Historical In-Joke: Difference between revisions

[[Donald P. Bellisario|Don Bellisario]], the producer/creator of ''[[Quantum Leap]]'', called these "[[kisses with history]]".

Given the [[Did Not Do the Research|painful lack of research]] that most writers perform before writing, it should come as no surprise that many [['''Historical In-Joke|Historical In Jokes]]''' are [[Anachronism Stew|painfully inaccurate anachronisms.]] Or they may be [[Aluminum Christmas Trees|taken for being fiction]] by the audience.

Compare [[It Will Never Catch On]]. A character who does a lot of these becomes [[The Gump]]. If the protagonists blunder into a famous event instead of interfering deliberately, this can also be evidence that [[In the Past Everyone Will Be Famous]]. Naturally, this is a form of [[In -Joke]].

* [[ET Gave Us Wi -Fi]]

* [[Roswell That Ends Well]]

* In ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', the murder of Japanese minister of the interior Okubo Toshimichi in 1878 is [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned to have been executed by fictional character Seta Sojiro, rather than a group of sympathizers of Takamori Saigo. They just show up and take credit for it.

* All of ''[[Le Chevalier d'Eon]]'' is an elaborately staged [[Historical In-Joke]] told in the context of an 18th Century spy adventure. It covers the rise of Catherine the Great and Robespierre, among others....

* An [https://web.archive.org/web/20100620113542/http://www.onemanga.com/Zettai_Karen_Children/119/01/ omake] in ''[[Zettai Karen Children]]'' reveals that it was BABEL's [[Tsundere]] director who proposed a day where "girls give presents".

* [[Don Rosa]]'s ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck]]'' features quite a few historical in-jokes. Apparently, during his rise to fame and fortune, Scrooge has met such personalities as Wyatt Earp, [[Theodore Roosevelt]], and [[The Barnum|P.T. Barnum]]. (And, as Rosa explains in the collected edition, all of the scenarios are somewhat plausible, as the people in question were, more or less, where Rosa has them. He [[Shown Their Work|prides himself on his research.]])

** All except Geronimo, that is. Rosa just [[Handwaved]] that it would be just like Geronimo to sneak out of a reservation for awhile without anyone noticing.

* This trope is also featured in the ''[[Predator]]'' comics, after it was already implied in the movies that these [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]]s had been visiting Earth for a veeeery long time.

* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' has quite a few of these, although most connect events in several other works of fiction -- severalfiction—several of those are analogues for real-world events, like [[WW 2]] and Jack the Ripper murders. One of the funniest examples might be Orlando having posed for Leonardo [[Da Vinci]] -- while—while [[Gender Bender|changing hir sex]].

* ''[[The Ultimates]]'' had a whole storyline about a race of aliens called the Chitauri who, as Nick Fury revealed, were the real Nazis trying to take over the world to subvert the people of Earth to their will if not for the actions of [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]]. They end up coming back to try again in the present day by infiltrating SHIELD, led by the very same Herr Kleiser who tormented the Allies in the past, which eventually leads to the resurrected Cap yelling the now famous ([[Your Mileage May Vary|or]] [[Narm|infamous]]) quote, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"Surrender?! You think this "A" on my head stands for FRANCE?"]]

* [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] has revealed, among other things, that the San Francisco earthquake was caused by a time traveling X-Club; Hitler's rise to power was backed by a cabal of sorcerers in an attempt to summon Dormammu, who had previously caused the Great Fire of London in battle with the Ancient One; the Hindenburg crashed in an attempt to prevent the unleashing of demonic entities onto Earth; Hitler was killed by the Human Torch when he tried to blow up Berlin; and Deep Throat was really the alien who crashed at Roswell.

* A [[Dark Horse]] comic involved the Hindenburg, [[Doc Savage]], and Prof. Reinstein (the inventor) of [[Captain America]] (comics)|Captain America's]] super-soldier formula).

* [[Alan Moore]]'s [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/comics/2000adstrips/drandquinch/drandquinch01.shtml first] ''[[DR and Quinch]]'' comic strip for ''[[2000 AD|Two Thousand AD]]'' is almost entirely based on this trope.

* ''[[Angel]]'', the Buffy ally. A black and white tie-in comic had the [[WW 1]] era Angel deciding that vampire reports from Europe needed looking into. He stabbed a lot of vampires, saving some Germans from being eaten/turned. One of them, of course, had his entire worldview altered. Corporal Hitler went back to the front lines a changed man. Oops.

* [[Lucky Luke]] has been involved in pretty much every major event in the history of the West-.

