It seems odd to consider birthdays of fictional characters , but the truth is, the ones that have a lasting impact on us only have a lasting impact because they matter to us on some level. So as much as George Carlin might have lamented the celebration of Mickey Mouse’s birthday , using some of his famed words you can’t say on television, it’s not that ridiculous a notion .
But how do we even know when fictional characters were “born”? Sometimes it’s down to their first appearance, but for others, it’s much more fuzzy.
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The internet is convinced that George Jetson was born in 2022.
Remember The Jetsons ? The classic animated family comedy traversing the same old problems with a futuristic twist, basically the opposite of The Flintstones ? Yeah, the head of the family, George, is supposedly being born right around July 31, 2022. But how did anybody arrive at that date?
In 2021, theories started to trickle out on the internet that George Jetson was a pandemic baby.
The idea being that The Jetsons takes place in 2062, and George is 40 years old, so 2022 would be the right year for him to be born.
But, again, how did anybody arrive at those numbers?
After all, at no point in the short run of ‘The Jetsons’ was an exact date revealed.
We don’t know the specific year it took place, but according to MeTV , characters often refer to living in the 21st century, and promotional materials released alongside the show, which premiered in 1962, say that it’s set 100 years in the future — 2062.
So we have the year, but how do we know when George came into it?
There’s some good sleuthing at play. According to Gizmodo , an episode titled “Test Pilot” establishes that George is 40 years old — George’s doctor says he’ll live to be 150, but when his life is threatened later in the episode, he says he should have “110 good years ahead,” so simple math says he’s 40.
Narrowing it down from there is a bit of a stretch.
There’s some argument among fandom about which day George was born. According to Newsweek , Wikipedia, once listed his birthday as August 22, but that has since changed to merely “c.2022,” while the Warner Bros. fandom Wiki puts the date at July 31. Both seem quite arbitrary.
It’s a fun little thought experiment, really.
Who knew George Jetson would have such a lasting impact on pop culture from a mere 75 original episodes that aired in the early ’60s? I mean, people went so far as to figure out when less notable characters like Mr. Spacely and Mr. Cogswell were born — and that they’d already be walking among us.
It’s a bit disconcerting, too, isn’t it?
If we’re only 40 years away from the timeline of The Jetsons, where are all the bubble cars? And bubble houses and bubble apartments, for that matter? Why are we still only carried around by conveyors at airports? If the future is so close, why does it still seem so far away?
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
