# 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:** 118
**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:** [December 24, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2341 "2015-12-24T18:23:35Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > Not sure that’s really a connection. Why not? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2342 "2015-12-24T19:21:25Z")
I know this makes me either really dumb or really unobservant, but it just occurred to me the other day that Bill & Ted’s time-traveling phone booth is an homage to Doctor Who. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2343 "2015-12-24T21:40:08Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Why not? 😕 Die Hard originally wasn’t a Christmas movie. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2015, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2344 "2015-12-25T07:21:51Z")
You mean, the original script was not set at Christmas? If that’s so, was the villain always named Gruber? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2015, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2345 "2015-12-25T10:57:08Z")
According to one of the trivia notes in the IMDb, in the novel that _Die Hard_ was adapted from, the character equivalent to Hans Gruber was called Anton “Little Tony” Gruber. So, assuming what was said there and what was said here are correct, the novel wasn’t set at Christmas but did have a main character named Gruber. Someone might want to read the original novel (_Nothing Lasts Forever_ by Roderick Thorp) to check if these claims are accurate. ---
**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:** [December 27, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2346 "2015-12-27T21:08:37Z")
In the original _Law & Order_, all the children of the long-serving main characters are the opposite gender of that parent. Briscoe, Curtis, and McCoy have daughters, Van Buren has two sons. It’s not an entirely unbroken record (Jamie Ross has a daughter), but it seems more than pure chance. On _SVU_ I only recall Stabler mentioning and interacting with his daughters (although a L&O wiki says he also has sons). ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2347 "2016-01-16T13:28:18Z")
I saw The Goonies on TV a few days ago. I had seen that movie at least fifty times in my life. It was a favorite of mine growing up. We even had it on VHS, so I’d watch it sometimes two or three times in a row as a kid. Anyway, I’ve seen it so many times I can almost say it line for line… …yet for the very first time on the viewing a few days ago, I only now got a joke that had been there all along: The scene is when they first enter the restaurant and the Fratelli’s treat them like customers and get them all some water. Mikey–who needs a good reason to go check out the basement–uses the excuse he has to go to the bathroom. Right after saying this, there is a cut to Mouth, who says “Hey, Mikey, gotta go to the bathroom?” while playing with two cups of water ([he’s dumping one into the other and then back again](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkkxFIxCWLI)) and it just hit me on last viewing that he’s doing that because it would be pure torture for anyone who really did need to take a piss. I always thought it was just his character doing a random thing with the water randomly, to pass time, as something to do while he gave that line. It never occurred to me that he was trying to torment his friend. Hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2348 "2016-01-17T04:53:16Z")
It might have been mentioned by someone else already, but Bohemian Rhapsody: it’s not “mother” who just killed a man. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2349 "2016-01-18T18:50:11Z")
Popped in the DVD for our traditional holiday viewing of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” For some reason, our DVD player seems to be stuck in the SUBTITLES ON setting. We have dialog rolling across the bottom of the screen that we can’t (not even my teenagers) figure out how to turn off. There’s a scene where the two grandpas are snoring in front of the TV. The TV is turned to coverage of a parade, and the commentary is droning on softly in the background. I have never actually paid attention to what the announcers are saying, but with the scrolling dialog, it is suddenly obvious that their commentary is a running stream of juvenile dirty jokes…remarking how the Nutcracker’s nuts are blowing in the wind, banging together, bumping against the buildings, etc… ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2350 "2016-01-21T20:58:31Z")
Earlier today, I was about to compare someone who was game for anything with Mikey from the Life cereal commercials. As I remembered it in my head, “he’ll eat anything”. Then I thought, “That can’t be right. Why would Mikey’s brothers have been so incredulous that he liked Life cereal if the kid was a human garbage dump?” But I could have sworn that was the line. So I looked it up online and, sure enough, it’s “He hates everything” – the diametric opposite of how I remembered it. But, funny thing is, if you Google the line “he’ll eat anything”, it’s _all about people remembering Mikey from the Life cereal commercials_. Either people (mis)quoting the line or a few columns where someone realizes that they remembered the line wrong. A zillion people all thinking that Mikey was the kid who “he’ll eat anything”. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2351 "2016-01-21T21:15:55Z")
I remember when I was a kid, “History of the World Part I” played on cable over and over. Must have seen it a dozen times. And in one scene Harvey Corman quips to his foppish companion “[Don’t get saucy with me, Bearnaise!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP30E1eWXXI)”. That line was delivered in such a way that it seemed strange, and it stuck in my brain for some reason. Anyway, fast forward 25 years and my 5 year old daughter is acting up and I jokingly scolded her “Don’t get saucy with me, Bearnaise!”, and I suddenly realized it was just a pun on [Bearnaise sauce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9arnaise_sauce), which of course I had never heard of as a teenager. It took 25 years to get that pun. Congratulations Mel Brooks. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2352 "2016-01-21T23:51:32Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Earlier today, I was about to compare someone who was game for anything with Mikey from the Life cereal commercials. As I remembered it in my head, “he’ll eat anything”. > > Then I thought, “That can’t be right. Why would Mikey’s brothers have been so incredulous that he liked Life cereal if the kid was a human garbage dump?” But I could have sworn that was the line. > > So I looked it up online and, sure enough, it’s “He hates everything” – the diametric opposite of how I remembered it. But, funny thing is, if you Google the line “he’ll eat anything”, it’s _all about people remembering Mikey from the Life cereal commercials_. Either people (mis)quoting the line or a few columns where someone realizes that they remembered the line wrong. A zillion people all thinking that Mikey was the kid who “he’ll eat anything”. Maybe we’ve just witnessed the birth of a new parallel universe? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2353 "2016-01-22T03:36:03Z")
It’s the same parallel universe in which there was an alternate ending to _Big_. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2354 "2016-01-22T16:32:23Z")
But a different one from the one where Berenstein is spelled with an “e”. We’re still apparently in the clone dimension ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2355 "2016-01-22T18:01:19Z")
Wow… That’s shocking. Decades of thinking “He hates everything” was “He eats anything” In my defense, in watching the commercial on YouTube, I think the “He hates everything” sort of sounds like “He eats everything” and my kid mind obviously heard that. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2356 "2016-01-22T18:18:57Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I used to read Dynamite, a kid’s magazine, back in the 1970’s. They had a column with a magic trick supposedly written by “Magic Wanda”. Only when I read some back issues as an adult did I realize, “magic wand” a. I know this was posted in September, but I couldn’t resist… Somehow I still remember a secret agent challenge/response sequence from an issue of Dynamite back in the Age of Disco: Challenge: “Eat my din” Response: “Many diet” Challenge: “And my tie” Response: “It may end” Both: “DYNAMITE!” (note the letters in each phrase) Both Mikey and Dynamite are fond childhood memories. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2357 "2016-01-25T02:54:02Z")
I was just shocked out of my childhood innocence by a meme on Facebook. The little piggy who went to market wasn’t going shopping. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2358 "2016-01-25T03:39:08Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I was just shocked out of my childhood innocence by a meme on Facebook. > > The little piggy who went to market wasn’t going shopping. :eek: I never thought of it that way before either. But then, why is one of them having roast beef? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2359 "2016-01-25T04:47:42Z")
In Dreamcatcher, Damian Lewis affects an absurd British accent when his body is taken over by an alien. I realize now that he’s English and that was probably his normal speaking voice. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2360 "2016-01-25T17:42:20Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > But then, why is one of them having roast beef? To fatten him up for market tomorrow? [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=117) [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=119)