We have done numerous lists of people and things that have had a great influence on man and they are always popular, so today we are presenting another list of influential people – but this time, they are people who never existed. There were hundreds of people to choose from, so this has been a fun list to compile. We hope you agree with our choices, but if you don’t, feel free to use the comments to tell us who you would have put here instead.
What child has not been frightened into behaving thanks to the ever-present youthful fear of Santa not providing come Christmas? Almost all western children were told by their parents that Santa would leave them nothing if they misbehaved. I speak from experience when I say that it was one of the most effective methods of stopping tantrums! Funnily enough, though, the fear always dissipates on Christmas Eve as you just know that Santa will be coming – even if you did slip up a few times.
As Barbie has progressed from a pretty young woman to whom all girls could aspire, to something often verging on the likeness of a harlot, one can wonder whether it was Barbie influencing children, or children influencing Barbie. There are certainly many similarities. Barbie has depicted almost every possible female lifestyle choice and I think there can be no doubt that she has been at the start of the path many women have taken in life.
This could potentially lead to a debate about whether Hood existed or not, but I am of the opinion that he did not. Therefore, he is listed as my number eight on the list. I am sure we have all heard someone justifying theft because the victim is wealthy – and where did this justification come from? Not just the principles of redistribution of wealth that many of us live under in Western Society (read envy taxes) but the fact that to this day, we are all raised believing Robin Hood was a hero – when, in fact, he was a thief. Stealing is almost always wrong, and just because Robin Hood gave the proceeds of his crimes to poor people, it is not a valid justification. As for the previously mentioned taxes, there is every reason for us to believe that the majority of people accept these taxes because of their prior belief in the false morality of the Robin Hood story.
This is one for the boys obviously! Even in remote New Zealand where I grew up, all the boys played “Cowboys and Indians”. The cowboy was a great hero with a shining gun who represented the morality of Western ideals: manliness, defense of justice, protection of women and children. No doubt many now cringe at the lack of political correctness involved in the game and stereotype, but kids aren’t politically correct (thank God) and certainly won’t be hindered because of it. The influence of the Cowboy movie genre is indisputable an immense one. Oh – and for those who say “but cowboys are real!” – yes – but this is about the concept – not about a specific person – just as we might say Santa existed as St Nicholas, the concept is bigger than any one person.
How many men reading this list who smoke, are smoking cigarettes with filters? Venturing a guess I would say all of them. Before the Marlboro Man campaign began, “real men” didn’t smoke cigarettes with filters – they were for women. The aim of the Marlboro Man campaign was primarily to get men smoking filtered marlboro cigarettes. The influence of the campaign is abundantly clear today. The campaign is considered to be one of the best in all history. According to Wikipedia, it transformed a feminine campaign, with the slogan ‘Mild as May’, into one that was masculine, in a matter of months.
And now another for the girls! Rosie the Riveter may not be a familiar name, but her picture certainly is. Rosie the Riveter told women that they can do anything – and they did! Rosie managed to motivate an entire generation of working-age women to get out of the home and in to factories to help the war effort. This is probably one of the most influential events of the Second World War. Once the floodgates of women working were open, they would never be closed again. All women working in traditional male jobs have Rosie to thank.
In a short 24 hours, you can fly from one side of the planet to another. This (one of man’s greatest achievements) may never have happened if it had not been for the mythological characters Daedalus and Icarus. The story tells of Daedalus building mechanical wings for his son Icarus and ever since the tale was told, man has lusted after the ability to take the sky and fly. This eventually came true and the entire planet is a changed place as a consequence of it.
The moral of this children’s tale is that self-belief, optimism, and hard work result in achievement – of even the most difficult tasks. The book first appeared in a slightly different version to today, in 1906. It has been regarded by many as a metaphor for the “American Dream”. The popularity of this book may also be a contributing factor to the huge number of self-help and “positive thinking” seminars and books that we see today.
