Straight Dope Message Board

[Annie-Xmas]

I have posted about working for a year on an annotated versions of Ira Levin's "Rosemary's Baby," only to look at the cover six months later and realize:

Rosemary's Baby.
Rose-mary's Baby
Mary's Baby

Yesterday I was walking down the street singing "Yellow Submarine"

Sky of blue and sea of green
In our yellow submarine

when it hit me:

Blue-green-yellow
To make blue green, yellow is added.

Give me some more examples of obvious things you didn't notice till much later. 1

[RealityChuck]

Originally Posted by Annie-Xmas

Rosemary's Baby.
Rose-mary's Baby
Mary's Baby

Didn't they specifically mention that in the book? I remember it in the movie. 2

[Chronos]

The Battle of Wits in Princess Bride: Vizzini isn't trying to reason logically about where the poison is. He's gauging the Man in Black's reaction whenever he says it's in one or the other. Whenever he says the poison is in front of the Man in Black, he tenses up, and whenever he says that it's in front of himself, he relaxes. From there, he just had to figure out whether the Man in Black was bluffing or not, something that Vizzini is very good at. 3

[kirk1168]

Rosie by Jackson Browne, from Running On Empty.
I'd been listening to it for about 5 years before I realized that he was singing about masturbation. 4

[Nobody]

I mentioned this in another thread before, but I don't know how many years I heard the song Life in the Fast Lane before I realized that "there were lines on the mirror" was referring to cocaine. 5

[Alan Bird]

Originally Posted by kirk1168

Rosie by Jackson Browne, from Running On Empty.
I'd been listening to it for about 5 years before I realized that he was singing about masturbation.

Holy crap! I never knew that and I've been listening to that song for years.

As to the OP, I got nothing right now. 6

[Robot Arm]

I have seen the Dead Parrot Sketch more than a few times. At some point I noticed that when John Cleese is yelling at Polly to wake up, he opens the door of the cage! I mean, a birdcage isn't exactly soundproof with the door closed, is it? But he hold it right up to his mouth and opens the door, all the better to rouse him from dreams of the fjords. There's something about that action that fits perfectly with the over-exacting nature of the character.

I tend to think that the Pythons greatest gifts were in their writing, but that's one case where the detail of the performance really sells it. 7

[The Second Stone]

30 Rock is a remake of The Mary Tyler Moore show. It took me two years. 8

[MonkeyMensch]

Originally Posted by The Second Stone

... It took me two years.

Hell, I got that beat! I'm old enough to have seen Have Gun, Will Travel on original broadcasts (barely.) I never knew what the heck the title meant until a couple of weeks ago when a skoshi bit of insomnia had me watching Encore Western at 4 a.m. It's a cookbook! No, no. It's a work sought classified ad! I swear I was so tickled that I finally figured that out.

I used to think that it meant, "If I have a gun, I'll travel; otherwise not." Now I see it's more like, "Have window-washing squeegees, will travel to find work."

Sheesh. A mere 45 years later... 9

[Flip Pancake]

Originally Posted by The Second Stone

30 Rock is a remake of The Mary Tyler Moore show. It took me two years.

Or maybe The Muppet Show. 10

[BACI]

For some reason it took years of casual listening before I heard Mick Jagger doing backing vocals on Carly Simon's "You're So Vain". Just never knew it was there before... 11

[commasense]

I wrote this in a version of this thread two years ago:

Near the end of the Huston/Bogart version of The Maltese Falcon, Gutman is explaining to Spade why Thursby was shot. As he says that Thursby "was quite determinedly loyal to Miss O’Shaughnessy," a look of realization crosses Bogart's face, and he looks at Mary Astor, whose eyes drop guiltily. It was only a couple of years ago, on watching the film for perhaps the 10,000th time, that I caught on to the fact that Spade has only just realized that Brigid had won Thursby's loyalty by sleeping with him.

Very significant in light of how Spade will deal with Brigid just a few minutes later. 12

[commasense]

(And Robot Arm posted the same point about the Parrot Sketch!)

Recycling is good! 13

[Robot Arm]

Originally Posted by commasense

(And Robot Arm posted the same point about the Parrot Sketch!)

