Jokes you don't/didn't get

[bloodteller]

i know there’s the thing of “the joke isn’t funny if you explain it” but were there ever gags in Red Dwarf you didn’t get? and if so, what?

i never quite got what Cat’s “stan and ollie” line in White Hole was about, for example. nor did i get what “see you in ten minutes?” (repeat x10) from Pete was all about, and also Rimmer’s “steers and queers, which are you boy?” joke from Meltdown

Topic

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I love that the flashback to the Aigburth Arms shows some kind of futuristic pub whilst when they go back to see 17 year old Lister in Timeslides and it’s just a normal contemporary 1980s pub.

I know it would have been done for budget reasons in Series III but I quite liked that the earlier parts of the show kind of gave the impression that the world hadn’t actually changed all that much
In the future, pool will be shit because the tables are suspended on chains.
I can only really think of one sport/game where the flatness and immovability of the playing surface is absolutely fundamental, has to be out no more than half a millimetre end to end, a quarter of a millimetre across the width, and that’s the one they hung from chains.
Suppose you could explain it away with GRAV POOL but good luck with any shot you need to approach from the corner when there’s a massive chain in the way.

No wonder Lister is shit at pool, the entire sport has been fucked with so no-one can play it.

[Nick R]

I Ctrl+F’d through this topic to see if anyone had posted this before, and surprisingly they hadn’t:

It took me an embarrassingly long time to get “goalpost head”.

At first I assumed it was a literal description of Rimmer’s head shape. One that, like “flared nostrils”, may or may not have any connection to the actual shape of Chris Barrie’s head.

But that confused me: if it was a joke about head shape, then wouldn’t that be something that would apply to Kryten more than Rimmer?

Instead, maybe it was a reference to how uncool Rimmer is: he’s such a square that he’s like the right-angle join between goalpost and crossbar?

Or maybe it was simply a generic insult, a creative replacement for the word “dickhead”?

So it was a long time before I realised it was a reference to the H on his forehead.

[Warbodog]

I thought along the same lines, like he’s a stick-in-the-mud or something. I might have got it when HSBC did an advert using a rugby goal for their initial, or I just read it online eventually and felt stupid like the ‘Miles Prower’ pun from Sonic.

[Spaceworm Jim]

I was feeling smug about having never had trouble understanding even the subtlest of jokes in Red Dwarf, but it turns out I have ample trouble understanding jokes made by Rob Grant at award ceremonies which, in retrospect, aren’t subtle.

Tangentially related, there’s a bit in Colony about Eddie’s dad being a gambler and replacing Eddie’s Christmas present with something else. Readers, what is it he replaces the present with?

[International Debris]

Goalpost Head was a fairly recent one for me, too. I thought it was a variation on blockhead or similar.

[Unrumble]

I’ll throw my hat into this ring of ignorance too, seeing as we’re all confessing!

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

You guys all know that when Lister said “maybe ace hole” he was implying “arsehole” right?

[Jenuall]

I like the spirit of this thread – there’s a humility to the admission that people maybe only just got a joke that was pretty obvious to everyone else for the last 30 years.

It certainly beats the kind of angle you get on these things from the likes of Reddit where the subs for TV shows are usually full of people posting things like

“OMG FUCK!!! You won’t believe this! Just discovered a secret hidden joke after watching this episode for the 100th time, so super secret!!!!”

And then you read it and it’s literally just the most straight and obvious joke ever, there’s literally no way the scene could be read in any other way than the joke which this person thinks is some kind of megaton secret.

[GlenTokyo]

Red Dwarf reddit is appalling, worse than facebook so that’s saying something considering Red Dwarf facebook is just a load of pictures of smeg toasters.

[Warbodog]

There’s also the angle that many of us have been watching since we were kids, when we were used to letting things we didn’t understand fly over our heads unquestioned, and sometimes have to remember to shake that off to suddenly get the joke (e.g. rubber shares).

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Yeah I’m only joshing.

I do like seeing how people’s minds worked as kids. And I certainly get not questioning something for so long then it not twigging.

[Jenuall]

There’s also the angle that many of us have been watching since we were kids, when we were used to letting things we didn’t understand fly over our heads unquestioned, and sometimes have to remember to shake that off to suddenly get the joke (e.g. rubber shares).

Yeah I often think about this aspect of things. I’ve been watching Dwarf since I was a child and so a whole bunch of stuff must have gone over my head, but I can’t think of a specific “AHA!” moment when I suddenly realised a reference. I think it helps that the delivery of the material is so good in the show that even if you don’t necessarily understand exactly what they are referring to the general concept of “someone has made a rude/suggestive joke” still lands and the adolescent mind gets that it’s humorous without needing to know the specifics!

[Spaceworm Jim]

I think it helps that the delivery of the material is so good in the show that even if you don’t necessarily understand exactly what they are referring to the general concept of “someone has made a rude/suggestive joke” still lands and the adolescent mind gets that it’s humorous without needing to know the specifics!

