Artistic License History: Difference between revisions

*** For that matter, even the death of a thousand cuts (ling che in Chinese) wasn't really the death of a thousand cuts. The victim was usually drugged, and often killed right before the mutilation. Like burning at the stake, the punishment was more about setting a strict lesson in morality for the audience than it was about prolonging agony for the condemned.

* From [http://www.blah3.com/article.php?story=20070124150106226 this] [[Frank Miller]] interview:

'''Miller''': Yeah, what I mean is, [[Critical Research Failure|so did Iraq]]. }}

** Especially amusing, given that a "fight against global fascism" is not really the reason - in fact, had Germany not declared war on the USA, it is highly possible that the USA would not have intervened in Europe at all.

* Numerous movies have inaccurately portrayed [[Remember the Alamo!|The Alamo]] with the curved roof at the time of the eponymous battle--in truth, the roof had crumbled due to neglect, and it was ''1912'' before the familiar facade was restored.

* ''[[Animal House]]'' has an in-universe example:

** Bluto was probably drunk. And was holding a GPA of 0.0. He's also privately called out on this (see page quote). It may have been a plea from the writers, 'The character is a moron. Don't judge us by him.'

* The first ''[[X-Files]]'' movie starts off 35,000 years ago in North Texas, and depicts a pair of Neanderthals running through the snow. 1) Neanderthals never lived in North America. 2) There's no evidence that humans had even reached that part of America by 33,000 BC. This is technically Prehistory, but let's not split hairs.

** An episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' featured a [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi]] like planet. The man who created the society was a historian who thought the Nazis were the embodiment of efficiency. [[Fascist but Inefficient|Any actual historian would tell you that this wasn't the case.]] Of course, [[History Marches On|the episode was written in the 1960s,]] before many historians and most of the general public fully appreciated just how [[Fascist but Inefficient]] [[Nazi Germany]] was.

* This hilarious exchange from ''[[Myth Busters]]'' during the Benjamin Franklin myths episode:

'''Grant''': "Ben Franklin was never president..." }}

* In the Victorian-era set ''[[Doctor Who]]'' stories "Ghost Light" (from 1989) and "Tooth and Claw" (from 2006) different villains plot to overthrow Queen Victoria and seize the throne for themselves thereby, it's explained, becoming rulers of the most powerful country in the world. The only problem with this plan is that Victoria was a powerless symbolic figurehead and the villains' plots make about as much sense as a modern day villain planning to control Britain by replacing Elizabeth II (which, incidentally, ''is'' used as the basis for the villain's plot in ''[[Johnny English]]''.) The British monarch has not attempted to veto a Bill of Parliament since Queen Anne and has not appointed a government that did not have the confidence of Parliament since King William IV.

** The serial "Four to Doomsday" has the Maya civilization being twice as old, or more, as it actually was.

** "City of Death" has a doozy -- even when the episode aired, people were pointing out that life began on Earth about 3-4 ''billion'' (thousand million) years ago, not 400 ''million''. Given a lovely [[Hand Wave]] from producer Graham Williams:

*** Another thing -- the atmosphere of primordial Earth would have been unbreathable and poisonous. You know what, though? [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality|Don't]] [[MST3K Mantra|worry]] [[Rule of Fun|about it]].

** The new series episode "The Shakespeare Code" repeatedly shows plays being performed in the Globe Theatre at night. Plays in Elizabethan England were performed during the day, since several hundred years prior to the invention of electric lighting, they would have had no way to light the stage properly when it was dark. Oh well, [[Rule of Scary]], right?

** And there's the infamous "Battle of Waterloo with snow" episode, "Band of Brothers" (not to be confused with the TV miniseries by that name)...the producers just couldn't wait for a snowless day to film, they had to work with what they had.

* In ''[[Glee]]'' [[Refuge in Audacity|Sue Sylvester]] delivers [[Rule of Funny|this incredibly historically inaccurate tirade]].

** [[Sarcasm Mode|What? She was lying?!]]

** And in season 2, she says that Will and the new football coach will be "sorrier than the Mexican Indian that sold Manhattan to George Washington for an upskirt photo of Betsy Ross!"