* ''[[Back to The Future]]'' and ''Back to the Future III'' show the "real" origin of rock-and-roll music, skateboarding, and Frisbee discs.

* ''[[Watchmen]]'' involves the introduction of masked avengers into a "normal" earth, and quite a lot of these result -- amongstresult—amongst them, JFK's assassination is heavily implied (and plainly shown in the movie) to be performed by The Comedian. Nite Owl punches out a mugger in front of a young [[Batman|Bruce Wayne]] and his parents. Silhouette and her lesbian lover enact the VJ Day Parade embrace photo. Nite Owl II meets [[Andy Warhol]] who has made a painting of him. Ozymandias is greeted by [[Rolling Stones|Mick Jagger]] and [[David Bowie]] outside Studio54. More obscurely, the movie also shows Neil Armstrong saying, [http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mrgorsky.asp "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky!"].

* ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]''

** MIB also shows that many of the famous celebrities and historical figures are/were aliens. Late in the movie, Agent K outright states that [[Elvis Presley]]'s mysterious death was really him just returning to his own world. There's also a screen showing numerous celebrities that are really aliens, like [[Sylvester Stallone]], [[Danny De VitoDeVito]], [[Michael Jackson]], [[Oprah Winfrey|Oprah]] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJOVUF-HaDw Dennis Rodman, although that wasn't much of a disguise]. Two are self-deprecation: producer [[Steven Spielberg]] and director Barry Sonnenfeld).

* ''[[Shakespeare in Love]]'' is another movie that lives and breathes this trope. It's subverted when [[Christopher Marlowe]] is killed in suspicious circumstances as he was real life, and the implication is that he was murdered because Shakespeare used his name as a pseudonym to Wessex. Then Shakespeare learns in relief that Marlowe's death was a coincidence, and had nothing to do with the plot.

* Many in ''[[Jonathan Strange and& Mr. Norrell]]''. Just a few:

** Strange's use of black magic during the [[Napoleonic Wars]] is suggested to have inspired the artist [[Francisco Goya|Goya]]'s production of hellish paintings of war and witchcraft.

* The novel series about ''[[Erast Fandorin]]'' ''revels'' in [[Historical In-Joke|Historical In Jokes]]. [[Ancient Conspiracy|What caused the rapid scientific advancement of late 19th century?]] [[Spy Drama|Why did the Siege of Pleven take place?]] [[Career Killers|Who murdered General Skobelev?]] Who was [[Jack the Ripper]] ''really''? [[Diabolical Mastermind|Who was behind the Khodynka Tragedy?..]]

* Jonathan Stroud's ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'' is filled with this, mostly in footnotes, where the titular demon often refers to his previous masters, most of them being real famous (along with a few more obscure) historical figures.

* YA novel ''Kruistocht In Spijkerbroek'' (''Crusade In Jeans'') by Thea Beckman has a number of these. Most notably, the time-travelling hero meets a medieval guy named Leonardo da Pisa, who becomes his best friend during the story. He teaches Leonardo modern math. The guy turns out to be Fibonacci.

* Several times in ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. Most notably, the White Court of vampires had ''[[Dracula (novel)|Dracula]]'' written as an all-purpose how-to guide for killing the rival Black Court, a godlike necromancer named Kemmler was responsible for [[World War I]], and Ebenezar McCoy caused Krakatoa and [[The Tunguska Event]]. There's plenty of others, though-- forthough—for instance, Bob's offhand mention of the last time a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|loup-garou]] got loose.

* In the episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' actually did this to a bit of ''Star Trek'''s own history -- inhistory—in something much more than a simple [[Continuity Nod]], the episode revealed that there was much more going on in the background of the [[Star Trek: The Original Series|original series]] episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" than was initially seen by viewers in the 1960s.

* [[Monty Python's Flying Circus]] got some nice examples. Like in e.g. 'The Funniest Joke In The World': "It was a fantastic success, over 60.000 times as powerful as Britain's great pre-war joke ''(cue PM [[Neville Chamberlain]] waving around a ''certain'' piece of paper in public ''<ref> The Munich Agreement.</ref>'' in public)''!".

