# Good Will Hunting. I just now Got that **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 10, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789 "2006-11-10T00:27:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/41 "2006-11-11T02:10:16Z")
[QUOTE=InkBlot] I believe it was at least a decade before I actually understood this classic exchange from **Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** : A decade of reading the books, watching the television production, listening to the audio tapes…then one day, there I am reading the book again and it hits me. Like a brick inna sock. InkBlot :eek: [/QUOTE] The secret was to bang the rocks together, guys. ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/42 "2006-11-11T02:55:41Z")
[QUOTE=Tastes of Chocolate] “How do you get down from an elephant?” “You don’t, you get down from a duck.” [/QUOTE] You aren’t alone The meaning of that particuilar pun dawned on me as I was walking to class my first year in college. At lunch, I mentioned my delayed comprehension to a dormmate, but his glazed, nodding look on his nodding face made me suspect that he _still_ didn’t get it. He insisted he did, but refused to dispel my doubts by explaining the joke. Instead, he called another dormmate over to hear the joke, and mocking _him_ for not getting it (according to the ill-explained logic of “don’t get its” everywhere, one obviously can’t mock what one doesn’t understand. Nope, nope, nope. That _never_ happens.) Within an hour, there were 18 people at the table (actually, we’d moved to a larger table by then) – all claiming to get it, all refusing to explain it, and all striving futily to call over more people to be mocked. Years later, at a dorm reunion, they all still insisted they got it – but this time, one of them was actually able to explain it. I knew I’d always liked her, ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/43 "2006-11-11T03:36:39Z")
I’m a big Larry Niven fan, and his short story, bordered in black, had a pun in it. But I didn’t know it was a pun until last year. I’m 30. I started really reading Niven when I was 14. I have probably read Bordered in Black 20 times. The name of the new and experimental Hyperdrive ship is the Oversee (although it might be spelled Overcee). Over. C. Faster than light. I’m a moron. ---
**Author:** ![lokij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@lokij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lokij)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/44 "2006-11-11T04:21:05Z")
[QUOTE=Scylla] I swear to you this is true: I’m watching Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends with my kids. There’s going to be a Foster’s Movie “Good Wilt Hunting.” My internal dialogue goes somethign like this: -Clearly that’s a play on the movie “Good Will Hunting” -That’s a weird title. I’ve seen that like five times and Will Hunting wasn’t really all that “good” in any ethical sense until the end -Maybe it was just ironic Then somewhere, a long neglected fired -Our maybe the protaginist in that movie was **Hunting** … for **…Good Will**! -Or… Maybe he was **Hunting** for his better self, his self being **Will**. That better self being **Good**! -Maybe it means all three! Then, I realized incredibly obvious that was. After considering the implications of this for five minutes, I realized that this might make me the stupidest human being on the planet. I’m so depressed. Run away. I might be contagious. [/QUOTE] Hmmm I always thought the obvious play on words for that title referred to thrift store shopping. Going hunting in a Good Will store is looking for treasures amongst other people’s junk. So on the Harvard University campus you have that professor who found a treasure in an unexpected place, the janitor. Will Hunting’s background of child abuse and abandonment made him a cast off but his talents and intelligence let him stand out. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/45 "2006-11-11T15:01:31Z")
[QUOTE=Sevastopol] The secret was to bang the rocks together, guys. [/QUOTE] I still don’t get this one. Is it a fire making tip, or some bizarre sexual thing? ---
**Author:** ![George\_Kaplin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@George\_Kaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Kaplin)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/46 "2006-11-11T19:44:06Z")
> [@Runs With Scissors](#): > > Along the same lines: I only figured out what pearl jam is a few years ago. Along the same lines: I only figured out what pearl jam is about ten seconds ago. ---
**Author:** ![ILovCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e99b99/32.png) [@ILovCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILovCoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/47 "2006-11-11T20:20:58Z")
[QUOTE=Sevastopol] The secret was to bang the rocks together, guys. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=WhyNot] I still don’t get this one. Is it a fire making tip, or some bizarre sexual thing? [/QUOTE] The answer is . . . a firing making tip Thanks for explaining the old Chicken joke. I always thought it was dim. Of course one crosses the road to get to the opposite side, I mean"DUH!" Which is the gist of many of the derivitive jokes with a macabre tint (the OTHER Side) now making more sense. On that note, I am reminded to one of my express road trips to Carrolton, GA to sit by the side of my ill grandmother. I am driving like a bat out of hell (75mph) up I-75 and some where southof Atlanta I began noticing smushed chickens in the road. So after the first one and the recital of the standard joke to my husband (the penny do not drop :smack: ) I noticed two more. Then the answer to why we were seeing dead chickens on the highway----a truck packed with chicken crates full of chickens. He & I began a little improv riff about unlucky escaping chickens that was extremely hiralious even if I say so myself. (I think this was before the movie “Chicken Run”) But, due to the stress and worry about Grandma I cannot remember any of the lines. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/48 "2006-11-11T20:23:39Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I still don’t get this one. Is it a fire making tip, or some bizarre sexual thing? [/QUOTE] Fire-making. A fuller version of the same quote: > [@](#): > > “… and news brought to you here on the sub-etha wave band, broadcasting around the galaxy around the clock,” squawked a voice, “and we’ll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere … and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.” ---
**Author:** ![aclubs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@aclubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aclubs)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/49 "2006-11-11T20:41:06Z")
> [@InkBlot](#): > > A decade of reading the books, watching the television production, listening to the audio tapes…then one day, there I am reading the book again and it hits me. Like a brick inna sock. Did the brick have a slice of lemon wrapped around it? ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/50 "2006-11-11T21:22:51Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I still don’t get this one. Is it a fire making tip, or some bizarre sexual thing? [/QUOTE] Atomic fission reaction, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/51 "2006-11-11T23:47:32Z")
Regarding the chicken joke… it’s a kids joke. I’m of the opinion that since it’s a joke you want there to be a ‘funny’ answer, but the funny is in the obviousness of the answer. (is obviousness a word?) It’s like the joke “Why to firemen wear red suspenders?” To hold their pants up! You automatically key in on the word ‘red’, and don’t think of the obvious answer of why people wear suspenders. If you want a more macabre meaning to that joke, I’d say go with Spatial Rift 4’s version about the séance. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/52 "2006-11-12T15:41:54Z")
[QUOTE=Tastes of Chocolate] “How do you get down from an elephant?” “You don’t, you get down from a duck.” Sometime in my 30s, the lightbulb went off. Down=duck feathers… DUH! [/QUOTE] My first thought was that to duck means to get down, as in to duck under something. I like **lokij’s** explanation of Good Will Hunting. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/53 "2006-11-12T16:04:42Z")
[QUOTE=Tristan] I’m a big Larry Niven fan, and his short story, bordered in black, had a pun in it. But I didn’t know it was a pun until last year. I’m 30. I started really reading Niven when I was 14. I have probably read Bordered in Black 20 times. The name of the new and experimental Hyperdrive ship is the Oversee (although it might be spelled Overcee). Over. C. Faster than light. [/QUOTE] HUH? Remind me to never read anything by Larry Niven–I already don’t get it. I think the chicken joke is the most obvious one, but like the undertones the more macabre interp gives it. This is only tangentially related, but for most of my life, I would watch locomotives go by and not understand why they had more than one engine. I was a Lil Engine That Could kid, and it seemed to me(even in my 20s) that another engine was really heavy and would just be dead weight. I mean, the boxcars could be empty, but even full they weighed less than a diesel locomotive…I finally asked my then fiance why the RR wasted energy by putting 2 or 3 engines in one train. He still laughs about that. I know I have had wordplay or language use incomprehensions, but time and memory are merciful right now. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/54 "2006-11-12T16:18:19Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] HUH? Remind me to never read anything by Larry Niven–I already don’t get it. [/QUOTE] c is scientific shorthand for the speed of light, as in E=mc^2. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/55 "2006-11-12T16:26:11Z")
Yeah, but he said “over C”. What’s that when it’s at home, eh? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/56 "2006-11-12T16:27:35Z")
[QUOTE=aclubs] Did the brick have a slice of lemon wrapped around it? [/QUOTE] A _gold_ brick with a lemon wrapped around it? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/57 "2006-11-12T16:32:21Z")
[QUOTE=Hung Mung] A _gold_ brick with a lemon wrapped around it? [/QUOTE] I’m lost with just these allusions in the thread. Off to tie my shoelaces together or something as producive and intelligent… ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/58 "2006-11-12T20:08:37Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] I’m lost with just these allusions in the thread. [/QUOTE] A Doper not intimately familiar with the works of Douglas Adams? Egads! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/59 "2006-11-12T21:39:28Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] A Doper not intimately familiar with the works of Douglas Adams? Egads! 😉 [/QUOTE] Who he? enlighten me,please. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@The\_Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Octagon)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789/60 "2006-11-12T21:43:05Z")
I think it was the third or fourth time I was reading Harry Potter that Knockturn Alley hit me as ‘nocturnally.’ Neuron two fired soon after and I saw ‘diagonally.’ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-will-hunting-i-just-now-got-that/379789.md?page=4)