# 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:** 20
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/381 "2022-06-10T00:55:24Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Another thing Western movies get wrong is the hats worn then. They more often wore derbies than cowboy hats. They also wore various other hats more than cowboy hats. Now you’ve done it… ---
**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 10, 2022, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/382 "2022-06-10T02:26:14Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > They more often wore derbies than cowboy hats. But they were ten gallon derbies, that came in white for the good guys… right? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/383 "2022-06-10T02:36:48Z")
Re-watching _Wolf Hall_ and not sure all the sets are good for 1529. In ep. 2 Cromwell and Cavendish are discussing Cardinal Wolsey self-flagelating, and pull open a drawer with his whip in it. I can’t find anything about there being drawers in 1529. Elsewhere I read where they were invented by the Chinese, perfected by the Japanese and spread like crazy in 17th C Europe. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/384 "2022-06-10T03:04:39Z")
“The Christmas Story” was set in the 1940s, and the mother’s hairstyle is from the early 1980s, when the movie was made. I suspect that was deliberate. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/385 "2022-06-10T10:25:25Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > I can’t find anything about there being drawers in 1529. Drawers start to show up in the late 1400s: > **[A medieval drawer](https://thomasguild.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-medieval-drawer.html)** > > We are planning to make a new piece of medieval furniture for a Dutch castle that will also contain a drawer. While there are plenty of exa... Chests-entirely-of-drawers (vs the seemingly more common open chest that also has a drawer) exist by then in France, as well : > **[Chest of Drawers for Vestments | French (?) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/471297)** ---
**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 10, 2022, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/386 "2022-06-10T12:18:16Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Of course it’s a quibble, but Azeem’s telescope wasn’t a retractable spyglass, it was an ad hoc device made from two lenses held in a leather housing. Here’s a [youtube cite.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZTgX4UrVdE) Another thing about that telescope - the image would have been inverted. Take a look at this diagram of a simple two lens telescope: [http://electron9.phys.utk.edu/optics421/modules/m3/telescopes.htm](http://electron9.phys.utk.edu/optics421/modules/m3/telescopes.htm) This isn’t a problem if you’re looking at stars, but for looking at things on the ground, it’s a bit different. ---
**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:** [June 10, 2022, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/387 "2022-06-10T13:04:48Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Another thing about that telescope - the image would have been inverted. Take a look at this diagram of a simple two lens telescope: Depends. If it was a Galilean telescope, with the rear lens a negative one, the image would be erect. > **[3 Facts On Galilean Telescope:What,Working, Discoveries -](https://lambdageeks.com/galilean-telescope/?msclkid=ed6c8a78b61e11ec859ecd29e53612c5)** > > The Galilean telescope, named after the famous Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, is an optical instrument that uses a combination of lenses to magnify I admit that it’s unlikely – positive lenses are easier to make and arguably more useful. But negative lenses correct myopia (my eyeglasses are negative), and they could conceivably be made and used. I don’t recall if the movie shows both lenses clearly enough to judge. If they did, it’s likely they were both depicted as positive. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/388 "2022-06-11T21:54:24Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > One anachronism, that may be a misremembering on my part, but didn’t Han Solo mention “Einstein” when rebuking C3PO? > Which would be out by a factor of “a long time” and in a different galaxy altogether. I’ve long had a theory about that legend of “a long time ago in a galaxy far away” thing. I think the whole Star Wars saga is set in the Milky Way galaxy, a long long time in the _future_. How else to explain the characters with very recognizably Earth-like names? (Calrissian being one stand-out example.) The opening scroll, with the famous phrase “a long time ago in a galaxy far away” is itself set from the point of view of some time even farther in the future in a galaxy far away from the Milky Way. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/389 "2022-06-11T23:50:22Z")
I always assumed the “Long long time ago” thing was done by Lucas to deliberately prevent people from claiming the Empire is future Earth that got taken over by the Fourth Reich or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/390 "2022-06-11T23:51:26Z")
