Here's a precursor to the puppet that lives within us all, from Modern Magic by Professor Hoffmann, 1885.

Here's a precursor to James and the Giant Peach, from The Oxford Thackeray.

This 1884 illustration from Dicks' English Library of Standard Works is a precursor to Freud's 1895 discovery of 'anxiety neurosis' syndrome or 'stage fright.'"  The caption reads: "My performance will be a failure."

Here's a precursor to Arrested Development's Lucille and Buster on the cover of the Balboa Bay Window, from St. Nicholas magazine.

Here's a precursor to shadow puppetry, from The Art of Projecting by Amos Emerson Dolbear, 1877.

Here's a precursor to Cat People, from Travels in Africa During the Years 1875-1878 by Wilhelm Junker (1890).  The caption reads: "A leopard in our bedroom."

Here's a precursor to Number Six and the iconic penny farthing of the cult television series The Prisoner.  From Two Trips to the Emerald Isle by 'Faed' (1888).  The caption reads: "Decimal Six."

Here's a precursor to The Lady Is a Tramp (1937), from The Tragedy of Ida Noble by William Clark Russell (1893).  The caption reads: "The lady was insensible."

In 1894, nickel beer was actually $1.37, adjusted for inflation.  From Bill Nye's History of the United States.  The caption reads: "Where beer was only five cents per glass."

Here's a precursor to the "Name that Kitchen Utensil" game, from 1895.  The caption reads: "'Butter cooler,' I observe."

Here's a precursor to the "EAT MOR CHIKIN" cows of Chick-fil-A billboards.  The caption reads, "The More Pork bird."  From Adventures of a Gold-Digger by John Sherer, 1856.

This caption, "He did not give me time to feel frightened," recalls the movie gimmick king, William Castle, who might have promised horrors filmed "faster than the speed of fright."  From Jenny Jones and Jenny by William Edwards Tirebuck, 1896.

Here's a precursor to the film The Science of Sleep, from A String of Chinese Peach Stones by William Arthur Cornaby (1895).

There's some small comfort in the knowledge that people have been feeling 'out of it' since at least 1889.  Illustration from Neighbours by Mrs. Molesworth (1889).  The caption reads: "She and Cathie sat in a corner beside Lavinia feeling 'out of it.'"

Fans of William Burroughs' Naked Lunch will recognize this as a precursor. From The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib by Sara Duncan (1893).  The caption reads: "It's just the place for centipedes."

Here's a precursor to the German concept of the welfare state (Sozialstaat, coined in 1870), from The Upper Rhine by Henry Mayhew, 1858.

Here's a precursor to the macabre orgy scene in The Loved One (1965) from The Cat of Bubastes by George Alfred Henty, 1896.