There are few things more despicable than Forbes magazine’s “Rich List.” It’s not that the list isn’t hugely useful for journalist and researchers–it is, as it’s carefully researched and assembled–but the consumers of the list are, more often than not, truly disgusting sycophants, lovers of wealth who aspire to appear on the list themselves. In recent years, Forbes has been making other odd lists: Last January, it produced a list of the “25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media.” (This, from a magazine that despises liberals.) And once again we have the annual “Forbes Fictional 15,” a survey of the richest fictional characters from books, TV, and the movies.

The  list, which was first compiled in 2005, now features Jay Gatsby, Montgomery Burns (of the The Simpsons), and Scrooge McDuck. Newcomers this year include Carlisle Cullen, of the Vampire novel Twilight and Chuck Bass of Gossip Girl. As Forbes reports, “It’s a great time to be imaginary…. Global markets are rapidly recovering from the 2008 financial crisis, and so are the fortunes of the fictitious. There are six new characters on the 2010 edition of Fictional 15, our annual ranking of fiction’s richest, with an average net worth of $7.3 billion. In aggregate, the nine returning members are worth $79.8 billion, up 9% since we last checked in on them.”

How is Forbes able to say this? “To qualify for the Fictional 15, we require that candidates be an authored fictional creation, a rule which excludes mythological and folkloric characters. They must star in a specific narrative work or series of works. And they must be known, both within their fictional universe and by their audience, for being rich. Net worth estimates are based on an analysis of the fictional character’s source material, and valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements. In the case of privately held fictional concerns, we sought to identify comparable fictional public companies. All prices are as of market close, April 12, 2010.”