# Fictional references that became true

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656>\
**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:** 4\
**Page:** 7

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**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:** [November 17, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/121 "2009-11-17T01:23:27Z")

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[National Underwater and Marine Agency](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Underwater_and_Marine_Agency)

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**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/122 "2009-11-17T14:53:04Z")

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In ‘fiction becoming reality [but only in another fiction]’, I just saw a Dr. Who episode (the Shakespeare one), where for reasons I won’t go into, a plausible-sounding magic chant needed to be created (quickly). Stuck for the last word to rhyme with ‘-us’, Martha comes up with “expelliarmus”.

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**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:** [November 19, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/123 "2009-11-19T16:45:16Z")

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In **Romeo and Juliet** , Shakespeare has Mercutio in his rambling Queen Mab speech refer to a small chariot pulled by tiny atomies, I have always wanted to believe it was a hint of things to come with atomic power.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-references-that-became-true/514656/124 "2009-11-28T03:57:50Z")

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I have to revive this thread, because I was just cleaning, and came across another, unexpected example.  
From the Jules Verne book **Yesterday and Tomorrow** :

> [@](#):
>
> I recalled the cheerful story of a novice whose friends told him to fire on a toy rabbit sitting up in a thicket, and ironically beating a drum! I should die of shame after a trick like that!

(p. 112 in the Ace edition. Trans. I. O. Evans)

Jules Verne anticipates the Energizer Bunny!

Except that it’s a _true_ story, he claimed. So it’s not really fiction. And before there was an energizer bunny with a drum, there was a Duracell bunny with a drum. (I wonder how many people today realize that the Energizer commercial started as a direct response to a competitor’s ad?)

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