History Main / TheGump

!!Examples

* [[TheRollingStones Sympathy For The Devil]] includes the narrator being involved, or at least present, in the life and death of Jesus, the Russian revolution, the Blitzkrieg, the Hundred Years War, and the assassination of both John and Robert Kennedy.

** Alternate intepretation: the narrator is [[HumansAreBastards humanity itself]].

* A episode of ''{{Blossom}}'' spoofed the trope namer in a dream sequence. Blossom had the Gump role and was responsible for inadvertently giving MichaelJackson the inspiration for the moonwalk. The parody is spoiled because the writers DidNotDoTheResearch -- they meet ''after'' the Pepsi commercial shoot which left him injured, which was in 1984. He first performed the moonwalk the previous year.

** The "E.T" episode saw Dave meet a young MNightShyamalan at the E.T. movie premiere and give him the inspiration for "TheSixthSense". Likewise he gives StevenSpielberg the idea for ''TheColorPurple''.

* In the IAmWeasel episode "Time Weasel", Baboon goes back in time to change history and become king, only to trigger the extinction of the dinosaurs and the invention of onion rings. As a result, Weasel sees this as Baboon's destiny to correct history and praises him as a hero.

* In the IAmWeasel episode "Time Weasel", Baboon goes back in time to change history and become king, only to trigger the extinction of the dinosaurs and the invention of onion rings. As a result, Weasel gets the idea that Baboon is destined to correct history and declares him a hero.

* In the IAmWeasel episode "Time Weasel", Baboon goes back in time to change history and become king, only to trigger the extinction of the dinosaurs and the invention of onion rings. As a result, Weasel takes this as a sign that Baboon is destined to correct history and declares him a hero.

** Xena was ''responsible for Lucifer's fall from grace.'' She also ''gave a donkey to a certain pregnant couple on their way to Nazareth.'' '''''By way of Greece.''''' She took the Sword out of the Stone and then put it back in. She aided Boadicea's army and was the pirate captain that captured JuliusCaesar. Yes. Xena is the master chef of the AnachronismStew. She puts a bit of herself into each delicious bowl.

* In BatmanBegins, Ra's Al Ghul claims that the League of Shadows took part in the sacking of the Roman Empire, filled trade ships with plague rats contributing to the Black Death, and burned London to the ground. Plus, their last attempt to destroy Gotham using economics turned it into the WretchedHive it is at the time the movie takes place.

* ''MyNineLivesByClio'' is a children's picture book about a Gump who happens to be a cat. She's the inspiration for the invention of constellations, the alphabet, sundials, forks, and parachutes, among other things. Oh, and she's the reason for the Mona Lisa's smile.

* ''Discworld/TheScienceOfDiscworld'' novels posit our world being a sort of novelty science experiment on the Discworld, where the wizards' meddling is not only responsible for life in general, but more specifically {{Shakespeare}}'s and Darwin's successes.

* ''QuantumLeap'' often had Sam Beckett being responsible for a great many things while in the guise of various people. Creator Donald Bellisario referred to these as "kisses with history," giving Sam a chance to slyly affect the world more than just what the main plot required. Among the many things that Sam is responsible for are teaching The Twist to Chubby Checker, performing the [[StableTimeLoop Heimlich Maneuver on Dr. Heimlich]], giving a young StephenKing ideas for some [[{{Christine}} scary]] [[{{Carrie}} stories]], encouraging BuddyHolly to continue with music (even helping him write "Peggy Sue" by trying to catch a pig), and teaching the Moon Walk to a young MichaelJackson.

** In-universe, Johnny Sasaki lives and breathes this trope. By sheer coincidence, he winds up getting involved as a minor {{mook}} in all of Snake's missions [[hottip:*: As a member of the Genome Soldiers in ''MetalGearSolid'', as one of the Gurlukovich mercenaries in ''MetalGearSolid2'', and as a member of Rat Patrol 01 in ''MetalGearSolid4'']], and his grandfather (also named Johnny) personally met Big Boss while serving as a guard at Grosnyj Grad in ''MetalGearSolid3''. Despite his stupidity and general bumbling nature, he's one of the few recurring characters to actually survive all that insanity--which Snake happily lampshades.

** There are actually a lot of Gumps in the StarWarsExpandedUniverse. Any time someone makes a game and they want to set it during the movies, if they don't stick with the movie characters, they ''will'' make important new ones. There are a whole ''mess'' of people responsible for getting the Death Star plans to Leia, for example, like [[TheHanSoloTrilogy Bria Tharen]] and [[DarkForcesSaga Kyle Katarn]].

* In the [[http://everything2.com/title/SPECWEAPS SPECWEAPS]] story series, a lot of events throughout history and the modern day have apparently been caused by weaponization of and warfare between {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. Specifically, [[HPLovecraft the originals]].

* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', Vriska Serket is this... or so she thinks. Due to [[SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate how fate works in the Skaiaverse]], she is just doing things that had to happen anyway, but is inserting herself to make herself more important.

* Episode "Infinite Realms" in ''DannyPhantom'' had [[ThreeAmigos Danny and his friends]] traveling through time via natural ghost portals in pursuit of Vlad, triggering both the Great Fires of Rome and the landing of the Wright Brothers' plane in Kitty Hawk during their chase.
* The classic ''Roswell that Ends Well'' episode of ''{{Futurama}}'' features the stars traveling back in time and arriving in Roswell, New Mexico. Zoidberg is captured by the army, along with Bender's shattered body, making them the alien and "spacecraft remains" secretly held inside Area 51.

* ''FamilyGuy'' is practically made of these. Every episode the viewers are nearly guaranteed a reference to when any of the Griffins or their ancestors did something that altered history in some way.

* ''TheFairlyOddParents'': Cosmo sunk Atlantis nine times, caused the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii and George Washington used his head as a cannon ball to win a battle.

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Rumpelstiltskin is present throughout most of the different fairy tales, even replacing the role of the Fairy Godmother in "Literature/{{Cinderella}}" and the Beast in "BeautyAndTheBeast".

* ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'' shows Brian [[PalsWithJesus interacting with]] Jesus, being [[SeeminglyProfoundFool mistaken for]] Jesus, and being involved in numerous other [[TheBible Bible]] [[JesusWasWayCool shenanigans]].

* ''Film/SpaceJam'' posits that Michael Jordan was persuaded to unretire from basketball by the LooneyTunes and evil cartoon aliens. [[SarcasmMode One suspects they were not involved in real life.]]

** [[http://www.timeslikethis.com/index.php?id=196 A key scene in]] MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail.

** TheManFromEarth plays this straight and also averts it: John barely remembers a lot of the historical events he took part in, because at the time he took part in them, they were not important historical events, just things that he happened to do that day. It was only later, upon reading history books, that he realized his probable involvement.

Not to be confused with flying furniture of the same name from ''Literature/TheMarvelousLandOfOz'' and ''ReturnToOz'', nor the elf in ''{{Legend}}''.

* JackieChan's and Owen Wilson's characters from ''ShanghaiKnights'' have on their record, among other things, creating the names of Arthur Conan Doyle's ''SherlockHolmes'', getting Doyle interested in writing, and getting CharlieChaplin interested in acting.
** Ignoring the errors that they present (Chaplin was born in 1889, two years after the movie is set), there was also Jackie Chan's sister getting attacked by Jack the Ripper.

* The TropeNamer, of course, also inspired a Music/WeirdAlYankovic song.

* The ''ThursdayNext'' novels start out set in a clearly alternate reality, but via the actions of the books (and healthy doses of TimeTravel) the setting gets closer and closer to our world as the series progresses.

* The titular robot in ''BURN-E'', a Pixar short derived from ''WallE'', is sort of an inversion; each of the major events in the film turn out to have impacted his comparatively trivial problems.

* ''TheSandman'' occasionally features Morpheus becoming involved with or perpetuating some of history's biggest legends. Throughout the Fables and Reflections trade paperback, he is the catalyst behind the City of Glass myth, as well as giving Joshua Norton the dream to become the Emperor of the United States on a bet with his siblings. He also made an arrangement with Shakespeare, giving him the stories and the immortality he wanted in return for two plays: ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' as a gift to Oberon and Titania, and ''The Tempest'' for himself.

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* ''BeforeCrisis'' and ''CrisisCore'' are undisputedly lord and master of this trope, as it turns out Zack was responsible [[spoiler:for Yuffie's Materia obession, the bar where Tifa works being named Seventh Heaven, Aerith wearing pink and is now the only reason Cloud took up the persona of a SOLDIER First Class due to "passing on his memories" to Cloud. The Turks meanwhile turn out to have been present for Cid's failed rocket launch, the burning of Barret's hometown, the burning of Cloud and Tifa's hometown, Cloud's first fight with Sephiroth, they are responsible for Azul ending up in Deepground, Red XIII being able to procreate and are the reason for why when you visit the Midgar model in the Shinra building, one part of Midgar is unlike the rest. Finally Genesis has become one of the primary reasons why Sephiroth went crazy, while Angeal has his place in the story as the origin of the Buster Sword.]]

* ''{{Sharpe}}'' is a similar example - if he'd been killed in India, Britain would probably have lost the Napoleonic Wars. Some things Sharpe is responsible for: saving the Duke of Wellington's life; the explosion at Almeida; leading the Forlorn Hope at Ciudad Rodrigo; shooting the Prince of Orange at the Battle of Waterloo; helping the Chilean Revolution to succeed.

* According to an interview by a Film/BillAndTed fansite, Bill and Ted was originally going to be one of these movies. With these two idiots causing the Titanic and the Holocaust as they travelled through time, but this was considered "too dark".