# Fictional things that became real **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2012, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499 "2012-02-21T04:36:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/21 "2012-02-21T15:44:03Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Possibly the name “[Wendy](http://www.wendy.com/wendyweb/history.html).” [Probably not.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2057/was-the-name-wendy-invented-for-the-book-peter-pan) ---
**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:** [February 21, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/22 "2012-02-21T15:46:52Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > In one episode, the Springfield Isotopes minor league baseball team on _The Simpsons_ threatened to move to Albuquerque. Now there’s a real team called the Albuquerque Isotopes. There’s also the hockey team, the Anaheim Ducks, which were named from the movie _The Mighty Ducks_. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/23 "2012-02-21T15:51:34Z")
Rick Castle and Jessica Fletcher are fictional mystery writers who were characters in TV shows. Both of them “wrote” books that were published in the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/24 "2012-02-21T16:12:24Z")
Dunno if this counts: In a Far Side cartoon, a cave man is giving a lecture and warns his class about the spiky end of a dinosaur’s tail, calling it the “thagomizer”, named for the late Thag Simmons. Apparently the term has been adopted by paleontologists. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/25 "2012-02-21T16:21:16Z")
[Brawndo](http://www.brawndo.com/), The Thirst Mutilator. Not sure what they’re actually called, but the bizarre flavors of jelly beans from the Harry Potter books were actually released. A good friend of mine collects HP merchandise and offered some to me with the joyful comment that one of the flavors “about made [her] puke!” ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/26 "2012-02-21T16:46:38Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > [Brawndo](http://www.brawndo.com/), The Thirst Mutilator. > > Not sure what they’re actually called, but the bizarre flavors of jelly beans from the Harry Potter books were actually released. A good friend of mine collects HP merchandise and offered some to me with the joyful comment that one of the flavors “about made [her] puke!” Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans! I bought a couple of boxes when they first came out and a couple of the flavors were “interesting”. > **[Jelly Belly Candy | Online Candy Store by Category](https://www.jellybelly.com/online-candy-store)** > > Visit the Jelly Belly Online Candy Store to find the world’s best selection of gourmet jelly beans, chocolate confections, gummi candies and more. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/27 "2012-02-21T16:49:33Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > That’s a perfectly cromulent name. I just wanted everyone to know that in the olden days I’d have to open up a new web page and do a dictionary search. With modern technology I was able to right click on ‘cromulent’ and select an option to look the word 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:** [February 21, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/28 "2012-02-21T16:52:06Z")
The countdown was a dramatic device invented by director Friz Lang for his 1929 film [Frau im Mond (Women in the Moon)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5iqJUrgwbM). The rocket sequences were as accurate as possible, but no matter what the text there says, they may be firsts for a film, but all had been invented earlier. Mechanical men and women were featured in a number of stories before the word robot was invented in the play R.U.R. (1921). Those robots were artificial protoplasm, what we would now call androids. Ironically, android is a much older word and originally meant clockwork figurines of humans, so the two uses have completely switched around. When robots appear in real life depends entirely on what you want to count as a robot. There are a bunch of contenders before 1930. Water beds were in use in the 19th century. Heinlein may have independently re-invented the idea, but that’s it. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/29 "2012-02-21T16:52:28Z")
The red Swingline stapler in **Office Space**. Swingline did not make a red stapler at the time the movie came out, but put one into production due to demand caused by the movie. There are several companies named “Yoyodyne,” after the fictional corporation in Thomas Pynchon’s novels (though they’re probably quoting from **Buckaroo Banzai** , which appropriated the name). Isaac Asimov’s robot stories featured “U.S. Robotics and Mechanical Men”; years later, “U.S. Robotics” was a major manufacturer of modems. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/30 "2012-02-21T17:03:12Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Well, _now_ it is. > > [wiki cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splash_%28film%29) Not only that, but the word [Madison](http://www.meaning-of-baby-boy-names.org.uk/first-name-meanings-m/meaning-of-madison.htm) itself means “Son of (a) soldier.” ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/31 "2012-02-21T17:32:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There’s also the hockey team, the Anaheim Ducks, which were named from the movie _The Mighty Ducks_. Worse, the team was actually called _[The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaheim_Ducks)_ until Disney sold it and it was re-branded as the Anaheim Ducks. The movie team in D2 and the NHL team shared logos and colours. They still use the logo (hilariously called the ‘classic’ logo, dating back to the olden days of 1993) as a patch on their alternate jerseys. The mascot is named after a Disney character, Wildwing. The whole thing was rather bizarre. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/32 "2012-02-21T18:04:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The countdown was a dramatic device invented by director Friz Lang for his 1929 film [Frau im Mond (Women in the Moon)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5iqJUrgwbM). The rocket sequences were as accurate as possible, but no matter what the text there says, they may be firsts for a film, but all had been invented earlier. > > . Lang may have had the first count-down, but in **From the Earth to the Moon** , Jules Verne had his moon shot\* preceded by a count-_UP_. They srtarted at one and went up to a maximum. \*It wasn’t a _launch_, since the “astronauts” were in an aluminum shell being fired out of a giant cannon. This weould have squished everyone on board as completely and as dead as the guys in the ships in Dan Simmons’ _Hyoerion_, with no cruciforms for reconstitution, but I think this is a detail Verne let slide in the interests of coming up with the story. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/33 "2012-02-21T18:08:05Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Mechanical men and women were featured in a number of stories before the word robot was invented in the play R.U.R. (1921). Those robots were artificial protoplasm, what we would now call androids. Ironically, android is a much older word and originally meant clockwork figurines of humans, so the two uses have completely switched around. When robots appear in real life depends entirely on what you want to count as a robot. There are a bunch of contenders before 1930. Same thing happened with ballista and catapult. A ballista was originally a machine for throwing rocks and a catapult was a machine for shooting arrows. But at some point the terms swapped their meanings. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/34 "2012-02-21T19:32:25Z")
Stay Puft marsmallows didn’t exist before **Ghostbusters** , now they do. The restaurant Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/35 "2012-02-21T19:44:20Z")
The name [Vanessa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_(name)) does seem to have been invented by Jonathon Swift. 1984 only existed as a concept when Orwell wrote his book. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/36 "2012-02-21T20:04:46Z")
Dean Koontz used to reference a non-existent book called **The Book of Counted Sorrows** in his other novels. Then he went ahead and [wrote it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Counted_Sorrows). ---
**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:** [February 21, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/37 "2012-02-21T20:22:55Z")
In Terry Pratchett’s _Thud_, a plot point is that Sam Vimes reads his infant son his favorite book, _Where’s My Cow?_, every evening. Pratchett then released the book _Where’s My Cow?_, too. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/38 "2012-02-21T20:42:07Z")
The novel _Venus on the Half-Shell_, by Kilgore Trout, originally existed only in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut, but about a decade later appeared as an actual Dell paperback, written (as was later revealed) by Philip Jose Farmer. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/39 "2012-02-21T23:33:16Z")
The [PADD](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD) from Star Trek: The Next Generation came into being as the iPad and other tablet computers and E-readers. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499/40 "2012-02-21T23:51:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The movie _Machete_ was originally was originally just a parody trailer that ran with the movie _Grindhouse_. But the trailer was so popular they went ahead and made the movie. Same with _Hobo With A Shotgun_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-things-that-became-real/613499.md?page=3)