I participate on this site with the premise that no one actually reads my posts. 14

[Labdad]

I listened to, played, and sang "All Along the Watchtower" a bazillion times before I realized the two approaching riders were, in fact, the Joker and the Thief. I thought they were inside the compound with the watchtower where princes kept the view, and it was that place thatthey had to get out of!

Originally Posted by MonkeyMensch

Hell, I got that beat! I'm old enough to have seen Have Gun, Will Travel on original broadcasts (barely.) I never knew what the heck the title meant until a couple of weeks ago when a skoshi bit of insomnia had me watching Encore Western at 4 a.m. It's a cookbook! No, no. It's a work sought classified ad! I swear I was so tickled that I finally figured that out.

I used to think that it meant, "If I have a gun, I'll travel; otherwise not." Now I see it's more like, "Have window-washing squeegees, will travel to find work."

Sheesh. A mere 45 years later...

Oh, I thought that, too! And I can certainly remember the original broadcasts. Hell, I thought Paladin's first name was "Wire!" (You know - "Wire Paladin - San Francisco")

A couple of decades later, I was looking something up in the dictionary and saw the word "Paladin" near the word I was looking for. I discovered a Paladin was a knight errant under the reign of Charlemagne, who went around righting wrongs.

Shazam! OK - NOW the horsey figure (the knight chess piece) made sense! "Palidan" wasn't the guy's real name - it was just his working name! "A knight without armor in a savage land" - duh! Oh, and his card meant I have a gun and I will travel. Just send me a telegram.

It only took me 20 years to discover this, though! 15

[Not A Tame Lion]

I've been hearing "Gimme Some Lovin'" for decades now, but it was only a few months ago, hearing it on the radio, when I realized that Steve Winwood was trying to sing like Ray Charles. Should have been obvious, never was. 16

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Originally Posted by Labdad

I listened to, played, and sang "All Along the Watchtower" a bazillion times before I realized the two approaching riders were, in fact, the Joker and the Thief. I thought they were inside the compound with the watchtower where princes kept the view, and it was that place thatthey had to get out of!

One theory is that Dylan intentionally set the verses out of order, and the last verse is actually the first. Thus the story begins with the title phrase, and the two riders are seen before they are identified by name. 17

[Nobody]

Originally Posted by Labdad

I listened to, played, and sang "All Along the Watchtower" a bazillion times before I realized the two approaching riders were, in fact, the Joker and the Thief. I thought they were inside the compound with the watchtower where princes kept the view, and it was that place thatthey had to get out of!

That's what I always thought. So if it's them on the horses, what does their discussion at the beginning mean then? 18

[Tim R. Mortiss]

It took me years to realize that "Brown Eyed Girl" was actually about anal sex. 19

[Don Draper]

Originally Posted by Annie-Xmas

Rosemary's Baby.
Rose-mary's Baby
Mary's Baby

Along similar lines, it dawned on me many years after the fact that the main character in E.T: the Extra-Terrestrial is named ElioT.

Also in the Terminator movies, the man who is destined to save mankind from doom (whose father is a mystery to everyone) is John Conner, whose initials would be J.C. - kind of like another well-known savior with an ambiguous paternity... 20

[Yodalicious]

Not something creative but... I have a habit of trying to figure out what the different letters on the back of cars mean. Only recently did I realize what the A in Audi A4, A6, and A8 stands for. Duh! 21

[An Gadaí]

Originally Posted by Tim R. Mortiss

It took me years to realize that "Brown Eyed Girl" was actually about anal sex.

Maybe you're joking but I thought it was originally called Brown Skinned Girl. How does that work? 22

[MOIDALIZE]

I used to watch Robocop a whole lot growing up, and I don't think I realized the significance of the old man firing Dick Jones at the end until I had been watching it for a few years. It's obvious in retrospect, but I think I initially thought it was just some kind of smartass 80s movie one-liner, and not the means by which Robocop could override his internal directives. 23

[Elendil's Heir]

I've liked Bob Dylan's Oscar-winning (from the Wonder Boys soundtrack) song "Things Have Changed" for a long time. But it wasn't until I had it on my iPod, and paid attention to the time index, that I realized he finishes the line "The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity" exactly one minute before the end of the song. I think that's cool. 24

[Exapno Mapcase]

Originally Posted by Tim R. Mortiss

It took me years to realize that "Brown Eyed Girl" was actually about anal sex.

