Line #71 ArtisticLicenseHistory/WesternAnimation


1	----
2	!!Films with their own pages
3	[[index]]
4	* ''ArtisticLicenseHistory/ElcanoAndMagellanTheFirstVoyageAroundTheWorld''
5	[[/index]]
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8	* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Pig War" the kids pull a Trojan Horse knock off using a giant wooden pig. While doing so Arnold states with great certainty "This worked for the Trojans because they knew their enemies were easily flattered and loved gifts". Arnold, you fail history forever. And so do all but one of the people playing the British. One kid attempts to point out the Trojan War as precisely why they should not let that wooden pig in their fort, and he is promptly ignored.
9	%%* ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheFuture'', ''WesternAnimation/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventures'', ''[[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle Peabody's Improbable History]]'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'' may be focused on the past, but please don't use any facts you've learned from these shows on a test.
10	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'''s "I'm a Little Bit Country" presents a massive historical failure on the American Revolution. Determining exactly how the Founding Fathers would view the invasion of Iraq is a debate much too large for this page, but the armed conflict of the Revolution itself ''was already raging'' in the Colonies. The battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought in 1775, Benedict Arnold had captured a crucial British fort to help break the siege of Boston, and several other battles were fought. Not everyone wanted to go to war, and many of the Founding Fathers even opposed independence itself, but they recognized that the violent struggle was an inevitability.
11	* The popular notion is that Creator/WaltDisney's animated cartoon version of ''Literature/BenAndMe'' is what started the misconception of Creator/BenjaminFranklin's famous kite experiment, which has found its way into every adaptation of the event. Though he did come up with the idea, there's no clear evidence that Franklin ever performed it himself, and the ''Series/MythBusters'' clearly showed that if Franklin attempted the experiment the way it's popularly portrayed, he would have been fried to a crisp by the lightning bolt.
12	* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' where Beast Boy proclaims "Now I know how UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington felt when Napoleon beat him at Pearl Harbor". And at the beginning of the same episode, Beast Boy gives an account of the start of UsefulNotes/TheRevolutionaryWar, thinking that it started in 1492, and was caused because the colonists getting tired of only being allowed to eat English muffins and drink tea. Raven replies by wondering if he got all of that from a cereal box (he did).
13	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
14	** In "Road to Germany", Stewie and Brian travel back to 1939 to save a wayward Mort Goldman who mistook Stewie's time machine for the bathroom. Upon learning that Nazi Germany is making a nuclear bomb, Brian attempts to pull an AuthorFilibuster when Stewie asked "Why doesn't America go and kick their asses?" which Brian replies "Probably because they didn't have any oil." This joke and much of the episode falls flat for several reasons:
15	### In 1939, the American Army was well, crap, and the Army Air Force[[labelnote:*]]The Army Air Force became its own independent branch, the United States Air Force, in 1948.[[/labelnote]] was still using outdated aircraft, many of which were behind the rest of the world (and moreover, it was UsefulNotes/NaziGermany that had perhaps the most advanced in the world). So even if they wanted to attack at that time... they didn't have the means. The army at the time couldn't even afford enough guns and was using wooden replicas during live-fire drills, and they had no comparable tanks to face the German Panzer Divisions. And the Army Air Force, the P-40 and P-39, two planes which could compete (but not very well) against the Bf 109 were a year away from being deployed, thus they only had metal biplanes and the already obsolete P-35 and obsolescent P-36 Hawk. The notable exceptions being the US Navy and the small but cutting edge strategic bomber force fielding the legendary B-17 Flying Fortress.
16	### In 1939, the United States was still gripped in TheGreatDepression and was firmly Isolationist despite Roosevelt's attempt to send aid to Great Britain.
17	### Nazi Germany's nuclear program... was kind of crap.[[note]]The Germans planned an experiment with a highly enriched uranium core and a heavy water moderator. That design was so colossally stupid that had they actually performed the experiment, it would have gone prompt-super-critical and killed all the scientists performing it.[[/note]] They hadn't even produced enough uranium to produce a bomb at that point, and Hitler... frankly didn't care. Additionally, German physicists had messed up the math, and didn't think an atomic bomb was even possible. It didn't help (well, from the perspective of anyone not in Nazi Germany, it did help) that Germany had driven out many of their best nuclear and/or theoretical physicists (such as one UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein) due to Germany's anti-Semitic policies.
