# Silly, weird, perhaps unanswerable questions about movies and TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401 "2013-03-31T03:09:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/441 "2024-11-09T15:24:25Z")
J. Wellington Wimpy: so perpetually broke that he’s constantly begging for (or stealing) hamburgers. So how exactly isn’t he a homeless vagrant dressed in cast-offs? Aside from the issue of food, how does he get by? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/442 "2024-11-09T15:40:50Z")
My guess; he’s a millionaire but is too cheap to buy his own hamburgers. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/443 "2024-11-09T16:21:57Z")
He would have been a millionaire but for a June bug. He had amassed a fortune, but bet it all on a mistaken sign from the Jeep. It’s all documented in the fantastic Popeye reprints. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/444 "2024-11-09T17:50:17Z")
Even so, how does Wimpy have a home to go to and a bed to sleep in if he’s that broke? ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/445 "2024-11-09T17:59:01Z")
He did have to bum a place to sleep a few times. I’m going by canon, not those execrable cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/446 "2024-11-09T18:14:43Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I’m going by canon, not those execrable cartoons. The 1960s King Features cartoons had their flaws, but unlike the Fleischer and Paramount/Famous cartoons they came straight from the official source and made a deal of effort to hew to the comic strip canon. They depicted Wimpy as perpetually dead broke, at times reduced to scavenging (one time he was going to eat the Whiffle Hen!). Yet he somehow manages to stay fat and to not wear torn or patched clothing like a vagrant. About the only thing I can come up with is that Wimpy is some sort of remittance man: some trust provides him living quarters, clothing, and what _should_ be a decent food budget; but gluttonous burgerholic Wimpy is constantly seeking more food. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/447 "2024-11-09T18:26:24Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > > > A tribe of cannibals has captured the hero and is preparing to cook him alive in a giant metal stewpot. Where did they get the stewpot? > > It was probably flown in by witches via broom. I mean, they use the same style of giant black cooking pot, it makes sense there’s a connection. Now I’m picturing a Monty Python-esque conversation about how witches on brooms can carry a cauldron. Do they have two of them flying side by side, holding the pot between them? Do witches migrate? Here’s a question I’ve wondered for years, may have posted here MANY years ago, but never received an answer: If someone is wheelchair-bound, and they get bitten by a zombie, do they get the ability to walk again? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/448 "2024-11-09T18:29:20Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > If someone is wheelchair-bound, and they get bitten by a zombie, do they get the ability to walk again? **HAW-HAW-HAW!!!** 🤣 This I think perfectly encapsules the logical contradictions of zombies. I guess the answer is, only if zombies are made possible by what amounts to magic or the supernatural turning corpses into externally animated puppets. Any kind of quasi-scientific explanation like a virus, forget it. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/449 "2024-11-09T18:31:58Z")
Are zombies smart enough to tell if someone is pretending to be a zombie? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/450 "2024-11-09T18:36:03Z")
Not in _Shaun of the Dead_. There’s an entire scene where they pretend to be zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/451 "2024-11-09T18:43:54Z")
And iirc in _The Walking Dead_ two survivors cover themselves in gore to look (and smell) dead. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/452 "2024-11-09T20:55:04Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Are zombies smart enough to tell if someone is pretending to be a zombie? That trick worked in The Mummy (1999) for Jonathan, assuming Imhotep’s chanters are zombies - at least of a sort. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/453 "2024-11-09T21:36:58Z")
Imhotep!! Imhotep! ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2024, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/454 "2024-11-10T03:38:19Z")
Not only that but in Rogue One…“He left a weakness so you can destroy the Death Star.” THATS a weakness??? It only worked cause Luke had a LOT of help. Including from the spirit world! ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2024, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/455 "2024-11-10T03:40:02Z")
I still don’t know in The Walking Dead if its: The Stand…with Zombies. Or is it a Romero type scenario? Which really shouldnt work, but has an outside chance I guess if everyone freaks out and just stops going to work. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2024, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/456 "2024-11-10T04:37:50Z")
> [@Pavelb1](#): > > I still don’t know in The Walking Dead if its: It is "we are the real monsters’. I thought everyone knew that. ---
**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 10, 2024, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/457 "2024-11-10T18:41:02Z")
In an issue of _Tomb of Dracula_ the resident joke character, who’s in a cast, gets turned into a vampire complete with cast. Why not? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/458 "2024-11-10T19:14:11Z")
> [@Pavelb1](#): > > I still don’t know in The Walking Dead if its: > > a Romero type scenario? Which really shouldnt work, but has an outside chance I guess if everyone freaks out and just stops going to work. I’m not sure I follow; how is a Romero type scenario about people not going to work? ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2024, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/459 "2024-11-10T19:19:20Z")
How would a Romero zombie outbreak destroy the world and leave only a few thousand survivors? Its certainly not gonna be cause those shamblers killed everyone. But if civilaztion broke down, like everyone freaking out and refusing to go to work, Then most of society would die. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2024, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/460 "2024-11-10T19:29:02Z")
I like _World War Z_ over _The Walking Dead_ precisely because _Z_ depicts the breakdown as being far more protracted; no, a guy who’s been in a coma for thirty days isn’t going to wake up to a post-apocalyptic wilderness. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401.md?page=24)