Historical In-Joke: Difference between revisions

* Want to know how Amelia Earhart disappeared? According to ''[[Empowered]]'', Imperial Pimpotron Alpha abducted her for a cosmic emperor's harem.

* ''[[Dilbert]]'' has the character of The Big Topper, a man who butts in on conversations and pretends like he did bigger and better things. Usually, his boastings include him introducing things to famous people. Dilbert calls him out on it once. The response?

* In one ''[[Batman]]'' Elseworlds title set in the Old West, Batman is an agent of [[Abraham Lincoln]] who repeatedly asks Lincoln if he can come back to Washington, as he has reservations regarding the President's security precautions...

* ''[[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.

* 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.

* In the first ''[[Percy Jackson]]'' novel, when Grover is explaining to Percy about demi-gods, he mentions some famous demigods who successfully ventured to the Underworld and returned.

** There are more Historical In Jokes like this in the series, since one of the plot points is that the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades) are not supposed to have any more half-mortal children, because the powers of their children keep leading to history being screwed up. George Washington is mentioned as one such example, and World War II is mentioned as a battle between the children of Zeus and Poseidon, against the children of Hades.

* ''[[The Squire's Tales]]'' has Geoffrey of Monmouth as a scholar at [[King Arthur]]'s court.

* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Spike]] inspired Billy Idol.

** He also lampshades the trope in his first line, mocking a low-ranking vampire claiming to have been at the crucifixion of Jesus.

* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' had at least one every episode, including (among other things) Sam teaching a five-year-old Michael Jackson to moonwalk.

** Other notable figures Sam meets (or Leaps into!) include: Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Stephen King, and Lee Harvey Oswald.

* In ''[[Lost Girl]]'', the Sudanese genocide is thought to be partially attributable to the Djieiene, a mystical spider whose bite causes [[Hate Plague]]s.

* From the ''[[Glee]]'' episode "The Rhodes Not Taken":

* 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 welching on a lost poker hand.

** One of Nucky's friends brags about finding a great new investor in New York. A few episodes later he's broke, and we learn that the investor's name was Charles Ponzi.

* In a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch in which Kevin Spacey played the "inventor" of sarcasm and [[Does Not Understand Sarcasm|no one understood he meant the opposite of what he said]]:

'''Narrator''': And so Stonehenge was built. }}

* A quote attributed to the historical Louis XIV is, "I am the State." In fact, he said the opposite: "I depart, but the State shall always remain." In the ''[[Young Blades]]'' episode "The Girl from Upper Gaborski," [[Historical Domain Character|Louis]] utters a similar quote — "I am the mighty state of France!" — while flexing shirtless in the mirror and fantasizing about how to impress women. Putting the quote in the mouth of a 15-year-old [[Spoiled Brat]] / [[Cloudcuckoolander]] — someone who's just discovered women and the fact that he has royal power — explains how the same person could say both quotes.

** ''Revelations'' had more Historical In-Jokes compared to the first few games.

*** Set in the Ottoman Empire, particularly in Constantinople. Constantinople/Istanbul Jokes fly around.

*** On mention of The New World's name (Continent of Amerigo), Ezio smiles and remarks "poor Colombo..." }}

*** Piri Reis, a legendary Ottoman Admiral, was not an admiral by the time of the game, but the Assassins of Constantinople do jokingly call him "Piri" (Ottoman for "Admiral").

* This is more or less the raison d'être of ''[[Hark! A Vagrant]]''.

* ''[[Homestuck]]'': The universe of Earth was created by the trolls, and so they had some influence on some things that eventually happened, like possibly the existence of the [[Insane Clown Posse]]. A particularly amusing example comes from a trans-timeline bulletin board conversation involving a future instance of [[Jerkass|Vriska]], aka arachnidsGrip (AG)...

{{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?}} }}

 

** 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 One]]''.

** In an earlier episode, they inspire a young boy to "Connect all the computers in the world together, and call it the internet," Wanda's response? "That Billy Gates and his CRAZY ideas," Of course, he gets the name wrong...

'''Cosmo''': That's a stupid name, you should call it The Timmy! }}

*** And at the episode's end we find out that "The Timmy" apparently stuck, because his mother calls out "Internet, come to dinner"