1843, J. Ballantine, The gaberlunzie's wallet. With numerous illustrations on steel and wood.

Science fiction requires the reader's willingful suspension of disbelief' to accomodate different laws of nature, or laws of nature as we have discovered them (technology). Fantasy requires the reader'swillingful suspension of disbelief' to accomodate different natural and supernatural laws (e.g. magic).

A series of undiscovered acts would perform on the show every week, with the audience responding with cheers that were counted on the clap-o-meter, before viewers at home were then invited to send in a postal vote for the winner, who was announced the following week.

Plenty of past seasons’ events could look ill-conceived in the critical eye of Monday-morning quarterbacking, but previously, the show had earned the benefit of the doubt that missteps on the part of supposedly intelligent characters were a plausible lack of in-world foresight.