At least for Discworld, I'd argue the causation was the other way around: The books parodied real things, often injecting a fantastic aspect with the subtext of

At least for Discworld, I'd argue the causation was the other way around: The books parodied real things, often injecting a fantastic aspect with the subtext of "All you people in the real world should be a lot more amazed at what's going on here." For example, "hyphenated silicon" (semiconductor doping) involved in how rock trolls think, and the catch-all explanation of "because quantum."