Who are the Secret Inspirations for these Characters?

such a great, terrible pickup line. Yeah, I should have used some of those. Those are pretty much the worst best lines ever. Well, actually, did you know the name of the kitten that he was always trying to chase? I was trying to remember this, Yeah, so I was curious about that. I totally forgotten that it's a Penelope pussy cat. But according to this book, the Godfather was a girl. Pepe was based on this cartoonist named Ted Pierce, who was absolutely certain that all the ladies used to

dig him, despite very little evidence suggesting that. So he's the self declared ladies man. He'd go partying all night and then coming to the office just totally smelly, and he'd put in a full day's work and then go straight to hopelessly wooing again. And of course, you know, his office mates took notice. They decided to memorialize his efforts by drawing this love Struck cartoons skunk in his honor.

I feel like maybe we worked with that guy at some Yeah, but that's the first of a ton of fictional characters we're covering today who are all based on real people. Let's dive in. Y Hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend manes Hot Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof glass. He's been working on this list for a couple of days is now, and I didn't know exactly what it was. It turns out

it's a long list of comedians. He thinks Seinfeld might be based on I think, but that's our friends and producer Tristan McNeil. Tristan, the show is based on Terry Seinfeld. It's in the name. You don't have to overthink. He is always overthinking, but that's just I guess it's just part of his genius. But thinking about this, it is funny how so many books and characters are based on real events and people's lives, and I guess that shouldn't

be that surprising. But I know, we were talking recently about our friend John Green when he wrote his first book, Looking for Alaska. You know, some of the pranks that took place in that book were real pranks that he or his friends had participated in back in high school. And even the school itself was based very much on the school Indian Springs in Alabama, where John went to

high school, and it was definitely informed by his experience there. Yeah, I mean, you see that in first novels, especially like where people tend to write very autobiographically. But you know, I'm always made when writers keep pulling from the things around them. And you see that in Dickens, like where people have actually um traced all these characters from Great Expectations or some of his other famous books to real people that Dickens used to interact with. And we're going

to see a lot of that in today's show. Yeah, that's right. I know there are a lot of guesses as to who Miss Havisham might actually be, or like which house inspired the setting of the book and you know things like that. Yeah, and you know, settings that are a funny thing too, Like I remember when I was I was really getting into writing, and I first realized that people did this with entire worlds as well.

Like I went to this talk where this author said he couldn't figure out how to make a believable South American city and he didn't have I guess that like tolkin Ish quality of being able to just invent worlds. So he took this old map of Bolivia or someplace, and he crossed out the names of a little town and put in his own fictional street names and whatever.

And it's kind of clever. I mean, that's pretty ingenious, actually, yeah, And so he could actually visualize every time, like you know, where mountain passes where, or borders between areas would be. And you know, this is a little different, but there's actually this great story on this American life where this kid really falls in love with science fiction and this author, Pierce Anthony. Have you ever read any Pierce Anthony? Do you know? I don't. I mean that doesn't say a

whole lot. I don't read a ton of science fiction, but no, Yeah, so I was only familiar with him because my dad was really into science fiction, and Pierce Anthony wrote this fantasy book called A Spell for Chameleon, which was really popular when I was younger. But um, Pierce Anthony had all these fantasy stories that were set in this world called zanth and his books were filled

with puns, pretty easy to read. But you know, this high school kid figured out that zan was actually using all these context clues this little town in Florida, and he came up with this theory that, you know, Pierce Anthony, his family must live there. So he decided to run away from home to find them, and he took a boss I think or he charged his mother's credit card

to get there. It's a long story, but it's ultimately really sweet because the author and his wife take this young fanboy in, they feed him, they let crashed on the couch, and you know, and then they convince him to call his mom and step dad to let him know, you know, he's safe. But um, you know that this whole idea that you can create a whole secret fantasy world that's based on these very real landmarks around your little hometown, that's just kind of an amazing idea to me.

Yeah it is, and it's actually not something i'd really thought about. But but speaking of that realm of fantasy, you've kind of put us there. So it makes me think we should kick this off with one of my favorite fictional characters, and that Severest Snape. Now, if you're a fan of Harry Potter, you probably have I don't know, like me, pretty complicated feelings about the Potions Master, and because you know, he's both a good person at heart but also very much a Slytherin, and he obviously takes

pleasure in berating and putting down his students. And one of the things I didn't realize until we were reading up for this week was that J. K. Rolling based her character on one of her actual teachers. It was this chemistry professor named John Nettleship. So I'm definitely curious about this because I love Harry Potter, and it's almost funny that she didn't use the name Nettleship, because you know,

it sounds like such a name from Harry Potter. I know it definitely does, so Rolling quietly wrote this character into her books. But what's funny is that everyone realized that the Snape character was based on Nettleship except for him.

