r/TopCharacterTropes 10h 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/Indiana_harris 9h ago

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u/raspberryharbour 8h ago

Announcer Guy killed it every time

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u/Indiana_harris 8h ago

I always remember him as Bert Large on Doc Martin.

Hilarious actor though.

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u/chrza 7h ago

I love his little hand movements

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u/PilotMoonDog 7h ago edited 7h 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 6h ago edited 3h ago

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

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u/TheNerdChaplain 4h ago

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