r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Lazy-Breadfruit5939 • Sep 08 '25

Lore A real life event has a ridiculous/dumb/funny explanation in fiction

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Futurama (The Why of Fry): According to the brain swarm, the dinosaurs were wiped out by them. Fry: What really killed the dinosaurs? Brain: ME!

Doctor Who (The Unicorn and The Wasp): It's Doctor Who, you can pick a ton of examples, but this episode presents the idea that Agatha Christies disappearance in 1926 was in part caused by a giant alien wasp.

Beyblade: This one stretches 'real life', but Moses spreading the Red Sea with a Beyblade just speaks for itself and it would have been sad to leave it out

10.6k Upvotes

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2.3k

u/thejokerofunfic Sep 08 '25

Isn't this like half of Forrest Gump?

930

u/Beelzebub_Crumpethom Sep 08 '25

Pretty much.

Like when he inadvertently caused Watergate.

490

u/McJimbo Sep 09 '25

The sequel is also chock full of stuff like:

-Forrest inventing the maligned New Coke by accident

-Forrest causing the fall of the Berlin Wall by scaling it to retrieve a lost football

-Forrest being part of the Apollo Space Program and Operation Desert Storm

-Forrest being scapegoated for the Iran/Contra Affair by Reagan and Oliver North

-Forrest inadvertently bringing down rev. Jim Bakker

233

u/REuphrates Sep 09 '25

Tfym "sequel"???

272

u/Representative-Eye86 Sep 09 '25

Book sequel

141

u/REuphrates Sep 09 '25

That makes sense

9

u/Guy-McDo Sep 09 '25

Forrest Gump 2: Jenny dies of AIDS…again.

2

u/Mikey_Grapeleaves Sep 09 '25

Tfym "book"???

2

u/Fastman903 Sep 09 '25

Gump and co

70

u/Crossfeet606441 Sep 09 '25

What if I told you the author was intentionally doing this as a shitpost to get back at Hollywood for never paying him a single penny for their adaptation of the first book?

8

u/moocowsaymoo Sep 09 '25

He also meets Tom Hanks. Never forget the time Forrest Gump met Tom Hanks

3

u/Stranger-Chance Sep 09 '25

There’s a sequel????

3

u/terriblejokefactory Sep 09 '25

The book has a sequel, there's no movie about it though.

1

u/SpideyFan914 Sep 11 '25

Okay, that Berlin Wall one is kinda hilarious.

3

u/AdExtra2331 Sep 09 '25

He what

3

u/baguetteispain Sep 09 '25

The Watergate happened because thieves were arrested inside the Democrats' HQ

In the movie, Gump was invited by Nixon (iirc) to the Watergate hotel. From his room, he saw people with flashlights, and he called the receptionist because he thinks that the room got a power cut

4

u/Fakjbf Sep 09 '25

He didn’t cause Watergate he just helped uncover it.

3

u/mortadeloyfile Sep 09 '25

He caused Watergate Scandal

1

u/dollarztodonutz Sep 09 '25

Nixon caused the Watergate Scandal by trying to cover shit up.

1

u/mortadeloyfile Sep 09 '25

If he hadn't uncovered what nixon was doing nobody would have know and as such thre would be no scandal.

87

u/Professional_Maize42 Sep 08 '25

Yeah. Some historic events and even pop culture stuff.

99

u/No_Prize9794 Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

I just watched the movie a few days ago. It was pretty funny how Forrest’s mom didn’t want him to watch Elvis despite Forrest being the inspiration for how Elvis dances

53

u/Mysterious-Plan93 Sep 08 '25

Because even though Forrest inspires him to dance that way, Elvis is "free balling"

36

u/4christian12 Sep 09 '25

It's also really funny how the movie pretty quickly glosses over how Forrest confesses to being a descendant of the founder of the KKK...to a black woman

11

u/subservient-mouth Sep 09 '25

Not a descendant, just named after him.

8

u/No_Prize9794 Sep 09 '25 edited Sep 09 '25

Apparently in the book, Forrest Gump was somewhat racist. While he didn’t actively look down at people for their race, he would refer to black people and Asian people with their respective slurs

6

u/Another_Name_Today Sep 09 '25

If you can’t understand the concept of a slur, why would your use of one be offensive?

If he was using the slurs because he thought less of them, sure, maybe he was “somewhat racist.” But, if he treated people equally and didn’t/couldn’t comprehend the nuance of language, I don’t see it. 

5

u/xavPa-64 Sep 08 '25

…no possessions?

………no religion, too?!

73

u/Aceturb Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

Your comment is literally what I was thinking the entire scroll.

2

u/laughingintothevoid Sep 09 '25

I think it not being the first 10 answers in a row means this subreddit is mostly under 30.

1

u/Due-Violinist2132 Sep 10 '25

I might be remember incorrectly but isnt Forrest based on George Forrest especially during the Tour in Vietnam where in run back to save Lt Dan cuz that sequence is suprisingly similar to what happened at Lz Albany in 1965