# Can anyone explain Saturn from "Beetlejuice?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314 "2012-01-31T16:26:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CheeseDonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@CheeseDonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheeseDonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/1 "2012-01-31T16:26:44Z")
In the movie Beetlejuice, what is the sandworm infested Saturn supposed to represent? A ghost hell? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/2 "2012-02-01T00:02:40Z")
I wasn’t Saturn. It was another plane of existence - the ghost world. Presumably, the same one that holds the DMV of the Damned. The giant worms are, apparently, part of whatever passes for an ecology in the afterlife, and sustain themselves by feeding on the spirits of the departed. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/3 "2012-02-01T01:43:23Z")
Before the dead souls started moving into the Neitherworld, there was nothing but the sandworm infested plains of chaos. There is still vast areas of the Pit yet to be “civilized,” and those wastes are just beyond the artificial constructs the spirits have made to house themselves. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/4 "2012-02-01T01:48:00Z")
It’s Saturn. > **[Saturn in fiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_in_fiction)** > > Saturn has made appearances in fiction since the 1752 novel Micromégas by Voltaire. In the earliest depictions, it was portrayed as having a solid surface rather than its actual gaseous composition. In many of these works, the planet is inhabited by aliens that are usually portrayed as being more advanced than humans. In modern science fiction, the Saturnian atmosphere sometimes hosts floating settlements. The planet is occasionally visited by humans and its rings are sometimes mined for resour... [Also](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetlejuice): > [@](#): > > Adam attempts to leave the house to retrace his steps but finds himself in a strange otherworldly dimension referred to as “Saturn,” covered in sand and populated by enormous sand worms. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/5 "2012-02-01T01:51:49Z")
Who refers to it as “Saturn,” specifically, in the film? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/6 "2012-02-01T01:56:57Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Who refers to it as “Saturn,” specifically, in the film? Betelguise. Can’t find the scene on YouTube, but he says something along the lines of 'You’ve been to Saturn? _I’ve_ been to Saturn! Sandworms, huh? Hate ‘em!’ ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/7 "2012-02-01T01:57:56Z")
I don’t want to make a seperate thread for this, can someone explain the title of the film? I just realized :smack:its likely some kind of play on > **[Betelgeuse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse)** > > Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star of spectral type M1-2 and one of the largest visible to the naked eye. It is usually the tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second-brightest in the constellation of Orion. It is a distinctly reddish, semiregular variable star whose apparent magnitude, varying between +0.0 and +1.6, has the widest range displayed by any first-magnitude star. At near-infrared wavelengths, Betelgeuse is the brightest star in the night sky. Its Bayer desi... What with the scene where they struggle to pronounce “Beetlejuice” but I have never in my life heard it pronounced like that. Always some variant of \ or \ so… ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/8 "2012-02-01T01:58:03Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Who refers to it as “Saturn,” specifically, in the film? Here’s the shooting script > **["Beetlejuice," shooting script, by Michael McDowell; and Warren Skaaren](http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/beetlejuice_skaaren_final.html)** ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/9 "2012-02-01T01:58:27Z")
I’ll take that as sufficiently authoritative. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/10 "2012-02-01T02:09:36Z")
> [@grude](#): > > What with the scene where they struggle to pronounce “Beetlejuice” but I have never in my life heard it pronounced like that. Always some variant of \ or \ so… I have. In fact, learned it from the audio tape (yes, as in cassette) of Stephen Moore reading an abridged version of _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_. He said it just like “Beetle Juice”, when speaking of Ford Prefect’s home, “a small planet, somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse”. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/11 "2012-02-01T02:23:11Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I don’t want to make a seperate thread for this, can someone explain the title of the film? I just realized :smack:its likely some kind of play on > > [Betelgeuse - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse) > > What with the scene where they struggle to pronounce “Beetlejuice” but I have never in my life heard it pronounced like that. Always some variant of \ or \ so… Check the pronunciation guide in the sidebar on that article. The two pronunciations offered are: > [@](#): > > /ˈbiːtəldʒuːz/ or /ˈbɛtəldʒuːz/ Beetle Juice is a close (though not exact) approximation of the first. The other is approximately ‘bet till juice’. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/12 "2012-02-01T02:38:45Z")
