# 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:** 22
**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 13, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/421 "2022-06-13T20:13:26Z")
Oh that kind of thing has always happened (MASH (written in the 1970s but portraying the 1950s) had slang and terminology from the 1970s turn up. It’s just easier for folks who lived through the 70s and 80s to notice when current programs get our lifetimes wrong. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/422 "2022-06-13T20:17:48Z")
The Adam Sandler film **The Wedding Singer** was aesthetically a mashup of early-eighties fads, styles and tropes, so it can’t really be pinned down to one year. Within the timeframe of the movie, Billy Idol is a star, the Rubik’s Cube is big, and J.R. gets shot on Dallas. ---
**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 13, 2022, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/423 "2022-06-13T20:20:27Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > My entry for the most anachronistic thing I’ve seen in a fictional work is [10,000 BC](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443649) > > Set some years in the past (10,000 BC, one would assume) we had iron work, pyramids, pharaohs, corn, horse riding, tamed mammoths, sweet lord it was some kind of mish mosh of sorta historical themes all dropped into one place. This is now one of my all time favorite Bad Films. Forget about the mishmash of historical errors and National Enquirer-style Alien Stuff. The film makes no sense even taken on its own terms. A few examples: The Bad Guys kidnap some of the Caveman People as slaves. To bring them back, they have to go through the Swamps of the Giant Birds and the Desert with Giant Cats and take boats on the river. All this to get some slaves (and maybe get yourselves killed by the birds, the tigers, or the desert people)? They must be DAMNED good slaves! And, oh, yeah, they also brought back mammoths to do their work. Over the River and through the bird-infested woods we go. How did they get the mammoths on the boats? Did they only steal baby mammoths? Our Hero, following after the Bad Guy tribe, accidentally falls into a Saber Tooth Tiger Trap. This is a giant hole in the ground with pointed punji sticks in the bottom pointing upwards to transfix anything falling in. Our Hero evidently doesn’t see the Giant Hole in the Ground, even though at least two other animals have fallen into the trap before him. Slick trackin’ there. One of the animals, a gazelle or something, fell onto the punji sticks, but Our Hero hasn’t. Nice trap you guys built there. Even more damning, the giant Saber Toothed Tiger that fell into the trap didn’t hit any punji sticks, either, and it was a lot bigger than the gazelle. Again, nice goin’ there, trap people! You built a trap that kills antelopes, but not twelve-foot-long tigers or human beings. Our Hero, being a Sentimental Idiot, decides to pull an Androcles and the Lion and help the giant carnivorous tiger out of the trap, rather than leaving it there to die. In the Real World, behavior like this is insane. It fits the logic of the movie, so I’ll allow this bit of craziness. After all, after sniffing him, the tiger leaves him alone! What I can’t buy, though, is that, after getting a good whiff of his scent, the tiger doesn’t follow his trail back to his camp, where Our Hero’s chief is waiting with a hurt leg. Thanks for the snack! And so on… The movie is filled with such silliness. For a perfect evening, pair this with **Stargate** to see more outrageous aliens ‘n’ Ancient Egypt. Although **Stargate** is a lot less dumb and inconsistent than **10,000 B.C.** ---
**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 13, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/424 "2022-06-13T23:52:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > How did they get the mammoths on the boats? It works as long as you never leave the mammoths alone with the foxes, or the mammoths alone with the corn. But you can leave the foxes alone with the corn. ---
**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 13, 2022, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/425 "2022-06-13T23:59:53Z")
Leave the fox. Why did you have a fox? ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/426 "2022-06-14T00:16:41Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > But you can leave the foxes alone with the corn. Not if they’re hungry. Foxes eat all sorts of things, corn included. I really doubt a fox would take on a mammoth, though the mammoth might stomp on the fox. thorny-the-overly-literal ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/427 "2022-06-14T00:23:10Z")
I was watching a film set in 1940s WW2 but written in 2010 where one of the American GI’s calls the rations given to him “Grody”. That can’t possibly be period accurate right? ---
**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 14, 2022, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/428 "2022-06-14T00:45:07Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I was watching a film set in 1940s WW2 but written in 2010 where one of the American GI’s calls the rations given to him “Grody”. > [@The Jungle Upton Sinclair](#): > > … and as for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting—sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard! The guy who fell into the vat was Grody. ---
**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 14, 2022, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/429 "2022-06-14T00:47:40Z")
Reminds me of the episode of that awful _ **Dirty Dozen** _ TV series in the '80s where they were fighting Fascist cavalry in the Balkans. One GI says to his buddy “Man, you were _awesome_ up there on that horse!” It was at that point I changed the channel. ---