18	### America at that point had all the oil they needed and didn't have to rely on foreign supplies. In fact, America was producing more oil than the rest of the world combined (the oil fields in the Middle East were largely undeveloped). And oil at that time was generally cheaper than water unless you were at war with half of the world. In fact, part of Japan's ''casus belli'' in 1941 was that Roosevelt had embargoed US oil from Japan over the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar, especially Japan's conduct in Nanking. So, if anything, it was ''Japan'' that went to war (partly) for oil against the United States, not the other way around.
19	### The British never went for daytime bombing raids after the early 1940s. They instead relied on a night-time campaign. It was the Americans who did the daytime raids. Not only that, the Lancaster Bombers weren't even on the drawing board in 1939.
20	### Later in the same episode, Mort manages to escape the Nazis by disguising himself as a Catholic priest. This wouldn't have worked at all because Catholics, especially priests, were also persecuted by Nazis. At the Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp, at least 400 German Catholic priests lost their lives.
21	** In the episode "The Big Bang Theory", it is shown that Creator/LeonardoDaVinci was Stewie's ancestor, but Leonardo never married and probably never had any children, legitimate or otherwise.
22	** "Road to the Multiverse" makes the utterly incorrect HollywoodHistory assumption that it was Christianity that caused the Dark Ages. And while there have been multiple times where Christianity has attempted to trample knowledge there are multiple other (non-religious) causes for the Dark Ages, and much of our knowledge of science and philosophy were preserved by Catholic monks, and the Catholic Church was very willing to support science and learning throughout this time and the Renaissance. Also in this episode, they also assume that Creator/WaltDisney was an antisemite despite him hiring and working with Jewish employees, none of which have said that he showed any kind of hatred or bigotry.
23	** Another time they had the aforementioned Lancaster Bombers... with the American Air Force insignia. The United States Army Air Force never had the Lancaster Bomber, instead used the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator. It might be forgivable if they just mixed up the B-24 with the Lancaster, considering their similar appearance.
24	* Frequently parodied and PlayedForLaughs on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
25	** Grandpa Simpson very often mixes historical events and/or relates them in a surrealistic and nonsensical way, [[BeenThereShapedHistory and often claiming to have taken an active part in them]]. This might be a result of ignorance, severe senility, or both, but nobody around ever corrects him. In fact, Bart did once praise his knowledge on early aviation (without realizing it was all bollocks) in "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming":
26	--->'''Bart:''' What a piece of junk.\
27	'''Grandpa:''' Junk?! That's the Wright Brothers' plane! At Kitty Hawk in 1902, Charles Lindbergh flew that on a thimble-full of corn oil. Single-handedly won us the Civil War, it did!\
28	'''Bart:''' How do you know so much about history?\
29	'''Grandpa:''' I pieced it together, mostly from sugar packets.
30	** From "The Sweetest Apu":
31	--->'''Homer:''' Are you sure you don't want to come? In a Civil War re-enactment we need lots of Indians to shoot!\
32	'''Apu:''' Oig... ''[{{beat}}]'' I don't know which part of that sentence to correct first.
33	** "Much Apu About Nothing":
34	*** When Homer is trying to teach Apu what he needs to become a US citizen:
35	---->'''Homer:''' Now we all know that the thirteen stripes are for good luck. But can you tell me why the American flag has exactly forty-seven stars?\
36	'''Apu:''' Because that flag is ridiculously out of date. It must have been made during the brief period in 1912 after New Mexico became a State but before Arizona did.\
37	'''Homer:''' Er... partial credit.
38	*** For his citizenship exam, Apu's final question is:
39	---->'''Examiner:''' What was the cause of the Civil War?\
40	'''Apu:''' Actually, there were numerous causes. Aside from the obvious schism between abolitionists and anti-abolitionists, economic factors, both domestic and international, played a significant--\
41	'''Examiner:''' Hey, hey.\
42	'''Apu:''' Yeah?\
43	'''Examiner:''' Just...just say slavery.\
44	'''Apu:''' Slavery it is, sir!
45	** In "Special Edna", Mrs. Krabappel assigns a research paper about World War I. Which her students apparently know very little about.
46	---> '''Bart:''' Was that the war with Hitler or Merlin?\
47	'''Nelson:''' Oh, you idiot. Merlin was in Vietnam
48	* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'':
49	--> '''Vlad Plasmius:''' If I can destroy the world's first airplane, then man will never fly.
