Famous, Famous, Fictional: Difference between revisions
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When several examples of something are being listed in [[Speculative Fiction]], a couple of them will be from our time (or timeline if it's [[Alternate History]]), and the final one will be one from the future (or post-divergence [[Alternate History]]).
The most common variant is to list famous scientists, [[Isaac Newton|Newton]], [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]], Kepler, [[Dichter and Denker|Heisenberg]], [[Leonardo da Vinci|
Usually the trope serves only to remind us that it is, in fact, the future and people haven't stopped thinking and discovering things in between our time and story's setting. It would be odd if there hasn't been any new discoveries or geniuses worth mentioning, especially if the story involves something like [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]. When someone or something we already know is used as such, then author is just making a point: say, if [[Stephen Hawking|Hawking]] is mentioned, that means people of the future in that verse think he is a genius equal to Newton and Einstein, meaning that readers also should.
'''Extremely''' prone to [[Rule of Three]]
A variation occurs when it's alternate reality: say, when someone mentions [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]], [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Bonaparte]] and [[Josef Stalin|Stalin]] as world dominators who failed, it means that in this reality the changing event is somewhere between mid XVII and early XX, which made Stalin and not [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] start [[WWII]].
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A subtrope of [[Cryptic Background Reference]].
{{examples}}
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* You find these scattered liberally throughout ''[[Undocumented Features]]'', with the twist that because it is perhaps the largest [[Mega Crossover]] in existence, the third reference is almost always to one of the contributing works and likely to be recognized by most readers anyway.
* ''[[Drunkard's Walk]]'' has in a couple places mentioned "geniuses like Newton, Einstein and Tsung"; the author's concordance notes explain that Tsung was a figure specific to Douglas Sangnoir's home timeline.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Bill and Teds Bogus Journey|Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey]]'' opens with Rufus bringing important historical figures to the future as guest lecturers for his class, including historical figures from [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]].
* Lampshaded in ''[[The Last Starfighter]]'', when Centauri brings up three people, but Alex doesn't recognize the last one.
{{quote|'''Centauri:''' Alex! Alex! You're walking away from history! History, Alex! Did Chris Columbus stay home? Nooooo. What if the Wright Brothers thought that only birds should fly? And did Galoka think that the Ulus were too ugly to save?
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** Although, to be honest, the Show Low incident was discussed in detail in book one.
* There's a bit in a ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' novel, where Lister realised he's returned to Earth when he sees Mount Rushmore. The faces are Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and [[Rushmore Refacement|"possibly America's greatest President, Elaine Salinger"]].
* Inverted in [[Gulliver's Travels|Lemuel Gulliver's]] third voyage "to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan".
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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== [[New Media]] ==
* * This is #5 of ''[[Cracked.com|Cracked]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article_17392_6-sci-fi-movie-conventions-that-need-to-die.html 6 Sci-Fi Movie Conventions (That Need to Die)], the example being "Newton, Einstein, [[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Sulak]]".
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Starslip]]'' has this with art pieces [https://web.archive.org/web/20190901133640/http://starslip.chainsawsuit.com/starslip/starslip-number-374/ here]: ''[[The Scream]]'', ''Nightmare'', and ''Vanderbeam Getting Eaten By A Ghost''.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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