History SmallReferencePools / RealLife

* [[ColonyDrop Asteroid impacts]]? [[TheCretaceousIsAlwaysDoomed Chicxulub]], [[TheTunguskaEvent Tunguska]], and maybe [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor Chelyabinsk]]. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1490_Ch%27ing-yang_event Ch'ing Yang event]],[[note]]which hasn't been ''confirmed'' to be due to an asteroid, but then again, neither was Tunguska[[/note]] possibly the only impact event in recorded human history to result in mass casualties, will not be featured.

** The dinosaur age will always be depicted as one general era, instead of a succession of different time periods. As such, expect all dinosaurs to be shown together despite the fact that some have never co-existed with one another. ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'' is the most important dinosaur everybody remembers and will recognize by name. It will be seen attacking a herbivore dinosaur at one point, for dramatic effect, preferably a ''Brontosaurus'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Parasaurolophus'', and/or a ''Triceratops'' because those are the only ones the general public will be familiar with. Thanks to the success of ''Film/JurassicPark'' the [[RaptorAttack velociraptors have also gained some infamy]]. The air will be inhabited with pterosaurs and the seas and rivers with plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. The landscape is usually a large open field with a lot of volcanoes, so it's easier to see how huge these beasts are. The climate will always be warm and tropical, due to the endless population of reptiles. Also expect many people to assume that [[PrehistoricMonster all dinosaurs are huge carnivorous beasts]]. Ah, yes, and at one point a [[TheCretaceousIsAlwaysDoomed giant asteroid will destroy everything, so time travelers need to leave fast]].

* The only Italian-Americans are gangsters or actors who have played gangsters. Plus Music/FrankSinatra, Music/DeanMartin, [=Joe DiMaggio=], and Creator/DannyDeVito. [=IndyCar=] fans would know the Andretti family, mainly Mario and Michael; football fans would know Joe Montana and Dan Marino, and devoted basketball fans would know coaches John Calipari and Rick Pitino and LargeHamAnnouncer Dick Vitale. Fans of the latter sport would know UsefulNotes/CaitlinClark as an Italian-American too... except that pretty much no one outside Iowa knows her mother is from that background.

** The50s: A happy carefree time, at least that is the view that many sitcoms and movies have given us. All adult men are a Standard50sFather who wears slippers, fedoras and smokes a pipe. All adult women are [[StepfordSmiler smiling]] apron-clad {{housewi|fe}}ves. Their children will be girls in poodle skirts, playing with hula hoops or early Barbie dolls or cute freckle faced boys with slingshots in their pockets and read comic books on the sly. Or, if they are teenagers, they will be teddy boys, GreaserDelinquents, a BadassBiker or a {{Beatnik}} reading Magazine/{{Playboy}} on the sly. They drive a CoolCar with {{RetroRocket}}s to eat at UsefulNotes/McDonalds or watch a [[BMovie monster B-movie]] at a DriveInTheater. But, most importantly, they will listen to RockAndRoll, {{Doowop}}, RAndB or {{Rockabilly}} on a transistor radio or a jukebox, especially Music/BillHaleyAndHisComets, Music/ElvisPresley, Music/ChuckBerry, Music/LittleRichard, Music/JerryLeeLewis, and Music/BuddyHolly. Jonas Salk developing the polio vaccine, UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace and the launch of the first Sputnik are the most important scientific breakthroughs. Other happy events are Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay being the first men on top of Mount Everest, UsefulNotes/ElizabethII being crowned, the opening of [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]], the establishment of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion and the marriage between Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Creator/GraceKelly. Creator/TheBeatGeneration, early television shows like ''Series/ILoveLucy'', ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'' and ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', free jazz and abstract expressionism are the cultural highlights. Creator/BettiePage, Creator/MarlonBrando, Creator/JamesDean, Creator/BrigitteBardot, Creator/JayneMansfield, Creator/SophiaLoren, Music/ElvisPresley, Creator/MarilynMonroe and ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' lead the sexual revolution. In popular culture there will be far less focus on the [[RedScare anti-communist witch hunts]] , UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, the fear of the bomb, the first nuclear power plants being built, the Soviet oppression of the Hungarian Uprising, UsefulNotes/FidelCastro turning Cuba into a Communist state and the rise of the Afro-American civil rights movement under Rosa Parks and UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr

