Aluminum Christmas Trees: Difference between revisions

* Stephen Fry's retelling of ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo (novel)|The Count of Monte Cristo]]'' is titled ''The Stars' Tennis Balls'' (or just ''Revenge'' in the U.S.), which sounds like an [[Intentionally Awkward Title]] and/or a pun on ''[[The Stars My Destination]]'', another Monte Cristo retelling. However, the seemingly ridiculous title references a quote from the Jacobean tragedy ''The Duchess of Malfi'': "We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and banded which way please them."

* Hold on: a black bosun onboard ''[[Aubrey-Maturin|HMS Sophie]]''? Multiracial crews with sizable Muslim, Jewish, and Lascar minorities? ''East Asian'' crew members, and all living in relative harmony? Surely [[Fan Nickname|P.O'B.]] is rewriting a bit of [[Politically-Correct History]]? As it turns out, nope. He wasn't. The Royal Navy's global reach and perpetual manpower shortage meant that it would recruit whatever seamen were available, wherever they were. It helps that the best captains and crews would largely ignore race - as long as you were a good seaman, you were in.

* ''[[The Eye of Argon]]'' features the now-infamous "scarlet emerald". There is in fact such a thing as a red emerald, though it's more commonly known as [[wikipedia:Scarlet emerald#Bixbite|red beryl]] or, archaically, bixbite..

* The titular house in ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'' was based on a real farmhouse on Prince Edward Island, which still exists today.

** In the pilot episode, Jack mentions the GE Trivection Oven, an oven that combines three types of heat with ludicrously over-the-top descriptions of it. Though meant more as [[Biting the Hand Humor]] than [[Product Placement]], NBC ran special commercials during the premiere to convince the world that yes, this was a real product.

** One episode featured a gold necklace with the acronym EGOT (referencing the quest for an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and said that it was originally made for Philip Michael Thomas. Younger audience members may not have realized that this wasn't just a random pop culture reference—the term "EGOT" was actually coined by Thomas, back in the '80s, when he frequently stated that his goal was to win all four awards. (To date, he has never scored so much as a nomination for any of them.)

* At least one fan of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' had this reaction to the mention of belladonna eye drops to 'make the eyes look more beautiful'. They were immediately corrected - belladonna dilates the pupils, so therefore did have this effect. Amongst others.

** Furthermore, dark-skinned [[Angel Coulby]] getting the role of Guinevere was derided by many as being anachronistic (despite the show being set in a fairy-tale kingdom). Even if the show wasn't an [[Anachronism Stew]] ''anyway'', the presence of non-white people in pre-Saxon England was certainly not an impossibility.

** A lot of people think Calorie Mates are a fictional product even though they are sold in Japan. In fact, the only fictional products are probably the cigarettes.

* In a similar vein as the above: at one point in ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'', nutbar conspiracy theorist Steven Heck asks the protagonist, à propos of nothing, if he knew the CIA once wired a live cat with radio equipment back in the 60s. Operation Acoustic Kitty [[wikipedia:Acoustic Kitty|really]] [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB54/st27.pdf happened].

* ''Namco Museum Volume 4'' for the original Playstation contained an arcade game called ''Genpei Toumaden'', which up until then had not been released in the U.S. Renamed ''The Genji and the Heike Clans'', the game features a "character" called "Taira no Kagekiyo". A number of American game players may or may not know that he isn't a character created by Namco for the game. Kagekiyo was a true historical person. A member of the "Taira" ("Heike") clan, he fought during Japan's "Genpei" Wars where he died in battle. In the game, he comes back to life and seeks revenge on the Genji clan.

* "Dr. Ryuta Kawashima" isn't a character Nintendo created for the ''[[Brain Age]]'' series, he's a [[Real Life]] Japanese scientist whose research inspired the creation of the games.

* The world of ''[[Fallout]]'' mirrors quite a number of ideas from the 50's and back, and believe it or not, the idea of [[wikipedia:Radithor|selling beverages containing a healthy dose of radioactive elements]] is not just the game's invention. In fact, it's [[Older Than Radio]]—the first such products appeared back in [[The Gay Nineties|1890's]]!

** The Fat Man? [[wikipedia:Davy Crockett (nuclear device)|It's a real thing.]]

*** They use those in ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' to take out {{spoiler|Hitler's guards}}.

* A surprisingly large number of people think the [https://web.archive.org/web/20081005050126/http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/m3irsnip.htm M3 Carbine] in ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'' is some crazy fictional gun. Nope, it just wasn't silenced.

** The episode "All Singing, All Dancing" opened with the family watching what seemed to be a Western, with The [[Man With No Name]] walking into a dusty town - and then breaking into song about 'painting his wagon' with [[Lee Marvin]], horrifying Bart and Homer who wanted them to kill each other. The portrayal is exaggerated in the episode, which also inserts Lee Van Cleef dressed as [[For a Few Dollars More|Colonel Mortimer]], but it surprised a lot of fans who later discovered the film ''[[Paint Your Wagon]]'', starring [[Clint Eastwood]] and Lee Marvin, actually exists. And it was ''after'' Clint gained his credibility in the [[Dollars Trilogy|Leone westerns]]. And, yes, they both sang. Well... okay... but they both ''tried'' to. The song and wagon-painting scene used on ''The Simpsons'' aren't part of the musical, though.

** In the 1996 episode "Two Bad Neighbors", Homer tries to trick [[George H. W. Bush]] into coming outside by claiming his sons, George Bush Jr. and Jeb, had arrived. According to the DVD commentary, the writers (and the 1996 audience) had no idea George Bush ''did'' have [[George W. Bush|a son who shared his name]], and thought this was just Homer being an idiot as usual. [[Hilarious in Hindsight|After 2000, Homer doesn't seem so stupid after all.]]

** In “Homie the Clown”, the cities Krusty mentions actually exists.

*** Walla Walla and Seattle are in Washington

** Ladies and gentlemen, Cracked's [http://www.cracked.com/article_16556_15-images-you-wont-believe-arent-photoshopped.html Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped], which is only the first of a multi-part series Cracked did.

* Noted on the [[Unfortunate Names]] page is the name Zoltan, which people tend to assume is a sort of "joke" or made-up name, given the B-movie ''Zoltan: Hound of Dracula'' or the nerd cult from ''[[Dude, Where's My Car?]]''. It's an actual Hungarian name and is, for instance, the middle name of Hungarian-American author [[Dragaera|Steven Brust]], Hungarian soccer player Zoltan Gera, fantasy artist Zoltan Boros, Five Finger Death Punch guitarist [[Awesome McCoolname|Zoltan Bathory]], and orchestral composer Zoltan Kodaly, among others.

** Along the same line, American President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] had a son named [[wikipedia:Kermit Roosevelt|Kermit]], who was an explorer on two continents. He in turn had a son, [[wikipedia:Kermit Roosevelt, Jr|also named Kermit]], who was a [[CIA]] agent who [[wikipedia:Operation Ajax|overthrew the democratically-elected government of Iran]], paving the way for the Shah's autocracy and (eventually) the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

* Many Westerners were introduced to eating fertilized duck eggs through reality shows; mainly as a challenge to the contestants. Many still find it hard to believe that it really is a very common and much-loved delicacy (called [[wikipedia:Balut (egg)|balut]]) in several Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. In fact, you can find the eggs sold by street vendors in those countries.

* Some of the award citations for the Medal of Honour recipients may qualify. This was [[Lampshaded]] by Ronald Reagan when he was presenting the award to [[wikipedia:Roy Benavidez|Roy Benavidez]].