Dan Browned is supposed to be when a work contains an inaccuracy despite the author claiming to have Shown Their Work by doing research on the topic/claiming that their work is factual in that area. In reality, it's being widely misused as 'work contains an error' and as an excuse for people to complain about minor inaccuracies the same way Critical Research Failure was, as well as being a Pothole Magnet for every time Dan Brown is mentioned in any context.

At the very least, it needs a rename to distance itself from Dan Brown and stop the potholes to it that are just there to complain about him on pages that otherwise have nothing to do with him. I feel like there is something to the concept, but it seems more like Trivia than an actual trope since it relies on creator statements outside of the work itself, and if we moved it there I fear it'd be somewhat redundant with Lying Creator. If we don't rename + move it to Trivia, I'd recommend merging with either Artistic License or Critical Research Failure, or disambiging between those two and Lying Creator.

Wick check results:

• Correct: 24%
• 'Work contains an inaccuracy' complaining: 34%
• Other misuse: 6%
• ZCEs and potholes: 22%
• JFF, Indices, etc.: 14%

1. Sandbox.Dan Browned And Cowboy Bebop: Despite calling itself "The Smartest Show in Gaming", MatPat's Game Theory manages to make quite the substantial amount of false claims. Didn't go through the entire page of examples, but at least it's using the term correctly.
2. Recap.Doctor Who S 3 E 8 The Gunfighters: Script Editor Donald Tosh once went on record as claiming that the story, set around the 1881 Gunfight at the OK Corral, was historically accurate. Even though it gets such minor details as who was killed during the shootout and who was there wrong, along with making up fictional family members for the real-life participants.
3. Literature.From Russia With Love: Fleming's introduction insists that General G. was a real person and really ran SMERSH at the time the book was set. In fact, the real SMERSH never lasted beyond World War II, and the general never existed.
4. WMG.Zodiac 2007: To further elaborate on this theory, Graysmith claims to be an expert on the Zodiac case, however some of his books and writings contain lots of misinformation regarding the cases
5. ComicBook.Chick Tracts:
   • Any information Chick provides about any religious group other than extreme fundamentalist Protestantism is usually unreliable. Chick had a habit of quoting questionable people like Alberto Rivera (the source of most of Chick's anti-Catholic claims, a man pursued by police in Spain and the US for fraud) and William Schnoebelen (the infamous self-proclaimed ex-Freemason/Satanist/Catholic/Wiccan/Mormon/vampire).
   • As explained here, the various tracts that purport to reveal the true evil origins of Halloween (it was the night druids went around sacrificing people!) are, at best, based on outdated theories, and at worst, complete fiction. Chick appears to have gotten this Druid/Halloween material from John Todd, who later served a prison sentence and died in a psychiatric hospital.
   • More information about Chick's Dan Browning can be found above in Artistic License – Religion. Not a great sign
6. Series.Beyond Belief Fact Or Fiction:
   • One episode presents the "Bride-to-be steals wedding gown from corpse, dies from toxic embalming fluid soaking into her skin" story, an urban legend dating back over half a century, as fact.
   • There was another one about a woman's mother disappearing from a hospital room. According to Snopes, it's centuries-old, but again Beyond Belief presented it as fact.
7. Characters.From Russia With Love: Fleming's introduction insists he was a real person and really ran SMERSH at the time the book was set. In fact, the real SMERSH never lasted beyond World War II, and G never existed.
8. YMMV.Chuggaaconroy: Chugga's theory that Wes from Colosseum was originally supposed to be the Big Bad of Pokémon XD. Unlike many of his other well-researched info about the games he Let's Plays, there doesn't seem to be any Word of God anywhere supporting this, and yet Chugga still passes it off as fact.
9. Viewers Are Morons: Claiming that you've done the research, then proving you really haven't and assuming that the audience will be too ignorant to notice.
10. Creator.Scott Keith: If he's mentioned at a "real" wrestling news site (ie, The Observer or The Torch), it's to point out how full of shit he is. His first two books are chock-full of bad "history", all presented as undisputed truth. We're talking about the man who routinely claimed that Raven and Paul Heyman were gay, that WCW "hid" payroll expenses by signing big names to contracts with Turner Broadcasting directly (Hogan yes, everyone else no), and constantly repeated mid-90s RSPW rumors as fact until many just assumed they were true.
11. Literature.Don Quixote: This trope is lampshaded by Cervantes... and then played for laughs. In the Preface of the Author, Part I, Cervantes denounces authors who claim that the verses they use in the preface of the book commending that work (a common literary practice at the time) were made by personages identified as famous poets, when with a little research we easily discover they were not, or worse yet, they were illiterate. Simply put, he defines this trope in the 17th century. And then, Cervantes proceeds to make "some commendatory verses" whose authors are some wizards, knights and damsels protagonist of other chivalry books. I think this is correct?
12. Trivia.Unorthodox: The publicity for the series said that it was the first work to give us a real look into the world of Hasidism. But at least three articles by women who left the Hasidism said that the show's portrayal of the Hasidic world is a "Grossly Inaccurate" caricature—both in the details it gets wrong (such as the rules relating to the eruv wire), and in the overall portrayal and atmosphere (they said that although the community is oppressive, it isn't utterly joyless and miserable all the time, and the women who can afford it dress quite stylishly). Listed on Trivia/ page
    • The series is also not the first to depict Hasidic lifestyle. Earlier films such as Ushpizin, Fill the Void and Kadosh also centered on Hasidic families, with varying degrees of positivity.

