"What kind of world is this?" he said slowly. "It's a crazed mix of the past, my present and your future. It's all bloody madness!"
— Deathlands, "Ice and Fire"
"The most jarring anachronism for me was a television set in Murphy's house (in a flashback). It had dials on it, one for VHF and one for UHF. Not futuristic."
—The Criterion Contraption on RoboCop
"It's bloody weird having half the Tudor nobility riding around on MOTORIZED BICYCLES!"
— Queen Elizabeth I, Monty Python's Flying Circus
Arklon: Why should I, Lord Arklon, maximum ruler of Arok, be any concern of yours?
Lyranna: Chill out, Lord Dude.
Lyranna: Chill out, Lord Dude.
"This work of fiction is not an accurate historical portrayal... LIKE WE CARE. Now shut up and enjoy the show!"
Mickey: What's a horse doing on a spaceship?
Doctor: Mickey, what's eighteenth-century France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective!
Doctor: Mickey, what's eighteenth-century France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective!
— Doctor Who, "The Girl in the Fireplace"
Sheldon: Let's be clear: It's a Wonderful Life is the best Christmas movie ever made.
Arthur: Hands down.
Sheldon: But... you watch it enough times, and you start to have serious questions about some parts in the movie.
Arthur: Like the gym floor that opens up to a pool! A what? With the WHAT??
Sheldon: This was a high school, people!
Arthur: A high school in the 1920's!
Sheldon: And you're telling us they could afford a gigant-o retractable floor? A floor that was like 10 feet thick?
Arthur: You couldn't even find a school NOW that could afford it.
Sheldon: Seriously! Try it! Find ONE school in America that has that! Even one!
Arthur: Then pop that school in the mouth.
— Sheldon
"Defining moment? I dunno. I suppose it was going for the wardrobe fitting, having been cast in a science fiction show, and thinking, 'Omigod, I'm gonna look horrible in lycra.' And luckily, they dressed me as if I was gonna play Hamlet!"
"Exactly where he got his text we do not know. Most Greek scholars that I've talked to seem unaware that Iphigenia ever was in Brooklyn."
— Peter Schickele, on P.D.Q. Bach's Iphigenia in Brooklyn
"Admitting that genius which has familiarized itself with all the relics of an ancient period can sometimes, by the force of its sympathetic divination, restore the missing notes in the 'music of humanity,' and reconstruct the fragments into a whole which will really bring the remote past nearer to us, and interpret it to our duller apprehension,—this form of imaginative power must always be among the very rarest, because it demands as much accurate and minute knowledge as creative vigour. Yet we find ladies constantly choosing to make their mental mediocrity more conspicuous, by clothing it in a masquerade of ancient names; by putting their feeble sentimentality into the mouths of Roman vestals or Egyptian princesses, and attributing their rhetorical arguments to Jewish high-priests and Greek philosophers."
"Know you not, Miss Bennet, that Mr. Darcy has been freestyle disco champion of all Derbyshire these last eleven years?"
— That Mitchell and Webb Look, "Posh Dancing"
Utahraptor: [narrating] HISTORY FOR YOU IS A BIG PARTY WHERE EVERYONE JUST HANGS OUT TOGETHER, ISN'T IT?
T-Rex: F-Forsooth
T-Rex: F-Forsooth
"A coal-powered bullet train. That's progress."
— Ling-Ling, Guilty Party
"It’s 2009, and we happen to be very proud of that. The Dark Knight’s just come out on Blu-Ray, La Roux’s firmly in the charts, and dinosaurs remain a problem. So get used to it, you fucking div! Now, let’s hop on our Penny Farthings and solve some crimes."
Pat: Hey, you wanna know what was an awesome weapon used in the sixteen-hundreds?
Mat: What?
Pat: SICK, GIANT-ASS RING-BLADES!
Mat: YEAH!
Pat: Yeah, in Western Civ we learned all about the ring-blade wars.
Mat: France versus Acapulco! In the ring-blade wars!
Mat: What?
Pat: SICK, GIANT-ASS RING-BLADES!
Mat: YEAH!
Pat: Yeah, in Western Civ we learned all about the ring-blade wars.
Mat: France versus Acapulco! In the ring-blade wars!
