGoliath'' has Nikola Tesla as a professor who helps humanity against the martians.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'', Tesla is the "father" of the title character. He is also the inventor of a wide array of devices, from an atomic reactor/battery to an artificial intelligence and the body hosting it (the hero), passing by all sorts of "smaller" projects such as flight by lighting, death rays (portable) and such. He is also the founder of Tesladyne, in-universe megacorp specialised in the progress of science. In his earlier days(Atomic Robo Real Science Adventures), he was the leader of a team of noir heroes; Ehrie "[[Creator/HarryHoudini Harry Houdini]]" Weisz, Charles Fort, Winfield Scott Lovecraft, George Westinghouse, Annie Oakley and Wong Kei-Ying. It didn't end well, given that [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraft's son]] was driven mad just ''hearing'' about the time they turned Wardenclyffe Tower into a DeathRay in an attempt to stop a CosmicHorror (Volume 3, ''Atomic Robo and the Shadow From Beyond Time'').
* A brief note in ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' implies that in that world, Tesla and Edison merged their electric companies, contributing to the SteamPunk-ishness of the series' Britain.
* ''ComicBook/TheFiveFistsOfScience'' features Tesla and Creator/MarkTwain teaming up to fight UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison. With a SteamPunk [[HumongousMecha giant robot]]. After Edison summoned [[EldritchAbomination cosmic horrors]]. Also Tesla was trying to become a superhero. It's pretty much as awesome as it sounds.
* Tesla is a significant character in the Creator/DCComics Elseworld ''[[Comicbook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]: Age of Wonder'', in which he quits Edison Machine Works at the same time as Lex Luthor and Clark Kent. The combination of wacked-out science ability, ruthless business savvy and superpowers changes the world, until Luthor remembers he's a {{supervillain}} and asks Tesla to take out those Death Ray plans again.
* As part of the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: Hearts of Steel'' portion of IDW's ''Infestation 2'' CrossThrough event, which took place in the Industrial Revolution, Nikola Tesla fought Franchise/{{Cthulhu|Mythos}}-powered Decepticons alongside Optimus Prime. Just go ahead and bask in that sentence for a bit.
* Gets put into historical focus and made an inspiring figure to the hero in Creator/JeffSmith's ComicBook/{{RASL}}.
* ''ComicBook/SHIELD2010'' depicts Tesla as a cyborg called Night Machine with [[ShockAndAwe electrokinetic powers]]. He works with an {{Immortal|ity}} [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] Creator/{{Michelangelo|Buonarroti}}. Really.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Animated]]
* In the film ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', the main character - then a well-intentioned grade-school MadScientist - has a poster of Tesla which proclaims him a "Rockstar Scientist." He's air-guitaring a lightning bolt.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Tesla plays a brief but important role in ''Film/ThePrestige'', played by, of all people, Music/DavidBowie. [[spoiler:He rips physics a new one by inventing a matter duplicator.]]
-->'''Nikola Tesla:''' Anything is possible, Mr. Angiers; what you are asking for is simply expensive.
* ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079985/ The Secret of Nikola Tesla]]'' by the Croatian director Krsto Papić, done in 1980.
* While not appearing in them, many film versions of Franchise/{{Frankenstein}} fit out the laboratory with lots of Tesla coils and things driven by them that make ultra-high-voltage sparks
* In ''Film/{{Tomorrowland}}'', Tesla was one of the founders and leaders of the secret organization Plus Ultra. He first discovered the alternate dimension that would become known as Tomorrowland through experiments at his Colorado Springs laboratory, caused TheTunguskaEvent in an early experiment to enter the realm (And subsequently spearheaded research into less destructive means of entry), and had a fully operational version of the Wardenclyffe Tower constructed in the alternate realm to power all of Plus Ultra's research.