50	** The Wrights were not the only ones working on aviation. Multiple other inventors were as well, some with quite workable designs. The Wrights get the credit for making ''and documenting'' the first full-sized manned model that flew under its own power. The only thing destroying the Wrights' plane would have done was set them back, possibly lose them funding, and removed the reason for Orville and his heirs' campaign to buy up and destroy as much same-era documentation of competing designs and progress as possible.[[note]]Remaining documentation shows at least three other inventors were close, but didn't have the Wrights' funding or time and so lost the race to be first.[[/note]]
51	* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Yankee Doodle Bugs" has WesternAnimation/BugsBunny helping his nephew Clyde study for a test by giving him a crash course in early American history. The accuracy of Bugs's accounts can be measured by Clyde's response after he returns home from school and Bugs asks how he did: glaring angrily, pulling out a DunceCap, and placing it on his head. ("Does ''this'' answer your question?")
52	* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''. Mojo Jojo, drafted into babysitting the girls, tells them a horribly inaccurate version of UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte's life (namely that he conquered the entire world). Once he finishes, the girls (who are in ''kindergarten'') shut him down by thoroughly telling him the real story of Napoleon's life in between hitting him with pillows.
53	* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'':
54	** The [[RealTrailerFakeMovie trailer]] for ''[[http://robotchicken.wikia.com/wiki/1776 1776]]''. "From the people who told you ''Film/ThreeHundred'' was based on a true story. It ain't accurate, but it'll ''blow your fucking mind!''"
55	** In the Lil' Hitler sketch, the first nation (or student's desk) annexed by Hitler is Poland, followed by Czechoslovakia. This should have been the other way around, and Austria isn't even brought up. Japan also seems to lack any of China's desk. In addition, the USA is portrayed as "Not my problem!" until Japan knocks over his juice; by December 1941, America had already been providing supplies for the British and Chinese.
56	** One sketch has a Nazi soldier ask Hitler and Himmler who took his sandwich. Himmler tries to deflect towards Hitler by pointing out that ''he'' didn't murder six million Jews. In real-life, Himmler was one of the men ''most'' responsible for the Holocaust, and many argue that, had he been Fuhrer, he would have been ''even worse'' than Hitler.
57	* ''WesternAnimation/SchoolhouseRock'':
58	** Although the old shorts could be remarkably informative for young audiences, "No More Kings", the one about the American colonies and Revolution ("Rockin' and a-rollin', splishin' and a-splashin'", etc.) harps on and on about George III's tyrannical unfairness. King George's recurrent mental illness was such that he seldom exerted true control over ''Britain'', let alone the colonies; it was '''Parliament''' which instituted the tax policies which (some) American colonists found so intolerable.
59	** His illness didn't really hit him until later on in life; the British ''constitution'' on the other hand ''did'' limit his role in government anyway. He also was probably one of the ''nicest'' kings Britain ever had; not a saint or anything but very much considering the crown a duty rather than something that gave him the right to be a dick, so he wasn't a tyrant by any real stretch of the imagination. He supported the war on the colonies because countries generally do not tolerate armed internal rebellions, and for all that was still happy to make peace once his side lost, treating the other side as a WorthyOpponent if anything.
60	** It also suggests that England directly governed the colonies before the 1770s. In fact, the colonies had been largely allowed to govern themselves before then, and it was Parliament's attempts to impose more control on the colonies that was met with resistance.
61	** Acknowledging that Parliament was to blame for the excesses would have amounted to a ''de facto'' recognition of Parliament's ability to govern and control the colonies; the colonials were ''subjects'' of the King, but not ''citizens'' of Great Britain.
62	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'', a very excited Lazlo makes an incredibly inspired speech to encourage the other campers.
63	-->'''Lazlo:''' Did Napoleon give up the moon to the Swiss? Don't you think he would've planted his butt on a pinecone to keep the moon base from falling to the barbarians?!
64	::The others do appear confused by this, but the speech does its job anyway.
65	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', has several examples ''not'' covered by the RuleOfFunny in "The Presidents Song".
66	** The Warner siblings sing, "In 1913, Woodrow Wilson takes us into World War I", which is the year of Wilson's inauguration, but the war itself didn't start until 1914 and America didn't join until 1917. Moreover, the war itself is covered via titles listing the battles of Gallipoli, Argonne, the Somme, and Verdun, only one of which (the Meuse-Argonne Offensive) America actually took part in.
67	** While singing about Zachary Taylor, the video actually displays a portrait of fellow (and rival) general and Whig party nominee Winfield Scott.