It’s easier than all that, fairy tales start “A long time ago in a kingdom far far away”, Star Wars is a fairy tale in space, it’s not really or not just Sci Fi, it’s fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/391 "2022-06-11T23:54:20Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > future Earth that got taken over by the Fourth Reich Or whatever. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZqKv_laDbks/hqdefault.jpg "The Hooper X monologue") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqKv_laDbks&t=184s) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/392 "2022-06-12T00:55:32Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Fighting intelligence? Yeah, we do that sometimes too… Sounds like a college football team. The University of Chicago Fighting Intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/393 "2022-06-12T03:12:56Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > 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. They hired a dialog coach, and Dick faithfully followed his direction. and no one said Boo about it- [Dick Van Dyke sorry for 'atrocious cockney accent' in Mary Poppins | Dick Van Dyke | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jul/21/dick-van-dyke-sorry-for-cockney-accent-mary-poppins-disney#:~:text=Dick%20Van%20Dyke%20has%20apologised,his%20famously%20off%2Dradar%20accent). _He also said he was completely unaware during the shoot that anything was wrong with his attempted cockney accent. “I was working with an entire English cast and nobody said a word, not Julie [Andrews], not anybody said I needed to work on it so I thought I was alright.”_ Dick is extremely talented, so the accent wasn’t his fault. His dialog coach (who was Irish) told him that was right, and not a Brit on the cast said a word. So, no the Brits in the cast did not cringe every time they heard it.\ > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Another thing Western movies get wrong is the hats worn then. They more often wore derbies than cowboy hats. They also wore various other hats more than cowboy hats. No, this is wrong. Some silly writer found out that Stetsons weren’t made until after the heyday of the cowboy= true. And she saw a bunch of posed photos (like the famous Wild Bunch pic) with the guys in suits and bowlers. Thus “Cowboys wore bowlers!” wrong, wrong wrong, and it has spread like wildfire. even on QI. Cowboys in the old west wore kinda shapeless wide brim wool felt hats, sometimes called 'wide awake hats". You can see those on all the pictures of real cowboys working out on the range. Sometimes straw hats or even sombreros. Teddy Roosevelt wrote of some guy who wore a bowler in a rough cowtown and how they knocked it off and teased him about it. Bowlers were worn in more civilized areas in town. Bat Masterson was considered a character as he always wore one. Stetson took that wool felt hat and added style and shape. The original is kinda a “ur-stetson”. ---
**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 12, 2022, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/394 "2022-06-12T03:19:29Z")
Can you give me a citation on this? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/395 "2022-06-12T04:35:05Z")
On which? > **[Teaching about the American West: Black Cowboys - Social Studies](https://www.socialstudies.com/blog/teaching-about-the-american-west-black-cowboys/)** > > The cowboy is viewed as an American icon: rugged rider of the range; champion of the good. > **[Let’s Rodeo](https://truewestmagazine.com/article/lets-rodeo/)** > > Wild West shows and frontier rodeos are largely responsible for the distinctive styling and flare seen on cowboy shirts today. The arena cowboys initially > **[Wild Bunch | American outlaws](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wild-Bunch)** > > Wild Bunch, a collection of cowboy-outlaws who flourished in the 1880s and ’90s in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and surrounding states and territories. Their chief hideouts were Hole in the Wall, a nearly inaccessible grassy canyon and rocky retreat in... ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/396 "2022-06-12T05:51:33Z")
Yeah if you just look at photos of the time of period accurate cowboys they are wearing “cowboyish” hats. There’s also the fact the US Army Cavalry hat in the 1870s very much also looked like a cowboy hat really makes it seem like cowboyish hats were pretty common. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/397 "2022-06-12T06:08:16Z")
On cowboys, etc yes. Now in the towns and cities, more bowlers. ---
**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 12, 2022, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/398 "2022-06-12T06:49:03Z")
I was asking about the hats that cowboys wore during the time of the Wild West. I wasn’t asking about the fact that there were a lot of black cowboys (which I knew about), about the fact that a lot of present-day images of cowboys cam from Wild West shows (which I knew about), or about the fact that there was never a single organized gang of outlaws (which I had no opinion about and had never really thought about). I was asking for a citation from a book or an article that had done a study of what hats cowboys wore at that time. I have no problem accepting that they wore these hats that you call wide awake hats. I had never read about that before, but I have no problem believing it. I just would like a citation that I can give if I’m asked about it. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/399 "2022-06-12T09:04:14Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Hairdos and costumes in a lot of movies and shows fail historical accuracy. MASH, for example, which feature 1970s-1980s haircuts for an early 1950s setting. I think the hairdo thing is intentional. The movie / show makers know that having modern hairdos on the pretty stars makes the production more palatable to modern viewers. Having historically accurate hair would distract the average viewer, and lessen the sex appeal of the characters. After all, hairdos from even 20 years back (from any particular 20th century moment) look surprisingly silly. Obviously, it’s also much more straight forward (and cheaper) to let the actors have the hairdos they would have, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/400 "2022-06-12T10:57:32Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I remember the controversy. There was one episode afterwards where they showed a bunch of villagers at a ballroom dance. There was a Black couple there, and the camera lingered on them more than usual for background extras. I can’t speak for Midsomer, an imaginary county somewhere between Somerset and Berkshire, but in London there were plenty of people from all over the Commonwealth during the second half of the twentieth century, and many of my extended family are mixed-race in one way or another. [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=19) [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=21)