This was brought to mind by the breaking news that Pee-Wee Herman’s bicycle is now really going to be in the Alamo:
Which reminds me that Cypress Hill eventually did play with the London Symphony Orchestra
Any other examples if events like this? (I’m taking about very specific things like this, not future technologies or fashions that happen to have been accurately “predicted”, like old movies using ray guns and someone eventually inventing the laser.)
My first thought was of a prison escape where a helicopter landed in a prison yard, which I had heard at the time was inspired by a fictional helicopter prison escape. But googling, it turns out there have actually been several helicopter prison escapes, and it’s not clear which of them I had heard about was inspired from fiction. In fact, some of them inspired fictional accounts, the opposite of the OP’s premise.
THE SIMPSONS predicted President Trump as a joke…
Good one. The Simpsons is famous for depicting comedy situations that seemed to be absurd but later actually happened:
William Shatner got a spaceship ride a few years back.
The 1985 one in South Carolina happened around 15 miles from me by road, maybe about 10 miles as the helicopter flies.
That may be the one I had in mind that was inspired by a fictional helicopter prison escape. The time period and location seems right.
I’m not sure if this is what the OP means, but in the comic strip Li’l Abner, there was a tradition in Dogpatch, to run a race, during which all eligible bachelors in town ran from the single women; if a bachelor was caught, the two were immediately (legally) married.
From thence, any high school- or community- or otherwise-sponsored dance, party, or similar event, for which girls/women were to invite boys/men, was referred to as a “Sadie Hawkins” dance, party, whatever.
The term is still in use sometimes, in spite of the fact that boys offering girls formal invitations to events is no longer de rigueur, and the fact that Li’l Abner ceased publication about 50 years ago, and very few people under 60 can name a character from it.
Dr Hook eventually did get on The Cover of the Rolling Stone.
Beautiful.
Not exactly an “event”, but Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans became a reality after their appearance in the Harry Potter books. Granted, they were inspired by Jelly Bellies (which then made the real ones), but prior to that, Jelly Bellies didn’t have flavors like earwax, grass, or dirt.
There was the final shootout in Heat which despite being an amazing peice of filmmaking I always thought was pretty proposterous until it basically happened IRL a couple of years later:
Li’l Abner also had Kickapoo Joy Juice. In the comic strip, it was moonshine whiskey, made with outlandish ingredients. The Monarch Beverage Company made a soft drink under the name. It is still on the market today.
Otis Day and the Knights was a fictional band in the film Animal House. DeWayne Jessie, the actor who played the lead singer, bought the rights to the name, and formed a band, and made a living touring with it.
A few Urban legends later really happened-
Rats or snakes in the toilet.
The body of outlaw Elmer McCurdy.
Giant Squids.
I recall Leonard Nimoy mentioning one time he pulled out a flip phone and when he opened it some random bystander did a double take and started laughing. Because it was Spock, using his communicator.
Pretty sure this TV Tropes page is relevant-ish:
Beyond relevant-ish, it is spot-on for what I meant.
Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In had a “news of the future” segment that said that Ronald Reagan would be president in 1988.
The actor?
Who’s Vice President? Jerry Lewis?!
..
Buzz Lightyear became a toy you could buy, and eventually the hero in a sci-fi movie.
And a Ride at Disneyland-not based on any particular film became a hit movie franchise- Pirates of the Caribbean. Same with Jungle cruise.
But these were easy to see coming.
Before there was the Titanic, there was the Titan.