** The70s: Men wear polyester leisure suits with flaring trouser cuffs and huge ties while sporting [[SeventiesHair heavily sprayed and manicured hair, sideburns included]]. Women wear feathered, Creator/FarrahFawcett hair above their slinky dresses with [[VaporWear no bras]] underneath. Black people sport a huge, poofy afro as a TakeThat to past straightening practices. A great time for cult TV shows, [[ExploitationFilm exploitation movies]], Martial Arts movies, {{Blaxploitation}}, {{Erotic Film}} and Hollywood blockbusters. Young people are into GlamRock, {{Funk}}, {{Reggae}}, PunkRock, {{Disco}}, NewWaveMusic and/or HeavyMetal. Video games, video recorders, and skateboards are starting to get in vogue. People seem less keen to remember the Watergate affair, UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's abdication, the economic recession, the oil crisis, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, terrorist bombings, [[SerialKiller serial killers]], kidnappings and plane hijackings becoming more prominent, the assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978, UsefulNotes/IdiAmin, UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet, UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein, and Ayatollah Khomeini turning their countries into dictatorships and the death of Music/ElvisPresley. This is also the decade when most people become aware of human pollution destroying the environment.
** The80s: Fondly remembered for CNN, Creator/{{MTV}}, SynthPop, Music/MichaelJackson, Music/{{Madonna}}, UsefulNotes/LiveAid, "Music/WeAreTheWorld", HipHop, GothRock, HouseMusic, arcade video games, VideoGame/PacMan, Creator/{{Nintendo}}, the walkman, the marriage of [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIII Prince Charles]] and UsefulNotes/{{Diana|PrincessOfWales}}, blockbuster action films starring Creator/SylvesterStallone and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Lech Walesa, UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev's reforms, the fall of the Iron Curtain and UsefulNotes/BerlinWall. All young people engage in breakdancing, skateboarding, and weary EightiesHair or are a ValleyGirl. People feel less nostalgic towards the AIDS epidemic, the crack cocaine craze, the assassinations of Music/JohnLennon, Roberto Calvi and Olof Palme, UsefulNotes/{{the Falklands War}}, the ''Challenger'' explosion, the Irangate affair, the USA backing the overthrow of the socialist government in Nicaragua, the UsefulNotes/IranIraqWar, the [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan USSR–Afghan war]], the UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} nuclear disaster, economic recession and unemployment under [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reaganomics]] and [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Thatcherism]], big-money televangelism and subsequent scandals, the rise of the far-right in many Western countries, US and USSR tensions resulting in fear for nuclear missile escalation, Creator/SalmanRushdie being put under a fatwa, the Latin American debt crisis...

* UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} is UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}. UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}, for those old enough to remember the 1976 Summer Olympics, or Calgary, for those who remember the 1988 Winter Olympics. UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} and some other city in [[UsefulNotes/CanadianProvincesAndTerritories Ontario]], if you're lucky. Winnipeg because it sounds funny ([[Wrestling/ChrisJericho I'm from Winnipeg, you idiot!]])

* UsefulNotes/{{Saudi Arabia}}: The only place that exists is UsefulNotes/{{Mecca}}, and ''maybe'' UsefulNotes/{{Riyadh}} as well. UsefulNotes/{{Jeddah}} apparently doesn't exist.

*** Kentucky: Louisville, Fort Knox and home of UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken. [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Abe Lincoln]] was born here.

* The only cities in UsefulNotes/{{China}} are UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}}, UsefulNotes/{{Beijing}}, and Hong Kong (which is not even technically part of China, but rather a "special administrative region" covered under the "one country, two systems" principle). This is interesting since China is ''the most populated country in the world''. Chongqing, Guangzhou (Canton), and Shenzhen are almost completely unheard of despite having populations of over ''10 million'', which by comparison is bigger than [[BigApplesauce New York City]]'s by millions. Macau, the other "special administrative region", may get a mention, but even then most works that do acknowledge it assume it's an island filled with casinos and nothing else.