1. Series.Good Eats: Veteran home brewers have accused Alton of this due to the Season 6 episode "True Brew III: Amber Waves". It got to the point that Alton issued a public apology, but what the veteran home brewers often forget is that the episode was taking the perspective of a first-time home brewer, and much of the advice Alton gives is also given by brewing shops to entry-level home brewers, so at worst, Alton was guilty of the beer equivalent of Lies to Children. Doesn't explain what the inaccuracy was, or how he claimed it true
2. Quotes.Driving Stick: Part of Dominic Toretto's infamously incorrect lecture, The Fast and the Furious
3. Series.Cold Case: Pro Wrestling Episode: "One Fall", which got Dan Browned: The victim, a dock worker who moonlights as a wrestler until he gets shot in 1986, complains to the promoter about going through a table. This was NOT common in pro wrestling in 1986.^note Randy Savage had piledriven Ricky Morton through one in Memphis in 1984. Yes, Terry Funk did the same to Ric Flair in 1989, but it would take Sabu and ECW to really popularize the use of tables.
4. Hollywood Science: Some people, though, enjoy these sillier aspects of such movies, citing them as part of the fun. Deep Impact, however, was supposed to be serious, which arguably makes its inaccuracies worse. For instance, the four nuclear devices causing a clean cut in the comet (as shown in a graphic in the movie) is impossible on several levels. Working wanting you to take it seriously =/= work claiming everything in it is factual
5. ArtisticLicenseHistory.Literature: Dan Brown: Too many to list here — Dan Brown's research failures (in history in particular) have made him a trope namer, and have their very own page. Artistic License – History =/= Dan Browned; you can have one without the other
6. Series.Insatiable: You know how Regina gets arrested for statutorily raping 17-year-old Brick? In Georgia? Yeah, the age of consent in Georgia is 16. They can screw all they want and it's completely legal. This would have taken two minutes to look up.
7. WebVideo.The Irate Gamer: Might be correct, but doesn't say anything about him claiming research
   • An example of this is found in his Super Mario Bros. 2 video. He claimed the reason Nintendo didn't release the real SMB 2 due to the game being a Mission-Pack Sequel, neglecting to mention the real reason was the over-the-top Nintendo Hard difficulty.
   • He complained about the fact that Nintendo supposedly never said anything about the whole real SMB 2 thing in America even though it was all over Nintendo Power when Super Mario All Stars was released as a major selling point of that game, and it was even mentioned before that, in a feature on the history of the Super Mario Bros series Nintendo Power ran during the lead up to the launch of the SNES (and its launch pack-in title, Super Mario World).
8. UsefulNotes.Spain": Digital Fortress by Dan Brown presents a, well, Dan Browned version of Spain, and quite an insulting one at that. Namely, it presents Spain as being a Wretched Hive full of crimes and having an inadequate healthcare system. Spain has one of the best healthcare institutions in Europe (and indeed the world) and its living standards are very high too. Maybe he confused it with some Banana Republic in the Americas. Doesn't say anything about him claiming to be accurate
9. Devil's Advocate: The Dan Brown novel Angels & Demons depicts a "devil's advocate" whose job it was to provide negative information on each candidate for Pope. The devil's advocate procedure has never been used in the papal selection process. They're used for Saint candidates. Doesn't say anything about him claiming to be accurate
10. Awesome.The Nostalgia Critic: His ~4-minute speech against Michael Bay on the inaccuracies in Pearl Harbor is something to behold. Doesn't say anything about him claiming to be accurate
11. Sandbox.Martial Arts Staff: Contrary to general opinion or many movies, in the medieval age, a staff was not held in the middle but wielded in a similar way to a spear or two-handed sword.
12. When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Cori Falls believed that Ash was an incompetent trainer because his Pikachu only knew Thundershock, though this is not actually the case.
13. WebAnimation.Fera Animations: Despite the channel's animations being surprisingly faithful to the source media of any crossover characters that show up, they have made some slip-ups: This is just a list of minor nitpicks
    • Amelia and Gura have their vocals (sourced from the original duo rather than borrowing Skid and Pump's) switched with respect to their depictions in the "Manifest" animation; making this error particularly notable is that they are also on the video thumbnail in an otherwise-accurate portrayal.
    • Botan's segment that immediately follows is less prominent, but still manages to make her an Adaptational Wimp by ignoring her well-demonstrated lack of a fear response.
    • The "Animal" animation has Tord and Tom appear, with Edd and Matt in the background, and one of the scenes they're in is in a spaceship with Commander Bai...except for the fact that by the time the episode with Commander Bai was made (Space Face), Tord had already left the show and was no longer part of the main cast by that point.
14. Fanfic.Squidwards Suicide: The story claims that the season after the film took longer than usual to air, when in reality it was quicker to air than the previous season. Given that the main character and narrator is said to be a former intern at Nickelodeon Studios, they should have known this.
15. Manga.The Rose Of Versailles: In-universe, Cardinal Rohan displaying a letter from 'Marie-Antoinette du France' to the King. By convention, royalty only use first names in signatures and Rohan belonged to a family that should've known this. This one actually happened, too.
    • Real examples, however, exist. For example, Marie Antoinette is consistently referred to as Antoinette wherever she goes, even in her homeland of Austria. Problem is her Austrian name is Maria Antonia, and the Tricolore flag was first created in 1790 by fusing the flag of Paris (two vertical blue and red stripes) with the white from the Royal Standard, yet the anime has it flown backwards by the citizens of Paris even before the Storming of the Bastille (the manga does this right, and notes its creation in 1790).
16. TruthInTelevision.D To F: Happens far more in Real Life than in fiction. Fictional creators who make shit up almost never get called out on it. There are many hoaxes still alive today thanks to this.
17. Fridge.Hellsing: Walter states that there is only 1 SR-71 Blackbird in the world. In reality, there were 32 build (of which 20 survive, with 12 lost due to poor maintenance and pilot error). At first, this seems to be an instance of Dan Browned. However, fridge brilliance kicks in because there is only one British Sr-71 Blackbird- the one given to the Imperial War Museum◊.

