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

[Warbodog]

A generalised American-courting reference, I think. Boston / Rhode Island area has old money families / American posh associations, but it’s cultural shorthand I only picked up in recent years.

[Jenuall]

“Blue chip stock” always struck me as a piece of American terminology as well so I always assumed the whole bit was US leaning

[Rudolph]

I thought it was as much of an extrapolation as his one about Sebastian Doyle being a philandering, bank robbing killer on the run.

[Jenuall]

It was Billy who was the granny killer, Sebastian was the fascist “purifier” of democracy.

He’d do quite well in the current UK government. Probably be held back for being a bit tame if anything

[Rudolph]

It was Billy who was the granny killer, Sebastian was the fascist “purifier” of democracy.

He’d do quite well in the current UK government. Probably be held back for being a bit tame if anything

True, but my point still stands – just as much an extrapolation based on a label from a suitcase.

Rt. Hon. Billy ‘Granny Killer’ Doyle, MP would make a fine Home Secretary, though.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

They extrapolate who he might be, be the reference to a particular family with the same name has to in their world if not ours be real people. Unless you’re suggesting Rimmer’s just making The Boston Doyle’s up, which would be a bit weird to do.

[Dave]

The despair squid made him hallucinate The Boston Doyles.

[Warbodog]

Unless you’re suggesting Rimmer’s just making The Boston Doyle’s up, which would be a bit weird to do.

I think it’s just that, plucking a name out of thin air that he pretends he’s heard of to desperately backpedal on his earlier assessment.

Weird, but as Cat points out when they metaphorically explore his mind, he’s a weird guy.

[Warbodog]

Just had the realisation that Doyle’s an Irish name, and apparently Boston’s very Irishey. So Rimmer’s mind went there rather than Ireland.

[Warbodog]

Cat: “What are you wearing!?”

Is there a joke here drawing attention to Cat’s new over-the-top outfit and amusing lack of self-awareness, or does he just look good, so is qualified to pass scorn on young Lister? I wouldn’t know and the audience doesn’t seem to either.

[Jenuall]

Regardless of what Cat’s wearing I think it’s fine to pass judgement on young Lister’s outfit, it’s a disgrace in any era!

For the most part I think Cat’s outfit here works, but the hat is definitely causing some trouble in the cool-ness stakes

[Dave]

It looks like something Grace Jones would wear.

That’s not necessarily a compliment.

[International Debris]

Sounds like a pretty big compliment to me.

[GlenTokyo]

Cat: “What are you wearing!?”

Is there a joke here drawing attention to Cat’s new over-the-top outfit and amusing lack of self-awareness, or does he just look good, so is qualified to pass scorn on young Lister? I wouldn’t know and the audience doesn’t seem to either.

I think it’s the comparison to Lister now as much as anything.

If you’ve known someone to dress like Mr Bean for years and then they turn up looking like Theophilus P. Wildebeeste you’d probably say similar.

[Warbodog]

Historical references you didn’t get: a familiar line in Discworld led to me tracing the source of Rimmer’s “I don’t know about the enemy, but you certainly the scare the hell out of me,” which turns out to be paraphrasing the Duke of Wellington. I expect everyone except me knew this already.

[Dave]

I never knew that. I always thought it was supposed to be a comical inadvertent double-meaning – ie. Rimmer should be scared because his army is so shit.

[Dave]

If you’ve known someone to dress like Mr Bean for years and then they turn up looking like Theophilus P. Wildebeeste you’d probably say similar.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Watching Titanic and some toff asks Jack Dawson (Leo’s character) if he is of the Boston Dawson’s.

Either a complete coincidence or a lot of rich families live in Boston and that’s the “Boston Doyle” ref.

[Warbodog]

If Snacky had been in series V, his dialling code would have been for a city that was rather amusing for Americans, I guess.

[Hamish]

Nebraska.

[loadoftottnumb]

Hello, long time listener etc…

One joke I sort of ‘get’ but sort of don’t is the joke about ‘being stuck behind one in the cinema’ about the aliens who poo out of their heads. Why would they do it at the cinema? I mean maybe if it was a really scary film but still, you’d thin they’d take precautions (hat pants of some kind, Blackadder style) if that was a possibility.

[Dave]

I always loved that joke precisely because it’s such an unexpected and absurd situation that it paints.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I always assumed it’s because you’d have their arse/genitalia blocking your view, rather than them pissing or shitting everywhere.

[si]

Yeah, but if they farted? That could be silent but violent.

[Dave]

Yeah, but if they farted? That could be silent but violent.

That’s true wherever the fart emanates from, though.

I assumed that Lister is visualising active head-top-shittery blocking his view of the film. It’s funnier that way.

Let’s hope this doesn’t become another Cinzano Bianco.

[Pete Part Three]

The poo is coming from the “top of their heads”, so it’s unlikely to be the view being obscured by an areshole, and more likely the shit coming out of it, hitting people in close proximity.

