# 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:** 337
**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:** [November 19, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6727 "2025-11-19T19:22:24Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > What others? **Blues Brothers 2000** **Fantasia 2000** ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6728 "2025-11-19T19:27:46Z")
I’m somewhat reluctant to include the many films post-1995 that used that because at that point it was closer to contemporary than futuristic. _ **Looking Backward: 2000–1887** _ published 1888 ---
**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:** [November 19, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6729 "2025-11-19T19:59:08Z")
**[Peanuts 2000](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/162584/peanuts-2000-by-charles-schulz/)** ---
**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:** [November 19, 2025, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6730 "2025-11-19T20:04:49Z")
Also William Wallace Cook’s 1903 **A Round Trip to the Year 2000**. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6731 "2025-11-19T21:16:57Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I learned this on a YouTube video: In The Wizard of Oz, Glinda asked Dorothy if she brought her broomstick with her I dont think that really happened. The Wizard did ask Dorothy to bring him the Wicked Witches broomstick. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6732 "2025-11-19T21:30:18Z")
Everything on YouTube is now an AI-generated lie. Trust nothing. ---
**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:** [November 19, 2025, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6733 "2025-11-19T22:34:48Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > It’s not only here, we’ve already passed it. Conan O’Brien started doing his “In the Year 2000” sketches in 1994, where the joke was that they were still treating 2000 as some distant future, instead of something that was right around the corner. In 6th grade, we were writing our own (very short) books for English class. A classmate was doing a science fiction story, and he was using me as a sort of impromptu science advisor. He wanted a far-future year to set his story in, and suggested 1990. I had to point out to him that that was next year. Then again, the Hugo and Nebula-winning Forever War had humanity exploring the Oort Cloud, discovering small black holes there, figuring out how to use those black holes to make an FTL drive, developing and implementing those drives into ships, and then using them to get ourselves into a war with aliens, all within five years after the publication of the book, so maybe my classmate didn’t do too poorly, after all. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6734 "2025-11-19T22:37:55Z")
The ultimate example of this was Cyril Kornbluth’s “The Rocket of 1955,” originally published in 1945. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6735 "2025-11-19T23:35:58Z")
[Obligatory Trope page:](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture) ---
**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:** [November 19, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6736 "2025-11-19T23:49:11Z")
> This trope has a close relative in [Next Sunday A.D.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NextSundayAD "/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NextSundayAD"), which is completely indistinguishable from the present, but claims to be happening in the future anyway ([Yes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging "/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging"), that [should be the other way around](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NonIndicativeName "/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NonIndicativeName"). No, it won’t be fixed.). ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6737 "2025-11-20T01:41:23Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I can’t remember when the Harry Potter books were written, but ‘2000’ used to be an indicator of the future; The Annals of Improbable Research used to have a section where readers could submit examples of superfluous “2000s”. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6738 "2025-11-20T03:56:04Z")
It very recently occurred to me that K.C. and the Sunshine Band’s " I’m Your Boogie Man" is a play on “boogeyman” This one is more of a “never noticed it”, but Don Henley has a song called ‘Johnny Can’t Read’. It’s not the biggest hit, but fans will know it. Anyway, at the end he references a bunch of pop references: _Sitcoms, t.&a._ _Johnny’s mind is blown away_ _Cop shows, horror flicks_ _Johnny’s brain is full of bricks_… and at the end he says what sounds like “woka woka”. Could Mr. Henley be referencing the honorable Fozzie Bear? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6739 "2025-11-20T10:08:56Z")
> [@digs](#): > > … and continued them after 2000, which I found hilarious. See also the song “Robots” by Flight of the Conchords. _The distant future, the year 2000_… [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2IPAOxrH7Ro/hqdefault.jpg "Flight of the Conchords-Robots") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPAOxrH7Ro) ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6740 "2025-11-20T15:57:57Z")
In 2004, The Jetsons travelled back from the “far future” of The Year 2000 to ask Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law to represent them. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6741 "2025-11-20T22:24:38Z")
Not really. “20 minutes into the future” has a world that’s very similar to the present, just with a few advances to specific technologies or the like. Forever War had a date that was very close to the present, but a world that was extremely different. ---
**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:** [November 22, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6742 "2025-11-22T19:45:09Z")
I’ve seen the original _Naked Gun_ movie probably close to 100 times (more if we count watching YouTube reactors reacting to it). It wasn’t until this year that I noticed, in the aftermath of Drebin’s attempt to “save the queen” by tackling her, winding up with him laying on top of her on a table with her legs up in the air (in a sexually suggestive manner), there are several newspaper articles about it, and each article features them in different poses (one has a picture suggestive of missionary position, one has her on top, and one has her on her stomach, with him draped over her from behind). The mostly SFW video can be seen [here](https://youtu.be/vZw8Xkoe2Q0?si=lxjj_zwz-iutTvC3). ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6743 "2025-11-22T20:40:39Z")
I’ve never seen that movie, but that’s hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6744 "2025-11-22T23:55:23Z")
“And they call that news!” ---
**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:** [November 23, 2025, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6745 "2025-11-23T14:32:59Z")
The headline on _Variety_ (the last paper) is NIX PIX SHPLIX QUEEN. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/6746 "2025-11-24T00:46:42Z")
In _Pinball Wizard_ by The Who, one of the lyrics is “I thought I was the Bally table king”. It dawned on me the other day that it uses a double meaning of “Bally” as a manufacturer of pinball machines, and “bally” as British slang (Merriam Webster says it’s euphemism for “bloody”). [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=336) [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=338)