Board 8 > What is the most famous fictional character of this list?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have since removed Santa Claus from the last and added King Arthur. The requirement for "most well-known" is just who would the largest number of people on Earth instantly recognize a picture of and at least know vaguely what the character is about.

i kinda doubt that king arthur is even top 50

it can't be Mickey Mouse if you don't know how to spell his name

Probably Mickey, but I'd guess Dracula is close if 'vampire' counts as a correct guess. He's so foundational to the idea of a vampire I struggle to separate the two.

It's 2022 and people still say Mickey Mouse

Must be great being in the US bubble and thinking every country has a World Disney in it

bugs bunny, snoopy, elmo or big bird, winnie-the-pooh might beat quite a few of these characters

changmas posted...

bugs bunny, snoopy, elmo or big bird, winnie-the-pooh might beat quite a few of these characters

I could believe Bugs Bunny, but there's no way Snoopy beats any of these.

Leonhart4 posted...

it can't be Mickey Mouse if you don't know how to spell his name

Yeah, yeah.

Peanuts is more popular than you think. I don't think Garfield is more well known by a substantial amount, if at all.

Nanis23 posted...

It's 2022 and people still say Mickey Mouse

Must be great being in the US bubble and thinking every country has a World Disney in it

well, enlighten us. who is it?

Anagram posted...

I could believe Bugs Bunny, but there's no way Snoopy beats any of these.

Yeah, yeah.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/10/11/snoopy-fad-takes-hong-kong-by-storm/3593e095-6581-46e6-b6a3-758ea7be6d24/

i mean....snoopy is pretty international

If visual recognition is important then Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and King Arthur would seem to run the risk of being identified as a detective, a vampire and a knight/a king respectively.

Mickey easily

changmas posted...

i kinda doubt that king arthur is even top 50

yeah, if you showed me a picture of "King Arthur" I doubt i would be able to identify it unless it's the Disney character or someone pulling a sword out of a stone. There's no "canonical" look for him, unlike every other character on this list.

Add in the fact that it's a very Britain-centric legend, and I would guess he doesn't even make the top 500, honestly.

I would also like to know who Nanis thinks is more globally well-known than Mickey Mouse.

If I try to picture King Arthur I just see Graham Chapman's version

We've had this poll before.

Mickey is popular in China and that is game over.

Leonhart4 posted...

Peanuts is more popular than you think. I don't think Garfield is more well known by a substantial amount, if at all.

garfield has his absurdly ubiquitous merchandising though (obv Snoopy has merch too, but I think Garf is on another level)

also seemingly Garf is more successful at maintaining a modern presence than Peanuts is. got that Chris Pratt factor

oh and here is my dark horse nomination for this list: a Minion

not a specific named Minion for sure, but just the concept of a Minion may be more famous than some of these guys at this point due to meme saturation

"Minion" is a good call if all you have to do is be able to recognize what they look like and not name them

also if we're going with a British fictional character, Harry Potter probably ranks ahead of King Arthur at this point

Nanis23 posted...

It's 2022 and people still say Mickey Mouse

Must be great being in the US bubble and thinking every country has a World Disney in it

Name your pick then, cause Mickey is still very well known worldwide regardless of whether there's a Disney theme park around. Don't really think it's a US bubble thing.

Voted Dracula but Mickey and Superman are solid choices. Sonic and Garfield straight up don't belong on the list. Snoopy is DEFINITELY more well-known than Garfield.

A few good candidates have already been mentioned, but just to throw out one that hasn't, Spider-Man probably beats a good chunk of these.

Sonic doesn't belong in the sense that there's no way he's more well known than Mario, but he's probably somewhere on the upper end.

Sherlock Holmes and Dracula both suffer if using "picture recognition" strictly, but would beat some of the characters listed otherwise. (King Arthur is not on their level.)

I just dont accept that Snoopy is more recognizable than Garfield.

To me, Sherlock Holmes has one of the most identifiable silhouettes with his deerhunter hat, pipe, and trenchcoat.

I would give James Bond a mention, as well as anyone from the Wizard of Oz. Romeo & Juliet are still used as the quintessential star-crossed lovers couple to this day. Godzilla, Batman & Joker are all probably top tier as well. It's difficult to say who's the most famous.

Snake5555555555 posted...

To me, Sherlock Holmes has one of the most identifiable silhouettes with his deerhunter hat, pipe, and trenchcoat.

Yeah, but he's still "just some guy", and in his many famous incarnations he has been played by different actors and drawn in various different ways, even if they all share a theme and style. He's not literally one person (even though he did practically invent the stereotype of what a "detective" looks like).

I feel like some people not familiar with classic Dr. Who might identify Tom Baker as Holmes, lol.

From that list it's Mickey Mouse. The key is to think of characters who pensioners grew up with that are still recognisable by young kids today.

Man it's been so fucking long since I went to World Disney

I just don't really have a knowledge of other countries satisfactory enough to guess what's popular there

I think Mickey is a safe #1 here though. Pikachu and Mario are too new and Sherlock Holmes lacks an easily identifiable appearance, everything else is out for one reason or another

Pokemon is the highest grossing multimedia franchise of all time. Mickey Mouse & Friends is 3rd, so I voted Pikachu

Anagram posted...

