# True or False- Harry Potter is the most famous literary character in the last 50 years? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238 "2010-04-24T20:53:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [April 26, 2010, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/61 "2010-04-26T00:14:31Z")
Come to think of it, the reaction from the Christian right to the Harry Potter books probably also helps him a lot. A fair chunk of people who _haven’t_ read any of the books or seen any of the movies have probably still heard of him, from hearing their pastor, or someone on TV, complaining that he’s Satanic. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/62 "2010-04-26T00:19:14Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > The problem is that people don’t really read books these days, so the answer will inevitably a character that was introduced in a book but was later made into a movie character. If there’s no movie of it, then he or she just can’t be _that_ famous. You know this is an incredibly false statement right? Sales of books to teens have never been higher and plenty of adults and children are reading too. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/63 "2010-04-26T00:25:29Z")
> [@middleman](#): > > Stephen King has a few iconic characters, but I doubt any of them rise to this level. I can only think of three that come close to Potter – Carrie White, Jack Torrance, and Randall Flagg. And they don’t come all that close, if we’re including younger kids in the survey. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/64 "2010-04-26T00:55:28Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > You know this is an incredibly false statement right? Sales of books to teens have never been higher and plenty of adults and children are reading too. Eh, and how many of those people who went out to buy Harry Potter / Twilight books did it because of all the hype from the movies? (Maybe even after seeing the movies) The point is that books which aren’t made into movies are still a niche market. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/65 "2010-04-26T01:30:19Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Eh, and how many of those people who went out to buy Harry Potter / Twilight books did it because of all the hype from the movies? (Maybe even after seeing the movies) The point is that books which aren’t made into movies are still a niche market. The movies were hyped because the book success came _first_. If it wasn’t already such a huge success as a book series, the movies would have come and gone with little fanfare. That Percy Jackson thing some people have mentioned didn’t do anything spectacular at the box office, $87 million. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/66 "2010-04-26T01:42:33Z")
yeah, i think we’re just out-thinking ourselves here. harry potter is the answer, if we’re excluding comic books. spiderman vs harry potter is an interesting showdown though. heck, spiderman vs hello kitty would be an interesting showdown. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/67 "2010-04-26T03:55:57Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > yeah, i think we’re just out-thinking ourselves here. harry potter is the answer, if we’re excluding comic books. spiderman vs harry potter is an interesting showdown though. heck, spiderman vs hello kitty would be an interesting showdown. I’d bet on Hello Kitty. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/68 "2010-04-26T04:28:30Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I’d bet on Hello Kitty. Seriously? I’m still not entirely sure what Hello Kitty is(\*), even though I’d recognize her instantly from her merchandise. Whereas most people not only know what Spider-Man looks like but also that he’s a super hero with spider powers. (\*) She’s an anime character, right? (Of course, I bet most Americans don’t know what anime is either. But they’ve certainly heard of super-heroes.) ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/69 "2010-04-26T05:27:52Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I’d bet on Hello Kitty. Only if Hello Kitty had time to prepare. Was Hello Kitty a character in a book? I’ve only seen it plastered all over stuff for girls. Did the book come first, or was Hello Kitty everywhere else 1st, then turned into a book? I’d have to go with Harry Potter too. Practically everyone has at least heard of him. From the giant fanfare when the latter books came out, to the mega movies, sales tie ins at fast food joints, and now even a theme park. You can’t really avoid it. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/70 "2010-04-26T07:19:19Z")
I had heard of Harry from his books long before the movies, but I had never heard of Percy until the movie. I don’t know if there’s anyway to separate people who recognize Harry from the movies and new in general from people who have seen/read the books. Are we saying characters who were written about only in the last fifty years? Than yes, probably, even counting superheroes in comics. ---
**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:** [April 26, 2010, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/71 "2010-04-26T07:33:45Z")
I have to agree with the OP within those parameters. If you exclude any character before 1960 (so no James Bond, Holden Caulfield, or Lolita), any character from the comics (so no Spiderman, Wolverine, or Dilbert), or any character who became predominantly famous in another media (so no Darth Vader, Mr Spock, or Don Corleone) than I think Harry Potter’s it. He certainly beats characters like Lestat or Travis McGee or Randall Flagg. ---
