# Yellow Submarine questions: please help **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2016, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584 "2016-05-01T09:00:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/1 "2016-05-01T09:00:15Z")
I watched “Yellow Submarine” again tonight, one of my all-time favorite movies. This one even had the “Hey Bulldog” scene restored! But I have a couple of questions. First of all, there was a thing that went by in a split second, but thanks to the magic of modern technology, I was able to screencap it. [Does the sign on the back of the shadow sub say “POTEMKIN” backwards, in mirror writing? Any idea why?](http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd69/brujaja/nikmetoo_zpsnsv0cqoc.png) And second, I recognize Marilyn and Buffalo Bill (unless that’s Bungalow Bill). Maybe that’s Gene Kelley with the bowler and cane (unless it’s John Steed from the Avengers), but [Who is the guy lookin like a ninja turtle sans headband? Also, is that Space Ghost (or possibly The Phantom) in the foreground?](http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd69/brujaja/ninja%20turtle_zpsdrmkkzun.png) And doesn’t that lady on the right look strangely like Lady Diana? Oh yeah — who is the Magician? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/2 "2016-05-01T09:57:09Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > I watched “Yellow Submarine” again tonight, one of my all-time favorite movies. This one even had the “Hey Bulldog” scene restored! 🙂 > [@](#): > > [Does the sign on the back of the shadow sub say “POTEMKIN” backwards, in mirror writing? Any idea why?](http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd69/brujaja/nikmetoo_zpsnsv0cqoc.png) The Battleship Potemkin? There was a movie by that title. > [@](#): > > And second, I recognize Marilyn and Buffalo Bill (unless that’s Bungalow Bill). Maybe that’s Gene Kelley with the bowler and cane (unless it’s John Steed from the Avengers), but [Who is the guy lookin like a ninja turtle sans headband? Also, is that Space Ghost (or possibly The Phantom) in the foreground?](http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd69/brujaja/ninja%20turtle_zpsdrmkkzun.png) The one in green looks like Buck Rogers. That’s the Phantom. > [@](#): > > And doesn’t that lady on the right look strangely like Lady Diana? > > Oh yeah — who is the Magician? Or Ginger Rodgers. Zatara. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/3 "2016-05-01T10:18:21Z")
The magician is Mandrake, and the spaceman is Flash Gordon. They and the Phantom were all property of the same company, King Features Syndicate, and might have been used as part of a package deal. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/4 "2016-05-01T12:47:39Z")
Ignorance fought! Thanks! ---
**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:** [May 1, 2016, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/5 "2016-05-01T13:05:37Z")
It’s a common trope to write “Russian” words using backwards Latin letters. Although only two Latin letters: R and N, have similar looking (but not sounding) Cyrillic letters. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/6 "2016-05-01T14:26:01Z")
The 1925 Soviet silent film [_Battleship Potemkin_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_Potemkin) (voted the greatest film of all time in 1958) was a dramatization of the 1905 mutiny aboard the ship of the same. The ship’s crew rebelled against their officers during the [Russian Revolution of 1905](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_1905) and the event is seen as an influence on the Russian Revolution of 1917. So I think the inclusion of the Potemkin serves as a visual metaphor for the Yellow Submarine: a) Both are nautical vessels. b) Both have a revolutionary crew and inspire other revolutionaries - the Potemkin’s crew, in a broader narrative, against the Tsar-era establishment in Russia and The Beatles against the Blue Meanies that have taken over Pepperland. c) Both crews have egalitarian ideals - socialism for the Potemkin crew, in the broader context, and LOVE for the Yellow Submarine Beatles. The plot of the movie _Yellow Submarine_ can be seen as an allegory of the Beatles themselves, who were inspiring the '60s, Summer of Love-era, counterculture movement’s dreams of social and cultural revolution against the old establishment. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/7 "2016-05-01T14:26:08Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > Does the sign on the back of the shadow sub say “POTEMKIN” backwards, in mirror writing? Any idea why? No, it says NIKMETOP in mirror writing. Flip it and see. But, yeah, it’d be a reference to the well-known film [Battleship Potemkin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_Potemkin). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/8 "2016-05-01T16:59:20Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > It’s a common trope to write “Russian” words using backwards Latin letters. Although only two Latin letters: R and N, have similar looking (but not sounding) Cyrillic letters. Right. Flipping letters makes it look like it might be Cyrillic but it’s still readable as English. The actual Cyrillic for “Potemkin” is Потёмкин. To clarify, I think you mean only two Latin letters look like Cyrillic letters when flipped. Latin letters with similar looking letters in Cyrillic, some of which also sound similar, include A, B, E, S, J, I, K, H, O, P, T, and Y. Five of the eight letters in Potemkin are similar in Latin and Cyrillic. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/9 "2016-05-01T19:20:35Z")
**Walken After Midnight:** That is pretty deep, and I don’t think I’d have thought of it since I haven’t seen the movie. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/10 "2016-05-02T00:38:49Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > . . . And doesn’t that lady on the right look strangely like Lady Diana? . . . I think that’s John Steed and Tara King, of The Avengers. Steed, almost certainly. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-submarine-questions-please-help/753584/11 "2016-05-02T09:26:54Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Zatara. They are very similar, but Mandrake always wears evening dress with a cape, whereas Zatara (originally, anyway) wore morning dress.