* ''Film/Goosebumps2HauntedHalloween'', the film’s setting is the fictional [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower Wardenclyffe, New York]] and at the climax [[Literature/NightOfTheLivingDummy Slappy]] uses a Tesla Tower to spread his reanimation magic far and wide.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Tesla is a character in Spider Robinson's extended universe of ''Literature/CallahansCrosstimeSaloon'' books.
* In Creator/RobertRankin's ''The Witches of Chiswick'', it's revealed that in the ideal timeline, Nikola Tesla was respected and befriended several other scientists (particularly Charles Babbage), which led to him perfecting his inventions and bringing about the space age (plus broadcasted electricity and androids) in the Victorian era. This is screwed up when time-traveling witches pollute the timeline, which leads to a {{dystopia}}n timeline. This is patched up, and we end with the current timeline we all live in.
* His inventions are a center point to the plot of an early ''Literature/RepairmanJack'' novel.
* Tesla is the replacement/rival for SantaClaus in the short story [[http://escapepod.org/2008/12/25/ep184-as-dry-leaves-that-before-the-wild-hurricane-fly/ As Dry Leaves Before The Wild Hurricane Fly.]]
* He's not exactly a character in the novel ''Crazy For Cornelia'', but Cornelia, a big ol' fan of [[LightningCanDoAnything lightning]], is an obsessive fan of him.
* Flaming's ''The Kingdom of Ohio'' features the rivalry between Tesla and Thomas Edison, Tesla being the good guy of course. There's also time travel and an obscure royal family.
* Tesla is a character in the ''Worldweavers'' books, where he also has elemental powers.
* He appears in the AlternateHistory novel ''Literature/NewAmsterdam'' by Elizabeth Bear, where he has fled to France from Russia's encroaching imperialism and the French government has hired him to build his broadcast energy system for Paris. His death ray, a concentrated form of his broadcast energy, also makes an appearance but is ineffective, [[spoiler: at least against werebeasts.]]
* Tesla is a central character in Samantha Hunt's novel ''[[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/books/review/Thomas-t.html The Invention of Everything Else]]'', which fictionalizes his last years of life. You know that page quote above about everything being "[[WildMassGuessing very, very much up for grabs]]?" The book is that trope in ''spades''.
* In ''Behemoth'', the sequel to ''Literature/{{Leviathan}}'' by Scott Westerfeld, the {{Steam|Punk}} / {{Diesel Punk}}s that make up the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI Central Powers]] have 'Tesla Cannons,' which are, predictably, lightning generators. In the third book in the trilogy, ''Goliath'', Tesla becomes a major character. He is [[AxCrazy a great deal]] [[MadScientist more unstable]] than in real life. Which is saying something.
* Lewis Shiner's short story "The White City" casts Tesla as a hero, or villain, as he perfects his device to [[spoiler: banish night and darkness by electrifying the sky into a solid glowing sheet of energy.]] Permanently.
* Tesla is a PosthumousCharacter in ''Literature/TheGrimnoirChronicles'' and his inventions are vital to the plot of the first book. UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison takes the role in the second book ''Spellbound''.
* Tesla was featured quite prominently in the Titanic themed novel ''Literature/DistantWaves''.
* ''The Astounding, the Amazing and the Unknown'' by Paul Malmont, in which PulpMagazine sci-fi writers have been tasked by the US Government in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII with creating [[WeirdScience miracle weapons]]. After Tesla dies, a team including Creator/RobertAHeinlein, Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/LRonHubbard investigate his experiments in the hope of finding a DeathRay or a new source of power.
* He was a member of the Ekaterina branch in '''"Literature/The39Clues"''' [[spoiler: A online mission revealed that he discover one of the 39 Clues: mercury.]]
* Tesla is an important supporting character in [[Creator/JacekDukaj Jacek Dukaj]]'s ''Ice'' novel. He's the one who develops a device to break the hold of the titular "ice" upon Earth, on top of supplying the protagonist with an ImpossiblyCoolWeapon.
* He shows up in ''Literature/TheLastAmericanVampire'', participating in the assassination of [[UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk Rasputin]].
