Your analysis is certainly interesting and surprising. Few would have thought to analyze the matter in such a way. Some corrections, however:
(1) It is not the case that the absence of a consensus that the Droids’ use of “roger, roger” in Phantom Menace references Conrad’s use of the term on Apollo 12 is relevant either to a purported consensus that the Phantom Menace usage referenced Airplane!, or to any prior discussion in this thread at all.
(2) Neither you nor the staff member who penned the original implausible analysis of the use of the term “roger roger” in Phantom Menace present evidence that there is a consensus that the term references Airplane. The staff member did not even purport to present evidence, and you adduced one or two people who were reminded of Airplane by the phrasing. But that a few people on the web were reminded of one movie by another movie does not suggest that that there is a consensus that the second movie intentionally referenced the first.
Indeed, many propositions, no matter how absurd and no matter how few people hold them, are averred by a few people on the web or within some message board or other; this does not suggest there is a consensus as to the propositions.
(3) It is not the case that because the droids are presented as “slapstick” that their use of the term “roger roger” was intended to reference Airplane.
(4) In fact, there does not appear to be a consensus that Lucas referenced Airplane in Phantom Menace. My search found no evidence either of such a belief’s being widely held (or, for that matter, of any evidence to back up the belief).
[QUOTE=Airman Doors, USAF]
OK, let’s do a little experimentation with Google. Again, barring confirmation from George Lucas himself, we’re left to determine the consensus opinion. So let’s do it.
Searching “roger roger” “phantom menace” “conrad”, we have no results that would indicate that anybody thought it was a reference to anything that Pete Conrad said over the radio from space or on the pad.
Now, if we search “roger roger” “phantom menace” “pete conrad”, we get no results whatsoever. I think by now we can discount this theory, barring the confirmation from George Lucas.
So, onto what is asserted to be the consensus opinion: let’s search “roger roger” “phantom menace” “Airplane!”. The first hit notwithstanding (it is the staff report), there are numerous other people that thought the same thing. Like here:
…and here:
There’s more where that came from. But not a single person anywhere that I can find referenced Pete Conrad. That, to me, is a lead pipe lock, and the very definition of, a consensus.
I suppose you could ask George, but I don’t know that you’ll get an answer. So there it is.
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