So there's all these accounts of this online, but I kind of like the way Quirk Books puts it, So let me just read this says when people started asking him if he was Professor Snape, it was his wife who had to let him down gently by explaining, of course you are, but I didn't want to tell you. Like apparently, he just been enjoying the books like everybody else until this was pointed out to him. That's so funny that it was his wife who saw the connection

and then that she hit it from him. Yeah, and of course, you know, he was horrified by this at first. He was even quoted as saying, I knew I was a strict teacher, but I didn't think I was that bad. And then, you know, he realized the similarities were pretty glaring. He was this short tempered chemistry teacher, had the long hair, and this not tory like gloomy lab and it did take him a little while to adjust to this legacy.

But of course then when he saw Alan Rickman playing him on screen, he suddenly grew to like the character much more, which makes a ton of sense. That's pretty great and what a legacy. So I'm curious. We've covered Harry Potter, now a little bit of pepular Pew. Where do you want to go from here? Well, I know you were looking into some of the comic characters we have, of course started with pepular Pew, But do you want to run down a few more? I know you looked

up a bunch of them. Yeah, definitely. So Scrooge mctock is one. You know, he's a miser. He very much worked his way up from nothing, and he is built on the idea of Andrew Carnegie. Um Tony Stark or iron Man is based on Howard Hughes, who I guess was inventing things for the Defense Department at the time that the comic was made. Yeah, Charlie Brown is based on the creator, Charles Schultz. He was apparently super precocious.

He was actually promoted a half grade twice, so he was very young for his class, and he was also a little depressed. But um, there's a story about him that his dad would start giving him a haircut because he was a barber, and then customers would walk into their store and he just have to walk around for the rest of the day with half a haircut. His dad was finally freed up to finish him. You know,

it sounds like a very Charlie Brown thing. Peppermin Patty was actually his athletic cousin, and Schroeder I found out was based on his friend's mom, who every time they went over she was always annoyingly playing Beethoven in their house. She wrote that you wrote that end of the comic strip. But you know, Batman's kind of interesting. He was based on a number of characters. He was based on Zoro Dracula, a movie about a bat whisper. But you know, the writer,

Bob Kaine's major inspiration was actually Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci. I wouldn't have guessed that, yeah, me either, because you know, Batman seems more like a crime fighter than an artistic type.

But I guess as a teenager, Bob Kine found this book of Da Vinci inventions, and he was especially enamored with all the flying inventions, so he'd like trace them or draw them out, and one of them was this giant pair of wings that could be attached to a man's back to fly, and obviously that gets roped into the whole Batman series. But there's a lot of fun stuff out there. One I really want to talk about, though, is Tintin, which I read it as a kid. Did you ever read this as a kid? I didn't, but

I know you've you know, mentioned them a lot before. Yeah, and you know I was hooked. My son is now hooked. And for anyone who doesn't know, Attintan is this wonderful Belgian comic about a reporter. He travels the world with his dog Snowy, ends up sucked into all these amazing adventures and ends up trying to have to stop crimes. But it was actually only this week that I learned

that Tintin maybe based on a real person. So apparently in this Danish newspaper wanted to honor Jewels firm, so they created a contest where one lucky teen would get to travel the world for forty six days unaccompanied. And out of this stack of applications, this fifteen year old boy named Pal hauled one and the press just fell in love with him immediately. He got to travel to Canada, Japan, Korea, China, the Soviet Union. Apparently the Soviet Union wasn't friendly to

tourists and it was a big deal that he went there. Um, he went to Germany lots of places before returning to Copenhagen forty four days later. And it was such a phenomenon that there were crowds kind of there to meet him at every pit stop. But when he got back to Copenhagen there were twenty two thousand people waiting for him to return, and in fact, it was so crowded that the police crowd served him just to get him

to safety. Unbelievable, twenty two thousand people. So they both traveled the world, but where where there were there similarities beyond that, so I mean there were some Tintins. Obviously, this fresh faced character with unruly hair, Pal was the same. They also dressed suspiciously alike like Pal, were breeches and the page boy hat, and I guess a similar overcoat. But the biggest of it might just be the timing. Tintin debut a few months after the teenager returned home,

