# 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:** 82
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2013, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1621 "2013-11-19T00:54:21Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Clairvoyant has head stolen : > > [http://postimg.org/image/6tdiedigj/](http://postimg.org/image/6tdiedigj/) > > [spoiler] His brain was used to clone Ozy’s alien > > [http://postimg.org/image/humdv1y2b/](http://postimg.org/image/humdv1y2b/) > > [/spoiler] Ozy also casually refers to “sensitives worldwide” – plus, if you take him seriously when he’s tape-recording that observation about Burroughs using the cut-up technique and shamans divining with goat innards, he seems to honestly believe that _ **he’s** _ just another practitioner in a long _picking-up-subliminal-hints-of-the-future_ tradition, emphasizing that he’s not mundanely trendspotting by way of rational analysis. (Note, too, that he apparently authored a book on the need to understand spiritual disciplines before discussing the power of dreaming and the subconscious – so he presumably believes his _anyone-can-do-this-stuff_ pitch encompasses psychic woo.) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1622 "2013-11-20T00:13:15Z")
Tanks. ---
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1623 "2013-11-20T12:56:56Z")
Just recently I noticed that Lois Griffin on “Family Guy” wears earrings. Thought it was something new until I saw reruns from past seasons where she was wearing them. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1624 "2013-11-22T20:30:29Z")
In _Django Unchained_, Schultz keeps his warrants and bounty notices in a \*cavity \*in the big plaster tooth on top of his dentist wagon. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1625 "2013-11-22T21:25:37Z")
> [@Battle\_Pope](#): > > In _The Searchers_, the young girl (Debbie) who gets kidnapped is most likely Ethans’ (John Waynes characters) daughter. :smack: Of course. Which is why, when he finally finds her, he says ‘Let’s go home’ - rather than ‘Let’s take you home’. They’re going home together. It is pretty obvious that John Wayne was in love with Debbie’s mother - I just hadn’t made the next leap. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1626 "2013-11-24T08:55:09Z")
My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic Twilight: The time that night and day meet.:smack: Sugarcube: A southern pony version of “sugar” ---
**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:** [November 24, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1627 "2013-11-24T15:14:31Z")
It’s apparently important in the movie that John Wayne’s character doesn’t spell out things that you can figure out. Partly this is because it fits his character to not be good at communication and partly it’s because the filmmakers were trying to get some ideas across that would make it harder to distribute the film in 1956. That’s probably why nobody specifically says that Wayne’s character is the Wood’s character’s father and why Wayne refuses to say that Pippa Scott’s character (Lucy) was raped. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1628 "2013-11-25T02:12:13Z")
In _Batman: Arkham City,_ the tallest building in the game is probably the Wayne Enterprises tower. (I say “probably” because it’s out of bounds, I haven’t played the sequel, and Wonder Tower is, because it’s much closer, larger from Batman’s perspective. But I digress). The defining feature of Wayne Tower is the giant W on it, with smaller letters “ENT” beneath. I’ve played through the game at least 15 times and didn’t realize until yesterday that the Wayne Tower is west of Arkham City. Easy to remember: Facing the giant W, you’re facing roughly west. (The two towers are north, and the Gotham City Bank tower is south). ---
**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 26, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1629 "2013-11-26T20:59:45Z")
I was just listening to my Christmas music internet radio station and the Muppets “Twelve Days of Christmas” came on. And I just realized…Gonzo has the third verse. His true love gave to him 3 French hens. His true love, Camilla the Chicken. She rented him 3 prostitutes (FRENCH hens) for a Christmas orgy! ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1630 "2013-11-27T02:46:23Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I was just listening to my Christmas music internet radio station and the Muppets “Twelve Days of Christmas” came on. And I just realized…Gonzo has the third verse. His true love gave to him 3 French hens. His true love, Camilla the Chicken. > > She rented him 3 prostitutes (FRENCH hens) for a Christmas orgy! That is so disturbing on so many levels! ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1631 "2013-11-27T07:51:13Z")
What an unusual thing for a girlfriend to do. (I think). ---
**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 27, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1632 "2013-11-27T13:30:23Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > What an unusual thing for a girlfriend to do. (I think). It’s Okay – they’re only felt. Gonzo can’t catch anything. Except clothes moths, maybe. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2013, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1633 "2013-11-27T14:21:06Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I was just listening to my Christmas music internet radio station and the Muppets “Twelve Days of Christmas” came on. And I just realized…Gonzo has the third verse. His true love gave to him 3 French hens. His true love, Camilla the Chicken. > > She rented him 3 prostitutes (FRENCH hens) for a Christmas orgy! Gonzo’s ho be pimpin’ it, yo. ---
**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 27, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1634 "2013-11-27T14:44:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’s Okay – they’re only felt. He certainly was THAT night! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1635 "2013-12-01T18:14:29Z")
Moments before Khan signals for Enterprise to surrender, Kirk undoes the front of his tunic, creating a white rectangle … a flag of surrender. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1636 "2013-12-03T13:17:14Z")
