# The moment you realize you aren't watching what you thought you were **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 28, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116 "2009-03-28T20:21:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pocito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@Pocito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pocito)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/41 "2009-03-30T17:09:33Z")
One afternoon in college, I settled down in my dorm room to watch the campus-sponsored movie channel’s showing of American History X with Edward Norton. I was so befuddled by the plot and kept waiting for the white supremacists to show up. When I met up with some friends later in the lunchroom, I just kept blathering on about how the movie wasn’t how I expected it to be _at all!_ “And what in the hell was with all the zoot suits?” That’s when it must have clicked for my friends, who gently explained to me that I was watching X (the biopic of Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington)…not quite the same. How I never realized this through the WHOLE movie, I’ll never know. I will state that I was pretty sleep deprived at the time. ---
**Author:** ![cmosdes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cmosdes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmosdes)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/42 "2009-03-30T17:59:03Z")
> [@Drygon](#): > > My dad kept reminding my mom that she showed pornography to her 16, 14 and 11 year olds for the next year at least. Your mom enjoyed watching your reaction to porn so much that she kept showing it for at least the next year? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/43 "2009-03-30T18:59:23Z")
I rented **The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy** from Netflix. Took me a while to realize I was watching the BBC one from the 80’s. I remember popping it in and thinking “wow - this is some seriuosly old school credit sequence”…followed by “these F/X are terrible…” Finally dawned on me, and I actually really enjoyed it. Then I rented the rest of the miniseries, enjoyed all of them, and hated the remake when I finally got around to it. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/44 "2009-03-30T19:27:13Z")
I watched Boston Legal nine times before I realized it wasn’t a new Star Trek. ---
**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:** [March 30, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/45 "2009-03-30T20:02:35Z")
I was at my grandmother’s house once, when I was a kid. I was looking through the TV guide for something to watch, and saw that _Meatballs_ had started about fifteen minutes ago. I hadn’t seen it, but heard it was funny, and I really liked Bill Murray, so I switched over to it. Bunch of teenagers at a summer camp. No sign of Bill Murray. It’s not very funny, either. Hey, cool, she’s taking off her shirt - I love cable TV, and HOLY SHIT, THEY JUST TOTALLY KILLED THAT GIRL! Turned out TV Guide had misprinted the schedule, and I was watching _Friday the 13th_. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/46 "2009-03-30T21:47:21Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > Years ago (pre-cable) I was checking the TV schedule and saw that one of the stations was going to be showing the original “Lost Horizon” with Ronald Colman. However, it turned out to be the musical remake with George C. Scott. Okay, I want to know which actor you’ve got mixed up with George C. Scott–Peter Finch, Michael York, or Liv Ullman?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/47 "2009-03-30T21:50:06Z")
When _Galaxy Quest_ hit the theaters, I went to see it with one of my sisters and her boys. We got separated in the multiplex and I forgot which way to go so I went looking for the right marquee card and found it. Or so I thougt. The movie had just started when I went inside and looked around the audience for them. Didn’t see 'em but it was pretty packed in there so I figured we’d meet up at the end. So I found one of the few empty seats and settled in for the show. And watched some search party tromping around a field. Then I heard some names that I recognized from a book I had read. I had wandered into _The Green Mile_. ---
**Author:** ![cuberdon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/45deac/32.png) [@cuberdon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuberdon)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/48 "2009-03-30T23:45:37Z")
Not exactly on-topic, but for my 8th birthday, in 1976, my Mom took me and a bunch of my friends, all little suburban girls, to the matinee. She didn’t check in advance what the film was, but assumed it was something like Bambi. She had not asked any of the other mothers to help supervise, but was watching us all, eight or so, herself. So we get to the theatre, and the matinee isn’t Bambi. It’s Jaws. And yes, we all went in and watched it. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/49 "2009-03-31T00:04:15Z")