1. Podcast.It Could Happen Here: For a thought experiment that cites a lot of sources, there are a number of rather glaring inaccuracies and omissions: This is all speculation about something that hasn't actually happened, so I don't think it's possible to definitively say it's projections are wrong or not
   • The final episode describes a balkanized and climate change-stricken future US where a Pacific Northwest rump state is managing to sustain itself fairly well, while the South and Midwest are experiencing mass crop failure and starvation. This… doesn’t make any sense. Drought patterns in the US overlaid with its most arable farmland reveal the exact opposite scenario would occur, with just about everywhere west of the Rockies already on the path to become a drought and wildfire-ravaged wasteland. The Midwest/Great Lakes region meanwhile is set to remain a critical North American breadbasket and would likely become the new center of civilization in a post-collapse USA.
     • Considering the narration states the South and Midwest are controlled by far-right rump states and religious fanatics and that the suffering of these regions' citizens can be seen as “karmic justice", this could just be a case of Author Tract crossed with Creator Provincialism (Evans is based in Portland, OR, although he is from Texas).
   • Apart from a brief mention of the US’s fragile infrastructure in the first episode and the (incorrect) postwar scenario listed above, the podcast largely ignores the downright catastrophic supply chain disruption, collapse and re-consolidation that would inevitably occur during a nationwide civil war – the key decider of the outcome and the number one concern for the average American caught in the crossfire. Rebel-held cities are said to be under siege from the US military and rural militias, for example, yet just where said rebels are getting their food/potable water/meds/electricity/fuel/etc. is left unexplained. Evans, a veteran war correspondent, should really understand the overwhelming importance of supply lines in a war scenario.
   • The podcast also makes zero mention of reactions or interventions/interference from foreign powers. It strains belief the US government or rebels wouldn’t call for help or if China, Russia and the rest of NATO would just idly stand by and watch as the world’s largest economy, most powerful and far-reaching military and holder of the global reserve currency tears itself apart. The only other country actively involved is Canada (they are said to supply weapons in one segment).
2. Literature.Left Behind: The authors go to great lengths to assert that these books are accurate predictions of things that will happen once the rapture hits according to a strict interpretation of The Bible. However, the series' interpretation of the Bible is only shared by a very small segment of Christian denominations. Don't think we can really say someone's interpretation of a religious document is more 'correct' than someone else's
3. Hate Dumb: People with a Willing Suspension of Disbelief thinner than a razor. One "inaccuracy" or dramatization for the sake of pacing or story will cause them to declare the show a pile of unwatchable dreck and "not properly researched", regardless of whether or not they did the research themselves and watched the damn media in question. The audience not doing research sounds like the reverse of Dan Browned

