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

[Dave]

[Unrumble]

As anyone who’s used Original Source shower gel will tell you, menthol is the last thing you want near any of your bodily orifices.

[cwickham]

[Unrumble]

[Technopeasant]

As anyone who’s used Original Source shower gel will tell you, menthol is the last thing you want near any of your bodily orifices.

Seconded.

[International Debris]

Durex do “tingle” condoms, which are minty, and all they do is make your bits cold and numb. A deeply unsatisfying experience for all involved. 

[Dave]

Durex do “tingle” condoms, which are minty, and all they do is make your bits cold and numb.

Cooler than a snowman’s cold and numb bits.

[Technopeasant]

Durex do “tingle” condoms, which are minty, and all they do is make your bits cold and numb. A deeply unsatisfying experience for all involved. 

Seconded again.

[Podey]

Can’t Smeg Won’t Smeg. 

Could never work out the joke about Ainsley’s initials being A.H.

Especially as Kryten’s explanation sounds like he’s saying “AH…. a whore.”

[Warbodog]

I believe it’s “Ass Hole.”

It’s not a strong bit.

[International Debris]

It’s possible that AH was a common abbreviation for asshole/arsehole at the time, but I’ve never heard of it outside of Can’t Smeg Won’t Smeg. 

[MANI506]

As someone who was 17 and alive in the south of England at the start of 1998 I never heard AH as an abbreviation anywhere and thought it was fairly weak. Nice Harvesters joke although I love Harvesters and recommend the Bhaji Burger.

[Unrumble]

As someone who was 17 and alive in the south of England at the start of 1998 I never heard AH as an abbreviation anywhere and thought it was fairly weak. Nice Harvesters joke although I love Harvesters and recommend the Bhaji Burger.

[Nick R]

Can’t Smeg Won’t Smeg. 
Could never work out the joke about Ainsley’s initials being A.H.

Especially as Kryten’s explanation sounds like he’s saying “AH…. a whore.”

[Nick R]

Ben Saunders’s post in the Sonic Mania thread reminded me of this one: 

I thought that, if that line was meant to be a joke at all, it was supposed to be a joke about him remembering that one specific detail of the day of the week – a bit like a half-hearted attempt at something like Father Ted’s “You were wearing your blue jumper.”

I didn’t realise until much later that it was a joke about the Creator doing a half-arsed job making Cat’s brain.

[Moonlight]

I just heard a podcast reference this band and explain who they are.

I could never parse this and always thought this was a singular silly name they made up for a fictional musician. Something like Myra Binglebat but really really long.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Well you learn something new everyday. And I’ve only been awake 10mins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Dee,_Dozy,_Beaky,_Mick_%26_Tich

Their number 1 single

https://youtu.be/rsExj_0IHEs?si=5ULMdW0JwXP7PWsf

[Warbodog]

Something about the delivery or reaction always suggested it was a real reference I would have got it I was the age of the people in the audience. Just another of those for the pile.

[Warbodog]

Belated follow-up, and not even Red Dwarf, but this:

Given the shape, I thought it was supposed to go over his testes and penis for an unknown-to-me purpose.

reminded me that when I visited the Cerne Abbas Giant as a prepubescent child, I didn’t understand that I was looking at an erection. I thought it was a downwards-hanging willy that started weirdly high with a bulbous head.

[International Debris]

I once made a piece of music and gave it the working title of ‘Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band Went to Mow a Meadow’.

I later changed it to something boring like ‘Broken Land’ like a coward. 

[Moonlight]

I think it is an artist’s job to be inaccessible and annoying at least some of the time. Nobody’s going to get some references but they need to be made for our own sake.

[International Debris]

That’s why I have a (currently unreleased) song called ‘Like When My Childhood Friend Suggested Putting a Chip on the Wall to Scare Babies’.

[Technopeasant]

[Nick R]

[Podey]

I know that band because my dad has mentioned them but I must have learned that after last seeing the ep because I don’t recall ever noticing that reference.