A relatively modern addition to this list, Big Brother has been a influence in so many social protests that he has to be included here. His name comes up every time a government passes a restrictive law or a law which seems to remove aspects of our eternal freedoms. Everyone recognizes his face, everyone knows what he stands for, and everyone is terrified of the potential for our own lives to be governed by our own version of the fictional character. Big Brother was, of course, created by George Orwell for his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Not only can Romeo and Juliet be blamed for much of our ideas of the “perfect relationship” – I think it can also be blamed for a high percentage of divorces. Couples going in to marriage seek the ideal of a relationship based entirely on passion and romance, and when that romance dims (as so often is the case) they feel cheated and believe the marriage has failed. When in reality, passionate romance is not required for a healthy marriage – while respect, love, and charity is. Romeo and Juliet have much to answer for!
Come on, Uncle Sam? Ronald McDonald?
“people and things that have had a great influence on man” That’s how the intro reads, it doesn’t say “people and things that have had a great influence on Americans” now, does it? Anyway, I quite agree that Sherlock Holmes should have been on this, insofar as he had an actual effect on the way people in general approach riddle-like situations, not to mention the way detectives proceed to this day. Also, he’s one of the most quoted characters in fiction, at least in contexts involving deductive reasoning. And how about Major William Martin, that fellow the English invented to mislead Hitler’s Germany into clearing away from the actual invasion site in Normandy? The “man who never was” played a key role in the final outcome of WWII, and that seems pretty influential right there. Not to mention a fascinating tale in itself. Yet I must say the list is excellent as it stands, as usual very enjoyable to read, and as shown by the comments, to critique as well. Thanks for another bit of entertainment.
118. Anon: Faeries don’t exist? I spent half my childhood in the company of faeries!
Faery Rings dotted my lawns, and faery homes hid along my side yard.
Faeries had names, of course, they were Celtic names, difficult to pronounce and incredibly beautiful.
Of course as I matured I outgrew belief in faeries, I forgot to look for faery rings, faery homes, faery artifacts. Strangely, when I look for the signs, they still exist.
Do they exist because I was taught to expect them? Or do they exist because they exist?
LOL!
It’s election night, and I’m drunk with a mixture of anticipation and fear of disappointment, so I’m having a giggle here.
Anon, we’ve been having a fox in the garden the past few weeks, and yesterday there was a bobcat. A couple of streets over, a bear wandered into a yard! Reminds me I haven’t seen any deer in at least 6 weeks.
#122 Profeh – as far as Ronald McDonald goes the worldwide spread of the McDonalds brand has surely introduced the Ronald McDonald character into more homes than just those in the USA. I know here in Australia he’s very recognisable.
As for the “influence” of the Ronald McDonald character…I agree with you that he should not be included in this list. In my opinion Ronald is only a part of a greater advertising strategy, which is no doubt very influential to a large number of people.
King arthur?
(69) Oh I love GI Joe!! Any soldier. All soldiers.
And I don’t care what anyone says. Santa is real. He has to be. He’s the magic in everyone’s heart.
hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!
#3 is hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!
Malboro man is also influential because he’s led hundreds and thousands of people lung cancer
heeeey
Santa DID exist, he was nicola from bari, a bishop, and also a saint
No such thing as a cowboy!? My great-grandpa worked as one on a ranch and did quite a few cattle-drives. On his WWI draft card, his occupation was listed as a…”Cowboy”. It’s a safe bet he’d disagree with #7.
segue,
Ah, yes. Every time one says one doesn’t believe in fairies … Clearly I myself was responsible for the snuffing out of a fairy there. By my insinuation that fairies don’t exist, Tinkerbell got excluded! Besides, I’m perfectly well aware the Tooth Fairy is real. The only reason I can’t prove it is lack of milk teeth these days to put under my pillow. The Tooth Fairy was amazingly adept too at calculating inflation between the time of paying for my teeth and those of my daughters years later.
But how I envy you. If only benign fairies had played the part in my childhood that malign witches did! Growing up was more conquering non-existent fears than losing charming fantasies.
Your wildlife is spectacular. All we can offer at present is a series of garden visits by the giant hummingbird, the world’s largest, plus some good lizard and hawkmoth sightings during our recent short field trip to the north.
In fact, apart from the coastline, Chile isn’t all that rich in megafauna. At least the Atacama is the world’s only hot desert without venomous reptiles or serious scorpions. A definite consolation. Watch out for those Chagas disease-carrying bugs though.