**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 14, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/430 "2022-06-14T02:03:54Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > The guy who fell into the vat was Grody. Maybe so, but [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) dates [grody](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/grody) meaning disgusting to the 1960s, and likely from _grotesque_. > [@terentii](#): > > One GI says to his buddy “Man, you were _awesome_ up there on that horse!” > > It was at that point I changed the channel. [First recorded use 1590-1600](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/awesome) ---
**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 14, 2022, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/431 "2022-06-14T02:09:37Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > > [@terentii](#): > > > > One GI says to his buddy “Man, you were _awesome_ up there on that horse!” > > [First recorded use 1590-1600](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/awesome) It wasn’t so much what he said, it was how he said it. He sounded like he’d just come from hanging out at the mall. My dad was a WWII vet. I can’t imagine him using “Awesome!” in any context. I’ve always thought “grody” was a corruption of “grotty.” Does “grot” come from “grotesque” as well, or does it just date back to Reginald Perrin? ---
**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 14, 2022, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/432 "2022-06-14T02:31:22Z")
[origin of Grotty.](https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2013/01/13/grotty/) ---
**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 14, 2022, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/433 "2022-06-14T02:50:08Z")
Illuminating, thank you! 👍 I’ve used "grotty’ many times, but “grody” never. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/434 "2022-06-14T03:16:43Z")
Possibly. I became old enough to use that word in the early 1970s, as a grade-schooler, and my generation can’t have made it up, although who knows, maybe they did. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/435 "2022-06-14T03:54:14Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > > > “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. > > Bob Clark, the director, has a cameo as one of the neighbors admiring the Old Man’s “major award”, wearing a Miami Dolphins hat. The Dolphins didn’t begin playing until 1966. Is it certain it was set in the 1940s? It feels pre-WWII to me. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/436 "2022-06-14T06:42:11Z")
The movie is set in 1940 or '41, based on stuff like when Ralphie’s decoder ring was produced. Pre-war for America, at least. It was based on stories written by Jean Shepherd about his childhood. Shepherd was Ralphie’s age in 1928. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/437 "2022-06-14T10:35:31Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I was watching a film set in 1940s WW2 but written in 2010 where one of the American GI’s calls the rations given to him “Grody”. > > That can’t possibly be period accurate right? It’s not as far off as you think. Apparently it comes from Old English but started taking off in Britain in the 1960’s. Here’s a Google [ngram search](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=grotty%3Aeng_gb_2012%2Cgrotty%3Aeng_us_2012&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cgrotty%3Aeng_gb_2012%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cgrotty%3Aeng_us_2012%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cgrotty%3Aeng_gb_2012%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cgrotty%3Aeng_us_2012%3B%2Cc0) graph. Still 15 years too late and a continent too far to be realistic. But it’s worth knowing it didn’t start in 1980’s California. ---
**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 14, 2022, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/438 "2022-06-14T10:50:55Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Is it certain it was set in the 1940s? It feels pre-WWII to me. > [@Miller](#): > > The movie is set in 1940 or '41 “Mother’s Look magazine” was 1937. Maybe she just hadn’t finished it yet.\* It could be that the set decorators are confused, and the 1940 decoder is way cooler than the earlier decoders. I just accept Ralphie’s memory is conflating different years’ memories. Like he can’t tell a 1947 firetruck because he just can’t see the differences. But they should have kept his name Jean. Otherwise why would dead Aunt Clara keep thinking he was a girl? \*I always find is amusing that Ralph puts the Boy’s Life on the page with the nude beach. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/439 "2022-06-14T15:15:02Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I can’t name one specific offender here, but I have seen _so much_ use of slang and speech from the 2010’s being used in shows set in the 80’s, 70’s, and earlier. i.e. “You got this”, “that’s not a thing”. > > I’m guessing it’s a symptom of screenwriters born in the late 90’s who assume that the way they talk is just how people have always talked. I was watching The Goldbergs a few months back and two characters gave each other fist bumps. That totally took me out of it, they should have high fived or slapped each other some skin. ---
**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 14, 2022, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/440 "2022-06-14T15:35:06Z")
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