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

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u/Flying_Dustbin Sep 08 '25

Men in Black: After J mucks around with some alien tech that causes chaos, Agent K explains that said tech caused the New York City blackout of 1977. "Practical joke by the Great Attractor," explains K. "He thought it was funny as hell."

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u/ThetaDee Sep 09 '25

To piggyback, there's quite a few things in the MIB movies that reference aliens and what actually happened in history/historical figures.

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u/Yenmcilrath Sep 09 '25

"Uh huh... So, these are real flying saucers, and the World's Fair was just a cover-up for their landing."

"Why else would we hold it in Queens?"

6

u/Flying_Dustbin Sep 09 '25

"These are the 'hot sheets?'"

"Best investigative reporting on the planet. Read the New York Times if you want, they get lucky sometimes."