# Untold Stories from fiction. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689 "2004-10-11T19:11:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/1 "2004-10-11T19:11:58Z")
Ispired by the Calvin and Hobbes “noodle incident” thread, I decided to start one about untold stories from tv, books, or whatever medium. These are stories that are referred to, but never told, usually because they’re more potent in our imagination. Example 1: _Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie_: we never get more than the title. This is how to do it right. Example 2: On the tv show _Growing Pains_, there were several references early on to “the goofy glue incident”. It was always said in such a way as to imply that the mere mention of it was all that was necessary for complete understanding, and to actually discuss it in any detail would be nigh unthinkable. Then they did an episode in which the incident itself was shown in flashback (the kids accidently glue a bunch of stuff together in the living room), as it’s being described to a visitor. Not a great one to begin with, but completely ruined by showing it. Example 3: On _LA Law_, a little nebbishy guy is found to be married to some four or five gorgeous women at once. It is discovered that his secret is a sexual technique called, “The Venus Butterfly”. He shares the technique with Arnie, and it then spreads throughout the men at the firm. We see the setup in the bedroom, and the afterglow of some very satisfied women, but the only hint as to the technique itself is that it requires room service. Classic, and perfectly done. Example 4: On _Ally McBeal_ Richard Fish had a sure-fire technique to please a woman, but they screwed up by actually describing and showing it (you caress a nerve cluster in the woman’s knee pit). It made for a nice visual gag, but took the power out of the joke. Let’s here some more untold stories, without or without explanations for what the real story might be. ---
**Author:** ![JerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@JerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerH)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/2 "2004-10-11T19:17:55Z")
Terry Pratchett has one he’s referenced in a few books. Basically, it’s something horrible happening to Mr. Hong when he opened the Three Jolly Luck Take-Out on Dagon Street the night of the full moon. It’s never explained exactly what happened, only that not much of Mr. Hong was ever found. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/3 "2004-10-11T19:28:37Z")
There was a reference in Sherlock Holmes to a case involving the Giant Rat of Sumatra which was never explained. Lois McMaster Bujold once had her charcter Miles Vorkosigan mention the Incendiary Cat Plot, which was supposed to be a historical event on his home planet, but no further details were given. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/4 "2004-10-11T19:56:45Z")
Night Court had a running joke where they only told the punch line “So the nun says, ‘$20, same as in town.’” Then everyone laughs, dispite the fact they may have heard it a few episodes back. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/5 "2004-10-11T19:57:45Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > There was a reference in Sherlock Holmes to a case involving the Giant Rat of Sumatra which was never explained. There were a few such unexplained mysteries hinted at in the Holmes canon; another involves a man who stepped back into his home to retrieve an umbrella and was never seen on earth again. In an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Worf was asked to explain why Klingons of Captain Kirk’s era don’t display the prominent forehead bumps that Klingons of Worf’s time do. Worf tersely replied, “We do not talk about it.” ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/6 "2004-10-11T20:10:23Z")
> [@Number Six](#): > > Example 2: On the tv show _Growing Pains_, [off topic] Have you seen the commercial for the upcoming **Growing Pains** reunion show? I don’t remember the air date/time, but I just saw an ad for it last night for the first time. [/off topic] ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/7 "2004-10-12T00:46:21Z")
**Picket Fences** had an episode about a male masseur who gave certain of his woman customers “the squiggle” – obviously sexual, but never explained. In Jerome Bixby’s classic story, “It’s a _Good_ Life,” several of the things that Anthony did were referred to and never explained; it was more chilling that way: > [@](#): > > McIntyre had been one of the ones who, at first, had wanted to try to get Anthony to make things the villagers needed, like clothes and canned goods and medical supplies and gasoline. Since then, he felt that what had happened to the whole Terrance family and Joe Kinney was his fault, and he worked hard trying to make it up to the rest of them. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/8 "2004-10-12T01:36:18Z")
Another case that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson mention briefly is “The Affair of the Aluminium Crutch, which very nearly cost us both our lives.” ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/9 "2004-10-12T01:39:46Z")