** In the very next episode, "Da Vinci's Notebook," [[Gadgeteer Genius|Siroc]] states, "As everybody knows, da Vinci died in Paris." Actually, he died in Amboise, over 100 miles away.

* [[Played for Laughs]] a few times in [[The Office]], such as in the early episode regarding sensitivity training.

** Later in an episode where Michael sends Jim on a scavenger hunt, one of the clues states "You will find me in the parking lot under the first president." Jim, seeing through the mistake, checked under a Lincoln.

* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'': Robin describes the division-winning 2004 Vancouver Canucks as "a scrappy, little underdog team that prevailed despite very shaky goaltending and, frankly, the declining skills of Trevor Linden." All of these features are incorrect. Far from scrappy underdogs, the Canucks were favorites to win the division from the get-go; goaltender Dan Cloutier had his best season as a professional and was near the top of the league in every statistical category; and Trevor Linden's skills had not been relied upon as a core feature of the team for the better part of a decade.

== Web Original ==

* ''Associated Space'' has the following exchange in the spirit of ''[[Animal House]]'':

'''Fatebane''': It's the principle that matters! If she could do it, so can we! }}

* [http://xkcd.com/771/ This] ''[[Xkcd]]''

* In "[[Invention Pioneers of Note]]", the episode on Alexander Graham Bell asserts, among other things, that he fought in World War 2. While the error is definitely intentional, it's not as clear if this is supposed to be a [[Critical Research Failure]], or [[Blatant Lies]], or something else.

* Parodied in [[Jon Lajoie]]'s "WTF Collective 2" song with MC Historical Inaccuracy:

Like he did in 1950 with the Chinese army }}

* [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_akLHpeO7qyA/TAIR9GmXr5I/AAAAAAAABKg/vnv9Wli_x54/s1600/49899909839308766025308.jpg This] [[Demotivational Poster]]. It plays [[Medieval Morons]] and [[The Dung Ages]] perfectly straight and exaggerates them [[Up to Eleven]]. ''No'', Ancient Greece and Rome did not have science as we know it (though they did come up with some of the important precursors.) In any case, they were definitely not as advanced as the eighteenth century. No, the [[Middle Ages]] were not completely stagnant. And ''no'', the rise of Christianity most ''definitely'' did not [[Critical Research Failure|set all of civilization--]] [[Unfortunate Implications|even the ones which had never heard of Christianity or the West at that point in time--]] [[Critical Research Failure|back to conditions circa 1000 BCE.]]

**** Still, you'd think [[Evil Genius|Stewie]] and [[The Smart Guy|Brian]] might have known about that. Especially Stewie who has an [[Improbably High IQ]] (probably).

* [[The Simpsons|Grandpa Simpson]] very often mixes historical events and/or relates them in a totally surrealistic and nonsensical way, [[The Gump|and often claiming to have taken an active part in them]]. This might be a result of ignorance, severe senility, or both. Nobody around ever corrects him, however. In fact Bart did once praise his knowledge on early aviation (without realizing it was all bollocks):

'''Grandpa:''' I pieced it together, mostly from sugar packets. }}

** Not to mention this:

'''Apu:''' I don't know what part of that sentence to correct first. }}

* In ''[[Danny Phantom]]''

* The ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short ''Yankee Doodle Bugs'' has [[Bugs Bunny]] helping his nephew Clyde study for a test by giving him a crash course in early American history. The accuracy of Bugs' 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 [[Dunce Cap]], and placing it on his head. ("Does ''this'' answer your question?")

* Hilariously parodied in an episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''. Mojo Jojo, drafted into babysitting the girls, tells them a horribly inaccurate version of Napoleon's life. Before he can finish, the girls shut him down by pointing out the flaws in his story in between hitting him with pillows.

** 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.

* In an episode of ''[[Camp Lazlo]]'', a very excited Lazlo makes an incredibly inspired speech to encourage the other campers.

** The others do appear confused by this, but the speech does its job anyway.

* ''[[Animaniacs]]'', with an example ''not'' covered by the [[Rule of Funny]]: in the Presidents Song, the Warner siblings inform us that Woodrow Wilson brought America into World War 1 in 1913. Not only is this four years before America joined in, it's one year ''before the war actually started''.