# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/61 "2013-05-30T12:49:14Z")
> [@Hottius\_Maximus](#): > > Soap: Did Jessica die from the firing squad? She turned up in an episode of Benson to answer that question. Her body is alive, but comatose. Her spirit is an apprentice angel. ---
**Author:** ![slitterst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecc23a/32.png) [@slitterst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slitterst)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/62 "2013-05-30T13:55:25Z")
In Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, why does Qui Gonn try the Jedi Mind Trick on Wattoo? Shouldn’t part of learning the trick be learning what races are immune to it? ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/63 "2013-05-30T15:52:52Z")
> [@slitterst](#): > > In Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, why does Qui Gonn try the Jedi Mind Trick on Wattoo? Shouldn’t part of learning the trick be learning what races are immune to it? Ahem…puts on Star Wars nerd hat\* There are like tens of thousands of species inhabiting the SW universe making memorizing hard. Also in the Clone Wars show Wattoo’s species is revealed to be kinda xenophobic and isolationist, it is possible Wattoo is one of the few living on another planet making him unfamiliar to Qui Gon. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/64 "2013-06-01T01:09:24Z")
Also, it’s possible that even though it doesn’t work on most of a species, it might work on particularly weak minded specimens. No harm in trying. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/65 "2013-07-22T14:09:22Z")
In the original _Back to the Future_ how did an all white high school in the year 1955 allow a “colored” band to play at their prom? ---
**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:** [July 22, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/66 "2013-07-22T14:14:00Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > In the original _Back to the Future_ how did an all white high school in the year 1955 allow a “colored” band to play at their prom? It wasn’t a big deal back then. Well, not until Doc Brown went back and screwed things up in the 1880s. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/67 "2013-07-22T14:20:15Z")
It wasn’t a big deal in 1955? Either I’m being whooshed, or history is being rewritten. Segregation was de facto law back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/68 "2013-07-22T14:20:45Z")
How does Sargent Snorkel keeping ending up hanging by a tree over a cliff? ---
**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:** [July 22, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/69 "2013-07-22T14:24:01Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > It wasn’t a big deal in 1955? Either I’m being whooshed, or history is being rewritten. Either I’m being whooshed, or you missed my second sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/70 "2013-07-22T16:10:41Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > It wasn’t a big deal in 1955? Either I’m being whooshed, or history is being rewritten. Segregation was de facto law back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. So that means the school had no black janitors or lunch ladies? It was a hired band, not a bunch of students. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/71 "2013-07-22T16:25:04Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > How does Sargent Snorkel keeping ending up hanging by a tree over a cliff? They just green-screen him in. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/72 "2013-07-22T17:54:41Z")
> [@Hottius\_Maximus](#): > > The Big Sleep: Okay come on, WHO killed the chauffeur and why? I thought the little sister killed him while she was high on something. Or else that gambler guy killed him and framed the little sister, so that he would have control over Lauren Bacall’s character. Or something. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/73 "2013-07-23T17:02:45Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > In the original _Back to the Future_ how did an all white high school in the year 1955 allow a “colored” band to play at their prom? The school owned the band. It didn’t hire it. ---
**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:** [July 23, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/74 "2013-07-23T17:45:04Z")
Why would anyone NOT come out of warp/ hyperspace with their shields up? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/75 "2013-07-23T18:03:16Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > It wasn’t a big deal in 1955? Either I’m being whooshed, or history is being rewritten. Segregation was de facto law back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. Was that the case in Hill Valley, California? I always had the impression (could be flawed) that most of the segregation and Jim Crow laws were primarily Southern things, and really never were the case in the North and West. ---
**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:** [July 23, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/76 "2013-07-23T18:26:25Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > In Die Hard, the bad guys shoot out the office glass partitions, and Bruce leaves a bloody trail to the bathroom where he picks the glass out of his feet. Why didn’t they follow the blood? The real mystery of that scene is why a German bad guy speaking to a German bad guy needs to resort to English to get him to “shoot the glass.” > [@terentii](#): > > Two words: Deflector shields. I don’t think so. He explicitly states that the first proton torpedo “impacted on the surface.” ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/77 "2013-07-23T20:34:30Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Why would anyone NOT come out of warp/ hyperspace with their shields up? The usual justifications are power limitations or some handwave about the properties of hyperspace interfering with shields. For whatever reason, they have to drop into normal space in order to raise shields–though I would agree that it would be logical to do so as soon as possible every time, just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/78 "2013-07-23T20:38:42Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Was that the case in Hill Valley, California? > > I always had the impression (could be flawed) that most of the segregation and Jim Crow laws were primarily Southern things, and really never were the case in the North and West. Segregation wasn’t legal, but it was pretty much _de facto_. School integration didn’t start until 1954, and I remember racial riots in school in the late 1960’s. It wasn’t like someone snapped their fingers and VOILA–total integration. I do think a 1955 school would be lily white, except possibly for the cleaning and kitchen staffs. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/79 "2013-07-23T20:43:03Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Why would you become obsessed about whether your girlfriends breasts were real? If I had a girlfriend who looked like that I sure wouldn’t care. Certainly if you can’t tell yourself, you shouldn’t care. I mean, it’s not like it changes the taste. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > It wasn’t a big deal in 1955? Either I’m being whooshed, or history is being rewritten. Segregation was de facto law back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. The band were performers, not attendees. Would segregation prevent that? > [@Lumpy](#): > > Why would anyone NOT come out of warp/ hyperspace with their shields up? Because the physics won’t allow it? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/80 "2013-07-23T20:51:11Z")
> [@Hottius\_Maximus](#): > > And of course: where did Chuck Cunningham disappear to after that first season of “Happy Days” ended? He was drafted. Then caught the deads. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401.md?page=5)