Not That Kind of Doctor: Difference between revisions

* Buck Laughlin uses this for some [[Witty Banter]] in ''[[Best in Show]]'' while talking to Dr. Millbank, president of the Mayflower Kennel Club.

* In [[Neal Stephenson]]'s ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'', Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is often referred to as "the Doctor" (not ''that'' [[Doctor Who|Doctor]], mind you). He's actually a doctor of law, though he's more well-known for his [[Phantasy Spelling|arithmetickal]] studies than his legal studies. In addition, Daniel Waterhouse, an [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]], is referred to as "Dr. Daniel Waterhouse" later in his life. Inverting the trope, physicians are always referred to as "physicians", never doctors; even surgeons were alternately called "chirurgeons" and "barber-surgeons", never "doctors". Indeed, Dr. Waterhouse himself expresses strong contempt for physicians, treating them as if they were snake-oil salesmen (and given the state of 17th/18th-century medicine, that's exactly what they were).

* In Terry Pratchett's first ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''The Colour of Magic'', there's a moment where we get a glimpse of an [[Real Life|alternate universe]] where Twoflower and Rincewind are travelling on a plane, when "Zweiblumen" collapses. Someone asks "Rjinswand" to help since he's a Doctor, but Rjinswand points out that he would only be any help if Zweiblumen were some sort of nuclear reactor.

* A scene in one of the ''[[Adrian Mole]]'' books has Pandora jumping into a taxi with the words "I'm a doctor and this is an emergency!" She doesn't mention she's a doctor of philosophy.

* Parodied regularly in ''[[The Colbert Report]]'': after getting his Doctorate of Fine Arts from Knox College, Stephen immediately started assuming that he could perform operations. He even started a recurring segment called "[[Yes but What Does Zataproximetacine DO|Cheating Death]], with Dr. Stephen T Colbert, ''DFA''".

** Being a doctor of fine arts, he's only qualified to do operations on paintings.

'''Adam:''' You know, I still can't believe he's a ''doctor''. }}

* In ''Cabin Pressure'', a passenger gets a heart attack on an airplane. Whilst trying to decide whether to divert or not, the pilots notice there's a doctor on board and start requesting ever more urgently that any person with medical training come to the flight deck. As noone comes, they start speaking of a "hypothetical doctor" with a hypothetical sandy mustache hypothetically sitting in the seventh row. As the man eventually comes, he advises a bridge, because a tunnel's out of the question...and really his Ph.D.'s in engineering.

* Dan Coffey hosts a show called ''[[Ask Dr. Science]]'' (a [[Spin-Off]] from ''[[Duck's Breath Mystery Theater]]''), justifying it because, although "not a real doctor," he "has a Masters Degree ... [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|''in Science!'']]"

* The title character of ''[[The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus]]'' is a Doctor of Divinity, which again, was the original use of the designation of "Doctor".

=== [[Video Games]] ===