101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived

Updates and Enhancements in Progress on This Post.

The other day at the lunch table at work, a friend of mine mentioned a new book coming out that listed the 101 most influential people who never lived -- that is, mythical figures, fictional characters, anthropomorphizations, etc. who have impacted the rest of us either by virtue of their archetypal natures, or as a reflection of the innovation of their creator(s). This set us to thinking about what 101 figures each of us would pick, and so we agreed to avoid trying to learn what the actual book contained, avoid excessive discussion of potentials with each other, and list our own choices. There were 20 names on the list that were known to us due to their being discussed in the radio interview that sparked this discussion; those 20 (which I am told are in the book) are alphabetically listed first below. The other 81 (my choices) are listed alphabetically after that.

A couple of issues:

• Do you count Romeo & Juliet as one choice or two? I went with one.
• Do you include biblical figures? I think that Jesus, Paul, Peter, et al. were historical figures. I don't have as much faith in Job's actual existence. So, in that grey area, I picked some archetypal biblical characters who may or may not have lived.
• What do you do about, say, Mars and Ares? Is the Roman version of a Greek god the same character or a different character? I generally went with them being the same, although I did list both Zeus and Odin. If Odin can be Norway's contribution to this list, then that's just how it is. If you don't like it, make your own list.

Now I know that these choices are Western-centric (specifically America-centric) and focus a lot on the 20th Century. Well, guess what? Those are the country and century in which I was born. Not only that, but there are a lot more people around now to be influenced as compared to the 16th Century or something, and we are all a lot more connected to each other now than our ancestors were, so ideas flow throughout the world a lot more efficiently now than they ever have in the past. (Speaking of which, feel free to comment.)

Hyperlinks and rationales to follow as needed in updates; I reserve the right to substitute names onto a revised list, although the names given below will stay here for reference.

So, my list: (Well, #s 21-101, anyhow.)

1. Barbie (Here through Tarzan are the ones that we heard were on the list before we decided to make our own.)


2. Betty Boop


3. Big Brother


4. Citizen Kane


5. Dracula


6. Ebenezer Scrooge


7. Hercules


8. Icarus


9. James Bond


10. King Arthur


11. King Kong


12. Loch Ness Monster


13. The Marlboro Man


14. Paul Bunyan


15. Peter Pan


16. Prince Charming


17. Rosie the Riveter


18. Santa Claus


19. Siegfried


20. St. Valentine


21. Tarzan (My picks start on the next line.)


22. Adam/Eve -- I have to say, they're pretty influential. Who do you think Commander Adama was named after?


23. Agamemnon


24. Alfred E. Neumann


25. Alice


26. Anansi


27. Archie Bunker --An Archietypal figure.


28. Beowulf


29. Betty Crocker


30. Big Bird -- One of the only American Sesame Street characters to be in many of the overseas Sesame shows as well.


31. Cain/Abel


32. Capt. Ahab -- OCD poster boy.


33. Carmen


34. Charlie Brown


35. Christian (From Pilgrim's Progress)


36. Clippit -- Taught how many millions of people how to organize and present information more efficiently?
    
37. Col. Blimp -- Personification of British stiff-upper-lippedness.


38. D'Artagnan


39. Darth Vader


40. Davey Jones


41. Don Quixote -- Has a commonly used adjective made from his last name.


42. Dr. Frankenstein/Prometheus


43. Faust -- Excerpt: The German-speaking people saw Goethe’s Faust character as a reflection of themselves as well as a reflection of the life of their emerging hero Goethe. "Over time, the term Faustian and Faustian Man became widely used in the German culture to represent a person who was prepared to "defy morality, society and religion and to enter a pact with the devil" to achieve his desires (Dabezies 433). Today however there is still disagreement as to whether the term’s meaning is positive or negative – i.e. does it mean becoming dissatisfied with the limited nature of human knowledge and then selling one’s soul to the devil in exchange for worldly experience and power or does it suggest striving for knowledge, mastery and higher spiritual satisfaction (Webster's Third International Dictionary).


44. Figaro


45. G.I. Joe -- Not just the action figure!


46. Gertie the Dinosaur


47. Gilgamesh


48. Gloria Saunders


49. The Golem/Frankenstein's Monster


50. The Good Samaritan


51. HAL


52. Hamlet


53. Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo) -- First protagonist of major American novels.


54. Helen of Troy


55. His Master (RCA) -- Anything that revolutionizes communications and upsets the existing order gets on the list. Why? Influential by definition.


56. Homer/Bart Simpson -- Remember when there were only three national broadcast networks?


57. Huck Finn


58. Jim Crow -- Excerpt: The term "Jim Crow" originated in a song performed by Daddy Rice, a white minstrel show entertainer in the 1830s. Rice covered his face with charcoal paste or burnt cork to resemble a black man, and then sang and danced a routine in caricature of a silly black person. By the 1850s, this Jim Crow character, one of several stereotypical images of black inferiority in the nation's popular culture, was a standard act in the minstrel shows of the day. How it became a term synonymous with the brutal segregation and disfranchisement of African Americans in the late nineteenth-century is unclear. What is clear, however, is that by 1900, the term was generally identified with those racist laws and actions that deprived African Americans of their civil rights by defining blacks as inferior to whites, as members of a caste of subordinate people.


59. Job


60. John Henry


61. Johnny Appleseed -- Oops! A real guy...


62. Johnny B. Goode


63. Jonah


64. Lady Justice


65. Lucy Ricardo


66. Macbeth


67. Mickey Mouse


68. The Missing Link -- Without the Missing Link, how would there have been a Flying Spaghetti Monster?


69. Mother Nature


70. Mr. Tibbs -- White audiences accustomed to Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson scampering around now had to contend with a black man with a badge and a gun who was accustomed to being addressed as "Mister."


71. Norman Bates


72. Odin


73. Odysseus


74. Oedipus


75. Osiris


76. Othello


77. Pac-Man -- All those quarters must have represented a lot of R&D $$$ going into computer graphics. Excerpt: "This was the first time a player took on a persona in the game. Instead of controlling inanimate objects like tanks, paddles and missile bases, players now controlled a `living' creature," says Leonard Herman, author of Phoenix: The Rise and Fall of Videogames. "It was something that people could identify, like a hero."


78. Phileas Fogg -- Made the world shrink.


79. Poor Richard


80. Robin Hood -- The basis for the entire philosophy of Marxism. Later to be emulated by the Russians, the Democratic Party, the Chinese, and then finally the Republican Party.


81. Robinson Crusoe


82. Romeo/Juliet


83. Romulus/Remus


84. Ronald McDonald -- Billions served.


85. The Sandman


86. Sen. Jefferson Smith -- How many people you know shake their heads/think it's hysterical/don't get it when they show a member of the Senate or House talking to an empty chamber on C-Span?
    
87. Sgt. Pepper


88. Sherlock Holmes


89. Sinbad


90. Snow White


91. Superman


92. Sweet Georgia Brown


93. The Boogeyman (Oops - Should be under "B")


94. Tintin


95. Tom Sawyer


96. Uncle Sam


97. Uncle Tom


98. Vito Corleone


99. Yankee Doodle


100. The Yellow Kid -- The first major comic-strip character. Had he been called "The Purple Kid," Hearst and Pulitzer might have been known for "Purple Journalism."


101. Zeus

They're all more influential than you, and they aren't even real.

Update: OK, here is the list that the book's authors came up with. (The authors, btw, are Dan Karlan, Allan Lazar, and Jeremy Salter -- Here's their website.) USA Today article here, USA Today's PopCandy blogpost here. As I mentioned, further enhancements of this post are forthcoming.