# 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:** 280
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5587 "2023-10-10T17:57:47Z")
Sorry, I wasn’t very clear. I was talking about the actual lyrics in the chorus. I thought the _waiting for the go_ part was _waiting for the boat_. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5588 "2023-10-11T01:08:14Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > > > I’ll have to pay more attention next time to be sure, but I think they’re singing some variation of “holy shitballs!” > > I very much need to listen to that. Did you know that you can sing “Holy Shitballs” to the tune of the Halleluiah Chorus? “Sacramento” also works, but I don’t want to hear that nearly as much. It also works with _O Fotuna_, from _Carmina Burana_. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5589 "2023-10-11T01:36:15Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Does a TV commercial count as a “creative work?” I think it can, especially when it’s the iconic “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop” one. > > This commercial has been around since 1969, and gets revived every few years, so saying I’ve seen it a million times would only be a slight exaggeration. > > But just the other day, I noticed for the first time that as Mr. Owl is counting off the number of licks, he pronounces the second one as “T-_whooo_.” You know, like an owl. 🤦🏼‍♂️ > > (Just for fun, here’s the original full version, which you never get to see anymore:) > > [https://youtu.be/O6rHeD5x2tI?si=LEQLUJUXC2wS\_WIo](https://youtu.be/O6rHeD5x2tI?si=LEQLUJUXC2wS_WIo) They’re showing on Hulu all the time these days, and will probably pull it after everyone has bought. their trick-or-treat candy for the year. Funnily enough, it’s only this year that I’ve seen the part with the tortoise. ETA: and now, watching the original, I see that the one on Hulu only has the tortoise and the owl. And the kid’s disgusted grimace. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5590 "2023-10-13T21:35:37Z")
I don’t know how I managed to not realize this. I must have seen the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird” at least a dozen times. The young man playing Boo Radley is Bobby Duvall in his first movie role. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5591 "2023-10-13T21:43:06Z")
Yesterday I could hear I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues playing in the background while I was at work. At some point I noticed that the harmonica sounds an awful lot like Stevie Wonder. Checked wiki, it’s him. To the best of my knowledge, I wasn’t aware of that before yesterday, which is odd, since it’s so distinctly Stevie. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5592 "2023-10-14T01:26:08Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > The young man playing Boo Radley is Bobby Duvall in his first movie role. And the musician playing the piano in the opening of the movie to Elmer Bernstein’s score is John Williams. (not that you could have realized it without reading it somewhere) ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5593 "2023-10-15T01:02:32Z")
Gary Lewis’ song **Everybody Loves A Clown** is self-contradictory. _Everybody loves a clown, so why don’t you?_ It should be: Very nearly everybody loves a clown… or Many, if not most people love a clown… or Everybody would love a clown were it not for you… Discuss. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5594 "2023-10-15T04:59:03Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Gary Lewis’ song **Everybody Loves A Clown** is self-contradictory. I despise clowns. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5595 "2023-10-15T09:14:54Z")
lenny? ok thats a new one ---
**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:** [October 15, 2023, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5596 "2023-10-15T11:04:25Z")
Is that a nod to [Evelyn Glennie](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Glennie)? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5597 "2023-10-15T17:00:09Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > The Castaways’ Ballad is a shanty-type melody, but the song itself is (like it says on the tin) a ballad. Right. All shanties are in 6/8 time (feels like a ship rocking back and forth); the Gilligans’ Island theme is in 4/4. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2023, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5598 "2023-10-23T04:48:54Z")
I was watching _A Hard Day’s Night_ earlier, and Paul’s fictional grandfather is fair game as it’s a fictionalized version of the real Beatles, but there’s a line where he says, “Mom thought the travel would do him good.” Do they really have to make Paul pretend his mother is still alive for the sake of that character? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2023, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5599 "2023-10-23T11:03:05Z")
You must have missed this thread: > [@A question about A Hard Day's Night](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-a-hard-days-night/985637): > > I watched this the other night on TV, and something occurred to me for the first time: both John Lennon’s and Paul McCartney’s mothers are referred to in passing as if they were both still living, but as we know (I didn’t at the time I first watched the movie) they both had died, fairly recently (within the past ten years or so) and quite traumatically for both Lennon and McCartney. who were both close to their mothers. So why do you suppose they went along with the script as the rather insensi… ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2023, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5600 "2023-10-23T13:03:33Z")
I did indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2023, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5601 "2023-10-23T17:40:46Z")
The protagonist of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is Maxwell Edison. Edison always refers to Thomas Edison, but it took me to now to realize that Maxwell is the father of thermodynamics James Clerk Maxwell. So “Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine” is a giveaway that our merry murderer is not some gangland thug but the smartest guy around. But Joan isn’t. I never knew the first line until I just looked it up. “Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical science in the home” > 'Pataphysics is a “philosophy” of science invented by French writer Alfred Jarry intended to be a parody of science. Difficult to be simply defined or pinned down, it has been described as the “science of imaginary solutions”. Gobsmacked me. Who knew McCartney was capable of references this deep and apposite? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2023, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5602 "2023-10-23T18:00:18Z")
… also a nice sideswipe at the quality of home-based schooling… ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2023, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5603 "2023-10-23T18:27:16Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Gobsmacked me. Who knew McCartney was capable of references this deep and apposite? He’s a pretty well-read dude. “Jenny Wren” is a Dickens reference, and he managed to work a “peradventure” into the lyrics on the same album (_Chaos and Creation in the Backyard,_ an excellent record). ---
**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:** [October 23, 2023, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5604 "2023-10-23T19:22:24Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > …the father of thermodynamics James Clerk Maxwell. And perhaps more relevantly, the guy who developed the complete classical (including relativistic, decades before Einstein) description of electromagnetism. He deserves to be better remembered-- It’s a tragedy that the fourth-greatest physicist in all of history was eclipsed so soon after by the third-greatest. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2023, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5605 "2023-10-23T19:26:39Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > “Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical science in the home” TIL that the word is “pataphysical,” which I had never heard before today, not “metaphysical,” which is what I have heard since 1969. Yes, “metaphysical science” makes no sense, especially when connected with “test tubes,” but I thought that was just McCartney being whimsical. Of course, it doesn’t seem as though pataphysical science would have much need for test tubes, either. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2023, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5606 "2023-10-23T20:25:59Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The protagonist of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is Maxwell Edison. But how old is he? He is a student, apparently a college student, but being made to "_She tells Max to stay when the class has gone away_ _So he waits behind_ _Writing fifty times I must not be so, uh oh oh"_ sound liek High School os less? [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=279) [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=281)