**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:** [April 26, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/72 "2010-04-26T08:06:45Z")
On the one hand, Harry Potter is boosted by being such a recent phenomenon, still fresh in people’s minds. On the other hand, the earlier pop cultural literary characters had thirty or forty years to build their iconic status. Harry Potter still wins. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/73 "2010-04-26T09:44:11Z")
**M_A_S\*H** by Robert Hooker was published in 1968 and in other media became quite popular; I probably know more **M_A_S\*H** trivia than **Harry Potter** trivia. Hawkeye and Hot Lips Houlihan are universally known characters. I’ll throw out another name here: **Encyclopedia Brown**. The books might not sell in Harry Potter numbers, but every kid in America has had a shot at reading his adventures for free in grade school libraries (My 5th grade homeroom class had a nearly complete set in the corner). And he’s more popular than, say, “The Three Investigators” (also contenders within the OP’s parameters) because his books were short story anthologies, usually about ten pages apiece. Lazy kids under the gun to read “a book” might gravitate towards a very easy, undemanding read. No idea how available the books are these days, but they were pretty ubiquitous in the 60s and 70s. I’ll bet Uncle Olaf and the Beaudelaire kids were contenders before the crapfest of a Lemony Snicket movie came out. And did **Goosebumps** have recurring central characters? Shrek has gotta be in the top twenty. The line between a comic book and a heavily illustrated children’s book is fuzzy, but he was definitely the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/74 "2010-04-26T09:52:21Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I have to agree with the OP within those parameters. If you exclude any character before 1960 (so no James Bond, Holden Caulfield, or Lolita), any character from the comics (so no Spiderman, Wolverine, or Dilbert), **or any character who became predominantly famous in another media** (so no Darth Vader, Mr Spock, or Don Corleone) than I think Harry Potter’s it. He certainly beats characters like Lestat or Travis McGee or Randall Flagg. Bolding mine. No, that’s not the parameter. If the character was created specifically for books, he’s in, and Don Corleone was created for a novel. Hey, any character who was adapted into a movie is likely more famous for movies than for books; consider Mowgli, Tarzan, Dorothy Gale and James Bond. ---
**Author:** ![ghostman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ghostman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ghostman)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/75 "2010-04-26T15:11:34Z")
how about big bird? ---
**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:** [April 26, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/76 "2010-04-26T15:33:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Bolding mine. No, that’s not the parameter. If the character was created specifically for books, he’s in, and Don Corleone was created for a novel. Hey, any character who was adapted into a movie is likely more famous for movies than for books; consider Mowgli, Tarzan, Dorothy Gale and James Bond. I’ll admit Don Corleone is on the borderline. Others like Darth Vader and Captain Kirk are not - they are not really literary creations. But even with Corleone, I’ll stand by my belief that he is not _predominantly_ a literary character - he was a minor literary character who became famous via the movies. Characters like Tarzan, Bond, or Dracula were already famous as literary characters before the movies made them more famous. ---
**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:** [April 26, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/77 "2010-04-26T16:46:44Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Who’s Edward Cullen? God, I envy you. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/78 "2010-04-26T18:17:17Z")
I had to look up both Cullen and Jackson, although it turned out I was somewhat familiar with the franchises. Breaking the time barrier, I’d say it’s between Frankenstein’s monster and Count Dracula. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/79 "2010-04-26T22:27:25Z")
guys, before you come in with another Robert Langdon or Darth Vader, ask yourself, “as popular as this character is, are there a signifigant number of people who know this guy but have never heard of Harry Potter?” The answer will more often than not be “no.” Ergo, Harry Potter is more popular. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238/80 "2010-04-26T23:31:34Z")
If we’re eliminating comic books character, I’d say it’s definitely either Harry Potter or Darth Vader. > [@whole\_bean](#): > > guys, before you come in with another Robert Langdon or Darth Vader, ask yourself, “as popular as this character is, are there a signifigant number of people who know this guy but have never heard of Harry Potter?” The answer will more often than not be “no.” Ergo, Harry Potter is more popular. But ask the converse… are there a significant number of people who know who Harry Potter is, but not Darth Vader? I’m not sure. I would think most kids these days know who Darth Vader is, but… I admit I’m not really sure how popular Star Wars is with kids under the age of, say, 15. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-harry-potter-is-the-most-famous-literary-character-in-the-last-50-years/537238.md?page=5)