# Fiction than inspired real life bands/movies/shows/products etc? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2011, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854 "2011-01-08T06:36:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/1 "2011-01-08T06:36:04Z")
I’m working on a story in which one of the characters spent his whole “life” in the afterlife, but is eventually brought back to life. This causes him to do a lot of adjusting because he doesn’t have the background for pop culture references. In a scene I’m still plotting out he’s completely baffled by a webcomic called “The Prince and Cyndi Lauper” and spends a while trying to get the main character to explain why anyone would think Prince and Cyndi Lauper switching places is funny and why anyone would have confused the two (he hasn’t read The Prince and The Pauper either, of course)… Obviously this webcomic doesn’t exist, but it could. So, now that I’ve digressed, I’ll get to my point. Fiction is full of pretend things like my fictional webcomic. But has anything that was born in fiction ever been realized in reality? **Not just as a promotional tie-in to the book/movie/tv show in question** , though, so examples like **True Blood** beverages or the novels from **Castle** being real now don’t really count. Has a band adopted the same name as one in a book? Has a fake product in a story ever been manufactured in the real world? Have fake movies (sometimes in movies, even) ever been made into real movies? Have fictional books ever become real books by the same or a different author? There have to be some examples of things from fiction becoming real, right? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/2 "2011-01-08T08:12:41Z")
Do the Willy Wonka line of candies count as a promotional tie-in? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/3 "2011-01-08T08:20:59Z")
Here’s a better one: The film _Sullivan’s Travels_, by Preston Sturges, is about a man trying to write a movie called _O Brother, Where Art Thou?_, which the Coen brothers later took to make a movie that, in part, is a tribute to the films of Preston Sturges. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/4 "2011-01-08T08:21:05Z")
does Spinal Tap count ---
**Author:** ![Wolverine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wolverine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolverine)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/5 "2011-01-08T08:32:48Z")
How about opening a can of [Whoop-Ass](http://www.theimpulsivebuy.com/images/whoopass.jpg)? ---
**Author:** ![blackmath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@blackmath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackmath)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/6 "2011-01-08T08:55:19Z")
**Bands** As I Lay Dying - Inspired by a William Faulkner novel of the same name Atreyu - Named after a character in 1984 movie, The Never Ending Story. Bad Company — from the 1972 film Bad Company. Belle & Sebastian — from Belle et Sébastien, a children’s book by French writer Cécile Aubry Black Rebel Motorcycle Club — The film The Wild One featured two motorcycle gangs - The Beetles, led by Lee Marvin’s character, and Black Rebels Motorcycle Club, led by Marlon Brando’s characater. In a reference to the story that The Beatles took their name from one motorcycle gang, Peter Hayes, guitarist, and bassist Robert Levon Been, originally named their band “The Other Gang”, but switched to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club when The Other Gang didn’t catch on Klaxons - Originally known as “Klaxons (Not Centaurs)”, a quote from Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s futurism text The Futurist Manifesto . Also in an interview a band member stated Klaxons “is to toot to be a loud intrusive noise to disrupt” Modest Mouse — Their name derives from a passage from the Virginia Woolf story “The Mark on the Wall,” which reads, “…and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people…” Opeth - The band name was derived from the word “Opet”, taken from the Wilbur Smith novel Sunbird. In this novel, Opet is the name of a (fictional) Phoenician city in South Africa whose name is translated as “City of the Moon” in the book. Steely Dan — Named after a dildo in the novel Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. Thompson Twins – From Thomson and Thompson, the bumbling detectives in Hergé’s comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin. The Velvet Underground - Were named after a book about sadomasochism by Michael Leigh. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/7 "2011-01-08T09:50:11Z")
Duran Duran were named after a character in the movie Barbarella. Heaven 17 were named after a fictional band (never seen or heard) in A Clockwork Orange. I’m on my Touch so I can’t do links, but that movie inspired a whole ton of things. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/8 "2011-01-08T09:52:16Z")
[TV Tropes link](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Defictionalization) The one I was going to mention is the in-universe anime on Genshiken, which apparently was turned into its own show. And of course The Tales of Beedle the Bard, from Harry Potter. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/9 "2011-01-08T10:14:59Z")
[Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.](http://www.bubbagump.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Nom\_de\_Plume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85f322/32.png) [@Nom\_de\_Plume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nom_de_Plume)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/10 "2011-01-08T11:19:41Z")