** The cavemen period will typically either show ape-like humans or Neanderthals, because AllCavemenWereNeanderthals. They will be hunting or fighting [[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs mammoths, saber-toothed cats or giant bears]]: that is if people are smart enough to remember that [[AnachronismStew men and dinosaurs never coexisted with one another]]. All cavemen wll typically be white, male, thick-browed, retarded, have a lot of hair and women are NubileSavage characters. Expect men to to knock people about with clubs and drag women around by their hair. Everybody happens to wear enough fur to cover up their genital parts, so that we as modern viewers won't be distracted or offended. If men aren't hunting they will be sitting around in a cave or at least nearby it. They only have three memorable activities: 1) making cave paintings 2) discovering how to make fire by hitting two rocks together 3) InventingTheWheel. A typical stone age landscape is nothing but mountains, rocks, caves and large open fields.

** TheHighMiddleAges (1066- 1400): The era most people think of when the Middle Ages are brought up: [[KnightInShiningArmor knights]] and squires fighting to [[SaveThePrincess save princesses]] while people live in castles and listen to minstrels and troubadours singing songs. People will engage in ChivalricRomance, CourtlyLove and tournaments, or storm castles with long ladders while the people inside pour boiling oil over the invaders.Everybody speaks in YeOldeButcheredEnglish. Also the era of less heroic events, such as UsefulNotes/TheCrusades where Saracens and UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar kill one another in name of their gods. Or people being [[BurnTheWitch burned as witches or for being heretics]], even though these became more prominent from the 16th century on. And the awful TheBlackDeath which killed off millions of people, not only due to the illness itself but also because witches and Jews were blamed for it and put on the stake. Historical domain characters that will have a cameo or be namedropped are UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror, Saladin, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, Kublai Khan, UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart, UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland, UsefulNotes/RobertTheBruce, Creator/GeoffreyChaucer, UsefulNotes/ThomasBecket, ... Any medieval legend or FairyTale is usually set during this time era like Myth/RobinHood.

*** UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}: Disney World, UsefulNotes/{{Miami}}, Cape Canaveral, the Everglades, the MTV Spring Breaks, and men who get on the news, usually named "Florida Man".

* The Bahamas are one place (despite the hint in the name). The Cayman Islands get a mention as the only place besides Switzerland to have an offshore bank account, though no one seems to know where they are.

* UsefulNotes/{{France}}: UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}, just for the {{Eiffel Tower|Effect}}, Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre, of course. You might get a reference to the Moulin Rouge, Sacré-Coeur, Montmartre, Champs-Élysées, Pont Neuf, the Sorbonne, Place Concorde, Versailles, Place Vendôme, Père Lachaise and the Notre Dame in there too.
** The rest of France will usually be Provence, though Bretagne (to show some cliffs), Reims (for the cathedral), Bordeaux (for the wine), Bayeux (for the [[Art/TheBayeuxTapestry tapestry]]), the Mont Saint-Michel, Arles (because of Creator/VincentVanGogh), Dijon (for the mustard), Cannes (for the Film Festival), Avignon (because of the song ''Sur Le Pont d'Avignon''), Le Mans (for the UsefulNotes/TwentyFourHoursOfLeMans auto race), Roland Garros (for the tennis tournament), Rouen (made famous by UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc), Alsace (for the sauerkraut and sausages and Strasbourg's cathedral) Marseille and Nice could get a small reference if you're lucky. If you're Catholic or know anything about Catholicism, you'll know a bit about ''[[Film/TheSongOfBernadette Lourdes]]'' where they have holy water that magically cures people.[[note]]It's ordinary water taken from a sacred spring.[[/note]] The UsefulNotes/TourDeFrance may get a shout-out.

