# Fictional inventors of real things **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049 "2015-10-29T03:04:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/21 "2015-10-29T15:01:15Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > In **The Wild Wild West** (TV show), Dr. Miguelito Loveless invented television and the airplane. And the atomic bomb, although that might have been a slightly later MFTV movie. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/22 "2015-10-29T15:15:58Z")
Ayla in the _Clan of the Cave Bear_ books invented all sorts of things, back in Cro-Magnon times: Rapid reload of a sling, the brassiere (take that, Otto Titzling!), the atlatl, horse harnesses, starting fires with flint, sewing needles, surgical stitches to name a few. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/23 "2015-10-29T15:16:47Z")
Gold stars to **Chronos, Amateur Barbarian** and **Justin Bailey** for their quick catches of my _mistakes_. I thought it would take longer…Though Philo T. Farnsworth still sounds made up. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/24 "2015-10-29T15:25:41Z")
[Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams did not uncover Watergate](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144168/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1). ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/25 "2015-10-29T17:27:25Z")
> [@TV\_time](#): > > Gold stars to **Chronos, Amateur Barbarian** and **Justin Bailey** for their quick catches of my _mistakes_. I thought it would take longer…Though Philo T. Farnsworth still sounds made up. Missed one. Post 17 ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/26 "2015-10-29T18:01:12Z")
Dirk Gently was not the Man from Porlock. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/27 "2015-10-29T20:08:11Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Not an invention but Marty McFly did not write “Johnny B Goode”. I never interpreted the scene in the movie as implying that Marty wrote it. I thought he just carried the tune that Chuck Berry wrote back to Chuck Berry so that he could write it. One of those infinite regression endless loop paradoxical time-travel thingies. And yes, “infinite regression endless loop paradoxical time-travel thingy” is a technical term among the time-traveling class. Or at least it will be. Or maybe it already was? ---
**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, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/28 "2015-10-29T20:10:23Z")
Rae Dawn Chong in **Quest for Fire** invented the missionary position. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/29 "2015-10-29T21:51:42Z")
Helena G. Wells (Warehouse 13) didnt write H.G.Wells books, and I hate her character for that lie, and other issues. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/30 "2015-10-30T00:12:26Z")
Obscure one: forgettable rom-com from a few years back had the male lead be comfortably rich from inventing the coffee-cup sleeve. [Googles.] _Made of Honor_, with Patrick Dempsey’s character as the fictional inventor. Not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/31 "2015-10-30T00:35:41Z")
I was sad to learn than Xena warrior princess did not invent kites, electricity or cpr to name a few things from the show. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/32 "2015-10-30T00:44:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Marvin the Martian** : > > And yes, “infinite regression endless loop paradoxical time-travel thingy” is a technical term among the time-traveling class. Or at least it will be. Or maybe it already was? Perhaps in your time, but in this time, the technical term for such a thing is a “genie”. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/33 "2015-10-30T02:27:39Z")
The TV series _Murdoch Mysteries_ (set circa 1895-1905) is giddily full of these, with the title character “inventing” proto-versions of polygraphs, bitmaps, sonar, night-vision goggles, wiretaps… ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/34 "2015-10-30T03:04:01Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > Of course not. It was a Klingon. :dubious: :sigh: It was the Klingons that invented Velcro, and the Vulcans that gave us vulcanized rubber. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/35 "2015-10-30T03:49:51Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > In _Who Framed Roger Rabbit,_ Judge Doom invented the freeway. (“Traffic jams will be a thing of the past!”) He also invented, or at least envisioned, that freeway being lined with restaurants “serving rapidly prepared food.” To be sure, he didn’t live to see either of his inventions come to fruition. All sorts of real-world things invented by little old Russian mothers and grandmothers, at least according to Pavel Chekov. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/36 "2015-10-30T04:20:00Z")
The telephone, radio, and automobile were not invented by Wrangler Jane’s cousin Henry on _F Troop_. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/37 "2015-10-30T07:28:56Z")
Prince Leopold Mountbatten, Duke of Albany, may or may not have existed, and may or may not have had a valet named Otis. But he did NOT invent the elevator. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/38 "2015-10-30T07:35:04Z")
Okay, never mind about the name Mountbatten; it didn’t exist in the nineteenth century. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/39 "2015-10-30T07:35:35Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Dirk Gently was not the Man from Porlock. As far as you know. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/40 "2015-10-30T12:14:48Z")
If I recall correctly, the “Ultimate” comic version of Tony Stark invented the mp3 player. (Gotta make sure he’s all hip and relevant for the kids, y’know.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049.md?page=3)