# Fictional events that eventually become reality? (Read the OP.) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 19, 2025, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077 "2025-07-19T13:20:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/21 "2025-07-20T00:58:36Z")
And that the Berlin Wall would come down around the same time! This book was first published in 1914. AFAIK, it’s still in print. > **[Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone](https://booksofwonder.com/products/tom-swift-and-his-photo-telephone?variant=40512442990634)** > > APPLETON, Victor. Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone. Or The Picture That Saved a Fortune. Illustrated. NY: Grosset & Dunlap \[1914\]. 12mo, \[iv\] 216pp + \[4\]advts. Mustard cloth pictorially stamped in black and red. Halftone frontispiece. Spine ends... ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/22 "2025-07-20T01:19:37Z")
There was also the time Yoko Ono displayed an artwork consisting of a single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man’s hat. > **[Yoko Ono Let an Old Simpsons Joke Slip Into Her Latest Art Exhibit](https://www.wmagazine.com/story/yoko-ono-let-an-old-simpsons-joke-slip-into-her-latest-art-exhibit)** > > A single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man's hat is on display at a Yoko Ono exhibit in Iceland. ---
**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:** [July 20, 2025, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/23 "2025-07-20T01:55:31Z")
After the first Willie Wonka movie came out I remember there was Wonka branded candy; still is? ‘Major League’ (1989) anticipated the Cleveland Indians finally breaking the Cleveland Curse. Science fiction of course anticipated numerous things that later became reality. We’re up to robot dogs now. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/24 "2025-07-20T02:01:09Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Science fiction of course anticipated numerous things that later became reality. We’re up to robot dogs now. From my OP: > 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. ---
**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:** [July 20, 2025, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/25 "2025-07-20T02:03:53Z")
I wasn’t sure what was narrow enough to be a specific thing; the first moon landing? The first atomic bomb? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/26 "2025-07-20T02:20:46Z")
I was really looking for extremely specific: Cypress Hill would never have played “Insane in the Brain” with the London Symphony Orchestra if it were not for that happening in a _Simpsons_ episode; the Alamo would never have bought a weird bicycle if it were not for the movie _Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure_. That level of specificity. Things that would absolutely never have happened except for being referenced in a work of fiction, and they happened in the real world specifically _because_ of that work of fiction. So the first moon landing definitely would not count. That Apollo spacecraft would never have been named Charlie Brown and Snoopy if there had never been a comic strip created by Charles Schulz is as close as the moon landing gets to what I was thinking about. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/27 "2025-07-20T02:32:59Z")
Every year, there is the annual Catalina Wine Mixer, based on the event from Stepbrothers. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/28 "2025-07-20T02:42:10Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > After the first Willie Wonka movie came out I remember there was Wonka branded candy; still is? > > ‘Major League’ (1989) anticipated the Cleveland Indians finally breaking the Cleveland Curse. > > Science fiction of course anticipated numerous things that later became reality. We’re up to robot dogs now. But Cleveland still hasn’t won a World Series. And they’ve changed their name to the Guardians, so the Cleveland Indians will actually never win another championship. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/29 "2025-07-20T02:46:56Z")
Does the movie _Marooned_ count? It came out in 1969. It was about three astronauts facing death when there’s a malfunction on their spaceship. Four months later, three real life astronauts faced death when there was a malfunction on Apollo 13. ---
**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:** [July 20, 2025, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/30 "2025-07-20T02:51:42Z")
Not similar enough, I think. In _Marooned_ astronauts returning from a Skylab-type space station suffered a malfunction of their propulsion system and so could neither reenter nor return to the station. Apollo 13 was crippled by an explosion that caused a critical loss of electrical power. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/31 "2025-07-20T02:57:29Z")
The first Space Shuttle was named _Enterprise_, after the fictional space ship. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/32 "2025-07-20T03:03:42Z")
