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

[loadoftottnumb]

They used to make a lot of late 80’a cultural references so maybe it made more sense then.

[Hamish]

I’ve never been aware of any stigma around working for the post office in my lifetime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_postal

Not what Rob and Doug were referencing but I had to post.

[Ian Symes]

The Post Office line in also used in Son of Cliché, and later in the same episode there’s a follow-up sketch, which didn’t fit into the narrative of the recent DwarfCast, but perhaps sheds some light on their beef. It’s not that they look down on the job itself, more that they believe Post Office workers to be unhelpful and deliberately obtrusive. Here you go:

https://www.ganymede.tv/wp-content/uploads/SOC_PostOffice.mp3

[Podey]

Aha! Thanks Ian.

[Ben Saunders]

When I was a wee lad, I didn’t know who the Osmond family was. So when Rimmer said “more teeth than the entire Osmond family”, it meant nothing to me. I started to imagine a normal-sized family who were famous for having a lot of teeth, individually. Even once I started to realise they were a musical family, I still imagined them as having more teeth-per-person than your average. Maybe that was why they were famous singers, their teeth gave them a distinctive sound, like Freddie Mercury or him from the Bee Gees. But no, they’re just a big family.

[Warbodog]

But no, they’re just a big family.

Okay, I just got it then.

[RunawayTrain]

But no, they’re just a big family.

Ohhhhhh, right!  

I actually thought it was because of their very white teeth and big smiles, that you would be consciously aware of more of their teeth than you would of the average person.  But being a big family makes more sense.

[Dave]

Ohhhhhh, right!  

I actually thought it was because of their very white teeth and big smiles

Oh fuck, this is Cinzano Bianco all over again. I thought the same thing.

[Jenuall]

I mean, I do think that’s supposed to be a factor in the joke right? 

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

So wait, do you guys seriously not know about the Osmonds? “Love Me for a Reason”? “Crazy Horses”? “The Proud One”? Donnie and Marie? “Long Haired Lover from Liverpool”? That time they were the white answer to the Jacksons that everyone pretends didn’t happen? Good grief. I thought this place was supposed to be a fount of culture and distinction and knowing about things that happened in the 20th century, irrespective of personal taste.

[Dave]

No, we know about the Osmonds, we’re just debating whether the joke is about the prominence of their teeth specifically, or just a reference to the fact that an entire family would have a large number of teeth in total.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I always assumed it was about a family with lots of teeth, not just lots of teeth because it’s a big family. 

someone call Rob

[Podey]

I think I probably had to ask my mum who The Osmonds were as I didn’t get the joke and I’m pretty sure she said it was because they have big teeth. So I also had that potential “misconception”, albeit second hand.

I also remember asking my mum what a gynaecologist was after seeing that word for the first time in the Smegazine….

[Warbodog]

The Smegazine (Volume 2) also semi-retconned the Osmonds as possibly being an in-universe reference, confusing young me further.

[IrisVinEverec]

The Osmonds joke is about them having lots of teeth and being a big family – they had big American white sparkly smiles plastered on their faces all the time, which was an unusual look for Brits at the time. (Which is why Confidence having the same American smile is so funny). 

[Moonlight]

I wouldn’t smile either if I lived in a land without sun.

[Flap Jack]

Fun fact: the Osmonds actually have a medically normal number of teeth. They just look weird because there are no gaps and none of them are visibly jagged and rotting.

[loadoftottnumb]

Yep I’m pretty sure it’s because there are a lot of them with famous toothy grins, so a joke like ‘more teeth than the entire Baldwin family’ or ‘than Tony Robbins’ wouldn’t work as well. 

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Incidentally, the Czech dub renders it as “the entire Munster family”, which, uh, yes and no.

[Podey]

Incidentally, the Czech dub renders it as “the entire Munster family”, which, uh, yes and no.

They woz gonna fix that in the dub!!

[Warbodog]

Is that supposed to be ambiguous? It seems less likely that they’d do that joke now than when I was a teenager, but I’ve never been able to shake it off. And Kryten’s conclusion just sounds weak if there’s not a ‘Kryten genuinely doesn’t know…’ implication there.

(It’s also like the joke in Star Trek VI about kicking the alien in the knee-balls).

