# Insane interpretations that you have seen about media? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2024, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236 "2024-12-27T18:45:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [December 27, 2024, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/1 "2024-12-27T18:45:41Z")
A few days ago I was googling for the exact phrasing of Ralph Wiggam’s Skinner/Krabapple “making babies” dialogue, and I found a reddit thread where not one but _two_ people had always assumed that “I saw one of the babies and the baby looked at me” was intended to be Ralph seeing Skinner’s erect penis, which Ralph mistook for a baby, which I found so uttely insane that I could have never have imagined that version if I tried. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Simpsons/comments/126zn6s/i\_have\_genuinely\_never\_understood\_this\_joke\_and\_i/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Simpsons/comments/126zn6s/i_have_genuinely_never_understood_this_joke_and_i/) Got any of your own examples? ---
**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:** [December 27, 2024, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/2 "2024-12-27T20:03:59Z")
Recently I came across the idea that anti-capitalism is woke. They’re probably right. But they don’t realize that if this is true then their parents and grandparents and great grandparents are woke because capitalism has been portrayed as evil in TV shows, movies and stage plays for over 100 years, probably longer ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2024, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/3 "2024-12-27T20:43:34Z")
Similarly that “It’s A Wonderful Life” is anti-capitalist because the big bad is an evil banker/land developer. Which is weird because the protagonists are literally another bank. ---
**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:** [December 28, 2024, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/4 "2024-12-28T01:01:25Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Which is weird because the protagonists are literally another bank. …Am I being whooshed? Aren’t they more equivalent to a small community credit union? So much of the background and literal plot of the movie is that the Bailey’s S&L is community based… Potter is a wealth hoarder. Bailey’s S&L is not. Tarantino speeches in movies made a lot of “fan theories” seem like reasonable interpretations…so it’s an open field. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/5 "2024-12-28T01:39:52Z")
Stuff like banning child labour is incredibly woke ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/6 "2024-12-28T01:43:35Z")
Yeah but it’s still not anti-capitalist it’s more of the “Compassionate Capitalism” you hear about ---
**Author:** ![Cee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cee/32/18345_2.png) [@Cee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cee)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/7 "2024-12-28T15:41:25Z")
That somehow punk isn’t woke, when the politics are in your face left leaning and anarchist. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/8 "2024-12-28T15:59:02Z")
All fact-checking is woke, because facts make far-right denialists feel bad. ---
**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:** [December 28, 2024, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/9 "2024-12-28T18:49:44Z")
Note that Capra’s conception of George Bailey was taken wholly from his earlier film _American Madness_, written by Robert Riskin, an out-and-out liberal. The movie featured Walter Huston as a banker who loaned money to ordinary people who would not otherwise get a loan, believing in them to pay them back against the wishes of his board, who saw them as a bad risk. There is a run on the bank and Huston is saved when all his depositors and friends (and eventually the board) give money to keep it solvent. Other than separating the run on the bank from the climax, and the supernatural element, the movies are extremely similar. The social conscious elements of Capra films were all Riskin’s doing. Capra himself was a conservative Republican. This is similar to the conservative Walt Disney who often portrayed bankers as scum (unless Mary Poppins was involves). ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/10 "2024-12-28T19:16:11Z")
> [@Cee](#): > > That somehow punk isn’t woke, when the politics are in your face left leaning and anarchist. Not only isn’t punk woke, woke isn’t anarchistic. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/11 "2024-12-28T20:08:37Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Recently I came across the idea that anti-capitalism is woke. They’re probably right. The whole concept of “woke” is a traditional communist idea. The idea that class consciousness is something that needs to be awoken in the proletariat is fairly standard Communist thinking ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/12 "2024-12-28T20:17:31Z")
> [@Cee](#): > > That somehow punk isn’t woke, when the politics are in your face left leaning and anarchist. Eh, somebody listening to Fear’s [first album](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Record_(Fear_album)) with its homophobic smears and sexist tinges could be forgiven for thinking they weren’t particularly woke. While one can make the argument they were just being deliberately snotty to bait audiences (back in 1977 when slinging “gay” as an insult was damn near universal), it is still enough to make modern listeners wince. ETA: There was a reason [Nazi Punks Fuck off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MkRuV0aCcI) was written. The swastika imagery was pretty fucking common at one time. Again, offensive for rebellion’s sake but it did lead some white hardcore kids down the wrong road. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/13 "2024-12-28T20:18:22Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > The whole concept of “woke” is a traditional communist idea. The idea that class consciousness is something that needs to be awoken in the proletariat is fairly standard Communist thinking Other than the fact that’s not what woke means,…sure I guess. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/14 "2024-12-28T20:48:21Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Other than the fact that’s not what woke means,…sure I guess. That is literally what woke means. It may been used by the right wing to me “anything I disagree with”. But it actually means exactly that, the idea that society is setup so that we are oblivious to the innumerable social injustices perpetuated on us and around us, and must be “awoken”, so that we start to notice and do something about them. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/15 "2024-12-28T21:32:05Z")
**Moderating** : No more on **Woke** please. You are collectively hijacking this thread before it got started. If you want to talk about Woke, maybe try this thread: [My definition of woke](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-definition-of-woke/1011343) ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/16 "2024-12-28T21:48:20Z")
I had never thought that, but hearing it makes a lot of sense. I’m trying to think of something similar, but so far, no luck. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/17 "2024-12-28T21:51:38Z")
_“Fair and Balanced”_ ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/18 "2024-12-28T22:10:04Z")
I’ve heard the Wizard of Oz, the Oz world in a series of books. And the meaning of several characters and events, even background is a political statement. Maybe even a veiled populist manifesto by Baum. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/19 "2024-12-28T22:12:03Z")
To actually return to the OP I always thought the “Marcellus Wallace’s soul is in the suitcase in Pulp Fiction” interpretation is the most insane nonsensical one. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2024, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/20 "2024-12-28T22:24:08Z")
I could see Tarantino coming up with that, but I agree that it’s a forced fanwank with no other evidence. Lately my algorithm has been feeding me stuff about Interstellar, and lately there’s been a theory that McConnoughy is dead the whole time, and the move is his journey through the afterlife. But…why?! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236.md?page=2)