# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/101 "2013-08-08T19:33:15Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > _Star Wars: A New Hope_: after the first proton torpedo exploded at the mouth of the exhaust shaft, why wasn’t the mouth a tangle of twisted wreckage when it was Luke’s turn? The proton torpedoes were using timed fuses, not impact warheads.[/fanwank] ---
**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:** [August 9, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/102 "2013-08-09T00:12:53Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > The proton torpedoes were using timed fuses, not impact warheads.[/fanwank] Unless I’m mis-remembering, they show a concussion rocking the interior of the station. They did say the emergency exhaust port was ray-shielded, meaning a surface explosion would do little damage, so I’ll go with that. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/103 "2013-08-09T00:38:26Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Exactly, it’s no different than the myriad of nightclubs (on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line) that hired Black entertainers without allow them in as guests. It was common, even in the South, for black entertainers to be hired as entertainment for all-white events. The Cotton Club (which refused to serve black patrons) is the most infamous case of this. In one extreme case, soul legend Soloman Burke even recalled playing a KKK function. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/104 "2013-08-09T00:41:01Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Would a Bizarro-Hulk be intelligent and eloquent? Yes, and Bruce Banner would be a stupid oaf who transformed into the big green guy whenever he got too happy. More of a comic book question than a movie, but since there has been a FF movie – Why does **Doctor** Reed Richards use the 'code name **Mister** Fantastic? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/105 "2013-08-09T00:44:20Z")
Because Dr. Doom vs Doctor Fantastic sounds like a WWF card, not a comic book battle. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/106 "2013-08-09T00:56:34Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Unless I’m mis-remembering, they show a concussion rocking the interior of the station. They did say the emergency exhaust port was ray-shielded, meaning a surface explosion would do little damage, so I’ll go with that. I found the scene on YouTube, and you’re right, there’s a big interior reaction to the near miss. So that’s my idea gone. However, check it out - go to exactly 11:34 in [this video.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pixL-g7YJm8) Right when Luke’s torpedoes go in, look to the left of the ventilation shaft, and you can see the scorch mark left by the previous attack run. Seems rather superficial damage, given the reaction of the people inside the Death Star when it hit, but it’s kind of cool that they remembered to put \*something \*there. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/107 "2013-08-09T01:06:58Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > They did say the emergency exhaust port was ray-shielded, meaning a surface explosion would do little damage. There’s a big difference (I would assume) between a “ray” and a torpedo. ---
**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:** [August 9, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/108 "2013-08-09T01:21:34Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > There’s a big difference (I would assume) between a “ray” and a torpedo. I was presuming that “ray” shielding would block explosions, just not an intact torpedo. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/109 "2013-08-09T01:40:59Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Would a Bizarro-Hulk be intelligent and eloquent? Depends on which incarnation of the Hulk. If it was created by bizarroing the “professor” version, certainly not! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/110 "2013-08-09T03:00:07Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > . . . Why does **Doctor** Reed Richards use the 'code name **Mister** Fantastic? He’s a surgeon? (A recent FF gave an origin for the phrase: Sue Storm, dating Reed Richards, was so impressed by him that she gave him that nickname in her mind. Years later, she bestowed it upon him as his superhero name.) ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/111 "2013-08-09T04:14:23Z")
You can spend hours trying to figure out how the Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres intersect. –On GA, Hooterville is just a hamlet. It’s far more substantial on PJ, with its own high school and movie theaters. So which is it? –With Granny’s love of the Confederacy (she still uses Confederate money) and other factors, the Hillbillies are clearly from the South. Yet the accents and scenery on the other two shows are clearly Midwestern. What gives? –The Hillbillies’ home area is so backward that possum is a major part of the diet and the movie theater still shows silent films. Yet both GA and PJ are far more modern. Are the Clampetts and their neighbors lazy or do they have mental issues? ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/112 "2013-08-09T08:52:27Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Would a Bizarro-Hulk be intelligent and eloquent? He would, of course, turn into [The Credible Hulk.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/7a9ba08d53b677d0afa44e57ce0492e7/tumblr_mjevdcgeTQ1r38hieo1_500.jpg) ---
**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:** [October 8, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/113 "2013-10-08T02:19:42Z")
What happens when you turn on an anti-gravity lift… in a rotating space station, where there’s no actual gravity? Or does General Relativity acceleration=gravity come into play? ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/114 "2013-10-08T10:58:15Z")