* Creator/HPLovecraft's biographers and fans suspect that Tesla and his public demonstrations were one of the inspirations for Lovecraft's original dream of [[http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/n.aspx Nyarlathotep]].
* Andrew Seiple's ''[[Literature/TheDireSaga Teslaverse]]'' universe is set in a world where the Wardenclyffe Tower experiment came out a bit differently, resulting in Tesla gaining lightning powers and fighting in the war against {{Ghostapo}} troops while the rest of the world started developing powers. He was also successful in getting broadcast power to be used throughout the world.
* Tesla does not appear as a character in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', but is mentioned when the Victorians discover wireless transmission of power and other technologies theorized by him.
* Neal Shusterman's ''The Accelerati Trilogy'' features Nikola Tesla's inventions, time travel, and a sinister cabal of inventors led by an undead Edison as a group of kids try to prevent the end of the world. Tesla himself is primarily heard only as a (time displaced) voice on the telephone, but his legacy looms large.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In an episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' the main characters each contribute pictures to a Day of the Dead shrine, in addition to a picture of [[spoiler: Maeve,]] Spencer Reid adds a photograph of Tesla.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': He appears in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E4NikolaTeslasNightOfTerror "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror"]], played by [[Creator/GoranVisnjic Goran Višnjić]], in which he teams up with the Doctor [[EnemyMine and Edison]] to fight off an alien invasion.
* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' gave someone else credit for Tesla's DeathRay. But hey, at least they named the local school Tesla High School. Which has got to count for something, right?
* The mid-90s TV series ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112045/ Legend]]'' featured a good-natured, brilliant, mad-scientist character named Janos Bartok (played by the LargeHam Creator/JohnDeLancie AKA [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Q]]) who was expressly inspired by Tesla.
* ''Series/ModernMarvels'' did a whole episode to him called "Mad Electricity".
* Canadian period drama ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' has Tesla show up in the first episode, partly to fight it out with another business over whether Toronto is lit by alternating or direct current and partly so that Murdoch can fanboy him.
* ''Series/MythBusters'' tested Tesla's earthquake machine. While there were some surprisingly large vibrations, the idea that it could take out a building without external power was quite busted. The bridge these guys were using their Tesla inspired device on was relatively modern, meaning that it had been built to withstand mechanical resonance. This theory has already been proven by incidents such as that of the Angers Bridge in 1850 (with the vibration of soldiers marching in step dislodging the bridge) and of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 (with the wind happening to have a frequency that matched the structural frequency of the bridge). This could potentially work, but that would depend on whether or not the building or bridge had been fortified against such frequencies.
* Croatian mini-series ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0273375/ Nikola Tesla]]''.
* In ''Series/Sanctuary2007'', Tesla is introduced late into the first season and quickly became one of the most popular characters on the show being a colleague of Helen Magnus from the 1800s. They were members of The Five, a group of scientists who had discovered a preserve sample of blood from the extinct vampire race. He, Helen, and the other three took the blood and gained mutations that granted them superhuman abilities: Tesla in his case became a vampire-human hybrid while Helen became TheAgeless, John Druitt (aka Jack the Ripper) gained teleportation, James Watson (InUniverse inspiration for Literature/SherlockHolmes) gained super-intelligence, and Nigel Griffin gained invisibility (making him the Invisible Man). The series also took his MadScientist reputation and ran with it, making him a scientific genius whose recurring character arc involves finding a way to resurrect his ancestral race and take over the world. Despite that, he's a pretty affable guy and its made clear on occasion its out a (deluded) belief that it will bring about a new Golden Age for the world[[note]]Apparently the Dark Ages came about when their empire fell thanks to humanity's uprising against their vampiric overlords[[/note]]. At one point he temporary loses his vampiric abilities only to gain electro-magnetic ones instead.