Ugh..it’s amazing all of these people who blatantly shout Jesus as a PERSON never existed. I’m glad we can so easily discard the commonly accepted research by those who are far more knowledgeable about history and past affairs. I suppose in another 2000 years Hitler will never have existed and the Holocaust will be a story to frighten children. Sounds good to me, ranting is done. Moving on.
This list is certainly vague. You say influential “people” and throw the little engine that could into the list. I’m going to take that to mean that you also want to include personified things/animals as well. In which case why not add Smokey the Bear? Maybe Clifford the Big Red Dog?
If we are talking about just people, there are certainly people who are more influential than these that never existed. King Arthur? Any of the Knights of the Round Table? How about Harry Potter? Look how many people were glued to that book and some of the cults based off of it? I mean shoot, I even heard some lady open up a Hogwarts in England.
I mean..the list was a great concept in thought. There is just WAY too many influential and fictional people out there. I kinda think you’re looking to cause controversy with these lists too..particularly after that “Top 10 Influential Jews” list that sparked an unreasonably long and rather verbally abusive debate over the existence of Jesus, Moses, and Abraham lol.
To those that are throwing out names such as Superman, GI Joe, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, etc. – I’m curious to know why these characters should be considered as “influential”.
If it wasn’t for Superman, we wouldn’t have so many superhero movies or comic books. If it wasn’t for Sherlock Holmes there would be no detective stories and without Dracula there would be no vampires. You can skip GI Joe.
The Marlboro Man got free cigarettes for life after the success of those ads and 15 years later he died from lung cancer.
Santa was real, he was Greek and known as Saint Nicholas and lived about 1000 years ago. His legend has only evolved into Santa Claus over the last 300 years or so, and he’s pretty different today to how he started out. The image of him as a fat white bearded man in red actually was created in the 30′s as part of an ad campaign for Coca-Cola.
Superman
Cinderella
King Arthur
I think they should be in the list too. And Santa shouldn’t be at number 10.
You forgot to add Jesus.
*ducks and covers*
Barack Obama is the 44th president.
Hells yeah!
Barack Obamas alter ego as the savior of humanity? I guess we’ll have to see….
Maggot/Chris:
I disagree with you, Chris, the impact on literature or on a genre is the author’s doing, not the character’s – but I agree about G.I. Joe. In Holmes’ case, the character influenced actual investigative procedures.
Where’s King Arthur?
139 Profeh
Im not saying it wasn’t the author’s who are responsible for what they created, but I think with these characters they trancended simply the authors creation to became fixtures within the public conciousness. For instance, it was Edgar Allen Poe who invented the detective novel, but it was Sherlock Holmes as a character that cemented the genre into place. The two teenagers who invented Superman sold the character for $50 and recieved no recognition for what they created for over 50 years and never did anything again, yet within a year of their Superman comic book being released, they had initiated a genre and a flood of imitations that is still going stronger then ever.
The Santa image of today was firstly created by Coca Cola ( i think) in the late 50′s, originally it was him in a Green suit.
Please, someone prove me wrong.
nyys: yeah, King Arthur too.
107. DiscHuker: It’s hard not to agree on Bioshock! That game is fantastic. Must say though, when it comes to Big Daddies, I’m definitely more fond of the Bouncers than the Rosies.
For all of you yelling ‘Jesus’, there is little doubt for most historians that he existed. The only question that remains is whether he was truly the son of God. That does not, however, change the amount of influence and inspiration he holds. Although I am personally not Christian, I find the concept and idea of Jesus Christ to be a very inspiring and beautiful one, and I will always respect those that hold thier faith in Him (as long as they do not press thier views onto me).
get a life people
lol its funny we’re having this Jesus validity argument again when we just had it on the 10 influencial Jews list.
I have trouble with cowboys not being real. Of course they were and they are exactly as they are depicted. You would have been better off adding in Mr Rogers of his neighborhood fame.
