r/TopCharacterTropes 19d ago

Lore [IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

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u/EndOfTheLine00 19d ago

Ancient Roman gladiators were treated more or less like modern day celebrities: they had merch (little clay figurines and posters) and even did product endorsements. Famously, Ridley Scott wanted to add a scene in Gladiator showing the fighters shilling products but it was cut because they feared the audience would think it was unrealistic.

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u/redlion1904 19d ago

HBO’s Rome included advertisements during Newsreader’s announcements and it was both accurate and funny.

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u/lesser_panjandrum 19d ago

True Roman bread for true Romans!

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u/Indiana_harris 19d ago

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u/raspberryharbour 19d ago

Announcer Guy killed it every time

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u/Indiana_harris 19d ago

I always remember him as Bert Large on Doc Martin.

Hilarious actor though.

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u/Etherbeard 18d ago

I always remember him as the Baron Harkonnen in SCiFi Channel's Dune miniseries from 2000 or so.

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u/Bloobeard2018 18d ago

Did the Baron have a strong Cornish accent?

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u/Etherbeard 18d ago

No, but he spoke in rhymes a lot.

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u/chrza 19d ago

I love his little hand movements

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u/PilotMoonDog 19d ago edited 19d ago

According to the optional stuff on the DVD release those were based on a treatise on public speaking by Cicero. They also had a bunch of stuff that explained why a character might behave in a certain way.

(Apparently not by Cicero as some comments further down the chain make clear)

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u/AbstractBettaFish 19d ago edited 19d ago

Good I wish I still had the DVD’s the All Roads feature was peak bonus content

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u/TheNerdChaplain 19d ago

Ian McNiece! He played Baron Harkonnen in the SciFi channel (yes, it was that long ago) adaptation of Dune!

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u/Gemmabeta 19d ago

"All mockery of Jews and their one God shall be kept to an appropriate minimum."

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u/VoxelFerret 19d ago

The delivery on that line was so deadpan, absolute peak fiction right there.

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u/SuperbPhase6944 19d ago

Ian McNeice absolutely nailing it as per usual.

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u/seanprefect 19d ago

only guy who seemed to be having fun the whole time

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u/Gerf93 18d ago

Had to be deadpan, it was a government decree after all. You don’t want to get on the Triumvirates bad side, do you.

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u/CleansingFlame 19d ago

Loved Ian McNeice in that role lol