so everyone just assumed Pal was Tintin. And in fact, when Pale died, his obituaries and these were everywhere from like the Telegraph to the Observer to the New York Times, they all noted how his adventure had sparked the comics series, but her Je, who was Tintin's creator, completely denied the story. And there's another person that some Tintin fans think might have inspired the character, and who's that. So it's a French photojournalist who I've never heard of, named Robert Sex,

and uh, these people might be right. So Sex also had unruly hair. He traveled on a motorbike like Tintin, took his dog with him, which is also true to the comics. Snowy, who was Tintin's dog, is called Millow in French, and Sex's best friend in real life was Rennee Melo. But the biggest evidence is just where this guy traveled. So his adventures took him to Moscow, out to the Belgian Congo, to the US, and those ended up being the settings for the first three Tintin book books.

But you know, the hardest thing for Belgian fans to swallow about this theory is that, uh, it would actually make one of Belgium's most famous characters French. And perhaps that's why I Hear was always denying this theory as well. Huh, Well, I mean, you know you mentioned Jules Verne in there and around the world in eighty days. And related to that, did you realize that Phileas Fogg, the main character from

the book, is also based on a real person. No, I mean, I do think it's funny that, like, if you dig deep enough, it feels like every character has a background somewhere. Like, uh, I read that the lamb from Mary Had a Little Lamb is based on a real lamb, which is so insane because that lamb doesn't have that much personality but it does nothing. But I cut you off, Well, what's the story with Phileas Fogg? No, I just want to go back to talk about this lamb.

That's the most boring story ever. No, that's pretty great. Well, he's apparently based on this rich, eccentric named George Francis Train who decided a campaign for I think it was the eighteen seventy two presidential election, and he did this by going across the world in eighty days for some reason, and he had this campaign slogan, get on board. And obviously this wasn't a great way to campaign though, since

he virtually disappeared for those months. But what's amazing is that he did actually make it back in eighty days, and so Jules Verne claimed that the idea was entirely original. But there are all these similarities in the stories, including how Train hires a private train along the way and finds himself in prison, and part of it. Train was actually insulted that he didn't get any credit and often yelled about how quote Verne stole his thunder, which is

just kind of funny to imagine him yelling this. But anyway, Phileas Fogg and Trained stories ended very differently, though, so while Fogg found love at the end of his journey, Train was always on the edge of being put in an asylum. His next campaign was actually to be dictator of the United States, which you can imagine didn't go over well, and he actually was put in jail briefly for obscenity and and you know, he spent his final few years handing out dimes to passers by at Madison

Square Park and it's it's a very weird story. But he actually had the strict policy of only having conversations with children and animals, which sounds like a really great voting demographic, right, children's animals. That's the way to campaign, So I know, We've got a number four stories to get to, but before we do, why don't we take a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about the real people some fictional characters were

based on. So well, I know you want to talk about Olivia Pope because you are such a fan of Scandal, but I think he said you had another famous female you wanted to get to first. That's right. I don't want to talk about a Levia just yet. I actually

want to talk about Miss Piggy. And you know, I think we all want to believe that the Diva is one original, but this is actually a pretty interesting story because it turns up Miss Piggy was created as this homage to a jazz singer who was named Peggy Lee, and in fact, Miss Piggy's original name was actually Miss Piggy Lee. So I'm curious, like, why don't I know this story? Because I feel like I know stories about like animal being based on the Who's drummer Keith Moon.

There's that story about the Swedish chef who's based on a real Swedish chef who was on Good Morning America and got so nervous that he was shaking and even mumbling strange words that he didn't recognize. And you know, though, the Muppets have never shied away from telling those origin stories,

