# Embarrassing epiphanies about movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966 "2006-02-04T05:14:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/101 "2006-02-09T23:51:22Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [hijack] > > I’ve actually got the _Grease_ soundtrack (somewhere). Many of the songs on it are my faves. > > But, as a karaoke junkie, I have heard “Summer Nights” done so many times that I hope whoever wrote it will someday be executed for crimes against humanity. > > [/hijack] Oh, c’mon. It’s only wrong to do it if it’s done _poorly_. Kinda like masturbation. ---
**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 10, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/102 "2006-02-10T00:04:26Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > Tony Shaloub’s character is most likely not intended to be a stoner in Galaxy Quest… He’s more likely the ANTI-Scotty. > > Scotty: She canna take anymore captain! > > Shaloub’s Character: Yeah, Captain, I uh, uh, I don’t think, the um, ship, can…uhhhh take anymore. Yeah. Exactly, and that’s why he’s a stoner. Scotty liked to drink, so the anti-Scotty likes to smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/103 "2006-02-10T00:24:13Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Exactly, and that’s why he’s a stoner. Scotty liked to drink, so the anti-Scotty likes to smoke. …WTF? When did smoking become the anti-drinking? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/104 "2006-02-10T00:25:54Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Oh, c’mon. It’s only wrong to do it if it’s done _poorly_. > > Kinda like masturbation. Or if it’s done too much (chafing, y’know). “Summer Nights” appears to be a way-too-popular karaoke selection because (1) everybody knows it and (2) it’s one of a very short menu of available boy-girl duets. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/105 "2006-02-10T00:26:55Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > …WTF? When did smoking become the anti-drinking? No one who has done both would have to ask that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/106 "2006-02-10T14:12:55Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I saw _The Crying Game_ when it first came out in 1993. At the time, ironically, I did not know the concept of transgender. I assumed she was just being a smart aleck when she called herself a “girl.” It took years to understand that she _really_ meant it. A FOAF saw this movie and must have been going through his wallet for spare change or something for the brief moment in time that counted so much in that movie, and he ended up seeing a different move from everybody on the _planet._ He couldn’t figure out why the guy was so mean to this girl, making her dress up in a cricket outfit and cut her hair… FOAF: And, hey, that Jaye Davis, she’s really cute, isn’t she? Friend: Dude, he’s a guy. FOAF: :dubious: I don’t _think_ so… Friend: No, really, they show his dick and everything. FOAF: :eek: I don’t _think_ so!!! ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/107 "2006-02-11T19:15:27Z")
I don’t know how many years I’d been watching The _Pink Panther_ movies before I realized that Inspector Closeau’s name was a parody of Jacque Costeau and that Closeau’s accent was a parody of Costeau’s. ---
**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 11, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/108 "2006-02-11T20:21:51Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > …WTF? When did smoking become the anti-drinking? Creating a comic inversion of another character doesn’t mean that every aspect of the original character has to be reversed. If it were, the inversion wouldn’t be recognizable. Certain aspects are unchanged (he’s still an engineer), some are reversed (he’s incompetent at being an engineer), and some are just tweaked (he smokes dope instead of drinking scotch). ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/109 "2006-02-12T02:47:54Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > I’ve always thought that the weird-looking guy banging the gong in the **Rank Amateur Productions** clip, which was shown at the end of _Elvira_ or MST3K (I don’t remember which) was funny. Jeez, growing up in SoCal was eerie, wasn’t it? My brother and I will still sometimes break into “bong bong bong bong!” It was _Movie Macabre_. We all knew Elvira ruled long beofre her first beer commercial! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/110 "2006-02-12T21:56:26Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I don’t know how many years I’d been watching The _Pink Panther_ movies before I realized that Inspector Closeau’s name was a parody of Jacque Costeau and that Closeau’s accent was a parody of Costeau’s. !!! Are you sure?! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/111 "2006-02-13T03:39:33Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > !!! Are you sure?! I doubt it. _The Pink Panther_ came out in 1963. The Undersea World of Jacque Costeau came on the air in 1966. Though well know in his field before that I don’t think he was well known to the English speaking part of the world before that. I may be wrong but I thought that the TV show made him part of pop culture. Seems like what he did before that was all in French. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/112 "2006-02-13T04:19:08Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I don’t know how many years I’d been watching The _Pink Panther_ movies before I realized that Inspector Closeau’s name was a parody of Jacque Costeau and that Closeau’s accent was a parody of Costeau’s. Roman Polanski said that Sellers got the accent from a French doctor they met while skiing in Switzerland. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/113 "2006-02-13T19:58:26Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > Roman Polanski said that Sellers got the accent from a French doctor they met while skiing in Switzerland. If this (and the previous post) is true then it must be the strangest coincedence of all time. :dubious: Closeau–Costeau ??? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/114 "2006-02-13T20:35:47Z")
> [@](#): > > If this (and the previous post) is true then it must be the strangest coincedence of all time. > Closeau–Costeau ??? No it’s not – there are much more powerful coincidences. This is just a chance resemblance of French names that seems stronger in English than it does in French. It’s on a par with the bit in **Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video** with “French Underwater Mime _Marcel Cousteau_” (Who appears underwater in full mime costume and whiteface holding a sign that reads “Man Drowning”) ---
**Author:** ![Aunt\_Flow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Aunt\_Flow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aunt_Flow)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/115 "2006-02-13T20:54:38Z")
For me it has to be Dirty Dancing. I was talking about the movie at work and I commented about the scene with the appendicitis. And everyone was looking at me like I was crazy. So I explained, the scene with the girl in the cabin who was getting a back alley appendicitis operation. After the laughing died down, they managed to tell me the truth about the operation. Apparently when I was little I must not have understood what ABORTION meant and confused it with appendicitis and never got that idea out of my brain. And what’s worse is I’ve seen the movie multiple times. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/116 "2006-02-13T20:59:55Z")
> [@Aunt Flow](#): > > Apparently when I was little I must not have understood what ABORTION meant and confused it with appendicitis and never got that idea out of my brain. And what’s worse is I’ve seen the movie multiple times. Did the movie even use the word “abortion?” I remember being vaguely confused as a child about what had happened to her (and how it could possibly have been the waiter’s fault), and then sometime in high school, I watched the movie for the first time in ages and said “Oh, my _gawd_!” because it had never occurred to me. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/117 "2006-02-13T21:34:43Z")
For me it is _Star Wars_. I will swear on a stack of Bibles my belief that Lucas did that on purpose. It is my belief that Han’s name was chosen as a pun to the traditional RAF warning to rookies : “Beware of the Hun in the sun”, which can be use in this movie as : Beware of the **Han** in the sun" ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/118 "2006-02-13T21:40:19Z")
Not a movie, but a TV episode. It was _years_ before I realized that the name of Mr. Atoz, the Librarian in the episode “All Our Yesterdays”, was just _A to Z_. Their Universal Translators musta been making a pun. ---
**Author:** ![Aunt\_Flow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Aunt\_Flow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aunt_Flow)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/119 "2006-02-13T21:50:29Z")
> [@Draelin](#): > > Did the movie even use the word “abortion?” I remember being vaguely confused as a child about what had happened to her (and how it could possibly have been the waiter’s fault), and then sometime in high school, I watched the movie for the first time in ages and said “Oh, my _gawd_!” because it had never occurred to me. You know what, I’m not sure… That would make more sense. I probably asked my parents and more than likely they told me appendicitis. lol ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966/120 "2006-02-13T21:57:34Z")
> [@Aunt Flow](#): > > You know what, I’m not sure… That would make more sense. I probably asked my parents and more than likely they told me appendicitis. lol Well, I vaguely recall thinking “appendicitis” myself, and I’m wondering if we both came to that conclusion because it was the only abdominal injury we could wrap our minds around, or if maybe we actually misheard “abortion.” But now that I think more about it, I _knew_ what abortion was at the time, having had a rousing debate with my third-grade teacher about it. (Yes, Mom was called to the principal’s office to discuss _that_ one–the first of many times I opened my big fat mouth and got _her_ in trouble.) I’m relatively certain I didn’t know _how_ it was done, though, which might account for me not having a clue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies-about-movies/342966.md?page=7)