# Really Clever Titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240 "2007-03-16T18:21:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/21 "2007-03-17T17:08:31Z")
I hesitate to mention some of the Xanth titles by Piers Anthony. Do these count as clever: Isle of View Centaur Aisle Crewel Lye Heaven Cent Up in a Heavel Faun & Games etc. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/22 "2007-03-17T18:07:56Z")
[QUOTE=Nature’s Call] Do these count as clever: [/QUOTE] No. No they don’t. ☹ ---
**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:** [March 17, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/23 "2007-03-17T18:56:57Z")
**Harpo Speaks!** is a great title for Harpo Marx’s autobiography. Similarly, **Flushed with Pride** works very well for a biography of Thomas Crapper (who did invent a form of flush toilet). **Amphigorey** is a great pun for collections of Eward Gorey’s work: “amphigory” means “nonsense writing.” I always thought one particular title for a B.C. collection was quite clever, but there were drawbacks: **Life is a Dollar Seventy-Five Cent Paperback (formerly Life is a Dollar Twenty-Five Cent Paperback (formerly Life is a Ninety-Five Cent Paperback (formerly Life is a Seventy-Fivey Cent Paperback))).** (I’ve probably left off an iteration or two. ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/24 "2007-03-17T20:09:27Z")
[QUOTE=Revedge] My favorite title is **Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?** [/QUOTE] I dislike that title for the reason that people count sheep to fall asleep, rather than dreaming about sheep while they are asleep. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/25 "2007-03-17T20:14:33Z")
Three which come quickly to mind: Michael Donner’s book on palindrones **I LOVE ME, VOL I** Gyles Brandreth’s book on words **The Joy of Lex** E. C. Bentley’s mystery **Trent’s Last Case** the title of which only has real meaning after you have read the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/26 "2007-03-17T20:25:17Z")
Okay, forget Xanth… 🙂 I wouldn’t argue that movie titles with numbers in place of letters (e.g. Numb3rs, Thir13en Ghosts) are clever. It did work for Se7en, kind of. But say what you will about the movie S1m0ne, the reference to binary digits was clever in a geeky sorta way. The documentary on the making of the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is called “Making the Earth Stand Still” The movie “Auto Focus” is a biopic about Bob Crane, star of Hogan’s Heroes. Without getting into details, the title is a double entendre on Crane’s interest in photography and his self-centeredness. ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/27 "2007-03-17T20:32:00Z")
Oh, and speaking of Weird Al, what about his rendition of “I’ve got my mind set on you” with the title (and complete lyrics) “This song’s just six words long” ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/28 "2007-03-17T20:41:23Z")
_ **Prick Up Your Ears** _, the biography of the randy gay iconoclast playwright Joe Orton, slyly suggests “prick up your arse.” And Orton’s own _ **What the Butler Saw** _ sounds like a clue to a mystery, but is in fact, in the end, a rude joke. (It should be noted that Orton’s lover and killer, Kenneth Halliwell, wrote most of his titles.) ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/29 "2007-03-17T21:38:43Z")
_The Mismeasure of Man_ by Stephen Jay Gould, a book about the misuse of science to support bigotry, is a multiple reference. It both refers to the old phrase “the measure of a man” and more subtly, it’s self disparaging because in a book about bigotry it refers to _all_ humans as _Man_. And yes, he did it on purpose. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/30 "2007-03-17T21:50:35Z")
[QUOTE=Nature’s Call] I wouldn’t argue that movie titles with numbers in place of letters (e.g. Numb3rs, Thir13en Ghosts) are clever. It did work for Se7en, kind of. But say what you will about the movie S1m0ne, the reference to binary digits was clever in a geeky sorta way. [/quote] What was actually clever was the use of \*\*Simone \*\* for the first artificial intelligence. Or rather Sim One. I once published “Basic Poem”: 10 Print “em po”; 20 Go to 10 Got a very nice word rate for it, too. Then there was **Ellison Wonderland** , a collection of Harlan Ellison’s stories. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/31 "2007-03-17T21:52:24Z")
The title for **Gattaca** , a movie about the future effects of DNA based technologies, uses only the letters that are used to symoblize the 4 nucleotide bases. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240/32 "2007-03-18T01:02:13Z")
[QUOTE=Marisa] Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” - the idea of creating one’s ideal mate from the Greek Myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. If you don’t know what I am referring to - it got turned into My Fair Lady the musical. [/QUOTE] Furthermore, “My Fair” sounds like the cockney pronunciation of Mayfair, an upper-class London neighborhood. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-clever-titles/396240.md?page=1)