I just dont accept that Snoopy is more recognizable than Garfield.

I don't think that there's any shadow of a doubt that Snoopy beats Garfield on this. You're most likely falling for the recent (5-10 years) trend of the modern internet generation turning Garfield into a meme, because I can't think of any other reason why you'd be overrating him so much.

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

I don't think that there's any shadow of a doubt that Snoopy beats Garfield on this. You're most likely falling for the recent (5-10 years) trend of the modern internet generation turning Garfield into a meme, because I can't think of any other reason why you'd be overrating him so much.

I would take Snoopy over Garfield but I think that YOU might be underestimating the absolutely bizarre phenomenon of Garfield slowly creeping into every facet of popular culture for like three decades, it's not as new as you think

I'm quite sure Mario is more well-known than Mickey Mouse. Wouldn't be surprised if Pikachu was also more known than MM.

Garfield's like, ridiculously popular in South America, right?

Disney owns most of the entertainment business. The Mouse easily.

HasteDeux posted...

I'm quite sure Mario is more well-known than Mickey Mouse. Wouldn't be surprised if Pikachu was also more known than MM.

The crazy thing is, I do think Mario and Pikachu might be the other two in the top 3 which is wild to think about

Does Saber count as King Arthur?

Murphiroth posted...

Name your pick then, cause Mickey is still very well known worldwide regardless of whether there's a Disney theme park around. Don't really think it's a US bubble thing.

Nanis doesn't operate on facts or reason. Nanis operates on "I want to hate on this random popular thing and will die on this hill, truth be damned."

I am currently wearing this shirt so getting a kick out of this thread

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/9/0/AAcM16AADhoe.jpg

my mom bought it for me as a gift. She wasn't sure if I'd love it or hate it, but she knew I'd have some strong feeling towards it

Mickey, but honestly Goku might be worth mentioning over some of the options since Dragon Ball was pretty much the gateway anime to basically everywhere outside of Japan. If youve heard of anime odds are pretty good youve probably heard of Goku too especially considering all the other merchandise it has (clothes, games, cards, figures, etc). Hes not gonna beat Mickey, but he might beat some of the others worldwide.

Sherlock Holmes is an interesting one too because theres a hilarious amount of people who believe he was a real person somehow

I don't see Goku beating anybody on the list at all. Anime is still, even now, much more niche in most parts of the world than any of the other mediums. Sure, Dragon Ball has appeared in many other things past the anime, but you're still not likely to have paid it any attention if you weren't already interested.

You dont think Goku would beat Garfield or King Arthur at least? I honestly dont even know if Garfield is popular outside of America though. Same kinda goes for a lot of these because I just dont know what level of worldwide recognition some of them have. I feel like even Scooby Doo would be more famous than Garfield honestly, but that could be more because I cant even recall the last new thing Garfield had and Scooby Doo is almost constantly releasing new stuff.

Garfield is the most syndicated comic strip in the world.

I just think Goku's reach is way too small in most of the world to be considered much. You pretty much have to like the anime already to be interested in the video games or anything else. Most of these characters have more marketable designs or a broader history.

Goku doesn't belong in the same category as any of these things; I could easily find random people on the street who don't know who Goku is.

StealThisSheen posted...

Nanis doesn't operate on facts or reason. Nanis operates on "I want to hate on this random popular thing and will die on this hill, truth be damned."

Oh I know, I'm just curious to see if he has any justification at all besides his usual schtick.

Paratroopa1 posted...

Goku doesn't belong in the same category as any of these things; I could easily find random people on the street who don't know who Goku is.

(Addendum: Presuming that we are considering Goku to be distinct from Son Goku/Sun Wukong in general, which might be a more interesting conversation, but probably still a no-go because of his unrecognizability in the west)

StealThisSheen posted...

Nanis doesn't operate on facts or reason. Nanis operates on "I want to hate on this random popular thing and will die on this hill, truth be damned."

Nanis operates on the "I don't live in the US so I look at things differently"

Where exactly am I supposed to encounter Mickey Mouse
Does he have movies now? TV shows? Games?
Merchandise? maybe. But I didn't see any.
I can see a lot more Hello Kitty and Minions though

Mickey Mouse isn't targeted at you, so that's probably why you don't see it. Doesn't mean he isn't everywhere though.

I know IP isnt the end all be all, but Dragon Ball is literally worth more than Batman and Superman and not far off from being worth as much as Spider-Man, Harry Potter and the MCU in general. Anime is niche yeah, but Dragon Ball is more known worldwide than I think most people give it credit for.

Leonhart4 posted...

Mickey Mouse isn't targeted at you, so that's probably why you don't see it. Doesn't mean he isn't everywhere though.

Neither are the Minions but I still see them everyone
I see much more PAW Patrol and PJ Masks merchandise than I see Mickey Mouse, too

Also shout out to Spongebob as well