# 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:** 114
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2261 "2015-07-10T00:07:47Z")
I just :smack: myself a few days ago when I - for the first time in my life - realized just how blatantly phallic [this poster](http://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2015/06/18/b39b31a5-7d2a-40b9-b39d-c96612fdffeb/jaws-poster.jpg) is. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2262 "2015-07-10T01:42:41Z")
Sometimes a shark is just a shark. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2263 "2015-07-10T06:26:15Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It’s a coincidence: I figured that. But I hadn’t noticed the coincidence until just this week so it counts as a belated realization of something that should have been obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2264 "2015-07-10T06:30:43Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Sometimes a shark is just a shark. Maybe **Don Draper** has phalluses on the mind. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2265 "2015-07-10T13:12:07Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > I just :smack: myself a few days ago when I - for the first time in my life - realized just how blatantly phallic [this poster](http://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2015/06/18/b39b31a5-7d2a-40b9-b39d-c96612fdffeb/jaws-poster.jpg) is. What I find fascinating is how they changed the original book cover to make the movie poster: [https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;\_ylt=A0LEV2AfxJ9VSW0A0NBXNyoA;\_ylu=X3oDMTEyMmNoam01BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjA0ODZfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=Jaws+Original+Book+Cover&fr=yfp-t-252#id=0&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.collectorsweekly.com%2Farticles%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F06%2Flead.jpg&action=click](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEV2AfxJ9VSW0A0NBXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyMmNoam01BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjA0ODZfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=Jaws+Original+Book+Cover&fr=yfp-t-252#id=0&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.collectorsweekly.com%2Farticles%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F06%2Flead.jpg&action=click) It’s still phallic, but you can’t deny that the poster is over-the-top by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2266 "2015-08-02T21:50:04Z")
In Spaceballs, the DINKs aren’t just whistling any march. They’re whistling the Colonel Bogey March. Which is famously in Bridge Over The River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness (who of course was Obi-Wan in Star Wars) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2267 "2015-08-03T19:00:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > What I find fascinating is how they changed the original book cover to make the movie poster: > > [Jaws Original Book Cover - Yahoo Image Search Results](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEV2AfxJ9VSW0A0NBXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyMmNoam01BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjA0ODZfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=Jaws+Original+Book+Cover&fr=yfp-t-252#id=0&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.collectorsweekly.com%2Farticles%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F06%2Flead.jpg&action=click) > > It’s still phallic, but you can’t deny that the poster is over-the-top by comparison. Because it’s a crappy and not realistic shark drawing? The movie poster is a thousand times better. What’s messed up is the “Penguin Classics” edition cover, where the lady is missing. ---
**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:** [August 29, 2015, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2268 "2015-08-29T02:20:41Z")
I was looking at some acting credits just now, and realized for the first time that Laurie Metcalf is not only Sheldon’s mother on\*\*\* Big Bang Theory\*\*\*, she was also Nanny G, Frasier’s first wife on the sitcom by the same name, who got a huge laugh with “Do you have any idea what it’s like to play the same character for twenty years?!?” Additional fun fact: Nanny G was first played by Emma Thompson on _ **Cheers!** _ ---
**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 29, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2269 "2015-08-29T02:40:17Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I was looking at some acting credits just now, and realized for the first time that Laurie Metcalf is not only Sheldon’s mother on\*\*\* Big Bang Theory\*\*\*, she was also Nanny G, Frasier’s first wife on the sitcom by the same name, who got a huge laugh with “Do you have any idea what it’s like to play the same character for twenty years?!?” She was also Roseanne’s sister on _Roseanne_, which also featured Johnny Galecki (Leonard on _The Big Bang Theory_) as the boyfriend of Sara Gilbert, who was also on _Big Bang_ for a while. That may not come as a surprise to some, but I did not know that until recently. (I was always too busy to watch _Roseanne_ when we were in Hawaii. But the future wife really liked it, and while she was aware of the Galecki-Gilbert combo, she didn’t recognize Metcalf on _Big Bang_ at first.) ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2270 "2015-08-29T03:32:42Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > She was also Roseanne’s sister on _Roseanne_, which also featured Johnny Galecki (Leonard on _The Big Bang Theory_) as the boyfriend of Sara Gilbert, who was also on _Big Bang_ for a while. Chuck Lorre, who created BBT, worked on Rosanne, and knew them from his time there. There’s a couple other crossovers aside from those three, IIRC, but I’m blanking on them. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2271 "2015-08-29T05:13:41Z")
Literally just found out, on the 40th anniversary of its release, that the ‘Wendy, let me in…’ line from Springsteen’s Born to Run is a direct reference to Peter Pan. (As in, Wendy let me in your window) Can’t believe I never caught that one! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2272 "2015-08-29T05:43:27Z")
I just noticed that both _Caddyshack_ and _National Lampoon’s Vacation_ have scenes where Chevy Chase goes skinny-dipping with a hot blonde. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2273 "2015-08-29T06:05:52Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Scarecrow wants a brain…yet he’s the smartest guy in the group who comes up with all the ideas. > Tinman wants a heart, but he’s a sentimental lug. > Cowardly lion wants courage, and he’s the toughest SOB there. > > Duh. And you follow through to Dorothy: has always been home. ---
**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:** [August 29, 2015, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2274 "2015-08-29T10:23:58Z")
This probably goes more into “missed it the first time”. In the animated movie “Flushed Away.” Hugh Jackman does the voice of a “upper class” rat. In one scene the character is trying to decide what outfit to wear. One of the outfits is the Wolverine costume from the early comics.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2275 "2015-08-31T13:50:47Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > In Spaceballs, the DINKs aren’t just whistling any march. They’re whistling the Colonel Bogey March. Which is famously in Bridge Over The River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness (who of course was Obi-Wan in Star Wars) Which is also the song whistled in “The Breakfast Club,” right before lunchtime. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2276 "2015-09-09T22:48:19Z")
Why did Joan Baez write a song about her romance and entitle it The Winds of the Old Days? The answer, my friend… ETA: It took me 40 years to realize this! ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2277 "2015-09-09T23:06:47Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Literally just found out, on the 40th anniversary of its release, that the ‘Wendy, let me in…’ line from Springsteen’s Born to Run is a direct reference to Peter Pan. (As in, Wendy let me in your window) > > Can’t believe I never caught that one! … just wrap your legs 'round these … silver wings. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2278 "2015-09-10T02:32:47Z")
Extremely minor. At a client’s house (I do home healthcare) he was watching a movie and a version of the Carpenter’s “Top of the World” was playing and I realized there’s another song with some of the same music. After a couple days of thinking about it, it hit me. In Musical Youth’s “Pass the Dutchie” the verses use the same (or very similar) music as the verses in “Top of the World”. I never realized that before. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2279 "2015-09-10T04:04:20Z")
Musical Youth’s “Pass the Dutchie” is a cleaned-up-for-the-kiddies cover of The Mighty Diamonds’ [Pass the Kouchie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k05n4xpXFeI). ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2280 "2015-09-10T04:27:15Z")
> [@bmoak](#): > > Musical Youth’s “Pass the Dutchie” is a cleaned-up-for-the-kiddies cover of The Mighty Diamonds’ [Pass the Kouchie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k05n4xpXFeI). OK, I’ll rephrase. The Mighty Diamonds borrowed from “Top of the World.” [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=113) [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=115)