# Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117 "2009-07-24T13:20:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/181 "2009-07-31T19:34:56Z")
What’s a meadow for? On edit: That’s for **Eyebrows** ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/182 "2009-07-31T19:47:16Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > 😕 Please explain. “Metaphor” sounds a little like “meadow for” so the spoken question sounds like “What’s a meadow for?” Cows used to be kept in meadows, before [insert rant against modern agribusiness here]. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/183 "2009-07-31T19:50:04Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > What’s a meadow for? > > On edit: That’s for **Eyebrows** Ahhh, thanks. I don’t pronounce meadow like meta so that never occurred to me. I thought maybe a meta was some kind of milking tool. :smack: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ajdebosco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@ajdebosco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajdebosco)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/184 "2009-07-31T19:58:01Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I have seen the Dead Parrot Sketch more than a few times. At some point I noticed that when John Cleese is yelling at Polly to wake up, he opens the door of the cage! I mean, a birdcage isn’t exactly soundproof with the door closed, is it? But he hold it right up to his mouth and opens the door, all the better to rouse him from dreams of the fjords. There’s something about that action that fits perfectly with the over-exacting nature of the character. > > I tend to think that the Pythons greatest gifts were in their writing, but that’s one case where the detail of the performance really sells it. That is dead solid perfect, R A. I recently saw the interview of John Cleese on Inside the Actor’s Studio where the discussion rolled around to the question of just what is funny. He maintained that it is comical to see someone going increasingly berserk, but what is really humorous is the reactions of the other characters observing the meltdown. I had to re-review the dead parrot sketch after reading your post, and my cold beverage came out my nose until I was forced to set it down before wasting more of it. My sides still ache from seeing him try to explain “…was no more…he has ceased to be… he has expired… gone to meet his maker…he’s an EX-PARROT!” ---
**Author:** ![Baby\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@Baby\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baby_Driver)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/185 "2009-07-31T20:02:48Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > I mentioned this in another thread before, but I don’t know how many years I heard the song _ **Life in the Fast Lane** _ before I realized that “there were lines on the mirror” was referring to cocaine. There were a couple. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”: “Mama, just killed a man Put a gun against his head Pulled my trigger now he’s dead” For a long while I didn’t get that there was a comma after mama. I always visualized the singer’s mama being some hard-knock woman busting into a trailer with a revolver. Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”: “But I got no offers Just a come on from the whores on 7th avenue I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome I took some comfort there” I was about eleven when I first heard the song and I thought “whores” was “horse”. I pictured this young man sleeping in the stables among the horses :eek: ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/186 "2009-07-31T20:03:32Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > But it took me several rereads of the first Harry Potter book to realize that Diagon Alley was a play on diagonally. :o ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/187 "2009-07-31T20:07:51Z")
> [@Baby\_Driver](#): > > Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”: > “But I got no offers > Just a come on from the whores on 7th avenue > I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome > I took some comfort there” > > I was about eleven when I first heard the song and I thought “whores” was “horse”. I pictured this young man sleeping in the stables among the horses :eek: Wow, my hearing must be screwed up. I could never make out the lyrics between “But I got no offers,” and “on 7th avenue,” and actually, I thought they were saying something about 5th avenue. So now that part make sense. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![ajdebosco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@ajdebosco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajdebosco)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/188 "2009-07-31T20:12:23Z")
Oh yeah, I also remember seeing a blurb about the 4th century Greek jokebook (Philogelos: the laugh addict) that contained a variation of the sketch, but it was a slave rather than a Norwegian parrot. ---
**Author:** ![ajdebosco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@ajdebosco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajdebosco)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/189 "2009-07-31T20:28:04Z")
Great thread, and I’m a little off on this but … a couple of say aloud pranks that some people haven’t heard: I am sofa king we Todd Head and a pink phone message note 7/31/09 4:25 p.m. (312) 555-1624 please return call Oliver Klozehoff ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/190 "2009-07-31T22:33:21Z")
I tend to miss basic plot elements until the tenth reading or so, never mind hidden meanings and such. F’r instance, Terry Pratchett’s _Small Gods_. I’m reading it for aproximately the one billionth time, and it occurs to me that deserts are a reoccuring theme here. There’s the deserts that prophets are associated with, the deserts around the citadel, the desert in the afterlife, the desert that Vorbis sneaks his troops across, the desert that Brutha crosses with Om and Vorbis… No, this hadn’t occured to me before. :smack: Thinking some more on Pratchett’s oeuvre, I realized that _Thief Of Time_ was a meditation on the meaning of humanity, along with its cons and pros. You know, because just about every character short of Jason struggles with that very issue over the course of the book? And _The Last Continent_, in addition to being about Asutralia, is about sex. Not just the bit with the God of Evolution- the whole UU wizards subplot is about Mrs. Whitlow, and the effect she has on them. Some day I will discover some other stunningly obvious theme while rereading my Discworld collection, and I will be sure give myself a :smack:. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/191 "2009-07-31T22:35:33Z")
