# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/41 "2024-12-29T15:51:58Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Some fans have suggested that Homer has never woken up from the coma and the rest of the series is just a dream of his. People don’t age, there’s great discontinuity between episodes. The dreams of a man in coma make much more sense that just assuming it’s an animated series where the writers feel free to present the town of Springfield and it’s residents however they please. If that was the case we couldn’t rely on the factual basis of any sitcom. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/42 "2024-12-29T16:01:04Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Some fans have suggested that Homer has never woken up from the coma and the rest of the series is just a dream of his. Along the same lines, the video game Mass Effect 3 had some (perceived) plot holes, so some dude came up with the idea that the entire game was a coma dream and that the “real” ending would come in a hypothetical Mass Effect 4. And yet, somehow my idea that both Mass Effect 2 and 3 were a coma dream has never gotten traction. That’s twice the plot holes explained! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/43 "2024-12-29T17:51:20Z")
I think a lot of this nonsense is when people assume everything’s so well thought out and put together that it _has_ to make some sort of sense, and start looking for it in order to make it all fit together. It’s like they can’t accept that Quentin Tarantino, George Lucas, or whoever can’t just have oversights and plot holes, and that it _all has to make sense_ somehow. IMO, it’s the same sort of assumption that leads to conspiracy theories- it can’t just be oversight, random events, and bad luck, it _ **has** _ to be intentional and everything has to be orchestrated by someone, so they start playing lunatic mental Tetris to make it all fit. ---
**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 29, 2024, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/44 "2024-12-29T20:57:40Z")
Actually I feel that is what they’re doing. Homer can’t even remember which decade something happened. Suddenly Burns and Abe Simpson are the same age. In the same episode we see that Burns is younger in the 80’s despite the fact that in another episode he claims he personally knew Augustus Sax. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/45 "2024-12-29T21:48:57Z")
Along those lines, there’s the interpretation of _Grease_ that the whole movie is the hallucination of a dying Sandy: > When Danny (John Travolta) dons a leather jacket and sings, “I saved her life, she nearly drowned”, on ‘Summer Nights’ it might just be the most cheerful use of Chekhov’s gun in cinema history. As the fan theory goes, when Sandy and Danny first meet in the summer before high school – he didn’t save her life at all. In fact, she drowned, and the rest of the film is nothing more than an elaborate oxygen-starved delusion in her final moments. > **[The disturbing theory that changes the meaning of 'Grease'](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-disturbing-theory-that-changes-the-meaning-of-grease/)** > > Grease is an upbeat musical that follows Sandy and Danny as high-school sweethearts, but this fan theory has a far darker take on the film. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/46 "2024-12-29T21:55:59Z")
I’ve heard it suggested that 90 percent of the scenes in **Brazil** are Sam Lowry’s daydreams, à la Walter Mitty. All that “actually” happens in the film is that he goes to work one day, does his job, and comes home. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/47 "2024-12-30T05:14:55Z")
They’re just desperate to find a way to keep that silly franchise alive. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/48 "2024-12-30T05:53:46Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Maybe even a veiled populist manifesto by Baum. Nope, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Free Silver, etc. Cecil disproved it. Puff the Magic dragon is not about drugs. Nor is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. When the Beatles wrong songs about drugs, they didnt deny it- see Doctor Robert - Lennon "Mainly about drugs and pills. ", and _I get high, with a little help from my friends”_, _Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey’_ and others. ---
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/49 "2024-12-30T10:04:38Z")
The absolute refusal on the part of some people to accept “absurdism” or “the character is stupid” as the point of a joke. This seems to happen in any discussion of comedy, but I’ll use two jokes from _The Simpsons_ that keep coming up as examples. Why does Homer Simpson tell someone on the other end of a phone call “you’ll have to speak up, I’m wearing a towel”? Because Homer is stupid and is confusing the fact that he’s underdressed for his social circumstances (standing at his work station in a nuclear power plant wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist) with another problem (being unable to hear a phone call due to background noise). That’s it. That’s, obviously, the joke. You will find endless “explanations” of how “women used to wear towels over their ears after washing their hair and yell through phones at each other to be