"Crowds lined the Mall today as the Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill returned to the Buckingham Senate on his personal mammoth."
— Meredith Vieira, Doctor Who, "The Wedding of River Song"
"Then, how do you explain this...Bubble Gum? How do you explain this Bubble Gum!? This hasn't been invented yet!"
— Robert, The Goes Wrong Show
Book Seller: Every book you could ever want! And reasonably priced, too!
Elizabeth: Do you have "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton?
Book Seller: I'm sorry, cherie, but that has not been written yet.
Elizabeth: Do you have "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton?
Book Seller: I'm sorry, cherie, but that has not been written yet.
— Burial at Sea Episode 2
"And we fought dinosaurs! In the Ice Age! It didn't make a lot of sense, but it was fun!"
— Sid, Ice Age: Continental Drift
"I only have one question. How does it know it's called a duckbill if ducks don't exist yet?"
"How gorgeous would that be: a 20th Century police box on the surface of an alien planet!"
"This is a love comedy, remember? This world needs to prioritize love and comedy. If detailed historical accuracy would get in the way of the love comedy aspects, the laws of this world will ensure that historical accuracy is thrown out!!"
"Merlyn took off the sailor hat which had just appeared and held it out for inspection. 'This is an anachronism,' he said severely. 'That is what it is, a beastly anachronism.'"
"That was Division 13 of Baker Company singing a song that won't be a hit for another thirty years."
— Radio announcer, The Complete History Of America Abridged
"I know this is a strange question in 1588, but does your mercy have a personal computer?"
— Julián Martínez, The Ministry of Time
America: I’ll just ask Google Maps and he’ll tell me how to get there on top of how long it’ll take!
Britain: We can’t google stuff in 1942!
Okay, so we've got crack and FDR. What decade is this supposed to be?
Barney: Hey, Fred, I've been meaning to ask you something.
Fred: Ask away, Barn.
Barney: How come we celebrate Christmas?
Fred: What?
Barney: I mean, what's Christmas all about?
Fred: The gifts!
Barney: No, Fred, like, at its core.
Fred: Well, it's about the birth of… JESUS CHRIST!
Barney: You see, Fred? How're we celebrating the birth of somebody who hadn't even been born yet?
Fred: Christ, Barney… I think this is something we aren't supposed to think about! You're really fucking my mind right now!
Fred: Ask away, Barn.
Barney: How come we celebrate Christmas?
Fred: What?
Barney: I mean, what's Christmas all about?
Fred: The gifts!
Barney: No, Fred, like, at its core.
Fred: Well, it's about the birth of… JESUS CHRIST!
Barney: You see, Fred? How're we celebrating the birth of somebody who hadn't even been born yet?
Fred: Christ, Barney… I think this is something we aren't supposed to think about! You're really fucking my mind right now!
— Twitter video
by Solid jj
by Solid jj"A giant, mechanical terracotta warrior? Really, Candace? Wouldn't that be slightly more advanced that what we have today?"
— Linda Flynn-Fletcher of 1542, Phineas and Ferb
Andvari: Ha! Why should I [give you my gold], liar? Have you rod or net or hands that can catch me?
Loki: I have not.
Andvari: And have you any spell that can hold or compel me?
Loki: None that can.
Andvari: Then what have you, Loki the liar?
Loki: One of these.
Caption: And Loki reached deep into his carrying-bag...and brought out an M20 recoilless rocket launcher.
Jurassic Gargantuar wonders how there can be zombies millions of years before the advent of humanity. He doesn't let it get in the way of his plant-bashing, though.
— The description for the Jurassic Gargantuar, Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time
Brainiac: Your wardrobe is anachronistic.
Green Arrow: It's an homage. Robin Hood?
Brainiac: Your legend will not eclipse his.
Green Arrow: It's an homage. Robin Hood?
Brainiac: Your legend will not eclipse his.
I draw this manga with the idea that it's set in the sixties or seventies, but it ends up as a mishmash of the present and past. This happens because I frequently have to ask myself if something existed during that time period, and if I can't find the answer, I just shrug it off and think, "Well, this is a fictional country..."
—Tatsuya Endo, Spy X Family Volume 6 afterword
King: That's odd. I just heard a firetruck!
Duke: What's so odd about that?
King: ...I don't even know what a firetruck is.