* An episode of ''Series/TeamKnightRider'' revealed that in his childhood, Trek had managed to design a fully functional version of Tesla's earthquake machine, which was being used by a renegade priest to do "God's work" by destroying Las Vegas.
* ''Series/Warehouse13'' has a handgun shaped and sized machine made by Tesla that shoots electricity and causes short term memory loss. He and Edison also apparently stopped their war long enough for both of them to create the warehouse's electrical system. The designing of the actual warehouse, however, was done by Creator/MCEscher, which is enough to give anybody NightmareFuel...
* The ''Series/MacGyver2016'' episode "Tesla + Bell + Edison + Mac" sees Mac and his gang discover a secret lab owned by Tesla, containing details and notes in relating to [[MagneticWeapons a electromagnetic cannon]] the bad guys are trying to obtain. After the room gets raided by said villains and Mac gets hit with [[EasyAmnesia a memory-disrupting concussion]], [[DreamEpisode he gets sent on a drug-induced trip]] to help remember important clues he found in the room, and at the end of it, Tesla himself ([[TheConscience or just his conscience depicted as him]]) shows up to guide him to what he's looking for.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_%28band%29 Tesla (Band)]]
* [[http://teslathrone.com/ Teslathrone]]
* The band 8in8 (Music/BenFolds, Music/AmandaPalmer, [[Music/OkGo Damian Kulash]], and Creator/NeilGaiman) opened their album ''Nighty Night'' with a {{pun}}-laden love song to a time-traveling Tesla. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2dDdVSU6M4]]
* Music/JoyElectric, the Christian Electronica band, has a rather odd song dedicated to Tesla (as noted in the page quote).
* Jay Electronica, no connection to the above, used a photo of Tesla as the cover to his set of [=EPs,=] "Exhibit A" and "Exhibit C." Seen [[http://cdn.nahright.com/news/m.php/2009/12/jay-electronica-exhibit-c-ep-artwork-450x450.png here]] and [[http://beatsfromthebarn.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/albumart.jpg here]]. Electronica also name drops Tesla in a verse of "Exhibit C."
* Tesla Girls was a minor hit for the new wave band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark... and its music video was a major source of controversy.
* Unitopia has a tribute to Tesla on its album Artificial World, and it's as schizophrenic as any progressive rock epic has ever been. However, it seems fitting given the subject.
* Music/TheyMightBeGiants has a song dedicated to Tesla (titled, appropriately enough, Tesla) on their 2013 album Nanobots.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' ''TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds'', drawing on the earlier ''TabletopGame/GURPSAlternateEarths'', includes among its many [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Earths]] one codenamed “Gernsback”, in which the marriage of Nikola Tesla to the daughter of J.P. Morgan[[note]]In real life, he freaked at her pearl earrings; he had a phobia of round objects.[[/note]] is the key divergence point which produces a late 20th Century Earth almost identical to [[RaygunGothic the future as envisioned by Golden Age Science Fiction]] or Creator/HGWells' ''Film/ThingsToCome''. This is based on the idea that she managed to tame some of his crippling eccentricities, and he thus had access to the business savvy of his father-in-law.
* Tesla is an important figure in the "Ravaged Earth" setting of the ''TabletopGame/SavageWorlds'' RPG. In that timeline, following the [[Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds Martian Invasion of 1898]], a.k.a. the "Red War", Tesla used scavenged pieces of Martian technology to invent a whole host of new inventions, becoming incredibly rich when he sold them to Edison. In that world's setting of 1936, he is the head of a major scientific research institution.
* In the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness game ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'', Nikola Tesla was a Son of Ether, a Tradition of MadScientist mages. His ArchEnemy Thomas Edison was either a rival in the Technocratic Union or a pawn of the Technocracy, depending on who you asked.
* He's been merged into ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression''; this time he's a Etherite, putting him as one of the villains. Then again Etherites are often considered to be the least nasty of the villians, more interested in their crazy theories and experiencing the wonders of science than hurting anyone. They just tend to have a mental breakdown when someone disagrees with them, and have easy access to rayguns.