68	** Seeking rhymes, Ulysses S. Grant is described as a man who'd "scream and rave and rant while drinking whiskey although risky 'cause he'd spill it on his pants," even though he was notorious for being TheQuietOne and his alcoholism was grossly exaggerated by revisionist history that attempted to paint him and other Union Generals in a bad light. Part of this was because of when the show ran; Grant's reputation amongst historians themselves and Presidential rankings wouldn't recover until the late 2010's when reexaminations of his ''actual'' character and forward thinking achievements would move him from the lower to more middle end of Presidential rankings. So while ''Animaniacs'' reflects what was thought of Grant at the time, if anything, Grant is now mainly criticized for being ''too loyal, humble and trusting'' to have run a Presidency where the people surrounding him were prone to corruption and willing to take advantage of him.
69	** Although "Teddy Roosevelt charged up San Juan Hill" is probably the most iconic moment of TR's life, it and the Spanish-American War in general happened several years ''before'' his presidency.
70	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' where Arthur, Francine and Buster try making comic strips for a presentation on Rome. Arthur does one in which the Empire is apparently run by the scroll of Roman Law, and features skeleton warriors and a Cyclops. When Prunella points out he hasn't used any real history Arthur admits this is true. Francine's one has her winning the Olympic Games. Brain points out they took place in Greece and the Romans banned the Games in 194 BC (while it could have taken place before the ban, this is another error as the Games were actually banned in AD 394) and she admits she didn't do any research. Though this isn't pointed out, she couldn't have competed anyway, as only men were allowed. Buster has Spartacus defending pizzas from soldiers hidden in a horse who are attacking the Pyramids, and Julius Caesar on a hang glider, which he justifies by saying they didn't have jet-packs back then. Ironically enough, their eventual, more accurate presentation still gets things inaccurate in claiming Julius Caesar was an Emperor. They also apparently have pizzas being delivered to the Senate, though their teacher points this out.
71	* ''WesternAnimation/ClassOfTheTitans'' generally averts the trope, as the creators did a lot of research into Greek mythology and history. However, the gods occasionally are shown to have objects engraved with various dates "B.C." While the time of the Greek gods was indeed in the B.C. era, there is of course no way that someone who lived in that time period would ''know'' that. Like many other examples, this one is almost certainly designed to fall under RuleOfFunny.
72	* ComicBook/PlasticMan in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' episode "Cry Freedom Fighters!" is unusually dense about American history. He eventually inspires an oppressed alien race with a rousing (if not completely accurate) speech:
73	-->'''Plastic Man:''' They were freedom fighters! And you can be, too.\
74	'''Qwardian:''' But we would be facing impossible odds.\
75	'''Plastic Man:''' Did that stop UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln when he was outnumbered by the Redcoats on [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the D-Day?]] No. And when [[Music/LedZeppelin John Paul Jones]] and [[Music/TheBeatles Ringo]] ran out of [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution tea in Boston, did that stop them from throwing their party?]] Of course not. Yes, my friends. I, like [[Series/TheJeffersons George Jefferson]] before me, [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington cannot tell a lie.]] Help me, and together we shall let freedom ring.
76	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'': Ba Nee is 9. Her father was in The Vietnam War in 1976 and she was born just a few years later. The problem is, America had already withdrawn from the war by 1976. Indeed, it had ''ended'' in the previous year.
77	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinofroz}}'' has many historical inaccuracies for a show that takes place in prehistoric times. The two biggest ones are that humans and dinosaurs did not exist in the same time period, and dragons did not exist ''at all''. This show is obviously running on RuleOfCool though.
78	* ''WesternAnimation/EducationForDeath'':
79	** A Nazi official comes to Hans' parents house saying they have to not coddle him anymore when he's sick, or the state will intervene. In reality, while people with disabilities were indeed killed, the Nazis weren't stupid enough to go after children just for being ''sick'' (that would have left them with fewer future soldiers, if nothing else).
80	** The whole segment where ''Literature/SleepingBeauty'' is being retold with Hitler as the Prince waking up Germany under the presumption that this is the way it's "being told under the New Order in Germany" has no basis in reality.
81	** While the Nazis indeed persecuted dissident Christians and tried to Nazify Christianity (apparently planning on wholly replacing it with an Aryan religion later if they could), they didn't switch out Bibles for ''Mein Kampf'' and crucifixes with SS daggers as is shown here, nor simply vandalize churches wholesale. However some similar things were done, such as removing "YHWH" inscriptions as they were deemed Jewish, or one instance where crosses were replaced with swastikas. The latter caused such protests however that it was quickly reversed.
