# Favorite Sci-Fi Mumbo-Jumbo **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915 "2013-06-25T21:12:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/41 "2013-06-26T07:52:43Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Directions to find the lost planet of Thamber, in Jack Vance’s “The Killing Machine” - > > Set a course from the old Dog Star > A point to the north of Achernar; > Fare until, on the starboard beam, > Six red suns toward a blue sun stream. > Sleight your ship to where afar > A cluster hangs like a scimitar. > Under the hilt to the verge extreme > And dead ahead shines Thamber’s gleam. 🆒 Although sounding like mumbo-jumbo, this does turn out to be a _sound_ set of directions to the legendary planet. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/42 "2013-06-26T09:25:09Z")
Also from _Soon I Will Be Invincible:_ > [@](#): > > I remember the night Argonaut showed up incognito and fought all comers to a standstill. The night Colony was killed in the ring, and what came out of him. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/43 "2013-06-26T09:25:48Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > The reason the Kessel run is mumbo jumbo is because it uses parsecs as a measure of time, when in fact a parsec is a measure of distance. Lightyears are also commonly used as a measure of time, when they are a measure of distance. > [@Alessan](#): > > And I say that if the line had been “… in twelve _minutes_”, it would have still been only marginally more comprehensible. If the line had been twelve minutes, that would at least have been a unit of time (in most uses). If the line had been phrased that way, we could have inferred that the Kessel Run normally takes more than twelve minutes, and that ship was faster than normal, despite its appearance. Even if the line had contained a nonsense word, we could have inferred that this was a measurement of time, not distance. Instead, the writer just pulled some word with a defined meaning out of the air, and misused it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/44 "2013-06-26T11:21:19Z")
Well, the funniest that comes to mind is from an episode of Voyager: Torres saying “Get the cheese to sickbay.” But I’ll always be fond of “By the seven green moons of Gongle”, a “strong oath” from Pel Torro’s “Galaxy 666”. ---
**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:** [June 26, 2013, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/45 "2013-06-26T11:29:06Z")
I love the very short Space Opera story by Robert Sheckley “Zirn Left Unguarded, the Jenghik Palace in Flames, Jon Westerly Dead” The story is not much longer than the title, and it captures almost all the cliches in a few well-constructed paragraphs. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/46 "2013-06-26T11:34:11Z")
\*Dune \*has so many of these things but unfortunately I can’t recall a specific quote. I think that pretty much the whole first book counts as unexplained Mumbo-Jumbo, and that’s what makes it the greatest sci-fi book ever written. One that I like is: Jihad, Butlerian: (see also Great Revolt) — the crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots begun in 201 B.G. and concluded in 108 B.G. Its chief commandment remains in the O.C. Bible as “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” Ok so this fragment is itself an explanation of something, but it leaves so much to the imagination, and the full idea of that “thou shalt not…” quote is mind boggling and interesting. “The target of the Jihad was a machine-attitude as much as the machines,” Leto said. “Humans had set those machines to usurp our sense of beauty, our necessary selfdom out of which we make living judgments. Naturally, the machines were destroyed.” ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/47 "2013-06-26T12:10:57Z")
There’s something grand in Neal Stephenson’s _Snow Crash_, but I’ll have to check that later. For now, here’s something from Kurt Vonnegut’s _The Sirens of Titan_: “Oh Lord Most High, Creator of the Cosmos, Spinner of Galaxies, Soul of Electromagnetic Waves, Inhaler and Exhaler of Inconceivable Volumes of Vacuum, Spitter of Fire and Rock, Trifler with Millennia — what could we do for Thee that Thou couldst not do for Thyself one octillion times better? Nothing. What could we do or say that could possibly interest Thee? Nothing. Oh, Mankind, rejoice in the apathy of our Creator, for it makes us free and truthful and dignified at last. No longer can a fool point to a ridiculous accident of good luck and say, ‘Somebody up there likes me.’ And no longer can a tyrant say, ‘God wants this or that to happen, and anyone who doesn’t help this or that to happen is against God.’ O Lord Most High, what a glorious weapon is Thy Apathy, for we have unsheathed it, have thrust and slashed mightily with it, and the claptrap that has so often enslaved us or driven us into the madhouse lies slain!" -The prayer of the Reverend C. Horner Redwine” ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/48 "2013-06-26T12:20:09Z")
"The illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator! That creature has stolen the space modulator! " ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/49 "2013-06-26T12:32:14Z")
“We can reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.” ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/50 "2013-06-26T12:32:36Z")
“By Grabthar’s Hammer, you will be AVENGED!” Posting this here is sort of a meta joke since the line itself is known by the speaker to be a fictional reference. Star Wars is just chock full of minor, irrelevant references to places like the Spice Mines of Kessel, or Ord Mandell. ---
**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:** [June 26, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/51 "2013-06-26T13:06:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > “We can reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.” Uhm, aren’t neutrons … neutral in polarity? :dubious: 😕 :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/52 "2013-06-26T13:21:07Z")
“Following the Great Nebula Burst our people were one people. But then came the Zactor Migration, and then the Melosian Shift and a dark period of discontent spread through the land. Fighting among Treeb sects and Largoths… ah, the foolishness!” ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/53 "2013-06-26T13:30:07Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Uhm, aren’t neutrons … neutral in polarity? :dubious: 😕 :rolleyes: Could be worse. At least your [neutrinos haven’t mutated](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGf0AHky0Os) ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/54 "2013-06-26T13:30:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by \*\*Where No Fan Has Gone Before \*\* > > Fry: Usually on the show, they came up with a complicated plan, then explained it with a simple analogy. > > Leela: Hmmm… If we can re-route engine power through the primary weapons and configure them to Melllvar’s frequency, that should overload his electro-quantum structure. > > Bender: Like putting too much air in a balloon! > > Fry: Of course! It’s all so simple! > … > Bender: [shouting] OK! I’m done re-kafoobling the energy motron … or whatever. > … > Leela: Fire! > … > Leela: It’s not working! He’s gaining strength from our weapons! > > Fry: Like a balloon, and… something bad happens! Originally posted by Where No Fan Has Gone Before ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/55 "2013-06-26T13:34:48Z")
Not sci-fi but a funny moment from _Rango_: they’re walking along a pipe in the underground tunnel when an enormous eye opens up behind them and watches them pass. None of the group react or pause, apart from one character eventually commenting: “Yep. That’s a big 'un.” It’s never mentioned again. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/56 "2013-06-26T13:36:45Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Uhm, aren’t neutrons … neutral in polarity? :dubious: 😕 :rolleyes: Benjamin Franklin screwed it all up in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/57 "2013-06-26T13:58:06Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Star Wars is just chock full of minor, irrelevant references to places like the Spice Mines of Kessel, or Ord Mandell. What are you, some kinda nerf-herder? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/58 "2013-06-26T14:00:08Z")
Madame Pepperwinkle is the author of “101 Recipes for Womp Rat”. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/59 "2013-06-26T14:15:22Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Star Wars is just chock full of minor, irrelevant references to places like the Spice Mines of Kessel, or Ord Mandell. Until the prequels, “The Clone Wars” was one of these. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915/60 "2013-06-26T14:22:00Z")
For a funny one: in _The Fifth Element_, Leeloo’s skin is reconstructed when her body is “bombarded by slightly greasy solar atoms.” For adding a dash of color and mystery, does Sherlock Holmes’ Giant Rat of Sumatra count as Sci-Fi? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo/661915.md?page=4)