Yeah! I had no idea what taramasalata or hummus were the first dozen or so times I saw Dimension Jump but Robert’s performance still made me find those lines hilarious. Same with tarka dhal and Psirens. I saw series three at an age where Timeslides left me wondering why there was a woman called Rachel on board who we never saw and what had happened to her bike. 27 years old I was.

[International Debris]

I thought Tarker Doll and Bindy Bajjy were just funny alien names for a long time. Didn’t get into Indian style food until my 20s so finding them on menus was fun.

I still don’t actually know what taramasalata actually is, and I’m not going to Google it, just so I can legitimately make this post.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I thought Tarker Doll and Bindy Bajjy were just funny alien names for a long time. Didn’t get into Indian style food until my 20s so finding them on menus was fun.

I still don’t actually know what taramasalata actually is, and I’m not going to Google it, just so I can legitimately make this post.

Was it one of those things where you had to try one because you’d heard the names?

I’ve had a prawn vindaloo just because Lister hadn’t. Was ok.

I’ve also had a chop suey thanks to System of a Down. That was ok too.

Taramasalata is a greek fishy dip.

[Dave]

I’ve never had trout à la crème.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I’ve never had Rimmer’s mum come to think of it

[International Debris]

Yeah, tarka dahl has become one of my go-to curries, tried partially because of the Red Dwarf reference.

[RunawayTrain]

Red Dwarf reddit is appalling, worse than facebook so that’s saying something considering Red Dwarf facebook is just a load of pictures of smeg toasters.

To be fair, rule number one of the reddit is no Smeg appliances. Nothing about toasters though, unless they happen to be made by Smeg. This is not a comment on the quality of it otherwise, though.

I think it helps that the delivery of the material is so good in the show that even if you don’t necessarily understand exactly what they are referring to the general concept of “someone has made a rude/suggestive joke” still lands and the adolescent mind gets that it’s humorous without needing to know the specifics!

I had a very innocent mind until the internet corrupted me in my late 20s. So I identify very much with the bit in bold!

[Dave]

Watching Blackadder as a kid and then again as a teenager was always the big one for me, I was amazed that someone had gone in and edited all these new rude jokes into the episodes.

[Warbodog]

I’ve always thought of sex dolls as more of an old-school joke gift than something people would actually use, which means I’ve been spared from imagining Rimmer actually mounting one (and Lister getting sloppy seconds). Along with the idea of Spiderman/Tarzan cosplay being the height of kink, Red Dwarf’s fairly wholesome in that department. Apart from the Lolita bit. And Back in the Red, obviously. And Last Human and Backwards.

[si]

For a while, when Cat refers to Rimmer and Kryten as Stan & Ollie, I thought he was talking about a couple of Skutters that had nipped out.

[Warbodog]

I thought that when I watched it out of context on the Smeg Ups tape, having seen Bob in VIII and not having White Hole on video.

[Unrumble]

For a while, when Cat refers to Rimmer and Kryten as Stan & Ollie, I thought he was talking about a couple of Skutters that had nipped out.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I imagine the Stan and Ollie line is something you’d only really get on repeat viewing anyway. It wizzes past you, Danny says it as if it’s all one word, Stan and Ollie aren’t even how that pair are commonly known and it makes little sense as a nickname for Rimme.r and Kryten other than Cat uses random nicknames most the time, but they’re usually easy to decipher.

I’s have thought anyone watching White Hole go out would just think they misheard something and carry on, not thinking any more about it.

[Spaceworm Jim]

Just going to point out that Red Dwarf is set in the future, so the film Stan and Ollie had come out. Maybe the Cat is referring to that.

[clem]

it makes little sense as a nickname for Rimme.r and Kryten

I’d say it’s a pretty good comparison really. Rimmer’s pompous and bosses around Kryten who’s put upon and naive in some ways. It’s clear which one’s which if you know those characters anyway.

[GlenTokyo]

it makes little sense as a nickname for Rimme.r and Kryten

I’d say it’s a pretty good comparison really. Rimmer’s pompous and bosses around Kryten who’s put upon and naive in some ways. It’s clear which one’s which if you know those characters anyway.

And suggests a level of ineptitude and calamity befitting of Rimmer and Kryten.

[Warbodog]

I don’t really get what the “mechanoid peeping tom” in DNA means.

I’ve always taken it as some really quite dark bit where Kryten’s having a go at himself for having been so naively curious about his genitals just then, as a dumb former mechanoid, and the realisation that his questions were inappropriate and awkward, resulting in a complex tangle of emotions he’s not used to against a background of gnashing self-loathing that he tries to laugh off, with the sense that if he was alone he’d be calling himself a fucking mechanoid loser in the mirror over and over.

But is it something lighter?

[GlenTokyo]

I don’t really get what the “mechanoid peeping tom” in DNA means.

