# Will someone \*Please\* explain the whole "Snakes On A Plane" thing to me?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 19, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051 "2006-03-19T22:24:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/1 "2006-03-19T22:24:26Z")
OK, I know the premise sounds like the sort of thing Ed Wood might have come up with (“OK, so there are these snakes, right? And they’re on a plane! Throw in Samuel L Jackson and then market the thing on this newfangled Interweb widget, and we’re in business!”), but I really don’t understand why the whole “Snakes On A Plane!” thing has turned into a massive Internet Meme.
I mean, I adore Bad Movies (My DVD collection is full of Ed Wood movies and appallingly dubbed Hong Kong Action Movies), but I just can’t get worked up about Snakes On A Plane.
Anyone care to enlighten me as to what the big deal is, or is it just “One of those things” you either get or you don’t?
(And yes, I will be going to see the film when it comes out!)
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/2 "2006-03-19T23:07:57Z")
“Snakes on a Plane” is a funny title.
The juxtaposition of snakes and passenger aircraft is a funny image.
Samuel L. Jackson is The Man.
Add all three ingredients and you have a guaranteed hit picture!
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/3 "2006-03-19T23:29:19Z")
That’s too much analysis.
There are SNAKES. On a PLANE.
What else do you need to know?
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/4 "2006-03-19T23:29:50Z")
If you overthink it, it’s not funny. **friedo** ’s got it. The simplicity is what makes it amusing.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/5 "2006-03-19T23:34:57Z")
Here’s a [Wired article](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.01/play.html) on it.
But yeah man. It’s snakes. On a plane. Dig?
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/6 "2006-03-19T23:39:06Z")
It’s the beautifully to-the-point title that I like. ‘Die Hard’ should have been titled ‘Dude Crawling Through Air Ducts’. ‘King Kong’ should have been ‘Big-Ass Ape’.
I hope there’s more movies in the future where the title is simply the short concept they pitched to the studio.
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### Author:  [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/7 "2006-03-19T23:42:20Z")
I wonder if it would have been as sucessful if they’d called it “Airport '06”? Because that’s what it _is_, essentially.
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/8 "2006-03-19T23:51:30Z")
Yeah, it’s a funny concept, at first.
They’re overdoing it.
I’m still not shelling out $9.50 for it.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/9 "2006-03-19T23:58:05Z")
You guys are joking, right?
_Snakes on a Plane_ is so anticipated because it’s going to be one of the greatest movies ever made. This is a movie that’s going to be held up with _The Godfather_, _Citizen Kane_, and _Casablanca_ as one of the great works of cinematic genius. The difference is that this time we know it’s coming; we can anticipate going to the movies and seeing a picture that represents the very apex of human creativity.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/10 "2006-03-20T00:11:06Z")
The title just induces giggles. Add in Samuel L. Jackson, and it sounds like a cult classic, like _Killer Klowns from Outer Space_.
And sometimes, things just become funny with repetition. Once is amusing, twice is giddy, fifty, you’re rolling on the floor. Remember the whole “All your base” crap? It wasn’t that funny, it just became funny.
I just wish I weren’t deathly snake-phobic, because then I could see it and giggle.
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### Author:  [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/11 "2006-03-20T00:11:19Z")
The film has an interesting title, but what’s it about?
😛
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/12 "2006-03-20T00:26:19Z")
Well, apparently it’s about…
There’s a plane, and there are snakes. On the plane.
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### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/13 "2006-03-20T00:32:54Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> I hope there’s more movies in the future where the title is simply the short concept they pitched to the studio.
The greatest movie title _ever_ was [Robot Ninja](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100503/): tragically, the film doesn’t seem to have lived up to the brilliance of its name, and the definitive movie about a robot that’s a ninja - a Robot Ninja, if you will - has yet to be made.
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### Author:  [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/14 "2006-03-20T02:02:24Z")
Asking to explain “Snakes on a Plane” is like asking to explain “Free Pie and Chips” I mean, it’s pie and chips. For Free!
It’s Snakes.
On a Plane.
With Samuel Jackson!
(Tongue firmly in cheek BTW)
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/15 "2006-03-20T02:07:24Z")
A few years ago, there was this absurd _Saturday Night Live_ sketch (John Goodman was hosting) where, for no explained reason, cobras get loose in the passenger cabin of a jetliner.
WILL FERRELL: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to inform you that there are now **eleven** cobras lookse in the passenger cabin . . .
So it’s kind of like art imitating art.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/16 "2006-03-20T02:25:55Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#):
>
> The greatest movie title _ever_ was [Robot Ninja](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100503/): tragically, the film doesn’t seem to have lived up to the brilliance of its name, and the definitive movie about a robot that’s a ninja - a Robot Ninja, if you will - has yet to be made.
And now [the scales shall fall from your eyes](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095643/).
Accept no substitute.
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### Author:  [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/17 "2006-03-20T08:58:01Z")
Actually, the original title was **Negro In First Class** , but that only scared a few people in red states that don’t go to movies so they changed the title.
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### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/18 "2006-03-20T09:27:52Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> It’s the beautifully to-the-point title that I like. ‘Die Hard’ should have been titled ‘Dude Crawling Through Air Ducts’. ‘King Kong’ should have been ‘Big-Ass Ape’.
>
> I hope there’s more movies in the future where the title is simply the short concept they pitched to the studio.
You might enjoy this [Fark.com photoshop contest](http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1941583) : _If all films were produced by the people that created the movie “Snakes on a Plane”._
My (lame) entry retitled “Less Than Zero” to “Blowjobs For Crack”.
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/19 "2006-03-20T09:44:08Z")
> [@Eleusis](#):
>
> You might enjoy this [Fark.com photoshop contest](http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1941583) : _If all films were produced by the people that created the movie “Snakes on a Plane”._
>
> My (lame) entry retitled “Less Than Zero” to “Blowjobs For Crack”.
Heh, hadn’t seen that before. My fave was the Alien vs. Predator (AVP) one: PG-13, WTF.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2006, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-someone-please-explain-the-whole-snakes-on-a-plane-thing-to-me/349051/20 "2006-03-20T13:43:44Z")
A more formal explanation:
Members of the order [Squamata, suborder Serpentes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes) located in the interior of [any of various winged vehicles capable of flight, generally heavier than air and driven by jet engines or propellers](http://www.answers.com/airplane&r=67).
(Note that the use of “on” in the context of aircraft is an idiom for “in”. Cf. noted linguist George Carlin: About this time, someone is telling you to get on the plane. “Get on the plane. Get on the plane.” I say, “f\*\*\* you, I’m getting _in_ the plane.”)
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