Screw Charlie, Willy Wonka has a way higher recognition factor what with the candy and all, but still nothin’ like Mr. Potter I reckon
How would we determine a winner? Name recognition poll or something I suppose.
I am guessing that Harry Potter would win, Darth Vader a close seond, although I would not be suprised if ended up turned around. Other than those two I don’t think anybody comes close.
Frankly, I don’t think there’s anyone I know who is ignorant of either Darth Vader or Harry Potter. So it’s hard for me to say anything about who else such a person might know of.
No they aren’t, not by a long shot. I doubt they’re particularly well-known internationally, especially in non-English speaking countries, and they aren’t well-known by children even in the US.
Not many people under 25 know what MAS*H is. And that’s in America.
I don’t know if Spidey would win even if you allowed him. I remember reading articles about clerics in the Middle East denouncing Potter because of the witchcraft. And HP would certainly be extremely popular in all the Commonwealth nations.
Darth Vader is not a literary character. He’s a movie character, who has also appeared in some books.
Immensely, ridiculously popular. If Darth Vader counted, he’d take it by a mile. Because not only are most kids familiar with him, but so are most adults.
And while most adults know of Harry Potter, Vader has a much bigger recognition factor due to being 35 years olds.
after unsuccessfully looking for q-score rankings for cartoons online, i submit interesting, but not really helpful sites:
http://www.whoismorefamous.com/
which claims that Spiderman>Vader>Charlie Brown. This list is clearly flawed since neither micky mouse nor harry potter or even Jesus is on the list, but it’s a step in the right direction of finding a factual answer.
http://www.fictional100.com/sitemap.html
100 most influential fictional characters on the human psyche as written by a PhD!!! she really toots her own doctorate, and it is certainly a diverse sampling though i did find it a little lazy that romeo/juliet, brothers k, tristan/isolde, etc. are counted as separate entries.
also, was playing around with msn hotlist and google zeitgeist, but those aren’t the same as recognizability. however, it was worth noting that the baseline interest in spiderman vs hello kitt… hello kitty kicks the shit out of spiderman
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=Hello%20kitty&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=spiderman&cmpt=q
and that harry potter’s baseline is a smidge above darth vader.
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=harry%20potter&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=darth%20vader&cmpt=q
and that pokemon is trending up steadily, whereas digimon took a hit but is surging up again
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=pokemon&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=digimon&cmpt=q
also, twilight is way more popular than percy jackson, transformers, and iron man zeitgeist-wise
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=twilight&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=percy%20jackson&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=transformers&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=3&q=iron%20man&cmpt=q
…
someone find a q-score list for fictional characters!
Who wants to pass the hat? Its behind a pay wall.
http://www.qscores.com/pages/Template1/site11/25/default.aspx
And here’s a direct link to buy the study:
http://www.qscores.com/pages/Template1/site11/45/default.aspx?itemID=2
James Bond is famous in most of the non English speaking world, he gets my vote.
I think he should. While the books have been around since the mid 50s, he’s primarily famous from the films, about a decade later.
I think you’ve forgotten that some adults have children. The first HP book came out in 1997 and the last one came out ten years later. That’s a lot of time for kids to reach reading age and get interested in those books, and many of them would have read them with help from their parents. And there were definitely some adults without kids who read the books on their own.
Not a doubt in my mind.
I’m surprised there’s even a debate here; Harry Potter is unquestionably a more famous character than Robert Langdon, and it’s not a close call. More Potter books have been sold, the movies have sold more tickets, and there’s more tie-in stuff. You didn’t see giant, thousands-of-fans read-ins for Robert Langdon books. And as has been pointed out, as a CHARACTER, Langdon barely exists anyway. If we counted Darth Vader - which I don’t think we should - he’d probably beat the Boy Who Lived, but what’s for sure is Robert Langdon’s an also-ran in this race.
+++
Oh, and throw me in with those who have no idea whatsoever who Percy Jackson is. I easily recognize every other fictional character named in this thread, but have honestly never heard of this Percy guy. I had to look it up… and had never heard of the books.
And wow, do they ever sound like a Harry Potter ripoff. Seriously, it’s the Potter concept lifted clean and slapped onto another mythos.
Yeah the only time I had ever heard the name Percy Jackson was when the movie came out a few months ago. And the only reason I noticed it was because of the length of the title. It looked like a Potter ripoff with bad effects, I had no idea it even came from a book.
I think you’re fooling yourself. I would reask my question, find someone who knows who Vader is but does not know who Potter is. As for the converse, I think I would have no trouble finding enough young girls and religously shletered with an awareness of Potter and no idea of who Vader is.
There’s also a book titled The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived by Allan Lazar, Dan Karlan, and Jeremy Salter.
Without looking it up, guess who they picked as the most influential fictional character of all time?
Wrong, guess again.
Wrong again, take three more guesses.
Still wrong, try ten guesses.
You still haven’t got it. Try a hundred guesses.
Nope, you still didn’t get it.
Their pick for the most influential historical character in the history of the world isThe Marlboro Man.
is #5 Joe Camel?
At the library I work at, the requests from kids follow a very specific pattern:
#1 Whatever is the kid favorite du jour
#2 STAR WARS!
#3 Harry Potter
And the best part is, if they’re young enough they think that Star Wars is this amazing brand new thing that they just discovered.
You didn’t neet to tell me that.
{sulks off and feels old}
Does fiction based on a true story count, though?