# 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:** 42
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/821 "2010-11-23T19:02:43Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > [A rather blue shade of lavender](http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Floyd_Pepper). ([Here he is from the second episode](http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/File:102-12.jpg) just to prove his colouration wasn’t pinker in his earlier appearances.) > > He IS named for Pink Floyd (and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), but ‘pink’ is not nearly the word I’d use to describe his colouring. Another vote for pink. ---
**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:** [November 23, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/822 "2010-11-23T20:51:04Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It shows up in other Disney cartoons (look at _Peter Pan_, where Michael says it in the beginning). Just nitpicking…Michael actually just says “Ji-MI-ny!” when Peter starts flying. And there’s Wally Walrus (a Walter Lantz character, not Disney) with his pseudo-Swedish “Yumpin’ Yiminy!” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/823 "2010-11-23T20:58:36Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > Hell, how many people even know “jiminy crickets” is a substitution? I didn’t until I was an adult. How many people know “dickens” is altered from “devilkins”? “Dear me” from “Dio mio” (“My God” in Italian)? I never knew that last one until just now. I also didn’t realize that Judas Priest was anything other than a character in a Bob Dylan song until I heard Col. Blake use it as an oath on _M_A_S_H.\* ---
**Author:** ![Tess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/824 "2010-11-23T21:11:24Z")
I worked about four summers at an ice cream shop with vintage ads on the walls. There was one constantly in my line of sight for “Soda-licus” soft drinks. About a year after I stopped working I dropped by the place and suddenly realized the drinks were “so delicious.” :smack: I won’t tell you how long I watched Gunsmoke reruns before it clicked that Miss Kitty wasn’t just running a bar with a nearly all female staff. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/825 "2010-11-23T21:42:36Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > “Probably intentionally”? That’s an extraordinary claim. Have you anything to back that up? > > Collodi did use an unnamed cricket in his original story. You’d expect Disney to use a cutesy name derived from a common expression (and Disney altered the story almost beyond recognition, as well). Hell, how many people even know “jiminy crickets” is a substitution? I didn’t until I was an adult. How many people know “dickens” is altered from “devilkins”? “Dear me” from “Dio mio” (“My God” in Italian)? Before _Pinocchio_ was made, this was the only association with “Jiminy Cricket!” The phrase appears in the Disney’s first animated feature _Snow White_, when the dwarves discover Snow White asleep in their cabin, and was also uttered by Dorothy in the 1939 version of _The Wizard of Oz_, when the Wizard succeeded in scaring the bejeesuz out of the assembled company. It’s just the way it was used at the time, and (like “Jeepers Creepers!” etc.,) it would be understood by everyone that heard it as a polite euphemism in place of “Jesus Christ!” The substitution is a lot more obvious than “Gadzooks” or similar, because the oath that it stands in for is still in contemporary use. For me, it only clicked when I put the Disney _Pinocchio_ on for my daughter, and I heard the Blue Fairy going on about how J.C. was to be Pinocchio’s “High Lord of the knowledge of right and wrong, counselor in moments of temptation, and guide along the straight and narrow path.” When you consider these attributes, together with a name that had been used in place of “Jesus Christ” since the 19th century and was still commonly used this way, I think it would be more of a stretch to suggest that it was accidental rather than intentional. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/826 "2010-12-09T10:47:31Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > _Family Guy_ is set in the city of _Quahog_. Their watering hole is called _The Drunken Clam_. > > Only took me about a thousand episodes to put those two together. I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/827 "2010-12-09T12:29:25Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I don’t get it. A quahog is a type of clam, specially the largest variety of hard-shelled clams you can find off the shores of Rhode Island (and the rest of the east coast). How this is obvious to anyone who isn’t a clam fisherman is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/828 "2010-12-09T15:50:31Z")
I always assumed Quahog was a real place. I just looked it up, there’s a real Quahog county, but no town by that name. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/829 "2010-12-09T20:10:30Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > How this is obvious to anyone who isn’t a clam fisherman is beyond me. Well, I know what a quahog is, and I don’t live on the east coast. Nor do I enjoy eating crustaceans or bivalves, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/830 "2010-12-09T20:36:19Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Well, I know what a quahog is, and I don’t live on the east coast. Nor do I enjoy eating crustaceans or bivalves, for that matter. Well I didn’t and I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re the one in the minority. I don’t think it’s very common knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/831 "2010-12-09T20:37:59Z")
Well, at least now we have two points of anecdata instead of just one. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/832 "2010-12-09T20:43:34Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Well, at least now we have two points of anecdata instead of just one. 😃 Three. **Peter Morris** had no clue what “quahog” meant either. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/833 "2010-12-10T22:03:32Z")
What kind of a pig is that? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/834 "2010-12-10T22:15:04Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > What kind of a pig is that? > 😉 The one that is on the same farm as the geoducks that lay the eggs. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/835 "2010-12-10T22:32:49Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > The one that is on the same farm as the geoducks that lay the eggs. Clam up, you! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/836 "2010-12-10T23:01:45Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Well, I know what a quahog is, and I don’t live on the east coast. Nor do I enjoy eating crustaceans or bivalves, for that matter. Shot from Guns knew this, I do… wait, why do we Wisconsonians know from Quahogs (which I’ve always pronounced KO’hogs… assumed it was spelled Qu_ **o** _hogs)? I think I’ve always just known this… ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/837 "2010-12-11T00:02:20Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Well, at least now we have two points of anecdata instead of just one. 😃 Anecdata. Neat word. I wonder if I’ll ever get a chance to use it. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/838 "2010-12-11T02:48:58Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Anecdata. Neat word. I wonder if I’ll ever get a chance to use it. Wouldn’t the plural of Anecdotes be Anecd **O** ta? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/839 "2010-12-11T03:40:03Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > A quahog is a type of clam, specially the largest variety of hard-shelled clams you can find off the shores of Rhode Island (and the rest of the east coast). > > How this is obvious to anyone who isn’t a clam fisherman is beyond me. To be fair, the history of the town on the show involves a talking clam, and they make reference to it quite often - so the connection should be pretty obvious to fans of Family Guy. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/840 "2010-12-11T04:50:23Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Wouldn’t the plural of Anecdotes be Anecd **O** ta? Anecdata is “data” that’s more truthfully described as anecdotes. Anecdata can be useful, or it can turn into assvise and mansplaining. [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=41) [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=43)