# What the...? It's Groundhog Day again! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 2, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350 "2010-02-02T06:37:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/261 "2017-02-03T14:00:13Z")
Today is tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/262 "2017-02-03T16:25:21Z")
I can’t remember if this has been brought up before… What if every day he repeats…continues. That every day is a branch into a new parallel universe, so to speak, that doesn’t end at midnight. So every time Phil kills himself, he stays dead forever in that universe, and every day he gets arrested, he stays arrested. And in jail he laments, “well, at least I got out.” But he doesn’t. He’s still trapped, endlessly (maybe forever! even after the movie ends) creating new universes. So he gets to repeat the same day, AND be sent to prison for all the failed armored car robberies where he got caught, AND be dead. And somewhere in the distance, [del]the devil[/del] Ned Ryerson cackles maniacally. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/263 "2017-02-03T18:21:36Z")
I always thought it was going to be quite the shock when he exits Purgatory and gets hit with the bills for all that insurance he bought from Needle Nose. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/264 "2017-02-03T21:34:46Z")
I dated your sister Mary Pat until you told me not to. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/265 "2017-02-08T04:21:10Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I can’t remember if this has been brought up before… > > What if every day he repeats…continues. That every day is a branch into a new parallel universe, so to speak, that doesn’t end at midnight. So every time Phil kills himself, he stays dead forever in that universe, and every day he gets arrested, he stays arrested. > > And in jail he laments, “well, at least I got out.” But he doesn’t. He’s still trapped, endlessly (maybe forever! even after the movie ends) creating new universes. So he gets to repeat the same day, AND be sent to prison for all the failed armored car robberies where he got caught, AND be dead. > > And somewhere in the distance, [del]the devil[/del] Ned Ryerson cackles maniacally. This ends up asking the same kind of question as in The Prestige. What exactly does it mean when there are multiple copies of you that branch off? At the branching point, each has the same set of memories, etc, and so neither individual has any more of a claim to be the “real” copy than another; even if one stays in the same place, the one that’s created elsewhere feels as though he was just transported there. The same thing is sorta explored in some Ahnold movie (The 6th day?), although there it ends up being clear which one the copy is. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/266 "2017-02-08T04:33:46Z")
I’m going to pat myself on the back and tell you that I wrote the definitive article on earlier Groundhog Day-like scenarios, if anyone is interested. [The First Groundhog Day Was Christmas](http://www.flyingcarsandfoodpills.com/the-first-groundhog-day-was-christm) traces the theme, with slight variations, all the way back to the 19th century. AFAIK, it’s the first time all the stories have been mentioned in one article. I didn’t know any of this stuff before started researching. (What I found will surprise you. Especially #4! Isn’t it always #4?) It’s a weird history, appropriately full of odd repetition and overlap. If not a movie, then a good hour-long tv documentary can be made from it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/267 "2017-02-08T20:23:23Z")
“Babe! I got you, babe! I got you, babe…!” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/268 "2017-03-18T03:53:34Z")
A nice NYT article on the making of the film - interesting to see Phil and Rita with a pizza on the bed; that didn’t make it into the final cut: [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/movies/bill-murray-groundhog-day-oral-history.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/movies/bill-murray-groundhog-day-oral-history.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/269 "2017-03-19T16:28:52Z")
Some more GD behind-the-scenes trivia: [http://www.pref.com/a/28-little-known-facts-about-the-movie-groundhog-day-bill-murray-did-what/p-1](http://www.pref.com/a/28-little-known-facts-about-the-movie-groundhog-day-bill-murray-did-what/p-1) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/270 "2017-03-20T14:08:19Z")
A very personal reaction to the movie - worth a read: [Reliving 'Groundhog Day' - The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/03/reliving-groundhog-day/309223/) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/271 "2018-02-02T14:17:37Z")
“Babe! I got you, babe! I got you, babe…!” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/272 "2018-02-02T15:16:25Z")
Has anyone seen where **Elendil’s Heir** went with my toaster? And…oh, the fuses have just blown… ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/273 "2018-02-02T15:45:32Z")
What gets me about the movie is that not once, in all those hundreds? thousands? of Groundhog Days, we never once see Bill Murray’s character try to stay up and still be awake when the clock flips from 5:59 to 6:00 the next morning. He stays up past midnight once, and nothing happens. But his takeaway from that is presumably “staying up until the next day doesn’t do anything” rather than “maybe I didn’t stay up until it’s really tomorrow.” ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/274 "2018-02-02T16:08:05Z")
I presume it makes no difference. That is, for example, the night we see him thrown in jail, it’s likely he’s awake at 6:00 am. Yet he “wakes up” in bed. So regardless of what he is doing at 5:59:59.999… , he has the sensation of “waking up” at 6. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/275 "2018-02-02T16:14:21Z")
Good evening. Tonight on ‘It’s the Mind’, we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu. That strange feeling we sometimes get that we’ve lived through something before, that what is happening now has already happened. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/276 "2018-02-02T16:36:32Z")
One of my favorite parts that I didn’t really think about until after seeing it multiple times. By the last day, he knows everything about everyone. He knows the entire sequence of events that’s going to happen down to the second. He’s mastered countless skills. But he has no idea if Larry has kids or not. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/277 "2018-02-02T16:39:23Z")
Told ya: Call me Bronco. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/278 "2018-02-02T16:42:15Z")
Too early for flapjacks? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/279 "2018-02-02T16:54:44Z")
Phil: Ned Ryerson - I have missed you so much. [hugs him] I don’t know where you’re headed, but… can you call in sick? [keeps hugging him and rubbing his back] Ned: Uh… I gotta get going. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350/280 "2018-02-02T18:24:34Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. What a hype. Groundhog Day used to mean something in this town. They used to pull the hog out, and they used to eat it. You’re hypocrites, all of you! If anyone you know _ **hasn’t** _ seen the film, deliver that line to them on the day. The shocked looks you get are absolutely priceless. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-its-groundhog-day-again/527350.md?page=15)