* Same with the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode "Flashback", where Tuvok [[Flash Back|flashes back]] to his service aboard the ''Excelsior''... during the time of ''[[Star Trek]] VI''. He's even the one who gave Sulu the tea that we see knocked over at the beginning of the movie. Interestingly, since the original Trek actors had aged a good bit, many scenes that happened exactly as seen in ''Star Trek VI'' had to be redone (or else, Sulu ages ten years once original footage kicks in.) Watch 'em back to back and you'll notice the tiniest differences, like the way Valtane's hand moves when he puts it on the railing, or Sulu saying "Shields! Shields!" a bit more loudly, or a few camera angles being different. Also, the ''Excelsior''{{'}}s warp engines only glow in original (i.e., "shot for the show") footage, as a new model's being used --— although the nacelles of the movie model were wired to glow, they didn't.

** An incident occurred during the filming of this episode that is either the greatest [[Historical In-Joke]], or the luckiest accident, of ''Star Trek'' history. During the flashback sequences, we see Dimitri Valtane die, despite his chronologically later appearance at the end of ''Star Trek VI''. [[Word of God]] jokingly suggested he had a twin brother serving on the same ship, but the general fanon response was that he had been successfully resuscitated off screen. The former is now accepted as correct, however, because in the opening scenes of ''Star Trek VI'', because of a poor editing job, Valtane is seen to be manning two separate consoles on opposite sides of the bridge. Only one of him appears at the end, so the twin theory is actually the best solution.

* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' did this with the episode "[[Little Green Men]]", where the [[Roswell That Ends Well|Roswell aliens]] turn out to be Ferengi.

* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' pulled a cute one in the episode ''"Carbon Creek''". ''Star Trek'' canon states that humanity met the Vulcans in the late 21st century after Cochrane's warp flight. Apparently, a little-known fact is that a Vulcan survey ship crashed in Pennsylvania in the '50s. A Vulcan woman raises money for a boy to go to college by introducing the bank owner to a strangely adhesive fabric, [[ET Gave Us Wi -Fi|better known as Velcro]], invented in the real world by "George" de Mestral. One of the Vulcans in the episode is named Mestral.

* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' did a double in-joke by having an alternate dimension President [[John F. Kennedy]] assassinate ''[[It Makes Sense in Context|himself]]'' -- from—from behind the grassy knoll.

** ''Timeslides'' has a few for [[World War 2II]]. Using the titular 'timeslides', Lister travels back to a Hitler-led rally and attempts to persuade the crowd not to believe him because he's 'a complete nutter - and he's only got one testicle.' Lister returns from the past with a suitcase from Claus von Stauffenberg, which triggers a predictable panic if you know who he was.

* Hilda's and Zelda's exploits in ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' are liberally sprinkled with [[Historical In-Joke|historical in-jokes.]] "And that was how Aunt Hilda started something called the American Revolution."

** Similar to the way the Doctor name drops the famous historical figures he's met, Jack Harkness has a tendency to drop the names of famous historical figures he's ''dated'' in ''[[Torchwood]]''.

** And in the 2008 series it is also revealed that {{spoiler|the Doctor and his companion were responsible for the eruption of Vesuvius. Earlier in the same episode, we get both a [[Historical In-Joke]] and a [[Continuity Nod]], as the Tenth Doctor very quickly tells Donna that "Before you ask, that fire had nothing to do with me. Well, a little bit..." referring to the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, which in a VERRRRRRRRRY early episode was shown to have been inadvertently inspired by the First Doctor accidentally setting a map on fire with the light through his spectacles...}}

** In series five, The Doctor and Amy go to visit Van Gogh; Amy greets the artists with lots and ''lots'' of sunflowers. Very subtle. (The Doctor also reveals in the same episode that apparently Michelangelo had a fear of heights.)

** One good example is the second episode, where the attack on Marc Antony by Pompey's men when he's heading for the senate is actually an attack on Pullo by a random thug Pullo gambled and argued with (and killed his friend). This attack on Antony is believed to be Pompeius's thugs trying to prevent Antony from wielding his lawful power of veto, and becoming the key incident that led to Caesar crossing the Rubicon. The episode is even titled "How Titus Pullo Brought Down The Republic".

** A different episode had [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] visiting the police station, where he finds Inspector Brackenreid is a great fan of his work. All through the episode, Brackenreid keeps telling him about an idea for a new [[Sherlock Holmes]] book he had, and had thought of calling it "[[The Hound Of The Baskervilles]]". Doyle walks away at the end of the episode repeating the title to himself.

* The [[Roaring Twenties]] set ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'' has a few. The pilot features Arnold Rothstein cheating at poker, when eight years later he would be killed thanks to welchingwelshing on a lost poker hand.