So why don't I know this one? Well, the muppeteer who created her was named Bonnie Ericsson, and and Bonnie loved the singer Peggy Lee growing up in North Dakota, and her mom was also a huge fan, and so Bonnie grew up viewing Peggy as kind of this strong and independent an artist. So in a way, calling the muppet Piggy Lee was It was really more of a sweet joke to honor the singer. But then as Miss Piggy got more and more popular, no one really wanted

to offend the star. And this was partially because she had gained a little bit of weight later in her career due to some health problems, but was still performing in some of those original tight outfits from her youth, so they decided to back off on the comparison understandably. But any speaking of Bonnie Erickson, and this is an aside, but did you know that she didn't just work on Muppet character She also designed some famous mascots, including one

of our favorites, the Philly fanatic. I feel like I'm a Phillies fan. I love the fanatic, but I had no idea that there was a Muppets connection there. Well, that might be her most successful one. She also had some duds along the way, as we all do. So she designed a Dandy mascot for the Yankees, which is a little strange. He was kind of this cute looking,

heavily mustachio New Yorker. But he only lasted three seasons and as part it because he was never allowed out of the nosebleed section, so he he wasn't allowed to do appearances because the management was worried that he might distract players for some reason. That's really funny. And looking at some of her other designs, she designed these kind of sweet, weird animals for the Chicago White Sox. Their

name were Ribby and rue Barb. So I don't understand this, Like the White Sox feels like you should be designing like White Sox characters. Like why Ribby and Rubarb, who I've never heard of? Like were they popular? Now? They definitely weren't popular. Actually, I was doing some reading on it, so, as Espionation puts it, quote, the two fuzzballs look like the product of a bad experience with lsd. Ribby was a purple and eater, and Rubarb look like the love

child of the San Diego Chicken and a swiffer. I feel like I like them even more now and I almost want like a T shirt with them. But uh, how long did they last? Well? Unfortunately, not very long. And that's parson because of when they were a mission. I mean it was this was at a time where there was this unofficial mascot name Andy the Clown, who was still working the crowds at that time. And for

some reason, there were seriously strong allegiances to Andy. And this was despite the factor, maybe because he told these dirty jokes as he walked around the stadium. And anyway, kids and adults didn't take kindly to Ribby and Rhubarb, invading on what they saw as Andy's turf and and and there are stories of fans of all ages just verbally abusing Ribby and Rhubarb and it it sounds pretty horrible.

So finally the Socks management had to, you know, find a way to humanely put the characters out of their misery. But I don't know, just just this fact that the White Sox took a chance on these giant muppet like beasts for a little while. Is is pretty great and it kind of makes me respect those that they decided to give this a shot. But actually, I'll have to find some photos for you because they're pretty great. Oh. I love that. I feel like we should start to

bring back Ribby and Rubart campaign. It is good. So I feel like we're on a little with women characters. We've got Miss Piggy. We're gonna get to the Olivia Pope story. But before we do that, I I didn't want to talk about two other female characters I think are interesting. And these examples both come from the book The Godfather Was a Girl by em and Evans. We leaned on this book for the episode and it's really terrific. But the first is The Godfather from the movies and

Mario Puzzo's book. And while there are plenty of gangsters and mafios in that series that are based on real criminals, like there's a character based on Bugsy Siegull, there's one based on Mayer Landski. The voice of Don Corleone is actually based on Mario Puzzo's mother, and I had never heard this before, but as the book puts it, quote Puzzo was partially inspired by an illiterate Neapolitan immigrant who had raised him and his levin siblings single handedly amid

the squalor of the New York slums. Quote, whenever the Godfather opened his mouth, Puzzo said, in my own mind, I heard the voice of my mother, A wonderful, handsome woman, but a fairly ruthless This person. I mean, you know, you think about this, Raising twelve kids in that era of New York definitely couldn't have been easy. And as interesting as the Godfather is, I'm almost more interested in her story and and like just how ruthless she could be.

Totally the use of that word ruthless is important. And so that's one character. The second person who I guess gets an unfair wrap, according to the book, is actually Lady Macbeth. And thanks to Shakespeare, you know, her name is synonymous with ambitious women, but also women who were like cold hearted and cunning and you know, duplicitus. But

I I didn't realize this. That depiction was basically created to flatter the royals at the time, and according to the book, the real wife of Macbeth, was quote universally acclaimed as a Saint lean popular figure. We know, for instance, that she donated money and land to monks, and from the very fact that she was the first Scottish queen

to be named in history, she had to be popular. Also, the book wanted to point out that the real McBeth became King of Scotland after killing Duncan on the battlefield, and the author points out in ten forty that was basically akin to winning an election. So I guess that means the next time you hear someone using the word lady Macbeth like an insult, be sure to correct them, because they probably mean a lady Emelda Marcos. Yeah, I'm

sure that's exactly what I mean. There's actually one more woman who gets a bad rap that I feel like we should probably cover, and that's the Wicked Witch of the West. And you know, the the the idea of her may have changed just a little bit because of the popularity of the musical Wicked, But there's a great line that emm and Evan uses that quote. History shows