* In the {{Eurogame}} ''Through The Ages: A Story Of Civilization'', one of the six Modern Era leaders available for your civilization is Tesla (at least, in the more recent editions - the original version of the game had Bill Gates filling the same role).
* The rather detailed AlternateHistory BackStory to tactical boardgame ''Tannhäuser'' has Tesla defecting to rival great power [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the Matriarchy]] and equipping them with that world's equivalent to SovietSuperScience (which was combined with the power of the old pagan gods to create highly effective MagiTek). The leader of the free world, [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent US President Thomas Edison]], considers his bad treatment of Tesla [[MyGreatestFailure the main cause of]] such a FaceHeelTurn. Oh, and did I mention that the year's 1948, that UsefulNotes/WorldWarI never concluded, that [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany the Reich's]] warmachine is powered by [[{{Ghostapo}} demonic pacts, ancient artifacts,]] BlackMagic and ''{{Zeppelins|FromAnotherWorld}}?'' And that the latter just recently [[FromBadToWorse started a tentative alliance]] with a similarly occult-inclined UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan? Yeah, the setting pretty much runs on RuleOfCool.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/Warhammer40000Necrons Necrons]] make use of Tesla weapons, which fire a kind of living lightning that can bounce around and hit multiple targets. Tesla himself is said to be the first human to have developed the technology, although the Necrons had already perfected it long beforehand.
* In ''TabletopGame/PunkRockSavesTheWorld'', Tesla creates a TimeMachine shaped like a giant gramophone, then uses it to hide in the timestream as UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison pursues him.
* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'', an AlternateHistory [[{{Zeerust}} retro sci-fi]], Nikola Tesla helped build and fly the first rocketship to Mars alongside Goddard and Einstein. Due to this, he's a major celebrity and incredibly well respected.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''[[http://www.ihosopera.com/rep_tlihh.html Tesla - Lightning in His Hands]]'' is an opera based on the life of Tesla.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TeslaTheWeatherMan'' has an [[AlternateUniverse AU]] version of Tesla wielding a gauntlet that [[WeatherControlMachine controls the weather]] against Edison and his robot army. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Yes]].
* ''Zen Pinball'' has a pinball table themed around him, and it's easily the most popular table.
* ''VideoGame/TombRaiderLegend'' had an entire level set in a secret Siberian lab that belonged to Tesla.
* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' has Tesla Coils as aids that can be brought in through tears.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' gives his Tesla Coil technology to the Russians (in the real world Tesla coils do not work that way, but ''Red Alert'' has always preferred RuleOfCool to realism.)
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' has higher-level Enclave soldiers decked out in Tesla Armor, which has giant glowing electric coils on the back, and gives the wearer a better handling of energy weapons.
** Books entitled "Nikola Tesla and You" add +1 to your EnergyWeapon Skill.
** Tesla Armor appeared also in previous installments, but, despite the fact that it was quite fancy-looking, shining item, it was quite useless.
** In the DLC "Broken Steel", you have to find a Tesla Coil in order to build the Tesla Cannon, a BFG that ''[[LightningGun shoots lightning]]''.
** It's back in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', and '''it's even better'''!
* In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', Tesla is an Archer class servant and a rather powerful one, it's stated that despite having a rather 'young' legend, what he does influences the human society on such a large scale to the point that his life became one of humanity's biggest turning points and those feats are sublimated into an EX-rank Noble Phantasm, granting him incredibly powerful electromagnetic abilties. His powers that made him an archer? Shooting lightning out of his hand.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dystopia}}'' has a gun called the Tesla Rifle. It's primary fire arcs electricity from the gun to the target, and the secondary fire launches a shiny, slow-moving ball that discharges electricity as it flies through the air.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Arcanum}}'' you can lay your hands on Tesla Guns and other Tesla-as-adjective weapons, provided you play a technological character. As it seems, every [[TheVerse 'verse]] has a Tesla to develop electric technologies.
* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', it's revealed that Tesla had an ancient artifact, called a "Piece of Eden", apparently loaned by the secretive Templar order, from which he reverse-engineered all of his inventions. He wanted to take it many steps farther and start the Internet decades early while providing the world with free electricity; Thomas Edison, a Templar, notes in a letter that this would be easy. As it would also completely reshape the world away from what the Templars want it to be, they engineer his downfall, only for the Templars' rivals, the Assassin order, to recruit him so he can use '''science''' to destroy a Piece of Eden for them. Naturally, the result of that is the TheTunguskaEvent.
* In the ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank'' series, there are a number of weapons named after Tesla, such as the Tesla Claw, a lightning gun of sorts, and the Tesla Barrier, an upgraded shield that arcs electricity at nearby enemies.
** He also pops up in the {{backstory}} to ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'', where he's credited with the invention of VTOL aircraft akin to the modern V-22 Osprey in the early 1930s. (Sort of TruthInTelevision, if you can call a patent application and an article ''Popular Mechanics'' "inventing" something.)
* ''VideoGame/DarkVoid'' features an alternate dimension where the main character, his ex-girlfriend, and Tesla all end up. Tesla ends up outfitting the player with {{jetpack}}s to battle the game's villains.
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' has Tesla as the Engineer's 1800s predecessor.
* ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'' has a secret alien "gift" known as the tesla rifle. It is a rifle that can electrocute every monster near!
* ''[[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork5TeamColonelAndTeamProtoMan Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team ProtoMan]]'' features Ms. Tesla Magnus, operator of [=MagnetMan=], the electric Navi of the installment.
* ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'' has another Tesla gun.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'' has the nasty mid-game unique Nikola, known for blasting players to smithereens with his chain lightning.
* ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration Super Robot Wars]]'' gives us the Tesla-Leicht Institute (TLI), a mecha design and development think-tank, as well as the Tesla Drive, a portable anti-gravity device used to make mecha fly (or in the case of the [[LightningBruiser Alt Eisen Riese]], allow it to simply stand up under the weight of its own armor and armaments).
* One [[VideoGame/NancyDrew Nancy Drew video game]], ''"The Deadly Device"'', centers around Tesla's life and works. The {{Macguffin}} of the game is his claim to possessing technology that can make free electricity.
* The 2014 PointAndClick AdventureGame ''Tesla Effect: A VideoGame/TexMurphy Adventure'' involves discovering lost inventions of Tesla's.
* Nikola Tesla appears in the ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' spinoff ''Martian Dreams'' as one of the many period characters.
* In ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'', Quake bombs are said to be "described in ''the Apocryphica of Saint Tesla of Serbia.''
* The cancelled MOBA game ''VideoGame/ArenaOfFate'' had Nikola Tesla as a playable hero. His specialty was ShockAndAwe attacks, also dislikes UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison and sleeping.
* Tesla plays a key role in''VideoGame/TheInvisibleHours''... as a murder victim. Despite not being active for most of the story, his actions help to set the plot in motion and his machines are key to the resolution of that plot. [[spoiler: Also, he's a time-traveler.]]
* Tesla is the player character in the game ''Tesla vs. Lovecraft,'' a top-down ShootEmUp. He even has a mecha to fight off the eldritch hordes after his inventions!
* Tesla is a major character in ''VideoGame/IronHarvest'' and is responsible for the development of HumongousMecha and PoweredArmor during this game's version of World War One.
* ''VideoGame/TheDarksideDetective: A Fumble in the Dark'': At one point, the protagonists encounter the ghost of Nikola Tesla, depicted as a mad scientist who's building a death ray as payback against the person he holds responsible for the loss of his favorite pigeon. When [=McQueen=] suggests that such behavior risks tarnishing his legacy, he replies that it's insignificant next to the hit his legacy has taken from his name being linked with Elon Musk.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Tesla appears early in ''Webcomic/DresdenCodak'' as one of the residents of Atheist Heaven. (Tesla was actually Christian, but it works for the jokes.)
