# "Dated" lines in media **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087 "2017-05-20T16:54:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/61 "2017-05-24T14:45:37Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Arthur Conan Doyle A Case of Identity > : > > “She pulled a handkerchief out of her muff…” I recall a line in C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair about Jill wandering around the giants’ castle “making love” to everyone. (“…gosh, I don’t remember the Narnia books being so racy!”) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/62 "2017-05-24T15:09:55Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > The whole premise of the episode was how ridiculous it was to pay for something like water, that you usually got for free, and Beaver’s whole enterprise was seen as borderline criminal. There was a similar line in a movie (probably involving time-travel) where the head of a food company snorted at the idea of selling bottled water. (Anyone remember the scene/movie?) IIRC, he made quite a speech about how absurd, even Communist it would be. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/63 "2017-05-24T15:25:05Z")
Recently been watching some reruns of _ER_ starting from season 1. Seems like they are talking about AIDS in every episode. I know that AIDS is still a thing, but with early _ER_ it is like that scene in _Being John \*\* Malkovich_ where John Malkovich goes into his own head and everything everybody says is Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/64 "2017-05-24T15:45:01Z")
> [@Mavic\_Chen](#): > > From NWA’s 1988 song “Fuck Tha Police” > > Fuckin’ with me cause I’m a teenager > With a little bit of gold and **a pager** > Searchin’ my car, lookin’ for the product > Thinkin’ every nigga is sellin’ narcotics > > A little bit anachronistic by today’s standards… “You gotta learn to hold ya own They get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone” Tupac, _Changes_ Recorded in 1992, but still relevant when it was released in 1998. > [@madsircool](#): > > Arthur Conan Doyle A Case of Identity > : > > “She pulled a handkerchief out of her muff…” Speaking of Conan Doyle, I read all of his Sherlock Holmes stuff when I was 6th grade, and he used the word “ejaculate” quite often as a synonym for “interject”. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/65 "2017-05-24T19:23:53Z")
> [@Randolph](#): > > I recall a line in C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair about Jill wandering around the giants’ castle “making love” to everyone. (“…gosh, I don’t remember the Narnia books being so racy!”) When I first saw _It’s A Wonderful Like_ as a teenager, I was plenty surprised by the line “He’s making violent love to me, Mother!” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/66 "2017-05-24T20:56:20Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Recently been watching some reruns of _ER_ starting from season 1. Seems like they are talking about AIDS in every episode. I know that AIDS is still a thing, but with early _ER_ it is like that scene in _Being John \*\* Malkovich_ where John Malkovich goes into his own head and everything everybody says is > Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich. At least it’s never lupus. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/67 "2017-05-24T21:10:11Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > “You gotta learn to hold ya own > They get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone” > Tupac, _Changes_ > > Recorded in 1992, but still relevant when it was released in 1998. > Speaking of Conan Doyle, I read all of his Sherlock Holmes stuff when I was 6th grade, and he used the word “ejaculate” quite often as a synonym for “interject”. :eek: Another of my favs…“So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sat as a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the summer sun shine into the apartment.” :eek: I do love the way he writes. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/68 "2017-05-24T21:15:19Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > When I first saw _It’s A Wonderful Like_ as a teenager, I was plenty surprised by the line “He’s making violent love to me, Mother!” Someday I’m going to google something and will be surprised by a [SD](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=63110) [link](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=402457) _not_ being on the front page. (And [here’s](http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/12/making-love.html) a link from some other site.) (And yes, I do sometimes notice the term being used in retroactively hilarious ways on older TV shows.) ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/69 "2017-05-25T22:31:08Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Of course, they just run Scotty’s doubletalk generator on the plot. But it takes that contrivance to make things work, when in the real world, almost everyone has a cell phone that works 99% of the time, so the contrivance stands out like a purple elephant. Not for people living in rural and mountainous areas. Almost everyone has a cellphone that most emphatically does NOT work in all the stretches of road. Lots of places with either no cell reception, or not for your carrier. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/70 "2026-09-20T22:23:46Z")