us that geniuses were sometimes underappreciated in their own lifetimes. Feminist, on the other hand, were always under appreciated, And of course the wicked Witch was based on a feminist. There was this woman named Matilda Gauge, and she was the founder of the National Women's Suffrage Association, and she was publicly and unfairly seen as this man hater. Now, she was a tough woman, but she also happened to be

l Frank Baum's mother in law. And the story is she was not an easy mother in law, but OZ appreciated her idealism, and the theory is that she inspired both the good and the wicked witches in OZ. In fact, Gage wrote quite a bit about the persecution of witches in medieval times, and that may have actually inspired the writer.

It's funny because I had actually heard that the Yellow Brick Road was from this military school that he'd attended in New York, and that, uh, that OZ was based on the World's Fair in Chicago, you know, this giant, tented city. But I'd never actually heard the mother in law thing, which which is really interesting. Yeah, I thought so too. All right, so we've covered some women who have gotten a bad rap. You know, we've got a

queen who didn't deserve her wicked legacy. We had the struggling mother who ended up voicing a mob boss, and you know, a feminist who was made into a fictional witch or two. But I actually wanted to talk about a character that even if you don't like her, you've got to admire her. And you mentioned this earlier, but that is Olivia Pope from Scandal. So if you watch the show, you know that Pope is kind of ultimate in crisis management. I mean, she's basically this mercenary who

fixes political scandals and situations. But one of the things I didn't realize until we started researching for the episode is that Olivia Pope is actually based on a real person. It's this DC insider named Judy Smith, who used to work for George H. W. Bush. Now, unlike Pope, she hasn't hooked up with or slapped a president, but she gives a consultant for the show in addition to running her own firm, and Neely Tucker at The Washington posted

this incredible profile of her. But I'll just give you a little bit of background here. So for starters, she's really tough to find. Like her company isn't in any phone directories, it doesn't have a website. She has no business cards, her numbers unlisted, and if you want to

meet with her, she comes to you. And you know, since Scandal has come out, there are more photos of her, but she's notoriously good at staying off the mic and off the camera, and when one of the producers of Scandal tried to find a photo of there was actually only one on the Internet at the time. So I feel like she's basically a ghost or almost operates like a CIA operative, I mean pretty much. But even if her fingerprints aren't on at her work is all over

the place. So she was working for Bush during the Clarence Thomas trial, which kind of makes you wonder how much dirt she might have been covering up for him. And actually, the list of her other clients is unbelievable. You've got Michael Vick BP after the oil spill in run, the Attorney General's office during the first Mary and Barry trial, Larry Craig and the Men's Room, the Chandra Levy family,

and even Monica Lewinsky. I mean, you feel a little ill looking at that list, but then you realize, like, if her specialty is crisis management, she has to have people with crisis is right, right, right. It does feel like she's that word you mentioned, a mercenary. Yeah, and she's really good at her job. In fact, there's only one mentioned in the news of her not being poised, and this was when she was deputy Press secretary for the White House. She was written about as being quote

a little flustered and combative. But I mean, the thing is, we have to remember how stressful it is to be in that position. In fact, her boss, Marlon Fitzwater, spoke about how hard it was being in the press room, and he said that he actually installed a full length podium so that reporters couldn't see his knees shaking. So being a little combative isn't the worst thing. So I am curious. Are there any stories about how she works? I mean, it feels like she does this all behind

closed doors, right. Well, the only thing I could find was during the height of the Clinton impeachment scandal, she was working to keep Lewinsky away from the tabloids and the TV cameras, but she had to keep her in town, so she decided to hide her in this church's homeless outreach program because she knew no one would think to look there. But you know, her job is not all tricks.

I mean, as she told the Washington Post, sometimes the key is just the sincere apology and then returning to what you do well and of course years of living that example, and that seems to be her advice for some people you think about, like Michael Vick as an example. And as Smith puts it, quote, a wonderful quality about America is that we love redemption stories. Were quick to lash out and assign blame, but we also draw from

deep reservoirs of forgiveness. And as the article puts it, she views her role as taking these extremely flawed clients and ushering them into this kinder, better second act. So I appreciate her skill, and I kind of wanted dislike her, but then what you said about forgiveness makes me like her even more. So She's obviously very good at this thin stuff. But uh, you know, I know we've got a few more stories I want to get to you. But before you do that, let's take a little break.