The band ‘Toad the Wet Sprocket’ named themselves after a fictional band of the same name in a Monty Python skit. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/11 "2011-01-08T12:14:09Z")
Otis Day and the Knights > **[Otis Day and the Knights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Day_and_the_Knights)** > > Otis Day and the Knights was created as a fictional R&B band to perform in the 1978 movie National Lampoon's Animal House. > They are best known for their R&B/ black rock version of "Shout" and "Shama Lama Ding Dong". Both songs were sung by Lloyd Williams, and lip synched by DeWayne Jessie in the film. Backing vocals were provided by Melvin Britt and Sidney Justin. Gospel style "Shout" was written by the Isley Brothers. Otis Day was played by Jessie, brother of Young Jessie of The Coasters. Rober... Kickapoo Joy Juice > **[Kickapoo Joy Juice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickapoo_Joy_Juice)** > > Kickapoo Joy Juice is a citrus-flavored soft drink brand owned by the Monarch Beverage Company. The name was introduced in Li'l Abner, a comic strip that ran from 1934 through 1977. Although Li'l Abner's Kickapoo Joy Juice was an alcoholic drink, the real world beverage is a lightly carbonated soft drink. > "Kickapoo Joy Juice" was a fictional beverage coined in the American comic strip Li'l Abner. Al Capp, the cartoonist, described the beverage as "a liquor of such stupefying potency that the ... ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/12 "2011-01-08T12:44:16Z")
You can buy [BRAWNDO: the thirst mutilator](http://www.brawndo.com/) energy drinks. It’s from Idiocracy. It’s what plants crave! ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/13 "2011-01-08T16:42:00Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > You can buy [BRAWNDO: the thirst mutilator](http://www.brawndo.com/) energy drinks. It’s from Idiocracy. It’s what plants crave! It’s got electrolytes. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/14 "2011-01-08T18:05:59Z")
\*The Killers \*got their name from the fictional band in the _New Order_ video for “Crystal”. Like _Toad The Wet Sprocket_, it’s one of the few examples of a real band directly taking their name from a fictional band. A lot of the other examples in this thread are just names taken from fiction. Also, the movie **Machete** was based on a fake trailer that ran during **Grindhouse**. I’m still waiting for [**Catholic High School Girls In Trouble**](http://www.lifelounge.com/the-lounge/video/catholic-high-schoolXXX-girls-in-trouble.aspx) - very NSFW) to be released! (To fix link, take extra X’s out of school) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/15 "2011-01-08T18:18:54Z")
[American Express Black](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_card) started out as an Urban Legend, but is now very much a real card with some amazing perks. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/16 "2011-01-08T18:33:03Z")
**Venus on the Half-Shell** was a nonexistant novel written by Kilgore Trout in Kurt Vonnegut’s **God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater**. Philip Jose Famer later wrote a novel by that name and bylined it as by Kilgore Trout. That’s since been changed back at Vonnegut’s request. Once, _Locus Magazine_ reported that the final volume of Gene Wolfe’s **Book of the New Sun** would be titled **The Castle of the Otter**. The actual title was **The Citadel of the Autarch**. Wolfe liked the error and published a book of essays named **The Castle of the Otter**. Similarly, Wolfe wrote a short story, “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories.” When it didn’t win a Nebula,\* another author consoled him by saying that all he had to do was write a story called “The Death of Doctor Island” and he’d be a shoo-in. Wolfe wrote the story, and won. He later wrote “The Doctor of Death Island” and “The Death of the Island Doctor.” I can’t recall the title, but there was a film title that was used by Warner Bros throughout the 30s as a placeholder on movie marquees as part of the set design. Eventually, they made a film with that name. Several candies were produced to tie in with the original **Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory**. At least one, Everlasting Gobstoppers, were mentioned in both the book and movie. \*In a very embarrassing circumstance for Isaac Asimov – he announced it as the winner, but was quickly told (as Wolfe was walking toward the podium to accept the award) that there would be no winner that year. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/17 "2011-01-09T20:12:21Z")
I’ve seen cans of Slurm, Duff, Romulan Ale, and some other stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/18 "2011-01-09T20:48:14Z")
The very first episode of NBC’S Saturday Night (before the name changed to Saturday Night Live) had a fake commercial for the Triple Track razor with the tagline “Because you’ll believe anything.” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/19 "2011-01-09T21:15:37Z")
The fake trailer “Machete” being turned into an actual movie. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854/20 "2011-01-10T18:00:13Z")
[geek cred]How about the game Hackmaster(haing started out as a fictoinal parody of D&D in KODT?)[/geek cred] [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-than-inspired-real-life-bands-movies-shows-products-etc/566854.md?page=2)