* Tesla is the star of one of Creator/KateBeaton's [[http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=61 most famous comics]]. Also extrapolated upon in [[http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=256 this one right here]].
* Tesla invented Little Miss Mechanical, ''Webcomic/TheIntrepidGirlbot'''s oldest ancestor.
* Tesla appears in ''[[http://www.thinkin-lincoln.com/ Thinkin' Lincoln]]'', where he exists as an omnipresent [[EnergyBeings being of pure energy]].
* A plot line in ''[[http://www.newadventuresofqueenvictoria.com/ The New Adventures of Queen Victoria]]'' concerns the consequences of Tesla turning Queen Victoria's broken watch into a TimeMachine.
* Tesla makes a brief appearance in ''[[http://www.geist-panik.com/ Geist-Panik]]'' in which he builds the Teslamp, "A beam weapon that can tear reality asunder" concealed in a flashlight.
* An edition of ''Webcomic/TheOatmeal'' entitled "[[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla Why Nikola Tesla Was the Greatest Geek Who Ever Lived]]" went to great lengths to make the case for Tesla being one of History's most unsung heroes. It goes to just as much trouble to illustrate why Tesla's classic rival Thomas Edison was a "douche."
** And in the interest of fairness, we have articles like [[http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/05/18/nikola-tesla-wasnt-god-and-thomas-edison-wasnt-the-devil/ this]] and [[http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/making-nikola-tesla-a-saint-makes-us-all-dumber-1308034624 this]] to point out that the surge of Tesla-worship and resulting Edison-hate is overblown.
* ComicBook/AtomicRobo is also available as an [[http://www.atomic-robo.com/ online webcomic.]]
** Tesla is also the protagonist of the prequel series, [[http://www.realscienceadventures.com/ Real Science Adventures]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Both Website/{{Cracked}} and Website/BadassOfTheWeek [[http://www.cracked.com/funny-284-nikola-tesla/ have entire pages devoted]] [[http://www.badassoftheweek.com/tesla.html to proving to the world]] how much an underestimated genius Tesla was. Website/{{Cracked}} [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16072_5-famous-inventors-who-stole-their-big-idea.html in particular]] [[http://www.cracked.com/funny-3345-historical-figures-who-were-actually-dicks/ likes to]] [[http://www.cracked.com/article_14870_7-great-men-in-history-and-why-you-should-hate-them_p2.html remind us]] [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18501_7-incredible-scientific-innovations-held-back-by-petty-feuds_p1.html of Edison's utter douchery]] [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18465_6-spectacularly-bad-ideas-from-historys-greatest-geniuses.html in regards]] [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18539_7-lost-bodies-work-that-would-have-changed-everything.html to Tesla]].
* In the AlternateHistory timeline ''Literature/TheFireNeverDies'', WordOfGod states that after the Revolution, Tesla found a very cushy job as a military researcher, while UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison has had to flee to Britain.
* In the Chinese webfic ''Time to Shoot Down the Moon'' (written by a troper called T*sl*shark), the NATO extends Tesla's research and built "Coil Antennas" in Alaska and on the Moon to serve as a mean of long-range communication and detection, also generators of weaponized plasma lightning. The AI overseeing the Coil Antennas on the Moon is named Nick for some obvious reason, and many of the staff there belong to the Scientist's Vigilante, a secret organization founded by Tesla.
* The mad scientist’s time in Colorado Springs plays a vital role in the blog novel ''Literature/FlyoverCity!''