* UsefulNotes/CzechRepublic: Prague and the region Bohemia, best known for ''Theatre/LaBoheme'', ''The Bohemian Girl'', Music/{{Queen}}'s "Bohemian Rhapsody", Music/TheDandyWarhols' "Bohemian Like You", the word ''bohémien'', Bohemian crystal and art glass. Also famous for Music/AntoninDvorak and Creator/FranzKafka. UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud and Gregor Mendel were born here but considered themselves Austrian. There's also WebVideo/MishovySilenosti, but he was more of a OneHitWonder (outside of the Music/SiIvaGunner community anyway).

* UsefulNotes/{{India}}: Bombay (almost never UsefulNotes/{{Mumbai}}), Calcutta (almost never Kolkata), Delhi (old and new), Bangalore and West Bengal (known for the tigers). Nobody knows Agra, but they will recognize the Taj Mahal there. One irony is that UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} movies have the same SmallReferencePools to their own culture. [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] will always be the first person mentioned.

* UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} and UsefulNotes/{{Palestine}} (often thrown together as one country by foreigners): Most locations Israel (and Palestine) are known for are in essence temples or holy sites, like Bethlehem, Mount Zion, Masada, Al-Asqa Mosque, The Lions' Gate, King David's Tomb, the Armenian Quarter, The Wailing Wall, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The Damascus Gate, and the Dome of the Rock. Only the West Bank and Gaza Strip are more famous now as conflict zones than for their historical merit. The only location that exists without a strong holy or violent association attached to it is the Dead Sea, which is actually a lake, by the way. It's famous for its high salt level which makes people able to float on it without being able to sink. And even this location is actually not just Israeli or Palestinian, but also bordering Jordan.

* UsefulNotes/{{Paraguay}}: Ascunción.

* UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}: Warsaw and Gdańsk/Danzig. A few people might recall that [[Music/FryderykChopin Frederic Chopin]] and [[UsefulNotes/MarieCurie Madame Curie]] were from there.

* UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}: Cheap products are made there. If lucky, Taipei as a city may be mentioned, with no regard for cities on the south side of the island like Tainan and Kaoshiung.

** There are maybe six UsefulNotes/BritishAccents: [[IAmVeryBritish posh]], Cockney, [[TalkLikeAPirate pirate]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Liverpool}} Beatle]], "Scottish" and "Irish." That's if we remember that Scotland and Northern Ireland are part of the UK (and don't [[ScotIreland conflate them]]), and that the middle two are regional accents at all.

*** Alaska: A permaforst-laden tundra. Anchorage and Fairbanks are the only cities in the state, Juneau apparently doesn't exist. Nome may get a mention for the 1925 serum run, which was led by the heroic Balto (Togo doesn't exist).

*** UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}: Music/ElvisPresley fans know it for Graceland, blues fans for Memphis, country fans for UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}}, science buffs for Oak Ridge.

* Gangsters/Maffiosi? The most famous gangster of all time is UsefulNotes/AlCapone. Lucky Luciano might get a mention too. Names like Albert Anastasia, Bugsy Siegel, Sam Giancana, Dutch Schulz, Meyer Lansky and John Gotti ([[PretentiousPronunciation whose last name really should rhyme with "goatee" rather than "snotty"]], but don't expect ''anyone'' to ever say it the right way) are already namedropped more by people with special interest in the material. The best-known Mafia family are the Gambinos; although the Bonannos and Genoveses are also well known. To most people the fictional character Don Corleone from ''Film/TheGodfather'' is the poster boy to all the real-life gangsters. Throw in the Film/{{Goodfellas}} and [[Series/TheSopranos Tony Soprano]] as well.

* The only Italian-Americans are gangsters or actors who have played gangsters. Plus Music/FrankSinatra, Music/DeanMartin, [=Joe DiMaggio=], and Creator/DannyDeVito. [=IndyCar=] fans would know the Andretti family, mainly Mario and Michael; football fans would know Joe Montana and Dan Marino, and devoted basketball fans would know coaches John Calipari and Rick Pitino and LargeHamAnnouncer Dick Vitale. Fans of the latter sport would know Caitlin Clark as an Italian-American too... except that pretty much no one outside Iowa knows her mother is from that background.

* Assassins? Some historical ones whose infamy lives on are Brutus, UsefulNotes/CharlotteCorday, UsefulNotes/JohnWilkesBooth, Gavrilo Princip, Lee Harvey Oswald and Mark David Chapman.