Here´s your proof CRSN – http://snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp
And I question the fact that Romeo and Juliet didn´t exist, as the play was based on real events from Verona. I´ve been to LA CASA DI GIULIETTA and rubbed the breast of Juliet´s statue for good luck.
http://www.italyguides.it/us/italy/veneto/verona/pictures-of-verona/browse_topic.php?ID=71
Interesting fact: The balcony was added after the play gained popularity as originally the house lacked one.
So even if the play was a fictionalised account of their story, it doesn´t make them any less real than Julius Caesar for example.
I´d have thought a Shakespeare buff like you Jamie would know this.
I’m also going to come down on the statement that cowboys were nore of an ideal than a reality. I’m a fifth generation rancher in the American West. My ancestors dealt with many of the hardships depicted in movies and stories, but they did it for real. The cowboy is, and has been, romanticized by Hollywood and other sources, but is still a collection of real people with real values and work ethics.
Not your best work. Santa Claus, Robin Hood, and cowboys were all real people who have had legends attached to them over time. Saying that cowboys weren’t real because they weren’t like we imagine them is like saying Christopher Columbus wasn’t real because of all the misconceptions about him.
Also, the Little Engine That Could? As much as he might think he can, he can’t be considered a person.
What about God?
I think he influenced some people.
Great List Jamie!
I do think an honorable mention to Uncle Sam though.
I see a lot of Homer Simpsons or Ronald McDonald and such, they were famous, but not influential in the way the, say Rosie was. All girls know Rosie, she is in text books and is an icon for women being able to do anything they want…
Homer drinks beer eats donuts and says D’oh! (I love the Simpsons so don’t go yelling at me!)
The list same influential, not famous….
Side Notes: Where the hell is Randall? and Pleas take the Jesus/God stuff to the Influential Jewish list!
Okay, I know you said you were expecting this anyway, but I have to say that there actually was a Robin Hood (Robyn Hode in old english). I graduated with a degree in world history and actually did a research paper on the subject and found him to be real. In fact, the original RH was so popular that other thieves adopted his name after him and so the legend was born! The story we all know and love is, of course, not altogether true, but there actually were some “Merry Men”. No Maid Marian I’m afraid. The romance never happened, but came about as RH was actually a member of the Cult of the Virgin and quite devoted to the Virgin Mary. The romance part was popularized sometime in the 17th century by a travelling play-group. The original RH lived in the early 13th century and had problems with King Edward II. Never King John.
Sorry about the rant =p Just being a nerd over here.
Curious about your research, Hollis – I’m currently reading “Great Tales from English History”, by Robert Lacey, and while he does acknowledge that there were two people believed to have possibly been the source of the “Robin Hood” myth, one in 1225 an outlaw named Robert Hood, and another one in 1261 named William Robehod, Lacey claims there is very little known about either man other than the fact they were outlaws in one way or another – there’s no records that these men were even thieves. Are either of these men your original Robin Hood? Can you suggest some good books to read on the subject, or where you found your research? I’m a student of history myself, particularly English history, so I’m very interested in the Robin Hood story, I’d love to read some new perspectives on it.
Profeh, Chris,
That’s kind of where I was going with my question. I took “influential” to mean roughly: inspires people to think or behave in certain ways. In the several examples I questioned (and many other seemingly random characters that are being suggested), really the only influence was to inspire others to expand on the genres with “copy-cat” ideas and characters (as Chris said in #141). IMO that doesn’t fit the list criteria, but I guess it is subject to interpretation.
Wasnt there a real Santa at one point…meaning he has lived
What – No Jesus Christ ??
No God ??
LOL
Way to tell fo that Robin Hood trash, Jamie! Speaking as someone who has nearly bee na victim of illegal wealth redistribution, (read armed robbery), I think I have some idea of what it feels like to have your hard earned money taken away and given to those who are less deserving of it.
Oh wait, what was I thinking? I live in America and I’m a taxpayer, I get raped by Big Brother and have to pay for the privilege. My wealth is then given to illegal aliens and people who refuse to work a day of their miserable, misbegotten and slothful lives. I have no problem with helping those who are truly in need, but not the rest.
Speaking of that… I heard today that we’re supposed to be getting a second stimulus check in March from the Feds, for a measly $2,000. Now, if you cut my taxes to the Feds in half, and let me keep the difference, I would actually get to have about three times that back. Anyone else see where this “Economic Stimulus Plan” is smelling a little fishy?