> [@Nom\_de\_Plume](#): > > I guess I was pretty young when Cheap Trick first came out with Surrender. I remember hearing the line “Just the other day I heard of a Soldier’s falling off..” and wondering what the Soldier fell off of. > Then recently I heard the song on Jack FM and “Of course, THAT’S what fell off!” > :smack: WHAT fell off? Augh–this thread is frustrating. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/192 "2009-07-31T23:30:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”: > > “Mama, just killed a man > Put a gun against his head > Pulled my trigger now he’s dead” > > For a long while I didn’t get that there was a comma after mama. I always visualized the singer’s mama being some hard-knock woman busting into a trailer with a revolver. I always hear a very unaccented “I” before “killed a man”. So it’s “Mama, I killed a man”. It might be a dialectical difference that I heard it and you didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/193 "2009-08-01T00:14:51Z")
This is from watching the final episode of season five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: She sacrifices herself to save her sister. She falls into the vortex thingy with her arms spread out wide. And then she gets resurrected in season six. It took a while before I made the connection. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/194 "2009-08-01T00:40:44Z")
> [@Histrion](#): > > OK, that one took me a minute. I had to put my inner voice in a very Southern place. The funny thing is, it’s my ex-teacher mother from Pittsburgh who loves that one and told it to me a lot as a child, not my Georgia born dad. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/195 "2009-08-01T00:42:51Z")
> [@Baby\_Driver](#): > > Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”: > “But I got no offers > Just a come on from the whores on 7th avenue > I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome > I took some comfort there” > > I was about eleven when I first heard the song and I thought “whores” was “horse”. I pictured this young man sleeping in the stables among the horses :eek: What, you mean like [this guy](http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/881575.html)? ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/196 "2009-08-01T01:15:46Z")
I’ve got two. The first is from **The Usual Suspects**. I used to complain that the Kobayashi character made no sense. He had a European face, a Japanese name and a Pakistani accent. Finally, someone explained to me that: In all likelihood, Kobayashi either never existed or was completely different from how he was portrayed in the movie. Remember that what we were seeing was merely Kint/Soze’s bullshit story. Oh, we saw someone at the end who _looked_ like Kobayashi, but how could we know who he really was. He could have been just another driver. Another one was from **Dodgeball**. In a Vegas motel, Patches O’Houlihan tells Peter LaFleur that he has a couple of call girls in his hotel room, if LaFleur cared to join him. When LaFleur turns down the offer, Patches goes “Suit yourself, queer!” and wheels away. It took me a few times watching the movie before I realized that there probably weren’t any prostitutes in Patches’s room, and LaFleur was right not to join him. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/197 "2009-08-01T01:16:21Z")
> [@SandyHook](#): > > It wasn’t until just a couple of years ago (I’m 62) while hearing The Who’s “Momma’s Got A Squeezebox,” for the 10,000th time that the light came on for me. “Hey, this isn’t about a real musical instrument at all.” > > Partial lyrics below for those as slow as myself, though there can’t be many. > > 'Cause she’s playing all night > And the music’s all right > Mama’s got a squeeze box > Daddy never sleeps at night > > Well the kids don’t eat > And the dog can’t sleep > There’s no escape from the music > In the whole damn street > > 'Cause she’s playing all night > And the music’s all right > Mama’s got a squeeze box > Daddy never sleeps at night > > She goes in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out [Is it just me, or does that sound filthy?!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9WivuyE_PU) ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/198 "2009-08-01T01:23:16Z")
In the opening sequence to **Watchmen** , we see a bunch of stylized scenes establishing the heroes’ characters. Among them is a scene of a bomber with Sally Jupiter’s portrait on the side. It was our third time watching that scene before my wife realized that the bomber was returning from dropping the A-bomb on Japan. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/199 "2009-08-01T01:58:06Z")
It was only after I noticed the lack of eyebrows in the Girl With a Pearl Earring that I realised that was the source of her ambiguous expression (eyebrows show a surprising amount of expression), and then noticed exactly the same on the notorious Mona Lisa. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/200 "2009-08-01T02:18:12Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Is there any reason to think this is anything other than a coincidence? Did Beckett speak or understand Mandarin? > > In any case, it’s not exactly obvious, as the OP asked. He was briefly a modern languages scholar, and he wrote in French because he wanted to be forced to be more succinct. Odds are he thought about his character names extremely carefully, and would have either chosen those nicknames because of what they meant, or would at least have become aware of the meanings shortly after they were chosen. Of course, they’re also a pun on ‘did he go.’ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=11)