heard” and that the joke is somehow a “reference” to this. Despite the fact that no one has ever done that (you would just move the towel over your ears if you needed to use the phone, and there is absolutely no written account of this phenomenon from anyone other than people discussing the Simpsons line). People _cannot_ accept “it’s funny because the stupid man is doing something that doesn’t make sense” and have to find hidden meanings that aren’t there. Also, Homer is not recounting the plot of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and confessing to murdering a bunch of people in Georgia in the joke from “Homer the Vigilante” about the grandma mouthing off. He’s just recounting a time when he abused his authority as a neighborhood watchman to be a jerk to some people. Again, looking for “references” that make no real sense for the character instead of accepting his established character traits of being stupid and quick to anger (“Jerkass Homer” is even its own shorthand for his character development!) ---
**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 30, 2024, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/50 "2024-12-30T12:50:49Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > They’re just desperate to find a way to keep that silly franchise alive. Well, if that is the reason, then it is working, because I’ve been hearing it since at least Timothy Dalton, and probably;y George Lazenby. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/51 "2024-12-30T13:06:20Z")
In Lazenby’s _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,_ Bond actually says, “This never happened to the _other_ fellow.” Cheeky. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/52 "2024-12-30T13:09:57Z")
Shucks, even before Lazenby, Niven-as-James-Bond-007 noted that, _“In my day, spying was an alternative to war; the spy was a member of a select and immaculate priesthood, vocationally devoted, sublimely disinterested. Hardly a description of that sexual acrobat who leaves a trail of beautiful dead women like blown roses behind him: that bounder to whom you gave my name and number!”_ ---
**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 30, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/53 "2024-12-30T16:39:15Z")
> **Hidden by WE?** > > I’m mostly just talking about the punk mindset when I say it’s woke and left leaning. Idk how it was back then but, today punk music is pretty left leaning as well. I could also just argue that if you’re punk but racist and any type of phobic then you aren’t punk. ---
**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 30, 2024, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/54 "2024-12-30T16:41:26Z")
---
**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 30, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/55 "2024-12-30T16:42:09Z")
> [@Insane interpretations that you have seen about media?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/15): > > 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) I guess you missed this modnote, so posting it again. **Moderating** : No more on Woke please. > **How to Reply as a linked Topic** > > Click Reply, in the upper left corner of the reply window is the reply type button, _looks like a curving arrow point to the right_. > > Choose **Reply as linked topic** and it starts a new thread. As an example, you can choose GD, IMHO or The Pit for it. > > That is actually the best method. ---
**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 30, 2024, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/56 "2024-12-30T16:43:06Z")
---
**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 30, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/57 "2024-12-30T16:50:57Z")
Same thing is happening in the queer community. Some ppl assume that a character is gay (Rainbow Six Seige?) for giving another woman her coat to stay warm. Other ppl assume Travis from Yellowjackets is a trans woman just cuz he apparently shares some stereotypical traits with being a woman. Some ppl even assume the girl in my pfp is a trans man just because she has masculine mannerisms and wears practical clothing in the dead ass of winter. I get that they want more representation (I do too) but grasping at straws where there aren’t any, just pushes ppl away from the community and isn’t helping anybody. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/58 "2024-12-30T18:19:26Z")
And people assume Elsa from _Frozen_ is lesbian just because she doesn’t have _any_ love interest. Hey, maybe she’s asexual. ---
**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 30, 2024, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/59 "2024-12-30T19:17:11Z")
Yeah, true. I’m mostly fine with ppl assuming sexuality, I just think they need to go off of more than someone giving up their coat. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236/60 "2024-12-30T19:35:57Z")
I’ve been called insane for my conviction that the transporters in _Star Trek_ are really suicide machines. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nQHBAdShgYI/maxresdefault.jpg "The Trouble with Transporters") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQHBAdShgYI) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insane-interpretations-that-you-have-seen-about-media/1012236.md?page=4)