It doesn’t make sense though bearing in mind that Rimmer has said that, in his analogy, the aliens still visit the “little boys’ room”. (The whole point of this is supposed to be that aliens still use bog roll).

[Dave]

Maybe it is simply that you’d be seeing a massive arse rather than someone’s head then. I guess the top of someone’s head is the only bit of them you see when sat behind them at the cinema so the joke works that way.

[Dave]

Someone should ask Rob again on Twitter just to be sure.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

The poo is coming from the “top of their heads”, so it’s unlikely to be the view being obscured by an areshole,

I’d always visualised it as it’s being two antenna like things coming out of the top of the head, of which waste excretes from.

Whatever the anatomy though, whether it’s an arse instead of a head or more than that, you wouldn’t want to be staring into the back of it or have it in your peripheral vision whilst trying to watch a movie.

All this really does is highlight how different people read jokes differently when it’s sort of left to interpretation.

I’d gather from Lister’s reaction he probably is more concerned about them shitting everywhere, but more realistically would be just having to look at somethings arse for 2 hours!

[Dave]

I’d gather from Lister’s reaction he probably is more concerned about them shitting everywhere, but more realistically would be just having to look at somethings arse for 2 hours!

Unless it was Felicity Kendal.

[Warbodog]

Remember that the hypothetical alien used most of a bog roll during what was presumably a short visit, so Lister may be visualising a copious amount of head-arse shit. I always visualised it shooting out like one of those snakes-in-a-can.

[Dave]

I always visualised it shooting out like one of those snakes-in-a-can.

I thought of it more as a sputtering volcano of shit.

[Pete Part Three]

Remember that the hypothetical alien used most of a bog roll during what was presumably a short visit, so Lister may be visualising a copious amount of head-arse shit. I always visualised it shooting out like one of those snakes-in-a-can.

This is pretty much what I visualise, but we’re also told that aliens still visit the little boys’ room, so they wouldn’t be shitting in the middle of the cinema.

If Rimmer had said “aliens still need to wipe their arse” rather than “aliens still need to visit the little boys’ room”, Lister’s fears would make sense.

[Warbodog]

What if the alien really used all the bog roll because it had a massive wank?

[clem]

Now I’m trying to imagine what an alien little boys’ room would be like. If we’re talking about a basically humanoid lifeform but with an arsehole on the top of its head, to use a normal toilet I suppose it’d have to do a handstand on the seat to position its anus over the bowl, which doesn’t sound very practical, so I’m thinking some kind of suction pipe might have to be involved.

[International Debris]

Maybe it’d just be a bit smelly.

[si]

Now *this* is a discussion and a half.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

*cough* wafflemen *cough*

[loadoftottnumb]

Well I’m glad I was able to generate a nice discussion, though I don’t think we have got a consensus yet.

My thoughts were that Lister was worried about being pooed on by an alien head arse but I really don’t know.

[Warbodog]

Having someone use or swipe the bog roll during the events of Stasis Leak would have been a nice Easter egg. One for the novelisation.

[Jenuall]

I always went with the “Lister us worried about aliens shitting on him in the cinema” interpretation, even if it is absurd!

[By Jove its holmes]

What if Felicity Kendall was like the movie “Orlando” and right at the peak of “the Good Life” wakes up one morning having transformed into a man? Would Lister still be turned on?

[Warbodog]

This one from The Log confused me when I was 13 and it still took some working out when I sought it out today, but I think I might have it now.

Has the child flushed something of value, so the legs are the (parent/maid) imagining themselves having to dig it back out?

I thought they were scared that the kid had flushed themselves down the bog (unrealistic) or made a mess (doesn’t match illustration), but neither of those ever really made sense.

[Dave]

I assumed it was such a massive shit that the toilet was blocked and would overflow.

The illustration does seem like a bit of a red herring/misreading.

[By Jove its holmes]

[Warbodog]

I assumed it was such a massive shit that the toilet was blocked and would overflow.

I suppose a child would lack the experience and foresight to preemptively break it up more than an adult would, so that’s probably it. Shame about the confusing pictures and words.

[Unrumble]

The illustration does seem like a bit of a red herring

A red herring could feasibly cause a blockage, if well-fed

[Russ L]

I think that the figure in the picture is definitely a red herring, but in a different way. Unless that toilet door is really small then she is presumably standing a notable distance in front of it (stock Fr. Ted joke etc)

She’s a fair distance away thinking about an entirely unrelated toilet/ankle mishap, while the child in the toilet’s quiet “Uh oh” goes unheard. We’ll never know what befell the poor kid.

On a separate note, I like the way that she’s used the bits cut off her mullet to line the ankles of her booties.

[Flap Jack]

If you’re in the cinema and you hear the voice of one of the blowhole-anus aliens in the row ahead going ‘Uh, oh’, it’s already too late.

[Dave]

Not really a joke, but I only just realised on my umpteenth viewing of Fathers & Suns that Lister uses Pree and her predictive abilities to help him record his video, so that he’ll know what his own responses will be.

[Author]

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