# Pop Culture Stuff Everyone Seems to Misunderstand **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2021, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564 "2021-04-22T19:51:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [April 23, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/41 "2021-04-23T05:04:02Z")
Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain”. People say “But the song IS about him!” as though they found some loophole but that’s _the whole point_. Any normal person would say “Wow, that guy sounds like a douche” but the subject would think “Hey, this song is about _me!_”. The fact that he’d recognize himself in the song is intentional to drive home how vain he is. If he wasn’t that vain, he’d be saying “Boy, glad I’m not _that_ guy…” ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/42 "2021-04-23T05:09:37Z")
I do not follow what you just said here. I did watch LOST. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/43 "2021-04-23T05:33:56Z")
Yes, on both counts. Altho Born in the USA has a rockin chorus, the words to the lyrics are not happy patriotic stuff. And I have to turn _Glory days_ off, it would depress a Hyena. Same with _Piano man._ ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/44 "2021-04-23T05:45:51Z")
Yeah, and Fawcett got sued by DC and handed over the rights to Captain Marvel/Shazam. DC, the dolts, let the Trademark on the name expire so Marvel snapped it up. That is the simplistic version of course. So DC can still call _him_ Captain Marvel, but not the comic book title. ianal. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/45 "2021-04-23T05:47:53Z")
Yep, a freaken judge ruled the Shazam was a Superman rip-off. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/46 "2021-04-23T05:49:32Z")
Alice- yes. Oz? She goes back. Labyrinth? Her friends come to her and start dancing. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/47 "2021-04-23T06:11:29Z")
If it can happen once, it can happen a second time. Alice goes back too. If not strictly a dream, it’s imagination and wishing. It’s fantasy in its stricter definition of being imaginary. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/48 "2021-04-23T07:53:10Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Wizard Of Oz, and Labyrinth are all dreams. They represent a young girl’s journey out of childhood. Same with Thelma the Unicorn, though maybe that’s a little obscure… ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/49 "2021-04-23T08:34:01Z")
M_A_S\*H was not really about the Korean War. My father never understood that. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2021, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/50 "2021-04-23T11:48:06Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yep, a freaken judge ruled the Shazam was a Superman rip-off. Not really. Fawcett had decided to get out of the comics biz and settled the case. Fawcett kept the trademark, but allowed it to lapse. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/51 "2021-04-23T11:51:46Z")
Spoilered just in case: In the last season of _Lost_, we the audience see scenes from some sort of alternate timeline, not a flashback or flash-forward, but a sort of “flash-sideways” where the plane never crashed on the Island, and the various characters are leading different lives, some of them _very_ different. Separately, the most popular fan theory since the first episode was that the characters had actually all died in the crash, and the Island was actually Purgatory. In the series finale, the characters all gather in a church, and we find out they were all in Purgatory, which would seem to confirm the most popular fan theory. Except that happened in the “_flash-sideways_” timeline. The “flash-sideways” timeline was actually a _flash-forward_ to after the characters had all died, years after leaving the Island, and _then_ went to Purgatory. Apparently, a lot of people got confused about all that, and thought the final scene in the church and the Purgatory reveal was referencing events on the Island. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/52 "2021-04-23T12:00:07Z")
Since this has tangentially come up: This guy: [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/82/Shazam_Captain_Marvel.png) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/82/Shazam_Captain_Marvel.png) isn’t named “Shazam”. His name is Captain Marvel. “SHAZAM” is the magic word Billy Batson says to turn into Captain Marvel. Except. Between the confusion between “Shazam” and “Captain Marvel” and the confusion between this “Captain Marvel” and Marvel Comics’ “Captain Marvel”, DC finally gave up about 10 years ago and just started officially calling him Shazam. So everyone who calls him “Shazam” misunderstands - his name is actually Captain Marvel. But everyone who calls out that misunderstanding and tries to correct it is also wrong - his name actually _is_ Shazam, now. I think DC has created a meta-recursive singularity of pop culture misunderstanding that will drag us all to our doom… ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/53 "2021-04-23T12:13:14Z")
Sinbad chuckles from the sidelines. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/54 "2021-04-23T12:25:48Z")
> [@Dark\_Sponge](#): > > Darth Vader was not lying to or trying to trick Luke. If he had joined Vader they really would have killed the Emperor together and then ruled the galaxy as father and son. Are there really people who didn’t get that? I never doubted that Vader was serious with that offer, and was obviously disappointed when Luke refused. I mean, in the first movie, Vader is the Ultimate bad-ass, no formal rank, but everyone we see on-screen knows better than to mess with him. Then, in ESB, we find out he’s not just an underling of the Emperor, he’s actually required to do that whole “Yes, my Master!” groveling on his knees business when talking to the Emperor. You know there’s no way that doesn’t grate on Vader’s nerves, but he’s stuck - he knows he can’t beat the Emp in a straight fight. Then, Lo! and behold, Vader finds Luke, and realizes that Luke can become powerful enough that together, they can defeat the Emperor. So why _wouldn’t_ Vader’s offer be honest? ---
**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:** [April 23, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/55 "2021-04-23T12:39:41Z")
Another song that people discussed a lot; Meatloaf’s _I Would Do Anything For Love_ The chorus has the lyrics “. . .I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that” and people kept asking “won’t do _what_?” He tells us _what_ in the preceding verses "_…But I’ll never forget the way you feel right now,_ _Oh no, no way."_ _"…But I’ll never forgive myself if we don’t go all the way_ _Tonight"_ “_…But I’ll never do it better then I do it with you_” Another one - and I don’t know if anyone misunderstands it, or if I’m even correct - but I’ve always taken the _Goldbergs_ to be Adam F. Goldberg intentionally showing us his childhood memories the way his preteen self saw them, as opposed to us taking all the zaniness at sitcom face value. I think, while we’re meant to laugh at his yenta mom, for instance, we’re also supposed to realize that he’s not trying to make us believe she was really like that; that’s just how he felt at the time. Sorry if that is already obvious to everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/56 "2021-04-23T12:57:35Z")
“You’re gorgeous” by James Blunt is actually a creepy song about seeing an ex on the underground. Not a real declaration of love. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/57 "2021-04-23T13:01:04Z")
> [@Smid](#): > > “You’re gorgeous” by James Blunt is actually a creepy song about seeing an ex on the underground. Not a real declaration of love. - \< nitpick \> Beautiful, nor gorgeous. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/58 "2021-04-23T13:05:18Z")
I’ve heard people talk about the Percy Sledge song “When a Man Loves a Woman” as one of the great romantic songs of all time. Is it? Look at some of the things that happen when a man loves a woman: “If she’s bad, he can’t see it” “Turn his back on his best friend” “Spend his very last dime” “Give up all his comforts and sleep out in the rain” “She can bring him such misery” “If she’s playing him for a fool, he’s the last one to know” Doesn’t sound like a positive view of love to me. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/59 "2021-04-23T13:06:20Z")
Most people think Woody Allen’s _A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy_ is a comedy. While there are certainly jokes, the main theme is that love is impossible. The characters are all absolutely desperate for a romantic connection and cannot find it. Plus the ending specifically indicates that finding love is just a (literal) fairy tale and indicates you have to die to find it. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/60 "2021-04-23T13:09:52Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > \< nitpick \> Beautiful, nor gorgeous. Not a nitpick, absolutely correct. I always get confused between You’re Beautiful by Blunt and the much much better You’re Gorgeous, by Babybird, which charted in UK but didn’t in the US. Because a better song. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564.md?page=4)