Welcome back to Part Time Genius. Okay, Mango, we've talked about muffets and scandals and Harry Potter, So where do you want to go from here? So I was thinking, why don't we each tell one of our favorite stories and then we can get to the fact off. All right, that sounds good, so I'll let you go first. Where do you want to start? How about with the little Roll Doll? And as you know, I'm a huge Roll Doll fan. I loved Boy Danny, the Champion, the World Twits, Matilda, Fantastic,

Mr Fox. I could list them forever. And I thought you were going to for a second there. But you know, I always figured there was a little autobiography in like how much he disliked principles or certain adults or whatever. But one thing I didn't imagine was that the bf G or the Big Friendly Giant would be based on a real person. Oh that's interesting, And actually I just saw the movie recently. But how is that? So? I found the story in the Telegraph. But do you know

how Roll Doll had this little writing cottage behind his place? No, I didn't, so he would go back there. It was this tiny little shed. He'd put a blanket on his legs and sit in a chair and right for a few hours every day and sort of this like legendary thing. And and uh, but the BFG is actually based on this guy named Wally Saunder, who was this giant of a man and this sweet natured builder who Doll had actually befriended and also commissioned him to make this hut.

And uh, Wally apparently was super super nice. He had this long, brinkly face, a big nose, and ears, and as Doll put it, quote, huge hands like a bunch of bananas. He also had this thick Norfolk accent where, um, he would speak but no one could really understand him, and he jumbled his words and phrases a lot, just like the VFG. But Dal particularly noticed when his granddaughter Sophie started up this friendship with this gentleman, and uh, that's sort of what the whole book is based on.

I didn't know that, and I really like that actually, So what's where are you gonna end with? I'm just going a pretty different direction. I want to talk about the real life Cramer back to the sign fell the idea. But obviously there's a ton of real stuff and Sign felt, despite what Tristan may believe, it is based on Jerry

Seinfeld's life. Uh, there of course was a real soup Nazi um Elaine's character is loosely rooted and Carol Leefer, who Seinfeld dated, and then I think a lot of people know this, but but obviously George is very much based on Larry David, who really did move in with his parents. He entered a contest like the infamous Contest episode, even quit a job and realized he needed the money, so he just showed up at work the next day and pretended like he hadn't quit, which is just think

is hilarious. But these are all real things. But the most interesting character to me, maybe when you think about the real life situation is probably Kramer, who is very much based on a guy named Kenny Kramer, who's Larry David's neighbor and there are so many great stories about him. Kenny Kramer is a comedian and an entrepreneur and unsuccessfully ran for office. He also apparently runs this really terrible bus tour on the real Seinfeld experience. It's called Kramer's

Reality Tour and it just sounds terrible. So he's a licensed New York tour guide, but the tour often involves him pointing at a gay person on the street and then the entire bus singing together. Not that there's anything wrong with that, So it sounds like it makes me even embarrassed to just like read it. But you know they'll they'll use other catchphrases from the show on the tour.

And he's always looking for these money making schemes, like when this one book company went out of business, he bought their Seinfeld Universe books for ten cents a book, signed them, and then resold them. So he's basically the character on the show with very little embellishment to it. But I think my favorite story about him is just the one where Larry David told him that he was creating a Seinfeld pilot and then he wanted to base a character on him, and so here, let me just

read you this account of it. So it was very Seinfeld. I in. He came and asked, permission, Kramer, I'm writing a pilot with Seinfeld. I want to base a character on you and call him Cramer. Is that okay? I said, certainly, it's okay, as long as I get to play Kramer. He says, you can't be Kramer. I said, but I am Kramer. And he says, look, Kenny, I'm just writing a pilot. I have no say, but there's no way

in hell, you're gonna be Cramer. So that's just the way it is, which honestly feels like I've seen that scene on Signful before. Yeah, that's pretty great. Well, you know, the only difference I've read is that Kramer claims Larry David used to take food from his fridge and not the other way around, which also sounds like a Kramer thing to say. All right, well, now we've gotten a little roll Doll and a little Cramer out of our systems, so I think it's time for the fact off. Mango

sounds great, So here's a quick one. I love Judy Bloom and her books, especially at the Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing and super Fudge. And I've heard that the character Fudge was based on her son Larry. It's actually why she dedicated a book to him, and and she's always talked about him diplomatically, like apparently he sucked four fingers on his hands, just like the character he refused where shoes through these ridiculous tantrums. But the way he always talked about him was just to say he was

quote a very interesting child. But I have to note, did he ever swallow a turtle like he did in the book. Yeah, I was curious about that too, but apparently not she She actually got that from newspaper articles that appeared at the time. She was writing about this boy who swallowed a turtle land. I guess every day for a week, the newspaper kept following up with this kid, and and it just got into a psyche. It's been a slow newsweek. Alright. Well, here's one that I like.