There are several “they wouldn’t do/say that today” type threads, but I settled on this one. Saw [an old episode of _Laverne and Shirley_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0629092/?_ssoLoop=1) today. Lenny and Squiggy have opened a fire hydrant to spray neighborhood children. One of them says (about the children) “They look so cute when they take their clothes off!” Um… that’s not a line that would be used today… ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/71 "2026-09-20T23:09:34Z")
“And I’ll marry Donald Trump!” A lady in Die Hard With a Vengeance. It was meant that marrying Trump would be a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/72 "2026-09-20T23:12:44Z")
I picked up the complete Rocky and Bullwinkle DVD set after a mention in another thread. In the very first episode, they ran a Fractured Fairy Tales segment on Rapunzul. It actually follows remarkably closer to the original tales, maybe even too well. The witch puts Rapunzel into the tower at age 12. Accurate. A “couple of years” later the Prince climbs up her hair.and instantly falls in love with her. She’s depicted as a curvy bombshell. But the witch curses him and he doesn’t come back for two more years. Then he defeats the witch, carries Rapunzel away, and marries her. Still a bombshell. No matter how generously you cast the timeline, she’s no more than 17. I’m finding it amazing how much of the humor in the show was directed as adults. A book on a bookcase in a Rocky segment on Moon Men had a spine reading Sex on Planet X. It’s funnier now than it was then. How many other tv cartoons can you say that about? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/73 "2026-09-20T23:27:31Z")
Yeah, and the youngest Brady kids wanting to go to the neighbor’s pool for swimming without suits wouldn’t fly today either: [https://collider.com/the-brady-bunch-banned-scene-skinny-dipping/](https://collider.com/the-brady-bunch-banned-scene-skinny-dipping/) > n the infamous scene that was **[removed from the episode](https://www.today.com/popculture/11-things-about-brady-bunch-you-may-not-know-t103016)** for syndication, Bobby and Cindy go through the kitchen in their robes when Alice stops them. She asks where they’re going, and they reply they’re going to the new neighbor’s swimming pool. Alice wants to make sure that Bobby’s not wearing his swimsuit with all the holes and, well, he’s not. He is, in fact, not wearing anything at all, nor is Cindy, **since they’re going skinny-dipping**. Yes, the two youngest Brady children, on their way over to their neighbor (who had just moved in, by the way), to dive in au naturel. But, hey, it’s okay – the dad is a doctor, and he said it’s good for soaking up Vitamin D. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/74 "2026-09-20T23:30:19Z")
Or, for that matter, Romeo and Juliette, where Juliette is almost 14, and it’s therefore high time that she got married. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/75 "2026-09-21T01:04:56Z")
Disney’s official age for Rapunzal is 18 for when she meets a man. Disney has never touched Juliet in live action. That would be interesting to see. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/76 "2026-09-21T01:31:38Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > “You gotta learn to hold ya own > They get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone” > Tupac, _Changes_ And from the same song; _And although it seems heaven-sent, we ain’t ready to see a black president_ And the oddly prophetic; _I always gotta worry 'bout the payback, some punk that I roughed up way back, coming back after all these years, rat-a-tat-tat-tat, that’s the way it is_ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/77 "2026-09-21T02:16:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And as the doctor is saying this, he’s lighting up a cigarette. If you watch as many shows from the '50s and '60s as I do, you know how ubiquitous cigarette smoking was in those days. The folks on _ **Perry** _ _ **Mason** _, _ **Twilight** _ _ **Zone** _, _ **Alfred** _ _ **Hitchcock** _, and assorted cop, detective, and other dramas light up fags at the drop of a hat, often just to have something to do with their hands. Even Lucy and Ricky Ricardo were smokers, fer chrissakes, as were Rob and Laura Petrie! Only squares like the Cleavers, the Nelsons, and the Andersons were never shown smoking cigarettes. Cigarettes continued to figure prominently on TV well into the '70s. Watch a few episodes of _ **Mannix** _ and _ **Mission: Impossible** _ and count how many times the leads light up. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/78 "2026-09-21T02:25:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Juliette is almost 14, and it’s therefore high time that she got married. Understandable, since she’s already of childbearing age, and her chances of living past 25 are questionable. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/79 "2026-09-21T02:31:15Z")
Her chances of living past 25 were excellent, since she’s already lived past her first year of life. Even better, when you consider that she’s from an upper-class family. “Life expectancy at birth of 25” does not mean that 25-year-olds are dying. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087/80 "2026-09-21T02:36:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Her chances of living past 25 were excellent, since she’s already lived past her first year of life. So had Jane Seymour. If disease didn’t get you, childbirth certainly could. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-lines-in-media/787087.md?page=5)