Benjamin Franklin: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

[[File:ben_franklin.jpg|frame]]

Line 31:

* [[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.

* [[Kavorka Man]]: Despite being elderly, balding, wearing glasses, and having neither money nor aristocratic title, he apparently cut quite a wide swath through the ladies of Paris when sent there as American Ambassador (and did pretty well on his home turf too).

Line 84:

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

* ''[[The Office]]'': When Michael orders Jim to hire a male stripper for a bachelorette party, Jim calls the Scholastic Speakers of Pennsylvania and hires a Franklin impersonator. Dwight is 99% sure he's not the real one.

* 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".

* An entire two-part episode of ''Bewitched'' was dedicated to praising Ben Franklin, after Aunt Clara accidentally brought him to the present.

Line 105:

* [http://www.xkcd.com/567/ This] ''[[Xkcd]]'' strip.

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

* [http://picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=183 This] ''[[Pictures for Sad Children]]'', though his common-law wife, Deborah Read Franklin, died of a stroke while he was in ''England''.

* His ghost is a major character in ''[[A Girl and Her Fed]]''. ([[Planet Eris|He's close friends with an attention-deficit woman who sets people on fire, a cyborg fed, and a genetically-engineered koala supergenius]].)

* The Transylvito Moneymancer in ''[[Erfworld]]'' is named Benjamin, and he is essentially Ben Franklin. This incarnation also sports the addition of a gold chain with "100" as the symbol.

Line 116:

** 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.

* The futuristic adventure series ''[[Spiral Zone]]'' features a [[Nerd Action Hero]] named Benjamin Franklin Davis.

* 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.

* He appeared in [[Nickelodeon]]'s classic toon ''[[Ka Blam!]]''. He replaced Wesley Snipes in the ''[[Money Train]]'' sequel.

* 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 is featured in several other fantasy sequences. In one he invents the sled and in another he plays Air Hockey with [[Jimi Hendrix]].

* In a ''[[Family Guy]]'' cutaway about the Declaration of Independence:

{{quote|'''Speaker:''' We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal...

Line 142:

[[Category:Useful Notes]]

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

[[Category:Politicians]]