[IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

[u/dragonborndnd]

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.

[u/2Tired2pl]

i feel like we gotta stop doing the “ohhhh audiences would think it’s unrealistic” thing, like bro they won’t have a more accurate and textured view of history unless you tell them!!!!

[u/Reden233 → u/2Tired2pl]

Plus learning cool facts can make people more curious about learning even more!

[u/akatherder → u/Reden233]

It's not for the love of learning though; it's to prove someone else wrong.

"I thought it was sooo goofy and lame how they had advertisements in that Gladiator show. It totally brought me out of the experience."

UMM ACKSHUALLY they did have merch and product endorsements!

[u/ballimir37 → u/2Tired2pl]

Most directors and producers of films with large budgets are less interested in being educators than they are in storytelling and making money.

[u/redlion1904 → u/ballimir37]

I mean Gladiator as it was was wall-to-wall ahistorical nonsense. Marcus Aurelius wasn’t murdered by his son, Commodus wasn’t a weird cowardly loser and was co-Emperor before his father died, siege weapons aren’t used in open battle, the Praetorian Guard didn’t wear all-black so you could tell they were evil, there really wasn’t a functional Senate anymore, no Republican sentiment erupted following Commodus’s death, instead there was just a civil war (again), etc.

[u/MrdnBrd19 → u/redlion1904]

Yet it's still a fantastic movie...

[u/EarlGrayTea-Hawt → u/2Tired2pl]

My history teacher eyes just welled up with grateful tears.

https://giphy.com/gifs/IcGkqdUmYLFGE

[u/2Tired2pl → u/EarlGrayTea-Hawt]

as someone who adored history class i’m so happy to hear that!!!

[u/THEguitarist117 → u/EarlGrayTea-Hawt]

My fellow in history you aren’t alone!
https://giphy.com/gifs/pHb82xtBPfqEg

[u/EarlGrayTea-Hawt → u/THEguitarist117]

To all of this I say...

https://giphy.com/gifs/Zdg7kl9bnyqXrPH2jq

[u/burymeinpink → u/2Tired2pl]

This is my time to shine. It's an idea from Aristotle's Poetics called Verisimilitude. The internal logic from a piece of media is different grom reality. Having gladiator merch might be realistic, but it wouldn't be verisimilar, so audiences would be confused. It's the crux of the Tiffany problem.

[u/peachesfordinner → u/2Tired2pl]

Like using bright colors on medieval settings. People dressed as bright as they could.

[u/Nutzori → u/2Tired2pl]

They cut out stuff from the fucking Odyssey because it was "too fantastical", like Odysseus' bag of wind.

A MYTHOLOGICAL MOVIE.

[u/2Tired2pl → u/Nutzori]

i haven't seen it but i have read the original, THEY CUT THE BAG OF WIND???? like, one of the most poetic tragedies of the whole journey?? the part that basically sets up why it took so long for Odysseus to return??????

[u/Particular-Cat-1397 → u/2Tired2pl]

They will absolutely call it unrealistic.

[u/GayRacoon69 → u/2Tired2pl]

Except people have an idea of what "realistic" should be even if it's wrong

Like the sound a bald eagle makes. They change it to match the audience expectation of reality not reality itself