# What We Do In The Shadows - the tv series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2019, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721 "2019-03-29T17:58:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/121 "2020-04-20T00:08:11Z")
What you don’t seem to understand is the point was for the energy vampire is to drain people’s energy by using an extremely well known gag, not to actually be funny. He uses updog because it is [_extremely well known and current_](https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=Updog+joke). “Updoc” may have been once popular, but has gone the way of velocipedes and monicles and twenty-three-skadoo (as, possibly, knowing Bugs Bunny catch phrases might have.) The whole point of an energy vampire is being _tedious_, not being _archaic_. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/122 "2020-04-20T00:30:47Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > My first car was a 1971 Henway. Two and Half Pounds or was it a roaster? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/123 "2020-04-20T01:04:18Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > What you don’t seem to understand is the point was for the energy vampire is to drain people’s energy by using an extremely well known gag, not to actually be funny. He uses updog because it is [_extremely well known and current_](https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=Updog+joke). “Updoc” may have been once popular, but has gone the way of velocipedes and monicles and twenty-three-skadoo (as, possibly, knowing Bugs Bunny catch phrases might have.) The whole point of an energy vampire is being _tedious_, not being _archaic_. Sounds like you need to write an angry email to the writers of a 2004 episode of _Scrubs_, in which the “updoc” gag was used–and not as a way of conveying "twenty-three-skadoo’ or any other expression of archaism. By the way, you’re not demonstrating a mastery of history, here, that would incline anyone to consider you a credible authority. “Twenty-three skidoo” (not “skadoo” as you had it) originated in the nineteen-aughts, but > [@](#): > > It does usually evoke the period of the flappers and speakeasies in the US, though its heyday was really the first decade of the century; by the 1920s it was already rather passé. > **[World Wide Words: Twenty-three Skidoo](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-twe2.htm)** > > Many stories are told to try to explain twenty-three Skidoo, but the evidence suggests it’s a conflation of two earlier slang words. “What’s up, Doc,” by contrast, was first heard in mid-1940, in Bugs Bunny’s official debut _A Wild Hare_, directed by Tex Avery. [The saying 'What's up Doc?' - meaning and origin.](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/406400.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/124 "2020-04-24T00:28:25Z")
Another great episode, last night. The gang attends a Superb Owl party! If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to notice _The President Show_’s Anthony Atamanuik in a key role, playing someone other than Trump, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/125 "2020-04-24T04:25:11Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Sounds like you need to write an angry email to the writers of a 2004 episode of _Scrubs_, in which the “updoc” gag was used–and not as a way of conveying "twenty-three-skadoo’ or any other expression of archaism. > [YARN | What's "updoc"? | Scrubs (2001) - S03E11 Drama | Video clips by quotes | 32e248b0 | 紗](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/32e248b0-cfea-4517-97d5-b59e67b71290) > > By the way, you’re not demonstrating a mastery of history, here, that would incline anyone to consider you a credible authority. “Twenty-three skidoo” (not “skadoo” as you had it) originated in the nineteen-aughts, but > > [World Wide Words: Twenty-three Skidoo](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-twe2.htm) > > “What’s up, Doc,” by contrast, was first heard in mid-1940, in Bugs Bunny’s official debut _A Wild Hare_, directed by Tex Avery. [The saying 'What's up Doc?' - meaning and origin.](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/406400.html) See? You have the whole “energy vampire” thing down pat! ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/126 "2020-04-24T12:57:34Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The point of the energy vampire attempting that tired old joke was that everyone on the planet already knew it except for a long-dead woman (and you.) Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja didn’t seem to know it. While half the joke was Colin’s lame attempts at jokes, the other half was the other three unintentionally not taking the bait. I think Nandor asking “Can we get some now?” showed that he didn’t get the joke. My wife desperately wants a GIF of the Nadja doll saying “Call me” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/127 "2020-04-24T13:26:21Z")
Meeting with the Superb Owl cracked me up. I never noticed that before. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/128 "2020-04-24T17:19:42Z")
NM. Misremembered a detail. ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/129 "2020-04-26T10:57:32Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > My wife desperately wants a GIF of the Nadja doll saying “Call me” 😃 Ask and the internet delivers. [https://weloveweird.tumblr.com/post/615564623319531520](https://weloveweird.tumblr.com/post/615564623319531520) ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/130 "2020-04-26T13:37:03Z")
> [@Stowed\_Bob](#): > > Ask and the internet delivers. [https://weloveweird.tumblr.com/post/615564623319531520](https://weloveweird.tumblr.com/post/615564623319531520) You made her morning! Well, you _and_ whoever made the gif. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/131 "2020-05-07T00:22:12Z")
New episode, tonight. Last week’s ep showed the creators _definitely_ messing with us over the “Guillermo’s section of the opening titles” issue: the stuck-in-the-Seventies vampire house had at _least_ two examples of the photo-portrait-with-two-shots-of-the-subject. One of them was even commented on by the characters. And to top it off, the house’s twin girls (and/or Shining-style sisters-close-in-age) EACH had her _own_ framed photo—as if to shine a spotlight on the topic. They are aware of the speculation (by some, not all, admittedly) that Guillermo may have a twin—and they are tweaking us about it. They could have included the double-portraits in the plot in some location other than the stuck-in-the-Seventies house. The fact that they did it this way raises questions about _when_ Guillermo (and his brother? or not?) had that Sears Portrait Studio photo taken. As mentioned, the actor would have been the age of the boy in the photo in about 2000—_long_ after the heyday of the trend. Is Guillermo unstuck in time? _On the other hand,_ the whole thing may be meaningless. I’m looking forward to finding out which it is! ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/132 "2020-05-15T00:26:20Z")
The actor playing Lazlo’s opponent (in the 13 May episode) seldom gets the thespic credit he deserves; what a voice! ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/133 "2020-05-15T00:36:55Z")
I take it that’s the Mark Hamil episode? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/134 "2020-05-15T00:52:54Z")
Yeah. Apparently he’s a massive fan of the show: > [@](#): > > …Hamill spoke to us shortly before “On the Run” aired, and he was especially happy to talk about why he’s such a huge fan of this goofy, great vampire comedy. “I thought I’d be playing a meter reader, or a next door neighbor, or someone at the Department of Motor Vehicles,” he said. “When I found out that they wanted to play The Vampire, I just flipped out.” … > **[Mark Hamill Is the World’s Biggest What We Do in the Shadows Fan](https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/mark-hamill-what-we-do-in-the-shadows.html)** > > And he’s an amazing guest star as Jim the Vampire, too. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/135 "2020-05-15T03:34:07Z")
i just read that same article before i posted lol ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/136 "2020-05-15T12:17:06Z")
There is actually a very Colin-Robinson-like person in my life…and she sits right next to me at work! :eek: Every day by quitting time, I’m lying over the arm of my chair, mumbling, “Leave me alone…” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/137 "2020-05-22T01:27:19Z")
This week’s episode was one of the best yet. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/138 "2020-05-22T01:37:07Z")
I’m pretty sure some of the posters here were actually Colin. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/139 "2020-05-22T22:46:50Z")
_Were_? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721/140 "2020-06-04T20:33:13Z")
What kind of goat sorcery is this? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-the-tv-series/831721.md?page=8)