My college girlfriend’s mother really liked Nicholas Cage in _Honeymoon in Vegas_, so she was really excited to go see him in the sequel, _Leaving Las Vegas_. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/50 "2009-03-31T00:30:15Z")
I went to see _A History of Violence_ on a whim; I’d read very little about it (on purpose, as usual), read that it was worth seeing but didn’t really remember exactly what it was about before I got to the theatre. At some point I had decided that, though it wasn’t a documentary, it was going to be something along the the lines of . . . . _a history of violence_. It was and it wasn’t but definitely not in the way I was anticipating. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/51 "2009-03-31T01:06:31Z")
[Urbania.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182508/) Observe the tagline: “Heard any good stories lately?” Consider the plot summary: > [@](#): > > Charlie takes an odyssey through grief during a fall weekend in New York City. His encounters are planned and chance: with a homeless man who sleeps by his building, with a friend who’s dying, with the couple who lives (and noisily loves) in the flat above him, with a bartender and a one-night-stand he follows home, and with a tattooed stranger whom he seeks out and befriends. Along the way, Charlie inhabits a city full of moments of violence and of stories and legends: a kidney thief, a microwaved poodle, a rat in a hot dog bun, a baby left on a car top, a tourist’s toothbrush, needles in public-phone change slots. Charlie lives and tells his own stories. What caused his melancholy? Notice how the above summary tends to emphasize the intriguing conceit of a narrative based on urban legends. Notice also how the above summary tends not to mention the explicit gay sexual content in any way. I have never stopped blaming my college roommate for suggesting that we see this film. Meanwhile, he has never stopped blaming me for suggesting that we see this film. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/52 "2009-03-31T02:02:06Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > When I was 11 and enjoying my summer vacation Dad came home from work and announced that the family was going out to see a movie. Odd, Dad never goes to the movies. > “What movie?” > > “A guy at work said it was really good. It’s about archeologists look for the Lost Ark.” > > “What? Some scholarly types looking for Noah’s ark?:rolleyes:” (me picturing an overly long documentary by National Geographic) > > “No, the ark of the covenant. It’s got the pieces of the 10 commandments in it.” > > “Aww man, that sounds even more boring if that’s possible. I don’t want to go.” > > “Too bad. We’re going as a family.” > > So sourpuss 11 year-old me gets dragged to a movie I did NOT want to see. > Movie starts and Indiana Jones barely makes it out of booby trapped temple. > Me: :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: AWESOME!! > I couldn’t stop talking about it all summer. A similar thing happened to me as an eight-year old kid. I got told the whole family was going to see a movie one summer. We’d seen another movie the week before (_Orca_, IIRC), and it had a bunch of boring previews, including one about Hollywood stars or something. So that being said, when I was told what movie everyone was going to see, I promptly replied that I didn’t want to go. “You’ll love it!,” I was told. “It has space ships and stuff!” So I went, reluctantly, to see _Star Wars_ for the first time. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/53 "2009-03-31T03:31:20Z")
I remember shortly after reading **Lord of the Rings** for the first time, talking about it with some casual acquaintance. “Oh yes I loved that book!” she said “… and that poor little Piggy!” … cue to me franticly trawling through my memory of the hundreds of characters and animals in LotR - orcs, wolves, worgs, eagles … nope, not coming up with any pigs. After a very confusing conversation it turned out she’d actually read **Lord of the Flies**. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/54 "2009-03-31T13:20:16Z")
> [@Dr.Rieux](#): > > Okay, I want to know which actor you’ve got mixed up with George C. Scott–Peter Finch, Michael York, or Liv Ullman?😃 :smack: Damned if I know…although I doubt it was Liv Ullman. I have no idea why I thought George C Scott was in it. Except for that one time, and I only watched it long enough to realize I wasn’t watching the original I’ve never seen the musical version…but I’ve heard it was truly wretched. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116/55 "2009-03-31T14:22:28Z")
> [@Drygon](#): > > About 10 years ago my mom worked at the local library and they started collecting movies to **rend**. Wow, that’s a hardcore book-lover! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-you-realize-you-arent-watching-what-you-thought-you-were/491116.md?page=2)