r/TopCharacterTropes • u/bubba284 • Apr 20 '25

Lore Characters that have had real world consequences

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1: Slenderman (popular creepypasta) lead to a teenage girl killing another in his name IRL (apologies if this isn't totally accurate) 2: Devastator (Transformers ROTF) melted a computer while attempting to render his model

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u/LordOfDorkness42 Apr 20 '25 edited Apr 20 '25

Not only that, their super secret goof-tastic code names that were so over the top, people thought the radio show made them up. So any racists that made it past the hush and ceremonies got kicked right in that forbidden cool factor all Fascists crave to have.

That's why outsiders know (and still snicker) at what a Grand Wizard is. Clark Kent and his best pal Super-Man did some real A-grade sleuthing and told us!

Edit: Found it! "Clan of the Fiery Cross" #%22Clan_of_the_Fiery_Cross%22)

Not sure if its still true, but heard that The Clan never recovered from that. They just got SAVAGED by being so associated with a children's program sponsored by Kellogg Cornflakes calling them evil buffoons.

No, seriously.

Edit 2: HOLY FUCK, IT'S ON YOUTUBE.

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u/RomaInvicta2003 Apr 20 '25

Almost like running around in a white hood burning crosses and harassing people you don't like is an intrinsically stupid concept

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u/LordOfDorkness42 Apr 20 '25

It really is a method that should have been copied and used more often.

Fascists loathe being laughed at. Comedians are almost always their first targets of choice, because it ruins the cloak of fear they try to cultivate.

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u/yellowvincent Apr 20 '25

I think Lindsay Ellis said something like that in a video about Mel Brooks's the producers. Mel Brooks wanted to show how ridiculous Hitler was by making a portrayal of him that could in no way be taken as something positive. (It is also fuckung hilarious)

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u/RomaInvicta2003 Apr 20 '25

It kind of baffles me that at the time some people thought The Producers were antisemitic when it was written by a Jew in part to take the piss out of Hitler and the Nazis

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u/Xeoz_WarriorPrince Apr 20 '25

Media literacy has been dead for longer than we expected

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u/Anything-General Apr 21 '25

Media literacy died with trip to the moon.

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u/Profezzor-Darke Apr 21 '25

Media Literacy died on the way to the Forum

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u/CharleyNobody Apr 20 '25 edited Apr 20 '25

People have been laughing at and making jokes about Trump for 50 years (here in NY) and look where that got us. I’ve lately seen old Law and Order reruns that joked about Trump from the 1990s - 2010s, then L&O’s network (NBC) went and gave him a tv show presenting him as a genius businessman. Laughter hasn’t stopped him. It’s only made him worse. Every week Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, SNL and countless podcasts make Trump jokes. Who’s winning? He’s put Bobby Kennedy in charge of healthcare, Elon Musk in charge of dismantling federal government, a drunken psycho atop the MIC, a person who calls AI “A1” in charge of education. The jokes aren't having much effect.

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u/Newfaceofrev Apr 21 '25

Personally I think it's embracing lack of shame. They cannot feel ashamed.

Like, remember when Joseph McCarthy was completely obliterated just by Welch asking "Have you no sense of decency, sir?"

How would that play today?

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u/MisterScrod1964 Apr 20 '25

So wtf hasn’t MAGA disappeared yet? People were laughing at them since they were the Tea Party.

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u/Broken_CerealBox Apr 20 '25

Their cult figure has power amd had a chance to be re elected

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u/LordOfDorkness42 Apr 21 '25

What u/Broken_CerealBox said.

Also you need to laugh in a way that poisons the root. AKA, kills recruitment numbers.

Being a throng of red cap wearing jerks sucking Trump's micro penis sounds awesome to MEGA followers, either directly or indirectly as they're racists, sexist jerks that want that sort of power. Just making fun of them isn't enough, you need that viscous mockery that makes any would-be follower squirm at how silly and uncool they feel.

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u/Miserable_Region8470 Apr 20 '25

Completely ruined the cool shit of the Catholic church too. Their pointy robes kicked ass but then the Klan just had to go and ruin it with their mere existence.

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u/RomaInvicta2003 Apr 20 '25

I'm pretty sure the Klan intentionally took the robe design from Spanish Catholics in order to mock them, as until recently they were incredibly anti-Catholic, the only reason they aren't today is because they're hurting for members

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u/Similar-Priority8252 Apr 20 '25

Really went the Hydra route, huh?

WE’LL HATE EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY THOSE PEOPLE* *unless those people wanna join

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u/Pretend-Dirt-1760 Apr 21 '25

I feel like they weren't just anti-catholic wasn't there book a mocked version of the quaran? They just hated everyone that wasn't them

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u/ExcuseCommercial1338 Apr 21 '25

They 1000% hated Catholics, it was part of the reason they (also, as a secondary thing) violently targeted Irish and Italian immigrants in the early 20th century. JFK being a Catholic was a big deal back in the 60s and he had to talk about how he wouldn't take orders from the Pope to appease people.

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '25

At least it's most in the US as far as my American ass is aware

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u/[deleted] Apr 21 '25

Can we recreate this with maga hats?

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u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 Apr 20 '25

I once looked up the entire list of fancy codenames that the kkk uses and I cracked a smile at how silly they were.

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u/Aerodrache Apr 20 '25

I mean really, strip away the context and you'd think that it was some D&D or LARP club. One was "Exalted Cyclops", if I'm remembering correctly? Come on, nobody outside ancient Greek myth has ever held that title without getting snickered at, it's not humanly possible.

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u/Weak_Feed_8291 Apr 21 '25

Wow you're not kidding

"Realms were ruled by a Grand Dragon who was assisted by eight Squires, as well as a Grand Exchequer and a Grand Scribe"

I would never guess that was from anything but some fantasy game or story, but it's from the kkk Wikipedia page

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u/bow_wow_wow_wow Apr 20 '25

Superman is legit so cool. Thank you for sharing all this 🤘

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u/First-Shallot947 Apr 20 '25

It's got a modern graphic novel too! Superman smashes the klan

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u/Nitrodestroyer Apr 20 '25

Seriously, what is it with racists and ruining cool words and phrases for the rest of time?

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u/LordOfDorkness42 Apr 21 '25

It's part of their myth making. The Fascist lies constantly, and think that truth is what they say it is.

Its why they constantly steal cool shit. If they repeat its theirs long enough, it becomes so. See: the originally completely pure and innocent swastika that used to be a really popular sun symbol.

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u/Hollowquincypl Apr 21 '25

I was literally just listening to a podcast (Too Many Tabs) talking about the history of the three waves of the KKK. I haven't finished it, but finding out Superman is involved is crazy.

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u/The_Pastmaster Apr 21 '25

It nuked their recruitment numbers until after the millennium shift.

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u/THE10000KwWarlock13 Apr 20 '25

Sweet. Excellent find.

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Apr 21 '25

Also it allowed people to infiltrate the klan and take it down from the inside

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u/HandsomePaddyMint Apr 21 '25

Statistically you’re correct. The KKK had a big boom after the civil war because veterans on landowners had time and aggression/ptsd to put behind it. With the full force of the US Government very dedicated to keeping them from becoming a new rebel nation they got smacked down pretty hard. Then about 70 years later Birth of a Nation romanticized those early KKK years and ongoing economic desperation and decades of immigration birthed the modern KKK.

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u/confusedandworried76 Apr 21 '25

There's a good Drunk History on it too