[Dave]

I’ve always just interpreted it as Lister being lucky that this wasn’t one of the GELFs Kryten was talking about.

[Warbodog]

He’d be very lucky if it was one of those, but the Chief happened to be into it and didn’t consider it a bit forward of his guest.

[Dave]

He’d be very lucky if it was one of those, but the Chief happened to be into it and didn’t consider it a bit forward of his guest.

As long as we didn’t have to read his thoughts in the novelisation.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

As long as we didn’t have to read his thoughts in the novelisation.

I thought we’d all agreed we’d stop giving Rob Grant book ideas.

[Warbodog]

[International Debris]

He’s David, David, David rimmer.

[Technopeasant]

As long as we didn’t have to read his thoughts in the novelisation.

I thought we’d all agreed we’d stop giving Rob Grant book ideas.

I mean, that one was covered by Last Human, and the GELF didn’t find it incredibly painful…

[Technopeasant]

So Kryten knows enough about the Kinitawowi to know their leg to hand shake, but not where their arseholes are?

[Jenuall]

That wasn’t a handshake, Kryten was jerking him off

[Technopeasant]

If that is all it takes maybe Lister was a bit too hasty running away from his bride.

[Moonlight]

Salt Lake City was founded by Mormons and Utah is a Mormon hub in general. This is me explaining the joke for everyone in the UK.

[Dave]

Salt Lake City was founded by Mormons and Utah is a Mormon hub in general. This is me explaining the joke for everyone in the UK.

[RunawayTrain]

Salt Lake City was founded by Mormons and Utah is a Mormon hub in general. This is me explaining the joke for everyone in the UK.

Well I appreciated it.  For some reason Salt Lake City and Las Vegas tend to merge together in my mind, unless what I’m reading to see SLC mentioned already has the context of Mormon.

[Moonlight]

This isn’t really a joke but I’ve never seen an American traffic light show both yellow and red at once. Is that an indicator that it’s about to turn green or something?

[RunawayTrain]

Exactly right.  (Yellow alone means it’s about to turn red.)

[Moonlight]

Where I live the yellow light means go faster.

[clem]

Where I live the yellow light means go faster.

I don’t drive but I’m puzzled by this, as it seems to contradict the famous scene in Taxi where Reverend Jim is taking his driving theory test. 

Unless you’re saying people generally see the yellow light and speed up to get past before it turns red? 

[International Debris]

Unless you’re saying people generally see the yellow light and speed up to get past before it turns red? 

Yeah, that’s pretty much what happens whenever I’m at a pedestrian crossing.

[Moonlight]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Around my parts, red means “oh go on then, just another three cars”

worse are the once that start to speed up and then have to slam on the breaks because you, in front, had ample time to come to a controlled stop as it turned red

[Formica]

Around my parts, red means “oh go on then, just another three cars”

This for me as well, but just specifically from the unprotected left turn lane

[Technopeasant]

In my experience people will habitually go about ten over the speed limit, so if we lower the speed limits by ten they will no longer be speeding in relative terms.

[Moonlight]

This for me as well, but just specifically from the unprotected left turn lane

In America, a left turn without a traffic light and outside a residential area is also known as “I’m not doing that shit”.

In my experience people will habitually go about ten over the speed limit, so if we lower the speed limits by ten they will no longer be speeding in relative terms.

People don’t just go ten over the limit, often times they’ll tailgate you for ONLY going ten over the limit. “I’m literally driving 80 fucking miles per hour, go fuck yourself,” I will often say on the interstate.

[Technopeasant]

Admittedly I am lucky to mostly travel roads where those guys can just pass me.

This being Alberta, those are mostly the same pickup trucks with the “fuck Trudeau” bumper stickers that are pointed rather insultingly at the viewer.

[Moonlight]

Admittedly I am lucky to mostly travel roads where those guys can just pass me.

Yeah. Except these people absolutely can but they’d rather tailgate.

[Technopeasant]

Apparently my wife got flipped off by one of these people today.

[Formica]

I’ve recently gotten into the habit of walking in the gap between the crosswalk and the stop line (instead of just in the crosswalk proper) and staring down drivers as they have to brake extra hard. Makes me feel very powerful but a dangerous game if I keep playing it.

[Moonlight]

It’s always worth almost dying if you get to annoy somebody for 7 seconds.

[Technopeasant]

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