Comments on: Comments on 20309

Post number 20309

GreyWingnut — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:33:53 -0800

Who's richer: Montgomery Burns, Cruella De Vil, or Bruce Wayne? On the heels of last month's Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list, Forbes brings us their Fictional Fifteen, the wealthiest made-up people in the world. Anyone see any egregious exclusions?

By: mikrophon

mikrophon — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:39:00 -0800

Anyone see any egregious exclusions? Well, me for one! Wait, is that fictional characters, or fictional wealth?

By: milnak

milnak — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:45:45 -0800

What was the point of this article? Why was it in Forbes, and not People or its kind?

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:46:44 -0800

wait a sec, are they saying Santa's not real? ; > It's good to see Cruella hanging in there...but I think they overvalued Thurston Howell III (everyone knows that Lovey was the one with the money!)

By: GaelFC

GaelFC — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:46:54 -0800

Veronica Lodge had a few bucks. I seem to remember closets the size of airplane hangars. Ditto Blair Warner from "Facts of Life." Also the Beverly Hillbillies. Someone tell Forbes about spellcheck. "Million" is spelled wrong three times at the end of the list.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:47:36 -0800

I swear Forrest Gump said he was a "Go-zillionaire".

By: Shadowkeeper

Shadowkeeper — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:50:43 -0800

Hey Owillis! Before election, Lex perhaps best known for railing in public against Superman and other super-powered beings, which he believes cause normal human beings to become less self-reliant. Is Luthor no longer capital-E Evil? Having him oppose Superman on the basis that metahumans make regular humans less self-reliant is a really interesting slant on his character (and very much in keeping with the future imagined by Kingdom Come.) Man, I gotta start reading comics again. How rich did The Jerk get?

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:52:38 -0800

It figures that there'd be no mention of John Beresford Tipton or Bertie Wooster...

By: gummi

gummi — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:56:25 -0800

Hrm. I guess Lara Croft isn't as wealthy as I imagined.

By: wanderingmind

wanderingmind — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:57:54 -0800

Someone should put a spoiler warning on their bio of Jay Gatsby.

By: adnanbwp

adnanbwp — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:57:55 -0800

the wealthiest made-up people.. hmmmm... George W. Bush ???

By: liam

liam — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:58:17 -0800

Guy Grand, from Terry Southern's The Magic Christian, was both a billionaire and the richest man in the world, which must count for something.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:58:44 -0800

Ming the Merciless would be pretty wealthy, it seems, what with that whole "Emperor of the Universe" gig.

By: nickmark

nickmark — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:59:24 -0800

They're short-changing Scrooge McDuck, though - he's cited in the comics as having "uncountabatillions" of dollars. I mean, let's face it - three cubic acres of cash has gotta be a lot more than $8.2 billion.

By: tittergrrl

tittergrrl — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:02:35 -0800

And Scrooge can swim in his gold coins, dive undercoinage, and come up fully decked out in be-oooutiful jewelry! He totally got the shaft. He could buy and sell Santa ten times over. Same with Daddy "I ain't got no pupils or hair" Warbucks. Richie Rich was a nice surprise tho.

By: nickmark

nickmark — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:02:50 -0800

Oops, I stand corrected: "Uncle Scrooge's fortune stands at precisely ... Five billion quintiplitilion unptuplatillion multuplatillion impossibidillion fantasticatrillion dollars. This translates into three cubic acres of money housed in the McDuck Money Bin." - Carl Barks 1994

By: ruggles

ruggles — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:05:50 -0800

I'm assuming the list was restricted to characters from the 20th century...otherwise the omission of the Count of Monte Cristo might be rather egregious...what with his Unlimited Credit and all...

By: ruggles

ruggles — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:07:19 -0800

Yeah....Uncle Scrooge got the shaft...

By: monkeyman

monkeyman — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:16:44 -0800

I am Ironman. Tony Stark should get a mention, but I guess he lost all his money after his battle with the super-villain alcoholism. I'm guessing Dr. Doom was loaded too, since he owned a whole country.

By: anathema

anathema — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:16:47 -0800

God

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:17:29 -0800

Why no Monty Burns photo? Have Fox's lawyers overtured fair use already? On preview: you have to divide Victor Von Doom's wealth amongst all the robots and relatives who think they're Doom.

By: oflinkey

oflinkey — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:19:43 -0800

Why is Monty Burns in silhouette?

By: Shadowkeeper

Shadowkeeper — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:21:32 -0800

Ozymmandias of "The Watchmen" was pretty loaded too, as I recall.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:23:40 -0800

monty burns goes to washington.

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:25:09 -0800

hello? Dr. Evil!

By: gyc

gyc — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:30:16 -0800

Too bad Mr. Burns lost his trillion dollar bill...

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:35:04 -0800

What about the dad on the Ricky Schroeder show-Silver Spoons?

By: zekinskia

zekinskia — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:59:51 -0800

In creating this list we took certain minor liberties with the stories as presented on the page or on the screen. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it! Translation: We totally made up all figures listed here, and probably didn't even bother to put any math into comparing the wealth of each fictional character to the next. We did it because we are sick and tired of writing about boring, rich people, and we hope you were as sick and tired of reading about them! P.S. Yeah, gyc, shouldn't Castro be THE richest?

