# So...anyone else ever mistakenly think fictional characters were real? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 23, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988 "2013-12-23T02:46:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [December 23, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/21 "2013-12-23T12:20:54Z")
> [@Doctor\_Why\_Bother](#): > > I used to live in London, about ten minutes from Baker Street and about five minutes from a graveyard. Whenever I had friends or relatives come over from Holland, Australia, or the U.S. I used to make a point of taking them past the graveyard on the way to the shops and I’d nod towards the headstones and casually say “Sherlock Holmes is buried there.” You’d be amazed how often that worked! Heh! Numbskulls…_everyone_ knows that Holmes isn’t dead. He’s just 159 years old. ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/22 "2013-12-23T12:37:53Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I had heard of Monty Python long before I saw the first television shows; at the time (early '70s) I assumed he was a real person—Britain’s equivalent to Mel Brooks, producing zany comedies. Almost exactly this. Except it was the 80’s and I thought he was American. The kind of guy that would guest on the Match Game or was of that era and ilk. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/23 "2013-12-23T13:02:40Z")
> [@Snerky\_Snerk](#): > > …somehow I had previously filed Walter Mitty in the ‘real people’ section of my brain. I get him confused with Samuel Pepys. I have no idea why. I thought Betty Crocker was a real person. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/24 "2013-12-23T13:55:23Z")
When I read John Barth’s **The Sot-Weed Factor** , I thought that his hero, Ebeneezer Cooke, was pure fiction. Years later, I discovered there was a historical Cooke that the character was based on, and he wrote the poem that gave the book its name. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/25 "2013-12-23T15:16:29Z")
I thought **That Thing You Do!** was based off a real band, and that’s where the phrase “One-hit Wonders” came from. ---
**Author:** ![Cognoscant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Cognoscant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cognoscant)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/26 "2013-12-23T15:38:44Z")
Ironically, the guy who actually wrote the song “That Thing You Do!” for the film, Adam Schlesinger, is a bit of a one-hit wonder himself–you may recall his band Fountains of Wayne and their one mainstream hit “Stacy’s Mom”. Fountains of Wayne have made a lot of great stuff, but that seems to be all anyone remembers about them. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/27 "2013-12-23T15:43:20Z")
> [@Snerky\_Snerk](#): > > Up until 2001 when he got a lot of coverage in the news, I had thought [Rudi Giuliani](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani) was a black woman. :smack: She had to be the only black woman with a comb over. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/28 "2013-12-23T16:00:17Z")
For a short bit of time I thought _Silence Of the Lambs_, and Hannibal Lecter in particular, were based on real events and real people. ---
**Author:** ![jrsone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jrsone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrsone)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/29 "2013-12-23T16:02:22Z")
I thought for the longest time Johnny Appleseed wasn’t real but then I looked him up just now and found out he WAS real. So I just did the reverse. Far out man… ---
**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:** [December 23, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/30 "2013-12-23T16:06:47Z")
Back in 1983 I read Dean Koontz’s _Phantoms_, in which there are passages describing all sorts of historical disappearances, including the Virginia colony disappearance, the vanishing of 6,000 soldiers in China in 1936, etc. Fascinating stuff, especially that part about the 6,000 soldiers. Couldn’t find any reference to it back then, but I was only 15 and research took valuable time from playing that new _Lode Runner_ game on my Apple II. So I just accepted that the disappearance happened in real life and there wasn’t much written about it. After all, the Roanoke island disappearance was real… surely he could (and did) find a few more real examples of mass disappearances in the vast sweep of human history, right? Er… no. Bullshit all of it. I was rather disappointed (but not surprised) when I confirmed this a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/31 "2013-12-23T16:18:34Z")
I long assumed that Horatio Alger was the poor boy who made good in the eponymous stories, rather than the author of the stories. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/32 "2013-12-23T16:47:44Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > For a short bit of time I thought _Silence Of the Lambs_, and Hannibal Lecter in particular, were based on real events and real people. Certain parts of it were. One serial killer (Rodney Alcala? Ted Bundy?) used the arm-in-a-cast routine to disable his victims. Ed Guin, I think it was, used the skin from his victims to make a variety of items. Both Guin and Jeffrey Dahmer were real-life cannibals. Truth is often more gruesome than fiction! ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/33 "2013-12-23T16:59:12Z")
I’ve encountered a surprising number of people who thought that Cyrano de Bergerac was fictional. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/34 "2013-12-23T17:03:04Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > I’ve encountered a surprising number of people who thought that Cyrano de Bergerac was fictional. Not to mention D’Artagnan: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles\_de\_Batz-Castelmore\_d%27Artagnan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Batz-Castelmore_d%27Artagnan) ---
**Author:** ![Tante\_Dillie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Tante\_Dillie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tante_Dillie)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/35 "2013-12-23T18:27:04Z")
I used to think Stephen Fry was real, but of course he’s not. _Nobody_ can be that smart. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/36 "2013-12-23T18:32:34Z")
My dad thought Anne Shirley, AKA Anne of Green Gables was real. He was pretty devastated when he found out, around age 50 that she was fictional. “But we saw her house!”, he yelled. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/37 "2013-12-23T18:33:29Z")
I thought Marshal Matt Dillon was real. Until about a month or so ago. I’m almost 48. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Tante\_Dillie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Tante\_Dillie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tante_Dillie)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/38 "2013-12-23T18:41:59Z")
> [@Marlonius](#): > > My dad thought Anne Shirley, AKA Anne of Green Gables was real. He was pretty devastated when he found out, around age 50 that she was fictional. “But we saw her house!”, he yelled. Marlonius, could your dad have been thinking of the Hollywood actress Anne Shirley?[Anne Shirley - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0794297/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/39 "2013-12-23T19:46:23Z")
> [@Barking\_Dog](#): > > I was positive for awhile that Sherlock Holmes was real. The Straight Dope (Staff Report): [Did Sherlock Holmes really exist?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2088/did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist) ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988/40 "2013-12-23T19:49:21Z")
I work in a library and we frequently get people who want more information about Miss Jane Pittman. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-anyone-else-ever-mistakenly-think-fictional-characters-were-real/676988.md?page=3)