* Druglords? Pablo Escobar and El Chapo.
* Gangsters/Maffiosi? The most famous gangster of all time is UsefulNotes/AlCapone. Lucky Luciano might get a mention too. Names like Albert Anastasia, Bugsy Siegel, Sam Giancana, Dutch Schulz, Meyer Lansky and John Gotti ([[PretentiousPronunciation whose last name really should rhyme with "goatee" rather than "snotty"]], but don't expect ''anyone'' to ever say it the right way) are already namedropped more by people with special interest in the material. The best known Mafia family are the Gambinos; although the Bonannos and Genoveses are also well known. To most people the fictional character Don Corleone from ''Film/TheGodfather'' is the poster boy to all the real-life gangsters. Throw in the Film/{{Goodfellas}} and [[Series/TheSopranos Tony Soprano]] as well.

* Serial killers? The only true famous one is UsefulNotes/CharlesManson. UsefulNotes/TedBundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Peter Sutcliffe, Myra Hindley, and Ted Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber) are also fairly well known. To know UsefulNotes/EdGein, David Berkowitz, Andrei Chikatilo, and/or Richard Ramirez you have to have a bit more interest in the subject, but they too may apply as the most iconic ones. If you need a European one the most famous choices will be UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper and/or Henri-Désire Landru, the ''real Literature/{{Bluebeard}}''. More ancient serial killers are UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, Gilles de Rais and Elisabeth Bathory.

** War criminals from other wars aren't mentioned that often. The Serbian War has UsefulNotes/SlobodanMilosevic, Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić, but that's it. The most famous war criminal at large today is perhaps Joseph Kony, a Ugandan mercenary known for his army of child soldiers.

* Clowns? [[Series/TheBozoShow Bozo the Clown]], Grock, Emmett Kelly, Karandash, Lou Jacobs, Otto Griebling, Oleg Popov, Albert Grimaldi. Fictional clowns will be [[CommediaDellArte Pierrot, Pulcinella]], Theatre/{{Pagliacci}}, Literature/{{Scaramouche}}, WesternAnimation/KokoTheClown, [[UsefulNotes/McDonalds Ronald McDonald ]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Krusty the Clown]]. Or, if you need a [[MonsterClown scary clown]]: real life serial killer John Wayne Gacy comes to mind, as does the fictional killer clown Pennywise from ''Literature/{{It}}''. The Joker from ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' might also count.

** King George III

* To most foreigners the largest countries will be the most famous and visible in popular culture. The same applies to the cities, which will often be the capitols, but not always. If a smaller country or city manages to be mentioned it's usually because of some historic event, battle, treaty, sports event of disaster that took place there.

* To most foreigners the largest countries will be the most famous and visible in popular culture. The same applies to the cities, which will often be the capitols, but not always. If a smaller country or city manages to be mentioned it's usually because of some historic event, battle, treaty, sports event of disaster that took place there.

** Unless it's ancient China, which is just Xian.

* Until recently, the only Cuban-Americans were Desi Arnaz and Music/GloriaEstefan. Then they started coming into their own in the Republican Party with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

** UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood: When referring to EarlyFilms the only silent movie stars to reference are Creator/FlorenceLawrence, aka "The Biograph Girl", Creator/DouglasFairbanks, Creator/MaryPickford, Creator/ErichVonStroheim, The Keystone Cops, Creator/MaryPickford, Max Linder, Theda Bara, Creator/GretaGarbo, Creator/LouiseBrooks, Rin Tin Tin, Creator/RudolphValentino, Creator/ClaraBow, Creator/FattyArbuckle, Creator/BusterKeaton, Creator/HaroldLloyd and of course Creator/CharlieChaplin.

** UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood: The introduction of sound in 1927 led to a period of {{Glamour}} to give many people some escapism. Whenever Hollywood is referenced in pop culture it's usually during this era, with many references to icons like Creator/ClarkGable, Creator/JoanCrawford, Creator/EdwardGRobinson, Creator/LaurelAndHardy, Creator/TheMarxBrothers, Creator/WCFields, Creator/BelaLugosi, Creator/BetteDavis, Creator/ShirleyTemple, Creator/JamesCagney, Creator/ErrolFlynn, Creator/HumphreyBogart, Music/BingCrosby, Creator/BorisKarloff, Creator/BusbyBerkeley, Creator/CaryGrant, Creator/GaryCooper, Creator/JeanHarlow, Creator/MauriceChevalier, Creator/MarleneDietrich, Creator/MickeyRooney, Creator/JimmyDurante, Creator/GeorgeBurns, Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/JohnnyWeissmuller, Creator/KatharineHepburn, Creator/VivienLeigh, Creator/SpencerTracy, Creator/PeterLorre, Creator/OrsonWelles, Creator/LaurenBacall, Creator/JudyGarland, ''Film/TheLittleRascals'', Film/TheThreeStooges, Creator/FredAstaire, Creator/GingerRogers, Creator/ClaudetteColbert, and naturally Creator/WaltDisney's creation ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse''. If a specific film needs to be referenced it will be ''Film/{{King Kong|1933}}'', ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''Film/CitizenKane'' or ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''.

** The40s pop culture is characterized by Creator/HumphreyBogart, Creator/BettyGrable, Creator/BobHope, Creator/AbbottAndCostello, Creator/AlfredHitchcock, Music/DeanMartin and Creator/JerryLewis, bebop jazz, Music/FrankSinatra, Vera Lynn, Music/EdithPiaf, neo-realistic Italian movies and UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation cartoons of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}, WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}, WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}, WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}, WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry, WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker''.

* The only Italian-Americans are gangsters or actors who have played gangsters. Plus Music/FrankSinatra, Music/DeanMartin, [=Joe DiMaggio=], and Creator/DannyDeVito. [=IndyCar=] fans would know the Andretti family, mainly Mario and Michael; football fans would know Joe Montana and Dan Marino, and devoted basketball fans would know coaches John Calipari and Rick Pitino and LargeHamAnnouncer Dick Vitale. Fans of the latter sport would know Caitlin Clark as an Italian-American too... except that pretty much no one outside Iowa knows her mother is from that background,.

* The only Italian-Americans are gangsters or actors who have played gangsters. Plus Music/FrankSinatra, Music/DeanMartin, [=Joe DiMaggio=], and Creator/DannyDeVito. [=IndyCar=] fans would know the Andretti family, mainly Mario and Michael; football fans would know Joe Montana, Dan Marino, or maybe Tony Romo, and devoted basketball fans would know coaches John Calipari and Rick Pitino and LargeHamAnnouncer Dick Vitale. Fans of the latter sport would know Caitlin Clark as an Italian-American too... except that pretty much no one outside Iowa knows her mother is from that background,.

* The only Italian-Americans are gangsters or actors who have played gangsters. Plus Music/FrankSinatra, Music/DeanMartin, [=Joe DiMaggio=], and Creator/DannyDeVito. Caitlin Clark ''would'' be a famous Italian-American in 2024, but almost no one knows that her mother is Italian-American, so she has to settle for just being famous on the basketball court.

* There is no other countries in Oceania apart from Australia. New Zealand doesn't exist at all. (However, if it does, it's known only for producing Rachel Hunter, Creator/PeterJackson, Creator/RussellCrowe, and Music/{{Lorde}}.)

* UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}} is a frozen rock somewhere near the North Pole where Music/{{Bjork}} lives and ''Series/{{LazyTown}}'' was filmed. If you're lucky, Reykjavík will get a mention. Eyjafjallajökull may get a mention if the work was made when it erupted in 2010, an event which wrecked havoc on international air travel.

** AncientGrome: UsefulNotes/AncientGreece and AncientRome are often mixed and confused with one another.

* There's a tendency to see mammals and birds as cute creatures, fit for antropomorphization. Reptiles, amphibians and fish may get this treatment too, though not always. Insects and other invertebrates usually don't get this romanticism. This also explains why the ''cute'' animals will be namedropped more easily than icky creatures like snakes, bats, rats, crocodiles, toads, spiders, mosquitoes, flies, squids and jellyfish.