1. Series.America Unearthed: If Dan Brown wrote about it, odds are good that Scott Wolter believes it and investigates it.
2. Literature.Alex Cross: Cross's encounters with role-playing gamers and vampires/goths. Might be a case of Did Not Do the Research.
3. Art.The Mona Lisa: For instance, the book cover of The Da Vinci Code and the posters of its film version features the painting even if it doesn't have anything to do with her (the so-called "da vinci" code revolves around Conspiracy Theory surrounding Leonardo's notebooks, scientific research and Dan Brown's fantasies).
4. WebVideo.Ben Drowned: Should not be confused with Dan Browned
5. Artistic License – Traditional Christianity: The "Vatican Secret Archives" are real, but they in no way resemble how those like Dan Brown would depict them.
6. Creator.Bernard Werber: Bernard Werber has the habit of presenting some pieces of trivia as real facts, whereas they are merely suppositions or even things he imagined. Like what? We need some concrete examples.
7. Gush.Live Action TV: Deadliest Warrior. Say what you want about Dan Browned facts and such, but it managed to get people interested in history, from the well-known pirates and ninjas, to the lesser-known (outside their home countries) Maori and Rajput.
8. Warts and All: Numerous and highly inaccurate video games and poorly researched books have been made out of his career.
9. Creator.Oliver Stone: It could have been called "Oliver Stoned". This began even with his work as a screenwriter on Midnight Express (which he expressed regret) but ballooned with JFK which painted him and his films as sensationalized conspiracy theory films. One can argue that Alexander and W are far more accurate than JFK. What's inaccurate about them, and when did he claim they were true?
10. Literature.World War Z: The book is supposedly extensively researched regarding military equipment and doctrine, putting forward what it claims is an entirely realistic and probable scenario regarding the military's response to a zombie apocalypse. While the part with the zombies obviously has an excuse for being as unrealistic as it wants, since the exact nature and capabilities of zombiedom in his setting are entirely up to the author to decide, the parts that involve human beings and organizations and their capabilities and probable reactions are not a realistic or believable portrayal of a real-world 21st-century military in action. See the Hollywood Tactics example for more details. Says 'this is inaccurate' without actually explaining what or why; saying to look at another example on the page is not context
11. Film.The Fast And The Furious 2001: Granny shiftin', not double clutchin' like you should. What?

1. It.Elenco Provvisorio D
2. De.Nicht Nachgeforscht
3. Es.Paginas En Espanol
4. Archive.Made Of Win Late 2008: A double-award here - both Prfnoff & Kizor get kudos and a cookie for massively cleaning up Dan Browned. You just need to have a peek at the discussion page to see how much of it was simply Complaining About Shows You Dont Like. I fear the time has come once again when we will need their strength...
5. RenamedTropes.A To E
6. VideoSource.Central Park
7. Playing With Wiki