# Subtle jokes from movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372 "2018-06-03T21:03:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/61 "2018-06-06T20:44:55Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The farmer who owned the two pines was named Peabody, as listed on the mailbox. His son was Sherman. Peabody and Sherman were also famous time travelers. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/62 "2018-06-06T20:57:10Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Looking for subtle jokes from Airplane? Surely you can’t be serious. I must admit, one of the jokes in the movie was so subtle that I didn’t get it for years. > [@](#): > > Ted Striker: I flew single engine fighters in the Air Force, but this plane has four engines. It’s an entirely different kind of flying, altogether. > > Rumack, Randy: [together] It’s an entirely different kind of flying. ---
**Author:** ![Trisha\_Gaurav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@Trisha\_Gaurav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trisha_Gaurav)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/63 "2018-06-07T02:02:50Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > I must admit, one of the jokes in the movie was so subtle that I didn’t get it for years. Now I’m curious. What was it? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/64 "2018-06-07T02:05:41Z")
> [@Trisha\_Gaurav](#): > > Now I’m curious. What was it? It was a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/65 "2018-06-07T02:17:14Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > It was a movie. But that’s not important right now. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/66 "2018-06-07T02:24:09Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > But that’s not important right now. That was not a subtle joke from a subtle movie. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/67 "2018-06-07T17:28:43Z")
> [@Trisha\_Gaurav](#): > > Now I’m curious. What was it? I’m not that poster, but did watch Airplane! this last weekend. I did not get why the spear hit the bulletin board or why the watermelon dropped and hit the desk, both in the same scene. I read online the directors were also disappointed those two gags got no laughs. But…what was the joke(s)? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/68 "2018-06-07T17:55:43Z")
Striker: It’s a totally different kind of flying altogether! Everyone in the cockpit all together: It’s a totally different kind of flying ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/69 "2018-06-07T19:07:44Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I’m not that poster, but did watch Airplane! this last weekend. > > I did not get why the spear hit the bulletin board or why the watermelon dropped and hit the desk, both in the same scene. > > I read online the directors were also disappointed those two gags got no laughs. > > But…what was the joke(s)? I always assumed that the watermelon splatting down (right after Llloyd Bridges says "You’ll have to talk them right down TO THE GROUND!) is not only adding emphasis to his speech, but also showing you what could happen if they were NOT properly talked down (so it’s funny because it shows the opposite of what you want to have happen – SPLAT!) If you don’t get it, you were either being too literal or your mind just doesn’t work that way. You want subtle watermelon jokes in movies? Try **the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai** , where they go into a lab. There’s a watermelon sitting there and one of Buckaroo’s troupe asks “What’s that watermelon doing there?” Nobody answers him. Ever. “I’ll tell you later,” someone tells him, but doesn’t. I personally don’t think there ever was supposed to be an explanation – that it’s a joke so subtle that NO ONE got it, not unlike many _New Yorker_ cartoons\*. But they actually did give out a supposed reason, after people started asking: > **[The Real Reason For the Watermelon in BUCKAROO BANZAI \[Movies\] - The Geek Twins](https://www.thegeektwins.com/2014/02/the-real-reason-for-watermelon-in.html)** > > Source: YouTube It’s a question that has persisted since the premiere of the awesome cult classic, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension. In the middle of a tense battle scene, when the aliens are prowling the complex, and... \*motto: Cartoons so sophisticated it’s not funny. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2018, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/70 "2018-06-10T13:23:45Z")
Pixar’s _Cars_ named the story’s racing series “The Piston Cup” that nobody bats and eye at until Mater asks “Piston (pissed in) what!?” ---
**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:** [June 10, 2018, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/71 "2018-06-10T14:28:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Cartoons so sophisticated it’s not funny. [![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S9-D4zHi5WI/UBm4Tz1wVLI/AAAAAAAAPI4/U5-eeuJAVQc/s400/120709_cn-dissect-gossamera_p465.jpg) ](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S9-D4zHi5WI/UBm4Tz1wVLI/AAAAAAAAPI4/U5-eeuJAVQc/s400/120709_cn-dissect-gossamera_p465.jpg) ---
**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:** [June 10, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372/72 "2018-06-10T14:46:46Z")
In _ **The Producers** _ (1968), \*The name “Rudolfo” that the “hold me, touch me” lady (Estelle Winwood) gives to Bialystock (Zero Mostel), when they are playing “The Contessa and the Chauffeur” at the beginning is also the name of the chauffeur Bialystock hired after he and Bloom raised the money for the play. \* I must have seen the movie at least ten times before I caught this detail! :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subtle-jokes-from-movies/815372.md?page=3)