Maybe we're being whooshed, but there's nothing in the lyrics that remotely suggests this. Young love, yes. Making love, yes. Anal sex? No.

Sometimes brown eyes are just brown eyes.

(And what sexual connotations do you get from CSN's "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes;" Bob Welch's "Ebony Eyes;" Jewel's "Violet Eyes;" or Sugarloaf's "Green-Eyed Lady?") 25

[Hippy Hollow]

Originally Posted by Daddypants

Not something creative but... I have a habit of trying to figure out what the different letters on the back of cars mean. Only recently did I realize what the A in Audi A4, A6, and A8 stands for. Duh!

You got me here. Is it "Audi?"

Okay, here's one: my parents have a slew of 45 singles from back in the day. I remember some were James Brown, and occasionally a 45 would have "Part I" of a song on it.

I was listening to a BBC documentary about the history of recorded music, where the commentator remarked that most songs are in the 3-4 minute range because that's as much that would fit on a 45...

And then I was listening to the Jackson 5's "I Am Love Pt 1 & 2" and realized the song was 7 plus minutes long - too long to fit on one side of a 45, hence why there was two parts to it.

I've been puzzling over this for most of my life and just figured it out... I'm 37. 26

[E-Sabbath]

Actually, there _is_ a connotation in 'Brown Eyed'. Brown Eyed Girl, Brown Eyed Handsome Man?

They're black. 27

[Freudian Slit]

Originally Posted by The New and Improved Superman

Along similar lines, it dawned on me many years after the fact that the main character in E.T: the Extra-Terrestrial is named ElioT.

I had the opposite "revelation." I assumed he was called E.T. because Eliot wanted to name him after himself. Then I found out that aliens are called extra terrestrials.

I also didn't realize that about Rosemary's Baby until painfully too late. 28

[The Tooth]

Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase

Maybe we're being whooshed, but there's nothing in the lyrics that remotely suggests this. Young love, yes. Making love, yes. Anal sex? No.

Sometimes brown eyes are just brown eyes.

(And what sexual connotations do you get from CSN's "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes;" Bob Welch's "Ebony Eyes;" Jewel's "Violet Eyes;" or Sugarloaf's "Green-Eyed Lady?")

Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger"? 29

[Harvey The Heavy]

Watching Sanford & Son nowadays I realize that probably 2/3 of the jokes flew right over my head when I watched it as a kid. 30

[Robot Arm]

Young Frankenstein: In Inspector Kemp's first scene at the town meeting, he breathes on his monocle, polishes it on his jacket, and then puts it on the eye that has an eyepatch on it.

And I think there a later scene where the torch-bearing mob is out looking for the monster and he puts a finger to his mouth to shoosh them that it's his left arm that's wooden. (All the other times it's his right.) I'll have to see it again to confirm that. The eyepatch probably changes sides, too.

Caddyshack: There's a scene where Ty and Lacey are doing Tequila shots. Lacey drinks the tequila, and 30 seconds later (in an unbroken camera shot) she's chewing gum and blows a bubble. 31

[Shagnasty]

Titanic - Young Rose and Jack fantasized about riding roller coasters in California and riding horseback on the beach. At the very end of the movie, there are shots of her pictures showing her doing those things by herself after she survived the wreck and abandoned her old life. 32

[Recliner]

Originally Posted by MOIDALIZE

I used to watch Robocop a whole lot growing up, and I don't think I realized the significance of the old man firing Dick Jones at the end until I had been watching it for a few years. It's obvious in retrospect, but I think I initially thought it was just some kind of smartass 80s movie one-liner, and not the means by which Robocop could override his internal directives.

I have a tendancy to point out (as casually as possible) the Fourth Directive when watching the movie with neophytes. Because, yeah, if you miss that, the ending goes from "Woah, the Old Man kicked some ass!" to...yeah, "What? Hoo-hoo, you're fired...and he FIRES his gun!"

