OKay, so Forbes has published a list of the richest 15 fictional people (The Forbes Fictional 15 – Forbes.com). Now, the idea is pretty interesting since we “all” like these lists and everyone has their favourite fictional characters that seem as real as many actual live people.

However, I really don’t think that Santa Claus as number one with infinite wealth makes much sense. He doesn’t live or act like a rich person and sure all those toys must be worth a lot but he gives them away. I think the whole idea of such a list is to acknowledge fictional characters that act rich, like numbers 2 and 3: Daddy Warbucks and Richie Rich.

If you want to talk about “theoretical” wealth, Superman on more than one occasion squeezes coal into a really big diamond. So he could be very, very rich if he chose but that’s not his character. I think that applies to Santa Claus.

One final note, if you remove Santa Claus, the amount of money attributed to the fictional characters is less than the amounts of some of the “real” people on Forbes wealth list. (Well Bill Gates is somewhat cartoonish )