# Fictional references that became true **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656 "2009-10-21T19:33:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/81 "2009-10-25T01:02:07Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Headline: Princess Diana Dead! > > … cover to a Wonder Woman comic that came out about a week before Princess Di died. Oh that reminded me of one. In the fall of '80, Rolling Stone published a review of John & Oko Lennon’s _Double Fantasy_-in it, the reviewer, so offended by what he saw as Lennon going LCD with an album full of pablum, forsaking his creative legacy in the process, declared at the end of his review that “John Lennon is dead.” A month or three later Mark David Chapman shot him down. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/82 "2009-10-25T04:35:14Z")
A particularly interesting example is the story of [Enoch Soames.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_Soames) In 1919 Max Beerbohm wrote a short story, set in 1897, in which a man called Enoch Soames travels through time to visit the British Library at a given hour on a given date in 1997. Teller, of Penn & Teller, liked the story so much that he arranged for a ‘real’ Enoch Soames to appear in the British Library at the scheduled time. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/83 "2009-10-26T19:08:46Z")
The movie _Network_ was fiction in 1976, but since then has almost all come true. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/84 "2009-10-26T19:21:29Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > It takes **69** posts to mention Stephen King’s _Misery_? > > It’s one thing to write things that come true. It’s quite another to pre-write your autobiography. How so? In Misery the drunk author slides off the road in a car, breaks his leg, and is helpless until an obsessed fan “rescues” him and then is held captive by the woman until he writes her a new book with her favorite character. King when jogging, got hit by a van with a distracted driver, and immediately went to the hospital. Beyond bad things happening to authors, I’m not really seeing it. ---
**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:** [October 27, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/85 "2009-10-27T06:37:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Oh that reminded me of one. In the fall of '80, Rolling Stone published a review of John & Oko Lennon’s Double Fantasy-in it, the reviewer, so offended by what he saw as Lennon going LCD with an album full of pablum, forsaking his creative legacy in the process, declared at the end of his review that “John Lennon is dead.” A month or three later Mark David Chapman shot him down. Gregory Benford wrote a story in 1976 about Lennon being murdered by an obsessed fan. ---
**Author:** ![Steampunk\_Willie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@Steampunk\_Willie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steampunk_Willie)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/86 "2009-10-27T07:08:17Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Nestle came out with a line of Wonka candies in the 70s. I think they were just capitalizing on the success of the Gene Wilder movie. You’ve got that backwards: \*The idea for adapting the book into a film came about when director Mel Stuart’s 10-year-old daughter read the book and asked her father to make a movie out of it, with “Uncle Dave” (producer David L. Wolper) producing it. Stuart showed the book to Wolper, who happened to be in the midst of talks with the Quaker Oats Company regarding a vehicle to introduce a new candy bar from their Chicago-based Breaker Confections subsidiary (since renamed The Willy Wonka Candy Company and sold to Nestle). Wolper convinced the company, who had no previous experience in the film industry, to buy the rights to the book and finance the picture for the purpose of promoting a new Quaker Oats Wonka Bar.\*from wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/87 "2009-10-27T16:11:06Z")
I don’t know if this fits the OP, but (one of ) the definition(s) of Chutzpah(sp?) was killing your parents and then throwing yourself on the mercy of the jury claiming to be an orphan. After the Menendez Brothers trial, on of the jurors said she felt sorry for the them because they would never get to see their parents again. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/88 "2009-10-27T17:40:48Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > In a Lone Gunmen episode called “Tango de los Pistoleros” the guys keep a hijacked airliner from smashing into the World Trade Center. The episode aired April 27th, 2001 Actually, per Wikipedia, that was the pilot episode. (Taking WP’s word for it as I’ve never seen The Lone Gunmen) ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/89 "2009-10-27T19:06:50Z")
Oh man, bad pun. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/90 "2009-10-27T19:19:53Z")
Dick Tracy’s two-way wrist radio. And I don’t doubt that flip-style cell phones were created by someone who just _had_ to say “Kirk to Enterprise”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/91 "2009-10-28T18:52:54Z")
> [@Ruby Sees](#): > > ThinkGeek made a [tauntaun sleeping bag](http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/bb2e/) as an April Fools’ joke and the demand was so great they actually make and sell them now. The same thing happened with their [8-bit tie.](http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/hats-ties/9352/) Though that wasn’t in a previous work of fiction beforehand…well, maybe some 8-bit character wore a tie somewhere, I can’t recall. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/92 "2009-10-28T21:55:08Z")
In the Bob Clampett cartoon _Tortoise Wins By A Hare_, released in 1943, one scene depicts a newspaper showing the big race between Bugs Bunny and the tortoise. One of the side headlines reads “Hitler Commits Suicide.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/93 "2009-10-29T00:51:07Z")
I seem to recall a Bloom County comic where some character is telling Opus a number of wild, absolutely impossible things. Or so they seemed in the mid-1980s, since one of the things the character says is something like, “Soviet Union admits communism is a failure, free elections to be held Thursday.” ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/94 "2009-10-30T15:11:04Z")
I’m embarrassed to toot my own horn, but [WALMART IS FREAKING SELLING COFFINS NOW](http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_constraint=0&ic=48_0&search_query=caskets&Find.x=16&Find.y=13), which I made a joke about once or twice in an online comic I used to do. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/95 "2009-10-30T15:27:00Z")
In 1971, Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane wrote a song called “Law Man.” The lyrics, written in first person POV, imagined herself as a faded madam having a shotgun standoff with a police officer many years her junior. In 1992, Grace Slick was a faded rock star (in the throes of a bad alcoholic relapse) who had a real life shotgun standoff with a police officer many years her junior. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/96 "2009-10-30T15:40:32Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > [Fuck Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades.](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33930) The very first episode of _SNL_ ran a commercial parody for a razor blade with (gasp) three blades. IIRC, the tag line was, “Because you’ll buy anything.” ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/97 "2009-10-30T16:59:07Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > In 1971, Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane wrote a song called “Law Man.” The lyrics, written in first person POV, imagined herself as a faded madam having a shotgun standoff with a police officer many years her junior. > > In 1992, Grace Slick was a faded rock star (in the throes of a bad alcoholic relapse) who had a real life shotgun standoff with a police officer many years her junior. By the way, I believe today is Grace’s 70th birthday. ---
**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 30, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/98 "2009-10-30T18:01:39Z")
Asimov coined the term “pocket calculator” for his story “The Feeling of Power.” ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/99 "2009-11-01T22:51:02Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Nestle came out with a line of Wonka candies in the 70s. I think they were just capitalizing on the success of the Gene Wilder movie. [The line](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Willy_Wonka_Candy_Company)’s still around today. And despite the unsourced allegation near the end of the article, it never went dormant. At least I’ve never known a time when you couldn’t at least buy Nerds and a few other things made by Wonka. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/100 "2009-11-02T23:59:57Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > It’s about time Jules Verne’s _A Trip to the Moon_ got mentioned - a century before Apollo 11, he had his moonship, named “Columbiad”, take off from Florida. It was actually the giant cannon that was called the Columbiad, but only because it was a [columbiad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbiad). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656.md?page=6)