* In the superhero podcast novel [[http://www.secretworldchronicle.com/ The Secret World Chronicle]] (not related to the Funcom game "The Secret World") Nicola Tesla and Andrew Marconi are digitized computer intelligences living in a secret science commune under the Himalayas.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Video]]
* He faces off against UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison in ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'' and scores a crushing victory; 83%! He's presented as a "impeccably dressed" genius who was ripped off by Edison, dissing him by referring to Edison's well-known tactic of buying patents and then presenting them as his own, as well as referencing the recent upswing in his own popularity. He can also [[ShockAndAwe shoot electricity from his finger tips.]]
-->'''Tesla:''' So confess to your thefts and let the whole world know what the Serbian did for The Wizard of Menlo\\
History is getting rewritten and I have {{Website/Reddit}}, your best invention was a way to steal credit.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The character Nikolai Technus from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' is named after Tesla.
* On ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'', the words "Tesla rules" are perpetually visible on the blackboard in Mr. Sheepman's classroom. Tesla himself never appears.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'' talked about Tesla's work and character in surprising detail, even noting his questionable sanity and his rivalry with UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison. (It's noteworthy that Tesla here is portrayed as Creator/ChristopherWalken.)
* On ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Peter tries to console his sister-in-law and tells her she wasn't the only one to get a bum deal, then they cut away to a turn of the century boardroom:
-->'''Man:''' Mr. Edison, we're going to use your invention to power the world. And Mr. Tesla, we're going to use yours in the background of Franchise/{{Frankenstein}} movies.\\
'''Thomas Edison:''' Aw, I wanted that one!
* Tesla is a supervillain in a flashback in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', allied with the Avon Ladies. Interestingly, he's depicted as fighting against his RealLife HeterosexualLifePartner Creator/MarkTwain.
* The setting of ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders'' includes a theme park named Tesla Park, complete with a "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln"-esque animatronic attraction starring its namesake. Bonus points for Tish clarifying that Tesla, not Marconi, was the inventor of radio and citing the Supreme Court ruling that posthumously awarded him the credit he deserved. Now you've learned something, kids!
* The Edison/Tesla rivalry comes up as the subject of a science fair project in the ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' episode "Topsy". The teacher who's in charge of the fair is a big Edison fan, and the kids decide to reenact the demonstration of the alleged dangers of alternating current in which Edison deliberately electrocuted an elephant.
* Teslo from ''WesternAnimation/{{Mixels}}'' is named after Nikola Tesla, and is fittingly, the leader of the [[ShockAndAwe Electroids]].
* Listed as one of Dexter's inspirations in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory''. Notably, he names Tesla but not Edison, suggesting he knows about the Tesla-Edison rivalry despite it being obscure during this series's production.
* He appears on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/XavierRiddleAndTheSecretMuseum'', where he teaches Xavier how to think big.
* ''WesternAnimation/LetsGoLuna'': In "Lights Out", the kids visit Dubrovnik, Croatia and learn about the Tesla Coil. Even though the show takes place in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals, Tesla is shown as a human.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* He's been called the Man That Invented ''the 20th Century''. As his two best known groups of inventions are all the basic technology of AC power and all the basic technology of radio, this is not an exaggeration.
* He finally achieved honored status in scientific literature when the SI unit for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_flux_density magnetic flux density]] was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_%28unit%29 named after him]] in 1960 (previously known as "Webers per square metre").
* [[http://www.teslamotors.com/ Tesla Motors]], which builds [[CoolCar high-performance electric vehicles]], is named in tribute to him.
** The electric induction motor powering some of the most advanced cars on the road was invented by Tesla himself, in '''''1888.'''''
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster The Tesla Roadster aka The Tesla Dark Star]] - a sports car that gets an average of 240 miles on a 4-hour charge (the record is over 300 miles) and goes from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S The Tesla Model S]], a family/executive sedan with a 300-mile battery pack and 17-inch touchscreen controls.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_BlueStar Tesla Blue Star]]
* [=ZOMGSmells=] makes a scent as a tribute to Nikola Tesla entitled [[http://www.zomgsmells.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=50 The Melancholy Death of Nikola Tesla]].
[[/folder]]
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