131. Anon: If you want to get into birdlife, we have several kinds of hummers, scrub-jays, blue-jays, robins, woodpeckers, hawks, wild turkey, quail, turkey vultures, and so many more land birds. Go a quarter mile west and the sea birds arise, gulls, sand pipers, pelicans, egrets and on and on and on.
I am punch-drunk rich with wild life.
The tide pools are full of anemone, sea stars, mussels, barnacles, limpits. Sea Otters play and feed just off shore, as do harp and harbor seals, and elephant seals have their rookery two beaches down.
In the fields on the other side of Hwy.1 from the beaches, zebra browse with the cattle.
Yes, I live in paradise. I appreciate that fact daily.
If faeries don’t exist, who needs them with all of this natural beauty?
Smokey the Bear.
I agree with the people who have already pointed out how ridiculous your anti-taxes rant was in addition to your poor or at least limited knowledge of the Robin Hood story. The two really don’t have anything to do with each other even if you were correct in your whole ‘most people who believe in taxing and protective government have a false morality’ argument. Gross.
I find this list very vague: we have a doll and a train, we have clearly fictional people, we have people for whom there is a grain of historicity, we have people for whom there might be a grain of historicity and we have people for whom there might not be a grain of historicity.
On the bus tour of Stratford-upon-Avon, the tour guide mentioned that there’d been a case of premature burial there just before Shakespeare’s time, and maybe he’d heard about it and woven it into the story.
When most girls yearn for their Romeo, being dead within a couple of days after meeting him probably doesn’t spring to mind.
162. astraya: How right you are! I’ve never really considered it in exactly that way before. Meeting my true love, and almost immediately killing myself, is not my idea of true romance.
Burgerbuddy (#60)
Many ancient greeks never wrote anything or their writings are not recovered but you cannot conclude that they did not exist. Plato did not create Socrates as a fictional character, he rather altered him to express his own philosophy put into the mouth of his mentor.
Taken from wikipedia: “Yet, the ‘real’ Socrates, like many of the other Ancient philosophers, remains at best enigmatic and at worst unknown. However, it is also clear from other writings, and historical artifacts that Socrates was not simply a character, or invention, of Plato. The testimony of Xenophon and Aristotle, alongside some of Aristophanes’ work within The Clouds, can be usefully engaged in fleshing out our perception of Socrates beyond Plato’s work.”
Frankie Di (#90)
I kind of agree with you, but Plato’s works are philosophical not mythological. Mythology is a variety of ancient fairytales and the characters are definately fictional. Deadalus was fictional, Socrates was not.
I know it’s been mentioned several times already, but Cowboys were real, but not quite the way they are portrayed today.
In movies cowboys are always burly tough guys, but in real life they were incredibly scrawny because they had to go on long trips of driving cattle and a heavy person would wear the horse down, require more food, etc…
barbie isn’t real, romeo and juliet aren’t real, but there’s no proof that Jesus isn’t real. I think that the exclusion of jesus, god, allah, and all other “supreme dieties’ is a good choice since nobody can difinitivly prove or disprove their existance.
On that note, I think that replacing some of the ones that might have existed with those that definitivly did not would have been better. for example, Santa claus, rosie the riveter, and the marlboro man could be replace by Superman, Freddy kruger, and Uncle Sam. however, i do agree that superman and freddy kruger may not have had as much influence on people.
good list!!
Well it could be argued Santa did live since the inspiration for the story about him came from a real person.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa#Origins
romeo & juliet -ever read it? it is a depressing story about the horror wrought by the irrational urge for honor-vengeance in a family feud. the story has nothing to do with “true romantic love,” that is just the vehicle to display the pointlessness of people dying over an old hatred.
why put a doll and a fictional train on a “people” list? i’d expect more along the lines of folk-heroes: an example from a U.S. perspective would be paul bunyan (and his big blue ox).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bunyan
Jfarter I think U blew it this time
thats my opinion
Jesus, Alah and other characters invented by different religions should be on top of the list…
they are awesome u need to put more on they i hope u do
Oh my! Robin Hood was real. I’m from that area, and he did.
