Silly Reason for War: Difference between revisions
→Literature
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== Literature ==
* In ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', the Lilliputians fought a long war over which end of a boiled egg should be broken (the Big-Endians and the Little-Endians). This was a metaphor for the contemporary conflicts over the eucharist, specifically the belief and disbelief in transubstantiation.
** An even sillier example occurs in an [[Animated Adaptation]], where Princess Glory and Prince David of Blefuscu are engaged to marry, but their fathers get into an argument over which nations anthem is to be played at the wedding, which quickly degenerates into open hostilities and turning the unfortunate David and Glory into [[Star-Crossed Lovers]].
** In [[Real Life]],"''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130917180007/http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~magi/personal/humour/Shaggy_Dog/On%20Holy%20Wars%20and%20a%20Plea%20for%20Peace.html On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace]''" is a famous essay by Danny Cohen on whether data should be transmitted from the most-significant bit to the least-significant bit or vice versa. It draws heavily on ''Gulliver's Travels'' down to the names for the sides: Big-Endian (most significant first) and Little-Endian (least significant first). To this day, those are the "official" names of those groups.
* Inspired by the Swift, ''[[Dr. Seuss|The Butter Battle Book]]'' had two peoples fighting over which side of the toast should be buttered. It [[Lensman Arms Race|escalated to]] ridiculous extremes, becoming an obvious parody of the then-current Cold War, and [[No Ending|ends with an ambiguous]] [[Mexican Standoff]]. Seuss himself [[Take a Third Option|liked to butter the crust]].
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* ''[[Tristram Shandy]]'' has a chapter-long aside about a war between France and Switzerland that starts when the countries disagree about what to name the French heir.
* Donald Westlake's short story "Don't You Know There's a War On?" had an exploratory starship touch down on a [[Lost Colony]] that'd been fighting a [[Civil War]] for '''400 years''' over a paradox propounded by humorist Robert Benchley: "There are two kinds of people in the world -- those who believe there are two kinds of people and those who don't." As one of the starship's crew points out, whether you agree or disagree with his paradox, you prove Benchley correct.
== Live Action TV ==
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