[Moonlight]

[Moonlight]

[Dave]

[Ian Symes]

The weirdest thing about the Dave Dee etc reference is that the song was over 20 years old by the time it was referenced in Red Dwarf, but there was another song called Xanadu that got to Number 1 in the UK less than ten years prior. If it was Olivia Newton-John instead of Dave Dee et al, it would have been a more accessible reference to a 1989 audience, but then that would make it the second Olivia Newton-John reference in as many series, and “Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich” is a much funnier set of sounds.

[International Debris]

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to see that song title used in such a way.

[Warbodog]

Moonlight is granted citizenship for not making it crisps.

[Unrumble]

[Technopeasant]

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to see that song title used in such a way.

You don’t know us very well do you?

[Moonlight]

Moonlight is granted citizenship for not making it crisps.

What do I get if I learn what offside is?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Moonlight is granted citizenship for not making it crisps.

What do I get if I learn what offside is?

To fit in. 

[International Debris]

Moonlight is granted citizenship for not making it crisps.

What do I get if I learn what offside is?

Full access to conversations with very tedious men.

[Dave]

Full access to conversations with very tedious men.

[skutto]

I just heard a podcast reference this band and explain who they are.

I could never parse this and always thought this was a singular silly name they made up for a fictional musician. Something like Myra Binglebat but really really long.

The first time I saw the movie “Death Proof” one of the characters mentions “Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mitch and Tich” and I yelled out, “It’s MICK, not MITCH – Red Dwarf wouldn’t lie to me!”

I mean they probably did it on purpose for the movie but she says it wrong several times and it does annoy me a bit, haha…

[Warbodog]

[Nick R]

[Unrumble]

[Asclepius]

The weirdest thing about the Dave Dee etc reference is that the song was over 20 years old by the time it was referenced in Red Dwarf, but there was another song called Xanadu that got to Number 1 in the UK less than ten years prior. If it was Olivia Newton-John instead of Dave Dee et al, it would have been a more accessible reference to a 1989 audience, but then that would make it the second Olivia Newton-John reference in as many series, and “Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich” is a much funnier set of sounds.

Just worth mentioning at this point that, following the death of Dave Dee in 2009, Beaky – now aged 81 – is plodding along with the remains of the band, including the second Dozy (who joined in 2015 following the death of the first Dozy), the third Mick (who joined in the 1980s) and the third Titch (who joined in 2000).
They’ll play their hit. And also ‘Last Night in Soho’ which is a banger that soundtracks the excellent film of the same name by Edgar Wright from a few years back.

[Nick R]

[Warbodog]

What hospital guys? Did this take place on the ship or in Lister’s earlier life? If it’s on the ship, was it pre-accident or during their incarceration?

He seems to be talking about it as if it was recent, but that wouldn’t make sense, as:

– Why would they give prisoners pens that they can stab themselves and each other with?

– Why would they give prisoners pens featuring an irrelevant and thoughtless message for their situation?

– Why does Rimmer check whether Lister was ironically at home, when he knows that Lister is in prison?

[Warbodog]

I’ve learned that pens are allowed in UK prisons, so this scene and Peter Capaldi’s Black Mirror episode probably convinced me they’re more hazardous than they are.

[Ian Symes]

I always assumed it was back on Earth, but it could be pre-accident Red Dwarf. I don’t think it can be since his imprisonment, otherwise Rimmer wouldn’t need to ask how he got the scar, he’d have been there for it.

[Warbodog]

Well that disappointingly makes more sense now.

[International Debris]

Also the whole thing about the scar is framed in a way that definitely makes it seem like it’s an old one.

[clem]

I don’t think it can be since his imprisonment, otherwise Rimmer wouldn’t need to ask how he got the scar, he’d have been there for it.

He doesn’t provide any context for this bit, though, as if Rimmer’s meant to know who he’s talking about:

I like how this tracks with video cassettes being triangular:

[Podey]

I always presumed it was on Earth because he says “I wasn’t at home”, which implies he *could* have been, which would be an odd term to use for your bunk/cell.

[Author]

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