"The clown can stay, but the Ferengi in the gorilla suit has to go " ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/10 "2004-10-12T02:32:51Z")
The ginger beer trick in Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/11 "2004-10-12T03:37:49Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Night Court had a running joke where they only told the punch line “So the nun says, ‘$20, same as in town.’” Then everyone laughs, dispite the fact they may have heard it a few episodes back. You know, of course, that this is the punchline to a well-known joke, and its use as a catchphrase was just a way for the writers to (sort of) slip a dirty joke into the show. For those who may have a sensitive nature, I’ll put it in a spoiler box. [spoiler]An inexperienced young man from a rural parrish goes to the Big City for the first time and, while walking around, finds himself in the wrong part of town. He is taken aback when a young woman asks him, “Want a blow job? Twenty bucks.” He politely declines. A few blocks later, another woman says the same thing: “Want a blow job? Twenty bucks.” When he gets home, he goes to his church and asks a nun, “Sister Mary, what’s a blow job?” [Enter punchline here.][/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/12 "2004-10-12T03:49:48Z")
Beaten to the punch–I was going to say Sherlock Holmes! _sigh_ Tolkien alludes in FOTR to “the cats of Queen Beruthiel”; later on, in “Unfinished Tales”, he provides a brief outline, but the whole story is never fully told. I wish I could’ve heard that one. ---
**Author:** ![audreyayn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@audreyayn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audreyayn)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/13 "2004-10-13T15:46:53Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > The ginger beer trick in Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. No, we see them do the ginger beer trick. The trick is that you make them think they’re going to do some horrible torture with ginger beer in order to get them to fess up. They’re not alluding to a real torture (and if they were, it’d be obvious what it is since Vimes shoves ginger up an oxen’s rear at one point.) ---
**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:** [October 13, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/14 "2004-10-13T16:22:43Z")
George MacDonald Fraser has **filled** the _Flashman_ books with untold stories. A lot of us are going to be really cheesed if George kicks off before telling us what really happened to Flashman during the American Civil War, for instance. All we get are clues, and the knowledge that he served on both sides in a very high capacity. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/15 "2004-10-13T19:29:39Z")
I think you’re wrong, **audreyayn.** Vimes _fakes_ doing the ginger beer trick to scare 'em into cooperation. The _real_ ginger beer trick is never explained nor shown, but is implied to be horrific enough that the (false) impression of Vimes being cruel enough to do it is enough to scare even the strongest man. ---
**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:** [October 13, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/16 "2004-10-13T19:40:01Z")
It’s seriously implied that the “ginger beer trick” involves taking a highly carbonated bottle of ginger beer, shaking it violently, and then inserting it… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/17 "2004-10-13T20:07:34Z")
What about the real reason that the Prisoner resigned? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/18 "2004-10-13T21:16:18Z")
> [@JerH](#): > > Terry Pratchett has one he’s referenced in a few books. Basically, it’s something horrible happening to Mr. Hong when he opened the Three Jolly Luck Take-Out on Dagon Street the night of the full moon. It’s never explained exactly what happened, only that not much of Mr. Hong was ever found. Maybe the werewolves of Ankh-Morpork were looking for a big dish of Beef Chow-Mein? ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/19 "2004-10-13T21:16:33Z")
Where did the Harlequin get the jelly beans? Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689/20 "2004-10-13T21:45:25Z")
> [@JerH](#): > > Terry Pratchett has one he’s referenced in a few books. Basically, it’s something horrible happening to Mr. Hong when he opened the Three Jolly Luck Take-Out on Dagon Street the night of the full moon. It’s never explained exactly what happened, only that not much of Mr. Hong was ever found. He’s dropped a few more hints. It is significant that the Three Jolly Luck was a take-out _fish_place. There are also references to various recipes and songs favored by Nanny Ogg. Fans have contributed some suggested lyrics and there is a cookbook, but I think we still don’t exactly know what is in scumble, besides apples. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/untold-stories-from-fiction/268689.md?page=2)