By: GaelFC

GaelFC — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 16:20:04 -0800

If you're adding the Silver Spoons dad, you've gotta have Mr. Drummond. A man is born...he's a man of means.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 16:21:15 -0800

This would be a better Mr. Burns shot for the article.

By: luriete

luriete — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 16:22:29 -0800

The Roman Catholic Church is both fictive and quite rich.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 16:55:51 -0800

what chu talkin' 'bout Gael? you're so right! He was always so dull I forgot him.... what about Alexis Carrington Colby etc....?

By: web-goddess

web-goddess — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 17:00:40 -0800

You'd think with $8 billion, Willy Wonka could hire a decent publicity person that would make sure his name didn't get mispelled ("Willie"??) in stupid lists like this. (Slight self-link there. Dahl is my magnificent obsession.)

By: linux

linux — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 17:44:00 -0800

Bruce Wayne owes all his wealth to Lamont Cranston and Don Diego de la Vega.

By: linux

linux — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 17:55:36 -0800

Also, they forgot the Ghost Who Walks.

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 17:59:03 -0800

Oooh. Lex Luthor is second to Bruce Wayne. No wonder Lex was trying to frame Bruce for murder. On the other hand, Lex became President of the United States, so their rivalry is a bit more balanced.

By: fatbobsmith

fatbobsmith — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 18:28:28 -0800

If we're talking richest in terms of real money, Mickey Mouse wins hands down. Followed closely by Joe Camel. I wonder where Cap'n Crunch would be in that list?

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 18:39:55 -0800

Not to mention, of course, Flintheart Glomgold, who is poorer than Scrooge McDuck by only twelve inches of string. And SPrintF: I have the anthology on reserve order, and I swear to Christ Almighty if you just spoiled Bruce Wayne Fugitive for me I'm kicking the high holy hell out of you.

By: holycola

holycola — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 19:29:18 -0800

Bruce Wayne - I mean, where else would he have gotten all those wonderful toys?

By: plemeljr

plemeljr — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 19:31:45 -0800

quoth fatbobsmith: If we're talking richest in terms of real money, Mickey Mouse wins hands down. Followed closely by Joe Camel. I wonder where Cap'n Crunch would be in that list? Then where is Ronald McDonald, or Mayor McCheese? I'm sure that at least the Hamburgler is in the top-50. I would bet that Ronald McDonald is really on the top of the list.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 19:47:32 -0800

XQUZYPHYR, I don't think SPrintF ruined anything for you - the links are from March 2002 and earlier. But whoa, when did DC start doing e-comics? And who's the chick - okay, young woman - that's Robin, but not Robin?!? Clearly, I have not been keeping up properly with the Batman.

By: HTuttle

HTuttle — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 20:16:35 -0800

These guys never read Jules Verne.

By: fatbobsmith

fatbobsmith — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 20:40:35 -0800

plemeljr: I unconsciously omitted Ronald McDonald from my list of potential candidates due to deep-seated emotional and psychological issues related to burger-peddling clowns. However, I have no idea how Mayor McCheese passed under my radar. Mayor McCheese really should've cracked down on the burger and fry snatching problems they had in McDonaldland. The Hamburglar and Fry Guys always seemed to get off the hook without even so much as a slap on the wrist. That always upset me as a kid. All in all though, I'd vote for Mayor McCheese well before I voted for GW.

By: McBain

McBain — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 21:38:51 -0800

What about Mario?

By: riffola

riffola — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 22:47:25 -0800

Bruce Wayne had enough money to spare to build and launch the new Justice League watch tower in space, along with their mode of transportation. Anyway doesn't Bruce Wayne have his company run by Lucius Fox? So Lucius should get some credit too. Also what about Powers? The guy from Batman Beyond who was obviously rich enough to manage a successful hostile take over Wayne Industries.

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 23:43:53 -0800

I feel kinda silly not knowing who many of these fictional characters are, oh well. *pulls out suitcase full of $100 bills, scatters them on floor and rolls in them.*

By: Hildago

Hildago — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 00:05:33 -0800

What I don't get is why Bruce Wayne showed up on the list. Sure, he is a good businessman, but he always came off as a bit of a playboy to me. He never takes anything seriously. I never really got why he was in the comic book in the first place.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 04:04:41 -0800

Forbes can't spell "million"? What kind of upper-crust financial magazine is THAT?

By: bhell13

bhell13 — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 04:07:29 -0800

Not quite up in the leagues of Monty Burns and Scrooge McDuck but with the 'Paper Street Soap Company' doing so well Tyler Durden is quite well off for a fictional fictional character.

By: briank

briank — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 06:35:28 -0800

They forgot Elmer J. Fudd, Millionaire. He owns a mansion and a yacht!

By: joaquim

joaquim — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:53:05 -0800

You guys missed a key point: Scrooge McDuck's fortune occupies three cubic acres. Since "acre" is a measure of area, this means that McDuck requires storage in 6 dimensions to hold his money (and maybe Buckaroo Banzai to count it).

By: drezdn

drezdn — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 11:47:08 -0800

Some friends pointed out to me that Bruce Wayne's Wayne Industries was probably the biggest employer of people in Gotham City. As such, if poverty is the biggest reason for crime, couldn't Bruce, instead of wearing a costume and spending money on gadgets, just hire more people to work for his company. Hell, maybe hire people to fight crime?