I’ve always taken it as some really quite dark bit where Kryten’s having a go at himself for having been so naively curious about his genitals just then, as a dumb former mechanoid, and the realisation that his questions were inappropriate and awkward, resulting in a complex tangle of emotions he’s not used to against a background of gnashing self-loathing that he tries to laugh off, with the sense that if he was alone he’d be calling himself a fucking mechanoid loser in the mirror over and over.
But is it something lighter?

Think it’s just because he’s looking at his nob to be honest.

[Dave]

That whole run of jokes is about how stupid mechanoids are. So I think the mechanoid peeping tom is stupid because he’s looking at his own knob, rather than voyeuristically spying on someone else like a normal peeping tom would.

Although the whole previous scene has been all about how mechanoids don’t have knobs, which does confuse the point somewhat.

[Dave]

On a related note, I always find Kryten’s echoing laugh at the end of that scene rather chilling.

[Warbodog]

Although the whole previous scene has been all about how mechanoids don’t have knobs, which does confuse the point somewhat.

That’s what mainly confused it for me. They don’t have knobs and he’s not a mechanoid.

On a related note, I always find Kryten’s echoing laugh at the end of that scene rather chilling.

Even before the echo, I found his forced/unnatural laughter properly spine chilling the first couple of times, especially with the sudden silence of the audience and when I wasn’t used to seeing Robert out of makeup.

Think it’s just because he’s looking at his nob to be honest.

That was funny.

[Jonathan Capps]

On a related note, I always find Kryten’s echoing laugh at the end of that scene rather chilling.

Yeah, this is a really odd decision when you think about it.

[Jenuall]

uh huhuhu, uh huhuhu, uh huhuhu
uh huhuhu, uh huhuhu, uh huhuhu

…

The stuff of nightmares.

[clem]

It’s meant to be unsettling though isn’t it? Isn’t Lister even backing away from him? I find his paranoid vision of the future in Duct Soup a little eerie as well.

[Dave]

Yeah, I think it’s meant to emphasise his isolation and inhuman-ness despite now being technically human, but it’s a really weird effect.

[Dave]

Reminded as I’m rewatching it now, but “don’t get your double-helix in a straight” from Legion took me years to get.

[Warbodog]

Grant Naylor’s favourite colour is orange.

Is this a joke that their favourite colours are red and yellow, respectively? Some way around.

Or do they both just happen to share what I imagine is a fairly obscure favourite colour? (Also shared with my nana).

Or did it just sound funny.

[Welding Mallet]

I’ve never quite got the “Duty Free Shop” line in ‘Psirens’. Is Cat comparing the meteorite to an airport?

[Warbodog]

I never gave it any thought until just now, but it’ll be Cat interpreting “are you getting any scent from that meteorite” as “are you going to buy some perfume/aftershave.” Cat’s rapid and flat delivery doesn’t really help.

[Welding Mallet]

Oh blimey!

[International Debris]

Yeah, that gag felt like a non-sequitur to me for years.

[Jenuall]

That’s one of those where I’m not sure how someone doesn’t get it! What other interpretation is there for “I didn’t even know they had a duty free shop?!”

It’s not a world beating joke though so it isn’t the biggest loss to miss!

[International Debris]

As a pre-teen, then a teenager, then probably into early adulthood, I never came across people calling perfume ‘scent’, so it just made no sense. As soon as I got the reference the joke became obvious.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

so it just made no sense scents

[Dave]

As a pre-teen, then a teenager, then probably into early adulthood, I never came across people calling perfume ‘scent’, so it just made no sense. As soon as I got the reference the joke became obvious.

The pennyscent dropped.

[Warbodog]

As a pre-teen, then a teenager, then probably into early adulthood, I never came across people calling perfume ‘scent’, so it just made no sense. As soon as I got the reference the joke became obvious.

Similar to the time wand, it was only years later that I saw ‘wand’ being used for everyday things like vacuum cleaners and blind openers. I used to wonder why Kryten had come up with this fancy magical name.

[Jenuall]

As a pre-teen, then a teenager, then probably into early adulthood, I never came across people calling perfume ‘scent’, so it just made no sense. As soon as I got the reference the joke became obvious.

The pennyscent dropped.

The Ascent of Man

[Welding Mallet]

If John-Jules’ had emphasised the “know” rather than the “shop”, then it might not have taken me 27 years to get it. What a senseless waste!;)

Have a few more:

Dear old “What’s an iguana?”, of course.

I didn’t immediately latch on to “Don’t eat greasy food?” as Boyle’s Fourth Law, but stone me it’s such a terrible joke anyway I clearly wasn’t missing much.

Going to the lengths of making a 1988-friendly reference like “Peter Beardsley” but then pairing it with “Myra Binglebat” seemed odd. Why not “Nina Myskow” or someone?

“Eastbourne” in ‘White Hole’ was one I gave the Lisa Simpson “traditional-British-wit?” response to for much of my youth!

I like that Zero-G sports such as Football and Kick Boxing sit so comfortably alongside Wimbledon….

“Toilet stop in rattlesnake country” was another one, possibly because that’s the only place I haven’t heard it called “bathroom break”..

[Author]

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