I Heart Robocop. 33

[Recliner]

Originally Posted by Shagnasty

Titanic - Young Rose and Jack fantasized about riding roller coasters in California and riding horseback on the beach. At the very end of the movie, there are shots of her pictures showing her doing those things by herself after she survived the wreck and abandoned her old life.

But, dammit, there was room for both of them on that door! Rose, you selfish bitch!

34

[corvidae]

Originally Posted by Tim R. Mortiss

It took me years to realize that "Brown Eyed Girl" was actually about anal sex.

Fan of Too Much Coffee Man? 35

[Exapno Mapcase]

Just thought of one. When I was I kid I spent endless amounts of time trying to figure out how to pronounce the apostrophes in J'onn J'onzz, Manhunter from Mars. Juh-honnn Jun-own-zezzz?

That was back when the audience for comic books was under ten, and they wrote at the right level for them. A Martian! Named J'onn J'onzz! Neat-o! 36

[Stoid]

Scarecrow wants a brain...yet he's the smartest guy in the group who comes up with all the ideas.
Tinman wants a heart, but he's a sentimental lug.
Cowardly lion wants courage, and he's the toughest SOB there.

Duh. 37

[The Second Stone]

Originally Posted by Tim R. Mortiss

It took me years to realize that "Brown Eyed Girl" was actually about anal sex.

Damn you. Up until your post this had been one of my favorite songs. 38

[Freudian Slit]

Originally Posted by Stoid

Scarecrow wants a brain...yet he's the smartest guy in the group who comes up with all the ideas.
Tinman wants a heart, but he's a sentimental lug.
Cowardly lion wants courage, and he's the toughest SOB there.

I remember being really impressed by this the first time I heard it. Especially WRT to the Scarecrow. His great ideas really do stand out when I look back. 39

[Hippy Hollow]

Another one. I was listening to the Jackson 5's "The Love You Save" - the title, of course, is a takeoff of the safety slogan "The Life You Save May Be Your Own." But I just noticed these lyrics:

Originally Posted by The Jackson 5

Isaac said he kissed you
Beneath the apple tree
When Benjy held your hand he felt
E-lec-tri-ci-tee!
When Alexander called you
He said he rang your chimes.
Christopher discovered
Youre way ahead of your times!

So... Isaac (Newton), Benjy (Franklin), Alexander (Graham Bell), and Christopher (Columbus), all referencing their famous "inventions." Clever bit of wordplay, and I've listened to that song all my life... 40

[Little Plastic Ninja]

The Terry Pratchett book "Guards! Guards!". If you haven't read it, spoilers below...

I realized after about six million reads and listens to the audiobook that the story is a huge circle from the beginning where Sam Vimes lies in the gutter musing on the city:

'The city wasa, wasa, wasa, wossname. Thing. Woman. That's what it was. Woman. Roaring, ancient, centuries old. Strung you along, let you fall in thingy, love, then kicked you inna, inna, thingy. Thingy, in your mouth. Tongue. Tonsils. Teeth. That's what it, she, did. She wasa . . . thing, you know, lady dog. Puppy. Hen. Bitch. And then you hated her and, and just when you thought you'd got her, it, out of your whatever, then she opened her great booming rotten heart to you, caught you off bal, bal, bal, thing. Ance. Yeah. Thassit. Never knew where where you stood. Lay. Only one thing you were sure of, you couldn't let her go. Because, because she was yours, all you had, even in her gutters . . .'

He loves the city, as much as it hurts him to. At the end, when he begins to realize he has some feelings beginning for Lady Sybil, the story comes full circle:

And then it arose and struck Vimes that, in her own special category, she quite beautiful; this was the category of all the women, in his entire life, who had ever thought he worth smiling at. She couldn't do worse, but then, he couldn't do better. So maybe it balanced out. She wasn't getting any younger but then, who was? And she had style and money and common sense and self-assurance and all the things he didn't, and she had opened her heart, and if you let her she could engulf you; the woman was a city.

And eventually, under siege, you did what Ankh-Morpork had always done - unbar the gates, let the conquerors in and make them your own.

