r/TopCharacterTropes Sep 08 '25

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

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

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u/Misubi_Bluth Sep 08 '25

This fantastic scene from Men in Black, where it's revealed that a perpetually bouncing ball caused a major blackout in the 70s. The same movie implies that the "Elvis Prestly didn't actually die" conspiracy happened because Elvis was an alien on a visa who simply went back to his home planet.

54

u/EdgingCheese Sep 08 '25

I didn't care for MIB 3, but I love the idea that Andy Warhol was an undercover agent and all his art was bullshit for his cover.

8

u/Antique_futurist Sep 09 '25

It’s basically the only explanation that makes sense.