# Assume the Position--HBO
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 5, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409 "2006-04-05T14:18:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/1 "2006-04-05T14:18:12Z")
[Website](http://www.hbo.com/events/rwuhl/?ntrack_para1=leftnav_category1).
Caught this overnight last night. Anyone else see it? That’d you think?
I really hope they make this a series.
On George Washington: “He was 3-6. Three and six doesn’t get you into the Gator Bowl, yet he managed to get into the White House.” 😃
---
### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/2 "2006-04-05T14:19:20Z")
[QUOTE=Casey150 That’d you think?
[/QUOTE]
Should be “ **W** hat’d you think?”
---
### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/3 "2006-04-05T14:41:19Z")
Can you answer me something:
At the end he was running through the “pluck yew” story and I turned it off.
Did he end up presenting that as fact, or did he make some lesson out of it by debunking it?
If he was presenting it as fact, he’s a fool.
FWIW, I liked it for the most part. He had some funny bits, but at times he was a little obnoxious. E.g. after talking about Liberty Valance, he goes, “who knows who directed this?” and a couple kids yelled out “John Ford”.
He goes, “Two people? Only two people knew that was John Ford?”
Well, no, and if you’d ever taught or been a student in the last 40 years, you might realize that two kids yelling out an answer might just mean you only have two loudmouths in the class.
But, I thought the bits about Yankee Doodle and Paul Revere were pretty good, as well as the “world is round” stuff. But, I don’t know if I can trust a lot of that if he was passing off the “pluck yew” story as fact.
---
### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/4 "2006-04-05T14:53:41Z")
> [@Trunk](#):
>
> At the end he was running through the “pluck yew” story and I turned it off.
>
> Did he end up presenting that as fact, or did he make some lesson out of it by debunking it?
He brought it back around to “When the legend becomes the fact, print the legend”.
---
### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/5 "2006-04-05T16:16:33Z")
> [@Trunk](#):
>
> He goes, “Two people? Only two people knew that was John Ford?”
>
> Well, no, and if you’d ever taught or been a student in the last 40 years, you might realize that two kids yelling out an answer might just mean you only have two loudmouths in the class.
For the love of god man… He’s trying to be funny.
---
### Author:  [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/6 "2006-04-05T16:34:24Z")
> [@Casey1505](#):
>
> He brought it back around to “When the legend becomes the fact, print the legend”.
Yeah, and before going to “print the legend”, he wrapped the story up with something like “And that’s how we came to say “Fuck You”, according to legend. Now, is it true? IT DOESN’T MATTER!”
I enjoyed it. I was dissapointed that it ended so quickly (although during the “pluck yew” story he just about lost me before redeeming himself).
---
### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/7 "2006-04-05T16:40:53Z")
I thought it was pretty good. I was also put off by the “pluck yew” story at first until he basically admitted it was bullshit. I thought it would have been pretty sloppy to give a presentation on real vs. “pop culture” history and then trip himself up on a myth like that. Fortunately, he was only making an ironic point.
---
### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/8 "2006-04-05T16:48:43Z")
> [@Trunk](#):
>
> Can you answer me something:
>
> At the end he was running through the “pluck yew” story and I turned it off.
>
> Did he end up presenting that as fact, or did he make some lesson out of it by debunking it?
>
> If he was presenting it as fact, he’s a fool.
Addressed above. He was using it as an example of “legend.”
> [@](#):
>
> FWIW, I liked it for the most part. He had some funny bits, but at times he was a little obnoxious. E.g. after talking about Liberty Valance, he goes, “who knows who directed this?” and a couple kids yelled out “John Ford”.
>
> He goes, “Two people? Only two people knew that was John Ford?”
He actually said “only two film students knew it was John Ford?”
I’m not positive but I think he was talking to a film study class, in which case it _should_ be expected that more students would know who John Ford was.
---
### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/9 "2006-04-05T16:51:11Z")
I liked the “I shit you not” segment.
“Ben Affleck has an Oscar. I shit you not.”
---
### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assume-the-position-hbo/351409/10 "2006-04-05T16:53:39Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#):
>
> I liked the “I shit you not” segment.
>
> “Ben Affleck has an Oscar. I shit you not.”
Did he lose one to Afflek? He took that swipe twice, at least.