He's fallen in love with someone he has been in love with for years: the fact that Sybil owns a large portion of the city is important to this. She is the city. She is everything he loves about it: proud, strong, noble, and welcoming. It is because of her that he pulls himself out of the gutters and tries to make himself better than what he was -- the worst of the city, drunk and decaying and stinking. Through the city that brought him down, he is uplifted and given the opportunity to reach his potential.

For being something of a silly story about dragons, it's also an amazing book about the redemption of human nature. 41

[Voyager]

Originally Posted by Labdad

Oh, I thought that, too! And I can certainly remember the original broadcasts. Hell, I thought Paladin's first name was "Wire!" (You know - "Wire Paladin - San Francisco")

A couple of decades later, I was looking something up in the dictionary and saw the word "Paladin" near the word I was looking for. I discovered a Paladin was a knight errant under the reign of Charlemagne, who went around righting wrongs.

Shazam! OK - NOW the horsey figure (the knight chess piece) made sense! "Palidan" wasn't the guy's real name - it was just his working name! "A knight without armor in a savage land" - duh! Oh, and his card meant I have a gun and I will travel. Just send me a telegram.

It only took me 20 years to discover this, though!

I got the Have Gun part when I saw them originally (right before Gunsmoke on Saturday nights) but I too thought Wire was his first name.

I'm watching them on DVD now, and they are awesome. One of the shows from the first season has the origin of the dance in the Star Trek pilot - in a show written by Roddenberry. In the very first show, he is introduced saying farewell to a woman, with a look that shows that Paladin doesn't love only his horse. But I think Paladin is his name, and he got it from the writers assigning a name to match the character.

For my screwup, it took me years of listening to Dylan's Motorpsycho Nighmare to realize it was a takeoff on Psycho - despite very obvious hints such as the title a mention of Tony Perkins and the girl's wish for him to take a shower. 42

[Freudian Slit]

Originally Posted by Hippy Hollow

Another one. I was listening to the Jackson 5's "The Love You Save" - the title, of course, is a takeoff of the safety slogan "The Life You Save May Be Your Own." But I just noticed these lyrics:


So... Isaac (Newton), Benjy (Franklin), Alexander (Graham Bell), and Christopher (Columbus), all referencing their famous "inventions." Clever bit of wordplay, and I've listened to that song all my life...

That I knew. But I did not know the phrase "The life you save may be your own." Until now. Apparently it's also a Flannery O Connor story. 43

[mbh]

I have been a fan of the movie Heavy Metal since its debut in 1981.

A couple of months ago, a friend pointed out that "Harry Canyon" is a double-entendre.

44

[bup]

Originally Posted by Stoid

Scarecrow wants a brain...yet he's the smartest guy in the group who comes up with all the ideas.
Tinman wants a heart, but he's a sentimental lug.
Cowardly lion wants courage, and he's the toughest SOB there.

Duh.

Oh yeah. Wizard of Oz is just a series of embarrassments for me.

I was probably 13 before I realized the farmhands were the same actors as the traveling companions in Oz.

I was in college I think when I realized Scarecrow was smartest, Tin Man the most loving, and the lion was the bravest.

I was a couple years out of college when I realized the wizard sent them on a quest because he wanted them to die, or at least be taken prisoner by the witch, so they wouldn't be his problem. 45

[Freudian Slit]

Originally Posted by bup

I was a couple years out of college when I realized the wizard sent them on a quest because he wanted them to die, or at least be taken prisoner by the witch, so they wouldn't be his problem.

WHAT?!?! 46

[E-Sabbath]

He was a humbug! He couldn't get her home, of course. So... 47

[Kamino Neko]

He didn't want them dead, or captured - he was a humbug, not an asshole - he just wanted them to fail (or better yet, give up) and get out of his hair. 48

[Freudian Slit]

Originally Posted by Tengu

He didn't want them dead, or captured - he was a humbug, not an asshole - he just wanted them to fail (or better yet, give up) and get out of his hair.

It's been a long time. Wow. 49

[Stauderhorse]

Just now.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Gold-i-locks.

Gold locks = blond hair.

Duh. 50