Benjamin Franklin: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Remember that time is money."''}}

 

 

 

{{creatortropes}}

** Franklin's maternal grandfather, a court clerk, was once jailed for disobeying a local magistrate while defending middle class people against wealthy landowners. He would be a big inspiration to his grandson Benjamin.

* [[Bald of Awesome]]

* [[Big Fun]]: Ben's weight is part of what made him so endearing then and keeps him endearing now. One story goes that during a trip to Paris, a woman who knew him greeted him by pinching his belly and jokingly asking him what he would think if he saw all that weight on a woman. Ben replied, "madam, twenty minutes ago this weight ''was'' on a woman!"

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: Franklin was a [[Dirty Old Man]] and liked taking naps during meetings. During his time in France he attended numerous parties and often came in late to work, which earned him the resentment of his colleague [[John Adams]]. However, this allowed him to create the informal connections that helped secure French support for the [[American Revolution]].

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: Not Ben himself, but the practice that he brutally parodies in "The Art of Saying Little In Much," without saying much of anything himself. He does this by quoting "the Petition of Dermond O Folivey, an Attorney of the Kingdom of Ireland," the most [[Up to Eleven|unbelievably, ridiculously redundant]] thing ever written.

* [[Dirty Old Man]]

* [[Eccentric Mentor]]: He was the oldest of the Founding Fathers, and respected for both his brilliance and his witty humor.

* [[Eagle Land]]: Ben is the embodiment of the type 1 flavor, though funnily enough, if he'd had his way, we might have ended up calling the trope "Turkey Land." To elaborate, when it came time to choose a national emblem, Franklin argued that we should pick the turkey because of the fact that it's native to North America rather than the Old World. However, the other Founding Fathers prevailed and we ended up picking the more majestic eagle, but a type native to North America, the bald eagle (though it would be a while before artists would depict the bald eagle correctly).

* [[Gallows Humor]]: One of his most famous quotes, referring to the Revolution, was "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." A rather literal use of gallows humor indeed.

* [[God Mode Sue]]: Anything - and we mean [[Jack of All Trades|ANYTHING]] - that Franklin tried out, he ended up being a master of. Just ''look'' at the opening description of him! In his prime, he was a charismatic [[Genius Bruiser]] who spent his free time reading philosophy while weight-lifting, composing music, and inventing items still used 300 years later (see: the odometer and bifocals) - all with a lady on each arm, of course. In his twilight years, he was still doing all of the above, sans the weight-lifting, but with [[Beyond the Impossible|FOUR ladies on each arm instead]]. He probably would have been [[Batman|fighting crime as a masked vigilante, too]], [[Badass Boast|but it would've been too easy for him, and he would've gotten bored very quickly]].

* [[I Was Quite a Looker]]: While we're mostly familiar with Franklin the overweight [[Dirty Old Man]], he wasn't always that way. Printers regularly had to carry large, heavy trays of lead type, and Franklin in particular was very health-conscious in his youth (he was particularly partial to swimming), and as a result the young Franklin was quite fit and rather buff.

** To be fair, this was almost certainly averted in his youth, where he was just as much of a Casanova. He was apparently handsome and lifted weights to improve both his strength (which he needed as a printer's apprentice and then a printer--cases of lead type are ''heavy'') and appearance (makes sense, given his whole self-improvement schtick). Presumably, he gained enough experience with the ladies that he no longer needed to rely on his looks.

* [[Likes Older Women]]: Preferred older women for their intelligence, often independent means, and '''*ahem* ''' "experience".

* [[Memetic Sex God]]: Any discussion of Franklin which is any way humorous will mention how much he liked the ladies. And how much they liked him.

* [[Older Than They Think]]: He was advocating an American confederation decades before the American Revolution, and also coined the snake as the symbol of the colonies (as later used in 'Don't Tread on Me') with his "Unite or Die!" political cartoon in the Seven Years' War.

* [[The Smart Guy]]: Respected even among the American Founders, dyed-in-the-wool intellectual elites almost to a man, for the breadth of his knowledge.

