Century of the Fruitbat

Century of the Fruitbat was one of Holy Wood's moving picture companies in the Moving Pictures boom following their invention by some Alchemists. Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler conned his way into the business and watched it collapse like all his projects.

Annotation

The name is a two-pronged play on Twentieth Century Fox, originally Twentieth Century Fox and one of the earliest Hollywood studios. The Century of the Fruitbat was the current century in the University calendar at the time of Moving Pictures, and the Fruitbat is also known as a Flying Fox.

In later books, the phrase refers to the current period of time, usually with the suggestion that a particular person should "enter" it or, more often, a promise from one of the various rulers of the Disc to 'drag [insert country/state here] kicking and screaming into the Century of the Fruitbat'. By the time of The Truth, however, Discworld had come into the Century of the Anchovy, which seemed equally happy to have people and places dragged kicking and screaming into it.

There may well be a hidden Monty Python shout-out here, viz. the association of ideas inherent in proceeding, century-wise, from Fruitbats to Anchovies (although the Librarian might have firm ideas concerning the consumption of orang-utans).

King Arthur [holding the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch]: How does it... um... how does it work?
Sir Lancelot: I know not, my liege.
King Arthur: Consult the Book of Armaments.
Brother Maynard: Armaments, chapter two, verses nine through twenty-one.
Cleric [reading]: And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats, and large chu...
Brother Maynard: Skip a bit, Brother...

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