In the “George Reeves Superman”, was the janitor ever in the storeroom when Clark Kent changed clothes? Was there any criminal that Commissioner Gordon and Chief O’Hara could catch on Batman? Speaking of Batman, in one episode they know the Green Hornet and Kato are crime fighters, in a later one they don’t. Would Kato demolishing Robin have been more satisfying than spacing Wesley Crusher? ``` On Hogan's Heroes, I figure that in de nazification, Major Hocksetter's head rolls, General Burkhalter gets life imprisonment, Sgt Schultz returns to owning the Schatzi Toy Company and Klink marries Burkhalter's sister after being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, Victoria Cross and Order of Lenin to go with his promotion to Field Marshall. On "F Troop" how much did Wrangler Jane know about O'Rourke Enterprises? ``` ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/115 "2013-10-08T11:26:20Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > ``` > On Hogan's Heroes, I figure that in de nazification, Major Hocksetter's head rolls, General Burkhalter gets life imprisonment, Sgt Schultz returns to owning the Schatzi Toy Company and Klink marries Burkhalter's sister after being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, Victoria Cross and Order of Lenin to go with his promotion to Field Marshall. > > ``` Oh, no! After brief periods of incarceration, Hochstetter would be recruited by the OSS (and later the BND); Burkhalter would become a leading Heer figure in NATO; and Klink would go to work as Schultz’s gofer at the Schatzi Toy Company. Finally, after being raped over and over again by Russian troops, Gertrude Burkhalter would either commit suicide or follow Eleanor Roosevelt’s example and take a lesbian lover. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/116 "2013-10-08T18:47:11Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > In the “George Reeves Superman”, was the janitor ever in the storeroom when Clark Kent changed clothes? Of course not. Clark has x-ray vision. He scans the storeroom before he runs in. If the janitor’s inside, he goes into another one. > [@](#): > > On Hogan’s Heroes, I figure that in de nazification, Major Hocksetter’s head rolls, General Burkhalter gets life imprisonment, Sgt Schultz returns to owning the Schatzi Toy Company and Klink marries Burkhalter’s sister after being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, Victoria Cross and Order of Lenin to go with his promotion to Field Marshall. I’ve always thought that Klink was an Allied agent. Consciously and deliberately, that is, with higher clearance than Hogan; he knew about the Heroes’ activities. Hogan suspected this but wasn’t sure, and on the theory that secrets are best kept by keeping one’s damn mouth shut, did not voice his thoughts to his men. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/117 "2013-10-08T19:00:53Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > –With Granny’s love of the Confederacy (she still uses Confederate money) and other factors, the Hillbillies are clearly from the South. Yet the accents and scenery on the other two shows are clearly Midwestern. What gives? It looks like [at least part of the inspiration for Hooterville](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooterville#Location) (at least, as originally depicted in _Petticoat Junction_) was a town in rural Missouri, where the shows’ creator’s wife grew up. However, inconsistent references throughout the three shows suggest it might have been in Illinois or Kentucky (which would be more likely to support the Clampetts’ Confederate roots), among other places. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/118 "2013-10-08T20:59:45Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > It looks like [at least part of the inspiration for Hooterville](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooterville#Location) (at least, as originally depicted in _Petticoat Junction_) was a town in rural Missouri, where the shows’ creator’s wife grew up. However, inconsistent references throughout the three shows suggest it might have been in Illinois or Kentucky (which would be more likely to support the Clampetts’ Confederate roots), among other places. With the Clampetts, Granny said that she was originally from Tennessee, though the location where Jed found his oil was said to be in the Ozarks, probably southwestern Missouri. They said they were from the town of Bugtussle. There’s a real Bugtussle in Oklahoma, but they also frequently mentioned Taney County, Springfield, Joplin, Branson and Silver Dollar City which are all in SW Missouri and Eureka Springs, right over the border in NW Arkansas. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/119 "2013-10-08T21:23:11Z")
In the first episode _Person of Interest_, we learned that the Machine warns Mr. Finch of impending violent crimes without being detected by sending the smallest piece of useful information possible: the Social Security number of one of the people involved. First question: If the Machine can send a nine-digit number (4 bytes) without being detected, can’t it use just one bit to flag whether the person is the victim or the perpetrator? Second question: In the opening episode of the second season, we learn that the Machine doesn’t just send Finch a 4-byte number, it contacts him by pay phone and gives him the encoded number using a speech synthesizer. If it can send that much data without creating a noticeable blip, why can’t it just e-mail him the POI’s whole resume? It would take a lot less bandwidth. Third question: In the third season opener, the Machine has freed itself from government control, but is still sending Finch numbers. Since nobody is monitoring it anymore, and it’s supposed to be intelligent and self-aware, can’t it start sending him more useful data? ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/120 "2013-10-09T00:29:09Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > It looks like [at least part of the inspiration for Hooterville](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooterville#Location) (at least, as originally depicted in _Petticoat Junction_) was a town in rural Missouri, where the shows’ creator’s wife grew up. However, inconsistent references throughout the three shows suggest it might have been in Illinois or Kentucky (which would be more likely to support the Clampetts’ Confederate roots), among other places. Probably the most famous to come from Missouri was Harry Truman. His mother Martha Ellen Young Truman was a child during the Civil War with relatives in Confederate Army. She saw her family farm destroyed by Union Jayhawks in 1861 and later forced to move by General Order 11. She resented the Union army for the rest of her long life, with the rumour being she refused to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom, So Granny being a Confederate from Missouri is quite plausible > **[Martha Young Truman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Ellen_Young_Truman)** > > Martha Ellen Young Truman (November 25, 1852 – July 26, 1947) was the mother of U.S. president Harry Truman, the paternal grandmother of Margaret Truman, the maternal great-grandmother of Clifton Truman Daniel, and the mother-in-law of Bess Truman. > Martha Ellen Young was born in Jackson County, Missouri, on November 25, 1852, to Solomon Young, a successful farmer who also had a business running Conestoga wagon trains along the Overland Trail, and his wife Harriet Louisa Gregg. > In the American C... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401.md?page=7)