** Domesticated reindeer in Europe and Asia aren't thought of as farm animals any more than the bison in North America and even kept in a very similar way. Most of them are owned by someone and once or twice a year you round them up and ship a good number off to slaughter, but the herds are large and move more or less freely over vast areas. Sure, you keep an eye on your herd and make sure that it doesn't wander off the land you hold the reindeer-herding rights to, but it's not like the herd needs a human chaperonw 24/7. Yaks on the other hand seem to be kept more like a cross between a horse and your average milk cow, as are camels.

** The60s: A revolutionary time, where all kinds of minorities (youngsters, college students, blacks, women, gays, colonial countries,...) demand equal rights, freedom of speech and the end of old-fashioned, conformist and repressive values. TheGenerationGap between adults and youngsters becomes more prominent. All teenagers are left-wing [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippies]] who wear flowers in their hair, drive around in a HippieVan and want to travel to California or Katmandu to join a {{Commune}}. Or if they are black they will wear an afro and listen to Creator/{{Motown}}. They will all support the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and protest against UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. The men are either a ScooterRidingMod, a snappin' {{Beatnik}} or a [[LoveFreak peace loving']], long bearded hippie wearing CoolShades playing guitar. That is if they aren't sent off under {{Conscription}} to Vietnam to die in a pointless war against the Vietcong. (Veterans who come back maimed, drug-addicted or with PTSD or mental illness is seen in The70s.) All women are a GranolaGirl who may wear a BeehiveHairdo and a Mini Skirt or a long "granny" skirt and peasant blouse. Since the anticonception pill has made its entry and hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and marihuana reach the mainstream everybody will engage in SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll. Expect many hippies to be TheStoner or EruditeStoner searching for a HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs. The music is usually the most celebrated part of this era, with great {{Rock}}, SurfRock, FolkMusic, {{Pop}}, PsychedelicRock, {{Soul}}, {{Funk}} being made by bands like Music/TheBeatles, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}, Music/TheWho, Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/BobDylan, Music/JamesBrown, Music/JanisJoplin, Music/JimiHendrix, Music/TheGratefulDead and Music/TheDoors as the most iconic examples. Expect a reference to the ''Film/{{Woodstock}}'' festival too. UndergroundComics, SpaghettiWestern, SpyDrama, UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave and Pop Art are the prime artistic movements. Central Asian culture is very popular, with Music/RaviShankar and the Hare Krishna movement as prime examples. Mankind brings the first man (UsefulNotes/YuriGagarin) and woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in space and the first one on the moon: UsefulNotes/NeilArmstrong. UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli becomes boxing's world heavyweight champion. Also namedrop some slogans like: "Make Love Not War", "Black Power!", "Ban the Bomb", "Don't Trust Anyone Over 30", "Flower Power" and "Turn on, Tune In and Drop Out". In fact, most people forget the less fun things going on, like the building of the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall, the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis, the assassinations of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, UsefulNotes/MalcolmX, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr, UsefulNotes/CheGuevara and UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's "Cultural" Revolution, the Soviet Union oppressing the Prague Spring, Greece becoming a Fascist dictatorship for five years, Libya putting UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi in charge for more than 40 years, many young people getting brainwashed in religious cults with the UsefulNotes/CharlesManson murders as a prime example, endless race riots in the US, UsefulNotes/TheTroubles in Ireland, and many colonies in Africa finally becoming independent, only to fall into civil war or dictatorships afterward. The 60s ended at the Altamont rock concert where a black man was killed by the Hells Angels while (or because) Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} played "Sympathy for the Devil".[[note]]Speaking of said killing, the victim had rushed the stage with a gun while the Stones were playing "Under My Thumb". The killing was ruled to be self-defense.[[/note]]

* [[UsefulNotes/Oceania Polynesia]]: Some isles you might have heard from: Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, French Polynesia, Samoa, Tahiti (actually part of French Polynesia), the Solomon Isles, the Cook Islands and Easter Island. Apart from Easter Island, best known for its huge Moai statues, most people wouldn't be able to name one specifically unique thing about these isles.