The real inspector Clusseau from the Pink Panther movies was actually a great athlete. So in eighteen seventy, Captain Matthew Webb heroically dived off a ship and he saved this drowning passenger. So then he uses this publicity to do all these other stunts, like one of his daredevil feats was to cover himself in dolphin blubber for some reason and then swim the English Channel. But he made quite a name for himself until he finally swam under Niagara Falls, where,

sad like, things didn't end well for the Daredevil. But he had all of these sponsors, and and one of them was this matchbox company, and they would put his picture on the box. And when Peter Sellers lit a cigarette with one of the matches and then saw the picture of this guy was sporting this ridiculous giant mustache and posing in a man kini and this kind of serious but also buffoonish pose. It gave him the idea

for this new character. Huh, that's really interesting. So Mario from Super Mario Brothers is actually based on Nintendo's Landlord in Seattle, and apparently the staff was working on a character called Mr. Video at the time. I thought he was called jump Man, but I guess he was called Mr Video when Mario Segal came in wearing these overalls sporting his trademark mustache, and he got very, very animated, just hopping up and down about that month's rent check

being late. And as a reward for that display, they renamed their character Mario. And of course Mario this day is not happy about that. He actually is a duck hunter, so he was maybe twice the inspiration for their games. Uh. He told the Seattle Times that he's still waiting on his royalty checks. I do think he got his rent checks though. So the book That Godfather Was a Girl has this great little bit on que from James Bond.

Apparently the gadget Whiz was based on a real person, Charles Fraser Smith, who was this missionary and also a dairy farmer, but more interestingly also spent World War Two at the UK Ministry of Supplies, Clothing and Textile Department. Now that's just code for m I six, where he

was crafting these gadgets for secret agents. But the real que was a little lower tech than his on screen counterpart, and he was mostly quote putting things in other things like and then some of these are pretty interesting, like stuffing a mini camera to a cigarette lighter, or a mini compass into a golf ball, or figuring out how to put a tiny saw in an agent shoes. I mean, they're pretty funny stuff. That's pretty cool. So did you know that there's actually a real Ferris Bueller And his

name is Edward McNally. He grew up on John Hughes's block, who is the director of Ferris Bueller. And apparently this kid was a legend in in one marketing period, he supposedly skipped school twenty seven times. The fact that everyone knows this is kind of incredible. He even pulled off that same card trek from the movie where he borrowed his friends dad's car drove a hundred thirteen miles in it and then tried to run the miles off by putting it in reverse, and apparently it also ended badly.

But it's funny because you know, you probably wonder like where his career went from this. He actually ended up going to law school, he became a Republican, and he ended up being senior counsel to George W. Bush. Oh way, I mean, it is actually kind of funny how many hits, shows and movies have come out of the Bush administration. Yeah, well here, unrelated to that, here's a quick one that I think you might like. Have you heard that Chaka

is based on George Lucas's dog, Indiana. So his pup is this massive Alaskan malamute, and he used to ride Shotgun when Lucas drove around town, so he thought maybe Han Solo could use a similar companion. And also, that's pretty funny. I'm guessing Indiana is the name he gave to Indiana Jones as well. That's right, So his dog is like doubly important, So pretty pretty big deal here. But apparently the inspiration for the Millennium Falcon was served

up to Lucas at a diner. He was brainstorming what the ship would look like, and he was then served a hamburger with an olive on the side, so there was where inspiration struck. It is funny because that ship, I guess, does look like a hamburger with an olive on the side. I feel like that's what I'm going to picture every time I see the Millennium Falcon from now on. I do think that fact plus the dog fact,

wins you this week's trophy. Though. Yeah, well, thank you so much that you know there are obviously so many great characters based off of real people. I know there's a ton that we left off that we thought about talking about today, so we'd love to hear about those from You can always email us part Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much for listening. Thanks

again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gabeluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets

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