# Titles contradicted by premise **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 18, 2008, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254 "2008-11-18T05:16:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/21 "2008-11-18T20:25:11Z")
> [@Jelly\_Roll](#): > > There isn’t a prison in sight (anymore) on _Prison Break_. It was funny, I turned on the TV last night and thought I was seeing _Heroes_, but turns out it was _Prison Break_. Just like you said, where’s the prison? ---
**Author:** ![cmosdes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cmosdes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmosdes)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/22 "2008-11-18T20:25:54Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **House** is not about buildings. Does that really contradict the premise? The show is, ostensibly, about a guy named House. How is that a contradiction? I mean I can see your point if they named the show “LA Law” or something. Do you feel the title “Seinfeld” contradicts the premise of that show as well? ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/23 "2008-11-18T20:26:31Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > **Everybody Loves Raymond** - No they don’t, including me. I don’t think everyone on the show loves him either. Exactly. I reject the show based on the title alone! Don’t tell me who I love. 😃 ---
**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:** [November 18, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/24 "2008-11-18T20:31:43Z")
The entire [Friday the 13th](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080761/) franchise. Has the date ever even been _mentioned_ in any of those movies? Or the TV series? ---
**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:** [November 18, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/25 "2008-11-18T20:36:02Z")
Life on Mars. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/26 "2008-11-18T20:51:29Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > [The PTA Disbands](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PTA_Disbands#Production) The guy shouting “The PTA has disbanded” and throwing himself through the window is my all-time favorite Simpsons moment. Our family often shrieks the phrase to communicate any sort of panic. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/27 "2008-11-18T22:43:04Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > 102 min (94 for International version) according to [IMDB.com](http://IMDB.com). Hardly “neverending.” 😉 But they tried! There was a crappy sequel, an even _crappier_ sequel, and then an _even more crappier_ TV series. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2008, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/28 "2008-11-18T23:02:48Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Exactly. I reject the show based on the title alone! Don’t tell me who I love. 😃 Except that \*Everybody Loves Raymond \*is Robert’s bitter, ironic commentary on the situation. ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/29 "2008-11-19T01:24:59Z")
[_The Naked Chef_](http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-naked-chef/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/30 "2008-11-19T07:40:29Z")
**Mission: Impossible.** Hey! If it’s imposssible, how come you are doing it anyway? Liars! **How I met your mother:** More like “(Everything but) How I met your mother”. Am I right? Am I right? Internet five! Yeah. **Knight Rider:** No knighthood ever given to the main chatracter, and he’s a “driver”. \*\*Reaper: \*\*No. Demon Hunter? Sure. Satan’s minion? Okay. But if you don’t have a scythe and go around finishing the elder and the infirm, you are not a damn Reaper. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/31 "2008-11-19T07:47:19Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **Two and a Half Men** isn’t about a magic act gone bad. The title is probably the cleverest thing about the whole show. At first glance, Jake is the half-man because he’s still a boy. Then it becomes apparent that Alan is the half-man because of just how thoroughly his ex-wife emasculated him. Then we see how Charlie is the half-man because he’s incapable of an adult level of emotion or responsibility. Mind you, a less contradictory title would be Three Half-Men. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/32 "2008-11-19T08:28:37Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Law & Order has little to do with law and nothing to do with order. The second spinoff, _Criminal Intent_, doesn’t even seem inclined to pay lip service to the “law” part. The original assistant district attorney left after the fifth season, his replacement barely made a peep during the subsequent season, and then the people in charge seemingly decided that it was just a cop show. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/33 "2008-11-19T08:44:21Z")
“Snakes on a Plane” should be “Snakes and People on a Plane”–if it was just snakes, they’d never get it off the ground because they have no hands to move all the levers and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/34 "2008-11-19T09:26:36Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > {ObSimpsons} > > “_Naked Lunch_. I can think of two things wrong with that title!” > > {/ObSimpsons} If only that movie had featured some **Duck Soup** :smack: Also, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Lion in Winter all lacked titular critters. Shouldn’t Nova be renamed Redux when it’s a re-run? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/35 "2008-11-19T09:29:43Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > “Snakes on a Plane” should be “Snakes and People on a Plane”–if it was just snakes, they’d never get it off the ground because they have no hands to move all the levers and stuff. And they should have mentioned it was an airplane. I was expecting euclidian. ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/36 "2008-11-19T11:43:53Z")
I know I’m going to get flamed for this but: Star Trek. Only 50% accurate at best. From [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trek](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trek) trek (trk) intr.v. trekked, trek·king, treks 1. To make a slow or arduous journey. 2. To journey on foot, especially to hike through mountainous areas. 3. South African To travel by ox wagon. n. 4. A journey or leg of a journey, especially when slow or difficult. 5. South African A journey by ox wagon, especially a migration such as that of the Boers from 1835 to 1837. With the exception of Voyager, nothing in the Trek Universe is “slow and arduous” they seem to cross entire sections of the galaxy in very short stretches of time. Even if it were somehow possible to trek in space, the episodes would be amazingly dull. “Captain, we’re needed on Alpha Centuri”, “Better set off now then Mr Spock, it’ll take 50,000 years to get there”. Cue tumbleweed. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/37 "2008-11-19T12:05:33Z")
I’d have to say there’s a pretty damn loose interpretation of the word “celebrity” in “Celebrity Rehab”. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/38 "2008-11-19T12:48:50Z")
Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s song “I Believe in Father Christmas” has a rather misleading title. It’s NOT a cheery holiday song, but a very cynical, bitter song that makes it very clear that the singer does NOT believe in Santa Claus, or God, or anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/39 "2008-11-19T14:07:48Z")
Ugly Betty. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254/40 "2008-11-19T14:27:47Z")
Someone once claimed that Dancing with the Stars should really be “Dancing” “with” “the” “Stars”, given the quality of the dancing done by the stars and the low levels of stardom many of the stars have (and the tendency of some of the pro dancers to dance around or near their stars, and the fact that if these were big stars, it’s certainly not all the stars . . . ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-contradicted-by-premise/473254.md?page=3)