XXX
Those were a VERY racist remarks some of you said.
As a Muslim I believe in both. That is why if we ever ever ever got enraged about christians there would be posters like “No Christians!” instead of “Down with Jesus!” because we take Jesus as a Prophet, not much of the Son of God (correct me if I got the Christian’s belief wrong).
And everyone with a religion believe that their icon is true and not invented. Exaamples include Allah (Islam), Jesus (Christianity), Abraham (Judaism), Buddha (Buddhism), many many gods and probably Krishna (Hinduism), Amaterasu (Shintoism) and Guru Nanak (Sikhism)
(CORRECT ME AGAIN IF I AM WRONG AT ANY OF THE LISTED ICONS FOR THE RELIGINS
)
Just because you are an atheist you cannot state that they were all made-up.
Oh and Allah is a name for god in Arabic. Does not refer to the same god as in different religions.
What Crash is saying is the statement that you should be making. And what Stizzy said, to me it is completely true. I believe that God is watching all of us, every second of our lives eversince we were born, even as we type in our comments. Rosantohof, you cannot say that God is not a person because some believe that once God came to Earth and lived.
GORILLAZ FTW
173. Choosil1cious – dude, chill, that’s generally why we try to avoid religion in the comments cause it always offends someone, just because some posters take liberty in cutting the ***** out of a religion does not mean that they are racist, they may be ignorant, but still, not racist.
A lot of people misinterpreted certain religions aspects because of the way they have been bought up, I was bought up in an Irish Catholic family and did all of the ceremonies, but still to this day i do not consider myself a Catholic because of some of their beliefs.
To some people God is as real as UFO’s, you can not change a persons position on religion by having a go at them and THEN trying to explain why, try and be open minded to other people perspectives by being empathetic.
Regarding the meaning of “Allah”, we know, we are not dumb, if you really want to have a good back ground on what people on this site know about religions, then go to a couple of the older lists and scroll through the comments, Jfrater is very well versed in religion, and you may see why we try to avoid religious conversations, it’s too much of a flammable subject.
Amazing. Every once and awhile, I come back to see what self-rightous agenda your parlaying. So, William Shakespeare is responsible for the high divorce rate? Please.
Rosie the Riverteer was actually a working woman who was portrayed in an early documentary film, so all though she doesn’t hav a lot to do with all the posters and stuff, she actually was a real person.
God eh?
Very nice concept – but flawed, in that God was never a man nor a woman – but an ever present force. Some see this force as energy, of light, of love, a force of nature, a force of justice or forgiveness, a source of the ‘life force’; which exists at the heart of all things.
To me, god was never a person – but lives on regardless.
Excellent idea, poor execution.
crap list
Romeo and Juliet encapsulates mobid romantic wallowing in the self-pity of doomed infatuation. As such it brought to mind another fictional character in that mould, who for a while was even more influential, Goethe’s Werther.
In ‘Die Leiden des jungen Werthers’ (Young Werther’s Tragic Sorrows), the hero (or anti-hero) becomes obsessed by a beautiful but well-balanced married woman a little older and a lot more mature than himself. She feels sorry for him, but he misinterprets her sensitive and sympathetic reaction as encouragement. His mood and personality are symbolised by the all-blue suit he wears. On eventually realising his passion is not reciprocated and hopeless, he commits suicide by leaping from a bridge. During Goethe’s lifetime so many spurned young Germanic men dressed up in blue suits and fell to their death into rivers that the author felt obliged to *discourage the practice* in a foreword!
My earlier suggestion of witches and fairies was seriously intended to be in line with the “Influential” thread. When I was a kid, books were full of both and, as with Santa Claus and the Bogeyman (or Boogeyman), many adults at the least did little to discourage children from making up their own minds as to whether or not they existed. Such potent chimeras therefore played a large part both in the imaginative life of young children, and also in their examining and assessing the reality or not of what was handed down from the adult world: i.e., growing up. It might even in some cases have begun the process of conditioning minds to question rather than accept received information. That should be considered against a background when the label *free-thinker* was still widely considered somewhat daring and beyond the pale, and in some quarters quite morally unacceptable even.