82	* ''WesternAnimation/XavierRiddleAndTheSecretMuseum'': Although the show does its best to be historically accurate, there are some parts that were clearly made up, like Florence Nightingale having a pet mouse, Harry Houdini idolizing a tightrope walker named Fearless Jean, etc.
83	* ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'': Overall the show runs on this for RuleOfFunny, described as a "C-Students Guide to History". It also treats various myths about history as accurate; not even trying to be historically accurate. To list ''every single example'' would be massive even if it had its own page, but for a basic example:
84	** ''[[Recap/TimeSquadS01Ep21Nutorious Nutorius]]'' has George Washington Carver's non existent evil brother as the villain. While George really did have a brother, he died in infancy.
85	* In the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' episode "Quack of Ages", DW, Launchpad and Negaduck travel back to the medieval kingdom of Canardia, which is specifically stated to be in the same location as modern St Canard. St Canard, like Duckburg, is in America.
86	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In one episode, Timmy goes back to colonial America. It runs on pure RuleOfFunny. For starters, Washington never signed the Declaration.
87	* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatNorth'': In Season 2 "[[Recap/TheGreatNorthS2E04WantedDelmerAliveAdventure Wanted: Delmer Alive Adventure]]", a RunningGag with the Tobin kids where they have historical inaccuracies in their stories.
88	** Moon thinks jukebox, waitress on roller skaters, and poodle skirts started in TheEighties instead of the TheFifties.
89	** Wolf has his story set in TheEighties, despite Beef telling him he didn't work at the camp at that decade and he's not that old.
90	** Beef's story includes a salty, old sea captain who acts like he's from the 1880s. When Moon calls him out on that, Beef tells him he allowed their historical inaccuracies in their stories and so he's allowed to have this.
91	* ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'': The theme song of the show claims that all the clones were taken from dug-up corpses of "famous guys and ladies". In real life, some figures, such as Mahatma Gandhi, were cremated, and Joan of Arc was famously burned at the stake, meaning there'd be no body to source DNA from, and chances are slim, if not non-existent, of said DNA remaining in the ashes, and that's assuming they ''weren't'' scattered at sea (some of Gandhi's ashes were buried in California, for instance). Meanwhile, many others have no graves to dig up, because nobody actually recorded where they were buried (such as Genghis Khan, whose grave was famously kept secret). That's also not getting into the fact that the real-life counterparts of some characters, such as Cleopatra, died too long ago to be feasibly cloned.
92	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow'': Parodied with [=GrandPat=], Patrick's GrumpyOldMan grandfather who has existed since the days of the primordial soup and lived through everything inbetween. Everything about it runs on RuleOfFunny and doesn't match up; for instance, he led a war in the 12th century despite being a kid in 1927.
93	* The ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'' episode "[[Recap/MollyOfDenaliS1E24WelcomeHomeBaltoSnowJam Welcome Home, Balto]]" talks about the story of Balto, the Siberian Husky who delivered medicine. Except that's not the whole story. The Great Serum Run (also known as the Race of Mercy) lasted from January 27 to February 7, 1925, and spanned the distance between Nenana and Nome, with Balto and his co-lead Fox running only the last 53 miles of the 674 miles total. The antitoxin was delivered to Nenana by train. But Tooey claims that Balto delivered the medicine to Nenana. Balto's musher was Gunner Kassen, who was not Native as the episode depicts, and the Natives who were part of the relay were generally overlooked by the media of the day. Then, of course, there's the fact that the episode itself completely overlooks Togo and the other dogs in the relay--or that it was a relay at all. To this day, the general consensus in Alaska and among mushers is that Kassen and Balto stole the glory that rightfully belonged to Togo, his musher Leonhard Seppala, and a slew of Native mushers and their dogs.
94	* PlayedForLaughs and invoked in the ''WesternAnimation/WhatACartoon'' short "Gramps." The titular Gramps tells his grandkids about how he stopped an alien invasion in 1939, and was personally asked by the President of the United States to do so. Said president is depicted in Gramps' story as a gorgeous redheaded woman. When the granddaughter points out America never had a woman president, she immediately shifts into Richard Nixon. Gramps begs his grandkids to let him keep this part of the story unchanged and they concede.

Context ArtisticLicenseHistory / WesternAnimation