# Creative types who have no equivalents **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761 "2010-10-29T13:56:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/1 "2010-10-29T13:56:41Z")
Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=583515) thread: Nobody is the Beatles but The Beatles. Ditto Bob Dylan, Stephen King and The Simpsons. Who else? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/2 "2010-10-29T14:01:18Z")
Duran Duran. I’ve actually heard more bands that sound like the Beatles than sound like Duran Duran. No one can get their _exact_ mix between dance and pop, while at the same time imitating their melodic brand. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/3 "2010-10-29T14:04:38Z")
I was thinking the other day of how unique Penn and Teller are as magicians. There honestly _can’t_ be another Penn and Teller. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/4 "2010-10-29T14:15:30Z")
J. R. R. Tolkien, for many of the same reasons there won’t be another Beatles or Elvis. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/5 "2010-10-29T14:28:26Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=583515) thread: Nobody is the Beatles but The Beatles. > > Ditto Bob Dylan, Stephen King and The Simpsons. > > Who else? To a degree, this can be so dissected as to be meaningless. Nobody is Bob Dylan but Bob Dylan? How about Phil Ochs or Townes Van Zandt? Nobody is Stephen King but Stephen King? How about Dean Koontz? I won’t mention peers of the Simpsons for fear of violent retribution, but you know who I’m thinking of. In one mode of thinking, every creator is unique. In another, no creator is unique. One might say Dante is a singular figure, but then one would have to contend with Boccacio. I’d say Jimi Hendrix is utterly unique–hey, there is ONLY one Jimi Hendrix–but Buddy Guy might take issue with that, and some of Eric Clapton’s fans (including Hendrix himself) might do so as well. ETA: I might get pounded for this, but the parallels between Tolkien and C.S. Lewis have been expounded upon so many times that I have a hard time seeing Tolkien as so utterly unique. Going a little deeper, one might even put the much less successful Fritz Lieber into the same mix. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/6 "2010-10-29T14:35:07Z")
Joss Whedon. ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/7 "2010-10-29T14:45:56Z")
For me, it is Barbara Stanwyck. She never won an Oscar. Yet she portrayed innocent and demure as easily as she played the seductress vamp. She could play high drama as easily as low comedy. She went beyond film for a very successful television career. And she looked damn fine until the end, with class and sophistication. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/8 "2010-10-29T15:14:52Z")
Tom Waits ---
**Author:** ![Elysium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@Elysium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysium)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/9 "2010-10-29T15:27:27Z")
Bjork. You don’t have to love her, but there’s no one like her really. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/10 "2010-10-29T15:31:47Z")
Estradasphere ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/11 "2010-10-29T15:33:07Z")
> **[Michael Moschen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moschen)** > > Michael Moschen is an American juggler. > Moschen was a classmate of Penn Jillette's at Greenfield High School in Greenfield, Massachusetts, class of 1973. The two worked together developing juggling performances immediately after high school. > Moschen is particularly known for contact juggling. In the 1986 film Labyrinth the crystal ball manipulations seen to be performed by David Bowie's character were actually done by Moschen, who stood behind Bowie during filming. Since Moschen could not see t... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_h7nXU2xFNY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h7nXU2xFNY) and others nearby ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/12 "2010-10-29T15:52:21Z")
Gilbert Gottfried. If quality isn’t a criteria. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/13 "2010-10-29T16:10:36Z")
Hey, whadda doin here, what? Rodney Dangerfield. Nobody would want to be like him! Hey! And, while we’re covering comedy, the man who gave us the Elvis Impersonation that every single one has copied since. Andy Kaufman. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyClueless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/14 "2010-10-29T16:32:36Z")
Another vote for Björk. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/15 "2010-10-29T16:52:49Z")
I vote Stephen Fry. I keep trying to think who might be the American equivalent of Fry but can never come up with anyone. An actor with comedic and dramatic chops, a very good fiction writer, a seemingly affable fellow (who admits his foibles) topped off with an eloquent writing style backed by intelligent opinions. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/16 "2010-10-29T17:07:03Z")
Captain Beefheart. Complete sui generis in everything he ever did. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/17 "2010-10-29T18:58:04Z")
I don’t think we can put J.R.R Tolkein in this company, even with his enormous talent. The reason is his largely forgotten predecessor whose life, including his considerable academic achievements, the pathway of their studies in academe are so remarkably similar that you really could not say Tolkien was either unique or the first in his field, much more of a major contributor. > **[Andrew Lang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lang)** > > Andrew Lang FBA (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him. > Lang was born in 1844 in Selkirk, Scottish Borders. He was the eldest of the eight children born to John Lang, the town clerk of Selkirk, and his wife Jane Plenderleath Sellar, who was the daughter of Patrick Sellar, fact... > **[Lang's Fairy Books](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lang's_Fairy_Books)** > > The Langs' Fairy Books are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections of fairy tales also known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. In all, the volumes feature 798 stories, besides the 153 poems in The Blue Poetry Book. > Leonora Blanche Alleyne (1851–1933) was an English author, e... It is not much of a stretch at all to imagine Tolkein was influenced or inspired by Lang, I have read somewhere (but cannot cite) that Tolkein had read Lang’s work and especially some of the criticisms made at Langs frequent habit of breaking the fairy tale paradigm of having a happy ending in which good overcomes evil. Hopefully **Qadgop** will pick this up and add more. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/18 "2010-10-29T19:11:03Z")
Monty Python (Although **StusBlues** is, of course, right. - Or, to put it another way: Meh, what were _The Beatles_ but vastly better version of _Cliff Richard and the Shadows_?) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/19 "2010-10-29T19:45:15Z")
**Orson Welles** ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761/20 "2010-10-29T19:57:47Z")
Monty Python is just a generation later version of the Goon Show. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-types-who-have-no-equivalents/558761.md?page=2)