# What was the most anachronistic thing you've seen in a fictional work that wasn't intentional or an accident? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956 "2021-11-08T03:28:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/321 "2022-06-07T18:49:33Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > I have played in games where a teammate pitches to the batter. The pitcher doesn’t field but it’s a way to field a team when you have limited players. There are also some recreational leagues in which the team pitches to their own hitters. Hitting the ball is more fun for everyone, so they put in a pitcher who makes it easier for the people to hit. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/322 "2022-06-07T18:58:21Z")
With a whiffle bat and ball, I’ve played baseball as one on one ([Invisible runner rule - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_runner_rule)) ---
**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:** [June 7, 2022, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/323 "2022-06-07T19:57:46Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > > > I have played in games where a teammate pitches to the batter. > > Which raises a question I’ve long wondered. How did baseball get to be a game both kids and adults like to play unorganized (pick up game), when you need so many to play? You can play basketball with anywhere from 1 to 12 players, (yes, I mean 6 on 6. If you’re small kids, you can do it) but try playing baseball with 4. We rarely had enough kids to make a game, and then you spend all your time running after fly balls. Baseball was a very popular game in the 19th century and there were always people available to play it. You don’t need 18 players – there are configurations for pickup games that require less. See this, for example: > **[What are the common ways to play pick-up baseball?](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-common-ways-to-play-pick-up-baseball)** > > Answer (1 of 7): I’m just recalling a couple of options from my youth (some 60 years ago). Both address the common problem of not having enough players for two full teams of nine, and accommodating players who join or leave the game while it is in... Another factor is that the pick-up teams were not necessarily playing to win. They just want to bat and pitch and play the field. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/324 "2022-06-07T20:41:24Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > They just want to bat and pitch and play the field. Yep. I remember pickup games in which a player who just made an out or scored would simply rotate into the fielding position of the next batter up. Depending on whether runners were on base or not, there could be three infielders, or four outfielders, or whatever, but it didn’t matter. It was a fun way to do it because everyone got to play everywhere eventually. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/325 "2022-06-07T20:50:40Z")
Bruno Kirby’s New York accent in “Flesh and Blood”. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/326 "2022-06-07T21:40:10Z")
That’s an interesting choice, because the movie never really makes the nationality of most of its characters clear, nor do we know what language they were speaking… If Kirby was supposed to be an Englishman speaking English, then I guess his accent was out of place, but if he was supposed to be a German speaking German, then a Brooklyn accent is as good as any other. I agree, though, that director Paul Verhoeven, probably just didn’t care. He’s never really had much of an ear for English-language dialog. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/327 "2022-06-07T23:45:00Z")
That movie seemed pretty timeless in that, like the best historical or semi-historical pieces the only way to tell when it was made is by the ages of the actors. But Kirby’s NY accent would take me out of it every time he opened his mouth. “Ya morons, ya let da plague in here.” ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/328 "2022-06-08T00:06:35Z")
I was watching Little House on the Praire with my mother. And Charles Ingall’s(Michael Landon’s) clean feathered haircut really stands out to me as ridiculous. (Incidentally TV Tropes has a page of anachronisms from the series. [Little House on the Prairie / Anachronism Stew - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AnachronismStew/LittleHouseOnThePrairie)) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/329 "2022-06-08T02:32:19Z")
I never watched a single episode of “Little House” because every time I’d be changing channels and catch a glimpse of it, there was that hair! Charles Ingall’s hair was thin and grey (or even white?) … he was old. And now that I think of it, almost every single historical movie or show made in the 70s had “Hot Comb Hair” (Hell, why did no one ask Robert Redford’s Sundance Kid “Hey thar, rapscallion, what in tarnation is up with your hair?”). Hmm, I’d bet it goes even farther back, that movies made in the 50s portraying ancient cultures had them in mid-century hairdos… [researching … Say, Billy, do you like gladiator movies? …] Yep! I’ll bet [Victor Mature](https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Demetrious-And-The-Gladiators.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&h=370&dpr=1.5) and [Stephan Boyd](https://ksamaarchvis.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/picture11.jpg?w=682&h=1024) got promised “Okay, okay, and you don’t have to cut your hair!” ---