* [[The Spymaster]]: While in Paris, he was this. Like every diplomat at the time.

* [[What Might Have Been]]: [[George Washington]] tried to nominate him for first president, but basically every single other Founding Father unanimously agreed Washington should take the job.

* [[White Anglo Saxon Protestant]]

 

{{featuredin}}

* According to the [[All There in the Manual|official backstory]] of ''[[Code Geass]]'', one major divergence point between its history and ours is that [[What the Hell, Hero?|Franklin betrayed Washington]] in return for a title of [[The Empire|Britannian]] nobility and land, meaning that the United States of America never came into being. The show's [[Immortality|immortal]] female lead C.C. speaks of Ben and his peaceful nature wistfully, implying that she knew him personally.

** ...Just how "personally" are we talking?

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The indie comic ''[[Welcome To Heaven Dr Franklin]]'' is a fantasy about Franklin's adventures in the afterlife.

* Although it [[Stealth Pun|isn't really mentioned,]] this is undoubtedly the source of [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Franklin Benjamin Richards's]] full name. Yes, his middle name does double duty as an homage to his [[Honorary Uncle|uncle the Thing;]] but is it any surprise a scientist like Reed would name his kid after Ben Franklin?

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Pretty much anything set during [[The American Revolution]] has to have him pop up.

* In the film ''[[How High]]'', Method Man and Redman end up discovering that {{spoiler|Franklin invented the bong. Although not historically accurate, it would explain his easygoing nature. Franklin actually owned a hemp mill, and several of the Founding Fathers grew hemp, though it was the sort used for fiber which doesn't contain much THC.}}

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In the first chapter of ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'', Enoch Root visits early 1700s Boston and encounters a child prodigy named Ben (surname not given, but clearly intended to be Franklin.)

* ''[[America (The Book)]]'': The foreword, supposedly written by the ghost of [[Thomas Jefferson]], claims that if crack cocaine had existed when Franklin was alive then "that boozed-up snuff machine would weigh 80 pounds and live outside the Port Authority."

 

* The key kite myth became one of the [[Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]. Tory also mistakenly thought Franklin was a President.

* The supplemental materials for ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' have Franklin as an [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|empowered human]] (he could absorb electricity).

* Appears in the HBO miniseries ''[[John Adams]]'', where he is generally played as Adams' foil: witty, popular and sly, in comparison to Adams' earnest and blunt firebrand.

* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. [[George Washington]] and Ben were friends with Barnabus Stinson (Barney's ancestor) who wrote "[[The Bro Code]]". George and Ben also once did a "Devil's Threesome".

 

== [[Music]] ==

* When [[Puff Daddy]] sings "It's All About the Benjamins, Baby", yes, it's this Benjamin. Franklin is the face on the American hundred dollar bill.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Ben Franklin's clone is [[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja|Dr. McNinja's]] mentor.

* Thanks to [[Time Travel]], he's a modern-day superhero in ''[[Spinnerette]]''. He's pretty much invincible due the universe itself making sure he survives to return to the past eventually and make history what it is.

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Also, as shown in a later episode, he somehow has the ability to control storms.

* ''[[Liberty's Kids]]'', which features Walter Cronkite as Benjamin Franklin, is about Franklin's newspaper and its staff of teenage reporters and apprentice printers.

* In the ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' episode "Lightning Strikes", the boys are inspired by a [[PBS]] special on Franklin to imitate the "key kite" myth. [[Hilarity Ensues]]--and so does [[Amusing Injuries|hospitalization]].

* An episode of ''[[Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?]]'' ends with a [[Cliff Hanger]] when Carmen travels back in time to 1752 and steals Ben Frankin's key, foiling his kite experiment and preventing the development of electronics and trapping Zack and Ivy in time.

* Even ''[[South Park]]'' treated Benjamin Franklin with respect. He appeared to save the day in "I'm A Little Bit Country".

* An episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]''. Homer thought Franklin was president.

'''Benjamin Franklin:''' You'll be soor-ry! }}

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Useful Notes/The United States]]

[[Category:Politicians]]

[[Category:Authors of Quote]]

[[Category:Authors]]