Don’t know if it’s obvious, and it’s certainly not intentional, but it might be the influence. A.E. van Vogt’s classic SF short story _Black Destroyer_ is, AFAIK, the first “alien loose on a space ship” story. as such, it probably inspired Jerome Bixby’s _It! The Terror from Beyond Space_, _Alien_, and other works\*. The alien, Coerl, is intelligent (more so than other aliens hitchhiking on space ships), and eats phosphorus extracted from its victims. It calls the phosphorus _id_, for some reason. Is it possible that speculating on an _Id_ monster inspired the beastie, and the very plot, for _Forbidden Planet_? The creature has been called I]The Id Monster\* by writers and critics for years (although not in the movie, nor, as far as I know, in the script). _Black Destroyer_ was a highly visible story because, after its magazine publication, it appeared in the hugely influential SF anthology _Adventures in Time and Space_ in 1946. This was the first major SF anthology, and it remained in print for years. several of the stories in it either inspired movies, or were closely related to them – Harry Bates’ _Farewell to the Master_ (“The Day the Earth Stood Still”), John Campbell’s _Who Goes There?_ (“The Thing”), Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore’s _The Twonky_ (“The Twonky”), Isaac Asimov’s _Nightfall_ (filmed twice under the same title, but really badly), the aforementioned van Vogt _The Black Destroyer_, which _must_ have influenced “It! The Terror from Beyond Space”, and Raymond F. Jones’ _Correspondence Course_ (which was not filmed, but has very nearly the same plot as his later story _The Alien Machine_, which formed the first part of the book “This Island Earth”, which was later filmed under that name. The Alien Machine/Correspondence Course part was the only part they got even approximately right in the film). Most of these films (excepting the Asimov adaptations) appeared in the 1950s, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the anthology hadn’t been batted around Hollywood as a possible source for movies. Moreover, van Vogt incorporated "Black Destroyer into his 1950 “fix up” novel _The Voyage of the Space Beagle_, giving it more visibility \*Van Vogt sued Universal for plagiarism over this. They settled out of court. Me, I think that Bixby had a better case (his story has a different plot altogether than Black Destroyer, but one very similar to Alien, right down to the killing-it-by-opening-the-airlock at the end. But Bixby never sued. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1637 "2013-12-07T04:21:17Z")
In Star Trek:TOS City on the Edge of Forever, the landing party does a really lousy job of searching for McCoy. Kirk and Spock are immediately distracted by the guardian, while Uhura, Scott and the others fail to look behind the big rocks right in front of them that Bones sas hiding behind. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1638 "2013-12-07T19:48:19Z")
The Swiss Family Robinson was shipwrecked. So was Robinson Crusoe. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1639 "2013-12-07T20:11:39Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > The Swiss Family Robinson was shipwrecked. So was Robinson Crusoe. This one’s particularly funny, because the only reason the word “Robinson” appears in the title is to tell the reader that the story is just like Robinson Crusoe, only with a Swiss family. In the original story, the family isn’t even named Robinson! In modern terms, it would be like making a movie that’s basically Lord of the Rings in space, and then literally calling it, _Lord of the Rings in Space_. Of course, pretty much all of the adaptations of the story have named the family the Robinsons, making it seem more like a not-very-subtle literary reference, and not brick-simple genre description it was originally intended as. ---
**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:** [December 8, 2013, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1640 "2013-12-08T07:42:58Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > This one’s particularly funny, because the only reason the word “Robinson” appears in the title is to tell the reader that the story is just like Robinson Crusoe, only with a Swiss family. In the original story, the family isn’t even named Robinson! In modern terms, it would be like making a movie that’s basically Lord of the Rings in space, and then literally calling it, _Lord of the Rings in Space_. > > Of course, pretty much all of the adaptations of the story have named the family the Robinsons, making it seem more like a not-very-subtle literary reference, and not brick-simple genre description it was originally intended as. I didn’t get the reference in Lost In Space until I saw the name of the Gold Key comic (and possibly the longest comic title of all time): “The Space Family Robinson is Lost in Space on Space Station One”. [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=81) [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=83)