**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:** [June 8, 2022, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/330 "2022-06-08T04:15:54Z")
Watching all the WWII dramas that were filmed in the '60s. my mother never stopped commenting on how anachronistic the women’s hairstyles were. The biggest offender where period hairstyles are concerned is _ **MASH** _ (the TV series). Where the hell did Hot Lips find a blowdryer in 1950s Korea? ---
**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:** [June 8, 2022, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/331 "2022-06-08T04:21:36Z")
When he used it, Kevin Kostner’s English accent in _ **Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves** _ was far worse. Taking first place in horrible English accents is Dick van Dyke’s pseudo-Cockney in _ **Mary Poppins** _, which kept changing as the movie progressed. I’ll bet the Brits in the cast cringed every time they heard it. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/332 "2022-06-08T04:51:12Z")
Dodgy accents may count as a production error, but not an anachronism. Also, I don’t expect a Robin Hood movie to use authentic 13th Century English. I can accept that what we are hearing is a translation. I will, however, repeat what I said earlier in the thread. The Sheriff calls Robin a thug. The Thugs were a band of robbers in 19th Century India. Translation or not, using that word is particularly jarring. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/333 "2022-06-08T04:59:54Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I will, however, repeat what I said earlier in the thread. The Sheriff calls Robin a thug. The Thugs were a band of robbers in 19th Century India. Translation or not, using that word is particularly jarring. What should he have called him? “Hoodlum” and “hooligan” are equally anachronistic. A “ruffian”? A “ne’er-do-well”? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/334 "2022-06-08T05:31:17Z")
brute? ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/335 "2022-06-08T05:49:03Z")
“Guy Who Steals Shit” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/336 "2022-06-08T07:37:10Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > When he used it, Kevin Kostner’s English accent in _ **Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves** _ was far worse. Obligatory Men in Tights clip; [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rrFmuiF2ENY/maxresdefault.jpg "Robin hood Men in Tights - I speak with an English Accent") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrFmuiF2ENY) ---
**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:** [June 8, 2022, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/337 "2022-06-08T08:25:34Z")
I believe the term at the time was “utlaw,” judging from a period headstone that was supposedly his. > **[Robin Hood's Grave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood%27s_Grave)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}53°41′23″N 1°44′13″W / 53.6897°N 1.737°W / 53.6897; -1.737 > Robin Hood's Grave is the name given to a monument in Kirklees Park Estate, West Yorkshire, England, near the now-... ---
**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:** [June 8, 2022, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/338 "2022-06-08T08:28:35Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I don’t expect a Robin Hood movie to use authentic 13th Century English. I can accept that what we are hearing is a translation. Better to use no accent at all then. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/339 "2022-06-08T08:34:49Z")
And which accent is that? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/340 "2022-06-08T11:39:14Z")
You can do like what is done in a movie supposedly set in ancient Rome. You can’t have all the cast speak Latin, so you just have them speak in contemporary English. You could have them all speak in one English-language accent, or you could just have everyone speak in their normal accents. In effect, you’re indicating to the movie audience that they have to pretend that they’re hearing everyone speak in one accent of Latin. It’s my contention that this is what is happening in all the Star Wars films. All the actors simply speak in their native accents, and there’s no attempt to have them be just one accent of English. After all, they aren’t people of the current time. In fact, they aren’t even human. The Star Wars films happen long ago in a far-away galaxy. The main characters may be of one species originally from one planet, but they can’t be human. Just as the audience is supposed to pretend that the characters are speaking in the languages of that time and place, they are supposed to pretend that the main species in the movies (the ones played by actors without alien makeup) are some species that looks vastly different from humans, but they are played without makeup just as they are speaking English. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956.md?page=18)