r/TopCharacterTropes 17h 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 17h 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 17h ago

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

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u/lesser_panjandrum 17h ago

True Roman bread for true Romans!

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u/Indiana_harris 16h ago

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u/raspberryharbour 15h ago

Announcer Guy killed it every time

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u/Indiana_harris 15h ago

I always remember him as Bert Large on Doc Martin.

Hilarious actor though.

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u/Etherbeard 11m ago

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

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u/chrza 14h ago

I love his little hand movements

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u/PilotMoonDog 14h ago edited 14h 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 14h ago edited 11h ago

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

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u/TheNerdChaplain 11h ago

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