The 9/11 attacks came seven years after Tom Clancy’s novel _Debt of Honor,_ in which someone crashes an airliner into the U.S. Capitol building, and the Capitol was a possible target on 9/11. But that may not be as specific as the OP wants - it didn’t involve the World Trade Center. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/33 "2025-07-20T03:16:43Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > And a Ride at Disneyland-not based on any particular film became a hit movie franchise- Pirates of the Caribbean. Same with Jungle cruise. My point was that Buzz Lightyear was originally a fictional toy and then became an actual toy, and when it was a fictional toy it was based on a fictional movie that was actually released later on. I don’t think your examples track with the thread. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/34 "2025-07-20T03:19:48Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > This was brought to mind by the breaking news that Pee-Wee Herman’s bicycle is now really going to be in the Alamo: But is it going to be put on display in the basement? ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/35 "2025-07-20T03:20:16Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Every year, there is the annual Catalina Wine Mixer, based on the event from Stepbrothers. Mexico City has a Dia de Los Muertos parade, inspired by a fictional version in a James Bond movie, Spectre > **[How James Bond inspired Mexico City’s Day of the Dead parade](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/day-of-dead-james-bond-mexico-b2439974.html)** > > The Mexican capital’s parade started as recently as 2016 following the release of ‘Spectre’ ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/36 "2025-07-20T03:32:57Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > This book was first published in 1914. AFAIK, it’s still in print. > **[Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift_and_His_Photo_Telephone)** > > Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone, or, The Picture That Saved A Fortune, is Volume 17 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap by Victor Appleton > Tom and his father are arguing about Tom's latest idea, a photo telephone. Mr. Swift is adamant that the idea will not work, but Tom has some ideas in mind, and refuses to back down. Tom read about a recent news event where a photograph was transmitted over telegraph lines, and there is no functional difference between the... From the description, it’s a fax machine rather than a mobile phone with a camera. Not that much of a prediction, really. The technology to send pictures by telegraph already existed. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/37 "2025-07-20T04:04:27Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > The first Space Shuttle was named _Enterprise_, after the fictional space ship. The first space shuttle was named Columbia, Challenger was the second… Enterprise came much later ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/38 "2025-07-20T04:12:06Z")
No. > **[Space Shuttle Enterprise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise)** > > Space Shuttle Enterprise (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) was the first orbiter of the Space Shuttle system. Rolled out on September 17, 1976, it was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform atmospheric test flights after being launched from a modified Boeing 747. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield. As a result, it was not capable of spaceflight. > Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight to become the seco... ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/39 "2025-07-20T04:24:46Z")
_Back to the Future Part II_ (1989) largely took place in 2015. In the 2015 section of the film, the Chicago Cubs were shown to win the World Series that year, ending their long championship drought. The filmmakers’ prediction was off by just one year: the Cubs finally won the Series in 2016. Also, they got the opposing team wrong: it wasn’t Miami (which did not have an MLB franchise yet when the film was made); in reality, the Cubs beat… > [@Lumpy](#): > > the Cleveland Indians 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077/40 "2025-07-20T10:05:25Z")
The Dagwood sandwich: a towering, overstuffed monstrosity of meat, cheese, and pure sandwich audacity, was named after Dagwood Bumstead from the Blondie comic strip (created by Chic Young in 1930). After World War II (when prosperity emerged), diners and delis across America started slapping the name “Dagwood” on their biggest, messiest sandwiches. It was shorthand for “stack it high and don’t hold back.” The trend had its moment in the spotlight, but like many fads, it slowly faded—though never completely disappeared. You can still find the real deal at Blondie’s in Universal Orlando’s Toon Lagoon—“Home of the Dagwood Sandwich”. It serves the traditional Dagwood: multi-layered with ham, turkey, roast beef, American & Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, all piled on onion-poppy seed bread. It’s not just a sandwich—it’s a slice of American comic-strip history. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-events-that-eventually-become-reality-read-the-op/1021077.md?page=3)