** "That [[Bob Dylan]] will be famous, mark my words."

* The [[Old World of Darkness]] had a number of these; for example, the Malkavian clan claim to have done [[Jesus|a bit of grave-robbery in Judea in the first century AD]]. If you're wondering, think [[The Joker]] as a vampire, and then make them thousands strong (though, as might be imagined, rarely united). Another, borderline example is ''Dark Ages: Werewolf'', which linked the fairy tale of Red Riding Hood to a young werewolf's First Change --— Red ''is'' the werewolf, and in the throes of her First Change, kills her grandmother and is found (and implied to be killed, or at least grievously wounded) by a lumberjack who finds her grieving.

*** Then again, none of the supernatural factions had a great deal of interest in the Third Reich. Even the most callous vampires aren't messed up enough to waste that much food (and even the freaks following the Path of Night want mortals to fear them, not some twat with a silly mustachemoustache), for the Werewolves it's just another sign that the Wyrm is winning, the fairies are the ray of hope that wants nothing to do with this mess, the war seriously fucks with the Shadowlands and leaves the Wraiths in a sad state, and the last thing the Technocracy wants is to display the wonders of technology as soulless forces of destruction. The Traditions are the only ones who might benefit, and they're on the run. Well, and maybe the Antediluvians, but their machinations are so subtle and far reaching that the war is a footnote to them at best. The real question becomes why none of these groups stopped Hitler before things got out of hand.

* In one of the [[Sourcebook|Sourcebooks]]s for ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'', it states that the [[wikipedia:Halifax explosion|Halifax explosion]] was actually caused by a battle between Pentacle mages and [[Church Militant]] members of the [[Ancient Conspiracy|Seers of the Throne]]. Mages are said to refer to the explosion as the "Battle of the Maritime".

** And the disclaimer at the beginning of the game actually states that it was "Inspired by historical events," which pretty much means that it was made for this express purpose.

* ''[[Command and& Conquer: Red Alert|Red Alert 2]]'' plays the Cuban missile crisis too, in an alternate history: to achieve the best results, the Chronosphere had to be built in a specific place in the Earth's magnetosphere or the Allies can't use it to [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|invade Moscow from across the globe]]. Problem is, said place is in the Florida Keys, well inside the range of the Soviet nukes in Cuba. Since the US and the USSR are already at war and Romanov won't negotiate as Khrushchev did in real life, [[Crazy Awesome|the Allies say "screw negotiations" and instead chronoshift some troops into Cuba to blow the missiles sky-high before they could be launched]]. Cue [[Villainous Breakdown]] from [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Romanov]].

** So, not terribly canon- Quincey Morris dies without children in ''Dracula''.

* ''[[Questionable Content]]'' suggests that [[World War OneI]] was started due to a badly worded sexual innuendo about someone wanting to "invade her Alsace", and things spiralingspiralling out of control from there. Whether they were joking or not seems to be unknown.

* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' provides a [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2368.html different explanation] for the start of [[World War OneI]].

{{color|gray| CCG: [[Historical In-Joke|MAYBE ITS ASSOCIATION WITH YOU WILL COLLOQUIALLY CAUSE IT TO TAKE ON A NEGATIVE CONNOTATION]], WHAT DO YOU THINK?}} }}

* The Unified Field Crossover History of the Universe (http://crossover.bureau42.com/timeshredder1.html) is a website pratically dedicated to this trope.

* Pretty much the entire premise of "Peabody's Improbable History" segment on "''The Adventures of [[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]."''

* A blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to an alternate past comes near the end of the ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'' special "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker". Right after '70s-Jorgen shows up to erase everyone's memories of the fairies being revealed, present-Jorgen shows up to take Timmy back to his own era and says that Timmy is forbidden from returning to March of 1972, but can still travel to any of the other months "so long as you don't interfere with the election of President McGovern". This implies that either ''[[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]'' takes place in an alternate continuity where [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] was never re-elected, Timmy didn't listen and is somehow responsible for Nixon's re-election, or Timmy's interference already made McGovern the president without Jorgen realizing it.

** There was the one where Timmy released the kids from the Cosmo & Wanda's "Wall of Shame". One of them "took out" Archduke Franz Ferdinand, triggering ''[[World War OneI]]''.

*** Although, thanks to the [[Reset Button|the reset button]], that doesn't catch on...

* In the Disney film ''[[Hercules (Disney1997 film)||Hercules]]'', it's indicated that the reason the ''Venus de Milo'' has no arms is because Hercules accidentally broke them off.

** An old monster the trio had to escort home told stories of himself of scaring George Washington (which motivates him in crossing the Delaware River) and Albert Einstein (which is why his hair is what he's known for).

[[Category:Historical In-Joke{{PAGENAME}}]]