Betelgeuse is also the star the planet orbits that they actually go to in Planet of the Apes (original novel). Not Earth of the Future. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/13 "2012-02-01T03:54:11Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I don’t want to make a seperate thread for this, can someone explain the title of the film? I just realized :smack:its likely some kind of play on > > [Betelgeuse - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse) > > What with the scene where they struggle to pronounce “Beetlejuice” but I have never in my life heard it pronounced like that. Always some variant of \ or \ so… From memory, I think the same joke was used in the radio series of Hitchhiker’s Guide, several years before the movie Beetlejuice. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/14 "2012-02-01T05:27:06Z")
So, having established that the sand worm place actually is Saturn (or Titan, at least, according to the script), _can_ anyone explain it? I’m usually good for an off-the-cuff fanwank,\* but I admit this one has me stumped. What do the moons of Saturn have to do with the afterlife? [sub]\*Heh.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/15 "2012-02-01T05:36:26Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Here’s the shooting script > > ["Beetlejuice," shooting script, by Michael McDowell; and Warren Skaaren](http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/beetlejuice_skaaren_final.html) Hmm. The bit I paraphrased, and the equivalent bit in the script don’t really match up. The way I remember it matches Betelgeuse’s sort of patter better than the scripted version. So…did I ‘fix’ it in my memory? Did Keaton feel the same way and adlib a more Betelgeusey line? Did Burton feel the same way and rewrite it on the fly? Did someone realize the line wasn’t all that funny as written, whether it matched Betelgeuse’s\* speech patterns or not, and write a better one after the script was finalized? I think I need to rewatch the movie at some point. - After writing his name 3 times in this post, I wish it were spelt like the title (as it was in the cartoon) just so I could take to calling him ‘BJ’, like in the cartoon. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/16 "2012-02-01T05:38:25Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > So, having established that the sand worm place actually is Saturn (or Titan, at least, according to the script), _can_ anyone explain it? I’m usually good for an off-the-cuff fanwank,\* but I admit this one has me stumped. What do the moons of Saturn have to do with the afterlife? > > [sub]\*Heh.[/sub] Let me lube up and give this one a good wanking…er You know how there are things that the living cannot see? Like ghosts for instance, unless the spiritual beings exert great effort to be seen, so presumably there could be all kinds of crazy shit going on around well everywhere that the living cannot see. Including on Saturn or its moon Titan, the worms are some kind of spiritual entity. Perhaps the spirit of some kind of extraterrestrial life that died millions or billions of years prior. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/17 "2012-02-01T05:41:54Z")
Nice one! ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/18 "2012-02-01T07:13:09Z")
I’ve always wondered what exactly was waiting for the Maitlands after their 100 year wait in their house. They were only waiting because of a massive backlog, what happens when their number finally comes up and they can move tot he afterlife proper? Is there a Heaven (and/or Hell) after the waiting rooms, limbo, etc. Also how long do suicides have to work as civil servants; is it for eternity or just a couple centuries. Note that none of the civil servants seem to be from before the mid-20th century (unless those are the skeleton typists). The general rule seems to you look like you did when you died, but alot of the inhabitants clearly show signs of decay or damage that would’ve occured _after_ they died (like the guy with the shrunken head or Miss Argentina). FWIF why did her sash say “_Miss_ Argentina” and not “Senorita Argentina”. And most importantly why am I overthing this movie so much at quarter after 2 in the morning?:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/19 "2012-02-01T07:31:48Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > FWIF why did her sash say “_Miss_ Argentina” and not “Senorita Argentina”. ‘FWIF’? Anyway, to address your question [the majority of beauty pageants use ‘Miss’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_beauty_contests), rather than whatever the equivalent is in the local language. (A handful of pageants do translate ‘miss’, but for the most part, if it’s not ‘Miss’, it’s something unrelated - ‘beauty’, ‘queen’, ‘princess’, or a translation of one of those. Or else ‘Mrs’ or ‘Ms’ to indicate a different focus for the pageant.) Both the Argentine pageants listed use ‘miss’. (They look to be the Argentine feeders for the Miss Universe and Miss World pageants.) ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314/20 "2012-02-01T15:25:24Z")
Perhaps it was a tie-in to Dune? my two cents [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-saturn-from-beetlejuice/611314.md?page=2)